5 Reasons the Wii U Failed

As the life of the Wii U comes to an end, let's examine how Nintendo went so wrong with their follow up to the highly successful Wii.

Nintendo, list, top 10, top 5, Wii U, Switch, Mario, Splatoon, Zelda, Breath of the Wild, fail, failure, commentary, impressions review, reaction, gaming,

[theelephant]

One thing I never understood is why not just call it the "Wii 2"

It worked damn well for Sony

[dogsbark]

it's odd. I knew the Wii U was a different system by the adds. But when my wife asked if that was something like the wii 32x I knew this was a problem. Most people had no idea and the casual market doesn't deal with confusion. Switch looks like a table/game boy and parents understand it easily.

[SuperMosh]

It looks like Nintendo is hitting some right notes with Nintendo Switch.

[subgoat]

I love the wii u and i am glad the wii u failed. Because if it didn't we would have the wii 3.

[Henbush]

I think it's plain and simple. Advertising. I don't buy the power argument, but hey I might be wrong.

[dr]

Hey Nintendo, what sound does a police car make?
Wii U, Wii U, Wii U, Wii U

[terbikababababa]

even though the wii u is one of my favorite consoles i have to agree with all of these

[Masherful]

I'm nostalgic as hell about it but thinking about it now, it's kind of a shame that the Wii U was the last console Nintendo Power ever got to report on.

[prxi_zura.]

Ok so I watching the reveal trailers again and it made me realize something, watching the reveal trailers for the Wii U and Switch made me realize how important a reveal trailer is. It's a first impression that (sometimes) WILL make or break the system.


This is another reason why the Switch is where its at today, (10 million sold in 9 months). The Reveal trailer for the Switch CLEARLY showed what it was all about, taking the game on the go. The music was fitting enough to make it exciting, and mainly showcased the GAMES and NOT the bells and whistles of the system. IT DID NOT TELL YOU THE CAPABILITIES, IT SHOWED THEM (and the presentation overall made us hyped). And THAT is how you do a reveal!!

Nintendo is a great example of how a reveal trailer can help out your product. It shows that having a efficient reveal trailer that is CLEAR and MAKES THE PRODUCT A MUST BUY gets the consumers talking and get them buyin.


P.S: Having good games help out too! :)

[TheLightArcade]

Even though the Wii U failed, I loved the Wii U to death. I'll miss it.

[ianeons]

Not all ads are bad. I'd say half of them are good. But the major ones from 2013 like the "Hot buttered popcorn that's a deal" ad are the bad ones.

[SonicK]

Getting the Wii U is one of my biggest mistakes ever. I will regret it forever.

[blaisebahizire]

why does qualaty matters i can play on my wii with 480p

[ianeons]

"They better fix that virtual console with the Switch"

They only made it 1000x worse. Also Wii U has even more retro games once modded.

[asher]

Actually, the lowest of low for Nintendo was the virtual boy.

[TheGamersState]

All I can say is Nintendo really better step up their game, literally.

[colel]

1. make my Nintendo
2. made for kids
3. childish games
4. marketed by kids
5. kids didn't know it was a new console

[MorbidGod]

I think their single biggest mistake is trusting third party developers to make big hits in the beginning of the Wii U's life. If you go back and look at launch, Nintendo didn't have any major game. No 3D Mario, no Zelda, no Metroid. They had Pikman 3 I think March 2013, but that's hardly a system seller. If Nintendo was able to move enough units -- at least 8 million -- before the PS4 and Xbox One went live, then Developers would have made more Wii U version's of their games. But sadly, they didn't have any system sellers until way after the PS4/XBX1 Came out, putting the Wii U behind. Because of that mistake, the architecture matters. Third party developers didn't want to waste a lot of money porting games. So choosing IBM was a bad idea. The Wii U was pretty powerful, look at Zelda and Xenoblade Chronicles X. I think it looks better than Xenoblade 2 coming for the Switch. When I showed that trailer to people, they always thought I was showing them a PS4 game. Yes the game wasn't perfect, and damn it took too long to come out. But that game showed just how powerful the Wii U was ... And showed how much money has to go into making games look like that. And there is the problem. If you can't make a million dollars at least from a game, you can't spend much at all making games for it.

The biggest killer is that Epic refused to Port their Unreal Engine 4 to the Wii U. That was really bad. Most third party developers used that. They could have ported that. Epic pretty much said so. But they didn't have any motivation to do so much work when no one else is using that architecture. Which is why they referred people to Unreal Engine 3.

In the end, the Switch benefited from these mistakes. Choosing NVIDIA who has close partnerships with Epic was key. These guys are always working together. Unreal Engine 4 works beautifully on Switch, and I am sure their next engine will work fine too. Why? Because Epic knows many people have that architecture on their phones and tablets. They have to downscale it.

And then they have done a lot of work getting a lot of games to the System. And many system sellers.

Finally, the marketing was horrible. The Switch is precisely what Nintendo needs. Simple and to the point. Everyone knows this is a home console on the go.

Well that's it for now.

[ianeons]

It really wasn't because of power. The Wii & Switch are underpowered but still sold well.

[dusanpavlovic]

Why do people hate the Wii U? It's an awesome console! Outdated, but if we are playing that card then you can say the same for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, but still awesome. Better than the original Wii if you ask me...