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Not many Wii gamers have been converted into actual gamers, according to Eat Sleep Play co-founder David Jaffe. In an interview with Gaming Union the God of War and Twisted metal creator also said that he doesn’t believe the Wii U will have the same success as the original Wii.
“I don’t think it will do anywhere near as well as the Wii did. This is no disrespect to anybody. This is just a Jaffe scenario, me playing Michael Pachter for a moment. I think there’s a large enough percentage of people who bought the Wii as something other than a gaming device, and turned it into the fad that it was,” said Jaffe.
“Most of that percentage is going to go away now. I don’t think enough of them have become ‘gamers’. They tried [the Wii], now they’re onto something like free-to-play MMOs and then they’ll move onto something else. How many of them got converted into actual gamers? I don’t think a large portion,” he added.
Jaffe cites the desire to own and play on iOS devices like the iPhone, iPod and iPad as one of the reasons why the Wii U won’t succeed in the same way as the Wii, and that for people who want amazing 3D on their TV there are better options with the competition. Having said that, he admits he’s been wrong before.
“I think the Wii U is going to be less successful than the Wii, probably 50 per cent less successful. I don’t think you’re going to see the Wii U at No.1 in the next console generation. But I also thought the PSP was going to kick the s*** out of the DS, so I don’t know. I’m not trying to be mean to Nintendo. I grew up with Nintendo and I love them. That’s just my guess.”
David Jaffe isn’t alone in thinking that the Wii U will struggle to achieve the same sales success as the original Wii. Analyst Michael Pachter has already said that the Wii U is arriving two years too late and that the console has the dumbest name ever.
Having said that, Nintendo’s global president Satoru Iwata believes that the Wii U will melt away third-party hurdles. Given that third-party support has been one of Nintendo’s big problems in recent console generations, this can only be a good thing for the Wii U.
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