The Wii U is in a bad state, or so people are saying. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but it's something along the lines of PS4 selling 4 million, Xbox One selling 3 million, and Wii U also selling 3 million. Now, that doesn't sound too bad on paper, but when you consider the fact that Wii U has been out for over a year already, meanwhile, PS4 and Xbox One have only been out a little over a month. This means that aside from Virtual Boy, Wii U is Nintendo's lowest-selling console ever!
There are a few reasons why I think Wii U is selling poorly. The first is the fact that people don't know about it. Anyone I know that isn't a hardcore gamer thinks the Wii U is just a peripheral for the original Wii. Given how bad the marketing for the console is, this is completely understandable. Or they think the tablet controller is the console itself. No one knows what Wii U.
I thought about it for a while and here is what I came up with:
1. The Wii U name is terrible. It sounds like the Wii, just with a U at the end. If they named it something completely different, like, I don't know, let's just go with the Nintendo Karma, because it sounds cool. Hypothetically, if the Wii U was instead called the Nintendo Karma, it would signify that this is something new. No one has a Nintendo Karma. People would be more curious to check it out because the name alone would make it more mysterious. People like mysterious. The Wii U just sounds like a regular Wii but with added features. People think to themselves, "I already have a Wii. Why would I want another one?" And rightfully so. It does play Wii games, but that's not the system's selling point. Its selling point is the big tablet-esque controller which people think is just an accessory to the Wii they already own. Had they changed the name to literally anything else, I think it would already be selling better.
2. Nintendo is still behind the times. Though the original Wii was a powerhouse in terms of sales, its specs were way behind the times. Sure, games like Super Mario Galaxy and Donkey Kong Country Returns looked pretty good, they are in no way HD and don't even compare to PS3 or Xbox 360. Graphics aren't everything, but Nintendo also opted to not have a universal account like Xbox Live or PSN. The Virtual Console idea was a brilliant idea - one of Nintendo's best in recent years. But the fact that the games you purchased were tied to that system made it pretty crappy if your Wii console ever broke. Not that Nintendo's consoles are prone to breaking unlike PS3 and Xbox 360. Seriously, Nintendo's quality is top-notch. My 20-year-old SNES works better than my PS3. But I digress. Having a universal account would've alleviated a lot of problems if people ever lost their data or traded in their console or what have you. Let's say you bought a Wii U, and purchased, I don't know, 50 Virtual Console games. Your Wii U breaks. Or you trade it in. Either way you're losing 50 Virtual Console games. A year goes by and you regret selling your Wii U. You buy a new one. And now you have zero Virtual Console games. All that money you spent on those digital games are gone. Whereas if you did the same thing with a PS3, you would be able to easily re-download all those games on PSN you purchased, which is fantastic. That's the way is should be. Nintendo tries to encourage people to purchase their games digitally but they're not giving us the right tools to do it with. Which brings me to my next point: the Wii U's hard drive is ridiculously small. It's the year 2014 and people need a lot of hard drive space. I have an 80 GB PS3 and that still isn't enough. Thankfully PS4 shipped with 500 GB hard drives, as far as I know. If Wii U had that amount of space, I'd download every game. I don't want to pick and choose which games I want on my console at any given time, I want them all on my console at the same time. That's part of what makes Virtual Console and digital downloads great. No need to use a disc or re-download. Because, let's be honest, if you had to choose between putting a disc in the console, which takes 10 seconds or re-downloading the entire game to your hard drive, which could take anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour, I'm going with the disc every single time. Luckily Virtual Console games don't take up too much room so I can have a decent amount on there at once. And yes you can get an external hard drive and expand the memory but the point is, you shouldn't have to. Let's face it: 8 GB and even 32 GB just doesn't cut it.
