In an earnings call today Activision expressed some disappointment with the Wii U’s early sales. Despite the console moving over 3 million units worldwide, a small margin lower than the Wii in 2006, Activision isn’t pleased with what they’ve seen in some ways.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said on their investor’s call that the game that has concerned them most on the Wii U is Skylanders. They don’t seem all that thrilled with its sales on the new HD Nintendo system, saying:
“We were somewhat disappointed with the launch of the Wii U. We’re concerned about the install base for 6-11 year-olds”
He was asked about the future of the Skylanders IP during this conference call and seemed to go out of his way to make this statement. Activision hasn’t officially expressed any feelings with the sales of Black Ops 2 on the Wii U. Even though the game has only 3,000 people online at any given time on the Wii U some sales estimates peg it at over 150k on Nintendo’s latest system.
Having the CEO of a major third party like Activision say they are concerned about anything when it comes to your console isn’t good. I still think its too early for people to start declaring the Wii U a success or non-success. Its only selling a little bit slower than the Wii did in the same time frame.
I’m not sure all of you will be as concerned about the 6-11 year old market on Wii U as Kotick is. It is a demographic that all consoles need to have a strong presence in, but if Activision’s more mature IPs are doing fine and their more expensive games like Skylanders aren’t that doesn’t bother me a whole lot personally.
Activision concerned about lack of '6-11 year olds' on Wii U,
