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Topic: Why did they never drop the gamepad?

Posts 1 to 20 of 26

Agriculture

Microsoft dropped the Kinect after a while. They first said the console wouldn't work without it, then the updated the system software and it wasn't needed.

Surely the WiiU had the ability to update system software and patch games to work with only a pro controller. I contemplated buying a WiiU many times, but never did because of the high price, which Nintendo said was due to the cost of the gamepad.

Even now, owning a Switch, I would buy a WiiU without gamepad if they released it and it was an affordable price. I've tried many WiiU games and they where great.

Agriculture

Octane

Because ''patching games to work without the GamePad'' is a lot more work that you make it out to be. Some wouldn't even work without the GamePad, and would need to be redesigned from scratch.

Octane

JoeyTS

The gamepad was the main selling point of the Wii U. Sure Microsoft dropped the Kinect but it wasn't the main selling point for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Without the gamepad, the Wii U would be no different from the original Wii other than better hardware and different games. It's like if Nintendo got rid of portable mode on the Switch or if Microsoft removed 4K capabilities on the Xbox One X. It would make no sense to remove these features as they are the main selling point of these consoles and for the Wii U, the gamepad was the main selling point and the main feature of the Wii U.

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Agriculture

Imagamerboi wrote:

The gamepad was the main selling point of the Wii U. Sure Microsoft dropped the Kinect but it wasn't the main selling point for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Without the gamepad, the Wii U would be no different from the original Wii other than better hardware and different games. It's like if Nintendo got rid of portable mode on the Switch or if Microsoft removed 4K capabilities on the Xbox One X. It would make no sense to remove these features as they are the main selling point of these consoles and for the Wii U, the gamepad was the main selling point and the main feature of the Wii U.

Microsofts main selling point was that the Xbox One was not just a game console, but an all around entertainment device. They did "remove" that.

Okay, so many games wouldn't work, but many would work if they only let you start the console and start the game without owning a gamepad. It's a shame they didn't do that.

Agriculture

JoeyTS

@Agriculture They didn't. They still had games along with streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu, they also had support for DVD's and streaming music such as Spotify. The Kinect was an add-on similar to the PSVR. You could still enjoy a wide assortment of options without a Kinect or a PSVR but they were/are there for the people who were interested. It was an accessory, not a selling point of the main console. Also, you can play a good variety of games without a gamepad. Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros, Super Mario 3d World, Breath of the Wild, and many more are perfectly playable without a gamepad. But, the fact that I could use the gamepad as a second screen in case someone else was using the main TV was the reason I and many others purchased a Wii U. I do see your point though and maybe in the future Nintendo will make a Wii U Mini without a gamepad.

UPDATE: Bowser just ate some cake and it was yummy

GoldenGamer88

@Agriculture But the Xbox One is still an all around entertainment device. Ever looked on the Xbox Store? You can buy games, rent/buy movies, buy tv shows, buy music and so on. You could even play 4K Blu Rays on the new Xbox One X. The exclusion of Kinect, which mind you, only was another method of navigating the menus, doesn‘t change a thing about that.

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Chandlero

I am very sure: Releasing the WiiU with preinstalled Super Mario Maker and Art Academy, the WiiU would have got a completely different story. I still love the GamePad, use it for Off-TV-Play in bed and play all games with it. It is kind of sad that it stays blank in BotW.

@DiscoGentleman: Seeing that the Switch is a success by using the same GamePad idea (just dropping the dual screen mode and looking cooler), the claim might be true.

Edited on by Chandlero

dumedum

Chandlero wrote:

Seeing that the Switch is a success by using the same GamePad idea (just dropping the dual screen mode and looking cooler)

Also.. making it work everywhere as a portable. The main flaw , and in my opinion the only one, of the Wii U is that distance limitation. It's wonderful only as long you have the right apartment.

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Tasuki

@Agriculture Actually that wasn't MS selling point it was that idiot Don Mattrick's selling point and we see how quickly MS distanted themselves from Mattrick and that idea.

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Agriculture

Imagamerboi wrote:

@Agriculture They didn't. They still had games along with streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu, they also had support for DVD's and streaming music such as Spotify. The Kinect was an add-on similar to the PSVR. You could still enjoy a wide assortment of options without a Kinect or a PSVR but they were/are there for the people who were interested. It was an accessory, not a selling point of the main console. Also, you can play a good variety of games without a gamepad. Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros, Super Mario 3d World, Breath of the Wild, and many more are perfectly playable without a gamepad. But, the fact that I could use the gamepad as a second screen in case someone else was using the main TV was the reason I and many others purchased a Wii U. I do see your point though and maybe in the future Nintendo will make a Wii U Mini without a gamepad.

A WiiU Mini would be amazing. Then they can solve the problem simply by only picking games that worked with the pro controller. They could possibly even make it compatible with the Switch pro controller so people don't have to have so many controllers. It would probably take many years for it to happen though. If N64 is 2018, then Gamecube is 2019, then Wii 2020, and finally WiiU 2021. That's what I'm hoping for anyways.

