By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Gaming - Did you expect the Wii U to flop?

 

Did you expect the Wii U to flop beforehand?

Yes 169 35.21%
 
No, I thought it would sell like crazy 65 13.54%
 
No, I thought it would sell average-ish 243 50.63%
 
Total:477
chocoloco on 21 April 2014
FarleyMcFirefly said:
chocoloco said:

Yes, I used to say it would not be a hit. I just never thought the sales would be this abysmal. I could hardly be more pleased. The sooner Ninty goes third party only the better for all gamers.

Moderated,

-Mr Khan


Ok hater.

They aren't going anywhere anytime soon, so don't expect them to.
Without their hardware they will not have as much freedom for creativity in their games.

I am looking to spreading the joy of Nintendo games while you wish to limit the joy of who can play them. I am not alone in this belief. 



Around the Network
FarleyMcFirefly on 21 April 2014
chocoloco said:
FarleyMcFirefly said:
chocoloco said:

Yes, I used to say it would not be a hit. I just never thought the sales would be this abysmal. I could hardly be more pleased. The sooner Ninty goes third party only the better for all gamers.

Moderated,

-Mr Khan


Ok hater.

They aren't going anywhere anytime soon, so don't expect them to.
Without their hardware they will not have as much freedom for creativity in their games.

I am looking to spreading the joy of Nintendo games while you wish to limit the joy of who can play them. I am not alone in this belief. 

And without their own hardware, their software will decline in quality as they will not have the creative freedom they once had on somebody else's system.

The same could be said about Sony of Microsoft... If you really love to play Nintendo games, go buy their systems.



1doesnotsimply

chocoloco on 21 April 2014
FarleyMcFirefly said:
chocoloco said:
FarleyMcFirefly said:
chocoloco said:

Yes, I used to say it would not be a hit. I just never thought the sales would be this abysmal. I could hardly be more pleased. The sooner Ninty goes third party only the better for all gamers.

Moderated,

-Mr Khan


Ok hater.

They aren't going anywhere anytime soon, so don't expect them to.
Without their hardware they will not have as much freedom for creativity in their games.

I am looking to spreading the joy of Nintendo games while you wish to limit the joy of who can play them. I am not alone in this belief. 

And without their own hardware, their software will decline in quality as they will not have the creative freedom they once had on somebody else's system.

The same could be said about Sony of Microsoft... If you really love to play Nintendo games, go buy their systems.

I do buy their systems except the Gamecube and most of the handhelds. I have said for years I plan to buy the Wii U in many years when it is worth buying. You are making false assumptions. 

I never said I thought it will happen. I just say Nintendo software is the best Nintendo while Nintendo hardware is the worst of Nintendo. They should focus on their best. 



Arius Dion on 21 April 2014
oniyide said:
Arius Dion said:

I did. After E3 2011 I felt a feeling of 'what the fuck?' I felt like Nintendo was going backwards from the Wii. And so, the market performance has also gone backwards from the Wii.

After the putrid performance of the GCN, Iwata, Miyamoto, all agreed that controllers had become to cumbersome and complex and were alienating every one besides dedicated gamers. The Wii was the response. So after the thing breaks records, they decide to make a console with a controller more complex than GCN? That makes sense? They even decided to create sequels and remakes of Gamecube games! Why would any one be surprised at Wii U's abysmal performance?

I just hope Nintendo learns the lessons it needs to in order to create a successful home console next gen. Because this gen is a wrap for them.


what was th alternative though? just make a more powerful Wii? Sure that would have done better, but not by much. IMHO the people who ran to get Wii didnt really care about HW power in the first place.

It's never been about hardware power. Its about software power, Nintendo left the Wii high and dry and software is the engine the propels any system forward. 

But as far as what they could have done, they could have just improved upon the foundation Wii built. After the NES Nintendo didn't go backwards in terms of the controller, they improved it. The Wii worked, and yet they abandoned it and thus the fanbase they built left as well as they were no longer catered to. Wii U felt completely rushed, there's still a trickle of VC games, some (most first party) Nintendo games have no online multiplayer which is a joke. The Gamepad is a complete waste and is so anti Wii I can't believe they even branded it with the same name. 

The Wii U is just a mess. Looking at things with out fanboy shades on, most people should have been able to see the writing on the wall.



Bet between Slimbeast and Arius Dion about Wii sales 2009:


If the Wii sells less than 20 million in 2009 (as defined by VGC sales between week ending 3d Jan 2009 to week ending 4th Jan 2010) Slimebeast wins and get to control Arius Dion's sig for 1 month.

If the Wii sells more than 20 million in 2009 (as defined above) Arius Dion wins and gets to control Slimebeast's sig for 1 month.

Mythmaker1 on 21 April 2014
Mummelmann said:
Mythmaker1 said:
Mummelmann said:
Not flop, but I did maintain that it would do considerably worse than the Wii. I did not expect it to perform like it has though.


I'm not trying to be facetious here, but I'm honestly curious as to why people are so surprised. Was it that the Wii was doing so well, and people thought the casual audience would stick around? Or did people just have more faith in the Nintendo brand that they thought it wouldn't turn out this way?


For me personally, it was actually more about uncertainty around what Sony and MS would do and the relative lack of faith in the ability to get their brands moving at a brisk pace from the start, leaving a nice window for Nintendo along with almost an entire year alone on the market. I never believed that the Wii's model was sustainable over time, especially given the Wii's immense crash on the market and the record sales plunge it took but I did believe that Nintendo had it in them to manage a decent follow-up if it was properly aimed (it wasn't...), well marketed (nope) and cleverly designed through and through (not so much this either). Up towards 50% of the Wii's lifetime seemed possible if the right choices were made, even with the majority of the Wii's customer base having fled to tablets and phones and social/browser games. In addition to the below link, I have also been chanting about the fall of the dedicated handheld console for many years in here, not a whole lot of people agreed that it was going to happen. And here we are today.

That said; I was really skeptical, especially about the Gamepad and I've been vocal about it ever since. I've written rather extensively about it in the famous UNITY thread (forced market convergence) if you want to have a look. Other than that, here's an example of some doubts concerning the whole Wii U concept: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=4619667

I'd say that that's a fairly good take on the Wii U almost half a year before it launched.

I wasn't too sure about Sony and Microsoft either. I thought they'd take more than a year to outsell the Wii U, less because I thought the Wii U would do better than because I thought they'd sell at or slightly below last gen launches. As far as the Wii U taking advantage of the head start, however, I always assumed that it would perform poorly against competition from the 360 and PS3, simply because thy were firmly established and better supported.

Honestly, if the Wii U had been better designed and marketed, and if Nintendo had done the leg work to get more games on the system, it might have happened as you describe. There's nothing inhereently wrong with the idea, afterall. But from the start it was pretty obvious that wasn't going to happen.



I believe in honesty, civility, generosity, practicality, and impartiality.

Around the Network
NintendoPie on 21 April 2014
chocoloco said:

Isnt the idea great? more people play Nintendo games and at cheaper prices on tablets and phones. I am glad you are growing up pie and see the bigger picture now young one. 

Not at all. If people like you really wanted to play Nintendo games you would buy their consoles. Everything doesn't have to come so easily to you. Especially considering how much you seem to have a disdain for Nintendo in general on VGC.



CleggaZ on 22 April 2014

I expected it to come last but still do around 40-50 mil I didn't realise back then much of drop off this console gen is goanna have compared to the previous gen.