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Forums - Gaming - The problem with Wii U

Soundwave on 24 February 2015
RolStoppable said:
Soundwave said:

The Wii had hundreds of games by that point, and 1 release every 2 months (give or take) from Nintendo has pretty much par for the course for the last 10 years.  

And things like Just Dance and uDraw became hits during this period. 

I think the more plausible reason Wii sales slowed is became Kinect and Move came out and the rise of iOS/Google Play app market creating far more intense competetion for the hearts/minds of the casual player. In that tug of war, Nintendo ultimately lost. Also the when every system basically could play Wii Sports (well Kinect Sports, Sport Champions ... same sh*t, stand in front of your TV and pretend to play tennis/golf/etc. by waving your arms around), it nullified the Wii's uniqueness. 

To be honest I'm not sure why MS/Sony even waited so long to copy it, they probably could've slowed Wii sales down much earlier. 

The Wii only outsold the XBox 360 once in NPD after Nov. 2010's release of Kinect. 

From the list I posted it's pretty obvious that Nintendo almost exclusively published small sellers from 2011 onwards. Plus the lists from 2006-2010 show about a dozen of retail games per year (many of which were far bigger IPs than what they published in 2011 and 2012), plus some WiiWare releases.

Your explanation is only more plausible for someone who dislikes the Wii. Anyone who looks objectively at the release schedules will conclude that the earlier years had not only more frequent releases, but also installments in significantly bigger IPs.


They only published 5 new games in 2009. 

Nintendo never has been a company that releases a new game every month, and not having to release huge games towards the second half of a console cycle is just normal. 

Microsoft didn't release anything huge in 2010/2011 either outside of Halo 4 and Kinect Sports, yet they trounced Nintendo after the release Kinect. 

I don't dislike the Wii, I don't think it's god's gift to gaming either, I think it was a nice play for Nintendo that worked out for a few years, but things change. 

You're also ignoring that there were several third party hits for the Wii during this period. Like on one hand you can say well things like Metroid Prime and Punch-Out! type releases didn't matter to the Wii, well ok, so what difference does it make that Nintendo slowed down publishing those types of games? The Wii had games like Just Dance, which is probably the third biggest casual breakout hit on the platform (after Wii Sports and Fit) come in 2010, uDraw, EA Active, around that time too and there were lots of other casual games still coming for the platform.

Yet we see the Wii get beaten soundly by MS and Sony virtually every month after the Kinect and Move are released. It don't think that's entirely a coincidence.



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onionberry on 24 February 2015

For me the main problem with the wii u was the name, the controller(even if I love the gamepad, it's not for everybody) and 3 years waiting for the new Zelda



dharh on 24 February 2015

The problem with the Wii U is that it was billed a Main Stream product that does not even have a main stream primary controller and does not have main stream games.



A warrior keeps death on the mind from the moment of their first breath to the moment of their last.
Teeqoz on 24 February 2015
Samus Aran said:
Teeqoz said:
The problem with the Wii U is much more complex. The problem is that the audience for only Nintendo games have been in decrease ever since the NES, and the only reason the Wii bucked that trend is because of motion controls. Add to that that their already horrible third party situation is only getting worse, and you've got a serious problem. Of course their lackluster marketing doesn't help, but it isn't the root of the problem.

Yet again a person that ignores handhelds.

GBA > GB (GB had a very long life cycle, GBA only had a life cycle of 3 years yet sold 80% of what the GB did)

DS > GBA

3DS < DS


Yet again a person that didn't read the title.



Snerker on 24 February 2015

do people think that gamecube lovers won't buy a WiiU because of the Wii, find it strange when i hear this

nintendo fans are buying the WiiU, thats why it will be a 20-30m seller

the Wii was a magical seller



Every story has to be about something i suppose

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Raze on 24 February 2015

Nintendo's problem is that they make games that require thought in a market dominated by people who don't want to think.



The Carnival of Shadows - Folk Punk from Asbury Park, New Jersey

http://www.thecarnivalofshadows.com 


Samus Aran on 24 February 2015
Teeqoz said:
Samus Aran said:

Yet again a person that ignores handhelds.

GBA > GB (GB had a very long life cycle, GBA only had a life cycle of 3 years yet sold 80% of what the GB did)

DS > GBA

3DS < DS


Yet again a person that didn't read the title.

Title has nothing to do with your faulty statement. You're just ignoring the one area where Nintendo has historically dominated because it doesn't suit your point.



Redgrave on 24 February 2015
RolStoppable said:
Redgrave said:

So I have to look up Wii games to prove you wrong? This is what I mean by unbearable Nintendo fans.

Do it yourself, lazy. Or better yet, check your games on your profile, I'm sure there's enough Wii titles on there to keep you quiet.

You are just fooling around, right?

But here we go.

