Wii U becomes profitable with just one software sale

[garyopa]

According to Reggie Fils-Aime.



According to NoA's president, its loss-making Wii U swings to profit with just a single game purchase along with the console.

As you may know, Nintendo said its selling the newest Wii U at a loss. However, according to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, the console becomes "profit positive" once consumers purchase one game.

So, he added that Nintendo's "business model doesn't change dramatically."

"As soon as we get the consumer to buy one piece of software, then that entire transaction becomes profit positive," Fils-Aime said.

"In the end, the business model is still to drive the install base of hardware, and then to drive a strong tie ration with all of the other software and experiences for the consumer. And if we're able to do that, then we will create significant profit for the company."

The Wii U was released in North America last weekend, and will go on sale in Europe on November 30. Nintendo has said it expects 5.5 million Wii U sales in the business year ending March 31, 2013, as well as 24 million Wii U software sales.

NEWS SOURCE #1: Wii-U profitable with just one software sale (via) GameSpot
NEWS SOURCE #2: Wii U profitable after one game purchase (via) CVG

Our thanks to 'Gauss' for this news item!

[JonathanD]

So there is room for a price drop.

That's good news for people buying it next Christmas.... lol

[billysastard]

So there is room for a price drop.

That's good news for people buying it next Christmas.... lol

well by next xmas they will have room to drop the price to make the other two next gen consoles look way overpriced, not only that but devs should have at least made a start on getting to grips with the hardware, look how long it took for devs to manage to get ps3 games looking half decent at the start of the last gen.

[Diztructor]

well by next xmas they will have room to drop the price to make the other two next gen consoles look way overpriced, not only that but devs should have at least made a start on getting to grips with the hardware, look how long it took for devs to manage to get ps3 games looking half decent at the start of the last gen.

of course theres room for a price drop, its a last gen slightly revamped.

depending on the acual specs of ms/sonys next systems, how is the wii going to make them look ever priced.

if sony/ms follow suite and actually release a next gen system, your comment is so flawed, like comparing Ferrari to a robin reliant aka the other costs more because its a superior machine.

maybe nintendo fans are happy that nintendo have released another last gen system, and love to have a last gen port wh0re machine with a ifad controller.

but this was the wii's downfall after a year or so the system was at its limit, because it was a revamp last gen (devs were already taking the last gen to its limits) so whats the chances its going to repeat, all we will see is nintendo brag as usual about its high sales, but when it comes to games..... 9% of AA games, 80% the usual nintendo childish/shovel ware games (same as every nintendo system since the n64) the remaining 10% be dummed down next gen games or last gen ports.

how long did it take devs to make games look good on the ps3??? erm MGS4 looked amazing back then, loads of other games also, think your mistaking visuals over the fact devs found it harder to program on the ps3 as they did with the 360.

the 360/PS3 were the only systems that had the best games this gen, why do you think nintendo now want them on their system, shame tho, if nintendo wasnt cheap releasing old spec machines and raking in the profits of their highly priced system (for its specs) they could have had this first time round, not a generation too late.

[JonathanD]

if sony/ms follow suite and actually release a next gen system, your comment is so flawed, like comparing Ferrari to a robin reliant aka the other costs more because its a superior machine.

That's the problem though, the Ferrari price model doesn't fly with consumer electronics, it always leads to a slow adoption rate poor software sales due to a poor install base.

The list of systems that tried this model is pretty long NeoGeo, 3DO, PS3. With only the PS3 even remotely having a chance of being called a success... I say dragging Sony from the number one selling home console of all time with the PS2 to the PS3 being the third place against even the Wii in sales.... Doesn't that make the PS3 pretty much a failure of epic scale? The PS3 has nearly dragged Sony to it's grave as a company.....

I think when put into perspective that anyone calling the PS3 a success needs to have the fanboy goggles surgically removed. It failed in nearly every sense of the word, with only being barely profitable it's one saving grace.

[Diztructor]

the difference is, you people see sales as the only thing that makes a system a success.

when its also about the games, but its also about the hardware your buying, both the 360/ps3 didnt hit the sales figures that the nintendo wii did, but they did get better games - these games that are getting ported to nintendos next system.

lets also watch how fast the wii will die as soon as the wii u is launched, nintendo are helping this happen faster by no longer supporting it, so lets see which console is better.

the one that was cheap but limited, lacked games other systems were getting and is dead as soon as a new model is released

or

a system that has resources to go as long as possilbe, sure may cost a little more, but your actually getting a new system, not a recycled 5 year old system, a system that has better games (not having to wait for a next model to play a ported version) finaly a system that isnt dead just because a new model comes out.

