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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - This is the Problem(Main) of the Wii U

Dr.Henry_Killinger on 03 September 2015
Slarvax said:
Wasn't the Wii main marketing based on the Wii mote? The console was there, but "Wii-'d like to play" was showing the controller, not the console. How'd you explain that?
Dr.Henry_Killinger said:
Johnw1104 said:

I'm glad nintendo is around. You know year after year Sony and Microsoft will release consoles with only the smallest of differences and you generally pick one as the experience is so similar; we don't need a third clone. They do weird things that, while often not popular, are different. I love the Wii U and enjoy the experience, it's just that most people only get one console and you've access to far less games on Nintendo's console.

As much as we blame marketing I don't see this console selling well under any circumstances without third party support and a better online experience.

The Wii U is a great console, which is why I'm perpetually disatisfied in the way it was treated. As much as third party support and online seem like obvious issues, there just symptoms of the fact that Nintendo failed to capture the public's intrest like they did with the Wii, which had pretty inferior 3rd party and rudimentary online as well. The issue is that Nintendo treated the Wii U exactly like they treated the WIi and expected lightning to strike twice.

The reason for not showing the console as much as the games and the controllers worked was because of how drastically different the Wii was from the Game Cube. Meanwhile, when the Wii U came out as the only 8th gen console around, people bought Wii's thinking they could just get the tablet seperatly and use it on the Wii. I mean why spend 200$ on a Wii U when you could get a wii for 99$ and buy the tablet by itself.

The problem in marketting is indicative of an even greater Nintendo design flaw with the Wii U, they where so focused on the Tablet caused thats what sold the Wii, the controller, essentially disregarding the main console. The result being that the main part of the console they could show off was the Tablet themselves. 

Its the Author equivalent of writing themselves into a Corner.

I think the problem is simple while the solution itself is what is complex.



In this day and age, with the Internet, ignorance is a choice! And they're still choosing Ignorance! - Dr. Filthy Frank

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Arlo on 03 September 2015
Dr.Henry_Killinger said:
Arlo said:
Someone please paint me a picture of a consumer who doesn't want the Wii U because all they know is the controller, and would suddenly want it because they saw more of the console itself. Because I'm starting to see this as a sort of straw man argument. The type of consumer who is really that clueless already doesn't want it. If they're not drawn in by the controller concept (or, you know, the games on the system), then how is anything else going to help?

I agree that this a *a* problem with the Wii U, but it's not *the* problem. The biggest problem is that people just don't want the games on it enough to buy it. But that's not something that a lot of people want to accept.

Your conflating not wanting the console and being misinformed about the console.

What I am pointing out is that people didn't know about Nintendo's new console, instead beliving that the Wii U was simply the tablet a peripheral for the console. A result of the prevalence of the Wii U tablet in all its promotional material and the similarities in console design of the wii u and the wii.

The reason this is THE problem is because information determines every other consumer interaction with a product, commercialism 101.

"Want" does not even exist, without at the very least "Familarity"

Furthermore, here is the truth about consumers preferences in a nutshell. You can flat out tell consumers what they want and make them want it, its simply a matter of marketting

Let me address this further point directly:

The type of consumer who is really that clueless already doesn't want it.

* What about people buying it for others like I don't know, parents?

If they're not drawn in by the controller concept (or, you know, the games on the system), then how is anything else going to help?

 

* Once again, Parents. Plus regardless of whether or not you like the controller, if you don't know it goes with the Wii U system, then would wonder why the tablet comes with another Wii when you already have a Wii.

I just plain disagree with all that, but I guess I'm too lazy to get too into it.  At the end of the day I don't believe different marketing would have made that big of a difference.  I don't think failing to grab the attention of the uninformed parent is the Wii U's only flaw.  Kids tend to know stuff about what they want, and if they want it, they'll ask for it.  Informed gamers are a very large demographic, and they've shown that they don't want it even though they all know what it is.  So if Nintendo's main goal is to primarily grab the dumb parents and who cares if a hundred million actual gamers are interested, they're not even a gaming company anymore and they've got bigger problems.



http://www.youtube.com/ArloStuff

Arlo on 03 September 2015
Soundwave said:

I've spoken to some casual gaming friends of mine and asked them straight up why they're not interested in Wii U. Some were confused about it, some knew Wii U was a new thing and still weren't interested, I had them all play the Wii U and they had a good time when they came over ... but none of them bought the system.

The general vibe I got from them was this ... they never viewed the "Wii" concept as an iterative thing that they would buy over and over again. It was a one time thing they bought primarily for Wii Sports and Wii Fit, with a little Guitar Hero and Mario and Just Dance on the side.

But beyond that they weren't interested in revisiting the idea or buying a "new" Wii every 5-6 years. It was more like once you buy that one version of Monopoly (the board game) you generally don't buy a new Monopoly every 5-6 years even though there are different versions of it.

And they generally actually all liked Nintendo Land and other stuff, but it was more of a "oh that's neat", but not a "oh my god, I need to have this in my life right now".

