Thread 712712823

Why did the Wii-U fail so badly when the Wii and Switch sold gangbusters?

Gsrbage name and software lineup wasn't as strong for people. I liked the games it had. But it wasn't enough to overcome people thinking it was an accessory.

Really awful marketing.
The gamepad wasn't useful for most games.
Nintendo had screwed a bunch of their core fanbase outside of Japan (not localizing a bunch of games) and the casual gaming fad had died down.
Didn't treat third parties right on Wii, so their "support" on U was token.
Bad online shop (for consumers and publishers alike)
Didn't get a strong launch lineup
HD game development was harder and more time consuming than they expected
Fixing the 3DS launch disaster divided their attention, and trying to fix the Wii U really hurt the middle of the 3DS's life, too

Pretty much everything went wrong, but advertising was the biggest thing. They REALLY should have had Nintendoland as a pack in with some of the games being downloadable on the eShop and promoted the console by showing people the best Nintendoland minigames instead of their retarded "You can play while someone else is on the TV!" marketing.

low effort thread
but here's the answer:
>confusing trailer that made a lot of people question if it was a new console or a new controller for the wii
>too similar to the Wii in design and games
>launch game was a uninspired game visually identical to a preexistant one
>low third party support after the launch year
>clunky controller
>the first party game were boring visually and weren't that attention grabbing
>no system sellers besides maybe MK8
>low graphical and console power compared to the console released the next year (XBOne and PS4)

>>712712823 (OP)
here's that wii u you wanted for christmas anon. don't be shy and say thanks

>>712713405
>Fixing the 3DS launch disaster divided their attention
I have to give the 3DS credit, despite the terrible launch and lousy gimmick that was seemingly dropped from most games, the 3DS ended up being a really great handheld with plenty of great games, none of which were thanks the to 3D effect which while kind of impressive, didn't add anything

>13 years later
>there are still braindead retards here who don't know why the console, even though it was the most innovative and had the best games, wasn't successful

literally kys

>>712714543
here's your console thingamabob son >>712714107
you can than me later go play it now

>>712712823 (OP)
Bad timing and unfavorable market conditions rather than the usual technicalities mentioned. Nintendo had burned bridges with the core gamer demographic, the casuals lost interest in home consoles after they had their fill, PS4/XOne were coming and gaming was shifting towards big budget expensive realistic games.

The Switch had kind of shit hardware too but Nintendo nostalgia was reaching crazy levels with retro gaming exploding, you had the Pokémon Go phenomenon, PS4/XOne were old news, people were less impressed by AAA gaming and yearned for more simple games, mobile gaming turned into the modern F2P/Gacha dominated cesspool creating demand for a handheld console.

>>712712823 (OP)
They marketed it to children, but the problem with that is that children at a certain age don't want to do the small children stuff anymore because it is seen as embarrassing, which is why the PS4 was way more popular with children than the Wii U. Owning a PS4 was cool, owning a Wii U was asking to be bullied material.

Why didn't Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD get switch ports?

>>712715803
My guess is they are planning remakes. There were rumors of an OoT remake being in the works.

>>712714274
Yeah. By late 2012 it was getting a good rate of strong games. Way smaller library of great stuff than GBA or DS, but nearly every single winner was a 9 or 10/10 and 20 hours long, minimum. Like, you're not going to find a many Boktais or Elite Beat Agents in it, but stuff like Theatrhythm is worth 7 of those. It's a very weird system.

>>712712823 (OP)
>gangbusters
lmao american spotted
hey champ
hey buddy
hey watch it buster, listen here bucko! cool your jets mister!!! why i oughta

>>712713424
>no system sellers besides maybe MK8
Splatoon, DK, Hyrule Warriors, Smash Bros
The problem is that all of these were 2014 or later. Not putting 3D World or Skyward Sword as the big launch game was a MASSIVE fuckup.

>>712714274
they basically turned the 3DS into a DS-2

>>712713034
So then why is the switch 2 selling so well? It has less games than Wii U launch and a name just as lazy

>>712718610
I dunno about that. A lot of the DS's best were quick games that utilized the stylus. Most of 3DS's best stuff were long RPGs and games that ignored touch controls.

>>712712823 (OP)
The sales of the Wii were heavily front loaded. Nintendo had to replace the Wii earlier than Microsoft had to replace the Xbox 360 despite the fact that the Wii was released a later. In 2009 the sales of the Wii were already crumbling and in 2012, normalfags had already forgotten about the Wii. Nintendo didn't even tried to pander to any other gaming audience until 2014 when it was already too late to change anything.

>>712718610
The 3DS couldn't even beat the PSP in sales.

>>712718759
Switch 2 is a clearer name than Wii U. It is clearly a console, not a peripheral.

Switch 2 comes with Mario Kart World. Mario Kart outsold NSMB like 5:1 and World has a big, obvious new gimmick to make consumers go "Oh, this one is DIFFERENT! Wow!"

Switch 2 backwards compatibility was advertised better, and the Switch had far better core audience support and a very long shelf life, so people understand they can keep their existing games. The digital storefront being better also means people probably had a bunch of tiny, cheap games to tide them over.