Agriculture

SKTTR

Horrible suggestion.

The best Wii U games, Xenoblade Chronicles X and Super Mario Maker (and about 30-40 other Wii U defining quality games) lose essential features without the GamePad. No wonder they are not ported to Switch. And if they were available on Switch, they would be worse versions.

Digging through the Wii U catalog, and not counting the ones that are already ported, I can see only two more 1st party games that would not lose essential features when ported over: DKC Tropical Freeze and Smash Bros. Forget about all the other great Wii U games. They cannot be recreated on Switch or ANY other console without loss. There's no way around it, you have to buy a Wii U if you want the full experience and the best version of those games. And the GamePad is the reason that makes them the best version.

Edited on by SKTTR

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SKTTR

@Tsurii Oh yeah, what an oversight, especially since I rated Woolly World a 10/10.

Well, there's your third game that could be translated to Switch without loss.
But I'm pretty sure that's all of them.

Edited on by SKTTR

Switch fc: 6705-1518-0990

blaisedinsd

It would have taken some vision to adjust the Wii U trajectory by making the gamepad optional. It practically is optional at this point however as you only need it for some system settings functions and gamepad centered games.

I would say you could buy a used Wii U and sell off your gamepad for a nice price if you wanted to and be able to play most games perfectly fine ( a couple of shrines in BotW won't be beatable withour motion).

Also when thinking about why Nintendo didn't make it optional I am starting to think that they just have a vision of their home console as needing to be a certain price. In many ways the switch is a Wii U with out the gamepad, only it's not cheaper. Seeing the success of the switch though I don't think making the gamepad optional would have been the right call. The switch was the right call. The Wii U was associated with the Wii brand which did not resonated with casuals anymore and was despised mostly by the gaming community as being kiddy and casual low cost underpowered and non-hardcore. The switch is a new brand that is now seen postiviely by the gaming community in large as a return to Nintendo's core gaming audience. The 3DS now occupies the kiddy casual space for Nintendo.

I don't think the switch will be as successful as the Wii in the end because I see gamers driving the success of the switch and there is not as many of them as the casuals that drove the success of the Wii.

Edited on by blaisedinsd

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Heavyarms55

Dropping the pad entirely would have required a massive OS update. What the should have done, years ago, was redesign the pad, making is sleeker, lighter weight, and give it a much better screen. And have given it much more range, maybe piggy back it through a wireless router to make it work anywhere in the home.

However, we got the Switch, which is what the Wii U should have been from the start anyway, so, dead horse.

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rockodoodle

I think the Wii U would have resonated with casuals if they knew more about it. In fact, I have a friend who recently inherited a Wii U- my age roughly (late 40s), essentially not much of a gamer and he is really loving it.

But in addition to poor marketing, as mentioned above, the lack of portability is probably played a role as to why it didn't catch on. While I loved having the second screen to free up a TV, it was not compelling enough to compete with a tablet that has more functionality and can be played anywhere.

It's pretty obvious that at a certain point, they just gave up on the console and moved on. It was almost like they didn't want to sell any more after Splatoon launched- maybe b/c the would rather you have spent your money on the Switch than a dying console.

blaisedinsd wrote:

It would have taken some vision to adjust the Wii U trajectory by making the gamepad optional. It practically is optional at this point however as you only need it for some system settings functions and gamepad centered games.

I would say you could buy a used Wii U and sell off your gamepad for a nice price if you wanted to and be able to play most games perfectly fine ( a couple of shrines in BotW won't be beatable withour motion).

Also when thinking about why Nintendo didn't make it optional I am starting to think that they just have a vision of their home console as needing to be a certain price. In many ways the switch is a Wii U with out the gamepad, only it's not cheaper. Seeing the success of the switch though I don't think making the gamepad optional would have been the right call. The switch was the right call. The Wii U was associated with the Wii brand which did not resonated with casuals anymore and was despised mostly by the gaming community as being kiddy and casual low cost underpowered and non-hardcore. The switch is a new brand that is now seen postiviely by the gaming community in large as a return to Nintendo's core gaming audience. The 3DS now occupies the kiddy casual space for Nintendo.

I don't think the switch will be as successful as the Wii in the end because I see gamers driving the success of the switch and there is not as many of them as the casuals that drove the success of the Wii.

rockodoodle

NEStalgia

@rockodoodle Miyamoto explained the thing about the tablet functionality as basically poor timing. They spend so long in R&D that the gamepad was already well into design by the time the iPad came out and the tablet craze began. Nintendo thought they'd be revolutionary with a web browser you can walk around the room with! This will change everything! And of course by the time the final revision was done and it went to market, iPad was a thing and WiiU looked antiquated. Arguably they failed to read the tech trends, but, really, even when iPad first came out for a kilobuck, who realized a flood of cheap tablets would pile on the year after? Right product, wrong time. 3 years earlier and would have sold like crazy. They dragged Wii out too long because they couldn't get their HD development act together in time for WiiU.

