Why is the Wii U not succeeding?

[TheYellowCellPhone]

It doesn't have many games out -- both third-party and typical Nintendo games, like Zelda or (3D) Mario.

Its controller and hardware is incredibly clunky and 'behind the time' to outsiders, including game developers.

Its marketing is pretty weak -- I don't think I've seen any advertisements to it, besides the discussions about it, in the two-some years its been revealed. Wii had the "Wii would like to play" commercial series, and Playstation 3 had Kevin Butler, remember? WiiU doesn't have anything yet to pull people in.

Not many people feel a pressure to get what they think is a Wii 2.0 instead of a new console with new capabilities, and again, that'd have been fixed if a better marketing campaign was out.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

The bottom line is the games.

It's been said before that all a good console needs is a few good games. If the WiiU was released with a handful of good solid titles from different genres (Platformer, Racing, Puzzle/Strategy, Shooter [1st/3rd], RPG, Fighting, etc.), instead of a bunch of games that show off the WiiU's capabilities, then things would've been different.

Once everyone has some games to play, later on in the following year, more titles can be released and slowly create a solid library for the console.

 

[Kinitawowi]

1) Because its success is being measured against the Wii, which managed to bottle lightning simply by being the right machine at the right moment to make the most out of an emergent market; and
2) no compelling reason for the vast majority of people to buy a Wii U.

The Wii printed money because of Wii Sports and Wii Fit; you can bet your arse that a hell of a lot of Wii owners never bought anything other than those two. It caught the casual and motion fads head on and milked them for all they were worth. Eventually the fads passed, as all fads do, and the Wii lost a hell of a lot of steam by the end. Casual gamers moved on to Facebook and iPhone games, and then on to their tablets.

Which brings us to the Wii U. Without a Wii Sports or a Wii Fit, or other killer title, there's no reason for the casuals to get on board. The tablet... who cares?! Everyone who wants a tablet has one by now and the ability to use one to play games on the TV is simply not the wow factor it might once have been. Couple that with the lack of the Big Two system sellers - Mario and Zelda, the mere names of which are usually enough to flog machines - and rapidly dwindling third party support, and there's just not much there; bad marketing is also failing to tell people what there is. I've had people returning Wii U games to the shop where I work because they don't work with their Wiis. That's a sign that something is massively, massively wrong with the whole project.

Casuals don't know and don't care; fanboys can only fuel the fires of anticipation for so long; everyone else is sticking it out for better things. That's just a recipe for disaster whatever way you cut it.

 

[DirgeNovak]

Because it doesn't have any kind of third party support, and definitely won't get any more after PS4 and Xbone come out.
I mean, I love Nintendo games, but buying a full-price console just for the promise of them? No thanks. For fuck's sake, Pikmin 3 is the ONLY game Nintendo put out since launch, and there still isn't a 3D Mario (3D World looks like shit), Zelda or Metroid in sight.

 

[dscross]

Developers don't want to develop for the WiiU because not enough people are buying them.

Not enough people are buying the WiiU because developers aren't developing for it.

Kind of a never ending cycle!

I think developers should act first then since they are the ones that want them sold!

Why? Why not just develop for consoles that already have huge amounts of interest instead of throwing money after bad? Think about it as if you were a developer. You can either develop for x86 environments that are selling out their preorders and that is also incredibly easy to port to computers or you can go with proprietary hardware that requires a learning curve and is for a system that didn't even sell 200k units over the past 3 months.

Which one are you investing your time and money into?

Well, then it might flop - so it's their choice. People won't necessarily start buying first.

 

[MetalDooley]

Because it doesn't have any kind of third party support

Third party support isn't great but saying it doesn't have any is simply not true.CoD:Ghosts,Assassin's Creed 4,Watch Dogs,Splinter Cell:Blacklist and Batman:Arkham Origins which are among the biggest titles being released in the latter half of 2013 are all coming to Wii U

and definitely won't get any more after PS4 and Xbone come out.

Definitely huh?We're dealing in facts so which always makes things easier.You won't mind sharing your sources where every single third party publisher confirms that they won't be releasing anymore Wii U games once the other consoles are released

For fuck's sake, Pikmin 3 is the ONLY game Nintendo put out since launch,

Game & Wario and Lego City Undercover were both developed and/or published by Nintendo.You could also include Super Luigi U seeing as it had a full retail release

and there still isn't a 3D Mario (3D World looks like shit)

So you claim there isn't a 3D Mario in sight but discount the one that's being released in a few months because you don't like the look of it.Ok carry on...

Zelda

They've already confirmed that a brand new Zelda title is in development

http://wiiudaily.com/2013/07/wii-u-zelda-reveal/

or Metroid in sight.

Ever considered that after the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the last Metroid game they've decided to give that franchise a rest for a while

 

[Galen Marek]

A lack of games over all.
I have one, great fun. The games that it has are enjoyable, but, overall it still lacks titles. Get a Zelda, proper Mario game and Smash Bro's on it and then it will be worth investing in.
At the moment, unless you want Hunter or Pikmin 3 the console as a whole doesn't offer much in the games department.
End of next year will see it selling much better then now because people will have a reason to buy it, that is, Games.

