Nintendo Is Hurting :(

[ZeroAX]

No need to rebrand, it's too late to change that. People who are into games know what the Wii U is, they just dont want one for X number of reasons. Also releasing a new hardware revision would just lose more money right? They should just focus on making the next piece of hardware the best it can be while still delivering critically acclaimre software for the Wii U salvaging what they can.

Not really. They can cut down on costs. Specially if they remove the gamepad. Yes but casual or casually hardcore gamers have trouble telling the difference. Plus a rebrand means they can launch a new advertising campaign.

[Violent By Design]

Hm..depends what we mean by people who are into games. People who are big time fans of games know what a Wii-U is.

People who buy maybe 2 or 3 games a year? There's a pretty decent amount who do not know what a Wii-U is. Just the other week I saw someone say "Wow, I had no idea they made a new Wii, but it's pretty awesome". This person isn't a gamer, but it's not like he is a soccer mom. Typical male in his early 20s. He certainly knew what a PS4 and XboxOne was.

One of my best friends had no clue what a Wii-U was. Was totally in shock that there was a "new Wii", and this was maybe 8 months ago. He's not a gamer, but he's certainly played his fair share.


The Wii-U was not only a bad name, but the promotion for it just isn't strong. Even with XboxOne's crappy name (which is even more illogical of a name choice), people still know what it is because it has so many advertisements. Just on yesterday's Football AFC/NFC football games, every commercial break had an X1 advertisement.


Perhaps Nintendo has a lot of commercials during cartoon and kids shows, so people of my age bracket are not aware of it. But I never see Wii-U advertisements.

Though I do agree that changing the Wii-U's name would be a gigantic waste of money, and would genuinely cause confusion about its name.

[Reprise]

The problem with the Wii U was Nintendo had no effing clue what direction to go in and it simply confused consumers, gamers and the Wii's casual audience.

The Wii was completely built around motion controls, but all they showed with the Wii U was the tablet controller. Even if it confused absolutely no one about whether it was just an add on for the Wii or a brand new console, it's still not engaging or interesting enough in the way motion controls were. But the confusing thing was Nintendo didn't drop the motion controls. So you have a Gamepad, a wii remote, a nunchuk, not to mention the new Pro Controller, you've got HD graphics, a high price, yet no where near matching the power of the other "real" next gen consoles. So what you're left wondering with, is who exactly are Nintendo targeting? Everyone and no one. All that was left in the end was the hardcore Nintendo fans who would buy it purely because it's the next Nintendo console.

Nintendo spread themselves too thin.

[BurningDoom]

I don't think a single thing is wrong with the Wii U itself. I've played it, I had a lot of fun with it, and now I want one.

It's the lack of the third-party support, more so this generation than any other in the past. And the many years of Nintendo being seen as the kiddie console doesn't help when the first thing Nintendo pushes on it is Nintendoland.

They also waited far too long for Super Mario 3D World, and STILL no new Zelda. If either of those had been launch titles, more Wii Us probably would have sold.

[irixith]

They also waited far too long for Super Mario 3D World, and STILL no new Zelda. If either of those had been launch titles, more Wii Us probably would have sold.

Maybe, but then the second hand market would be overcrowded because those same people would be flogging their systems after running through the games in the shortest amount of time possible and still crying about "no games".

[BurningDoom]

They also waited far too long for Super Mario 3D World, and STILL no new Zelda. If either of those had been launch titles, more Wii Us probably would have sold.

Maybe, but then the second hand market would be overcrowded because those same people would be flogging their systems after running through the games in the shortest amount of time possible and still crying about "no games".

Fine by me if that happened. Would've meant cheaper Wii Us for you and me now, and Nintendo would have still gotten their sales.

[ZeroAX]

Hm..depends what we mean by people who are into games. People who are big time fans of games know what a Wii-U is.

People who buy maybe 2 or 3 games a year? There's a pretty decent amount who do not know what a Wii-U is. Just the other week I saw someone say "Wow, I had no idea they made a new Wii, but it's pretty awesome". This person isn't a gamer, but it's not like he is a soccer mom. Typical male in his early 20s. He certainly knew what a PS4 and XboxOne was.

One of my best friends had no clue what a Wii-U was. Was totally in shock that there was a "new Wii", and this was maybe 8 months ago. He's not a gamer, but he's certainly played his fair share.

These are the people I was talking about with the term "casually hardcore". People who like playing video games, but don't follow news so as to know about all the consoles coming out. The PS1/PS2 crowd if you will.

[Konacha]

I think that is the main problem is that people do not know that the Wii U is a whole new system. My sister, who isn't a "hardcore gamer" (hate that term) as she doesn't follow up on any news on games except E3 but is typically in the know had no clue the Wii U was a new system and she thought the Wii U was only the tablet that connects to the Wii. She didn't know this until Christmas last year when I got a Wii U. She knows what a PS4 & Xbox
One is and I think this is at least the number one problem.

Nobody outside of gaming know what a Wii U is, the ads they have for it are confusing as it only shows the tablet part. It has been only recently that they have said it is a new console and even that isn't really spelled out about it. I don't watch TV that much but I've only seen the ads during reruns of 60s TV shows and when watching The Late Show since that is the only TV I watch outside of Sunday Night on Fox (the animation line up).

[CavZee]

I don't think a single thing is wrong with the Wii U itself. I've played it, I had a lot of fun with it, and now I want one.

It's the lack of the third-party support, more so this generation than any other in the past. And the many years of Nintendo being seen as the kiddie console doesn't help when the first thing Nintendo pushes on it is Nintendoland.

They also waited far too long for Super Mario 3D World, and STILL no new Zelda. If either of those had been launch titles, more Wii Us probably would have sold.

Great games don't exactly grow on trees though.

[Fragems]

One point that I think Nintendo didn't push enough with the Wii and Wii U is the fact that they were both physically backwards compatible with their predecessor. Thats a huge selling point to me and I've never seen them really promote that information in their ads.