At a speech Pachter gave in London about the future of consoles, Pacter states that 30 million is the Wii U’s limit. We’re going to ignore for the moment that 30 million is a huge number, and first take a look at who exactly Michael Pachter is.
Michael Pachter, according to Wikipedia, is a video game, social media, digital media, and electronics analyst with Wedbush Securities. Over the years Pachter has made several statements about games, companies, and game retailers. He has been known to take the side of both gamers and game companies in different subjects. For instance, he stated that “…whiney gamers are only going to cause their beloved games to take even longer between episodes.” That statement was in reference to gamers complaining about Mass Effect 3.
Pachter doesn’t seem to know the meaning of sugar-coating. Jumping back to his Wii U statement, he also criticised Nintendo fans, telling them to put their money where their mouth is. So here we are, full circle, back to the topic of Wii U sales; predicted to cap out at 30 million units. After putting only a few minutes into researching it, I’d say 30 million is generous.
The Wii U has already received a price cut in order to help boost sales. That price cut also put Nintendo at a loss at the end of the October. The total loss was 8,024 million yen, which equates to almost $82 million. Sure, the price-cut assisted in adding another 300,000 units sold, but it hurt Nintendo financially.
Now let’s review some positive notes. Pikmin and the special Windwaker edition of the Wii U are also credited for the overall increase in units sold. This is good, since it gives Nintendo a better idea of what will boost sales. However, the biggest increase in sales happened just a few weeks back. Wii Party U’s launch week saw over 38,000 Wii U consoles sold in Japan alone. Considering the week prior had been just under 3,000 consoles, that is a huge increase.
While Pachter’s statements may have seemed harsh, I think is a valid assessment. As of the end of October, only 3.91 million units have sold, which is a far cry from their 9 million by March 2014 goal. Leave a comment below with your thought’s on Pachter’s statement.