so yea, nintendo manage high sales, but the system is still a revamp and will be limited, sorry but a system is to last these days more than 5 years, the wii u will hit its limit within a few years and like the wii, be littered with shovelware games based on its ifad controller while ms/sony next gen console owners will be getting games that use new engines making a gaming environment even more realistic

[JonathanD]

the difference is, you people see sales as the only thing that makes a system a success.

when its also about the games, but its also about the hardware your buying, both the 360/ps3 didnt hit the sales figures that the nintendo wii did, but they did get better games - these games that are getting ported to nintendos next system.

lets also watch how fast the wii will die as soon as the wii u is launched, nintendo are helping this happen faster by no longer supporting it, so lets see which console is better.

the one that was cheap but limited, lacked games other systems were getting and is dead as soon as a new model is released

or

a system that has resources to go as long as possilbe, sure may cost a little more, but your actually getting a new system, not a recycled 5 year old system, a system that has better games (not having to wait for a next model to play a ported version) finaly a system that isnt dead just because a new model comes out.

so yea, nintendo manage high sales, but the system is still a revamp and will be limited, sorry but a system is to last these days more than 5 years, the wii u will hit its limit within a few years and like the wii, be littered with shovelware games based on its ifad controller while ms/sony next gen console owners will be getting games that use new engines making a gaming environment even more realistic

About future support your counting your chickens before they are hatched.... PS3 and 360 both failed to hit a high enough market penetration to warrant future support after the new consoles launch. The only reason the PS2 was getting games for so long after the PS3 launch is quite frankly the PS2 had a huge install base, the PS3 was bombing... as a publisher its pretty simple math.

Put it this way, the DS is still getting new games, you know why? 150 million potential buyers so its hard to walk away from that. Same exact thing happened with the PS2, but because its Nintendo you will ignore it...

[Diztructor]

About future support your counting your chickens before they are hatched.... PS3 and 360 both failed to hit a high enough market penetration to warrant future support after the new consoles launch. The only reason the PS2 was getting games for so long after the PS3 launch is quite frankly the PS2 had a huge install base, the PS3 was bombing... as a publisher its pretty simple math.

Put it this way, the DS is still getting new games, you know why? 150 million potential buyers so its hard to walk away from that. Same exact thing happened with the PS2, but because its Nintendo you will ignore it...

again your basing your bs on the basic part of the wii selling more, missing the key fact that once nintendo release a new system its DIES, take a very good long look at DS sales.

devs will no longer support a system, if its dead, yet a system that continues to sell longer rather than faster, as you can see, gets longer support and better games.

simply compare the games not console sales and youll see this, hence wii u having last gen ports because it lacked them the first time TA DA!!!

[Battlefield]

Wii U isn't last gen, because there is NO NewGen on the market. Its long time until a new 360 and PS3 comes, and before they are released Nintendo have printed money already from December 2012.

Looking at Wii sales, it looks like people prefer a variety of FUN games over mainly non-innovative FPS games which is getting repetitive after the 200'th release this generation.
A console needs variation to become #1, and thats where a Nintendo console comes in.

People claimed Wii would fail, but instead PS3 failed. Last place have NEVER been a success anywhere.

Do you get a gold medal and honored bigtime for last place in Olympics/Sports? If you are in last place, you have obviously lost unless you live on a different planet.

Good series like Uncharted, Resistance, Killzone etc. never pushed PS3 sales. It doesen't help much when Sony is recycling old Nintendo games. Been there, done that games which is inferior to the originals which is reflected in their sales compared to the originals.

MAG and Socom 4 was flagship PS3 games, and they failed bigtime and Sony closed the studio. Sony closed several studios, because of all the sale failures. It doesent matter how good a game is, when the market dont want it.. does it?

PS4 will be last place next time, because Microsoft prints money like Nintendo while Sony struggles to survive after 5 years with billion loss. It requires alot of money to become #1.

[Cloudkill]

Quality of software has little to do with a consoles sucsess, you only need to look at the dreamcast to prove that, I don't know how people got the idea that Nintendo release weak hardware just from the wii alone...

Nes
Snes > master system
N64 > PS1
Xbox > GameCube > PS2 > dreamcast(and only a margin between the Xbox and the GameCube)
Xbox 360 > PS3 > wii
wiiu > Xbox 360 > PS3

And if you read all the signs Sony and Microsoft want a slice of that wii pie, smart glass act, all these things will increase system base price if the specs are too high per unit, it makes more sense to do what Nintendo did and rehash one systems specs slightly and sell at a profit for 5-6 years and Sony needs it, A10 is crap APU but their still using it in the ps4, I'd say that keeps the wiiu still up there as the ppc triple core wiiu CPU will outperform an A10, the a10 gets outperformed by i3's in most benchmarks and their older CPUs! Again they all want a slice of the wii pie and will all have an Nintendo inspired control system.

