Topic: Things I would change about the Wii U

Or at least a link to it directly from eShop.

As for the LAN adapter, I can say that mine worked fine since I got it.

The marketing thing is a tough call, really. I mean, ask yourself - do you see the Xbone or PS4 advertised that much? I see some PS4 online commercials on Youtube from time to time, but have yet to see an Xbone advert. I don't really recall seeing many console adverts from any of the major companies over the last couple generations, to be honest. It always seems like the games themselves are the things being advertised, and by doing so sort of advertise the console they are for, you know?

By this logic and precedence, I don't think Nintendo really "dropped the ball" with Wii U marketing, but I do think they underestimated how confusing the product description could be. This is a console that NEEDED more direct advertising, above and beyond what may be considered normal, purely because of how different it is.

Also, Sony and Microsoft just seem a tad bit more "mainstream" these days than Nintendo. They definitely get the lion's share of review coverage and news stories in most major sites and magazines that are supposedly platform agnostic. I'm still waiting for Sessler or the Rev3 team to review Mario and Luigi Dream Team or acknowledge that a Wii U version of Splinter Cell exists - I was truthfully surprised (and happy) they even reviewed Pikmin 3.

I wish they would ditch the gamepad .. nothing more than a gimmick

when playing W101 demo for the first time i hated it because i had to play with the gamepad and once i tried it again the second day with the controller i loved the game. The same when i was playing Pikmin 3 i just tossed the Gamepad to the side and used to Wii remote. I will be doing to same once WW comes out and super Mario 3D world

Firstly I'm not American so throw that assumption away. Secondly I never said that my personal experiences were universal I simply used it as an example of where their marketing is working how it should.

My actual point was that whenever someone has said "marketing" as a reason for the Wii U's lacklustre performance they've ignored two things. They ignore the fact that the marketing for the Wii, DS and 3DS were equally as "bad" in the reasons the Wii U's campaign is "bad". Those consoles did well enough at the start without a massive campaign telling everyone to get the thing. People saying this also ignore the fact that marketing on TV is a very, very small part of the equation.

As I said, I walk into my local game shop (which isn't called gamespot because I'm not American) or any other store selling the thing and I see plenty of advertising. The most important kind, point of sale advertising. There's a Wii U kiosk with a bunch of games on it which is more than the 360/PS3 ever got at most of those places. There's promotional material on the wall promoting Pikmin 3, The W101 and other new titles. There's also, as I said, large screens cycling through trailers from E3 including the Wind Waker HD and the W101. Hard to walk into that sort of environment, where you HAVE TO GO to buy a console, and walk out not knowing that the Wii U exists.

No, the problem isn't that they don't know how to promote their console, their biggest problem is that these games aren't out yet.

Something that would have made it attractive to third party developers maybe?

I would get rid of Nintendo TVii.

Nintendo TVii? What's that?

Funny I'm still waiting for it in Europe. Could make me use my TV for something else than gaming, actually.

I've only used it twice to see what it does. It's basically what Xbox One is doing, except you use the GamePad to control the TV and/or cable box, instead of plugging stuff in via HDMI and screaming at Kinect to change the channel.

We in EU don't have TVii anyway,

I use TVii a lot, especially when Survivor is in season. I think I used it for American Idol or some singing show like that. It's fun to watch the show and banter back and forth with some other people. But it's cool to hate it so ... BOOO!!! lol

One thing that really irks me about the Wii U is that it takes forever to send messages to friends. It's so much faster on Xbox 360 and PS3, and of course even faster on Steam. Also, what happened to the USB keyboard support? We had it on Wii, but I never needed it. Now when I WANT to use it, I can't!

You should be able to send messages directly from the friends list instead of having to go to Miiverse...it's too slow that way. It'll be especially annoying if I want to send a quick message while playing online.

you're right about gaming mags somewhat distancing themselves from the WiiU. If I had to name one publication, it's game informer. I feel as if I'm about to head off to war after reading their stuff. I do feel Sony and Microsoft are about to run into a wall here. Once the hardcore pick up the console, they'll see they should've waited a year or two before buying the thing. The PS3 and Xbox are far better purchases for anyone looking for a holiday gift especially due to backlog and price. But that's where the Wii fits in wonderfully. A backwards compatible console that has a Gamepad set for offscreen tv play, at a competitive price? If they ever decide to bundle the system with something like Zelda, sales will be monstrous. And this holiday is about Japan, maybe America, and the other territories last. If they own Japan through winter with the 3Ds or WiiU, watch out.

@PloXyZeRO

I imagine Nintendo won't actively support Keyboard support due to the Gamepad touch screen. And unless some Third-Party software/gear comes about to satisfy your needs you may just need to resort to mashing your fingers against the touch-screen for a little while. Not that seems to be to great an issue, Since I personally find the touch screen to be more than responsive enough

The only thing I would change about Wii U is the limited storage included. 64 GB and 128 GB models should be made available. And the battery of the gamepad could last longer, they already sell a replacement battery in Japan with more autonomy.
Apart from that, I like the concept of Wii U and I think it's the finest Nintendo console ever made.
People who ask Nintendo to ditch the GamePad or make a x86 console aren't being realistic. The GamePad is the core of the Wii U, without it the console is not that appealing and different from the rest of the bunch. As for PPC, I say keep it. Any developer that can't port from x86 to PPC is not worth bothering. There is still so much that can be done with that architecture and IBM is continuing to develop it further (Power 8 is coming!), I think PowerPC is one of Nintendo little secrets to have cost-effective hardware. They did it with the GameCube, amazing power with an accessible price tag.

I think they may include some sort of memory option in the box eventually, but I wouldn't count on it, and it might just be an ext. HDD anyway.

I agree with the rest of your post.

The GameCube was SO much smaller than the Xbox, and it could still basically do the exact same stuff. The only games I think did anything different were the exclusives, otherwise every multiplat was mainly the same. PS2 always had the worst version of every game as far as I know, but no one gave it as much grief as people do for the Wii U.
It got more games than GCN or Xbox, but it was the worse console to play games on at the time, IMO.
I remember playing Tony Hawk, Metal Arms, etc. multiplats on multiple consoles, and the PS2 version was always the worst.
In worst case scenario, I think Wii U will be as lackluster performance wise as the PS2, but the knowledge we know now, and technology itself has made more things possible since then that will make the gap seem smaller than any generation prior.

No in the UK you cannot use TVii, which is fact not hate, but it works in the US not EU.

Yet.

Probably just would have added 8GB of ram and have video uploading and Livestreaming as apart of Miiverse. I think going X86 would have helped despite that killing BC.

To be fair, is the 8 GB of ram even practical or just "Power for the sake of power"? That kind of RAM is only really useful for multitasking like PS4's auto-downloads that Sony mentioned at e3.