I would say yes, the Wii U was rushed. Considering the OS barely worked upon launch, seriously it took an insane amount of time for pretty much anything to load up. Nintendoland, the "essential" Wii U launch title seemed a bit half-baked, as in half of the games were fully satisfying experiences and the other half seemed like they maybe made then in a few days (come on that octopus dancing game?) It took way longer than expected for Nintendo's own internal teams to figure out how to make games on the thing. And I think the most striking reason is the lack of understanding in just what is the point of the gamepad. If the company had trully spent a lot of time and R & D on the system, we wouldn't be playing first party games that basically ignore the gamepad all together. The first year of the Wii U has felt very thrown together, as in we're witnessing Nintendo figuring out what to do with their new console after it was already out in the wild.
I forgot about that. Why do you think they rushed it to market though? If they hadn't moved a few games to Wii U, we probably would have seen better Wii sales in 2011 and 2012. Do you think there was some other pressure on Nintendo?
I find it funny that Nintendo kept saying "the Wii is not dead!" as late as March 2011, one month before the Wii U was unveiled.
Nonetheless, I think 2012 was a good time to start the 8th console generation. I just find it disappointing that Nintendo didn't take advantage of their one-year headstart, especially with the Xbox 360 (which launched way back in 2005) becoming a bit long in the tooth by then. I think it was a missed opportunity.
The Wii wasn't dead because Skyward Sword wasn't released.
People keep saying the Xbox One doesn't have Backwards Compatibility.
I don't think they know what Backwards Compatibility means...
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I do think the Wii U was slightly rushed (kinda weak first party offerings, big OS updates, features missing, no VC), but dare I say that the general design / concepts of the Wii U remain slightly confused regardless.
It would have helped greatly if the Wii U had been released in the fall of 2011 with an HD Skyward Sword.
As I see it was rushed. As someone else pointed out if they truly had planned this out then we wouldn't be getting games that merely use the touch screen to honk a horn and other gimmicky things. Even the praised mario kart doesn't have obvious features like using the gamepad as one screen and the tv as the other for two player gaming. When I saw the console reveal the first thing that came to my mind was an end to screen looking and other similar problems.
Also any console that comes out before a few essential games do is rushed. That's practically the definition of rushed and the Wii U fits it.
If you launch a console without any good games to back it up for a long time then it is rushed. The 3DS was rushed, the Wii U was rushed and the Vita was also rushed.
The launch libraries of every recent console have been pretty weak.
Wii U notable launch titles
New Super Mario Bros U
Zombie U
NintendoLand
Tank! Tank! Tank!
CoD Black Ops II
Scribblenauts Unlimited
Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed
Ninja Gaiden 3
Assassin's Creed 3
If you launch a console without any good games to back it up for a long time then it is rushed. The 3DS was rushed, the Wii U was rushed and the Vita was also rushed.
The launch libraries of every recent console have been pretty weak.
Wii U notable launch titles
New Super Mario Bros U
Zombie U
NintendoLand
Tank! Tank! Tank!
CoD Black Ops II
Scribblenauts Unlimited
Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed
Ninja Gaiden 3
Assassin's Creed 3 Mass Effect 3 Batman Arkham City: Armored Edition Little Inferno Mighty Switch Force: Hyper Drive Edition Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Trine 2: Director's Cut
If you launch a console without any good games to back it up for a long time then it is rushed. The 3DS was rushed, the Wii U was rushed and the Vita was also rushed.
The launch libraries of every recent console have been pretty weak.
Wii U notable launch titles
New Super Mario Bros U
Zombie U
NintendoLand
Tank! Tank! Tank!
CoD Black Ops II
Scribblenauts Unlimited
Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed
Ninja Gaiden 3
Assassin's Creed 3
XboxONE notable launch titles:
Ryse
Dead Rising 3
Killer Instinct reboot
Battlefield 4
Call of Duty Ghosts
Assassin's Creed 4
Fighter Within
Zoo Tycoon
Let's face it: these are all pretty "meh" launch lineups.