I think we just kind of assumed that people who liked the Wii would buy the Wii successor, but they are a different audience that doesn't operate the way the standard gaming audience would, and this is also part of the problem.

The Wii for my age range was a breakthrough, because I know like 20 people who own the Wii, I'd say 7-8 of them would never buy a modern game console, but they did get the Wii. But I've had these people over to my house and even explained to them to the Wii concept, had them play some games on it, and they still are not buying the system, even after they admit to having fun with it. Nintendo Land actually got a huge amount of laughs from people playing ... they like it. Same with Mario Kart 8. Of like the 20 people I know that had a Wii, myself and my brother are the only two with a Wii U and we basically buy every Nintendo system (Nintendo lifers). 

Your experience reflects mine pretty closely, and it's a concept that so many people just don't get.  Even if it's been marketed badly or whatever, it's the console itself that just isn't that appealing to most people.  It's possible to just plain have an unappealing product regardless of how you market it.  In fact I even have a lot of friends who have been Nintendo fans their whole lives and still just don't want the thing, at least not at this price.  They don't feel there's enough value there.



http://www.youtube.com/ArloStuff

foxtail on 03 September 2015
Skullwaker said:
The reason behind this issue really is that the console itself doesn't look too different from the original Wii.
Hence, they showed off the gamepad to highlight the difference but it backfired and came off as a peripheral. What they should've done was design the console itself to have a more unique appearance in the first place.

I think that they had limited options when designing a console that small with a front loading drive.  

The proprietary Panasonic pseudo Blu-ray drive takes up more than half the case.

The proprietary disc drive is that silver box in the top of the picture (front of the console).

Nintendo did try to differentiate the Wii U from the Wii by using black instead of white for the chief console color (while also making the Wii Mini red.)

But I agree that it didn't help that the general shape of the consoles stayed the same.

edit:

I also agree that Nintendo was deliberately hiding the console to showcase the gamepad (even from the beginning reveal at E3) and that it was a mistake because people do like to see what the actual console looks like too.  



the_dark_lewd on 03 September 2015

This only really applies to the casuals. All hardcore gamers new fully well what it was and what it did. Those who didn't buy it did so because of other reasons (in my opinion, a combination of a lack of gamers in the first year with the fact that the so called "dudebro" market has been claimed by Sony and Microsoft)



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Porcupine_I on 04 September 2015

Wait? Are you telling me the Wii U is not just a new controller for the Wii?

I never knew



“It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grams a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it.”

- George Orwell, ‘1984’

Nogamez on 04 September 2015

This is exactly why wii u failed hard. Every advert I saw made it look like a new controller for wii. Like all the Zapper, wii fit etc.



Never on 04 September 2015

It probably is like miyamoto said. Poor sale due to the price, high quality tablets being common place and the lack of games early on in the systems life.

System did get a raw deal though. It's well worth owning. The general fanboy negativity online did feel more anti nintendo than ive ever seen before, early in the systems life. It's gone down to normal levels now.



Miyamotoo on 04 September 2015

I always said that Wii U failed and bad marketing was single biggest problem for Wii U, especially in combination with stupid name that only asure lots a people that Wii U is in fact addon for Wii.
Add to that very weak launch titles, high price in comparison with PS3/Xbox 360 on which same games worked and looked better than on Wii U, software droughts...that all lead to terrible sales and 3rd party abandoning console.

Wii U was relly bloody mess, but failed and bad marketing was single biggest problem, I think just with normal and not misunderstood marketing Wii U would be at least on pair with GC in sales numbers.

Just look this, even retailers were totally confused, what then to say for potential buyers!?






And that I am very confident about NX, because Nintendo is very aware about all things they screwed with Wii U, and just if don't repeat them, NX will have much better sales even without strong gimmick or new concept of playing.



Tachikoma on 04 September 2015

heres the real problem

they called it WiiU.

 

Think of past naming conventions and the reasons behind them

PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, all selling well.

PSP, PSP 2000, PSP 3000, PSP 4000all selling well

PSP Go, sold craply

PS Vita, sold poorly

 

Xbox, new product, sold alright considering

Xbox 360, sold very well

Xbox one, so-so.

NES > Super NES, logical changes, sold well

N64 - sold decently, released in an era of 32bit consoles, 64bit touted as a selling point

Gamecube, sold poorly.

Wii, sold extremely well

Wii U, selling poorly, half the people that bought a Wii didn't even realize it was a new console

Gameboy, sold well everyone knew it was greenscale colors

Gameboy color, ooo now it has color? sold well

Gameboy advance, oo an advanced gameboy?, sold well

DS, its like a game boy with TWO screens!, sold very well

3DS, its like a Ds, but does glasses free 3D! sold very well

making the actual console portion itself look so similar to the original wii just "rounded off" did them no favors either, it just reinforced the assumption that the wiiu was an expensive consoller with a screen for the wii

 

Had they even just used 2 instead of U, it would have been more popular.