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

It does seem that, in the UK at least, Nintendo has more or less given up the Wii U for lost. I was really expecting a massive promotional campaign to rival Sony and Microsoft's in the run-up to Christmas, but not only did that not happen, Nintendo seem to be promoting the Wii U far less than even their own 3DS.

What they did good for the Wii U:
1. Great System
2. Off-tV play
3. Decent games

What they did bad for the Wii U:
1.Lack of Software
2.Not much of Online gaming

That's all the negative I can think of the Wii U. Granted I've still yet to get one but still this is the only thing negative I can think of.

Also I wanna know as to why SO MANY PEOPLE HATE IWATA????? He's a genius and he's basically responsible for most of the things that are an important figure for Nintendo like selling the Wii. For crying out loud he's the programmer of Earthbound!!!

I didn't claim to know what sort of advertising they were doing, clearly you think it's horrible so I'll take your word for it. It's just as non-existent for the Wii U here and I think I've only seen one or two ads on TV for it since launch. That's not what I was saying.

What I was saying is that if it's all about advertising then why is it selling poorly everywhere and not just in the UK? Also if there's zero content to talk about what are they supposed to advertise? I think the whole "it's all advertising" bit that people are going with here is a bit of a red-herring. The real problem is content. When they have content then they'll have something to advertise for.

Also I wanna know as to why SO MANY PEOPLE HATE IWATA????? He's a genius and he's basically responsible for most of the things that are an important figure for Nintendo like selling the Wii. For crying out loud he's the programmer of Earthbound!!!

Because a good person and good programmer does not mean a good CEO. Iwata did a ton of great coding stuff, but he also managed to make both the best and worst selling Nintendo systems in pretty much the last 20 years. Perhaps business isn't quite his forte.

Oh please, We are from the UK and know what is on UK TV and whats in the papers / magazines. I have only seen mario 3D world advertised a handful of times and before the 3D world I never seen a single Wii U advert / poster anywhere.

This times a hundred. One really big reason 3DS is doing much better than the Wii U in the UK is because the former is actually getting some decent marketing done for it (still arguably not quite enough, but it at least gets visible ads for games like Pokemon X and Y) whereas the latter seems to have been given up and left for dead.

As for the game quality thing, I don't agree with the article. But you have to consider the possibility that just perhaps the critics are out of touch with the common person, and that perhaps that makes them wrong. Perhaps it's the self proclaimed critics and 'cultured' types who have been wrong all these years.

So you're saying that the Gamecube, GBA, DS and 3DS were the worst he's gotten into? The only flop console I can think of for Nintendo is the Virtual Boy and even then Hiroshi Yamauchi was in charge of that one. I can agree with Gamecube but even then its still my favorite console.....And I miss it dearly

Critics these days are a joke. They can't give reasons of their opinions and they criticize of the most silliest things ever in games.... Pokemon X/Y criticized for brainless A.I. Like the previous A.I were smarter than now.

The worst it can get is giving good things about a game and then slamming the game to being the worst it can get. Example Lost World.

I like IGN better than Gamespot but I will say that IGN is becoming goofier in reviews as days go on. Criticizing artstyle in Link Between Worlds........wow.

@CM30
1. Iwata took over just before the Wii and DS and brought about a Nintendo renaissance. Then there's the 3DS which is also doing very well and at least on par with the GBA. As for the Wii U well the jury is still out despite the abundance of threads like these. It may end up being as bad as the N64 or as bad as the Gamecube. Either way it won't be the "worst selling Nintendo system in the last 20 years". That would be the Virtual Boy which sold only 770k in its lifetime.....

2. See posts above, it's clear however that everyone seems to think that marketing is all they need to turn this boat around. Fat chance of that happening without content I'd argue and there's a good chance of them turning it around with just good content. It's not like people can not hear about things in the internet age.

3. I don't think critics are "out of touch" in the way you describe. More likely the divide between scores and sales is because consumers aren't always driven by how good an experience is. People buy content because it fits an image they want to maintain or because it's familiar. So people buy Lady Gaga because it's pop with an "avant-garde" image, people buy CoD because it's "hardcore". Equally some people don't buy Mario because it's "kiddie" and people turn their nose up when you say you like music that's actually experimental because it's "for hipsters".

@skywake Although it's a good thing that Lady Googoo is falling into obscurity where she belongs

@MAB
Thanks, now I'm never going to be able to sleep ever again.........

@Artwark You do know that you just listed your opinions why those reviews were wrong about a game but that reviews are in fact just the writers opinion of the game.

I don't think the launch titles were that bad. Yes, they could have been better- Mario 3d, then maybe one of the others like Donkey Kong, Mario Kart, Pikmin etc. would be nice, if not at launch then spread out a month a part or so. I went back and looked at reviews/comments of the Wii U and people/reviewers generally seemed pleased with the system. People got critical when games were slow to come out. Unfortunately for Nintendo, this stigma as stuck, even tho it has a decent selection of games right now.

I think the main issues are the lack of marketing and the delays in the games. Donkey Kong should be out now, with Mario Kart out in Jan., Smash Bros out in March

My thoughts of rights and wrongs about Nintendo did with Wii U:

Rights:
1- Finally gone HD.
2- Created a better network infrastructure than the original Wii, which is Nintendo Network
3- Created an eShop that is both consumer and developer friendly.
4- Created a controller that can do things that other consoles can't. (Wii U Gamepad)
5- First-party games that looks very colorful and enjoyable.

