The WiiU name confusion

[teigaga]

Well the only relevant people to ask that question to is people who work in retail.

A few thoughts though:

You can't buy a gamepad by itself (or at least not without contacting Nintendo directly)

The name is obviously a contributor to its poor performance, but if there was underlying demand for what the system was offering (hardware/software) it could get past that.

People are confused at what it is, most things I'm confused about I pay no attention to. My sister owns a wii asked me if I was getting a PS4 for Christmas ( I did't)I told her I was getting a Wii U for christmas (I didn't in the end). Her response was, we've already got that, you can burrow mine if you want. I said no this is the Wii U its a new console, she asked why are you buying it? I said because MArio kart 8, she asked doesn't that work on the wii? I said no.... Long story short, she is completely over the wii and wii fad, she has no thoughts to offer on the gamepad, she has no idea whats going on in Nintendo world and has no interest in finding out. The name is obviously an issue for this conversation to have happened in 2014. My sister is not a massive mario fan but she spoke to me about the new Zelda game (like 6months after it was announced), so she's excited about that, lets see what she see's fit to do when its released.

My take: If you were to think something was a $70+ accessory and it turned out to be $300 Mario Kart box (or in my sisters case, a Zelda box) you would probably laugh and walk away.