Nintendo Serves Up An Infographic For Its "The Time Is Now" Wii U Campaign

The time was 2 years ago, now is too late!

hmm... it's neat, will stuff like this become a thing at nintendo ?

I got a no in the Bayonetta box. I dont own it, and dont want to own it. But I own other Wii U games I like ^^

I lost at Hyrule Warriors.
Although, aside from that step, I have everything else down.

This is cool and all but Nintendo really need a December Direct to give us release dates in the UK. I just checked my Amazon pre-orders and i have no 3DS or Wii U games on my list with release dates while I have 6 PS4 release dates (None for my Vita either though).

People buying the system now have an awesome backlog to go through but the horizon is uncertain with only a few titles given rough release estimates, this gives the impression there is not much actually coming in the future which is not the message the Wii U (or 3DS) should be sending.

I lost at Earthbound

I own the game but haven't played it yet, same situation with Bayonetta 1 and 2.

I lost at the Virtual Console part... because I only have one VC game on my Wii U....

lol, this diagram is full of fun, I have read it more than once.

Passed it all

I wouldn't mind this condensed into a 30 second TV ad........30 seconds of talking over massive amounts of game play footage......THE TIME IS NOW!

I WON!

Bought it day one, and it's been a joy eversince. ZombiU bundle, 30 cents VC games, quality first-party titles, Earthbound on a handheld, without having to import anything, lovely limited editions like WWHD, MK8, Bayo2, and the sadly-not-as-awesome-as-the-Japanese-version Hyrule Warriors LE,... and of course great indie titles (still love that Little Inferno ending!) and nice to see a new platform grow better with each update.

Also great web browser, which I'm using right now.

Pretty cool.

Yes to all but Bayonetta. Haven't gotten that game, but I hope to get it someday. Also, love the fact that they listed Earthbound as a reason to own a Wii U.

Jesus Christ nintendo need to fire their entire marketing department and start from scratch. It's like a focus group of fresh marketing graduates, all sat round a table wearing glasses and relentlessly congratulating each other over every minor event, none with any experience and real insight into anything.

@NintendoFan64 Earthbound is a Wii U exclusive in Europe it definitely makes sense.

Woot! Passed it all! 8D
#TrueWiiUGamer

I stopped at bayonetta. Didn't that game sell like 5 copies though?

And not even a mention for Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (or other exclusives such as Lego City and Zombi U, for that matter).

I have to wonder though if this is really that different to previous UK info-graphic campaigns. Indeed, I wonder if this would make me want a Wii U if I stumbled across it not already knowing all of these things (and owning one). Eurogamer did a nice feature yesterday on the history of Playstation marketing in the UK which really puts Nintendo's efforts to shame.

So...if we don't own a Wii U we get shunted straight to the end without seeing anything.

Marketing genius!

@Shambo nice! Winning!

@Shambo makes a great point. Where are the indies here? This is from UK, they should be bragging about Shovel Knight, a "new" great release! And isn't Scram Kitty a game made in the UK?

Other than that, still leagues better than anything NOA would ever make.

soo would somebody ship this to the NOA office?

@Tobias95 It only asks if you've heard of it

Someone needs to make an infographic of how to market a console before, during and immediately after launch. This is nice and everything but all Nintendo can do to make big sales over Xmas is lots of TV and Newspaper adverts aimed at parents and gamers. If they carried on the Wii adverts but just changed the games being played and the logo, they'd sell more Wii Us than they will this Xmas.

Loads of people in the UK would buy a Redknapp family endorsed MK8 box for £200. I just don't get why they've never properly advertised it.

A bit convoluted for me - I liked that graphic from the summer w/ the list of games for the end of 2014 and first half and last half of 2015 - just simply putting the games out there w/ dates. And I guess "thetimeisnow" is a play on Sony's oft mocked "greatness awaits" but it isn't really doing it for me, too much of a generic sports cliche. "WiiUforU" "WiiU4You" something w/ Wii U in it.

I think this might be better for selling games to those who already own a Wii U than selling the Wii U itself. But it is better than nothing. Not as good as a SSBU bundle or a price cut but it is something.

