News: Nintendo Wii U Games Fail to Crack UK Top 10 Page 1

Nintendo Wii U Games Fail to Crack UK Top 10

03.12.2012

Nintendo Wii U Games Fail to Crack UK Top 10 on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

The first week results are out and Wii U has not made much of an impact in the UK yet. Looking at the Individual Formats Top 40, the highest selling game on the new console was Nintendo Land at No.11, followed by New Super Mario Bros. U at No.14 and ZombiU at No.16. None of the other Wii U exclusives made it into the chart.

Chart Track UK's official blurb focuses on the Top 40 Entertainment Chart that features all system versions of a game together, rather than individually broken down by format. In the comments it states that all versions of Assassin's Creed III sold 53,923 for the week. Given how only the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions made it into the individual format list, at No.9 and No.13, respectively, it does not bode well for the Wii U iteration. There are also unconfirmed reports that Nintendo Land sold as little as 26,000 copies, whilst Wii U itself sold no more than 40,000 units at the most. Comparatively, the Xbox 360 launched with 70,000 in December 2005, PlayStation 3 with 165,000 in March 2007, and Wii with 105,000 in December 2006.

Is it all bad, though? Read on for Chart-Track UK's comments and discuss at will:

Almost exactly 6 years to the day, the successor to Nintendo Wii arrives, heralding the next console generation.

Nintendo's Wii U launched on Friday 30th November 2012 (Wii on Friday 8th December, 2006) and Wii U arrives with 24 launch titles spread over 11 publishers, more than any other home console ever launched in the UK (there were 14 launch titles for Wii spread over 8 publishers). Just like with Wii there are 2 first party launch titles 'Nintendo Land' & 'New Super Mario Bros. U'(Wii had 'Zelda: Twilight Princess' & 'Wii Play' ) and just like before, these 1st party titles are the top-selling games, with 'Nintendo Land' bundled within an official launch pack (see below).

Also just like before, Ubisoft have the greatest number of launch titles with 6 for Wii U compared to 4 for Wii. And Ubisoft can again claim to have the best-performing 3rd party launch title, thanks this time to 'Zombi U' ('Red Steel' back on Wii), but of course 'Zombi U' was sold solus and also as a flagship title within the Premium 32GB Zombi U Pack. Indeed, the Zombi U Pack accounted for 30% of Wii U hardware for week 1. This, coupled to the 60% share of the Premium 32GB Nintendo Land Pack means that only 10% of week 1 Wii U customers opted for the Wii U 8GB Basic Pack.

Looking at the Entertainment Software All Formats Top 40, Activision's 'Call of Duty: Black Ops II' takes a 3rd straight week at No1 (-35%) with a Wii U version debuting this week. Ubisoft claim the biggest new entry at No2 with 'Far Cry 3' for 360/PS3/PC and this title becomes the 9th biggest launch of 2012, just behind last week's 'Hitman Absolution'. EA's 'FIFA 13' remains at No3 for a 4th week in a row (+19%) and also welcomes a Wii U version into the family. This means that 'FIFA 13' is now available on 9 different formats, which has not happened since 1993/1994's 'FIFA International Soccer', which also made it to 9 formats.

Square Enix's 'Hitman Absolution' drops from a debut last week at No2 to No4 this week (-51%) and Ubsioft drop 1 place to No5 with 'Assassin's Creed III', which this week gains 2 Wii U SKU's (Standard edition and Join or Die edition). Ubisoft's 'Just Dance 4' moves up 1 place to No6 (+48%) and also gets a Wii U edition. Warner's 'Lego The Lord of the Rings' is at No7 (+6%) and Microsoft's 'Halo 4' drops 3 places to No8 (-12%). Activision's 'Skylanders Giants' is at No9 (+4%) also with a Wii U version and EA's 'Need For Speed Most Wanted' takes No10 (+28%). The Top 3 Wii U titles all debut in the Top 40 with Nintendo's 'Nintendo Land' at No11, 'New Super Mario Bros. U' at No 14 and Ubisoft's 'Zombi U' at No17. In summary, there were 5 Wii U SKU's of titles within the Top 10 and 10 Wii U versions of titles within the Top 40.

No separate Wii U chart has been shared by Chart-Track yet, so placings for the rest of the launch line-up is unavailable.

UPDATE: It has now been confirmed that the Wii U version of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 accounted for 1% of total sales, Assassin's Creed III was 3% of total unit sales (~1,617), Just Dance 4 made up 3%, whilst Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed was 38%.

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JoshSL 03.12.2012#1

Can't say I'm surprised, and it's Nintendo's own fault if the system performs badly.

Simply bad marketing and promotion from the getgo, most people (i.e., Nintendo's 'casual demographic') have no idea what a WiiU is, no one bloody knows it's a new console, people just think it's an app or a controller.

Nintendo have really shot themselves in the foot here, can't really believe they've made such dumb decisions after being so good with Wii and DS marketing over the years.

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SirLink 03.12.2012#2

So now people expect Nintendo to sell systems that aren't there? Did nobody read any of those articles where several UK retailers confirmed that their stock is completely sold out and all they had was used for pre-orders, some even already taking many orders for future shipments? Okay.

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JoshSL 03.12.2012#3

SirLink said:
So now people expect Nintendo to sell systems that aren't there? Did nobody read any of those articles where several UK retailers confirmed that their stock is completely sold out and all they had was used for pre-orders, some even already taking many orders for future shipments? Okay.

I expected sellouts, but were there really only 40,000 WIiUs in the country? Either way it doesn't really explain why the retail games are doing so badly.

Unless everyone's just buying them on eShop instead.

