Note: The following is a possible outcome of this console generation. If you haven't heard a story mentioned below, that's because it's likely speculative.
As Nintendo prepares for the launch of the Wiitrinity, gamers in the West are of mixed feelings. With 24 GB of RAM, this new system certainly outperforms the market leader PlayStation 4, and by a wide margin too. However, with high end gaming PC's already boasting around 100 GB of RAM, it is difficult for many gamers to imagine the Wiitrinity being the lead console over the rumored PlayStation 5.
In Japan, however, the Wiitrinity is viewed as the default winner of the upcoming 9th generation of consoles.
How could this happen? Japan wasn't always Nintendo land. The entire PlayStation family up through the Vita performed quite well in Japan, with each console eventually becoming the generational leader. That is, until the Wii U.
Let us look back to 2012, when Nintendo laid the seeds for seizing the Japanese Market.
Early Troubles and E3 2013
It wasn't always certain that Nintendo would win the 8th generation of console gaming in Japan. In fact, for a while, it seemed pretty unlikely! When the Wii U launched in the December of 2012 in Japan, it sold a fairly modest 630,000 machines by the end of the year. New Super Mario Bros U was by far the lead title, with NintendoLand and the latest Monster Hunter iteration being the only other two titles of note.
But despite a decent launch, the Wii U struggled around the world during the first half of 2013. In Japan, the first half of the year saw the release of only two major titles: Dragon Quest X and Game & Wario. Neither of these were true system sellers, especially since DQX was a Wii port.
The turning point, though no one knew it was that at the time, was E3 2013. Although an American event, this trade show marked the initial reveal of much vital information.
First of all, there was the offerings from Nintendo. They included a number of games that would go on to sell a million copies in Japan alone, from a new 3D Mario to Mario Kart and from Super Smash Bros to Wii Party U and Wii Fit U. Better yet, these games would mostly be released within the next year.
But equally as important was Sony's press conference and the following interviews. Along with effectively dooming the XBox One to third place last generation, the 2013 E3 PlayStation Conference included several important pieces of information that ultimately put the company in second place in Japan. First was the introduction of mandatory pay for online play. This pushed away many Japanese gamers, who never easily accepted this pay model like America did. Second, the launch lineup was fairly weak in the eyes of the Japanese gamer. Sure, Final Fantasy 15 was "announced," but the actual launch lineup was mostly composed of Western games and games targetted at Westerners.
What games drive the Japanese to buy PlayStation systems? Let's use the PS3 as a guide. The system had a mere two million sellers in Japan, but in general, it was names like Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Warriors, Tales, Yakuza, and Gran Turismo that sold systems. In late 2013, the big PlayStation game was Gran Turismo 6, a game that couldn't even be played on a PS4. It was no wonder that the PS3 continued to sell well through the end of the year.
But the worst news would not come until several weeks after E3. Sony, upon finally announcing launch details, casually mentioned that North America and Europe would receive the system first, with the Japanese release date being pushed back to "Q1 2014."
At the time, the move made sense. PlayStation was a big brand in Europe, and Japan was and still is a declining console market. But in Japan, this had a major impact.
The Wii U would have two holiday seasons before it even had any competition.
Rise to Glory
If one had to pick the exact date the Wii U began meaning business in Japan, it would have to be July 13: the release date of both Pikmin 3 and New Super Luigi U. The former title provided gamers with their first major game for months, while the latter increased interest in what would become a regular seller on the Wii U.
From there, the Wii U's fortunes only got better month by month. August brought Yakuza and The Wonderful 101. October brought Wind Waker HD, the acclaimed remake of the acclaimed classic, and Wii Party U, the sequel to the hit Wii game. November brought the latest Donkey Kong Country, one of the few "Western" series loved by the Japanese market. And December brought the twin titans of Super Mario 3D World and Wii Fit U. And even older games like Nintendo Land and NSMBU continued to sell.
By the end of 2013, half a dozen eventual million sellers in Japan alone had been released for the Wii U.
It would not end there. Shortly after Sony announced a March launch window for the PS4, Nintendo responded by releasing Mario Kart 8 the exact same week, much like how Monster Hunter 3G was released the same week on the 3DS as the Vita launched. Mario Kart 8 ended up being just as big as prior series entries, selling nearly three million units in Japan alone as of the latest sales figures. Sure, Metal Gear Solid 5 meant that the PS4 had a strong launch, but in many ways, it was too little too late. The Wii U had found its niche in Japan.
Winning 3rd Parties
The Wii U could easily have prospered early on, only to wither away later like it's predecessor did after 2008. But as it turned out, Nintendo had learned from the Wii, and had taken steps to give it long term support from 3rd parties.
Some people ocassionally forget this, but as late as 2014, a majority of major multiplatform games, even from Japan, did not come to the Wii U. Developers making 7th generation games would lament their unfamiliarity with the system, while PS4 and XB1 developers would cry out that the system was too weak for their linear corridor shooter. To this day, Nintendo has trouble winning over third parties from the West. In Japan, however, Nintendo had already made steps to cooperate with a number of key developers and publishers.
First was Platinum Games. Some of the games announced even before the Wii U launched included The Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta 2. Both games would sell decently on the Wii U, though few records were broken by them. However, this partnership between Platinum and Nintendo would continue for years. Bayonetta 3 is the most obvious example, but even cooperating with Nintendo to have other games at least ported to the Wii U provided the console with a steady flow of critically acclaimed titles.
Capcom was another company that Nintendo reached out to. Little is known about the 2011 deal that led to Monster Hunter 4 being a 3DS exclusive for a year, but this marked a beginning of improved relations between the two companies. Capcom would go on to release MH4 on the Wii U with cross system compatibility similar to that of MH3. Resident Evil 7, rather than being too technically demanding for the Wii U to even play its opening screen, was based off of an enhanced version of the RE6 engine, and ported to the Wii U along with the PC, PS4, and XB1. Many other games from Capcom, like Street Fighter 5 and Dragon's Dogma 2, would go on to see Wii U releases, even if they were a step down from the PS4 versions.
Namco Bandai's relationship with Nintendo was fully realized during the two and a half year development cycle of Super Smash Bros 4. Namco Bandai and Nintendo would go on to collaborate on exclusive Pac-Man and Tales games, along with special DLC for Wii u players in other games like Tekken and Soul Calibur.
Square Enix was a harder nut to crack. Despite much pressure from Nintendo, Final Fantasy 15 would never be released on the Wii U. However, Kingdom Hearts 3 was, thanks to the game's relatively simple and clean environments and the non photo-realistic artstyle. Sure, it ran at 720p, but few truly cared. Meanwhile, a couple of Dragon Quest spinoffs were made for the system, and they performed well, as did the eventual release of Dragon Quest 12.
Sega was already on Nintendo's side by 2013. Several Sonic games were made exclusively for the Wii U, including the acclaimed Lost Worlds. More important though was Yakuza 1+2 HD, which performed above Sega's expectations. This led to the series being ported to the Wii U from there on out.
In other words, with the chief exception of Konami, Nintendo was eventually able to win at least some support from every major Japanese publisher. Though many games were simply lower resolution ports of PS4 titles, this was sufficent to keep the Wii U's momentum up between Nintendo titles.
Six Years Later
Today, Nintendo can happily report that the Wii U has shipped 15 million units in Japan alone. Not bad for a country where handhelds rule.
Will add more later. What do you think? I'm planning on making a PS4 domination version later.
