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There’s not a lot we know about when the Wii U will be released. We do know the system will be available in the last half of 2012. But seeing as that’s a period of six months, it’s not that helpful. It is possible, however, to narrow it down with good ol’ fashioned logic. (Or at least, what feels like logic to me.)
We can assume it won’t be released in July for the simple reason of it being too soon after E3 2012, which is where Nintendo plans to show off the system’s bells and whistles, along with the launch line-up. It would also be summer in the northern hemisphere – a time not noted for its kindness to the gaming industry – it wouldn’t make sense to launch the Wii U at that time. This also counts out August because it’s still simply not a good time to launch anything video game-wise.
September is where things begin to become interesting. There has been speculation already that this is when Nintendo may be planning to launch the platform and, if Nintendo wants to launch as early as possible, this is the best bet. Any earlier would be too early, but at the middle or end of September would make more sense. I don’t think this will actually happen though. It’s possible, but the question has to be asked:
What makes the most business-sense?
And while we’re the gamers, and not the business, Nintendo does operate based on what will bring them the most profit and make their product viable in the long run. With that in mind, we can reverse-engineer when the system might be released because, to have a launch that is successful, there are two ingredients that make a huge difference: a release close to the holidays and a solid launch line-up of must-have games.
As for the release date close to the holidays though, it doesn’t make sense to launch too close to December 25th. That will not give the Wii U enough time in the wild to generate hype for the system. There needs to be at least four weeks for the media to latch onto the technology and let parents save up enough money to buy the system for their children. That leaves us with a launch before the beginning of December.
Then, when thinking about the launch line-up, we know that Assassin’s Creed 3 and other blockbuster-type games will be releasing at the end of October or early November. That’s when they always launch as it’s the peak time for video game sales. If they can, Nintendo will want to time their launch to match-up with these games so, hopefully, the games are on the shelves no more than two or three weeks in front of or behind the release of the system. If they time it right, Nintendo can piggy-back on the marketing of these huge games.
One of our problems is we don’t know the release dates for all the big games yet, so it’s tricky to judge the best time for Nintendo to launch the system based on that idea. But based on the release date for Assassin’s Creed 3 (which will surely be one of the bigger titles this year) and the date Nintendo chose for the Wii, the middle of November feels like the date they’ll settle upon. I wouldn’t even be surprised if they stick with the November 19th release date for North America they used for the Wii. They might think of it as a good omen.
And that’s not the world’s most interesting conclusion. “They’ll do what they did last time,” is not exactly a daring thought. But with all the release date speculation that’s floated around, I feel people may be too far in the optimistic camp for when the system will be available. I’d love it in September, but I do think the choice that makes sense is mid-November in most regions, with the release date slipping into December in places such as Australia (which is also what happened with the Wii).
That’s just my thought process though. Let me know, what do you think the release of the Wii U will be? And share your thought process, if possible. The fun part is knowing what has lead you to your conclusions.
View and comment on the full article at Wii U Blog