Nintendo advertised Switch 2 will UPGRADE their Switch games, and the two biggest examples they gave were the smash-hit Switch launch game and its recent sequel. So some people are grabbing it like it's an iPhone revision and people who held out on Switch 1 are grabbing 2.

Switch 1 running games poorly was a big complaint, especially in the last few years. Consumers are eager to upgrade. Most Wii owners were fine with performance on Wii and didn't see a need to upgrade.

>>712712823 (OP)
It didn't. Nintendo was killing it the whole time. Wii U didn't hit numbers it should have because fake news sites like IGN were paid by Sony to lie about it and say it sucked. Period. Anyone saying otherwise either wasn't there or wasn't paying attention. But none of it mattered because Nintendo was cooking the whole time. Mario Kart 8 is one of the best selling games of all time. Wii U won in every objective measure. It is a better console than Xbox One and PS4 objectively speaking, it has better games. Xenoblade Chronicles X mogs those consoles hard.

At no point in time has Nintendo ever not been winning the console war. Take a close look at this chart. During the Wii U years, Nintendo was destroying Sony moreso than any other time. Now it's even worse.

>>712712823 (OP)
Terrible name. It's the kind of console nobody would want to admit owning. Imagine if Sony named the PS4 the Pissstation 4. Like who would admit owning it. Wii U is the worst console name of all time.

>>712719594
Nah it's the best. You're gay.

>>712719635
It was uglier than the PS5 too. Like Wii was sleek, it stood out, it looked good, Wii by itself sounds good. Wii U makes no freaking sense. They should have named it Wii 2 at least.

>>712712823 (OP)
Bad name, awful marketing and no console-selling games at launch. Simple as.

I think Nintendo bunted on it. I have a Wii U and most of my normie friends had no idea what it was or that the Wii U existed before they saw mine. They barely marketed it at all and stopped supporting it very quickly. I think they knew it would never be as successful as the Wii so they did the Wii U as an experiment. I also think it did even worse than their low expectations though.

>>712719707
It looks cool as fuck you're retarded the gamepad is kino

>>712712823 (OP)
Literally didnt have any exciting games coming up. It wasnt even a "Wii HD" because your existing Wii games looked and performed the exact same as on Wii.

>>712712823 (OP)
Wii was a giant shovelware station

When I worked at gamestop, people kept coming in and asking if all they needed was the gamepad, and if that was a wii console behind it.

>>712720268
Nah you just believed the lies I'm telling you. They tried to say Star Fox Zero was a bad game but it was just a desperate ploy from the fake gaming media to FUD Nintendo and it worked on you idiots. I swear on my life Star Fox Zero is a great game. Way better than anything on PS4.

I didn't even know it existed until Nintendo stopped making it. If someone showed it to me, I would have thought it was an accessory to the Wii. I tried buying one when they discontinued it but it was still full price lol.

>>712719580
>3 00 00 00 million (i.e. 3 billion million, i.e. 3^15 or 3 quadrillion)
who the fuck made this chart

>>712712823 (OP)
The Wii U was supposed to be the Switch, but they didn't have the technology/capability at the time so they compromised by basically finishing the "prototype" and released it

Prove me wrong

Handheld

>>712719461
>Nintendo was killing it the whole time.
Name 5 good Wii U games from 2013.

>>712722937
Opposite. They compromised since they realized most devs and users felt a separate touch screen on a big display was stupid. There were barely any games that utilized the tablet well where having JUST the tablet hurt it.

>>712714107
This. This is why. Wii was releasing all kinds of peripherals. Even I(closely following project cafe rumors) was confused by the reveal and thought it was a peripheral at first.

>>712712823 (OP)
Anecdotal, but when holiday season it came out, a gamestop employing was telling a parent that his old wiimotes won't work and he needed to buy 4 wii motion plus controllers
...to play New Super Mario Bros U

>>712712823 (OP)
A great case study of the correlation between "high sales" =/= "great and beloved memories"
Wii U had BotW even. It was made to be a Wii U title and finished as a Wii U title, and then they did some messing around in the final year to streamline all the Second-Screen features to a new version of othe game with an overuse of UI list-menus. When you're inside Divine Beasts you know that would've been on the Wii U Gamepad where you'd touch the different points of the Elephant's Snout to raise and lower the water-flow, while actively playing, un-paused, and then check the map in real-time at all times.

That was the whole point of those styles of dungeons. They're "Wii U Dungeons" but that's lost in translation because it ended up being a Switch-mained game.

But Wii U also had Xenoblade X and Mario Kart 8. It had some of the highest tier Nintendo stuff in the end.

>>712712823 (OP)
Everyone was playing skyrim, gta v and mobile games

Besides the confusing name and gimmick (should have just done a straight up Wii 2 with improved Wiimotes and launched with Wii Sports 2), it had no games for like 2 years. It was really bad. They should have waited until they had a SSB, Mario Kart or Zelda to launch with it

>>712712823 (OP)
The Wii U's "3D Mario" was all linear 3D levels just like 3D land and the non-sandbox Galaxy 1 and 2 levels.
In an alternate universe, Super Mario Odyssey would have released on the Wii U.

>>712715803
The Zelda 40th anniversary is next year.

>>712712823 (OP)
Bad marketing, normies trought thats as a Tablet assessory to The wii

>>712728978
Says who

>>712731278
anyone with a brain, i.e. not you