I've been a bit late in updating this blog and please be aware that two Harris Buzz reports from December have been released.
Let's take a look at where the Wii U ranks in terms of awareness and excitement, benchmarked against all the other releases and news items we've covered in Buzz over more than two years.
Of all the things we tested, undoubtedly the most interesting is looking at GB consumer awareness and excitement of Nintendo's Wii U console launch.
The figures from our Buzz survey aren't going to please Nintendo...
Firstly let's take a look at how the Wii U launch did at generating awareness, the prerequisite for success.
38% isn't poor awareness. But if you look at the most recent Buzz report, it ranks 114th out of the 287 releases and news items we've covered to date in our series of reports (see page 12).
What about excitement?
At 15%, this places the Wii U launch at joint 105th out of 287 releases and news items covered thus far.
Let's take a look at which other launches have been more (and less) successful than Wii U over the last couple of years in generating an Excitement Buzz. We look at lots of things in Buzz, so in this list we've only included device launches and game releases (so nothing about Saville, Oscars, Michael Jackson, or anything like that) so that we have a fairer comparison.
| Excitement | |
| 3D TV sets | 29% |
| iPad 2 | 29% |
| iPhone 5 | 25% |
| The New iPad | 25% |
| iPad | 24% |
| Amazon Kindle Touch | 23% |
| Nintendo 3DS | 22% |
| Smart TV | 22% |
| Xbox Kinect | 22% |
| Windows 8 launched | 21% |
| 4G UK | 21% |
| Call of Duty: MW3 | 21% |
| iPhone 4S | 21% |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops | 20% |
| iPhone 4 | 20% |
| iPad Mini | 19% |
| Kindle Fire UK | 19% |
| Samsung Galaxy Note | 19% |
| PS Vita | 19% |
| Amazon Kindle Fire | 19% |
| Kindle eBook | 19% |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 | 18% |
| Nexus 7 tablet | 18% |
| Samsung Galaxy S3 | 18% |
| Google Chromebooks | 18% |
| Nokia E7 smartphone | 17% |
| Sony Ericsson Xperia Play | 17% |
| 3D Blu-ray players | 17% |
| FIFA 13 | 16% |
| BlackBerry PlayBook | 16% |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab | 16% |
| LA Noire | 16% |
| Portal 2 | 16% |
| Nintendo Wii U | 15% |
| Assassin’s Creed III | 15% |
| Res Evil: Retribution | 15% |
| HTC One launched | 15% |
| Battlefield 3 | 15% |
| Nintendo ‘3DS XL’ | 14% |
| Kinect: Star Wars | 14% |
| Resident Evil 6 trailer | 14% |
| Kinect for PCs launch | 14% |
| Fable III | 14% |
| Surface launch | 13% |
| Batman: Arkham City | 13% |
| Crysis 2 | 13% |
| Halo: Reach | 13% |
| Halo 4 | 12% |
| Hitman: Absolution | 12% |
| Res Evil 6 game | 12% |
| Optimus 4X HD | 12% |
| Microsoft SmartGlass | 12% |
| Mass Effect 3 | 12% |
| HP TouchPad | 12% |
| Motorola Xoom | 12% |
| Far Cry 3 game | 11% |
| Nexus 4 | 11% |
| Nexus 10 | 11% |
| Sleeping Dogs | 11% |
| Max Payne 3 | 11% |
| Apple TV | 11% |
| Fallout: New Vegas | 11% |
| New Super Mario | 10% |
| Lumia 920 | 10% |
| Darksiders ll | 10% |
| Guild Wars 2 | 10% |
| Microsoft Xbox Music | 10% |
| Project Glass | 10% |
| Gears of War 3 | 10% |
| Sony Move | 10% |
| Google TV | 10% |
| Football Manager ‘13 | 9% |
| Madden NFL 13 | 9% |
| Diablo 3 | 9% |
| Rage | 9% |
| Ouya Console | 8% |
| Dishonored | 7% |
| Deus Ex: HR | 7% |
| Dell Streak | 6% |
| NBA 2K13 | 5% |
| World of Warcraft free | 4% |
As you can see, the Wii U console launch puts in on par with some hefty big selling games, but it's way off the excitement levels we see for the illustrious handsets and tablets. It also trails the launch of the Vita and Kinect.
This is disappointing.
It's early days of course. The console battle is fought over years rather than weeks. My earlier post about the Wii being "doomed" generated a fair amount of criticism, especially as pre-sales were healthy boosted by an impressive range of launch titles. But more recent sales figures are suggesting the Wii U is struggling and with impending news of Sony's and Microsoft's next consoles for release later in 2013 can only make things worse for Nintendo.
This is disappointing.
It's early days of course. The console battle is fought over years rather than weeks. My earlier post about the Wii being "doomed" generated a fair amount of criticism, especially as pre-sales were healthy boosted by an impressive range of launch titles. But more recent sales figures are suggesting the Wii U is struggling and with impending news of Sony's and Microsoft's next consoles for release later in 2013 can only make things worse for Nintendo.
So I go return to the theme from my earlier post: Is the Wii U doomed?
Well "doomed" is a bit melodramatic. It sold well at launch and it received plaudits as well as a little head-scratching by what it was all about. It may be that its killer apps are in development and we'll all be blown away by how creative the mixed use of controllers and tablets will be. And let's not underestimate Nintendo who have done more to pioneer in this industry than anyone else.
But the data is showing very clearly that it has not really caught the imagination of the the public.
Not yet anyway.
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