Topic: What Did Nintendo do Right/Wrong with the Wii U?

Good: Revived pikmin series, relatively interesting tablet for a controller, can still use wiimotes
Bad: Price still too high, by far worst graphics, good games can be counted on 1 hand even after a year of existence, TERRIBLE marketing,no groundbreaking games (wii sports, melee, Mario 64, oot, etc.), and pretty much everything else. Definitely a last place console. Can't wait for the next generation then Nintendo will be back on top again (hopefully).

I've only seen two issues with the Wii U.

Marketing and Games.

With marketing, there haven't been a ton of ads like there were when the 3DS hit its slump.

In the games area, Nintendo didn't release Wind Waker HD and Mario Kart 8 as early in the Wii U's life as they had with Ocarina of Time 3D and Mario Kart 7 in the 3DS's life.

I think Nintendo needs to retread it's steps it took when the 3DS was in a similar position although it may be too late for that.

What Nintendo did right...

The GamePad is genius and I can't wait to see how newer games implement it. As of now, it may seem like it's useless to some people, but remember it took a while before the original DS found a bunch of clever uses for it's dual screens as seen with The World Ends With You and 999. Not only that, but the motion controls inside the controller can also lend for some interesting game experiences like a steering wheel, scanner, and this.

Free online.

Lower specs, but not too low.
It is weaker than the PS4 and One, but the gap isn't nearly as large as it was with the PS3, 360, and Wii. It can handle current generation multiplats and those had been coming out on PCs with significantly higher specs all generation, so I don't think we'll see too many of those go away.

Rerelease Wind Waker HD and Super Mario 3D World.
Even with the lower specs, these games remind people what an HD console can do in the hands of Nintendo's beautiful art direction.

That is all opinion. I find the Game Pad to be very comfortable, My only issue with it is the Right Analog Stick is a little too high in my opinion. I was actually a big fan of the Wii-remote and what it did. It may not be a popular choice but that doesn't make it the wrong choice.

You say all that like Nintendo just blew it for this generation and has no chance of recovery in the 4+ years this generation still has left.

I've been wanting to do something like this for a while so this is fitting.

Right:
-Continued attempts at innovation instead of just making Wii-Motion+ HD Wii or entertainment center non-sense.
-Making the giant tablet controller actually be good and worthwhile (if a downgrade from the GCN or the coolness of the Wii-mote.nun-chuck combo)
-Their entire initial reveal in 2011
-Their game selection barring the first 8 months of 2013
-Their indie support and relatively rapid improvement all around for online capabilties
-Continuing to have multiple different controller types allowed for games
-Ubisoft's support
-Their support of underappreciated Japanese game companies you should totally check out
-Their recent bundles and the variety of them
-Being fairly self-aware about how casual gaming got distracted by something else
-Miiverse

Wrong:
-Assuming having a ton of games at launch was a good idea for the long term
-Using Mario as a be-all, end-all answer to the console's problems
-Initial terrible marketing
-Not having an E3 press conference this year to showcase the console in a way that was something other than boring (I think they would've gotten more customers just by burying Microsoft if Sony is any indication)
-Fans who don't buy games that aren't Mario

Yes. Yes that's exactly what I was inferring. There's no way that in 3 months from now Wii U will have more lifetime sales than either the ps4 or xbone. Sure there's still hope that it can outsell the gamecube (even though it'll need a huge jump to do that), but as far as winning the console wars or getting any third party games it's been over since day 2 of the ps4's launch.

This is about how Nintendo has handled the Wii U, not the hardware itself. If you want to debate about that make another thread.

@2Sang Was there a typo in that last post, or did you actually mean three months? If so: What's gonna happen in three months? Is Nintendo going to explode?

the wii u has two big problems right now.

marketing, some people think the wii u is just an "addon" for the wii, they need to advertise more, esp when games like mario kart, ssb, and zelda come.

third party support isint as bad as other nintendo consoles, we have ubisoft, but thats about it.

it has minor problems, like the online, why cant i be notified when a friend signs on, or when somebody wants to add me, etc?
or for instance, i can buy another ps3 right now, sign onto my psn and download all of the games ive bought via psn, on wii u you cannot, this is wrong.

if they are worried about game sharing, they should just have it locked on hd to that account or something.

Exactly. It wasn't a popular choice, hence why the system is unpopular. Nintendo pleased a minority (hmmm...that sounds odd...) while shunning the majority. Weak sales and consumer apathy show this to be true.

*In regards to the gamepad

Did I not address it in my previous post? Here is a summary of how nintendo handled the Wii U:
Didn't prepare the console well. They had all of 2009-2011 and most of 2012 to make a deserving successor to the wii u. They wasted it all obviously, as the wii u does'nt have a fraction of the innovation that the wii brought.
The name was terrible, although to be fair naming it after the wii probably made sense on paper, but in practice delivered confusion.
The marketing is the worst I've ever seen from a gaming company. Nothing about the commericals or ads make it seem appealing
They are doing the right thing though in my opinion in continuing to show 3ds love and mostly abandon the wii u. It seems that even recently with Kirby 3ds, they know which console is a stud and which is a dud.

