Nintendo's decision to include the well-known Wii name in its successor, the Wii U, looks on the surface like it'd make marketing the console easier, but Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime says the company will take a different approach to its dual-screen home console.
Speaking to Forbes, Fils-Aime clarified the console will be branded and marketed in a different way to its predecessor, though he didn't go into detail about what these differences would be. As long as the adverts don't involve minor celebrities in the home, it could be a winner.
Whereas Nintendo itself admits it's had difficulty capably explaining the 3DS experience to advertising audiences, Fils-Aime doesn't foresee the same problem with Wii U:
I don’t think it’s going to be a hard sell. I think that communicating to consumers through the magic of the second window, you can have a totally unique experience, with another player still in the room… I don’t think it’s a difficult sell.
The Wii U's world of magic and windows is yours to explore sometime after April 2012.
[source blogs.forbes.com]
Comments 45
it needs to have the some great games to back it up though and if there aren't any that interest me (it wouldn't surprise me if there weren't) at launch then I won't be getting at launch.
What else should he say really ...
It takes something really great to get more "hardcore" players to buy the console though. So good luck with that.
They need a new experience on par with Wii Sports, that will instantly communicate the system's unique purposes to a wide audience.
I think nintendo is naive. There, I said it!
Ok, Nintendo, hear me out: just because the Wii has sold millions does not mean the Wii U will sell the same way. It's not gonna be easy to sell.
It all depends on the exclusive software. I'm not interested in a console that has exactly the same software libraries as the other consoles. I want something fresh, and yet 'Nintendo' familiar.
The core will be sold with the games; the casual will be sold with the gimmick. The problem I foresee this time is that the gimmick isn't quite novel enough in the current marketplace. Most of the casual Wii market will see this as nothing but another Tablet or too similar to their DS. I don't believe that is the case, as I've seen what the Wii U can do in greater detail, but convincing those outside the core of that will be a challenge.
i think we'll see an impressive line-up of launch games this time around. I have alot of confidence in this new home console of theirs, especially since I bought a 3DS and LOVE IT.
Xenoblade and Last Story as Wii U upgrade exclusives in America. That would be hilarious
Wii lost hardcore players the minute the system specs were announced and that is why hardcore games do not sell well on the Wii. The Wii U lost the hadrcore gamer the minute the specs were announced and the fact that the Wii has successfully branded themselves as the shovelware console.
@JesusSaves the new controller has all normal controller buttons so I don't see this as a problem......third party developers seem to like it as well and have been saying all good things. Just have to hope that all that positive talk turns into games
@Yogsoggoth were the specs announced???
@Yogsoggoth I don't think they lost "core" players when the Wii U specs were RUMORED. I agree that they lost a lot of "core" players with the Wii though, not with the specs but with the stupidity of Nintendo's actions, such as focusing on casual games that border on shovelware and pushing fans almost completely to the side.
"core" players are naive and play only on the beast systems. They play where there is great software and they are treated well. And that wasn't the Nintendo Wii. The 3DS isn't doing much better with that either, course it's not doing much of anything right now.
The Wii failed as a "hardcore" console for 1 reason, it wasn't port friendly. Not only was it not powerful enough to even match the 360, it had no controller similar to the PS3 or 360. Now that it's ability supposedly exceeds the PS3 and has a controller to easily port over controls, there shouldn't be any problems. The only issue left is Nintendo needs to be less concerned about keeping their "kid friendly" image and just allow the same multiplatform games on their consoles without giving the developers any kind of extra hassle to ports games Sony and Microsoft doesn't give developers.
I sense that a lot of people on here are not completely happy with the WII U including some of the staff here. On many other forums like gamefaqs and kotaku the same opinion is going around.
Nintendo had better not screw this one up or they will be in trouble. Perhaps the final blow to them.
Its made even worse with that ex mcdonalds employee Reggie in charge of nintendo america.
@Yogsoggoth: The NES, SNES, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Playstation and Playstation 2 also had a lot of "shovelware" on them. The winning console in sales always has the most shovelware as well
The real hardcore gamer doesn't give a damm about system specs. He cares about games, and to me, Nintendo produces some of the best hardcore games out there.
