Destructoid Blog: "Is Wii U's Touch Screen Controller a Red Herring Hiding a Deeper Strategy?"

[DaRev]

DanneSandin said:

DaRev said:

RolStoppable said:
That's a lot of optimism coupled with ignoring reality. Based on Nintendo's financials it's pretty clear that Nintendo doesn't have much of a strategy. The THQ failure also shows that third parties would rather go bankrupt than reconsider their stance regarding game development on a Nintendo home console.

The blog post also tries its best to link the Wii and Wii U, but where this comparison crumbles is that the Wii was a hit while the Wii U is not. Additionally, Nintendo didn't bet the farm on the Wii. If the Wii struggled out of the gate, they had plenty of room to make a price cut. The Wii U, on the other hand, was a huge gamble.

What a load of rubbish, you can't be serious, and must be pulling the dude's leg,...right? But if you aren't:

1) How can yo honestly say Nintendo doesn't have a strategy after coming out first this new console generation, incorporating a fairly non-standrd controller, teaming up with 3rd parties, having cross over titles like Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei, embrassing online and HD convensions, etc.

2) The WiiU has been out just 3 months and is performing better than all but the Wii did at lauunch, so how can you say its not a hit?

3) The Wii was much more of a gamble than the WiiU because almost no one but Nintendo thought that a console focused solely on casual gaming, a term that almost didn't event exist until 2006, could survive or event beat the more powerful and conventional 360 and PS4. Now Nintendo and everybody else knows there is a casual maket which you can thrive on, just ask Apple. The Wii U is banking on that same casual market while extending its bet, a rather safe one, on the hardcore market. So I fail to see how the Wii U is this huge gamble.

1) Nintendo has a strategy, and it's apparently a bad one since Wii U is performing very bad at the moment. Looking at the weekly sales tells us there really is a low interest in the product. Is that what Nintendo was hoping for before launching the console?

2) Wii U did well upon it's initial launch, but the sales of 2013 has been VERY disappointing. Both Xbox360 and PS3 did much better numbers during their first January on the market. There's no way you can spin that.

3) The first point you're making is very true. Wii was something of a gamble, and it paid off. Wii U isn't. It's not a phenomenon that has captured the interest of the casual market, and I very much doubt it ever will.

1) Sales are bad maybe, but that's because Nintendo has not realease a game for the thing since its launch to drive the sales sofar  in 2013. When Nintendo releases its next game for the Wii U sales will jump drastically. And remeber the race is not for the swift, so Nintendo does have a plan to release games for the rest of 2013 not just the first part thereof.

2) Similar to the above, Nintedo specifically said they will not release any games Jan and Feb 2013, hence the low sales in 2013 so far. Tough, but that is what they chose to do, and I hope it means that in March to Dec 2013 they will have lots to show which will also drive sales of the console. They already annouced some hits to come out in 2013, so let just wait and see how 2013 sales turn out later on in the year.

3) Nintendo already expanded the market to now include casual players, so while those same gamers might not picke up the WiiU as fast as they did the Wii, they will eventually, which means that WiiU will sell slower but stay longer on the market than the Wii. So being a phenomenon is not really what Nintendo is after, and I don't understand why people keep judging the WiiU only against the Wii - why not measure it against 360 or PS3 also?