Poll of the Day > why the wii u failed

(+) Yeah! (+)

it didnt have enough action

---

it didn't have enough anything

except for shovelware

---

It had Monster Hunter 3U... pretty much the only game I got for it and it lasted the entire life of the system, great game

---

i bought a wii u 2 years ago, because i thought it would go up in price. i think it is going up in price.

---

I am dumb and thought it was a Wii accessory for a long time (don't think I was keeping up with video game news or posting on forums at the time)

---

SilentSeph posted...

I am dumb and thought it was a Wii accessory for a long time (don't think I was keeping up with video game news or posting on forums at the time)

Oh, so it's like that new Xbox addon, the XS

---

It was amazing for party games like Nintendo Land and Mario Party. It really didn't do much for the hard-core gamers though.
---

SilentSeph posted...

I am dumb and thought it was a Wii accessory for a long time (don't think I was keeping up with video game news or posting on forums at the time)

I'm sure a lot of people thought that, it was a terrible name. They should have made it the Super Wii or something, or just give it a new name to avoid confusion

---

Kotenks posted...

The concept wasn't strong enough and it didn't have killer apps. Zelda didn't come out until it was already a failure.

zelda came out for switch, the wii u version was just a crappy downgrade
---

SilentSeph posted...

I am dumb and thought it was a Wii accessory for a long time (don't think I was keeping up with video game news or posting on forums at the time)

That's really what killed it. It sold poorly right out of the gate because so many people didn't even realize it was a system of its own and not just a tablet accessory for the Wii (the 3DS also struggled to identify itself as a new system and not just a DS with a 3D feature, but it managed to overcome that), which completely squandered the 1-year head start it had on the generation and discouraged third parties from supporting it (particularly where they were already on the fence about that due to it being weaker and more novel than the other two, making multiplat games a little awkward). They adopted an advertising strategy after that first year that did identify it as its own system, but it still struggled to overcome that perception, especially where it didn't get the install base needed to develop a reputation. Even now, there are still people that don't realize it's a new system.

---

Switch has Better games donkey Kong tropical freeze Mario kart 8 Mario 3D land and smash ultimate they took out pointless features like apps and miiverse

---

People knew it was its own system they just used it as an excuse because Arv called it out saying that Wii U sucked cause it was a add on for the Wii and they instantly took the bait and they all said they knew

---

I enjoyed the few games it had. Smash was underwhelming, though. Looking back, WWHD and TPHD were about as good as it got, and those were just remastered ports of Gamecube games.

The graphics weren't really anything special, and the game variety was low. Pikmin 3 was a nice series revival, but Star Fox Zero was universally panned.

Also, the controller sucked. No clue who thought having the analog sticks on the top corner of both sides was a good idea. Having a touchscreen sounds good in theory, but it's awkward to look away from the TV while playing a game.

---

It had a small but really strong library.
Xenoblade X, Bayonetta 2, Smash Bros., Hyrule Warriors, the Zelda remasters, and a lot of good multi-play indies like Guacamelee and Shantae & The Pirate's Curse were most of my favorite games in the mid-2010's.
And of course, delayed a year just to help throw dirt on it and help the Swich, Breath of the Wild.

Plus a lot of other titles other people seemed to like, such as Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, Splatoon, etc...

It failed because of a dumb name and poor marketing, no thought towards 3rd party support, and Nintendo giving up on it super fast. If BotW had come out in like 2015 or even 2016, it might have saved the console. When the Switch launched it had nothing but BotW and still sold millions of consoles. Lots of people were just waiting for the new Zelda game, and Nintendo shafted Wii U hard in favor of pushing a new console.

Also, the controller sucked. No clue who thought having the analog sticks on the top corner of both sides was a good idea. Having a touchscreen sounds good in theory, but it's awkward to look away from the TV while playing a game.

The pro controller was great and had like a 40 hour battery charge, insane compared to PS4's awful controller battery length. And it was only $50 MSRP, unlike the damn Switch Pro controller.
I only ever used the gamepad for 2 player stuff or for Xenoblade X, one of the only games that really made use of the screen much.

faramir77 posted...

No clue who thought having the analog sticks on the top corner of both sides was a good idea.

It makes sense for shooters, or any other type of game that sees both sticks being used more than the D-pad or face buttons. The upper half of any controller is the most neutral place for the thumbs to be, so if the right stick sees more use than face buttons, it makes sense to put it there so the right thumb is in a more comfortable position.

Of course, the system didn't end up getting that many shooters, but that was largely due to its failure to court third-party support (which, in turn, was due to its failure to establish an install base ahead of the other two), which wasn't an outcome that would have factored into designing the controller.

faramir77 posted...

Having a touchscreen sounds good in theory, but it's awkward to look away from the TV while playing a game.

It didn't work as well as the second screen on the DS did, by simple virtue of how much further away it was from the primary screen, but I found it absolutely fantastic in WWHD and Xenoblade X to have the map immediately available like that so I didn't have to break my immersion by pausing to see it. That was one of the major reasons I consider WWHD to be one of the best 3D Zeldas, despite placing the original near the bottom of that list, since it made the exploration enjoyable instead of just being a chore.

streamofthesky posted...

If BotW had come out in like 2015 or even 2016, it might have saved the console. When the Switch launched it had nothing but BotW and still sold millions of consoles. Lots of people were just waiting for the new Zelda game, and Nintendo shafted Wii U hard in favor of pushing a new console.