As much as they messed up in their messaging, I can't help but thing that was intentional cost saving because they knew on launch day they were sending it out to die, that the product they spent years R&D'ing was obsolete before launch. Plus Iwata was the visionary that still had a solid direction for the console and wanted to push it. The day he died it's like the company said "oh good, we can FINALLY abandon this thing he was making us sell..." You said it was right after Splatoon's launch, and that's right about when he died, a few months into launch.

My view of WiiU's life was that they knew on launch day it was going to be doomed due to the tablet craze they didn't count on, but they gave it a fair push anyway, mixed with some Wii hubris that they thought the name would sell it, they didn't count on PS4BoxOne becoming PCs and unifying architecture, and thus making it a bad sell to third parties, and with the push to save 3DS willingly knew they were sabotaging WiiU but figured it was going to do poorly anyway. But Iwata still championed its potential and just as he was finally getting something to show for it, he was gone, and the company continued moving away from it like they probably wanted to already, knowing it's whole design was originally meant as a bridge toward Switch anyway, just a few years early.

@Agriculture The trouble with that is Kinect really WASN'T needed for anything except Kinect games. They tried forcing an accessory into the box and made the UI require it for unknown reasons and arrived at a price point $100 over their competitor (who had a better system in every other way.)

WiiU on the other hand, the pad was integral to many games. They can't force third parties to strip out gamepad support (imagine telling Ubi to make ZombiU work on one screen....they did it anyway eventually to sell on other platforms, but you can't tell your third parties you lost faith in your hardware and they are REQUIRED to spend money to make changes to support that) and you can't make a piece of hardware required to play their games optional. And if so the gamepad people already bought would have become near useless. It was a lose lose situation. The entire platform was designed centrally on an accessory the public rejected. WiiU was a big experimental risk, and it didnt' pay off. Swithc is a big experimental risk and is paying off. But considering 1 year of Switch is making up for years of WiiU, the payoff for a good risk seems to more than offset the loss from a bad risk.

NEStalgia

Agriculture

NEStalgia wrote:

quote

The tablet craze only partially explains it. Look at the PSP and PS Vita. The PSP came out before the iPhone and was more successful than the PS Vita which came after. More importantly, it was inherently a bad idea to add such an expensive controller for the WiiU. The Switch is different, because the benefit of being fully portable far outweighs the extra cost.

Agriculture

rockodoodle

The Vita only sold about as much as the Wii U, maybe a few million more.....

Agreed with the thought above about overall poor market timing and much that was said in the post, tho I don't think they thought it was going to fail nearly as badly as they did. In fact, they had thought it would sell at least 90 million units, from what I recall.

Sad, but it sounds like they learned from their mistakes.

Edited on by rockodoodle

rockodoodle

NEStalgia

@Agriculture That was kind of my point though. The PSP came out before the iPhone and thus wasn't competing against the "high end tech" and sold better against Vita that did. Though it's really an unfair comparison. PSP sold so well in part due to its easy piracy, and Vita sold poorly because it made as many blunders as the WiiU, Sony dropped real support as soon as they announced PS4, AND it had to compete against the extremely dominant 3DS. I'd guess 3DS ate more Vita sales than iPads did.

We can say the expensive controller was a bad idea....in hindsight I"m sure they agree. But we didn't know that at the time, and neither did they. They took a risk, which is what Nintendo is best at doing. Coupled with their pre-iPad design where they thought a "device with a screen you can walk around the house and surf the web and watch videos and play games" on would revolutionize the home, they could have been riding the Apple phenomenon before Apple if they were a few years sooner. It could have panned out in spades. It just didn't because competition beat them to the punch with a better idea after theirs was already designed, and then they failed to market it effectively after.

@rockdoodle I recall that 90M number, but that came both from Iwata who was the only one that seemed to have really high hopes and a strategy for it, plus, may easily have been blowing smoke up the shareholders back sides. Nobody walks into an investors meeting and says "we just launched a new product and over the next 4-6 years we expect it's going to be an absolute market failure! We'll be lucky to sell 10M! Now's a great time to sell!" You walk in and say "We expect success!", try to salvage it, and if it fails shrug, itemize where the post-mortem says it all went wrong, and say your next product will do better.

The continuous refrain of "no price cut" while the 3DS got an immediate price cut was, in hindsight, telling, that they were more interested on not taking a loss during the protracted failure than they were in trying to spend money salvaging something they didn't believe could be salvage.

Which was likely a wise monetary policy. They didn't lose money and in fact made a trace of money from the WiiU. It didn't make the platform successful in the mass market but from an investment perspective reassured that your money will be protected in their hands if you're in for the long haul as most of their investors are.

NEStalgia

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