2011
Wii Mario Sports Mix 02/07/11 North America
Wii Wii Sports Resort 04/27/11 North America
Wii Wii Sports (Nintendo Selects) 05/15/11 North America
Wii The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo Selects) 05/15/11 North America
Wii Animal Crossing: City Folk (Nintendo Selects) 05/15/11 North America
Wii Mario Super Sluggers (Nintendo Selects) 05/15/11 North America
Wii Wii Play: Motion 06/13/11 North America
Wii Mystery Case Files: The Malgrave Incident 06/29/11 North America
Wii Mario Strikers Charged (Nintendo Selects) 08/28/11 North America
Wii Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo Selects) 08/28/11 North America
Wii Super Paper Mario (Nintendo Selects) 08/28/11 North America
Wii Punch-Out!! (Nintendo Selects) 08/28/11 North America
Wii Wii Hardware (Family Edition) 10/23/11 North America
Wii Kirby's Return to Dream Land 10/24/11 North America
Wii The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword 11/20/11 North America
Wii Fortune Street 12/05/11 North America

Mario Sports Mix, Wii Play Motion, Mystery Case Files, Kirby's Return to Dream Land, Skyward Sword, Fortune Street. That's six games for the entire year.

2012
Wii Rhythm Heaven Fever 02/13/12 North America
Wii PokePark 2: Wonders Beyond 02/27/12 North America
Wii Mario Party 9 03/11/12 North America
Wii Xenoblade Chronicles 04/06/12 North America
Wii Pikmin 2 (Nintendo Selects) 06/10/12 North America
Wii Mario Power Tennis (Nintendo Selects) 06/10/12 North America
Wii Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition 09/16/12 North America
Wii Wii Sports/Wii Sports Resort 10/15/12 North America
Wii Wii Mini Hardware (Canada) 12/07/12 North America

Rhythm Heaven Fever, PokePark 2, Mario Party 9, Xenoblade Chronicles, Kirby's Dream Collection. Five games, so a total of eleven for 2011 and 2012 combined.

Was the Wii only available in 2011/12? Are those the only games for it?

I'm talking since the console's release back in 2006, there are tons of Wii games to keep people happy, don't pick random years to make yourself look better.



oniyide on 24 February 2015
Redgrave said:
RolStoppable said:
Redgrave said:

 

How are people supposed to know if they like something or not if it isn't marketed properly?

Serious question, how can a game sell well if the console isn't? The old school word-of-mouth crap doesn't work nowadays. It's not like Nintendo's the only option. It may apply to Minecraft and other similar games that can be picked up on multiple platforms, but it doesn't work with Nintendo. They're cracking down on Youtubers as well, so there's little to no advertisement there. Other than popular Youtubers panning their actions. And whoever is sticking with them is losing pennies. So it's just negative press all around for Nintendo there.

The Wii sold well due to two things, one being Nintendo's heavy marketing campaigns - an example being here in the UK, we had cringeworthy ads with pop groups The Saturdays and Girls Aloud playing the DS and Wii, and obviously, impressionable kids are going to want one because they see their favorite bands playing it. Multiple TV spots, talk show appearances with Reggie, and so on helped sell the system.

And number two, it was different and easy to use, it wasn't the usual sit back and eat chips console with the same controls as the last. Marketed towards a much broader audience than it's competition.

Lack of content? Are you serious?

The Wii had a plethora of excellent games and add-ons to keep people happy. Don't kid yourself, it comes down to the casual market being entitled and extremely fickle. They move freely from fad to fad, look at Angry Birds, Flappy Bird, Tapped Out, and all that "Saga" trash as some examples.

@bolded im sorry but that is crap. PLENTY have games have done well by word of mouth and im talking recent. Just Cause 2, Minecraft, Dishonored just to name a few. 

I agree with the last paragraph, Wii got a bunch of games. A bunch whether they came from Nintendo or 3rd parties is irrelevant because most people dont care either way. People got tired of it simple as that, dont know why some people cant face that.



Redgrave on 24 February 2015
oniyide said:
Redgrave said:
RolStoppable said:
Redgrave said:

 

How are people supposed to know if they like something or not if it isn't marketed properly?

Serious question, how can a game sell well if the console isn't? The old school word-of-mouth crap doesn't work nowadays. It's not like Nintendo's the only option. It may apply to Minecraft and other similar games that can be picked up on multiple platforms, but it doesn't work with Nintendo. They're cracking down on Youtubers as well, so there's little to no advertisement there. Other than popular Youtubers panning their actions. And whoever is sticking with them is losing pennies. So it's just negative press all around for Nintendo there.

The Wii sold well due to two things, one being Nintendo's heavy marketing campaigns - an example being here in the UK, we had cringeworthy ads with pop groups The Saturdays and Girls Aloud playing the DS and Wii, and obviously, impressionable kids are going to want one because they see their favorite bands playing it. Multiple TV spots, talk show appearances with Reggie, and so on helped sell the system.

And number two, it was different and easy to use, it wasn't the usual sit back and eat chips console with the same controls as the last. Marketed towards a much broader audience than it's competition.

Lack of content? Are you serious?

The Wii had a plethora of excellent games and add-ons to keep people happy. Don't kid yourself, it comes down to the casual market being entitled and extremely fickle. They move freely from fad to fad, look at Angry Birds, Flappy Bird, Tapped Out, and all that "Saga" trash as some examples.

@bolded im sorry but that is crap. PLENTY have games have done well by word of mouth and im talking recent. Just Cause 2, Minecraft, Dishonored just to name a few. 

I agree with the last paragraph, Wii got a bunch of games. A bunch whether they came from Nintendo or 3rd parties is irrelevant because most people dont care either way. People got tired of it simple as that, dont know why some people cant face that.


Read on. Just Cause 2 and Dishonored are multiplatform games, people don't need just one console to play them on.