So where will we be seeing this? Sony has a commercial on TV that ends w/ greatness awaits, will this be in subway stations, in retailer shops, in magazines? That graphic I alluded to was hard for me to find, like Nintendo came up w/ it but didn't want anyone to see it. Here it i son Twitter which is nice, but I wish it was next to the Wii U kiosk in Gamestop and Target where real people can see it, not just those on the Ntinedo twitter feed.

https://twitter.com/nintendoamerica/status/506487150125535235

@sinalefa Don't remind me of NoA's marketing. Other than the Smash Bros commercials and that epic commercial for Kirby: Triple Deluxe, the marketing department just doesn't seem to know how to mae a commercial that grabs your attention. For the most part, they're just...BORING.

I... I don't even own a Wii U. That feeling when you lose right at the beginning...

I lost at Super Mario 3D World facepalm and again at Super Metroid, and again at Bayonetta 2. The first 2 I might have to buy, but I have no interest at all with Bayonetta.

@Nintendo_Ninja Yes, by all means, take care of those first two immediately.

@Nintendo_Ninja
You will Find that the question for bayonetta 2 and hyrule warriors is Have you seen and not have you played. That means I can pass those but I failed at earthbound as that one is the extention off "Have you played" back in the Pikman 3 box.

I have only failed on earthbound.

Passed every single one. Seeing a lot of commenters putting down Bayonetta 2 which is just sad. Fantastic game and a must buy really.

All this did was confirm was that Legend of Zelda Wii U is truly coming in 2015

@Spoony_Tech it's never too late

@MasterWario Yay, then I'm loosing at Super Smash for Wii U (I will buy it sometime next year, 3DS is my main console this gen)

@Grumblevolcano I never said that was a bad thing. Earthbound is without a doubt a good reason to get the system.

Yet this infographic lacks any reference to Xenoblade (or Dunban)?
#Don'tForgetWhereYourQuoteComesFrom

This graphic, unfortunately, does not clear up my feeling that Nintendo just doesn't care about the Wii U. Where are the third party games? Where are the indie games? And cripes, out of ten images and captions, the Legend of Zelda is mentioned or pictured 6 times. Six freakin' times. Are there so few games on the console, and so few on the horizon that Zelda needs to be mentioned 6 times?

And people still dare to argue with me that Zelda franchise is Nintendo's Call of Duty? Annualized, but worse, with several of the releases being ports or remakes.

The Wii U should be entering it's golden years and already feels like it's on its last legs--and this kind of sad promotional material doesn't help. Remember when we looked at the upcoming titles and kept saying, "yeah, 2014 is going to be a great year for the Wii U!" But now we're saying it for 2015--but forgetting that almost all the games we were looking forward to in 2014 are the same games we're still waiting for in 2015. Club Nintendo is an empty shadow of what it once was. Third parties have walked away. The GamePad has not been revolutionary. Now they're cutting advertising, so I guess something this weak shouldn't be a surprise.

Yesterday, I downloaded 5 games on PS4 and Vita for the equivalent of $1 a piece through PSN+. Where is Nintendo's competitive edge to that?

I can't shake the feeling that they just don't care.

no, the time is too late, the time to advertise was 5-6 days ago BEFORE Black Friday. Nintendo is STILL lagging behind. Also, I got a yes for all of them. (I don't own Hyrule warriors however, I have played it.)

@Blast

All this did was confirm that Nintendo is out of ideas and completely desperate to plug Zelda as often as humanly possible. Of course Zelda is coming in 2015. Since 1998, there have only been three years without a major Zelda release--and that doesn't include Virtual Console releases.

@Ryu_Niiyama

They're already bad enough at advertising. They don't need help in that regard.

@ikki5 I'm not from the UK so not sure if black friday matters to Nintendo UK very much.

@Quorthon Is it the best marketing ever? Well no, but at least it is something. I love the directs but NOA can't expect word of mouth to be enough.

@ikki5

This is an ad for the U.K. From what I understand the U.K. does have Black Friday, but it's nothing like the U.S.

