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Topic: Wii U in review...what went wrong?

Posts 21 to 37 of 37

CanisWolfred

skywake wrote:

3. The market just wasn't interested in that sort of console. Probably the biggest reason the Wii U didn't do well IMO.

I'm agreeing with this more and more as I think about it. When you combine that with the rest of what you've said (especially the 360/PS3 comparisons, which were worsened by the early line-up rather than helped), and the fact that the public has become more wary of gimmicks in their game consoles (or at least, the public that still buys consoles rather than other shinier toys on the block), it seems like the timing wasn't that great. I remember having that discussion (you were probably there, too) way back when the Wii U was revealed, but it was more of a "damned if they did, damned if they didn't" sort of thing. The Wii lost market share fast, and Ninty kind of had no choice but to put out something new before it might've been ready.

Hopefully the timing was better now that they've had time to work on what worked and what didn't work, but even if they get the branding and the tech just perfect, my biggest worry is whether or not they'll have enough games to support it. I'll just have to leave that up to fate, at least until the lineup is announced in January.

I am the Wolf...Red
Backloggery | DeviantArt
Wolfrun?

SharkAttackU

Compelling games (or lack therof) on launch day. There was no killer app until 2015's Mario Maker, after the Us fate was sealed. That hurts the early marketing because there's no essential game to market. If the U launched with SMM, maybe it would have fared better. A general lack of games after launch was a problem, too. Lack of recognizable franchises.
The NES had SMB, SNES had F-Zero and SMW, 64 had SM64, GCN had Luigis Mansion and Wave Race, Wii had Twilight Princess and Wii Sports, and Wii U had... NSMBU, a 2D side scroller that could have been on the NES, and Nintendoland, a tech demo multiplayer game with no core idea.

All compounded by a lack of power that made porting games unappealing to third parties. That compounded the lack of games problem.

Man, the Wii U died quickly.

Edited on by SharkAttackU

SharkAttackU

Darknyht

The Wii U failed for a lot of reasons, but one of the biggest was a poor marketing strategy. You can see this by how deliberate they are with the Switch messaging, focusing solely on the ability to take it off the dock and go.

I also think that Nintendo probably should have done what it did for the Gamecube. There was a point when third party support was dwindling on that console due to the space limitations of the Gamecube disc vs DVD. Instead of just folding up and going home, Nintendo went mercenary and hired good studios to create exclusives for the console. They worked to bring titles like Eternal Darkness, Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes, Viewtiful Joe, Resident Evil 4, Final Fantasy: Chrystal Chronicles and Killer 7. So there was a decent selection of third party titles that provided what Nintendo couldn't.

I would imagine that the Wii U's fate wouldn't have been so bad had Nintendo done the same. They could have paid some to get the third party 360/PS3 games ported over and that could have brought games until 2016. Alien Isolation would have been great on it, using the gamepad for inventory like ZombiU for example.

Edited on by Darknyht

Darknyht

Nintendo Network ID: DarKnyht

CanisWolfred

@SharkAttackU Pretty sure the PS4 had no KillerApps on Launch day, either. In fact, when was the last time a successful console had more than 2 worthwhile games within the first 5 or 6 months of its launch? Oh, right, the Dreamcast! Or maybe the Vita, if you're willing to include portable systems.

Point is: consoles are long-term investments. It's not just about having some killer apps ready for launch. It's giving people something impressive to look forward to in the Future. Great Launch games are helpful, but ultimately optional.

I am the Wolf...Red
Backloggery | DeviantArt
Wolfrun?

rockodoodle

Poor marketing. Decent launch titles, but big draught from January through Sept. when Rayman, Pikmin and W101 finally came out.... by then, people were already hyped for the more powerful consoles. The lack of Mine craft probably hurt some too. In December 2013, the only really good Nintendo title was Super Mario 3d World.

By the time the big hitters came out (and that Zelda never came out), most gamers went for one of the other consoles.

rockodoodle

SharkAttackU

CanisWolfred wrote:

@SharkAttackU Pretty sure the PS4 had no KillerApps on Launch day, either. In fact, when was the last time a successful console had more than 2 worthwhile games within the first 5 or 6 months of its launch? Oh, right, the Dreamcast! Or maybe the Vita, if you're willing to include portable systems.

Point is: consoles are long-term investments. It's not just about having some killer apps ready for launch. It's giving people something impressive to look forward to in the Future. Great Launch games are helpful, but ultimately optional.

Wrong. The Wii had twilight princess and Wii sports. Those were huge for the Wii.

Microsoft's decisions with kinect, DRM and always online drove away a lot of would-be Xbox buyers and inflated ps4s numbers and early user base.

Edited on by SharkAttackU

SharkAttackU

CanisWolfred

Well, I did say "more than 2"...

However, pointing out Twilight Princess brings up the discussion as to what makes something a "Killer App," since...in all honesty, TP was released on the GCN as well, so what made the Wii version stand out? Was it just the hype surrounding motion controls and the novelty of controlling Link's sword-swing with real-life hand-motions? Perhaps people were already interested enough in the Wii that a version on an older console just wasn't going to recieve much fanfare regardless of its overall quality?

I'm just curious, seeing as Nintendo's planning to make that lightning strike twice, and I'm not sure if they can do that...