Seems to me people who play FPS and Call of Duty games call themselves hardcore ... they are not. In my book, you are not a hardcore gamer unless you like Nintendo's franchises and all games in general. If you like only a certain part of gaming, like the so-called hardcore class, you are not hardcore. You are a wannabe. But not a hardcore.
The Wii provided me with everything I needed ... Nintendo brand games. Nobody buys a Nintendo system for 3rd party games to begin with. It's just a bonus.
I don't care how you market it, as long as you bring first and third party titles, and all game genres together in perfect harmony. Like you used to in the days of the NES and Super NES. Unlike RPG fans these days, EVERYBODY was included in the fun back then.
Not only was it not powerful enough to even match the 360, it had no controller similar to the PS3 or 360.
@DarkKirby
Would you not consider the Classic Controller Pro similar to the controllers for the PS3 and Xbox360?
I seem to recall how 3rd party developers said flattering things about the GameCube and Wii before they came out, it doesn't necessarily mean anything.
I personally think the Wii U will bomb (casual market doesn't seem to upgrade their console as quickly as the hardcore) but then I said that about the DS as well.
I have bought fewer games for the Wii than for any other system I have ever owned. That was an amazing accomplishment for the Wii, just not a good one.
I think of a hardcore gamer as just that a "hardcore gamer". Theses are the folks that love games and gaming. They love all types of games and will play what feels good and is fun. FPS fans aren't hardcore because that is all they play.
The problem with the Wii isn't the shovelware, Izbirdboy correctly pointed out that all systems have shovelware. The problem is that the ration to shovelware on the Wii is very, very off. I went to the Target over the weekend and I looked through the Wii section and it was just bad. Everything is some sort of mini game collection or hunting simulator.
Let's be honest, the Wii did give us the greatest game of this generation (Super Mario Galaxy 2) and a bunch of other good things, but it just wasn't enough. Not even close.
I'm thinking the Wii U will be easy for Nintendo to sell. I'm expecting tons of casual-friendly games for families and retirement homes, in addition to a promising lineup of "hardcore" third-party titles for extreme gamers. Since both major gaming classifications will be catered to, all Nintendo needs to do is make some clever TV ads (hopefully not cheesy like the early Wii commercials). This will be a money-printer no doubt.
Nintendo you can't just depend on name reconition alone why do the 3DS didn't do so good? I mean sure it sold around 3 or 4 million but it would have sold alot more if you had some proper ads for the thing! You didn't hype it up at all, yeah you did on the internet but what really matters is television and I've only seen at most 4 or 5 3DS commercals since lunch.
They were all were commersals for a for a game on 3DS not for the system itself which another problem. Who cares if you have SF4 on the 3DS if I don't know what the 3DS is. Most cauals still think the 3DS is just another crappy expensive new edition of the regular new DS like the DSi and DSXL.
I'm just saying Nintendo if you do the same thing with the WiiU that thing is gonna be DOA! I'm sorry If I was ranting but Nintendo needs to understand my point, it's just a little fustrating that I still see effin DS Lite commersals but I haven't seen one 3DS commersal. Like do you want the 3DS to sell or not Nintendo!
They don't have me buying it. Not even if they localized Xenoblade.
nintendo doesn't know what consumers want as much as they feel they should decide what consumers want.
No one will want a PS3 or 360 once the Wii U is released. All of the games available on those platforms will be on the U with unique and more intuitive controls. It's more powerful both graphically and in CPU than competing consoles (Nintendo has confirmed that it's more powerful, just not how much so). Lastly, every Nintendo system has the best exclusives. Not to mention Mario, Zelda, Metroid, DK, and all of the other Nintendo franchises that drive sales of every one of their consoles. A lot of those "core gamers" or "true gamers" (as the author of this article would define them http://exm.nr/TrollGuurl ) bought a Wii for Zelda because it's such a great franchise. I'm buying one as soon as I have the money.
Wii U sounds like a half assed Wii ripoff(remember the Vii?)