[Battlefield]

[QUOTE=Cloudkill;1376978]Quality of software has little to do with a consoles sucsess, you only need to look at the dreamcast to prove that, I don't know how people got the idea that Nintendo release weak hardware just from the wii alone...
/QUOTE]

To date, Dreamcast have the best average quality on games ever. N64 ranked high there too, because of the high development costs it got higher quality on games. (It's a known fact). It was way too risky to release showelware on N64 because of expensive cart prices and Nintendo's high license fee's. It got less games, and better games.
And the #3 console on high quality was CD32. You can also add Neo Geo to the list.

360, PS3, Wii, PS1, PS2, Xbox among others have loads of crap. Maybe even SNES, NES and Genesis.
GameCube did have less games, but also less crapware compared to the amount of big titles.

PS1 was the console which kick-started showelware bigtime, then PS2 took over. PS3 have less crap than the previous 2.

Then came Wii which "suffered" from the PS1/2 syndrome...
What did these have in common? All the crap games made the consoles #1. New Game release on average each day of the week, maybe it made these consoles #1. All of these 3 console was also the weakest of their generations, but they were all winners.

N64 kicked the crap outta PS1 hardware.
Xbox, Dreamcast and Gamecube was much better than PS2.
Xbox 360 and PS3 is much better than Wii.

[JonathanD]

again your basing your bs on the basic part of the wii selling more, missing the key fact that once nintendo release a new system its DIES, take a very good long look at DS sales.

devs will no longer support a system, if its dead, yet a system that continues to sell longer rather than faster, as you can see, gets longer support and better games.

simply compare the games not console sales and youll see this, hence wii u having last gen ports because it lacked them the first time TA DA!!!

You mean like how Pokemon Black and White 2 was just launched recently nearly a year after the 3DS was launched? And still sold how many millions of copies? The game is still on the sales charts for gods sake, how blind do you have to be? Let me guess because its not a game you like it doesn't count? lol

Nintendo will support it's older systems just like it did the DS!! (See how stupid this sounds since its not true for all of them..... Just like Sony.... lol) <----- Switch Nintendo for Sony as the brand name and this is how you sound.

Let me put this as simply as I can possibly put it.... Support of a console no matter what brand it is, comes mostly from the 3rd parties, 3rd parties will only continue to support an older console when the new console is out IF the older system has sold an insane number of units.

As a parting note, I would rather a company support its new hardware than the old hardware. Otherwise as an early adopter you get screwed you pay a bunch of money for a launch system and get **** for games. What kind of ass hat wants a company to only half support its new machine? Oh that would be you....

[nambit]

The 'back on topic' side of me says this is good news. It means Nintendo won't have to try to get a huge chunk of money back from e-shop and such (ie: make it more attractive to developers and hopefully bring down the price of the downloadable games). The more 'good' games that make it there, the better. Further, it looks like they (finally) realize there's a huge amount of money to be made with downloadable games, especially if they reduce restrictions and promote development. Let's hope this is the case because, frankly, I want Nintendo consoles Nintendo games first and foremost... but I also would like some of the great games that came out on XBLA, PSN, iTunes, and Google Play.

Right now, for example, I have 2 boxed games (NSMB U and NintendoLand) which are pretty awesome, but I am so loving Nano Assault Neo which was only $9. I want more games like that, especially if it's only 90MB and kicks so much ass like this one does.

[Diztructor]

You mean like how Pokemon Black and White 2 was just launched recently nearly a year after the 3DS was launched? And still sold how many millions of copies? The game is still on the sales charts for gods sake, how blind do you have to be? Let me guess because its not a game you like it doesn't count? lol

Nintendo will support it's older systems just like it did the DS!! (See how stupid this sounds since its not true for all of them..... Just like Sony.... lol) <----- Switch Nintendo for Sony as the brand name and this is how you sound.

Let me put this as simply as I can possibly put it.... Support of a console no matter what brand it is, comes mostly from the 3rd parties, 3rd parties will only continue to support an older console when the new console is out IF the older system has sold an insane number of units.

As a parting note, I would rather a company support its new hardware than the old hardware. Otherwise as an early adopter you get screwed you pay a bunch of money for a launch system and get **** for games. What kind of ass hat wants a company to only half support its new machine? Oh that would be you....