Right: they made it.
Wrong: they made it.

There are two camps and always will be: those that love their Wii U and those that say Iwata screwed up and released a next-gen inferior console.

Personally, I love the Wii U and have since launch day so Im not calling for a return to the drawing board like many internet voices, and that because of those voices and poor sales we are rummaging around in threads like this probably for years.

i personally feel like there is nothing wrong with the wii u hardware, people make to much out of nothing when it comes to raw power, its how that power is used, take a look at how good mario kart 8 looks, the console itself is plenty enough powerful.

however nintendo needs to try to advertise this perhaps, when they get blockbusters to show it off, like 3dw, mk8, ssb, zelda, metroid, or whatever it is.

EDIT: i also feel like having that console that, while might now have the raw power of say the ps4 or xbox one on paper, it has the games that you wont get on PC, if people want raw power they can buy a pc, as of right now its not like theres alot of exclusives for the other two consoles anyways.

and im sure any microsoft exclusive will also show up on pc.

No, nintendo is here to stay, no matter what the haters say. Once the PS4 and xbone pass the pii u, all third party support will go away excluding sega and maybe a little support from capcom. The gaming websites and forums won't consider wii u even competition and ignore all coverage of it. It'll fade into oblivion from those 3 months until the next Zelda comes out.

The hardware is always the worst quality vs it's competition, but the games USUALLY make up for it. SM3DW and Pikmin 3 alone don't justify most people buying a pii u.

no you are right, most people wont buy a wii u for those games unless they grew up with mario, but when zelda, smash and others come more people will buy it, i do agree with you to a point, and this is why i have said on here before nintendo NEEDS to start fresh new IP's and they need some mature ones too, unless they are happy with where they are at that is.

it also wouldnt hurt them to get more involved in multiplayer gaming, aka online.

but if they release mk8/smash with great onlines, this will be a great start.

Definitely needs better online. They started off with some interesting games like W101 and ZombiU, but there was no must-have game to justify the purchase the console like SM3DW or MK8 or even DKCTF. They need to have a die-for game and then release new franchises which are basically like planting seeds for future consoles.

Yes but the thing is they didn't really need to. People haven't been buying the PS4 and XBOne as new consoles they've been buying them as upgrades to their existing consoles. It's a pretty easy sell, same stuff but at a higher quality. Also here in Australia I haven't seen the PS4 or XBOne being marketed as heavily as you claim they are and they're doing just fine here.

The Wii U had to do something different because its selling point isn't in the power of the console or the third party support. They needed to do what Nintendo did with the Wii, DS and 3DS. It had to be about the games. With the Wii U the most "mass appeal" games they had were Nintendo Land and New Super Mario Bros U for most of the first year. No amount of marketing would have convinced masses of people to upgrade for those titles. That's what I was saying.

Well we disagree then. The fact is that every PS4 review I have seen so far has talked at length about the PS4 -> Vita streaming functionality. If the Vita does pick up in sales it will be mostly because of that feature. Then in the PC gaming space there's NVidia Shield and SteamOS both of which are creating headlines.

There's an interest and a push towards this. If Nintendo had had the content early on they could have very easily used this to their advantage. The fact that people who do have a Wii U, PSVita/PS4 or NVidia Shield rant about how good it is to play games off their TV says that it's a net-positive feature. Again if they had the content to sell it with you wouldn't be saying this. Content is king.

As for Smartglass.... notice how I didn't say anything about Smartglass before this paragraph?

@2Sang: I didn't realize there was a second page on this thread. Anytime I am referring to someone specifically I use an "@Username:" at the start of my post.

creating new block busters is in no way just planting seeds, altho its a double sided coin indeed, the online is not bad, its just a few minior updates like notifying when somebody signs on or messages you/wants to add you.

it by no means needs cross game chat, the ps3 didnt have that and its moved 80 million, some of the biggest online played games are call of duty, these are peer 2 peer games so this has nothing to do with servers either, smash brothers has the potential to be a mlg type of game, the others always were popular in the competitive gaming scene, to alot of people here this sounds dumb, but stuff like this is what draws others in and brings better games in general, people buy games, they sell well, they make more its just how it works.

and again yes nintendo needs to try to reach out to third parties more, but this wont be easy until the wii u starts selling better, and its doing that atm, right now until new records indicate, it is the most sold current gen system, year head start or not.

EDIT: and when i say reach out to third parties more, i dont mean terrible ports from other versions, need for speed most wanted u is how its done, now i dont expect that level of quality from ps4/xbox1 to wii u but there should be some effort put forth to optimize it for the wii u.