@MoonKnight7 Actually this year is the first year in which Black Friday has been a huge part for the UK. Lots of crazy deals for Xbox One and PS4 related stuff including £299 for a Driveclub/TLoU:Remastered PS4 or Assassin's Creed (Unity and Black Flag)/Forza/Lego Marvel/£25 Xbox credit XB1 bundle. Nintendo's deals on the other hand were as usual pretty much nonexistent.

@MoonKnight7 @Ryu_Niiyama

Black Friday happened in the UK also. Though it may not be as big as it is in North America, they still had deals and such.

Yes to all, but my dear Nintendo...your marketing off and late...as usual!

If you haven't played Bayonetta 1 or 2, you are missing out on two extraordinary titles.

This chart is clever, but a short TV ad with a family of 4, or 4 friends playing MK8 and Smash Bros would move way more units. I've been to so many houses recently of young families, still rocking the Wii having no idea what the Wii U or MK8 is about. And darn it, they would love it if they only knew.

I'm just wondering if people are avoiding the Wii U because they don't want to be weak. For example, at school a kid says "I got a PS4" gets wowed then a kid gets bullied and laughed at by when says "I got a Wii U". Gamers nowadays... SHEESH!! What makes me SO annoyed is when I asked people if they own a Wii U and they reply "No! I'm too old to play that console" People need to learn that Wii U is a not a console for kids, but a console for ALL AGES that is kid-friendly. Nintendo really needs to turn up their image a notch. They really need excellent marketing to show that the Wii U is a MUST HAVE console! It's never too late.

@Savino of course it's Nintendo's fault (but it's also the person's fault for being close-minded)! They really need to up the ante on the marketing. PS4 and Xbox One first party exclusive games aren't as top quality as Nintendo's but because they (Sony and Microsoft) have excellent marketing, they are selling better.
My favourite PS4 game is Don't Starve, an indie game 😂 and Max: the Curse of Brotherhood on the Xbox One, another indie game 😂. As we all know on here, third party drives the support for those two consoles and there is nothing really special with them at the moment but, as I said, it all comes down to great marketing and hype.

Got me at Earthbound. I probably should've gotten it by now.

i failed at the pikmin one, the game looks sketchy

@DESS-M-8 IKR

I win! I've heard of Bayonetta 2, but I'm not playing it. Ever.

@Emblem this is much like the slick that compared the wii to the wii u. It just wasn't compelling. Sure, it sold me. And if i had not bought on impulse 19 months ago and forgot about the wii u, this type of thing might have sold me.

Problem is that there aren't enough people like me.

@Savino no super smash bros? You are missing out.

sigh I'd get Bayonetta if my parents would let me..
They I have to till I'm 17...
Well, I know what I'm asking for in 2 years.

I like this graphic, but I don't think it will do much convincing to people who don't already like Nintendo a lot. I think that's where Nintendo has faltered the most in regards to the Wii U: only the die-hard fans of the company really wanted it. This graphic plays into that mindset. Also, not owning a Wii U just pushers you into buying it, without knowing anything else? It should have been in reverse, where the less you know, the further it takes you.

If that doesn't convince people to run out and buy a Wii U I really don't know what will!

@Grumblevolcano PLAAAAAAY IIIIIIIT! Do yourself a HUGE favor.

@Quorthon geez when ever Nintendo tries something it is never enough is it? Would you rather want them to do nothing then?

I like it!

What's a Timels?

I think it's cute. Gets the job done, anyway. The bit about Eurogamer's score sounded so desperate to me, though.

Passed them all.
Everyone who misses Bayonetta, misses one of the best Wii U games. Not only my opinion. Nearly a fact!
Btw: It sold 360k worldwide. Expect a lifetime sale >1 million... Don't talk or just read about Bayonetta(especially Bayonetta 2!): Make your own experience! It is absolutly WONDERFUL!

@Ron1212 what does IKR mean??? :-S

@Nintendobro
I think we'd all rather them waste their time on something useful. Unless they plaster the infographic at every retailer, stuff like this doesn't matter as it won't reach any audience they need to. If you are following Nintendo on twitter chances are you have a Wii U or know what it offers. Also overly long trailers do not act as movers or shakers too well.
If they want to make a proper advertisement campaign they need to learn from their competition. Blanket major channels with advertisements and not just on a kids station. Work deals with retailers for more floor space and advertising. Gamestop for example advertises the hell out of games because they have exclusive deals for dlc that goes with the title. Nintendo gives no encouragement to retailers and makes it hell to have any deals whatsoever.