3. Where are the games? This is possibly the BIGGEST reason why the Wii U isn't selling. Let's pretend for a moment that the Wii U had a 500 GB hard drive, with a universal Nintendo account, was called something else, and had a fantastic marketing campaign. The console still doesn't have any games! New Super Mario Bros. U is good but it's very "been there, done that". I'm tired of the New Super Mario Bros. series. They've been pumping them out like there's no tomorrow and there has been very little that separates them from one another. Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD is a great remaster of a masterpiece, but, it's by no means a "must-have". It's great for people who either never played it on GameCube or for people who no longer have a GameCube. Otherwise if you still have a GameCube, why not just play it on there? It's the same game. I actually own both, but I'm part of the exception. I support Nintendo no matter what. The vast majority of gamers out there aren't like me. Then there's Pikmin 3, which is fun but again is no system seller. It's great for people who were curious about the series and never played it, or for people who loved the first two games on GameCube. If you ask me, it's not as fun as either of those, but still a fun title to play. Finally, there's Super Mario 3D World, which is one of the best 3D Mario games of all time, and yes I mean possibly even better than Super Mario 64, better than Sunshine, and better than the Galaxy games. And for the record, I think despite its aged appearance, Super Mario 64 is the king of 3D Mario games, even today. Imagine they remade that game in HD? Oh man that would be awesome! But as usual, I digress. But back to my original point: these games aren't enough to sell the system. The console has been out over a year already. There should've been at least twice the amount of great games out by now. It also doesn't help that many third party developers are shying away from the Wii U for whatever reason. Not to mention the fact that New Super Mario Bros. was the only good game that the Wii U had for nine months! How can you go that long with absolutely no new game? From the time The Wii U launched with Nintendo Land and New Super Mario Bros. U, it took Nintendo nine months to release their next big game, which was Pikmin 3. And again, Pikmin 3 was good but not a system seller. Then a month later, Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD came out, but again, not a system seller. Finally Super Mario 3D World came out in late November, which actually is a system seller. So it took them a year to finally put out a system-selling game. What is Nintendo if not one of the greatest software developers? Even if you don't like their hardware, you have to admit their games are top-notch. I mean, that's the whole reason people even buy NIntendo consoles still. People don't buy Nintendo consoles for third party games. Even despite its tiny storage space, its misleading name, and its non-universal Nintendo account, if Nintendo came out with at least 4 killer "must have" games in the first year, maybe 1 every 3 months, the Wii U would have been a real "must have" console, even without third party support.
So there are the three big reasons I think Wii U is not selling well. The name, the non-existent universal account, the very underwhelming specs, and the lack of system-selling games. It's a shame because the Wii U actually is a good system. The tablet controller is very innovative and quite comfortable despite its bulky appearance. Even the Wii U Pro Controller is one of the best controllers Nintendo ever made. The HD graphics, while not on par with PS4 and Xbox One, still look fantastic! It's a very affordable, small, and quiet system, which were part of both GameCube and Wii's selling point. While it didn't work too well for GameCube, it worked wonders for Wii. The Wii U could've been a contender but Nintendo's follies have prevented that so far.
But not all hope is lost. Nintendo could still turn it around. It most likely won't become the top selling console of this generation, but they can make up for the first bad year with a succession of a bunch of good years. 2014 has a few great games for the Wii U coming out; games that will become system sellers: Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 8, and Super Smash Bros. 4 (or whatever it's going to be called). And I'm sure there will be a few more big titles along the way. A few gaming blogs I read suggested that Nintendo de-emphasize the Wii U tablet controller and instead package the Wii U with the Pro Controller. I think it could work as long as every game is compatible for both controllers. If they're going to do that, they have to make the Wii U tablet controller not required. I think packaging the Wii U with the Pro Controller and lowering its price point at least $50 would be a very smart move, to be honest. Not only would the controller appeal to a wider audience, but the fact that the console is even cheaper than it already is would help the console sell even more. Another thing that gives me hope for the console is the 3DS. The 3DS is the current best selling gaming-centric hardware on the market, and it got a really slow start too. I remember reading in 2011 that the 3DS was going to be a modern day Virtual Boy. People predicted that the 3DS was doomed for failure due to smart phones and tablets and that people were no longer interested in a handheld that only played games. Boy, were they wrong! While the 3DS isn't selling as rapidly as the original DS did, it's still selling very, very well. The 3DS did have a very slow start, though. 2011's games were virtually non-existent. It had Pilotwings Resort until Ocarina of Time 3D came out and...well, that's about it. 2012 saw a few more good releases, but in 2013, Nintendo really hit it out of the park. 2013 was the year of the 3DS. Home run after home run for the 3DS last year. Fire Emblem, Paper Mario Sticker Star, Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, Animal Crossing New Leaf, Pokemon X & Y, and of course Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. All in one year. If the Wii U has a year like that, whether it's this year or next year, I think the Wii U will be just fine. Have faith, Nintendo fans. The Wii U could still be a powerhouse.
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