1) pokemon aka kids game, and im sure i did say this before nintendo lack the games i want to play.
2) nintendo have already said they will no longer support the wii
3) 3rd party support doesnt continue only if the system sold an insane number, 3rd parties will support a system that is still selling, when nintendo release the wii u and no longer support the wii, its sales are going to drop so fast, so why would devs support the wii, insted theyd support nintendos next system.

this is the point youve missed, both sony/ms systems will continue, main reason for this is because the wii u isnt much better and devs wont have a hard job porting them.

i will bet you both my test1cles that i will be right, why? because the second ms/nintendo ended support for the xbox/gc guess what, so did its 3rd party support, but take sony that did not end ps2 support HELLO kept getting 3rd party support.... and why is that.... because people were still buying the console, not because it sold like sh1t off a stick.

sit back and watch (take your nintendofangoggles off) when sony continue to release the ps3 even when the orbis is released it will still get 3rd party support (wii will die within a year or two) and again if MS continue to support the 360, it will follow the same suite.

because the wii u isnt really superior to the last gen so both system will be able to carry on.

i agree this conversation is pointless, because you can only name a tiny small handfull of games that sell sh1t hot, yet a catalogue can be made with the 360/PS3, i guess id enjoy nintendo systems if they didnt force fad controllers all the time, which like the wii, i can predict the wii you following the same shovelware repetetive cr@p games, apart from the excellent games that are LAST GEN PORTS because the wii failed to have the resources to have the game first time round.

defend a system thats allways one step behind rofl

but yea nintendo will easily make money on this, because its a last gen system, you can pick up a 360 with a bigger hdd than what nintendo offer you, so enjoy getting ar5e ***** buying a recycled system that offers nothing different really other than iFAD controller, if it was an actual next gen system, id be happy to play last gen games that actually can see a major improvement. but its not, and it wont, it will hit its limits given a year or two and become a repeat of every other nintendo system since the n64.

[Cloudkill]

1) pokemon aka kids game, and im sure i did say this before nintendo lack the games i want to play.
2) nintendo have already said they will no longer support the wii
3) 3rd party support doesnt continue only if the system sold an insane number, 3rd parties will support a system that is still selling, when nintendo release the wii u and no longer support the wii, its sales are going to drop so fast, so why would devs support the wii, insted theyd support nintendos next system.

this is the point youve missed, both sony/ms systems will continue, main reason for this is because the wii u isnt much better and devs wont have a hard job porting them.

i will bet you both my test1cles that i will be right, why? because the second ms/nintendo ended support for the xbox/gc guess what, so did its 3rd party support, but take sony that did not end ps2 support HELLO kept getting 3rd party support.... and why is that.... because people were still buying the console, not because it sold like sh1t off a stick.

sit back and watch (take your nintendofangoggles off) when sony continue to release the ps3 even when the orbis is released it will still get 3rd party support (wii will die within a year or two) and again if MS continue to support the 360, it will follow the same suite.

because the wii u isnt really superior to the last gen so both system will be able to carry on.

i agree this conversation is pointless, because you can only name a tiny small handfull of games that sell sh1t hot, yet a catalogue can be made with the 360/PS3, i guess id enjoy nintendo systems if they didnt force fad controllers all the time, which like the wii, i can predict the wii you following the same shovelware repetetive cr@p games, apart from the excellent games that are LAST GEN PORTS because the wii failed to have the resources to have the game first time round.

defend a system thats allways one step behind rofl

but yea nintendo will easily make money on this, because its a last gen system, you can pick up a 360 with a bigger hdd than what nintendo offer you, so enjoy getting ar5e ***** buying a recycled system that offers nothing different really other than iFAD controller, if it was an actual next gen system, id be happy to play last gen games that actually can see a major improvement. but its not, and it wont, it will hit its limits given a year or two and become a repeat of every other nintendo system since the n64.

You can't buy an Xbox 360 with ssd drive as far as I'm aware, and the wiiu supports 3tb drives plus sd, face it your the only one who thinks the way you do because your an idiotic twat.

Dreamcast proves everything you just said about software support all wrong, the dreamcast and n64 had the most hardcore titles yet declining sales of both systems proves that developers jumped ship.

Wii lost 3rd party developers because at the time competing against Nintendo first party titles meant instant failure of sales of your companies game, this issue has been resolved with planned/timed sales.

The wiiu, 720 and ps4 won't be much different if you don't like 'IFAD' controllers as you so put it, then quit gaming because the next systems will be using some form of 'IFAD' controller Sony and ms all want a slice of that wii pie.

Again if you think the ps4 and 720 will be beasts under the hod think again, the A10 APU in the ps4 will most likely be weaker than the wiiu's gpgpu that is actually very well designed.

Take your idiot goggles off sit down and stfu!