@darthllama I don't get this whole "they need to learn and do what others are doing" nonsense. All Nintendo needs to do is just make a good Advertisement doesn't have to be like mind blown or something just a good one. At least its something.

@nintendobro
lol....One advertisement means nothing in the grand scheme when you have to coax millions of users to believe that your system is worth $300 when you have a great deal of competition. You have to be able to reach out to different markets, get people excited for releases, educate them on the fact that the U isn't the same as the original, convey the depth of content, and explore ways to show that the U is a more viable option than PS4/One. An overly long compilation trailer that shows brief game segments doesn't accomplish that. A random online infographic that 95% of people won't see doesn't accomplish that. Saying....at least they are doing something is down right stupid. It is like having a 16 page term paper to do and only doing a cover sheet. Their marketing campaign is extremely limited and continuously does things half arsed. Real companies focus on a compilation of sectors such as retail based advertising, television advertising, online advertising, email, so their product is seen in a lot of different ways. As I said....mostly people who have a U or know what it has are the ones that are going to see or care about this. The scope is extremely limited. This is a billion dollar company that has millions upon millions of dollars at stake, and this is the best they could come up with? There is a reason why they've been killed in every region and their avoidant way of advertising is a huge one.

Own a Wii U? The time is now.
Don't own a Wii U? The time is now.

WHAT AM I EVEN READING.

Edit: Oh, and kudos for excluding the system's best game, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate.

I was out at VC (I still have my old systems and those games live there) and Smash (it frustrates me to no end and I avoid it completely).

@Joruus_Cbaoth: You're the grumpiest clone I know. I don't blame you, though, with the way Thrawn was manipulating you.

@darthllama As someone who kinda sorta works in marketing, I couldn't agree more. My office is small, mind you, but Nintendo's campaigns have the same feel as campaigns we throw one or two people at between big projects.

That hashtag is too ambiguous, silly Nintendo. But I love the infographic!

I said yes to everything, as most ppl here probably have, but if you say no, the time is now doesn't give incentive, there should be more to this infographic to incentivize ppl to buy!!

@Nintendobro

Nintendo needs to learn and apply similar concepts to the other guys in the following aspects:

1. Step up the advertising.
2. Include 3rd party games in their advertising (as this is what MS and Sony, it builds relationships with 3rd parties, and informs consumers of 3rd party support).
3. Wider focus of advertising--not just the family demographic.

Beyond advertising, what Nintendo also needs to apply from their competitors:

1. A paid subscription plan that delivers games and content similar to Xbox Live Gold and PSN+. Seriously, I downloaded five games from PSN+ this month, for the equivalent of $1 a piece--Nintendo has nothing close to this, and Club Nintendo doesn't even remotely compare, especially with as lackluster as it has become these days.

2. Stronger 3rd party support.
3. Actively working with 3rd parties, and no, I don't mean they should just hand off Link to make more Zelda spin-offs. Getting exclusive Sonic games was a smart move (with some mixed results), but they seem to have stopped attempting to compete at that point.
4. Appeal to gamers.
5. Beef up the online mode.
6. Incorporate a system and profile-wide Achievement system (seriously, out of MS, Sony, and Steam, they are the only ones without some kind of robust Achievement and profile system).
7. Account-based profiles.
8. Make more than just the same few 1st party franchises every single year. MS may deliver Halo on an annual level, but they still deliver a helluva lot more than just that. Unlike Mario, MS does not cram Master Chief onto the cover of several titles every single year. Generally, there is only on Halo game per year, as opposed to Nintendo averaging 3~6 Mario-themed games every year.
9. More mature franchises--revive Geist, Eternal Darkness, Disaster, and deliver Fatal Frame in all markets.
10. Drop the region-locking.
11. Competitive pricing. If they're trying to sell heavily out-dated hardware to the masses, they should be doing it with equivalent pricing. The Wii U should be $200, and the games should be $50.
12. Actually start delivering special/limited/collector's editions of major releases--this is especially a problem in the U.S., where NOA apparently has no idea how important this is in retail. These make games look more important, collector's love 'em (like me), and they're prominent "look at me" pieces in retail spaces.
13. Include either a harddrive with the Wii U, or drastically ramp up the internal storage. There are games that are 32GB these days--it's unacceptable for the Wii U to come with so little storage space.