 

[Gor Kur]

Because none of the casual gamers that bought Wii's needed, wanted or did buy Wii U's.

 

[Mudokon]

i really dont care about sales, dreamcast has very bad sales but i bought one for shenmue, sonic adventure and other exclusive games that i really enjoy playing, same goes for wii u, i dont care if it has good sales or not, when the new zelda comes out i will definetely get one.

 

[Korsgaard]

To put it simply? If I can't play Skyrim on it, it's not a console I want to own.

To give a deeper explanation, this is the console Nintendo should have had LAST system generation. Instead, they're half a decade behind in terms of tech and third-party games, to say nothing of the over-reliance on gimmicks. I was a lifelong Nintendo supporter prior to the Wii, but they really did nothing to retain more mature or dedicated gamers. By the time Xbox 360 released games like Fallout 3, I finally caved and bought by first non-Nintendo console. I haven't played the Wii ever since.

Which is basically the issue. Nintendo sold out their dedicated core fans for the casual gamer demographic, and are now finding out that the casual gamers aren't the ones who will buy console after console, let alone they have far higher standards for games. At this point, the Wii U's best hope is that the Xbone is worse than any of our fears, and they get the opportunity to capitalize on Microsoft's folly, and regain lost ground.

 

[Lightknight]

Well, then it might flop - so it's their choice. People won't necessarily start buying first.

That's Nintendo's problem. Not their customers. Make no mistake, developers/publishers are every bit a customer of the console as gamers are. Nintendo's failed marketing compaign that didn't even successfully announce that it was a new console, let alone succeed in explaining why it was worth buying. It is Nintendo's job to have a strong starting lineup for release and to produce a console that is capable of competing in it's relative generation. The WiiU is a next gen machine that is only somewhat better than current gen consoles that is hoping to compete with next-gen powered machines.

They dropped every ball that can be dropped here. The only thing they didn't do was piss customers off with anti-consumer PR. They literally made some mistakes that Sega made with the Saturn which was actually what killed Sega and not the Dreamcast.

 

[Gergar12_v1legacy]

Because its a current gen console that Nintendo was too cheap to release the first time. This should have been the wii. It's graphics are better than xbox360, and ps3, but too little too late.

 

[Lightknight]

Because its a current gen console that Nintendo was too cheap to release the first time. This should have been the wii. It's graphics are better than xbox360, and ps3, but too little too late.

Actually, I'd say the Wii was perfect for them. They totally created entirely new customers with an affordable and easy to learn console. Had the Wii also been hundreds of dollars more expensive they would have never gotten that target market. The problem is that they tried to go back this time and ended alienating both sides. The casual gamers don't want to spend that much money on a new machine that they probably don't feel like they need and hardcore gamers aren't going to see this system as something that will attract the desired AAA titles that would be downscaled ports at best.

I'm not so sure this wouldn't have been very different had they dropped the tablet and just come out with another $250 system that's more powerful and at least capable of playing DVDs so you can partically justify it as a media device.

 

[Gergar12_v1legacy]

Because its a current gen console that Nintendo was too cheap to release the first time. This should have been the wii. It's graphics are better than xbox360, and ps3, but too little too late.

Actually, I'd say the Wii was perfect for them. They totally created entirely new customers with an affordable and easy to learn console. Had the Wii also been hundreds of dollars more expensive they would have never gotten that target market. The problem is that they tried to go back this time and ended alienating both sides. The casual gamers don't want to spend that much money on a new machine that they probably don't feel like they need and hardcore gamers aren't going to see this system as something that will attract the desired AAA titles that would be downscaled ports at best.

I'm not so sure this wouldn't have been very different had they dropped the tablet and just come out with another $250 system that's more powerful and at least capable of playing DVDs so you can partically justify it as a media device.

No it was not perfect. The same people who got it will move on. The hardcore gamers won't just move on because there are very few things to move on to. The people who buy the wii are the ones that will buy a few games, and then in time move on to another thing like iPads, and iPhones, or another trend. Heck I am not hardcore gamer, video games are not my source of income, but thanks to the wii, am how, and sadly allot of people are unwilling ones too. Had it been perfect it would have been the skyrim of consoles....but it's not. What I am saying is that most of the people who buy the wii, are not lifetime Nintendo consumers, and the very few who stay with Nintendo always only do so to relive their childhood. Also easy to learn console? It's not a nuclear submarine we are taking about here, its s video game console. Had it Been release instead of the Wii, it would have sold more numbers, because it was still the only console with motion control at that time, and would have Appeal to some non casual gamers for its graphics, and such easily destroying the ps3.