Wrongs:
1- The delay of essential first-party games.
2- No big campaign that thoroughly explains what the Wii U is.
3- Nintendo Network could have been made better (Cross-buy, downloads linked to accounts instead of hardware).
4- Marketing for Wii U isn't as good as the Wii.

But I will get on top in here.

Right:
1. Miiverse. I think Miiverse if handled properly could be huge. It's something that could really merge the social media space and gaming.
2. HD. It should had been done with the Wii but at least Nintendo finally just on the wagon.
3. Gamepad. Off screen play and the functionality of the Gamepad are great.
4, Online. Better network than Wii which is good cause Wii's online sucked.

Some of my rights will also be wrongs though lol.

Wrong:
1. Gamepad. Nintendo has yet to really show why the Gamepad is cool to majority of people. We have Nintendo Land that used alot of the features it has but nothing really outside of that to show it off.
2. Online. Nintendo seems like they still haven't figured out that online gameplay is a big deal and that's a shame cause most of their titles could benefit from it.
3. Marketing. What marketing? Or what little there is doesn't show that this is a machine for the core gamer at all which Nintendo said Wii U would be.

RIGHT

• Miiverse
• Backwards compatibility
• The fact that you don't even have to turn on your TV to play most games
• Ability to play Wii games while using the Game Pad as a little TV
• Having NSMBU, Nintendo Land, and the eShop all on Day 1
• Abolishing Friend Codes
• Mii Storage being 3000 instead of only 100
• Having much more pro-indie policies than the Wii (getting rid of that awful 40MB limit that Wiiware had) and even Steam
• Best web browser outside of a PC (Windows, Mac, and Linux)
• The North American re-release of Earthbound
• They gave Thanksgiving holiday travelers free Wii Us at airports

WRONG

• The name - If they kept the "Cafe" name or called it the "Wii 2", there wouldn't be so much confusion, and even would've allowed the Wii to go on a few more years AND the Cafe/Wii 2 would be selling much better at the same time.
• Awful advertising - Their Gamecube and Wii commercials were great, even Fortune Street's commercial reminded me of their commercials during the Gamecube days even though FS was a December 2011 Wii game, but Wii U commercials only make their kiddie image look worse and they make the Wii U look more like a Sega 32x esque upgrade rather than a new console.
• Still no real account system - I'm not going to complain too much about this one since they are starting to go forward with this, but it still should've been there for at least Wii U since launch.
• Still missing features that even the Wii and 3DS have/had - The 3DS had a "Join Game" feature in its first year. Both the Wii and 3DS came with a Photo Channel/App. The Wii U still doesn't have either of these. The Wii Shop also had Gifting which neither the 3DS or Wii U have.
• Wii U VC not allowing save data transferring from Wii VC games.
• Shutting down WiiConnect24 and other Wii features too soon - Instead of slapping original Wii owners while the Wii U was having a huge drought, they should've had the feature included in Wii Mode and usable for the Wii U's whole lifespan with the Wii Mode icon glowing blowing blue being the equivalent to the Wii U's blue light, since the Wii U is backwards compatible.
• Wii Sports Club pricing - $10 per single sport is ridiculous, and to make it worse, they try to justify this with microtransactions. Luckily, Gamestop had a download code for WSC Tennis that was only $5 (don't know why Bowling was still $8 though).

I love Nintendo and I bought the Wii U launch day but in my opinion, Nintendo can only blame themselves for the Wii U's poor 2013. I don't think they should discontinue it right away for a new console either though, consoles take a long time to make and switching consoles so quickly is what forced Sega to go third party. I do think the Wii U will come back in 2014 with Mario Kart 8. The 3DS is also tearing everything up and printing money right now.

The advertising doesn't mean anything. If they wanted to advertise, they would. Just because they haven't been advertising all that much, doesn't mean that they gave up or can't figure out anything. There was hardly any advertising to begin with.

People on this forum should be the ones that care the least about advertising, because the majority of us are up to date on video games, in general.

I can't speak for everyone but for myself when I speak of advertising, I mainly mean how they communicate with consumers. I still hear of people being confused on the Wii U being an attachment to the Wii and not a New System. It isn't "gamers" who are confused it is your "mid-core" to "casual" people who are.

@DefHalen
I get that people want Nintendo to advertise. My point is that we shouldn't really be caring. As long as I know what's going on in the video game industry, I don't care WTF they advertise. If Nintendo wants to advertise, then it's their JOB to do so. All I'm getting from the lack of advertising(that I don't care about), is that they don't want to advertise.

My condolences go out to those that don't understand what a Wii U is, in comparison to the Wii. Seriously, does anyone play those "spot the difference", games? It's not that hard to know the difference. I'll leave that subject alone...

EDIT: In otherwords, I think peoples' lack of observation skills is more of a problem than Nintendo's advertising.

Right:

• New Super Mario Bros. U at launch with New Super Luigi U as an "expansion pack"
• Support for Wiimotes and Wii accessories like Classic Controller Pro
• Wii backwards compatibility

Wrong:

• Gamepad, bundling this with the console was a big mistake, would have been okay as an accessory
• Mediocre to bad games like Nintendoland and Game & Wario, and lack of Wii's variety of good games
• Shameless cash-ins like the "day ticket" pricing model for Wii Sports HD update version