Nintendo can do all of this, remain relevant and modern and still be able to deliver their signature classics, and expected charm, but in this way, they'd actually be competing instead of just existing.

It isn't that Nintendo should just blindly "do what the other guys do," but there are things that Nintendo should do merely to appeal to modern gamers and to show that they still understand the industry. No achievements? Weak profile system (profiles on Sony consoles are automatically linked across my PS3, Vita, and PS4, and my downloads are not tied to hardware)? Weak online presence? No harddrive? No notable 3rd party support? Constantly churning out an overflow of games in Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon franchises and little else? Region-locking? Region-exclusive games (like Fatal Frame, Disaster, etc)?

How is all this crap benefiting them?

"Do you own a Wii U?"... no u_u

Anyway, that was fun reading. It made me smile

@darthllama

Actually, I think long trailers with lots of games spotlighted is very helpful--MS and especially Sony have been doing this for years as it showcases a variety of games on the console, strong third party support, and that there is something for everyone.

Nintendo tends to fail at this, and if the compilation is of just their games, it's going to all look the same, as at the end of the day, Mario, Donkey Kong, Toad, Mario Kart, Yoshi, Mario Party, Wario, Paper Mario, and Smash Bros all tend to look overwhelmingly identical--in large part because they are all related to the same franchise character: Mario.

There may be a lot of games in that, but to the average consumer, it certainly doesn't look like it.

@Quorthon good lord you are just like the shareholders yelling "do this and that implement that copy this" and again I am not sure why you guys defend 3rd parties? After all the crap excuses they make on top of that blaming Nintendo fans about poor sales and they expect us to buy their junk? And are hard drive's really that expensive? I like Nintendo's way than Sony or MS. And 3-6 Mario games a year!?? We have only had 2 for Wii U so far!!?? But anyways I will let you care about those worries. For me I like the Wii U and it is the best video game console this gen whether you agree with me or not I play on it more that Xbone and PS4 heck I haven't even touched my PS3 in over a year and the last time I played it was for FF 10. Their games just don't seem to interest me anymore has they used too (cough crash bandicoot) (cough spyro the dragon). You guys worry about "sales" while I am having fun with my Wii U.

@Nintendobro I read your next-to-last line as "cough syrup the dragon". That would be a very different game.

"Uses Robitussin: It's super-effective!"

@Nintendobro

You should worry about sales as well, if you want the Wii U to continue to have any relevance or quality games. Without sales, Nintendo won't be making money on the console, and they will have to kill off the little console you love earlier than planned.

Your post indicates you might be one of the people that takes personal offense to 3rd parties leaving the platform after being thoroughly ignored by the fans. As I've explained before, many of them did more with the GamePad than Nintendo has, put high-quality, highly-rated titles on the Wii U only to be met with Nintendo fans ignoring them, dismissing them all as crap for largely irrational reasons, and driving them off by not giving them the all-important SALES.

You're not the first person here I've seen who somehow doesn't care about sales, but magically careS about the Wii U as if it and Nintendo can magically survive without sales. Bottom line: Nintendo doesn't make money without revenue from game sales, and without 3rd party games and sales of them, their revenue plummets. The library of the console thins out, support evaporates, and sales drop even further until, surprise surprise, the company who makes the consoles you love will be forced to STOP MAKING CONSOLES.

What we're seeing happen to Nintendo, right now, almost too-perfectly mirrors both Sega and Atari in the years leading up to them going third party. And these comments that there is nothing to play on the other consoles are asinine. It means nothing because if you really want something to play, there is no difficulty in finding games on any other platform that are enjoyable to any type of gamer. Otherwise, it's pure hyperbole.

I haven't played my Xbox 360 in ages, but that doesn't mean the Wii U is somehow a better console. It'd be cpompletely meaningless for me to claim otherwise. It means I've been playing games elsewhere, and that's all.