I am the Wolf...Red
Backloggery | DeviantArt
Wolfrun?

SharkAttackU

@CanisWolfred sure, more than 2 but that's quite the qualifier. Mario 64 was good for the 64 and Halo did well for the Xbox. They really didn't need much more than that.

Any die hard Nintendo fan that owned the gcn was likely planning g on buying a Wii, so there want much reason to get the gcn version. Let's not forget that the Wii version was released before the gcn version so that was another reason. Anyone that didn't buy a gcn would already have 2 great games available on day one. Add that twilight princess was the "adult" Zelda after the "kiddie" wind waker and that added appeal.

The Wii U on the other hand, didn't have a game that could be considered a "killer app" until maybe SM3DW nearly a year after launch. I love Pikmin 3, but that was months after launch and not a very popular series. NSMBU, while a wonderful 2d Mario platformer, wasnt much different than nsmbw, which many may have had their fill of on Wii. No tendon land was too unfocused and shallow to really be that.

SharkAttackU

OorWullie

I really don't think you can pin it on one single reason as to why it flopped,it was a multitude of reasons that caused it's demise.Probably some contributed to it more than others,like the daft name,poor marketing,small memory,media reaction,poor line up etc... but add all the big and small reasons together and you have the answer to why it flopped.Maybe without 1 or 2 of those big missteps it would have sold a few million or so more but with hindsight it's easy to see it was never going to be a success.Whatever happens to the Switch,i think it's fair to say it won't do anywhere near as badly as the Wii U.Whether it will sell enough for Nintendo to consider it a success is another thing though.

Edited on by OorWullie

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SharkAttackU

@CanisWolfred Okay, well... sorry I'm typing this on a small phone and it does weird things with auto correct...

Nintendo did their best to make the GameCube version of Twilight Princess unappealing for obvious reasons. We don't need to rehash them. Google is your friend.

To the larger point, the Wii had two very good launch games that sold the system and featured the Wii's unique trait or "gimmick." The Wii U did not. That was, in my view, a major factor in the Wii U's early troubles.

Obviously the Wii U had other issues, like pricing, a funky controller, and dated tech, but I think gamers could have looked past them if there were great games available immediately at launch or soon after.

My other point is that having more than two "killer apps" at launch is almost unheard of. Most consoles don't have more than two, but the Wii U didn't even have one.

SharkAttackU

CanisWolfred

@SharkAttackU Hell, I wasn't even meaning more than 2 "Killer Apps," I just meant 2 good games that could stand the test of time, or at least come off as genuinely appealing vs. the other games released in the same year or just before on older consoles. I know that might be a tall order, but it reminds me why I never pay attention to launch games in general anymore. It's only going to go up from there.

Edited on by CanisWolfred

I am the Wolf...Red
Backloggery | DeviantArt
Wolfrun?

GuruOfGreatness

Whether you bought a Wii U on launch day or today, just enjoy the thing for what it is and what it does, not what it isn't and what it doesn't do

Edited on by GuruOfGreatness

GuruOfGreatness

OorWullie

@CanisWolfred "but it reminds me why I never pay attention to launch games in general anymore. It's only going to go up from there."

That is very true for most console launches,yet the majority of us fall for it every time. Get really excited for the launch titles,play them,think they're great and then never play them again and forget about them.Saying that,my mate still tries to defend Ryse:Son of Rome.

I think with the Switch it could be different though,3D Mario will always be great regardless of when it's released.Thinking back to some of the greatest console launch titles,Sonic the Hedgehog (at least in Europe it was),Super Mario World and Mario 64 come to mind.Hopefully Mario Switch will go down as an iconic launch tile too.

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IceClimbers

I think one thing that hurt the Wii U big time was the 3DS's launch woes and them having to fix it. Wii U got screwed over because of it.

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CM30

I'd say a mix of many things to be honest.

For example, the name was a clear attempt to capitalise on the Wii hype, without any understanding of why people bought the Wii to begin with. As a result, you had a name which did three things; made the console appear to be an add on, turned off the more 'hardcore' gamers and didn't fool the few 'casual' gamers who knew it was new all at the same time.

And in addition to that, you then had very poor marketing. I mean yeah, Nintendo in general seems pretty bad at marketing in the last decade or so. But the Wii U's ads were pretty much all preaching to the converted via social media and official channels, with none aimed at the average Joe who makes up most of a console's sales to begin with. It's like their old agency had the motto 'viral marketing solves everything' and forgot that aiming at existing customers wasn't enough in the process.

The games were a factor too, like how long the gap between titles with and the complete lack of third party support. Also didn't help that a lot were clearly rushed out to 'save' a failing system and ended up appealing to no one (Mario Tennis Ultra Smash and Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival being great later examples).

Finally, I'd say the Wii U concept was simply a bad one in general. Yeah, off screen TV had uses, but the whole GamePad for asymetric multiplayer concept didn't feel like something people really needed in their games. Instead, it felt like a gimmick included for the sake of having a gimmick (presumably on the assumption that 'gimmicky tech' was the only reason the Wii succeeded). Wouldn't be surprised if the original 'concept' for the Wii U was basically the Nintendo Switch, except Nintendo found they just couldn't get it to work properly. So we got a gimped setup that didn't have much in the way of real uses.

But hey, that's my thoughts on the matter.

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