( Edited 03.12.2012 13:00 by SuperLink )

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jesusraz 03.12.2012#4

Retailers got new stock in on Thursday - I confirmed this with people at GAME and HMV. There was plenty to go around, and the Wii U basic pack can be found pretty much everywhere here.

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

UNITE714: Weekly Prayers | Bible Verses

JoshSL 03.12.2012#5

Adam Riley said:
Retailers got new stock in on Thursday - I confirmed this with people at GAME and HMV. There was plenty to go around, and the Wii U basic pack can be found pretty much everywhere here.

Yeah I haven't seen the basic sold out anywhere, most retailers I've seen have had "a few" Premiums left in stock.

I put it down to the ridiculous price of the thing in UK actually. I would probably have not bought it if I was unable to find it under £300.

( Edited 03.12.2012 13:15 by SuperLink )

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jesusraz 03.12.2012#6

Nobody needs the 32GB model when you can get the 8GB one cheap and then attach an external HDD or large USB stick. Other than wanting black instead of white, people are clamouring over the 32GB model as if it's a better console Smilie

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

UNITE714: Weekly Prayers | Bible Verses

Mush 03.12.2012#7

Adam Riley said:
Nobody needs the 32GB model when you can get the 8GB one cheap and then attach an external HDD or large USB stick. Other than wanting black instead of white, people are clamouring over the 32GB model as if it's a better console

Everyone knows black is superior! Nah, just kidding. I do like the black better though.

JayUK 03.12.2012#8

Well that's not good, Nintendo should never have called it the Wii U. It causes way too much confusion. That £300 price tag is also a hard sell when the games releasing on it are not quite as good versions of games already released on a PS3/360. They're launch titles, I get that they're not gonna look fantastic but they need to show something impressive that's in the pipeline.

( Edited 03.12.2012 18:00 by JayUK )

God 03.12.2012#9

Great news - hope it continues in more parts of the world. Nintendo seem to produce the best versions of their series with their back up against the wall. Nobody buys a nintendo for 3rd party software anyway, so yes - this defintely gives me hope for the future. :- Smilie
Also, price drops. Hell yes.

It's way too early to draw any conclusion of course, but I can dream damnit!

You are not alone. I am here with you. Though we're far apart...you're always in my heart. Love u!

God 03.12.2012#10

...and why do my smiles always look like a wink emoticon on here...? :-(

You are not alone. I am here with you. Though we're far apart...you're always in my heart. Love u!

Kingdom (guest) 03.12.2012#11

Guys the console came out 3 days ago probably 1/2 days by the time this data was compiled.

It came out at midnight on friday and I guess today doesn't count so this is for sat/sun. 48 hours of sales.

BLOPS and asscreed came out like a month ago on the other consoles I don't think it's surprising that 48 hours of sales does not yet amount to a significant proportion.

The fact is theres so many desirable games on wii u it's hard to see many people picking up BLOPS over say, zombie U at this point. Doesn't mean that won't change.

I, for one, will be getting nintendoland at some point. When? I can't say.

Lets at least give it a full week before we start analysing it's weekly sales.

I'd suggest we won't be confident (in the face of overwhelmingly negative commentary on the internet) that the wii U is doing well until after christmas which, in this country, is the key sales period.

I don't know many people in the UK who go ejaculating their money around the place on thanksgiving.

In fact, I don't even know what thanksgiving is. Sounds like some Nazi thing.

I don't imagine being forced to give thanks with your money is particularly pleasant. So I'm thankful for my ignorance.

Sounds rather like stockholm syndrome to me.

You know, the rod.

Sorry, went a bit off topic there.

jesusraz 03.12.2012#12

Kingdom - first weekend of sales is normally the biggest for most games. ALL UK new releases that are out for the same time as the Wii U and its games, with the odd exception of something like Halo 4 or BLOPSII that launched earlier.

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

UNITE714: Weekly Prayers | Bible Verses

Kingdom (guest) 03.12.2012#13

Of course, you're right.

But I don't think it's a like for like. At least until next weeks numbers come through. 48 hours isn't a week.

I just can't see any numbers floating around at this point being indicative.

Demand in the UK is traditionally low for nintendo anyway.

I'm also not gonna suggest that false shortages are in play because it's illegal for a start but nintendo have talked a lot about a "steady stream" and "constant stock replenishment" and we've heard people talking of a complete sell through in their local store. I don't think nintendo were going for the most crazy hardware launch ever after taking 3 years to match demand with the wii. I think they have a very big pile of wii Us ready to go where they'll be needed (and that probably won't be us).

I wouldn't be at all surprised if 40k was all we got.

The UK is hardly the nintendo heartland. People in this country seem more excited/easily influenced by PR. They like macho consoles for cool people covered in neon lights because an advert told them so.

So I suppose we shouldn't complain if we only got 40k for our launch weekend. But that doesn't mean it's underperforming.

It's likely that nintendo, not wanting to repeat past mistakes, has done a fair bit of research and has allocated us 40k because that's all we want.

I'm happy. 40k is more than I need.

God 03.12.2012#14

'macho consoles for cool people covered in neon lights'

you make it sound so unattractive. I'm pretty sure there's lots of great games on non-nintendo's.

You are not alone. I am here with you. Though we're far apart...you're always in my heart. Love u!

Powdered Water 04.12.2012#15

I lol'd at "macho consoles for cool people covered in neon lights". It is a generalization which is actually quite true, for the better and for worse. Funny how these coincidences occur, but I was talking to a friend of mine who has been running a small cafe-bar and we spent all night talking about how cool environment and lighting is everything when it comes to drawing customers. Other aspects of the place, like what he actually serves, are less important. I'm pretty certain we're a bit like that even with restaurants, where atmosphere sells better than good food.

Anyway, no particular point here. Just a coincidence of two separate conversations which made me smile.