The original Wii the worst thing to happen to Nintendo

A few days ago an article showed up stating that it was Sony to blame for Nintendo failing to entice 3rd party developers to make games for the Wii U. That may or may not be the case but i believe that Nintendo is their own worst enemy in this matter & it all started with the original Wii.

Take a trip back in time with me, back to the end of the 6th generation of game consoles. The Sony PS2 soundly trounced the competition from the newcomer Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo's Gamecube who had the unfortunate distinction of finishing in 3rd place. That massive defeat in the eyes of Nintendo made they take a different approach in how to construct their next hardware.

Both Sony & Microsoft seemingly had control of the 'hardcore' gamer that Nintendo realize may be out of their reach. All they had that can rival the next consoles from the other 2 were their AAA first party games (Mario, Zelda, Pokemon etc.), though that may not be enough for them to regain market control.

This is where i believe Nintendo made their first steps into where they are now. Instead of catering to the 3rd party publishers & developers that are vital in having a long term successful console. Listening to what 3rd party developers need to make games on a console they turned their backs on them to go for the 'EASY' money.....the casual crowd. Thus the original Wii was born. Nintendo saw that neither Sony & Microsoft were enticing the 'casual' gamer, so Nintendo took advantage of that.

We all know the Wii became a financial gold mine for Nintendo (the Easy money) but once the original hype died down you need the 3rd party developed games to keep the hardcore gamers to come back. The casual gamer will eventually slowly lose interest so you need the hardcore gamer cause they will usually always be playing the console. Since there were little to next to none support from 3rd party the Wii slowly lost sales after the initial boom, while the other 2 stayed consistently strong throughout the generation.

The Wii's lost of momentum forced Nintendo to rush out a console to match (or Nintendo initially thought surpass) the current gen systems of Sony & Microsoft. Nintendo finally realized they needed the 3rd party help to safely maintain a healthy console life. Unfortunately the Wii U hasn't been able to gain 3rd party momentum cause it came out at a bad time when Sony & Microsoft were just about to reveal their next gen systems thus making the hardware of the Wii U be insignificant to 3rd party.

So we are now at the point where Nintendo is at now, at a crossroads. Do they scrap the Wii U & try to mitigate the damages of that by releasing another console to match the PS4 & XBone? Or do they stand pat & ride the potential losses & support the Wii U with their own AAA library. It's a touch decision for Nintendo no doubt. All of this troubling situation that Nintendo is in is thanks to the success of the original Wii.

The Wii as of right now is the 7th generation console leader (with over 100 million sales) & potential 'winner' but is it really? Did all that sales really help Nintendo?

My answer is no. It was the worst thing to ever happen to Nintendo cause that success has lead them to the situation they are in now. The Wii's success made Nintendo believe they didn't need 3rd party support to have a successful console in this day & age. That 'arrogance' or lack of respect of the 3rd party has soured many relationships with 3rd party & Nintendo may or may not be able to make amends.

I was a fan of Nintendo back in the NES/SNES days cause they cared for the gamer not only with their massive 1st party titles but they catered to the 3rd party as well. Somewhere down the line they forgot that 3rd party are vital for a console to have a successful life & that 1st party games can only take you so far.

In my heart i still have a place for Nintendo wishing them they can get out of their troubles. I really want them to do well but man do they REALLY need to change how they approach the industry.

[iamnsuperman]

I agree with you, I feel the Wii was really bad for Nintendo's home console division. They read part of the market (fitness/active craze that really took off in 2006) but they completely missed a vital shift in the market where third party exclusives went away and a big focus of big multi-platform games. Porting a 360/PS3 game to the Wii was almost impossible and the PS3/360 had conventional controls. The Wii ended up overloaded with shovel ware because it was sold to that crazy fitness/family market and it couldnt take ports from the PS3/360. I think this has transfer to the Wii U.

Also Nintendo has spent less time developing its online infrastructure because of the Wii. The Wii U is behind because Sony and Microsoft have been testing and refining their online services for over 6 years. Nintendo hasnt had that luxury. The Wii made have sold a lot and made Nintendo money but it has had a really bad lasting impact on the company (which I feel may cancel those impressive sales)

[izumo_lee]

Exactly! Nintendo failed to evolve with the ever changing landscape of the gaming industry. If the did they would've seen the move from big console exclusives from 3rd parties to multi platform games we see now.

Your take on online is a great point & another part of the moving industry that Nintendo either was reluctant to see or just plain oblivious to it.

This is what Nintendo needs to do. Not firing anyone. Not build a new console so soon. To embrace the industries direction it is headed & move with it not against it. Nintendo can still be that proud company they are but don't be afraid to change some aspect of the company.

