Simon Says: Why the Wii U Will Be Insignificant Come Fall

Simon looks at what the near-future holds for the Wii-U and also looks at why the console hasn't been too popular recently.

[dedicatedtogamers]

I don't think it will be "insignificant", but the issue is lack of support, both from Nintendo and from 3rd parties especially. Nintendo chose to launch first. There is no doubt that was intentional. However, by failing to have a killer first year, they've blown a massive advantage.

My fear for the console is this: the 3DS. Nintendo cannot afford to lose their handheld market. Through the dark days (in terms of marketshare) of the N64 and Gamecube, the handheld line always kept Nintendo afloat. Since the 3DS has more competition than ever before, Nintendo needs to make SURE that it succeeds. To do this, they have to divert attention away from the WiiU (which is what they're already doing).

I disagree with the author that it needs games like Mario Galaxy 3 (or an equivalent 3D Mario). What WiiU needs is a Wii Sports equivalent, Mario Kart, or more 2D Mario (which is the only game currently driving the hardware in large numbers). The Wii's popularity (directly due to Wii Sports, Mario Kart, 2D Mario, etc) allowed more niche titles to be developed for the system. You can't focus on the niche market first while ignoring the mainstream.

[Neonridr]

4 months in does not equal the first year.

Let me guess, the Vita had a great first year and it's doomed right? Oh wait, no it isn't..

[dedicatedtogamers]

You're not looking at the big picture. When the 3DS launched, it bombed. Nintendo misjudged the market. The 3DS is selling well directly due to Nintendo diverting a ton of attention to the 3DS, which they didn't anticipate. It clearly ended up diminishing Nintendo's focus on the WiiU, which is what we're seeing now.

You brought up the Vita. The reason why it is not as likely the Vita will bomb is because we're seeing games RIGHT NOW. We're seeing announcements RIGHT NOW. Nintendo, on the other hand, keeps telling us "be patient" without showing us any of those games, y'know, made from the "massive support" from 3rd party devs like Nintendo promised 2 years ago.

[Neonridr]

The 3DS is selling well because it appeals to lots of people, especially in places like Japan where it continues to just move units. Nintendo has always succeeded in the handheld market because they understand what sells. Sure there are more games on the 3DS now, but that's natural as the system matures to see more titles. Just like as the Wii U matures, we will see more titles. We can both agree that once the core Nintendo titles show up (Zelda, Galaxy style Mario, Mario Kart, Metroid, Smash Bros) that the hardware will move. It's a hard sell to a new customer when there isn't much in the way of exclusives on the system right now..

[Dj7FairyTail]

@dedicatedtogamers

3DS did great. It started doing bad late 2011 Spring. Then Summer it started dropping more then
Price Cut came August 2011. From Feb-Aug 2011 3DS sold 6m worldwide. At the end of the year 3DS sold over 12m.

Vita been out for a year is still at 5m while 3DS sits at 31m now.

Wii U sold 3.06m from Nov. 18 and Dec. 31 that is almost half of what Vita is at now over a year.

[PopRocks359]

@dedicatedtogamers

The 3DS didn't bomb at all (a bomb is a product that ultimately was a failure like the Virtual Boy and Dreamcast), it just initially sold sluggishly until after its price was dropped and shortly thereafter two AAA Mario games were released. The only "attention" that price drop received was from all of the media outlets talking about it which only affects the likes of us who talk about games and the industry on the internet which only makes up so much of the mass market (as in not a lot). That sort of news didn't make the headlines of CNN or other mainstream TV outlets as far as I know.

"Nintendo, on the other hand, keeps telling us "be patient" without showing us any of those games, y'know, made from the "massive support" from 3rd party devs like Nintendo promised 2 years ago."

What else can they do exactly, rush out Pikmin 3 and their other titles in a broken and unfinished state? Nintendo can't exactly snap their fingers and have all the big third party devs at their doorstep you know. Furthermore (if we're talking about the Vita), exactly what third party support does that platform have right now? All I remember being announced for it since the CoD and Assassin's Creed spinoffs is Tearaway and some cross-compatible PS3/PS4 games. Yet somehow that platform is perfectly well off (not that I disagree, but I don't see how the Wii U's situation is all that different).

