The Wii U: It’s All Just A Little Bit of History Repeating

Andrew Rainnie - Bashing Nintendo’s new console has quickly become a troll’s favourite pastime. Not a day has gone by in 2013 without a cluster of articles marked with the words DOOM and GLOOM in big bold letters, attracting fanboys from all sides of the fence like moths to a flame, caught in an endless argument of whose favourite manufacturer is better. Then news came that Deep Silver would not be publishing Dead Island: Riptide or Saints Row IV on the Wii U. It all reached a fever pitch during the GDC, when DICE confirmed that Battlefield 4 would not appear on the platform either. You could hear the carving knives being sharpened, with many asking how would Nintendo’s new console survive without major third-party support? Later in the week, Kotaku’s Kirk Hamilton asked Epic co-founder Mark Rein if the Wii U would run their brand spanking new Unreal Engine 4. His response, one of laughter, was hastily clarified on Twitter as Epic sought to smooth their relations not only with Nintendo,...

[dedicatedtogamers]

Ironic. History is repeating itself, but not in the "underdog takes the throne" sort of way like the Wii did. The WiiU's philosophy is insular. Instead of expanding gaming, it flees from the TV whenever someone wants to watch baseball. Instead of attracting the expanded audience, it shuns them by focusing on games like Pikmin 3 and Wonderful 101 (not bad games, mind you) instead of what made the Wii popular. Instead of exploring new ideas, it's copy-pasting old ones from the DS and tablets and trying to shoehorn it into a console format.

If anything, the WiiU is repeating the history of the N64/GC era: Nintendo was once a juggernaut, but due to their arrogance, they got knocked down several pegs and slowly had to rebuild their strength.

[MNGamer-N]

They are still the largest gaming company in the world though. I think "juggernaut" still applies.

[diepdiep]

Can't wait for this year's E3. I bet Nintendo is saving big announcements for the Wii U since they have been very quiet about the system lately, especially its games.

[manaxknight1]

They were kind of quiet about the Wii-U development too..

[yewles1]

"The Wii U: It’s All Just A Little Bit of History Repeating"

If you're going by the history of headstart consoles, then yeah...

[OwlEyes]

Good article. You'd think people would have learned from the DS vs PSP, Wii vs PS360, and most recently, 3DS vs Vita.

Each time the Nintendo console was laughed at, each time it sold in numbers their rivals could only dream of.

[panbit86]

Don't forget that handhelds was TOTALLY Nintendo territory. The PSP did amazingly if we consider it was Sony's first attemt in handhelds and Vita with the proper games will do great too! (which from what history has proved time and time again with Sony's consoles good exclusive games is what they do, they'll come -don't forget that 3ds lacked titles in the beginning too-)

Now the Wii is a totally different story... u can brag about sales all you want but that doesn't change the sad reality of this console. Wii is long gone, most of the titles were gimmicky shovelware and no matter what sales it did it'll never be half the console N64 or GameCube was.

[BosSSyndrome]

Lol what are you talking about? It is HALF the console the Gamecube was!

...get it...

[ZeekQuattro]

But this time is different. At least that what's most trolls say anyway.

[josephayal]

This is terrible for nintendo

[AKR]

Very nice article, indeed. The Wii U's power isn't really a poor factor here. It's just stuck-up devs who don't want to try and utilize it.

Some complain that it's "selling poorly", so that's why they don't want to develop for it. Well then, how do we go about fixing that ....... hmmmmm, I wonder... But then again, it's also going through the 'infancy drought', which is normal for a fledgling console.

All that we can do is sit, watch and wait. E3 is less than 2 months away. Nintendo is infamous for taking the 'sneaky ninja' approach. You never know what's happening (Ahem, RETRO) - until they announce it. Considering that they've been so quiet about the Wii U from since the 'Wii U Direct' video.