Like many has said including Sony. The industry needs a healthy Nintendo, but it is Nintendo's decision if they wanna be apart of it.

[miyamoto]

Wii was a side step gamble that focused on casual gaming gimmickry instead of pushing next generation gaming.

Miyamoto said they wanted to make a cheap console that in case would flop they won't lose too much money.

Wii just prolonged the inevitable fate of Nintendo's home console business slow and painful death they brought upon themselves.

All the Wii's commercial success was brought to nothing by Wii U.

[MONKEYDLUFFY]

No. The Wii was for better or worse a triumph. The Gamecube proved that noone would buy a nintendo system just for it's specs and N games. So nintendo went all out and did somehthing unique with Wii and DS and it paid off big time. Also it had the Galaxy Games

[Lukejrl]

They did keep it unique, and the tech was the best available, just look at motion controls with Skyward Sword. They misread the market and did not think that HDTV's would be as popular and so they didn't think they needed to increase system power. Games are still fun without seeing HD. But let's be honest would you want a girl with a great personality, or do want a HOT girl with a great personality?

That and third party games often got a bad rap as being shovelware because of the mountains of other crap being released and people did not want to wade through the cesspool.

[Dannycr]

That is not true. The Gamecube was hardly a failure it had a lot of great games. The problem was not the console itself, the problem was that the PS2 was just booming with a lot of content that people didn't feel the need to buy one.

I, for one bought a gamecube first and a PS2 last. Throughout the entire lifecycle of the gamecube, I didn't feel the need to buy a PS2, but, as time passed by and the amount on content released in PS2 was overwhelming, I decided to get a PS2

[MEsoJD]

The wii in my opinion damaged them in the long term among core gamers and third party devs. The wii is the opposite of long term. It's dead with amost no support from consumers or devs while sony and ms still have a healthy support on their last gen consoles. The wii had a few awesome games, but today I can't remember the last I've used mine... Which is why I still don't have a WiiU. I don't want to invest in something that's going to be completely irrelevant in a couple of years.

[PlayStationdominance]

The thing is that you have to go back to "why" Nintendo made the Wii in the first place.

The reason is because they didn't want to "directly" compete with Sony anymore. Sony battered them from pillar to post with the PS1 and PS2.

I keep telling everyone that Nintendo brought this upon themselves with the N64. THAT was their biggest mistake. Ignoring third party devs in favour of first party by opting for cartridge instead of CD.

[kingdip90]

If they had gone with cd with the n64 Sony would never have split with them and made the playstation at all. It could very well have still been a world with Sega and Nintendo battering each other in console wars.

[PlayStationdominance]

Microsoft use Blu-ray on Xbox One. Does that mean they have sided with Sony?

No.

Nintendo would've given a tiny cut to Sony but, ultimately, they would've made it easier for third party devs to produce games on N64.

[Lukejrl]

Yes, very big mistake. They lost Square and Enix, and cartridges could not hold FMV or voice. Remember too that N64 was cartridge system because Nintendo had a deal with Sony that they reneged on. The SNES was supposed to have a Sony Disc drive.

So ever since the Snes they have failed to properly read the market. Fail to see that gamers are no longer 10 year olds.

[SpiralTear]

"cartridges could not hold FMV or voice"

...Conker's Bad Fur Day?

[Lukejrl]

I never played it. It actually had Fmv and just not ingame engine movies? I know that voice was capable but alot mulitplats did not carry over the voice and games that should have had it did not. I think it was because of memory or space issues.When Conker came out I was playing Metal gear and resident evil along with any rpg I could find.

[FinalomegaS]

you remember the RE2 port to the N64... god help them with the cartridge.

FMV was beyond crap...

[SpiralTear]

Low third-party support on Nintendo consoles did not start with the Wii.

[mamotte]

Oh, the "suddenly amnesia" effect. If we see a little more in the past, there's the Gamecube, Xbox and PS2. The Gamecube wasn't the weaker of those three, it was the PS2. And we all know how that story ended, so I wont repeat it here.

Your argument is now invalid.

[tigertron]

I agree, I think the Wii was ultimately a success at first due to the hype behind it, but it was essentially a repackaged Gamecube which enabled Nintendo to manufacture the Wii with minimal costs. This helped Nintendo short term, but as you said, third party developers jumped ship and Nintendo thought they could just recreate the success of the Wii with the Wii U, by not focusing on third party developers and by releasing a weak system (in terms of hardware) which is being left behind by the new generation.

What Nintendo also didn't take into account was the casual gamer. That market is incredibly fickle, it moves on and it was wrong to assume it would stay for the Wii U, so I think it was right for the likes of Sony to focus on the hardcore gamer.

