Current Events > Did the Wii U ever have a chance?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm thinking of all the ways it could have went better.

They could have improved the hardware to easily above the 360/PS3...but it was already pretty expensive for a Nintendo console. Which also tied into the tablet tech in general.

The tablet concept itself was likely impressive when they started working on it. But consoles take so long to develop and by the time it came out tablets that didn't rely on streaming were common so it just was a convoluted concept.

Games that actually took better advantage of the Gamepad would have helped. Hell if they simply added DVD/Blu-ray playback the Gamepad would have added a benefit other consoles could never have. Letting there be some sort of app store in general would have helped.

But my biggest issue is why on Earth didn't they add a Gamecube Virtual Console? It can play Gamecube games perfectly but you can only do it via homebrew. Ridiculous.

But overall I don't know if there was anything they could have done to make it a success. Nothing like the Switch at the very least.

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I feel the biggest reason it didn't do well, because people either didn't know it existed, or thought it was a add-on like the kinect

Their marketing single handedly killed it. I don't think any reasonable amount of additional power or games could have saved it.
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I don't know how the marketing was so bad. I didn't watch Nintendo events back then but didn't they close off their big E3 show with a fireworks presentation of Nintendoland?

The marketing for the Switch in comparison is so on point. I remember the time around the NES Classic that Nintendo was starting to change their image.

I'm probably one of the dozens of people out there who bought the console when they announced Bayonetta 2 would be exclusive lol

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it was actually pretty good.
but it just...the game pad...

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Eliza-Schuyler posted...

it was actually pretty good.
but it just...the game pad...

I find the Gamepad pretty comfy to use and overall like it. But that battery life was simply awful and that just cluttered using the system so much.

I do wonder if a Wii HD would have worked better but I think people were over the Wii by 2012.

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I got one this year and love it

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It would have had a chance if it had been named any goddamned thing than "Wii" something.

You could've named it Nintendo Stinky Doo Doo and it would've sold better

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the reveal definitely didn't help, showing just the controller and not even mentioning that it was a new system at all

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The casual audience that bought into the Wii didn't know that it was a full console upgrade, and instead thought that it was just a tablet add-on, thanks to the marketing putting far more emphasis on the tablet, as well as the name of the console itself ("Wii 2" would have much better gotten the point across).

Plus, the mobile market had since started to pick up serious momentum, so casuals were going there instead of investing in dedicated consoles.


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Unnecessary posted...

I got one this year and love it

It's a pretty neat system to own I must admit. The multiplayer games like Nintendoland are great for local multiplayer and can't really be replicated anywhere else. They did the odd ridiculous sale for their old games (Super Metroid for under a dollar. The Metroid Prime Trilogy for like $9). It's a shame you missed out on Miiverse though. I much preferred it to Twitter/Facebook integration.

It's also a great Homebrew machine these days.

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i remember playing it a few months before it came out at comic con and thinking it was a huge piece of trash. the tablet felt so dated, like a palm pilot from the 90s

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PowerOats posted...

I feel the biggest reason it didn't do well, because people either didn't know it existed, or thought it was a add-on like the kinect

This

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wackyteen posted...

It would have had a chance if it had been named any goddamned thing than "Wii" something.

You could've named it Nintendo Stinky Doo Doo and it would've sold better

Yeah I think it gets at least double the sales with a unique name alone, they doomed it naming it Wii U. They also invested no marketing to distinguish it's a new console.
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The gamepad wasn't so bad. At one point I forgot it existed. I was playing a game and completely forgot about the pad lol.

But yeah, calling it Wii U was a bad idea.

It is a pretty neat system if you give it a chance. But the marketing for it was terrible, and it needed a much better name. Calling it Wii U was a bad and confusing idea.

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I'm still using mine. Playing N64 and Wii games on the same console is fun and convenient. I agree with everyone that mentioned the name and marketing.

I think it had enough alternatives for controllers if you didn't like the pad. It just sucks that quite a few features including some games require it. There wasn't anything from them to replace a damaged pad until recently either.

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KStateKing17 posted...

I'm still using mine. Playing N64 and Wii games on the same console is fun and convenient. I agree with everyone that mentioned the name and marketing.

I think it had enough alternatives for controllers if you didn't like the pad. It just sucks that quite a few features including some games require it. There wasn't anything from them to replace a damaged pad until recently either.

You need the Gamepad to enter the settings. It's an oddly cumbersome console to use at times.

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Darmik posted...

You need the Gamepad to enter the settings. It's an oddly cumbersome console to use at times.

Yeah, I think I needed it to add funds too. There are definitely some flaws that they should have fixed.

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KStateKing17 posted...

Yeah, I think I needed it to add funds too. There are definitely some flaws that they should have fixed.

I went to buy the Paper Mario games last night and it turns out you need to go to an external website to add funds now lol. They really don't want you using that shop anymore.

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Darmik posted...

I went to buy the Paper Mario games last night and it turns out you need to go to an external website to add funds now lol. They really don't want you using that shop anymore.

On the Wii U? I definitely used the console to add money.

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KStateKing17 posted...

On the Wii U? I definitely used the console to add money.

Yeah. Maybe it was a recent thing. I used to be able to pay for things on the console. Now it says to add Nintendo credit on a website.

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I've never seen a console with less advertisement for it. It's like Nintendo never gave a shit to even try to make people want to buy it.
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I actually really liked the Wii U, but in retrospect, it really did have an uphill battle.

The gamepad overhype got way out of hand imo though. About a year in, you could play a lot of games 95%+ of the time or more with the pro controller. And the virtual console except the Wii and DS games was all pro controller 100%. But people wanted to focus on the gamepad.


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masticatingman posted...

The gamepad overhype got way out of hand imo though. About a year in, you could play a lot of games 95%+ of the time or more with the pro controller. And the virtual console except the Wii and DS games was all pro controller 100%. But people wanted to focus on the gamepad.

The thing with it was that it was a cool thing if you didn't overhype it. No need to pause the game to a map or inventory screen. It could all bel right there. That's pretty neat and benefits most games on its own. But it didn't have the third party support to make that worth it anyway and Nintendo were pretty hit and miss with it too.

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