I say they they should get SEGA back in the hardware game with them and call it the Super Mega Ultra SG-1000 Nintendo Dream Entertainment Blast Processor System 64 or SMUSG1000NDEBPS64 but before that they should get all the Operation Rainfall games released here and stop their crappy localization policies
Didn't Nintendo already state previously that they had learnt not to do all their advertising campaigns in-house, given the tepid reception? I imagine outsourced advertisement production will help their marketing efforts considerably. Guess we'll see some more inventive ads in the future (although they could hardly get less inventive as it currently stands).
It does not matter what kind of console nintendo will release, i still want to have all the nintendo releases. I will buy it anyway...
But i'm affraid that before the end of 2012 there will not be many third party releases on the wiiu sinds the ps4 and the xbox720 will be much more powerfull then the wiiu.
@JesusSaves
Pick up a Classic Controller Pro. It's been available for a year now. And it's fully compatible with WiiU.
Scratch that off your list (considering the inputs of the WiiU Tablet controller is exactly the same as the CC Pro minus the screen).
If the Wii-U ain't agonna be handlin' JRPGs in the NA market (and given the current attitude towards that genre here with Nintendo, that's almost a sure bet) Nintendo won't (as it currently isn't) be meeting my gamer needs, HD Mario and Zelda notwithstanding.
I'm definitely going to buy a Wii 2, but if the PS4 is indeed launching next year as well, then Nintendo has a very big hill to climb. What a battle.
jumpmanZ a fanboy lol
I think the antipathy arises, in large part, because Nintendo hasn't explained what the system will do--even something as basic as how many U-motes remains unclear. And, of course, there is that matter of cost. I predict the Wii U will be less successful than the Wii, but Nintendo will pick up the pace in the subsequent generation.
I think Reggie is delusional.
Fire Reggie
For me, it's all about the games. Give us some excellent Nintendo franchises we haven't seen in a while and I'll be there.
Of course reggie would say that. It his job to be eternally optimistic about this project. Interesting that he steered away from using the term 'dual screen', I think nintendo's biggest issue will be if people start labelling this console as a massive DS lol.
I think what Reggie trying to say isn't "this is going to sell heaps", but instead "this is going to be easier to advertise that the 3DS". I think that that's a fair point.
Hopefully it won't be marketed just for the casual mom and pop gamers.
Comment 27:
Jumpman wrote:
I think it's more like the other way around.
I'd say most people that care about franchises not available / badly ported on the Wii bought a PS3 or XBox360 already.
These franchises could still be focused at these "PS360" owners since they have the larger user base right now. The Wii U version could only get the feature to continue your game on the tablet controller or to have the inventory on the controller.
Do you think "PS360"-owners will invest in a Wii U just because of these features ?
Well Nintendo did a smart thing by keeping the Wii Prefix. The Wii U will be a success but not as much as they did with the Wii. Nintendo cannot mess up the launch of the Wii U. The first round of games has to be great.
Nintendo will have a similar situtation with NES and SNES. 62million vs 49 million. Wii 87 Million Wii U 55 million.
The Wii U will do well but Unless Nintendo can please the 3rd party developers with it's new system the support will not be there.
@outrun2sp Oh, ok! Let's now compare Reggie and Tretton! Because Reggie is such McDonalds quality, Nintendo obviously can't succeed like Microsoft and Sony!
Reggie is telling the truth: If the Wii U has the processing power and controls of PS3 and 360, it will at its least be a clone system and "cores" will buy. Then, being that it's newer, said to be 50% more powerful than PS3 and 360, and definitely cheaper than "599 US dollars", it indeedlically is not a difficult sell.
Yeah it's gonna need it's own Wii Sports.
But not Wii Sports, something no one has seen before that really grabs your attention.
I think a pack-in based on augmented reality, or something that uses the tilt sensors in the controller.
He said it would be marketed differently. Since the Wii was sold almost exclusively on tennis and bowling to aunts and uncles and old age homes, and anyone with a pulse who saw the blood and violence E3 montage knows the WiiU is selling on 3rd party ports, nobody need say out loud they will "market this differently". The proof is in the pudding.
The interview is actually good and worth reading, marketing is a very small part of it. Netflix as "theory" NEEDS to be put into practice, that's a bigger issue.
It's not a difficult sell. Tell me the launch games, price, and launch date and I'll pre-order it. psyched about it!!
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