This is the Problem(Main) of the Wii U

[Arlo]

Soundwave said:

I've spoken to some casual gaming friends of mine and asked them straight up why they're not interested in Wii U. Some were confused about it, some knew Wii U was a new thing and still weren't interested, I had them all play the Wii U and they had a good time when they came over ... but none of them bought the system.

The general vibe I got from them was this ... they never viewed the "Wii" concept as an iterative thing that they would buy over and over again. It was a one time thing they bought primarily for Wii Sports and Wii Fit, with a little Guitar Hero and Mario and Just Dance on the side.

But beyond that they weren't interested in revisiting the idea or buying a "new" Wii every 5-6 years. It was more like once you buy that one version of Monopoly (the board game) you generally don't buy a new Monopoly every 5-6 years even though there are different versions of it.

And they generally actually all liked Nintendo Land and other stuff, but it was more of a "oh that's neat", but not a "oh my god, I need to have this in my life right now".

I think we just kind of assumed that people who liked the Wii would buy the Wii successor, but they are a different audience that doesn't operate the way the standard gaming audience would, and this is also part of the problem.

The Wii for my age range was a breakthrough, because I know like 20 people who own the Wii, I'd say 7-8 of them would never buy a modern game console, but they did get the Wii. But I've had these people over to my house and even explained to them to the Wii concept, had them play some games on it, and they still are not buying the system, even after they admit to having fun with it. Nintendo Land actually got a huge amount of laughs from people playing ... they like it. Same with Mario Kart 8. Of like the 20 people I know that had a Wii, myself and my brother are the only two with a Wii U and we basically buy every Nintendo system (Nintendo lifers). 

Your experience reflects mine pretty closely, and it's a concept that so many people just don't get.  Even if it's been marketed badly or whatever, it's the console itself that just isn't that appealing to most people.  It's possible to just plain have an unappealing product regardless of how you market it.  In fact I even have a lot of friends who have been Nintendo fans their whole lives and still just don't want the thing, at least not at this price.  They don't feel there's enough value there.