The world’s most famous video game analyst, Michael Pachter, never shies from expressing his opinion. That’s his job, after all. However, when it comes to Nintendo and the Wii U, his opinions over the past year have not only enraged Nintendo fans, he has been widely inconsistent, as we’ll show in this article.
This isn’t about making predictions. Anyone can do that, analyst or not. This is about Pachter taking a stance only to change his position a few months or weeks later. Worse, it’s about Pachter rampant hypocrisy when it comes to Nintendo. We’ve rounded up 3 important points where Pachter consistently flip-flopped on the Wii U and Nintendo.
1: Wii U will sell out and be popular, but Nintendo is done
Pachter has held several positions when it comes to the popularity of the Wii U. One of the very first comments he made on the Wii U was that “it won’t work“. He even said the Wii U would be “the next Dreamcast”
But somewhere along the way, his opinion changed. In late 2012, he said that the console will be popular and “will sell out” for months, all the way until March 2013.
And then again, he decided to change his mind and go after Nintendo. He said that the company “just doesn’t get it“, and that Microsoft and Sony are “destroying Nintendo“. He even went further and said that Nintendo has become “irrelevant“.
And yet, only days ago he predicted that the Wii U could go on to sell 45 million units during its lifetime, which is quite high by today’s standards.
2: Doesn’t like it, but will play it
Pachter has said several times that he doesn’t like the Wii U and that he expects the new Nintendo console to fail. Only to later on say that he’ll buy the console just to play Bayonetta 2. He said at E3 that he wasn’t impressed by the Wii U games lineup, only to later praise Nintendo Land and New Super Mario Bros U.
3: Wii U Sales forecast
A few months before the Wii U launch, Nintendo went on the record saying that it expects to sell about 5.5 million Wii U consoles by March 2013. Pachter was quick to comment on that number. He went on record saying that Nintendo’s Wii U sales forecast is unrealistic.
But it gets even better. Nintendo said in October 2012 that they would sell 5.5 million Wii Us, which Pachter thinks is unrealistic. However, a month earlier, Pachter himself made a Wii U sales prediction. His number? 7 million.
So let’s recap the sales flip flopping: Pachter predicts that the Wii U will sell 7 million. Nintendo says they will sell 5.5 million. Pachter thinks this is unrealistic. Later, Pachter revises his own number and predicts 5.5 million just as Nintendo said.
And so it goes…
