Personally speaking, I'm still waiting for a system seller to show itself. I still think I need to see a concept that sells the Wii U's relevance as a gaming system beyond Nintendo's HD leap. I was hoping that would have came at E3, but it turned out to be almost the exact opposite. I'm sure at some point, the Nintendo fan in me will yearn to experience some of the system's games, but even as the system is about to get a new Mario, Smash Bros., and Mario Kart, three of my favorite franchises, I feel no real need or desire to invest into the system as of now. It's really unheard of from my perspective, especially since I also have little to no interest in getting a 3DS as we speak...
Now, as for "system seller" type games beyond myself, I really only see Mario Kart and maybe Smash Bros. being the games with that kind of potential. The way I see the term, a legitimate "system seller" has to have a significant, long term effect on the momentum of the console. Boosting a system's sales for a week or two because of somes fans hardly classifies as a true "system selling" title, and to this point, no Wii U game has been able to transcend to the point of singlehandedly pushing the Wii U's success. At this point, I even question just how much Mario Kart and SSB can do by themselves, especially if nothing else is done to improve the system's attractiveness to the average consumer.
People said 3D Land wouldn't move that many 3DS systems and 8+ million copies of the game later it had a huge effect. I wouldn't count out DKC either. The last one on Wii sold over 6 million copies. Not Wii Fit sales but good enough to give a considerable bump.
Heck, Pikmin 3 alone made Wii U sales jump up 117% over the course of a whole month in Japan and Pikmin is a much smaller brand than Mario/DKC.
bonesawisready5
Now, now... you know better than that. :P
3D Land was a holiday release that was also riding off the heels of a recent massive price drop for the 3DS. The success of the game itself can't be denied, sure, but it can't take total credit for boosting the portable's sales alone, especially when they weakened again in most regions in the new year (2012). As for DKC, it sold 6 million, yes, but also on a console that was on its way to 100 million. That same console also saw a Super Mario Bros. game sell 30 million copies. If you were to guess that DKC:TR manages to get the same level success in terms of userbase penetration on Wii U as it did Wii (6%) and/or sell with the same rate to NSMBU as DKCR did to NSMBWii (DKC=1/5 of Mario's sales, with NSMBU selling 2 mil to this point), it doesn't extremely highly about that game's chances to move systems, either.
The Pikmin point almost makes sense... until you realize just how poorly the system was selling in Japan prior to the game's release. Helping a system to sell 20K units for a week shouldn't exactly be seen as an accomplishment to begin with, not to mention that the week of Pikmin 3's release also saw the White Wii U bundle in Japan AND New Super Luigi U as a retail release. As we stand now, NONE of those things have led to any long-term impact, as the system finds itself hovering around 10K a week in Japan, which is about where it was before Pikmin 3 and Co. launched.
You make decent points, but I'm with yokofox33 on this one. The Wii U needs games that appeal to those beyond devoted followers of a certain franchise, which is what all of those games (including 3D Mario) have in common. It would be one thing if the system had some strong momentum, but right now, it could desperate use something to truly spark interest in the system beyond the Nintendo faithful, and the aforementioned games don't fit that bill.
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