Wii U : IS SERIOUS DOCTOR?

Ghostly sales, publishers withdrawals starving calendar ... The Wii U, the newest Nintendo wanted to walk in the glorious not the Wii? It is rather in boots Dreamcast it gets stuck.

At present, its future seems compromised. However, the unsinkable firm Kyoto objective reasons to be hopeful, provided it solves a number of problems, some temporary, others deeper.

"THE MOMENT DREAMCAST"

"Nintendo did a chance for the holiday season?", "The Wii U is coming its time Dreamcast", "The Christmas Nintendo is canceled" ... Just like GamesIndustry, a large part of the press gives more expensive the future of the Wii U in the short and medium term. With 3.45 million sold on its first fiscal year against 3.8 out of Europe for the GameCube and 5.84 units for the Wii, the Wii U is the worst since the launch of Nintendo Virtual Boy ... in 1995 . Nothing as bad as it (just 0.8 million), of course, but the firm Kyoto was an installed base of 5.5 million in April 2013, and the account is far from being. "Clearly, we could have done better. We are not in the objectives", openly acknowledges the marketing director of Nintendo France, Anne-Marie Baufine-Ducrocq.

Unfortunately for the company, the disappointing sales of the console seem to get worse. In France, where it represents only 6% of sales in the first five months of the year, it would be passed in June below the level of the PS Vita. In the United States, it has gone to 26,000 units in May, four and a half times less than the PS3 or Xbox 360, and a lower rate, incidentally, the GameCube ten years ago. The situation is not much more encouraging in Japan, with 7,000 small sales charts last week, and the million it should pass painfully during the summer, where two million Wii already circulating on archipelago at the end of six months.


CAUSES IN A MESS

Short, commercial, console the tablet is not far from the flat EEG. And a quick vox pop in the aisles of the Japan Expo last week, admittedly unscientific, still allowed to the extent of its problems: a twenty visitors interviewed on the fly on the Nintendo booth, not one provided with certainty to buy at Christmas. To the question: "What is the probability that you équipiez in Wii U by the end of the year?", 20% answered: "one in ten", and a good third, "no." And this is not Pikmin 3 latest episode of a series to confidential across the brand, which should upset gives sales.

A situation as alarming, Nintendo had no more long known. Even the slow start of the 3DS had not lasted much or inspired as much concern. The causes of this situation are however not new. They were predictable from the announcement rickety machine in May 2011. But they are plural. Some are purely cyclical, others deeper. More than the policy of third-party publishers, this is Nintendo's ability to solve that will determine the future of the console.


SOON, THE GAMES

The lack of games is a first. After a first Christmas quantitatively loaded, but also devoid of titles as Wii Sports Ambassador in 2006, the Wii U desperately short after a catalog. But Nintendo did little to eat, as he had splint for a year and a half on 3DS. After more than six months without a major release, the Japanese consolier has coyly admitted via the voice of Shigeru Miyamoto that many games had initially planned to launch accumulated up to six months late, the fault of a very different environment for the development of the Wii .

This handicap then, Nintendo did fortunately not long drag. The second part of the year looks indeed more nourished, between The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, Super Mario 3D World, Sonic Lost Worlds, Rayman Legends or Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. And if one relies on the old adage that it is the games that make the consoles, then 8 and Mario Kart Super Smash Bros. indisputable system-sellers, 2014 could even be that the Wii U.

Another economic problem is price. A 349 euros - considering the Premium package, which concentrated about 80% of sales - the newest Nintendo costs 100 euros more expensive than its big sister the launch. Too, perhaps, for a rarely used to pay its Nintendo over 300 euros customer. As we says Jeremy, one of the few owners of the first day met at the Japan Expo. "I took advantage of the collapse of Game to buy 230 euros instead of 400 Otherwise, I would have waited even Christmas 2014" . Distributors did not make a mistake by passing its price to € 329 for most, hoping to sell the unsold inventory.

Having experienced in 2011 its first fiscal deficit in more than three decades, the firm Kyoto obviously would take a dim view of having to make additional financial sacrifices to help the console to sell, and even Iwata recently stated that no such action was planned. But the near prospect of competition from the PlayStation 4 to $ 399 / euro could encourage Nintendo to act. If lower official price there, the firm Kyoto wait the last minute to communicate it. That the 3DS was announced in late July, for implementation in mid-August, with the release of the most off-peak.


