The Wii was able to re-capture the gaming market with an innovative experience, contemporary styling, fresh versions of classic franchises, new titles that appealed to a broad demographic and the ground-breaking nostalgia feeding Virtual Console. 30 million gamers who had avoided the purple lunch box were pumped to play the first 2D Mario on a home console in decades.
Unfortunately for Nintendo, those same gamers eventually picked up 360s and PS3s when their prices came down and they purchased HDTVs. This made Wii's passe, and motion gaming had lost its novelty. Now with established online friend networks and big 3rd party game franchises like COD, GTA and Assassin's Creed, there was no need to move back to a Nintendo console.
Essentially Nintendo lost all of their good will gained by Wii by the time Wii U launched. Further, the challenge of converting customers is harder than ever because of established online accounts that gamers don't want to abandon. To lure gamers away from other options, Wii U needed to be fresh, innovative, cool and have the image of modern. It would also help if it legitimately looked like an alternative to One or 4.
Wii U did none of this. Worse, it did the opposite. The styling was identical to the dated Wii look. The games were either boring straight-sequels of Wii titles (FitU, SportsU, NSMBU, Tropical Freeze) or worse, lame-sounding alternatives (SM3DW instead of Super Mario Galaxy). I'm not bashing the quality of the titles, only the image of them. Donkey Kong Country Returns sounds like a title that is bringing me back to my SNES days loving DKC and pulls at my nostalgic heart strings; DKC: Tropical Freeze sounds like a lame, kid-focused side story.
The Gamepad compounded matters. The idea was not terrible: add a touchscreen that casual gamers are loving right now, allow for Smart Device ports and software ideas to be shared between the DS line and home consoles. Unfortunately, the Gamepad comes off looking like a Frankenstein version of a clunky controller and a dated tablet or Leapfrog toy. The rapidly advancing tablet market has devices that are thin, stylish Ultra-high resolution and have capacitive touch screens. The Gamepad, instead of making Wii U seem trendy, makes it seem dated. To make matters worse, it makes the system more expensive than it needs to be.
I see two options that Nintendo could have tried to win gamers back from PS360: 1., they could have launched Wii 2, with a new, greatly improved motion tech and Wii Remotes 2 that were to Wii what SNES pads were to NES pads; ie, give them 4 face buttons, maybe an analogue stick, a better nunchuck, etc. Give the system more power than the Wii U had but keep the cost in check. Launch with Super Mario Galaxy 3 and some real cool new motion-sensing game that couldn't have been done on Wii. A second option would have been to ditch the Wii branding entirely and go with a classic hardcore gaming console. Tell gamers Wii was fun and all, but we're going back to our roots. Call the system NES2 and launch it with some core titles and blow some cash on 3rd parties. I think either option might have worked.
But the Wii U option did pretty much everything wrong in terms of capturing the public consciousness. It lacked inspiration and a clear direction, and that's why it failed.