It's hard to say. BotW would definitely have driven more WiiU sales (at this point, the game's sold something like 25 million copies total, which is almost 2 for every WiiU sold), but I don't think it was ever going to really save the system. Realistically, the next console would have been expected in 2018 anyway (Nintendo's console generations have consistently been ~6 years long), so even if BotW had breathed life into the WiiU, it still would only have been around for another year. Banking on that instead of cutting their losses and pushing the Switch would have been a considerable gamble for relatively little gain.

Instead, they came out swinging with a console concept that people immediately understood and liked, Zelda as a launch title, a solid range of other high-profile titles following shortly after, and remakes of most of the WiiU's most popular games so the people that had been on the fence about buying a WiiU felt rewarded for waiting and took the plunge on a Switch. Letting the WiiU die instead of propping it up for another year or two meant the Switch was able to have the strong launch Nintendo needed. It's unfortunate, but I think it was for the best, ultimately.

---

Dmess85 posted...

i bought a wii u 2 years ago, because i thought it would go up in price. i think it is going up in price.

I bloody hope so, I would love to trade out some of my redundent Wii U games for the superior switch counter parts. The switch may be nothing but a portable port machine, but I like portability. I have a vita for hecks sake, that shows how much I like portability. But with that said, I quite liked the Wii U's library. It was Nintendo's first hd console and I thought Nintendo came out with quite a decent amount of decent games despite the system selling poorly. Pretty much all Nintendo's big games now outside of Odyssey are Wii U ports or games that got thier start on the Wii U. They even reused the models from Smash 4 for Smash Ultimate. There isn't too much that Nintendo won't steal from that console and try to spin as a switch game. The switch ain't nothing but a portable Wii U.

---

They call it the Wii U because it rhymes with PEE-YEW

When you see it, you pull a U-Turn and walk away

---

Marketing guy: It seems like the whole world has finally fully embraced high definition televisions and each year they are becoming larger and larger.

Nintendo Exec: Why don't we release a system with a sub-standard tiny screen built in to the controller.

Marketing guy: You sure? It seems like everyone wants to get the most out of their new shiny and big tvs right now.

Nintendo Exec: Nah, people like small screens too. Everyone is on their phone these days. We'll make the controller interactable with a touch-screen.

Marketing guy: I guess that might work if it has the functionality of mobile devices. There is a lot of gaming and creative potential with multi-touch capabilities.

Nintendo Exec: Too expensive. Too complicated. Keep it simple. One touch, like a button and nothing more.

Other Exec: And let's make it so you can only have one controller per system.

Marketing guy: I don't think that's wise. Our greatest strength, especially compared to our competitors is the ability to play with friends and family.

Nintendo Exec: Then they'll all have to buy the system if they want to use the controller. Think of the revenue.

Marketing guy: So if a few friends all bring their own controller they can all play together with them?

Nintendo Exec: No.

---

The controller hurt my hands.
The gamepad was too big to hold comfortably, and having the joysticks above the other buttons on the regular controller made it basically unusable for me.

---

Truth be told Nintendo has never recovered since the N64. Up until that time, Nintendo and Sega were sitting on top of the video game console heap then it all came crashing down in the late 1990s early 2000s. When CD-based consoles came along, Nintendo refused to make the change from their lucrative cart-based business model and it hurt them big time.

Sega, on the other hand, rushed to get the Saturn to market and the Saturn was poorly designed and hard to program for and around that time Sony released the PS1 and its cd based storage and that was the game changer.

---

The Wii sold to everyone and their mom and grandmother. The problem with that is your mom and grandmother are going to be like why do we need another nintendo we have nintendo at home.

All the kids who outgrew the Wii were ready to move on to next gen. All the Nintendo fans and die hards didn't get enough out of the gate to get them to bite and a system tied to a controller like that was an expensive and scary risk at the time given how nintendo controllers can be. Plus the clunky and sketchy system account mechanics like stars outlined.

What's amazing is the switches marketing. We heard you guys didn't like the Wii u so here's totally not the Wii u 1.5 and you're going to like it. Collectively everyone. Oh wow!

dedbus posted...

a controller like that was an expensive and scary risk at the time given how nintendo controllers can be.

Eh? Prior to the Switch's analog issues, Nintendo's controllers have consistently been rock solid. Even the WiiU gamepad - as much as it seemed like it should have been fragile - was durable enough to withstand being dropped from 5-6 feet (which is about the worst abuse a controller should face). The worst you can really say about Nintendo's controllers' durability is that the N64 control sticks wore out quickly if you played a lot of Mario Party, and really, no controller is going to handle that kind of stress (hence the stick spinning thing disappeared after the first game).

dedbus posted...

What's amazing is the switches marketing. We heard you guys didn't like the Wii u so here's totally not the Wii u 1.5 and you're going to like it. Collectively everyone. Oh wow!

One of the main attempted selling points for the WiiU was the option to play without the TV. In practice, though, the gamepad's range was too short to take it more than 1-2 rooms away without running into reception problems, and most games either couldn't be played entirely on the gamepad, or had their functionality limited by doing so. It was a neat idea, but not one that really ended up being that useful. Enter the Switch, which made the concept work perfectly.

---