[dedicatedtogamers]

@ PopRocks

Those games were shown off over two years ago. In the case of Pikmin, it was announced 3 years ago, originally for the Wii. Nintendo is failing to generate interest in their console because they need to make sure the 3DS is selling well. Despite what the 3DS has currently sold, keep in mind that the 3DS is selling HALF of what the DS managed to sell (30 million a year compared to 15 million a year).

The problem with WiiU compared to Vita is perception. Despite its slow start, Vita appears to be getting more games. All of the games (except for Tearaway and Killzone, I believe) shown off prior to Vita's launch are available. The few Vita games that were shown off but not launched are due within the year. WiiU, on the other hand, has several games in limbo. Will Pikmin 3 launch this year? Will Zelda U launch this year? What about Mario Kart? Nintendo isn't giving us any answers.

[PopRocks359]

@dedicatedtogamers

The DS is also the second best selling platform of all time, just under that of the PS2. Besides, the 3DS is currently selling pretty well, not to mention how quickly it was selling throughout the past year.

http://www.gamedynamo.com/a...

As for the Vita assessment, that's a very fair point. You're right in that Nintendo is being secretive as usual, but let's not pretend that games without release dates are necessarily games that will never release. While I sympathize with those saying that the games are taking too long to come out, as an actual owner of the console, I'd rather wait until those games are developed at their best and released. I don't want another situation like Star Fox 64 3D where they neglected to include online multiplayer to save time and money and get the game out sooner (essentially leaving out content for the sake of an earlier release).

[ziggurcat]

"Nintendo chose to launch first. There is no doubt that was intentional. However, by failing to have a killer first year, they've blown a massive advantage."

actually, they blew their advantage when they decided to release a system that's barely better than current generation consoles rather than putting something out that would be comparable to what sony/MS are going to be putting out later this year, and tried to sell 3rd party AAA titles that people played 1 - 2 years prior to the system's release.

[dedicatedtogamers]

Not necessarily. The Wii launched 1 year after the 360 and was greatly underpowered compared to its competitors. It isn't unusual to see Nintendo go with the underpowered/cheap to manufacture route once again.

[wingman32x]

I think Nintendo's pretty safe in terms of market share in the portable market. The Vita would need a perfect storm to make any serious threat for first place. This is purely based off of how big the gap is at this point in time vs. some of the big stuff Nintendo hasn't released yet. So yeah, there is increased competition, but not enough for the 3DS not to do good. Plus, profit is still being made on every unit sold.

I seem to have trouble reading you. A couple of weeks ago you joked at how the DS' library was stronger than the 3DS' at equivalent time periods in a blog. But here you're saying that the 3DS is benefiting from more first party attention than usual(which is true). Which is it? This isn't meant to antagonize, just want a more clear explanation of your view on this.

[dedicatedtogamers]

The 3DS is starting to get a library that appeals to people who bought the DS, let me put it that way. The first run of 3DS games were primarily focused on - you guessed it - 3D. Their newer games are just trying to be good games. Nintendo needs to make sure the 3DS succeeds. The Vita isn't its only competitor, keep in mind. And even though the 3DS isn't selling horribly, it is selling about half of what the DS sold. And the DS was a completely new and unproven kit. The 3DS should have the advantage of following in the DS' legacy, but the sales aren't there (yet).

I didn't want to shift focus away from the WiiU. All I was pointing out is that during the years leading up to the WiiU's launch, an event happened which caused Nintendo to forget about their own gaming console. What was that event? A less than stellar first year for the 3DS. Nintendo needed to fix that, and the WiiU is currently suffering because of that.

[wingman32x]

In regard to the diverting focus thing, that's a pretty plausible hunch. However, it's hard to guess what studios were working on near term Wii U games before hand.

The only one that comes to mind is that maybe EAD developing 3D Land got in the way of progress on 3D Mario and Zelda, but even if they trashed 3D land, I don't think either of them would have made launch or anywhere near it.

As for Intelligent Systems, who knows if they had anything queued up. They're working on SMT X FE now, but that seems more recent.

Nintendo had a fair number of games outsourced for the 3DS. They had Grezzo do OoT, and Star Fox was done by someone else, too. DKCR 3D is also being outsourced, and Luigi's mansion was done by Next Level Games, a 3rd party dev.

So while I see merit in your idea, it's hard to really say to what extent it affected things.

[jcnba28]

I wonder why you only see these type of articles on N4G?

Hmm...