[arbitor365]

"the numbers presented show a normal sales curve for a new console."

the absolute lowest the PS3 ever sold in a week, was about 50,000.

the wii u sold less than that (in the 30K range), weekly, for 10 weeks in a row. it escaped it for 2 weeks at the end of march and now it is already back to selling sub 50K per week

http://www.vgchartz.com/too...

that is not "normal." ubiquitous disinterest is not "normal" for a new console. a strong first 2 months doesnt mean much when demand drops off a cliff immediately after.

clearly there is no inherent casual appeal to this console, like there was with the wii. the tablet gamepad just doesnt bring any of that excitement. so, the casual market isn't giong to save it, like it did with the wii.

without casual appeal, the only other thing that has consistently ensured a successful console is third party support. and the wii u's third party support is lousy, to say the least. and it will only get worse as we get all these games on engines that arent even supporting the wii u.

so what exactly do nintendo fans expect to save the wii u? the marios and zeldas? well then youre right. history is repeating itself. nintendo is repeating the same mistakes they made with the N64 and gamecube.

[TruthbeTold]

You don't want the Wii U for Mario and Zelda? I ask because you surely wouldn't buy it anyway if it had top tier 3rd party support. Your loyalties lie elsewhere.

Which begs the question. Why do you even care? You must just enjoy coming in here and talking crap.

[TruthbeTold]

About what? A child talking crap? No. Just annoyed.

You sound like you enjoy stirring the pot for reactions, and getting off on it when other people stir it. Good luck with that...

[Blackcanary]

Why would someone waste money for just to franchises i.e Mario and Zelda. I love those games but i need a bigger incentive when it comes to buying a console than for just to games. Its not like Nintendo pump those games out every 6 months and even if that was possible, that's still a waste of money spent on a console that only gets played for two games.

If history really is repeating it self and Nintendo see's the same pattern they will end up bringing out a new console that can compete with the PS4 and the XBOX720 when it comes out. That's if the Wii U doesn't pick up steam and ends up having the same fate as the Game Cube.

Just like how Sony had to learn there lesson which they did after their rise with the PS2 and then becoming a bit to cocky with the PS3. Lets hope Nintendo learns there lesson cause if not then they just may end up going the way of Sega making games for other consoles.

[D_RoyJenkins]

Well said

[KingJFS]

"the numbers presented show a normal sales curve for a new console."

You're wrong arbitor365. While "sales curve" was probably not the best phrase to use, your own link shows the Wii U handily selling more total consoles than the PS3 during their respective first five months of life.

Week-to-week, the PS3 is more impressive. But the Wii U's sales totals absolutely are normal for a new console.

[HalfNerdHalfAmazing]

All these trolls want is for Nintendo to become the next Sega

[CouldHaveYelledUiiW]

I was going to say something about Trolls...

But then I started thinking about the last line of the article-
It started me thinking about E3-
and then I started wondering about RETRO Studios...

What are they cooking in Texas?

I'm hungry for something like Prime ribs with a side of baked potato ;)

[Blackcanary]

that made me laugh

[kagamer79]

So some of you ppl think if the wii u doesn't sell really well that nintendo will do like sega? Well you're an idiot plain and simple! Sega went software only because they were broke and going under fast. They had several poor selling consoles prior to that as well. I mean by all means talk shit about nintendo its your right to have that opinion. At least know what the hell you're talking about. Nintendo is a gaming company period! They don't have other products to rely on if there game systems fail. Sony and microsoft as we all know do. So if there consoles don't do as well as expected they have other resources to fall back on. Do I wish wii u had more power? Yes I do, but I can see why they do what they do. Its because they don't rely on 3rd party anyway because they know better how to push their hardware to the limits. Most triple AAA titles will most likely skip wii u but if you play nintendo consoles you'd be use to that by now. May sound like a fcked up statement but true none the less. Its simple really do you like mario,zelda,metroid etc? If not you don't want a wii u. I like nintendo but I don't give a shit about playing mario anymore but zeldas a different story. For me and my tastes in games I prefer playstations exclusives to others. I still buy nintendo consoles for the games I like not what ppl think of them and if you truly love gaming that's the way it should be.