| Soundwave said: Not only is it a similar concept, Nintendo even used similar terminology for the Wii U. Here is the very first introduction trailer for the Wii U from E3 2011: https://youtu.be/4e3qaPg_keg?t=11s The first thing that it says is: "Switch from the TV to the new controller". |
Man, it would be hilarious if that's where Nintendo came up with the name for the Switch. Still, similar or no, the Switch's positioning in the market is different from that of the Wii U.
| gingergaymer said: I agree with everything except that Nintendo decided not to rescue the Wii U with heavy price cuts because consoles are not vitally important to their business. I think it had more to do with not being able to afford it, or at the very least not willing to part with their precious cash reserves in order to do it. After already taking losses on the 3DS, I'm not sure even heavier losses on the Wii U would have been tolerated by investors. I'm not even sure it would have paid off anyway; even if the price of the Wii U dropped significantly, I don't think it would have dramatically increased sales because the system had other crippling problems besides price, so Nintendo would've likely lost more money. |
I'd argue that, if consoles were truly important to Nintendo, they would have found the money to do something to save it. After all, they had a ton of cash after the run-away success of the Wii and DS. Their investors would just have to accept the temporary losses -- unless they thought the idea itself was so terrible that it could not be salvaged, which would make me ask how the concept ever got off the ground in the first place.
I think the Wii U could have sold much better if they'd taken action early on by cutting by immediately cutting $100 off its asking price, removing the built-in gamepad, investing heavily in first/second party games, and paying third parties to bring games to their platform. No way would it ever sell PS4 numbers, but I bet it would have sold a bare minimum of 2x as much as it did.