[LOL_WUT]

As of now yea you'd could say that the Wii U is insignificant but come this fall that could all change. #E3 ;)

[lovegames718]

hmmmmm i want to weigh in without ppl getting offended. Now it is insignificant to many but come fall yes it will have some good staple ips on the horizon and will catch interest, however i do believe it will be nowhere near the interest of the ps4/xbox and even its staple ips wont make it a successful console as say the other big two. Wiiu disappointed many not just in terms of lack of software to this point but just the overall package to many is underwhelming. Ps4 and rumored xbox is just in another league according to professionals like Digital Foundry and such and Wiiu just isnt doing it for many.

that being said Wiiu may not have the success that Wii had but i believe it will have some success and have some good games to play soon (not saying there arent any now just not that many). I admit when it drops below 200 and it gets a new Zelda game ill probably buy into one but at this point it has nothing for me or anything better than what my ps3 offers.

[Jadedz]

Right? -_-

[stragomccloud]

Oh fanboys. So blinded they can not see what's in the horizon in the other camp.

Sony fanboys are the worst man, they even talk about how the next xbox is doomed and it hasn't even been announced! Relax you guys!

I still remember the drought of games for the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. Waiting for new games was sometimes torture, and it was really annoying for me when games got delayed past launch window, one of the biggest I can think of was the Godfather game for 360.

[GreenRanger]

He also said 'put your hands in the air' and nobody ever did that.
Does anyone actually listen to Simon these days?
I doubt it.

[Neonridr]

he didn't say "Simon Says"

[Jek_Porkins]

These types of articles are why gaming is falling on hard times, it's all negative stories and gamer's should have each other's backs, not wish failure on a company or anything like that.

The Wii U will be fine once it has something compelling on the system, something tells me the usual suspects will go a long way in positioning the Wii U a good 6-8 million consoles ahead of the competition by November. Just because the Wii U didn't light it up like the original Wii did, doesn't mean it's a failure at all.

[StrongMan]

"there's no such thing as bad press".

#dealwithit

[Jek_Porkins]

There is no bad press for people like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. There is bad press for gamer's in general however, there is such a negative stigma centered around gaming and gamer's right now that I wouldn't be surprised to see an all out crash.

Just look at the hate gamer's have for each other, the studio closures, the way people blatantly hope for others to fail...it's sickening to me personally.

[Ck1x]

Everybody wants to be Nostradamus these days and predict things! Guess what people, I'm sure the Mayans thought that they were right as well and where did that get them?

[DEATHxTHExKIDx]

Ahh Bayonetta 2 The one game that makes me honestly think of getting a wiiU.

[optimus]

Funny, before the wii u release i contemplated getting it, but the closer it got the less i wanted it...i'm past the age of buying consoles for exclusives, (although a zelda and metroid announcement might change my mind)... The wiiU will have to bring the heat at e3 if it wants to make it through next year.

[bigbearsack]

John Say's - Another dumb article!

[Deku-Johnny]

This time next year the 720 will be the most insignificant console. PS4 will have the best 3rd party games and Wii U will have the best 1st party games. Just likes the past couple of gens.

[Sammy112]

Lol at people getting at Nintendo, then somehow try and defend the vita. Not sure how that works.

[ZeekQuattro]

Trolls are quite at home being hypocrites.

[brewin]

Its looking more and more like a $500 PS 4 and Xbox whatever they-call-it. The u will likely be dropped to $250-300. That will be real attractive to a lot of families this holiday season. A $500 console, not so much... especially if it requires a connection to the net in order to work. I see Nintendo in a pretty good spot this holiday season.

[rototon05]

I suggest him to keep his own opinion for himself!! i still believing that it is too early to determine whether the wii-u will succeed or not. Furthermore, Nintendo know how to use their strategies; therefore, they are dominating in the handheld marketing around the world. In addition, i don't think that many people will be willing to pay for a PS4 when there exist a PS3 with a huge variety of games out there. Also, i would say that after the E3 from this year we will see and compare the videogames companies that will determine the future of gaming. With that in mind, Nintendo is the owner of mario, zelda, donkey kong, Super Smash Bros, mario kart, kirby, Metroid, Xenoble and other franchises that will cause Microsoft and Sony a headache.. i love Nintendo and i own a PS3 and a Xbox 360, but all i can say is that the games that come from "Nintendo," the greatest video game company, are the most entertaining and brilliant games ever created.

One more thing> my apologies for being realistic!!! '')