Michael Corvin

34 minutes? How about the highlights?

Adam Tyner

Ha, that was my reaction too.

Michael Corvin

I'm going to assume they took 34 minutes to say it needs games, third party support and a price drop?

RichC2

tl;dw

Supermallet

Thanks for the video, moviefan.

Decker

So just to be clear : you're saying the reason that the WiiU is flopping isn't the price or the lack of 3rd party support but rather it's because they don't advertise off-screen play enough and because they took Nintendo Land out of the bundle?

Decker

I agree there's no reason to not keep it in the bundle. It's a fine tech demo and hardens back to Wii Sports which was a huge factor in the early success of the Wii. I just don't think it sells many systems in the same way that Wii Sports did. I didn't know that about the Swap Force bundle.

Adam Tyner

That's been the case for me recently. I've said before that I'm thinking about picking up Wii U bundles for my kid brother and kid sister (they're on opposite ends of the country, so that'd be two separate bundles), and the right pack-in would make a huge difference. I'd prefer to get something their families could sit down and play together, and Nintendo Land fits that bill better, for my money.

I think arrogance might be their single biggest problem.

Seemingly every other game and peripheral for the Wii had the word "Wii" in there somewhere.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Wii Sports Resort
Mario Kart Wii
Wii Fit
Wii Fit Plus
Wii Sports
Wii Party
Wii Chess
Wii Music
Wii Play
Just Dance Wii
Wiimote
Wii Motion Plus
Wii Balance Board
Wii Wheel
...and on and on and on and on.

Given all that, it's completely reasonable that someone who saw a Wii U would expect it to be a peripheral, especially when Nintendo couldn't be bothered to market the console, what few ads there were frequently placed the Wiimotes front and center, the logo is identical (would your average guy on the street even recognize that as a "U"?), the design of the game cases is similar enough, and even the physical console is kind of a dead ringer for the Wii.

It's understandable, given the Wii's colossal success, that Nintendo would want to capitalize on it, but they clearly didn't think things through or even do any meaningful market research (unless they did and just ignored the results).

Coming off the Wii presents its own set of problems too. There wasn't any momentum to capitalize on, seeing as how Nintendo basically abandoned the Wii for its last few years. They tried to ride the coattails of a console that was caked under inches of dust in most households. Even with the PS4 launching, the PS3 is having one of its best years ever. The PS3 and 360 are both well-supported and look to be very viable consoles for the near future. The Wii, meanwhile, was long-neglected before the Wii U limped onto store shelves, and I think that hurt it. Initial sales for the Wii U were undeniably strong, but I'd bet most of that number came from Nintendo's most rabid fans (and from surely disappointed speculators).

With the Wii, Nintendo reached outward to pull in people outside of their usual userbase (hell, attracting people who didn't game at all too). With the Wii U, Nintendo seems to just be preaching to the converted. The Wii was instantly alluring because you could see someone swipe their arm and see a tennis racket move. You understand the general idea in seconds; it was really streamlined and really different. The gamepad, as much as I love it, isn't exactly pick-up-and-play for someone who's not used to that sort of thing. It's kind of intimidating.

I was skeptical until I actually held one in my hands, but I was expecting the gamepad to be bulky and cumbersome. Those sorts of expectations could've hit hard. The anemic battery life is pretty tough to forgive, especially since you can't plug it in and keep playing as easily as you can with the 360 (if you have the play/charge kit) or the PS3. You're not allowed to get lost in a game and play for hours on end. The gamepad offers a lot of really unique possibilities. I'm a huge fan of what it does for local multiplayer, and I'm getting to be a fan of offscreen play, but the appeal is much tougher to quickly convey than the Wii's motion controls. There's no gamepad equivalent to Wii Sports: something you can understand with a glance and something that just feels essential. I like Nintendo Land and all, but it's not even close to fitting that bill.

