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Howdy y'all, as they say in Texas - but not California, where most people opt for “hi”. Another week goes by, and we're another week closer to the next-generation kick-off. And of course, the big news of the week was the delay of not one, but two headline next-gen launch titles: Ubisoft's Watch_Dogs (yes, that's an underscore - because apparently that's how you're supposed to type it) and Driveclub. Considering I cited both in a recent “most anticipated next-gen titles” feature, that's a big disappointment for me. It's not the end of the world, sure, but certainly deserves a big raspberry. Why couldn't it be the two NBA titles? Bah.Following a price cut of $50, Wii U sales rose 200% from August to September, which sounds really encouraging until you consider that a 200% increase of a few tens of thousands really isn't much. Doubly so, when you also factor in the machine has now been on sale for a year and is about to face some seriously stiff competition when Sony and Microsoft roll out their big guns.
There are a whole variety of reasons why Wii U isn't selling, and I talked about one of the big ones in a news story I wrote earlier this week - which is that it's simply not being pushed at retail. An IHS analyst recently did some “secret shopper” testing where she went to a series of retailers and asked them questions about the Wii U. Most couldn't even tell her the difference between a Wii and Wii U. I've heard this from multiple sources, and even seen it for myself, being told, “It's kinda the same as a Wii, but it has a tablet.” Ultimately, my greater point is that Nintendo has done a half-assed job in explaining what a Wii U is - and from retail to consumers, there's an alarming lack of understanding (or worse, a complete misunderstanding) of what it is.
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