I'm talking about the Wii "something" IP, not the hardware itself.
Look at how insanely popular the franchise was:
| Game | Platform | Year | Genre | Publisher | North America | Europe | Japan | Rest of World | Global |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wii Sports | Wii | 2006 | Sports | Nintendo | 41.28 | 28.90 | 3.77 | 8.44 | 82.39 |
| Wii Sports Resort | Wii | 2009 | Sports | Nintendo | 15.54 | 10.86 | 3.27 | 2.93 | 32.60 |
| Wii Play | Wii | 2006 | Misc | Nintendo | 13.94 | 9.16 | 2.93 | 2.84 | 28.88 |
| Wii Fit | Wii | 2007 | Sports | Nintendo | 8.92 | 8.03 | 3.60 | 2.14 | 22.69 |
| Wii Fit Plus | Wii | 2009 | Sports | Nintendo | 8.98 | 8.40 | 2.53 | 1.77 | 21.68 |
| Wii Party | Wii | 2010 | Misc | Nintendo | 1.74 | 3.42 | 2.49 | 0.68 | 8.32 |
| Wii Music | Wii | 2008 | Misc | Nintendo | 1.35 | 1.11 | 0.46 | 0.32 | 3.24 |
| Wii Party U | WiiU | 2013 | Action | Nintendo | 0.29 | 0.39 | 0.81 | 0.07 | 1.57 |
|
(this game is undertracked by a lot, people) |
Wii | 2011 | Misc | Nintendo | 0.22 | 0.41 | 0.18 | 0.09 | 0.91 |
| Wii Fit U | WiiU | 2013 | Action | Nintendo | 0.20 | 0.12 | 0.19 | 0.03 | 0.53 |
| Wii Sports Club | WiiU | 2014 | Action | Nintendo | 0.08 | 0.06 | 0.02 | 0.01 | 0.17 |
Even if it was mostly successful due to its appeal to the casual market, you can't deny the Wii brand was key to the Wii's success. Without Wii Sports, the Wii wouldn't have sold the same, and the successes of the peripheals like the Wii Balance Board or the Motion Plus was due to these games. Hell, even Wii Music sold great.
Now look at the franchise. The original WIi Sports outsold Wii Sports Club by more than 484 times its numbers. That is abismal.
I still think the Wii brand has posibilities, but trying to appeal to the same public it once had when the markes has changed so much is the wrong option. They don't have to be million sellers, but they at least have to get close to it. How can Wii "something" games appeal to the WiiU public again?
I think that making Wii Sports games more competitive would be a first. Instead of a FIFA, Madden, NFL... make Wii Soccer, Wii Basketball, Wii Rugby... Give them a good online service, make a leaderboard, allow matches to be broadcasted live on Youtube or Twitch, create a betting system using some kind of in-game points (allow betting in spectator mode too), make monthly or yearly tournaments, in both Co-op and full VS (if they want to, they could add 8 vs 8 players online, just to put EA sports to shame), allow a lot of customization (Nintendo themed), allow Nintendo characters to play on their teams using Amiibo...
With the educational and health ones (Music, Fit...), use them on the QoL systems, and don't make them so simple (looking at you, Wii Music).
The Party series is a bit more difficult, because it has to compete with Mario Party and WarioWare, but it's the most popular on the WiiU, so no worries for now.
EDIT: I see that a lot of people think Nintendo should get rid of the Wii brand altogether. If there's no more Wii hardware in the future, do you think the Wi "something" games could survive on it? Could they still carry the Wii title, or they would need to rebrand or reboot the IP? How would you rebrand or reboot the IP?