[SweetIvy]

Also, the casual market is NOT composed of the people that allows the industry to produce game that cost tens of millions of dollars, which is still the very core of the industry, thankfully.
Beware, I don't mean indies and such are less important, but it's the big names that make the industry and can support large events and so on, if you know what I mean.

[Kos-Mos]

...do you write articles like this just to get attention?

[izumo_lee]

If I wanted to get attention I would be submitting more stuff, but I don't.

Do you seriously think there isn't a problem with Nintendo? So explain to me why so many 3rd party games have been absent on the Wii U? Why is Nintendo struggling with the home console department? If it wasn't for the 3DS than Nintendo would be in much more serious trouble than you think. If you have the answer please enlighten us cause it sure heck that Nintendo is needing some answers.

Nintendo is going to be around for a long time but don't ignore that there isn't anything wrong cause if you keep thinking that the industry is going to be a lot smaller.

[Kos-Mos]

You need to focus on your life, not the fanboy "hype" that`s been around this site for a long time.

[dedicatedtogamers]

I think it was Nintendo's own fault. They stopped making games for the casual audience on the Wii which caused the casual audience to go elsewhere. Think of it this way: if you were a so-called Casual and you bought a Wii in 2009 for "teh casual gamez", you got NSMB Wii, Wii SPorts Resort, Wii Fit 2, and....what? Seriously, what else? What else came out after that point that would appeal to "teh casualz"? Nothing at all, if you go back and look. Nintendo failed to make games for their audience. Instead, they began slipping back into their old ways where they just make the sort of games that they fancy at that moment, regardless of whether or not it will sell.

It's common thinking that "the casuals are fickle and they abandoned the Wii". I think that is completely false. Casuals aren't fickle. If you take care of them, they'll stick around (*cough*AppleProducts*cough*). Nintendo failed to create any more games for "teh casualz" and so they left Nintendo.

And then when the Wii-U came out and they thought they'd grab the same audience. They didn't. With Wii-U Nintendo thought that they could also grab the hardcore. It never happens. Ever.

[CrossingEden]

It really was, it made them think that all gamers wanted is gimmicks and not actual innovative games...I miss classic Nintendo.

[RSKnight]

This is how Nintendo is going to end: They will continue in this decadence spiral with lower sales each year, posting bigger financial losses and refussing to change in any way. Iwata will continue as CEO as well as all Ninty executives and they all will continue to believe that eventually Nintendo will revive again, but that won't happen ever. One day, I think it'll be at least five years from today, but no more than ten, Nintendo will be in such bad financial situation that the market value of the company will be very cheap, a few hundred millions at most, and before it goes bankrupt there will be another company intrested in buying Nintendo. I don't know who that'll be, maybe Microsoft, or Sony, Activision, or even Disney, who knows. This buyer will take ownership of Nintendo and inmediatly after that they will shut it down and fire everyone. The sole purpose of buying the company will be to get Nintendo's IPs and use them to continue making games (maybe even some animated movies, Disney?) and ironically this games will be made for all the platforms available at the time, wich is what Nintendo didn't want to do, and this new owner of their franchises will be making tons of money. I can bet all my money and some vital organs that this is how Nintendo will end.

[cellur111]

Nintendo isn't going to end anytime soon, you do realize how much money they have? And just because their consoles aren't selling well the 3DS is selling lots.

[RSKnight]

Yes, I realize they have a lot of money right now, that's why I said they will die 5 to 10 years from today. There are a lot of people out there saying that Nintendo has enough money to live for a 100 years with their current level of sales, sorry to burst your bubble but that is a terrible lie, they may last for 10 years max, and console cycles are 5 to 6 years long, so they better start doing some drastic changes right know and get it right for their next console or it will be too late, but unfortunately I don't see Nintendo doing any of that. And they are also loosing money on the 3DS as well, so that one is not going to keep them afloat either.

[SweetIvy]

Well, I'm not a Nintendo gamer, so to speak, I haven't played any of its franchises, didn't grow up playing Nintendo games.
I do have a 3DS (and DSXL) because I love Layton, however I never got the Wii because I wasn't too interested in most of its games.

However, WiiU has backward-compatibility.
If Nintendo were to release a new kind of bundle including a WiiU console + 2 standard controllers (not the WiiU large controller) for like 200/250$ I would buy it to play all those Wii and WiiU games that interest me with my buddy.
That would make it a sound investment (for a gamer like me that mostly plays on PS3/PS4 and PC) to play what I can only find on Nintendo's consoles.

Not sure something like this could happen, but I'd buy it.