THE STRANGE CONCEPT SPATULETTE

Deeper, Nintendo is facing structural issues. The first is the Wii U itself. The company may change the game, prices, or color, it will not return to its concept. But it seems born of a double unfortunate calculation. On the one hand, Nintendo has tried - in his own way - to enjoy the emergence of tablet market to offer a product two-in-one. The consolier has figured that the combination of a gaming machine and a simulated tablet for less than 350 euros would be a sufficiently attractive offer to attract a wider audience to the point of integrating a YouTube channel to the famous mablette. But the large lever was further seen as an extra cost than a capital gain.


At the same time, Nintendo has tried to capitalize on the success of the Wii. The company adopted the levers, line graph, communication, part of the technology, to name itself. Result, many potential buyers have believed, wrongly, that there was only one device or an extension. As for those who have understood the principle of the Wii U, they have not necessarily been convinced by the need to exchange their old Wii for the new machine to the amazing growth.

There is an insidious way of summarizing the problem of Nintendo: the return of the comparison with the scraper device. There are six and a half years, the world plébiscitait this awesome user-friendly, doomed to spend three out of four seasons in the closet, but alone can save an evening with friends. 120 million units later, the Kyoto firm is faced with a new situation. Sell ​​a new console players, boasting its superior power, its developed network architecture, or its innovative multimedia features, the three manufacturers can do. But selling a new raclette someone who already has one, it was dated 2006? "I use my Wii as interactive board game when I get friends," summed Damien, at the end of a party Wii U Party at the Japan Expo. "It's fine with me, I do not need the same HD. Ultimately, why change?". Tefal SEB and may know the answer, but obviously, not Nintendo, and the gain to invest in a giant spatula touch screen does not seem to have been well understood.


RIP "GAMEPLAY ASYMMETRIC"

"Unlike the Wii had a very visual technology break" tempers Anne-Marie Baufin-Ducrocq, "the Wii U has a strong but less visual technology, which requires a lot of explaining much longer." Cumbersome, unintuitive, expensive to produce and difficult to sell, the Wii U is it now the worst enemy of the Wii U? To sell its latest console, Nintendo has no choice but to change their line of communication, that the company has begun to do.

The stereoscopic display of the 3DS, who had served more than anything else, Nintendo did not hesitate to upstage. Without abandon, without hiding. Just stopping to communicate it, and refocusing its editorial policy on its traditional licenses, turning the 3DS Super single DS. And this is what the company is now trying to do with the Wii U. In the speech, the concept of asymmetric gameplay has completely disappeared from circulation, Iwata admitted having "learned that the term does not explain fully the interests of consumers GamePad". And in fact, the concept is now visited portioned (U Wii Party, which oscillates between minigame iPad depressing and hilarious game company) or grotesque (the screen used to honk in Mario Kart 8). In turn, the Wii U turns into Super Wii.


FOR THE WII U WII 2

Set aside the original console and release games that do sell, so it is now the main focus of the Wii U. In the context of scattering of casual gamers, Iwata explained by a strategy of reclaiming traditional players. "With the Wii, Wii Sports when spread throughout the world at a sensational speed, some have mistakenly believed that the Wii just used to play in moving the handle", detailing it in late June with investors. "With the Wii U, so we planned to meet in a first-time fans of existing video games, and bring surprises later.".


The policy of zero surprise, Nintendo has taken particularly at E3. With the exception of the iconic Pikmin and Zelda, all games presented belong to the most sellers of the brand licenses. Whether Wii Fit (42 million units to date), Mario Kart (34 million), New Super Mario Bros. (28 M) or Smash Bros (11.5 million), the biggest commercial success of the Wii are all already announced or released on Wii U. Will convince a huge number of undecided, like Theo, met near the terminal Wind Waker HD: "I'm a fan of Nintendo, for now I stand, but when Super Smash Bros. lot, I must crack ". In fact, most vendors the company licenses, only Wii Sports (82 million), Super Mario Galaxy (12 million) are missing, but with Wii U Party and Super Mario 3D Land, it is not as if the company did not try to capitalize on them in one way or another. To the chagrin of fans of Metroid, Star Fox and F-Zero, Big N favors the rapid expansion of its installed base.