You also completely failed to understand my point--it was never about Nintendo becoming exactly like the other guys, but for Nintendo to smartly modernize themselves in a way that modern gamers all recognize, with robust profiles, an achievement system, third party support, online offerings, etc.

Right now, they look like a fossil, like Atari in the 90's--a once powerful company that revolutionized an industry, then forgot to evolve with the industry they helped create. Everyone else has evolved around and beyond Nintendo, who over a generation ago, lost the ability to understand their own innovations.

Nintendo going their own way in the past led to numerous innovations and advancements. Now, they are not in that leadership position, and they just look like a confusing niche that doesn't understand the industry as a whole. Nothing the Wii innovated has been adopted by the rest of the industry, nothing the GameCube did has led to wider industry innovation, and the same is now true of the Wii U.

They aren't the tantalizingly scary innovator anymore, they're the weird kid in the corner by himself. Instead of a smart phone, he has a 30-year-old CB radio that's missing pieces.

@Nintendobro

By the way, I said Mario-themed games (games starring Mario for whatever reason). So you are totally wrong. The Wii U has way more than 2:

New Mario U
Mario 3D World
Dr. Luigi
Mario Kart 8
Mario Maker (upcoming)
New Super Luigi U
Mario & Sonic Winter Olympics
Mario Party 10 (upcoming)
Mario vs. Donkey Kong (upcoming)

Not to mention Mario is featured prominently in:
Nintendoland
Super Smash Bros

By extension, the following games are ALSO related to the Mario franchise:
Game & Wario
Yoshi's Wooly World
Captain Toad

That's an awful lot of Mario-helmed stuff in less than 3 years. Do I even need to list all the 3DS games since launch to really hammer this point home?

Mario is grossly over-used, and it makes the consoles look bad and limited in variety.

Nintendo could have cut this list in half and instead given us a new F-Zero, Eternal Darkness, Metroid, Mach Rider, Earthbound, Battalion Wars, Fire Emblem, Disaster, Geist, Punch-Out, Wave Race, Excite Bike/Trucks/Bots, etc--and to average consumers, the console would appear to be rife with healthy variety.

@Quorthon oh yeah if its about sales then all those sales MS has with the Xbox one and yet no money made off of those units. The black Friday deal has even killed them even more at still have not made any money off of the Xbox. Those third parties have been nothing but pointing fingers especially to gamers for the poor sale's maybe if they didn't make half baked crap and release full versions maybe we would buy their games. And like I have said IMO the Wii U is the best console out of the three yes there are games that are on the other consoles but they do not interest me I don't like shooters I don't like those weird realistic racing games I don't like games that have nothing but violence zombies and death and it makes it feel that is all they are doing. I want games that are really really fun not make me feel like I am in a movie theater. And again if you care about sales fine but I don't really give a crap about them has long as I am having fun with my Wii U. Lastly people have been saying there is evidence that Nintendo will go to the Sega route yet they are still standing. Adios.

@Quorthon ahum so you are basically saying that Nintendo should get rid of the things that has gotten them success? And I am not entirely sure but isn't that what the other companies are doing? Are you a share holder or something because it sounds like you pay too much attention to the sales than the games themselves and nothing seems to satisfy them.

@Nintendobro

Great Cthulhu's ghost, kid, you're ignorant. That's not an insult, mind you, it just means you're uninformed and have no idea what you're talking about. Microsoft has actually been profiting on Xbox Ones (probably not the Black Friday deals, but hell, they dominated sales over the month, so they handily made that back in accessories and software and Live subscriptions), so they are not losing money, at least not as badly as Nintendo has been with the Wii U. In fact, for the first time in Microsoft's console history, they're actually making a profit on the consoles themselves--both the original 1 and 360 were initially sold at a $125 loss (give or take).

http://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-squeezes-little-profit-out-of-each-xbox-one/

If I can decipher your horrifying run-on sentence correctly, you don't like shooters, but are willfully unaware that there is far more than that to play on these consoles. Dismissing them as some kind of "shooter box" would be extraordinarily stupid. I'm pretty sure Dragon Age, Forza, Dead Rising, and Killer Instinct aren't shooters, for instance.

