David Jaffe predicts Wii U will be about 50% less successful than Wii
David Jaffe says he loves Nintendo, but that doesn’t mean he won’t make a harsh prediction about the company’s future. The Twisted Metal developer predicts that the Wii U will turn out to be around 50% less successful than Nintendo’s current console. Jaffe explained in a recent interview:
“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 Patcher 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. 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. Then if you look at families, a lot of kids want iPads, iPhones and iPods now. And a large portion of the people who would’ve been interested in traditional Nintendo stuff, beyond core gamers, are just as happy playing Storm in a Teacup on iPad versus a new 3D Mario. Between those two audiences going away and the number of choices core gamers already have on the other systems – which, let’s be honest, a lot of them like super-amazing graphics on their 3D TVs and stuff like that – a lot of people are going to be better served going to the competition. It doesn’t mean the Wii U isn’t going to work, but I think the perfect storm of interest that worked for the Wii won’t happen again, because there’s enough competition speaking to those interests at a cheaper cost. I think the Wii U is going to be less successful than the Wii, probably 50% less successful. I don’t think you’re going to see the Wii U at #1 in the next console generation. But I also thought the PSP was going to kick the shit 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.”
