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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Miyamoto Expains Why Wii U has Failed

rmarier83 on 19 June 2015

Before the Wii U even launched I had the idea that it wouldn't do good based on these reasons:
- The casuals wouldn't be there: because they are people who already don't game that much, and
are already pretty complacent with the Wii they already have.
- Didn't stick with the motion controls and went with a new type of controller altogether
which would have them developing another "under-powered" system to keep the price low enough.
- During the Wii's generation, a lot of the games it received from 3rd parties were shovel-ware or low budget
and this was a system that had a larger install base.



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rmarier83 on 19 June 2015
naruball said:

"So I don’t think it’s just price, because if the system is appealing enough, people will buy it even if the price is a little bit high. I think with Wii U, our challenge was that perhaps people didn’t understand the system. But also I think that we had a system that’s very unique — and, particularly with video game systems, typically it takes the game system a while to boot up. And we thought that with a tablet-type functionality connected to the system, you could have the rapid boot-up of tablet-type functionality, you could have the convenience of having that touch control with you there on the couch while you’re playing on a device that’s connected to the TV, and it would be a very unique system that could introduce some unique styles of play.

I think unfortunately what ended up happening was that tablets themselves appeared in the marketplace and evolved very, very rapidly, and unfortunately the Wii U system launched at a time where the uniqueness of those features were perhaps not as strong as they were when we had first begun developing them. So what I think is unique about Nintendo is we’re constantly trying to do "unique" and different things. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they’re not as big of a hit as we would like to hope. After Wii U, we’re hoping that next time it will be a very big hit."

Jesus Chris, Miyamoto. How many times can you say unique in an interview? If anyone decided to play a drinking game, having a shot every time he says unique, I'm sure they'd be proper drunk by now.

As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't seem like he learned his lesson. Nothing about 3rd parties and how they need to establish better relationships with them, nothing about wii not supported well at the end of its lifetime. He also blames the audience for not understanding the system instead of realising it was perhaps a bad idea in the first place.

He gives me the impression that he thinks that they need to come up with another thing like motion controls and hope that the masses follow. Problem is, apart from motion controls and VR there aren't many things left to do and even VR will probably fail to attract the masses. So, as a business you have to rely on games (yes, 3rd and 1st party). New IPs are very important and the success of Splatoon clearly shows that.

You missed one (I used quotations)!



Aerys on 19 June 2015

" " 'we had a system that’s very unique "

" After Wii U, we’re hoping that next time it will be a very big hit. "


That sucks, they're talking like if Wii U was already a console from the past -_-



Predictions for end of 2014 HW sales:

 PS4: 17m   XB1: 10m    WiiU: 10m   Vita: 10m

 

naruball on 19 June 2015
rmarier83 said:
naruball said:

Jesus Chris, Miyamoto. How many times can you say unique in an interview? If anyone decided to play a drinking game, having a shot every time he says unique, I'm sure they'd be proper drunk by now.

As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't seem like he learned his lesson. Nothing about 3rd parties and how they need to establish better relationships with them, nothing about wii not supported well at the end of its lifetime. He also blames the audience for not understanding the system instead of realising it was perhaps a bad idea in the first place.

He gives me the impression that he thinks that they need to come up with another thing like motion controls and hope that the masses follow. Problem is, apart from motion controls and VR there aren't many things left to do and even VR will probably fail to attract the masses. So, as a business you have to rely on games (yes, 3rd and 1st party). New IPs are very important and the success of Splatoon clearly shows that.

You missed one (I used quotations)!


Damn. I think at some point, I simply gave up. Nice catch, though!



Nettles on 19 June 2015

It's very easy to work out.
Price is a factor.
No 3rd party.
Stupid name.
Poor/No advertising.
Casuals aren't buying it like they did with the Wii fad.



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Soundwave on 20 June 2015

He's actually not wrong entirely.

Firstly the Wii U is basically the same price the Wii was for many years ... the $50 difference is a wash when you factor in inflation. So that's not the issue.

The issue is casuals are more interested in other devices. That's the main thing that drove the Wii.

You have to understand too ... the Wii U probably sounded a hell of a lot more interesting back in 2009 when Nintendo was coming up with it because that was before the iPad/tablet had been introduced.

Once they finally got around to finishing the Wii U, the "hey family! gather around the tablet, we can play games and videos and video chat on it!" role was already filled by the iPad and ton of copy cats.

So the Wii U just looked like a me too product too even though it wasn't Nintendo's intent. Once Apple introduced the iPad they should've bailed on the idea.



Mummelmann on 20 June 2015

So, he's basically saying lack of appeal and the Gamepad was a huge problem? I could have sworn that someone has been saying so in here for years and even wrote enormous posts about it in a ridiculous thread that stole way too much time from everyone.



daredevil.shark on 20 June 2015
NintendoPie said:
BraLoD said:

That's not true, they moved by their own will, as it was a more appealing platform to them, didn't the Wii sales dropped a lot even before the Wii U?

The Wii's end of life was extremely mis-handled. That's one of the most obvious reasons for the Wii's steep decline from '11-'12.


Wii U also faces the same fate of Wii's steep decline in 2016.



Zappykins on 20 June 2015

I don't think the gamepad was ever a great idea. It was different, but never great.

The one area where it can shine is letting one person play differently than the others. Not sure how much they really got to use it - as it's an element of Fable Heros and upcoming game.

Plus the tablet was an expensive part of the hardware. And Microsoft showed off it's Xbox SmartGlass. While not really used (yet) in a similar way, it did defeat the momentum of the 'newness' of the WiiU Tablet.



 

Really not sure I see any point of Consol over PC's since Kinect, Wii and other alternative ways to play have been abandoned. 

Top 50 'most fun' game list coming soon!

 

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A.DelSarto on 20 June 2015

Looking back at E3 2011, it's clear that with the Wii U Nintendo tryed to aim both to hardcore and casual consumers, and by failing to reach both it showed that the two markets simply cannot be merged together in one product.
I guess the only choice for them is to shift back to hardcore and to the fanbase, but with the XB1 and PS4 getting stronger and stronger by 2016, i don't see how the NX could compete. Nintendo is in huge trouble now. Hope they'll manage to survive somehow.