Also, you again missed the point of why you should care about sales--because they will directly impact the amount of fun you can have with your Wii U. It's good that you're having fun with it, but as the growth of the library continues to slow, developers continue to lose faith in the console, and even Nintendo struggles to make games to sell it, your options for fun are going to whittle away to nothing. Rather like the last bleak years of the N64, GameCube, and Wii. Sadly, the Wii U looks like it's already moving into it's final years when it should be hitting its stride. Some of those great "upcoming 2015 games" we're all waiting for were expected as the reasons 2014 was supposed to be great.

At this time next year, while you cling to the new Zelda, happy Nintendo has that one title for fall 2015, everyone else will be having fun with multiple games on the PS4, XBO, and Steam. Despite Nintendo's continued annualization of the Zelda franchise, it has never been much of a hardware seller outside of core Nintendo fans.

And yes, Nintendo should definitely give up on some of the things that made them successful if they aren't bringing success now. What an absurd notion to think otherwise. Just because it brought success once does not mean it'll happen again, and as the Wii U is showing, it certainly isn't working now. Microsoft found quite a bit of success with Kinect 1 on the X360, but they recognized quite quickly that Kinect was not bringing them success this time, so they dumped it.

Nintendo clinging to what feels familiar and friendly when it's not working for them is exactly the attitude that helped bring down Atari.

Finally, if you are unable to criticize the company you claim to so enjoy, you end up supporting their poor decision-making that leads to dire fortunes. When you are an apologist for failure, you are helping it to happen. When Nintendo is forced to walk away from making hardware, it will be on their leaders and their fans who never criticized the company they cared about. It's upsetting to see such a great company dragging themselves through the mud--and just plain sad to see their own fans not give a crap that it's happening--to the point of lame apologetics for why it's okay.

@Quorthon I get really annoyed when people say that they are going the way of saga and people saying all this bad negative things mixed in when they don't realize the problem. Here is where I think Nintendo screwed up. The launch of the Wii U plus the lack of a big library of games and little to no advertising is the problem. Its not because of those third parties the GameCube had good third party support but that didn't help it win that gen. Again didn't you ready what I said!!?? If you care about those sales fine but to me (again to me) I don't give a crap. I find it kind of funny that when ever Nintendo is in a slump people like you go around spinning things around saying all these things when they are not part of the problem. Its what Nintendo did at the start is what killed the Wii U you guys seem to forget what the real problem is without advertising and marketing you are not gonna sell a lot of your products if lots of people don't know about it. Sony did it with the PS4 and bam they are selling PS4's. And pay attention when I say this please, those games on other consoles is what I see. Yes there are RPG games but those other games like shooters and zombies with violence and death do not interest me at all I don't have a PS4 yet but I am not gonna spend $400 on it just for 2 games like final fantasy and sonic. IMO I see those types of games and those do not interest me at all they don't have that "magic" feeling I get when I play them heck neither does my friend when he played the Wii U it convinced him to get one and now he is getting one and spreading the word. I bet if lots of people would know about the Wii U and try it they will love it and see how great it is. I swear though Nintendo and Wii U are the punching bag of the industry.

@Nintendobro

Look kid, I get that you don't care about sales and that you choose not to see anything of value on the other consoles--you may be doing that almost subconsciously so that the Wii U looks better by comparison by marginalizing what the other guys are offering. My point was never to change your opinion, but (perhaps a vain attempt) to get you to understand exactly why sales matter and why they will impact your eventual enjoyment of the console.

Yeah, yeah, the Wii U is a punching bag--but so is the XBO, Kinect, and the Vita. Sony was a punching bag last generation. The reason the Wii U is a punching bag is because it's, to put it bluntly, a dud. I hate to say it, as I enjoy the console and have backed five or six Kickstarter projects heading for it (Shovel Knight, Shantae, Hex Heroes, Hive Jump, Cloudberry Kingdom), but it's a botched system.