I love a bunch of games for the Wii U. In less than a year, I have more games for it than I did for the GameCube and the original Wii (not too far from my 360 either), and I'm a huge fan of just about all of 'em too. At the same time, a fair number of those are multiplatform releases. I like New Super Mario Bros. U, although Rayman Legends is a better 2D platformer for my money. I liked Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 7, but Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is a more creative and more infectiously fun kart racer than either of those games. I know those Ubi and Sega titles didn't exactly tear up the charts, but still, Nintendo has some competition (and on other consoles to boot) in the genres that they used to do better than anyone. At least up to this point, there's not an absolute must-have on the order of Wii Sports, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, Goldeneye, etc. There are plenty of very, very, very good games, but nothing that's I-have-to-have-this-or-my-life-is-incomplete. (I do think that the next Smash Bros., Super Mario 3D World, and the next Mario Kart will hit those marks for me, though!)

The dismal sales shortly after launch reflect Nintendo's inability to get games out on time. It's okay that they didn't have the most phenomenal launch, but they should've held off on launching the console until more games were at least further along in the pipeline. With Nintendo having such a colossal warchest, it's baffling why they didn't pick up at least one or two studios better versed in HD game development to help them along or at least beef up the release slate. Nintendo said that they were unprepared for the resources demanded by the switch to HD, which...I don't know how deeply they'd shoved their heads in the sand seeing as how every other developer in Japan was complaining about this in 2005. Iwata apologizes with every platform launch about the lack of games after launch, and he refuses to learn from the mistakes of the past.

I know a lot of people harp about the Wii U for being underpowered, but that's not really a concern of mine. Still, I've read about how closely Sony (and I'm sure the same is true for Microsoft) worked with third parties to help shape their new consoles, and it's hard to imagine Nintendo doing anything like that and making the decisions they have. They're about to be the odd man out as far as architecture goes, and having to invest more money and more time into ports will make third party support even tougher to shore up.

I wonder if the success of the 3DS is hurting the Wii U to a point with similar titles on both platforms. If I want to play Mario Kart, I can do that on the 3DS. If I want to play a 2D or a 3D Mario game, I have those options too. We just got Donkey Kong Country Returns on the 3DS; could that hurt sales of Tropical Freeze? I wish Nintendo would leverage more of its characters and franchises, maybe using that as a differentiator between its portable and console releases. I love Mario platformers as much as the next guy, but how about Starfox? F-Zero? Metroid? How about some sports games (licensed, even?) that are more arcade-y and pick-up-and-play instead of intensely simulation-ish? I'm not arguing that any one of those games will save the Wii U, and I don't think those even have to come at the expense of a new Mario game, but each one could be part of a strong, eclectic library. Momentum can sometimes be more meaningful than a single knockout punch.

It's a mistake for Nintendo to release two of their biggest titles -- Super Mario 3D World and A Link Between Worlds -- on the exact same day, and it's even worse that they're coming out the day the Xbox One launches. Everyone's attention will be on the new consoles. I know not everyone will be shelling out hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a PS4 or Xbox One then, but those will still be what everyone's talking about, those are the displays that'll be front and center in stores, that'll be what the media is focused on, that'll eat up all the headlines, that'll gobble up the marquee review space, etc., etc., etc. Even if Nintendo stuck with the simultaneous Mario/Zelda release, debuting them two weeks earlier would make an absolute world of difference.

I do still think the Wii U is a $249 console (maaaaaybe $279) and that the current asking price of $299 is still too high. Then there's the lack of a unified store, the tiny, wildly overpriced trickle of games in the Virtual Console, weak online support, tiny storage (expandable or not), the much-touted TVii concept that never went anywhere, and on and on and on. There's the whole third-party support thing too, of course. I was going to let the Wii U be my third-party console of choice until the Xbox One and PS4 came out, but the lack of DLC (or lengthy delays/refusal to confirm DLC plans) kept me away from some of 'em, like Injustice: Gods Among Us. Its ports arriving later or in a shoddier form -- not consistently, but it's happened -- sure doesn't help either. It should be noted too that some of the exclusives for the Wii U have been kind of unsatisfying. Looking at some GameRankings scores, Wii Party U has a 63% rating, Scribblenauts Unmasked is at 67%, Sonic: Lost World is at 61%, Game and Wario is also at 61%, Pokemon Rumble U is at 48%...