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

There are numerous reasons why the Wii U is doing so poorly and sinking like the titanic.. for one thing, it was bad timing to release another current gen console only a year before Sony and Microsoft release their next consoles and start the next console generation. Another problem is most of the third part game released so far are inferior ports of game that may have been on other consoles already for as much as a year and most people who wanted to play those game probably already have them on PS3 or 360. Speaking of third party games.. there aren't many third party games period..most of the games released for the Wii u are first party Nintendo games. Other companies are seeing how poorly the system is doing and don't wanna risk putting new IP onto a system that won't let them get a return on their investment into the game. They mostly only been willing to only put games on it that are muli-platform and know that the loss they get for the Wii u version will be made up by the sale of the PS3/ 360 and the upcoming PS4 and Xbone versions of the games. having to put touch screen gimmicks into all their games also isn't helping with third party developers either... Beyond that are things like using 25 GB disks for games compared to the Dual layer Blu-ray disks for PS3/PS4/Xbone.. the tiny harddrive sizes are also an issue and I've heard the console is hard to develop for as well. . Nintendo just has it's mind set stuck in the 90's when it was at the top and even when the original wii came out and was practically a money printing machine for Nintendo... they wrongly believed that their wii u could compete against the PS3 and 360... and it isn't doing it.. most gamers aren't gonna pay to get another current gen console when the next gen consoles will be out soon.

 

[Apostheum]

The console was sub-par to every other next-gen console, in tech, in design, in controls. Everything was worse than the Xbone and the PS4. The online experience is mediocre. The only thing that could have lifted the Wii U above its competitors was the game-line up, and it failed there as well.

To put it simply: The Wii U's ONLY selling point, is its games. And it doesn't have any... So...yeah

 

[Lightknight]

Because its a current gen console that Nintendo was too cheap to release the first time. This should have been the wii. It's graphics are better than xbox360, and ps3, but too little too late.

Actually, I'd say the Wii was perfect for them. They totally created entirely new customers with an affordable and easy to learn console. Had the Wii also been hundreds of dollars more expensive they would have never gotten that target market. The problem is that they tried to go back this time and ended alienating both sides. The casual gamers don't want to spend that much money on a new machine that they probably don't feel like they need and hardcore gamers aren't going to see this system as something that will attract the desired AAA titles that would be downscaled ports at best.

I'm not so sure this wouldn't have been very different had they dropped the tablet and just come out with another $250 system that's more powerful and at least capable of playing DVDs so you can partically justify it as a media device.

No it was not perfect. The same people who got it will move on. The hardcore gamers won't just move on because there are very few things to move on to. The people who buy the wii are the ones that will buy a few games, and then in time move on to another thing like iPads, and iPhones, or another trend. Heck I am not hardcore gamer, video games are not my source of income, but thanks to the wii, am how, and sadly allot of people are unwilling ones too. Had it been perfect it would have been the skyrim of consoles....but it's not. What I am saying is that most of the people who buy the wii, are not lifetime Nintendo consumers, and the very few who stay with Nintendo always only do so to relive their childhood. Also easy to learn console? It's not a nuclear submarine we are taking about here, its s video game console. Had it Been release instead of the Wii, it would have sold more numbers, because it was still the only console with motion control at that time, and would have Appeal to some non casual gamers for its graphics, and such easily destroying the ps3.

The Wii has sold more than either other console and had a higher attach rate than the ps3 did. I'm not sure how anyone could call that a less than stellar generation.

As for easy to learn, you swing a controller. It was actually too simplistic in most cases.

You're also forgetting who Nintendo is competing with here on the tech front. Sony and Microsoft. These are two HUGE firms with very deep pockets and the absolute best connections to hardware companies where it counts. I genuinely think Nintendo is out of its league if it tries to compete with them on this front and that's why they went the route they went. So either they go party/family/casual machine or they get into a market they're not strong in.

 

[Bat Vader]

I just checked out some of the games for the Wii U and honestly besides the Deus Ex: Director's Cut which is now going multiplatform there are no other games that look interesting to me.

What Nintendo needs to do is make a great Pokemon MMO for the Wii U.

 

[Roxas1359]

What Nintendo needs to do is make a great Pokemon MMO for the Wii U.

No, because that would directly cannibalise the appeal of their handheld games.

The whole idea with Pokemon is that it's a social multiplayer RPG. The game took off because people met up with each other to battle and trade with their Gameboys. The whole game is designed to work as a handheld RPG. The games are literally one of the cornerstones of their handheld systems. A console-based MMO for the Wii U would not only miss some of the fundamentals of the game's design ethos, but would actively draw sales away from their handheld games. Which given it's one of their biggest money makers, they really don't want to do.

Not an MMO then, but at least something like how Colosseum and XD Gale of Darkness were. I was honestly waiting for ages on the Wii hoping they would come up with something like that again, but all we got was...Battle Revolution. And while I have Pokemon Stadium 1 and 2 on the N64 and they were fun I was still hoping for Genius Sonority to give us something like that again. Here's to hoping that they make something like that for the Wii U.
I think that's also why I'm excited for X and Y, because it reminds me a lot of Colosseum and XD Gale of Darkness, just on a smaller screen.

And now if you'll excuse me I've talked about Genius Sonority games so much that I must go back to playing Colosseum again with the Wii 2 HDMI converter.