Looking at Nintendo Consoles over the years NIntendo has been a bit all over the place in the hardware market.  And even though Nintendo has one of the most loyal fanbases, most nostalgic IP, along with the most well known IP they have dropped off with the WiiU.

A lot of the things you tend to hear is the name its self was confusing and creates confusion with the Wii to WiiU.  But then again, the Xbox One, Super Nintendo, and 3DS could be confusing as well under the same thought.  Xbox 360 to Xbox One is almost backward, 3DS and NDS are the same line of DS and has similar looks, and NES to SNES.  THough Super I believe is less consusing than any of the others.

Third parties, price point, tablet controller, as well as many others is also things we hear often.  But WiiU is a traditional console in the sense that it strayed away from Wii Motes which made the Wii so popular.  And how do you contend with Microsoft and Sony in the third party market?  You would have to improve your image from being too family friendly and increase the power of the console to be on equal grounds as Microsoft and Sony. There is also a lot of online features that are missing compared to Xbox and PlayStation.  

And then there is the 3DS vs WiiU debate.  That 3DS steals market from the WiiU as being a cheaper alternative with similar games.  And if thats true do you think Nintendo needs to invest in IP that isnt possible on their handheld devices?

I think there is a number of question that can be asked, but in order to move forward we need to know what we did wrong.  So what did the WiiU really do so wrong that made it the second lowest selling Nintendo console in history.  But before the Wii, Nintendo was also going in a downward spiral, so without a hook like the Wii had, can Nintendo succeed with another 50m plus selling home console?

 

5

Wii (Wii)

45.37

33.75

12.77

9.28

101.17

10

Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

33.49

8.30

19.35

0.77

61.91

12

Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)

22.88

8.15

17.17

0.90

49.10

13

Nintendo 64 (N64)

20.11

6.35

5.54

0.93

32.93

17

GameCube (GC)

12.55

4.44

4.04

0.71

21.74

22

Wii U (WiiU)

4.41

2.22

2.26

0.60

9.49

 

It's interesting that barring the Wii, the chart goes predictably in chronological order.

This would lead me to conclude that the market itself changed, while Nintendo didn't. Which actually makes me sad, as I love Nintendo consoles and think the Wii U certainly offers the most interesting software lineup of the 8th gen home consoles so far (to me).

It's a shame that the Wii U made so many bad mistakes.

I love the Wii U, and I love its exclusives, including Super Smash Bros. and Splatoon, but there's no denying that the Wii U is one of Nintendo's biggest failures.

They bet on the wrong demographic with the wii, now they are paying for it

The Wii was able to re-capture the gaming market with an innovative experience, contemporary styling, fresh versions of classic franchises, new titles that appealed to a broad demographic and the ground-breaking nostalgia feeding Virtual Console. 30 million gamers who had avoided the purple lunch box were pumped to play the first 2D Mario on a home console in decades.

Unfortunately for Nintendo, those same gamers eventually picked up 360s and PS3s when their prices came down and they purchased HDTVs. This made Wii's passe, and motion gaming had lost its novelty. Now with established online friend networks and big 3rd party game franchises like COD, GTA and Assassin's Creed, there was no need to move back to a Nintendo console.

Essentially Nintendo lost all of their good will gained by Wii by the time Wii U launched. Further, the challenge of converting customers is harder than ever because of established online accounts that gamers don't want to abandon. To lure gamers away from other options, Wii U needed to be fresh, innovative, cool and have the image of modern. It would also help if it legitimately looked like an alternative to One or 4.

Wii U did none of this. Worse, it did the opposite. The styling was identical to the dated Wii look. The games were either boring straight-sequels of Wii titles (FitU, SportsU, NSMBU, Tropical Freeze) or worse, lame-sounding alternatives (SM3DW instead of Super Mario Galaxy). I'm not bashing the quality of the titles, only the image of them. Donkey Kong Country Returns sounds like a title that is bringing me back to my SNES days loving DKC and pulls at my nostalgic heart strings; DKC: Tropical Freeze sounds like a lame, kid-focused side story.

The Gamepad compounded matters. The idea was not terrible: add a touchscreen that casual gamers are loving right now, allow for Smart Device ports and software ideas to be shared between the DS line and home consoles. Unfortunately, the Gamepad comes off looking like a Frankenstein version of a clunky controller and a dated tablet or Leapfrog toy. The rapidly advancing tablet market has devices that are thin, stylish Ultra-high resolution and have capacitive touch screens. The Gamepad, instead of making Wii U seem trendy, makes it seem dated. To make matters worse, it makes the system more expensive than it needs to be.

I see two options that Nintendo could have tried to win gamers back from PS360: 1., they could have launched Wii 2, with a new, greatly improved motion tech and Wii Remotes 2 that were to Wii what SNES pads were to NES pads; ie, give them 4 face buttons, maybe an analogue stick, a better nunchuck, etc. Give the system more power than the Wii U had but keep the cost in check. Launch with Super Mario Galaxy 3 and some real cool new motion-sensing game that couldn't have been done on Wii. A second option would have been to ditch the Wii branding entirely and go with a classic hardcore gaming console. Tell gamers Wii was fun and all, but we're going back to our roots. Call the system NES2 and launch it with some core titles and blow some cash on 3rd parties. I think either option might have worked.

But the Wii U option did pretty much everything wrong in terms of capturing the public consciousness. It lacked inspiration and a clear direction, and that's why it failed.

We had similar threads..

Because of big mix of bad Nintendo decisions, most imported market and commercial mistakes.

For me Wii U is one of the best Nintendo consoles with great games.

- No 3rd Party games
- Old hardware
- Expensive
- Target audience is small
- Has nothing new (almost same console as Wii)
- Online gaming is shit

Some things are because of bad decisions but some things are also because of bad fundamentals

Marketing+price+software output+lack of 3rd parties+underpowered hardware+lack of online/multimedia features.

Many people (also non gamer) saw the wii as they visited friends/neighbours and co and it was something easy to play for everyone. So many people thought it would be cool for a party and got it too.
In the end, i doubt many people used the wii frequently. They got some games, played a shot time and then the wii was unuased. These party games werent made for constantly gaming. Its just like an parlor game.

All these people dont have any need for the wii u.