Where there's an opinion to be had you can bet on the Pach Attack showing up with observations ready to unload. The Wii U's lackluster sales in March are the perfect queue for his emergence this week.
Wedbush Securities Analyst Michael Pachter doesn't think that Nintendo will be able to improve the poor performance of the Wii U with only a price drop. He said:
The only key hardware device to underperform our expectations was the Wii U, and its fortunes appear unlikely to improve for several months, even if Nintendo decides to drop price, as there are an insufficient number of core titles that are generating interest in the console.
The biggest battle Nintendo continues to fight is with improving the library of the Wii U. Presently, it has a couple decent exclusives and more than a dozen multiplatform games that had far better attachment rates on other platforms—where they came out months prior, I might add. There is no 3D Mario game, no Legend of Zelda, or even a Super Smash Bros. to speak of. If you look at the company's history it's the first-part games that define each platform.
The 3DS is a perfect example of how Nintendo can salvage what appeared to be an irreversible failure. The introduction of key titles, one of which was a remake of the Nintendo 64's Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, wouldn't have been able to do it alone; it was the significant price drop that made it take off running.
Speaking on the future Pachter added:
We think that core gamers are far more likely to turn their attention to the PS4 (due in the holiday season) and the next Xbox, which we believe will be unveiled before E3 and have a launch alongside that of the PS4, and believe that the long-term appeal of the Wii U will be severely limited by the perception that the PS4 and next Xbox will be much more powerful with greater online integration and multimedia functionality.
As Pachter said merely dropping the price of the console isn't going to instantly make it attractive. It's going to need a serious improvement to its library before it can show why it belongs in the current market. The PS4, and presumably the next Xbox, are bringing the heat and will undoubtedly have a graphical advantage on-hand. Nintendo isn't one to just lay down its sword, so you can expect a fury-filled second half of 2013.
[Via]