This is something a lot of people miss. Yes, the Wii U lineup is better than a lot of Sony and Microsoft's lineups. But no, that's not what people mean when they say the Wii U had a weak launch lineup. Rather, they are referring to the fact that the system had a weak launch lineup relative to previous Nintendo consoles. Consider this: wouldn't a Nintendo fan be accustomed to the habits typically associated with Nintendo (Dedicated to gaming, strong launch games, strong hardware-software integration) rather than habits associated with SonySoft? So when a launch lineup like the Wii U's comes about with no particularly exciting 1st party games, it's weak. Actually this can be extended to the entire console. The reason the Wii U isn't selling well is because it has failed to appeal to Nintendo fans, failing in areas Nintendo has previously succeeded.
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I think the launch line-up looked VERY similar to Wii's. ZombiU was basically the RedSteel(1) equivalent. There was a Madden, FIFA, Rayman was supposed to come out sooner... I know Raving Rabids was Wii's Rayman, but it's still the same brand, CoD 3 was there...
I think Wii U's line-up would be considered weak, because it took key titles that were already on Xbox 360 and PS3. Mass Effect 3, CoD Black Ops II, etc. were just "me too" titles on Wii U.
I bought the Turte Beach headset and though it was "hardcore", bro.
EDIT: I still bought them, because I hadn't played some of those games, prior, and I was convinced that Wii U had the better versions.
People love to create new and extraordinary criteria to criticize Nintendo. They just do. So in comparison to other consoles, it's similar, but now we move the goal and say, no...now we must compare it to older consoles from years ago.
You can't really compare consoles from previous generations going back too far, and the Wii Launch lineup was nothing to be amazed by. Even the big Zelda title was a re-release of Gamecube title Twilight Princess (much like the Wii U got an HD remake of Windwaker less then a year in).
People love to create new and extraordinary criteria to criticize Nintendo. They just do. So in comparison to other consoles, it's similar, but now we move the goal and say, no...now we must compare it to older consoles from years ago.
You can't really compare consoles from previous generations going back too far, and the Wii Launch lineup was nothing to be amazed by. Even the big Zelda title was a re-release of Gamecube title Twilight Princess (much like the Wii U got an HD remake of Windwaker less then a year in).
No, it has nothing to do with that. Why would a Nintendo fan care about how good the Wii U's launch lineup is in comparison to the PS4? Sony and Microsoft have never had astounding launch lineups, and that's not what Sony and Microsoft's consumers expect out of them. However, considering every other Nintendo home console had a killer app at launch or within a month of launch, it is certainly something Nintendo fans expect.
TP wasn't a rerelease of the GC version, the GC version came a month LATER than the Wii version. So this was a brand new Zelda coming out for the first time at launch. Completely different from WW. The Wii also had Wii Sports, which had a major impact on the broad appeal the system had. Yes, the Wii U had NintendoLand, but unlike Wii Sports, NintendoLand isn't based upon a ruleset that is near universally understood like that of Sports. To be fair the Wii U had plenty of support titles just like the Wii, but it was distinctly lacking a killer app.
It wasn't rushed and the software was ready too, as explained above, but they still messed up the timing of everything.
It's more complicated than just "rushed" or "weak lineup" arguments.
Yes, but it was the best thing to do. I think they understood the risk after realising they needed to become software developers too. Not just games software, but platform software. They were too late, but at least got to that point now.
The os, the integration, the online - in general, every company is in some way a software company. Every disruption in many a modern market is driven through software.
I think nintendo realised in time to transition itself, but not in time to save an entire generation of its hardware. The wii U isn't a failure in that regard, it is a manageable cost offset to transition the company for the future.
Meanwhile, I'm playing great games this gen and the next ones. Probably lots of nintendo ones for decades.
The console itself always strikes me as very much a 'filler' system, something the company threw out because people were expecting a new console rather than because one was needed, with a gimmick that was included almost purely because Nintendo thought their consoles had to have 'gimmicks' without asking what really made the Wii so popular.
Of course, that wasn't the only issue. The launch was rushed for Christmas, despite a lack of games to act as 'killer apps' (I guess they stupidly thought Nintendo Land was going to be the next Wii Sports and take off immediately), the marketing was plain terrible (especially in the UK) and quite a few early games were obvious rush jobs to fill a schedule.
I don't think so at all. I think Nintendo's just been waiting until the hardware becomes profitable to come out swinging. There's something about the oddly convenient timing between their massive ramp ups in marketing and the announcement that the Wii U will no longer be sold at a loss.
If anything, the fact that the system runs so efficiently (it consumes less power than the Wii, despite being probably around 20 times more powerful!) is a testament to some serious hardware planning...
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Topic: Do you think the Wii U was rushed to market?
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