Nemesis wrote:Sorry, but I just don't buy that. How long has the WiiU been out for now? You don't have to be trawling websites to know about the WiiU either. GAME has WiiU demo pods in many of its stores up and down the country and anyone who has the faintest interest in gaming has probably walked into one at some point. If there are currently Wii owners who want to upgrade, wouldn't they be asking the question when will Nintendo release a follow up?sirpigmeat wrote:I know lots of people who didn't even know it was out, no matter what it is... I'm not saying they'd all rush out and get one if they did, but it certainly can't help sales... How would "joe public" know "exactly what it is"? Theres been no adverts and these people aren't trawling game sites looking for console release information...Nemesis wrote:Every time somebody tries to explain the Wii U's poor retail performance they always fall back on the "Joe Public doesn't understand what the Wii U is". I'm sorry but that's a load of guff. Joe Public knows exactly what the Wii U is but just isn't that interested in it. Unless you're an ardent Nintendo fan there's not much to draw you to the Wii U that isn't done equally well or better on other formats.
Also the kind of games that nintendo make just aren't represented or very poorly so on other consoles... Wii sales show the public like these sort of games, so i'd think this shows that the wiiU does have some drawing power...
Oh, he's quite right about that. I absolutely guarantee you: Things like displays in stores, no matter how loud and screamy they might be, only reach so many customers.... and you'd be amazed how many DONT see things like this. I say this with alot of experience in having worked for places that JUST sell games, as well as alot of experience with sales and dealing with selling to customers in general. You could have an extremely caffinated clown that you keep in the store, and whenever some new customer comes in, he jumps in their faces and shrieks "Wii UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!! LOOK AT IT IT DOES ALL THIS STUFF!!!!!!", and 10 minutes later that customer will still "never have heard of it, what is it?". Never, EVER underestimate the bloody stupidity of your average consumer. Every time you think they hit rock bottom, someone will hand them a nuclear jackhammer, and dooooowwwwwnnnnnnn they go.
But yes, that's been a consistent problem with the Wii U for Nintendo. Even those who supposedly know alot about the consoles in general often fail to know much of anything about it. Even among actual gamers, this can be true. PARTICULARLY it can be true BECAUSE it's Nintendo. There are plenty of gamers out there that now sort of just auto-ignore anything that Nintendo does these days, because "they dont make REAL consoles anymore, just casual/kiddy stuff!". They could be the "hardcore" type, yet still know exactly zip about this machine. Just as with SirPigMeat there, I have friends that fit into this category. Gaming is their core hobby just like it is mine, it's what they spend damn near all of their time on and they have lots of games in general..... but they have them for Microsoft and Sony's devices. Nintendo? Most of them that I know, they know squat about what Nintendo has been up to lately, and they know even less about the Wii U other than that it probably exists.
And even previous Wii owners.... the assumption that they would definitely know about it is also not always the case. Lots of people own a Wii. But only so many regularly USE it enough to be REALLY following what Nintendo does, if there's not a new Zelda or something right around the corner..... provided they even know about that. And some of course were like me: They have/had one, but ended up finding it to be a disappointment, and thus stopped following Nintendo much after that.
If the Wii-U was kicking ass and say the PS4 was lagging we'd just be having the same conversation about Sony instead, they can't all win each generation.