You keep marginalizing 3rd party support, but you can't do that if you understand the industry. Yes, the GameCube had quite a bit, but guess the PS2 and Xbox had more. The GameCube also came on the heels of Nintendo's worst console--the N64, which had next to no third party support, and almost no games in its final two years. This lingering sour flavor hurt the GameCube because the N64 dragged along supported almost entirely by Nintendo and Rare and little else. The Wii U has already turned into an N64, with almost absent third party support. This will not sell the console to non-Nintendo fans, which means Nintendo will not be able to make money on it, which means it will be killed off early.

It's too bad you don't like the Sega and Atari comparisons--I didn't care for them either and will correct anyone who calls the Wii U "Nintendo's Dreamcast." I do this because, logically, the Wii U is Nintendo's Saturn or PS3--their embarrassment, their gross misstep. They will likely not turn things around like Sony did with the PS3 (which still only managed a little over half the sales of the PS2), but will linger like the Saturn. Their next steps will determine if the next console is the "one last hurrah" like the Dreamcast, or their monumental return to for, like the PS4.

Sony isn't successful just because of marketing, but also because they wisely gave gamers exactly what they wanted. A powerful new console, streamlined and improved over the last generation, without a bunch of potentially gimmicky new crap glued to it. Every other generation is a time for experimental growth--that was the last generation, which experimented with countless peripherals, toys, motion controls, and whatnot (this is a model I've had for several years, and it perfectly covers the history of the medium). This was a time for recognizable new hardware, but streamlined from the last generation. Sony did that. MS and Nintendo did not, but MS has made amends and ditched the weird piece. Nintendo doesn't have the hardware power to compete, so they are stuck with their weird piece (the GamePad).

Advertising is one thing, but Nintendo has made many of the same mistakes with the Wii U as with the otherwise wonderful GameCube--they failed to keep with the times and didn't really give gamers what they wanted. The controller, despite being comfortable to hold, was weird and not conducive to many genres. The D-pad sucked, and the L & R buttons were weird. They didn't include a DVD player, which was a major selling point at the time. The small disks were off-putting to many consumers, as was the design of the console (the purple color was routinely mocked, but I bought the black one), and it was worse at game storage and online than any of the other consoles.

Nintendo is not just "in a slump." They are in a pattern of slumping. They sold to the Blue Ocean crowd, but failed to appeal to regular gamers, and largely failed to recognize that the Blue Ocean crowd was fickle and would not be here now. They are now 4 generations into having no idea how to appeal to third party developers, and have no idea how to make their fans care about the games. I love Nintendo, but I also want to play shooters and WRPGs and shmups and all manner of games. The Wii was the third console in a row to go out with a wimper instead of a bang (like the PS1, PS2, NES, SNES, X360, and PS3).

Nintendo is in a slump of having no idea how to appeal to the changing industry and they fear that doing anything like the other guys will make them look bad, when updating profile systems, including achievements, and things of this nature are expected in the industry these days. They try to be too different, and then get stuck churning out more and more of the same old thing in desperate hopes to fly by nostalgia, and that's not going to cut it.

The longer the Wii U is malingering, the harder it's going to be for you to ignore all that you're missing that everyone else has. And the worse its malingering, the harder it's going to be for Nintendo to recover next generation. You don't care about sales--that's fine. But without them, there might not even be another generation for Nintendo. And for two years, they flat-out haven't had them.

@Quorthon Did you even read what I said? They are my opinions. And calling me a kid surely doesn't help your cause. What do we need achievements for? To get one just for turning on your console what other purpose are they used for? Good lord I find it pretty hilarious that people like you try to blow things out of proportion. Can you actually tell the future? You probably have stock with the company that's probably why you are never satisfied. Hmph!

@NintendoFan64
At lease NoA know what an advert is, here in the UK Nintendo hasn't even realised that even a bad advert would shift some consoles. No TV adverts at all for Smash Bros, about $2 was spent on a MK8 campaign (I saw one advert....twice!)
The sad thing is the WiiU has some great console sellling games. WiiFit sold masses on Wii, but its hard to believe its been out over a year. No promotions for NSMBU, 3D WORLD, Bayonetta, etc etc etc......Then Nintendo UK wonders why it isnt selling. Nintendo Japan just needs to sack the UK marketing 'team' and replace them with a chocolate fireguard as that would be more use.