Who thinks about buying a new console at a time like this? Seriously, who? The Playstation 4 was just announced, rumors about Microsoft's next Xbox are constantly swirling, and if you wanted a Wii U, you either got it at launch or you're waiting until a game you want gets released. It's just a stagnant time, and the recently released NPD sales numbers are proving it.
Let's look at the Wii U. The console sold 66,000 units last month, and an analyst calls that 'good,' Games Industry International reports. It's an improvement over January's abysmal 57,000, sure, but it's as if the Xbox 360 and PS3 sales of 302,000 and 263,000 (respectively) weren't miles and miles ahead of it, and even those sales aren't very impressive. Now compare that to the Wii U's 3 million units sold by the end of December, and you've got yourself a horribly declining trend.
But the Wii U has a unique problem. It doesn't have any games, and the extremely minor spike in sales may have something to do with the upcoming releases of "Lego City: Undercover" and "Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate." Maybe not, but the lack of games, while wholly important, isn't the undercurrent that's affecting an entire industry.
The industry is down 25 percent this month, totaling $810 million in hardware and software sales, according to the same NPD report. That's abysmal, but it isn't the apocalyptic end of gaming consistently predicted. It's just the end of our current generation, and the Wii U is stuck in the rut with the Xbox 360 and PS3 alike. The Xbox 360 and PS3 just happened to have back-catalogues about a thousand times the size of the Wii U's.
So, is the Wii U failing? Right now it is, but right now has nothing to do with the end of this year, when the PS4 and (presumably) the next Xbox are on the market. Once gamers have a clear view of what's out there, instead of all the uncertainty over which consoles will give them which experiences and which Wii U games are actually worth looking forward to (Nintendo isn't too giving with release date announcements), sales will undoubtedly start to rise. Even for Nintendo's console, because the sit-and-wait game going on right now will finally be over. Once the holidays come around, it'll finally be time to commit for a whole bunch of people.
A little extra piece of data from the NPD report nails it. It's got nothing to do with new consoles, but everything to do with the collective embrace of new experiences. Activision's "Skylanders" is killing it right now, and industry Analyst Liam Callahan couldn't leave that out of the report.
"When combining the dollar value of "Skylanders" software as well as accessories, this property has generated over $600 million in the US since launching in October 2011, and sold $35 million in February alone. It will be interesting to watch how this dynamic of physical goods delivering digital content evolves with the launch of Disney Infinity later this year," he wrote.
He didn't mention it, probably because the report was already written, but Nintendo revealed this week their own entry into the NFC market. "Pokemon Rumble U" is coming to the Wii U (the gamepad features native NFC reading tech) in Japan this April, and if it's successful, we'll likely see it here in the U.S. very soon. Holiday season soon, when everything comes to a head.
So that's the theory. Nothing is doing so hot right now, nothing except physical toys merged with gaming ("Skylanders" and Disney's "Infinity" won't have any problem communicating with next-gen consoles), because the gaming hobbyists and the parents are waiting to see how it's going to play out when shopping time comes along. Ironically, the Wii U might just benefit from the release of the PS4 and next Xbox, for the simple fact that gamers can exhale that gust of cash they've been holding in.