PRODUCTION CAPACITY IN QUESTION

But the second structural problem of the firm, it is precisely its ability to produce games, challenged by the rise almost simultaneously power two lines console. Random business cycles - long for the DS, short for Wii - their respective successors have indeed launched only a year and a half apart, even though the transition to HD has led to inevitable increase in staff and development time. But in both cases, Nintendo is facing an imperative: supply quickly and massively both consoles games. This impossible equation touches in the production of the company. New Super Luigi U variant of New Super Mario existing U, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, which shows the overworld A Link to The Past, or The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD reissue 16 / th and 1080p GameCube game, testify in their own way of optimizing resources that Nintendo has no other choice but to compel.

Fortunately, the company did not wait for 2013 to diagnose these production problems. In March 2011, it announced the construction of a new building with a capacity of 1500 people next to its headquarters in Kyoto. Objective: to welcome new staff, and in the medium term, simply double the number of employees at its headquarters! At the same time, as recently revealed Miyamoto, the young antenna EAD Tokyo, founded in 2003, is now moving towards a role of control of all production outsourced to external studios Nintendo (Retro Studios, Platinum Games, Mistwalker ...), or delivered in partnership with the firm. It will nevertheless time, probably several years, so that these investments are paying off.


EDITORS INTERESTED IN THESE SUCCESS


Meanwhile improve its production capacity, Nintendo will rely on the support of hypothetical third-party publishers. As reported GamesIndustry, it has never seemed so uncertain. Last spring, Electronic Arts said he had no project on Wii U. Ubisoft has broken exclusive Rayman Legends after the very disappointing sales Zombie U. Activision and no longer feeds the console in a targeted manner. The temptation is great to see it the first signs of abandoning ship. In fact, the EA decision is more anecdotal than anything else: the editor has never been one of the major players in the Wii, on which he failed to clear a path to the image a late Bloombox and unnoticed. And in fact, his withdrawal from the console reveals more of its current financial problems, and a desire to minimize risk-taking, rather than lack of a future for the Wii U, many publishers would view favorably the success.

This is the case of three of them, Ubisoft, Activision and Sega, with Just Dance, Skylanders and Mario & Sonic, three licenses on which their respective publishers have managed to capitalize. They require relatively small development budgets, and their potential audience in the millions or tens of millions of people. Second most successful Ubisoft over the last decade, the Just Dance series has sold over 40 million copies. Mario & Sonic is 20 million Wii. As for Skylanders on its first 15 months on the market, it generated 100 million and sales figures reported $ 1 billion Activision-Blizzard! A Ubisoft, Activision and Sega adds Disney, which has great ambitions for its Disney Universe. As strategic support for Nintendo, the console has never seemed so close to a huge theme park.

NINTENDO HYDRA TO TWO HEADS

In the end, Nintendo, and this is its strength, has in its DNA similar to both Apple and Disney axial genes. Like the first, it has the sense of innovation and an obsession with risk taking. This earned him some of his greatest hits - the GameBoy, DS, Wii. But as Apple in its black decade, it also happens to be missing. The Virtual Boy is the most famous example. However, unlike the firm at the apple, Nintendo is also a content company, with its games, its world and its characters. When the GameCube and 3DS have floundered, Nintendo rocked a gene to another. That's what she tries again with the Wii U, now selling less than a hardware licenses. In 2006, Nintendo was appleoïde, in 2013, it is again disneyienne.


This umpteenth molting should reassure the industry. As for loving gamers Nintendo cupertinien: patience, whispers the firm. "This year we really wanted to show games, a catalog will be ready in the coming months," insists Anne-Marie Baufin-Ducrocq. "This does not mean that there is no crazy experiments in cartons, or that innovation is not in the DNA of the company." In a recent exchange with investors, Satoru Iwata has also clarified that the E3, the company had not made any plans for 2014, but had focused on traditional licenses. And to maximize the surprise of their future innovative products. Nintendo is certain, often seems to lose his head. But like a hydra, it has two, and they repel each time.