When will Nintendo wake up to the Wii U issues?

[mike_intellivision]

Folks, first of all, I am not sure which is more "upsetting" -- Over-the-top doom and gloom on a Nintendo-focused or someone without any Nintendo games listed in their ownership starting a thread about it.

That being said, the article and the thread are relevant, The WiiU sales have fallen off for a variety of reasons since the "Holidays"/First of the (Western) Year -- lack of new games, lack of advertising, lack of understanding as to what the WiiU is, etc. It does not help that Nintendo nerfed Wii sales by announcing the new console a year (or at least six months) too early. It also does not help that the top third-party publisher, EA, is all upset because Nintendo decided it did not want to make the WiiU an Origin-only machine (which would have been the "unprecedented partnership." Related to this, Nintendo tried to be kind to third parties which have treated it like a poor choice for two decades. In general, these monolithic corporations want things their own way, even when they are wrong.

(On a side note, relying on the stock market as the ultimate barometer can be folly. Stock prices actually go up when leaders are fired or workers are laid off. They can go down when near-record profits are announced.)

What are the solutions?

First of all, get games out there. Nintendo is working in that direction. As has been the case since the N64 days, it will have to "carry the load" with first party titles. My guess is that Mario Kart will be out for Christmas. That game WILL move product. A 3-D Mario would also be nice, provided you will have Zelda and SSB for Holiday 2014. However, Nintendo cannot release everything all at once. That makes it difficult for people to buy and you cannot over-compensate for several bad months by taking actions that leave you without product several years down the road.

Second, Nintendo needs to get the word out. And it needs to reach the right audience. It is doing some of that in North America. Did you know that WiiU and SMB-WiiU are the sponsors of the 2013 Kids Choice Awards. That rolls on every promo for the event on the US cable channel Nickelodeon (and possibly in other markets too as Nick is a global channel.) It fits the demographic profile that is a main target of Nintendo. It is a good start. Now get a game where you can run ads like are being done for the new Luigi's Mansion on 3DS and you will be in business.

Third, Nintendo has to be be ready to promote what your competition won't let you do. Is their price point too high? (The rumored $429/$529 without a game for the PS4 makes the $350 WiiU Deluxe look like a good deal.) Do they have content control? (The rumored prevention of locking games to consoles or always having to be on of the NextBox fits into this category, meaning that the WiiU lets you "try before you buy" or "invite friends over to play.")

Fourth, Nintendo needs to keep working to improve the experience. This includes getting the Virtual Console up-and-running, improving load times, and creating a mechanism for people to transfer items from one WiiU to another akin to what it has for the 3DS).

Five, Nintendo will need to change its product offering. The basic model is not desired. So look for that model to be eliminated. The current deluxe model will get NintendoLand pre-loaded and be offered at a lower price, at least $100 lower than the competition. There will also be bundles at Christmas (Mario Kart). And eventually, colors and greater memory (hence the reason for the transfer mechanism noted in Item 4. Nintendo needs to be able to get people to buy "upgrades" just as Sony and Microsoft have done).

Mike from Morgantown