What do you guys think led to the Wii U's failure? Ik this has probably been talked about quite a bit already, but I wanna see your most recent perspective on this.
From my perspective here in the U.S, I think the Wii U failed because it felt too similiar to the Wii which not only left a lot of confusion regarding what the Wii U actually was, but it failed to provide the same hook or gimmick that made stuff like the Wii & Switch successful.
Way too many times during the Wii U era I've seen people who were completely confused about what the Wii U actually was and heard a ton of different (& wrong) stories about what the Wii U was from people. Of course the biggest story I heard was many people thinking it was just a controller add-on for the original Wii, but I've also met a person who thought the Wii U was exclusively a handheld, had many people call the Wii U "a Wii" or a "Wii 2", even have someone completely forget the name calling it the "Wii I" of all things lol. It actually felt rare to find someone who actually truly understood what a Wii U was, which was a next gen console succeeding the Wii. Feel like this was a pretty big part in why the Wii U failed.
Also, even if someone were to understand what the Wii U was, I don't think it's main gimmick was really impressive enough at all for most people to feel the need to spend 300+$ on it. It really felt like it was just marketed as a Wii with a new controller, and many people weren't impressed enough with a second screen gamepad controller. I feel like many people saw through it and realized the gamepad wasn't really that innovative to change the game drastically and offer a completely new experience that you couldn't find elsewhere.
When looking at the Wii, it's gimmick at the time was highly impressive and never really seen before which was motion controls. Motion controls made the Wii seem like you can actually mimic real life sports and other things with real movements in your living room, that gimmick impressed people and many non gamers since its controls were so simple.
When looking at the Switch, the idea of playing full console games on the TV and on the go whenever you want was a great gimmick that impressed many people enough to spend 300+$ on it.
The Wii U however, really did essentially just feel like a Wii with a tablet controller, which didn't change the game enough like those other systems did. I feel like that was the biggest reason the Wii U failed, marketing and a lack of an impressive gimmick that stood out to people.
I see many other people mentioned how the Wii U lacked ambitious games as well which hurt it as well. And I also do believe this to a certain extent, too many Wii U games felt way too safe and didn't push the boundaries like you'd expect for Nintendo's first HD system. Many of these games felt too similar to games you'd find on the 3DS or Wii which shouldn't happen on a system that was leagues ahead of those systems in performance. For example, NSMBU felt way too similar to NSMB DS/Wii/2 for anyone to give much attention or care about the game that much.
And while I believe a game like Mario 3D World is an amazing game, I don't think it shouldve been the Wii U's main 3D Mario game since it felt too safe and similiar to 3D Land on the 3DS. I felt like a unique and ambitous game like Mario odyssey would've definitely generated more waves of interest in the Wii U just seeing Mario in a city with real humans for the first time, or the first time we'd see lyrical music in a Mario game
