Topic: How Nintendo benefited from the Wii U in creating Switch

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Hey everyone, I'm relatively new on these forums as I have just created this account today; however I have had an account back in 2013 when the Wii U was only recent and I had been very active in the community supporting it and buying games for it. I had a thought not long ago and I just wanted to share my opinion on this matter as a first introduction to the forums.

I only just recently bought a Switch and disregarding my past love for the Wii U, it is unfortunate yet very evident that from a sales perspective it was a flop; Nintendo made their mistakes, and it backfired. Some of the things I recall that were part of the reason were:

Lacking marketing campaigns - every time any amount of effort was put into marketing everyone waved their victory flags, but it was never enough.

The release time frame of the console - not enough games far in development, didn't catch up with the hype of the PS4 and Xbox One as the hype for the Wii has long since died out and the competing consoles were the far more popular choices.

Lackluster third party support - thanks to the very abstract internal architecture of the system and the hardships that came with developing even the smallest of ports for it as well as Nintendo's weak understanding of third parties' importance nowadays.

Limited development of first party games - this can be both because of the console's bad sales as well as the focus on the much better selling 3DS by Nintendo.

Overpricing - this is due to the tablet being a very heavy cost in development of the console, and as a gimmick to appeal to the same crowd that bought the Wii (motion controls to touchpad) it didn't do well, thanks to the poor functionality and creativity in most games (best one from memory being Pikmin 3 - an ambitious, yet very niche project).

So how did this help the Switch? Well, as we can see Nintendo this time around is involving many more teams on board as opposed to the Wii U. Not only are they reaching out to more third-parties in development of their games on their new system, but they are also involving more teams from their own internal structure into creating games such as Pokemon - a game that the studio Game Freak supposedly didn't want to create unless it is on a handheld system.

The idea of creating a handheld system and crossing it with the functionality of the usual "play at home" console was a very interesting and successful feat. They appealed to both crowds, both casual and hardcore whilst creating a list of games that nobody in their right mind could call "only for the casual gamer". Making it versatile, comfortable and handheld means that developers can approach the system from many perspectives. Game developers that only make games for handheld systems such as the 3DS can make games for this new system with much smaller restrictions. These games can be made with a much higher budget, which will bring games to life on the big screen and bring said developers to achieve a better vision of what their ambition in their games are. In addition to that, the other half of the studios that make games for the big screen out there could port or make exclusive games for the system keeping in mind that they won't only be played on the TV, but also on the move, being much more accessible to people who have not enough time on their hands to be playing video games at home. This is good for bringing much more light to the games they make, making them recognized by a much higher mass of people and increasing sales/profit for their companies.

Judging by the reports and sales, honestly, I don't think Nintendo expected to achieve this big of a success after their failure with their previous home console, however I think this only brings us to expect the unexpected with the Switch. More games, more third-party support and more exclusives than I would imagine their previous three systems had (INCLUDING the 3DS) during their respected lifespan. Building up the momentum that they already stirred up isn't an easy task, but the strong lineup we already have without even having gone into this year's E3 is mind-blowing. They have already created 2 critically appraised master-pieces on a system that is not even a full year old yet, and have broken massive sales records, even outselling their previous system within such a short span of time.

Nintendo seems to have realized that relying on gimmicks and trends isn't always what the gamer wants - casual or hardcore, they created a system that is first and foremost - for gamers. That's the most important thing that a lot of people misunderstood during the Wii U's life, that gamers are the populace, there's no such real feasible thing as a "casual" or "hardcore". The Wii and its hands-on controls is an entirely different story, as in its time it was revolutionary and it did happen to appeal to millions of casual gamers across the globe, it was a fluke. After realizing this they created a system that may very well be to be the next in line to be considered legendary as the SNES or the PS2, and it wouldn't have happened unless Nintendo would have made the mistake which was the Wii U. It made them learn and grow for what seems to be the better. Besides that, thanks to the Wii U we now have a much more ambitious growth in Nintendo's online functionality, which is always a good thing to look forward to.

As for the legendary title, I won't set my bar up too high yet - I guess we will just have to wait and see.