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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - What people dislike about Wii U hardware?

I always thought Wii U failure was mostly due to bad games and lack of new games, mainly third party games. In my opinion, Wii U library is very mediocre that's why I find it a very weak system

However Wii U games sells very well on Switch, so lack of software doesn't seems the problem here. So maybe the problem is the hardware?

Unlike the uneventful software library, I don't think Wii U hardware is that bad. I think it's actually alright. Not something that stands out, at least not enough to make it such a failure. So exactly what about Wii U hardware made it so unappealing? 



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The gamepad was the problem for me, very unconfortable in long gaming sessions.

Sorry for my bad english.



Marketing was the biggest problem. Do you think PlayStation would still rule the market if it was called the Pee U?



I like the Wii U. I actually hooked it up again for the first time in years. But the hardware is problematic. The processor is slower than the Xbox 360 and PS3. There's only 2 GB of RAM and about 1 GB of that is for the OS.

The GamePad is also required for certain titles or system settings that it shouldn't even be needed for. There's also no ethernet port and only a paltry amount of internal flash storage.



Lifetime Sales Predictions 

Switch: 151 million (was 73, then 96, then 113 million, then 125 million, then 144 million)

PS5: 115 million (was 105 million) Xbox Series S/X: 57 million (was 60 million, then 67 million)

PS4: 120 mil (was 100 then 130 million, then 122 million) Xbox One: 51 mil (was 50 then 55 mil)

3DS: 75.5 mil (was 73, then 77 million)

"Let go your earthly tether, enter the void, empty and become wind." - Guru Laghima

I don't like using the Gamepad. I hate how slow the UI was. No quick resume or standby like other modern platforms. It just felt slow and clunky and unwieldy.

As for developers. Wii U used a modified CPU from 2000. A 12 year old CPU worse than the one found in a 2005 Xbox 360 in the year 2012. That's a problem. Wii U only had 1GB of ram for games in 2012. That's a problem. Wii U used Nintendo's API instead of something more standard. That's a problem. UI was slow and could not multitask. Wii U used a GPU from 2008 in 2012.


Switch uses a much modern modern hardware. One that devs are familiar with. 4 times the ram and I think faster than Wii U's. (not 100% sure on that) More powerful than Wii U. Used Nvidias API in NVN which supports OpenGL and Vulkan. No question Wii U had shit marketing and name where Switch was the opposite but hardware played a big part as well. Not saying Switch online is the best but still better than Wii Us.



Bite my shiny metal cockpit!

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Marketing was weak, loading times were atrocious and games were not as genre-defining as BotW, Odyssey, New Horizons. There was a lack of… excitement.



Honestly, the same reason I started disliking my PS4, it took too long to do stuff.



 

What's wrong with your PS4's? Mine is snappy and fast and 6 years old. Did you fill up the internal HDD? I used a 2TB external to install games.



Bite my shiny metal cockpit!

mZuzek said:
Acevil said:

Honestly, the same reason I started disliking my PS4, it took too long to do stuff.

From my time with the PS4, I agree the slowness was painful. Even moreso than the Wii U in my experience. I hated the thing.

But the PS4 outsold the Wii U almost ten-to-one, so I wouldn't say this is the reason for most people.

I guess I was more answering why I hated the damn device, namely because of how slow it, more so than the average joe.

Also as smaller influencer in my group of friends, I would not sell the Wii U to them based on how long it takes to do anything. Only myself and one other person had the Wii U, while 9/10 of my closest friend got the switch, because I told them it was worth it. The only one who didn't believes in mythical Switch Pro is around the corner for about 2 years. 



 

Leynos said:

What's wrong with your PS4's? Mine is snappy and fast and 6 years old. Did you fill up the internal HDD? I used a 2TB external to install games.

I think people are complaining about the games loading times. Take a game that needs constant loading screen, let's say Final Fantasy XV, it becomes a nightmare of loading time even on Pro version  

It's not something from PS4, I think Xbone suffers from the same issue, but people are talking about their own experiences here and they probably had only Wii U and PS4