I don't know. Sure, Nintendo pulled the 3DS out of its tailspin, but handhelds are such a different world that I think it's apples and oranges. I don't know who the Wii U is meant for, exactly. It's not streamlined enough to instantly appeal to casual gamers and non-gamers the way the Wii did. It's not muscular enough for the hardcore crowd. Nintendo engineered a console it couldn't and won't market. I love, love, love my Wii U, and I want to see it and Nintendo as a whole succeed. I just don't know if the people calling the shots are capable of it.

Whew! I didn't mean to write that much. Sorry. tl;dr

Supermallet

Ah crap, I didn't realize A Link Between Worlds was coming out on the same day as the One. I have my copy pre-ordered at Gamestop. That is going to be a hellish pickup.

Decker

Great (albeit long) post, AT!
I think you hit on a lot of good points. I mentioned in the Monday Poll thread that I personally feel that the 3DS does a good enough job of scratching my Nintendo franchise itch. So far there hasn't been one WiiU game I felt I was missing out on by not being able to play in an entire year -- and that's odd for a voracious video game consumer like me. Maybe there are some games out there I'd really enjoy, no doubt, but so far there hasn't been anything that I felt I had to go out and buy the system for.

While they wanted to court the core gamer with this system, I don't think they ever actually addressed the reasons why said gamer wasn't playing his Wii for years : It was underpowered, no third party games of note and gimmicky controls. Sure the controller is better now, but the other concerns still stand.

XavierMike

You could cancel and go digital. That's what I'm doing for the same reason.

Supermallet

No, I'll brave the crowds.

Michael Corvin

I'm sure the hoopla will have died by lunch time.

Adam Tyner

Neat! I just ordered the Fit Meter.

bippitty

I suspect they assumed that those millions of casuals that bought the Wii were now committed Nintendo gamers. I think that was a mistaken assumption.

The motion controls of the Wii were something different. The touchscreen is old and familiar by now. Too many people have smart phones and tablets. Combine the lack of "Gee whiz!" with the higher price and I think most of the Wii buyers fade away.

I never do local multiplayer and I never have to give up my TV, so I don't see what the gamepad does for me. I tend to play games for long stretches, so the battery life is a concern. I don't like the idea of a resistive touchscreen either. I didn't like using the stylus on the DS. I hate screen protectors with the fire of a supernova.

If I could have gotten the Windwaker disc and console for $299, I would have gotten it. So $249 for the bare console seems like a good price. Unfortunately, once the PS4 shows up...and maybe the One down the road...and I can't get rid of the 360 or PS3...the Wii U becomes more and more unlikely.

A fairly apt summation of my thoughts on the Wii U and Nintendo. Aside from the "love, love, love" bit.

Adam Tyner

Fingers crossed for a price match somewhere online!

mattysemo247

Isn't that the discontinued base model? Did they just take them all and re-bundle them with Skylanders?

Adam Tyner

Yeah.

Mok

Finally got my Wii u back from repair they had to replace the mother board.

Moopher

I finally saw a Wii U commercial and it was for Super Mario World 3D. So, that's a first.

RichC2

About the right time of year for that, around December of last year I saw a ton of New Super Mario Bros U and Nintendoland advertisements. Then they stopped for a good 10 months

Adam Tyner

At the risk of sounding dumb, what do I do with the Wii U Fit Meter?

Whenever I turn it on, it shows a graphic of the gamepad. Holding it up to the gamepad when powered on does nothing. There's no sync/pair option in Wii Fit U or any of the menus I've checked. My box had a generic booklet but provided zero guidance about what to do once I take out the little slip for the battery.

RichC2

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/qote2tHuJCQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Adam Tyner

Oh, I assumed it was under a top level menu or under "Setup" rather than under the Body Test. I've got it now.

Quack

Been playing a lot of NSMBU finally and am really enjoying it. You know you're loving a game when you get angry and yell at Mario for not obeying you completely.