Reggie Calls Wii U A "Failure Forward" Because It Led To Switch

Reggie Fils-Aimé may no longer be the president of Nintendo, but he's forever in our hearts – and, if he keeps giving lectures on his time with the Japanese company like the one he did yesterday at Cornell University, that's going to be the case for a long time.

During the lecture, Reggie – who is now the university’s inaugural Leader in Residence – spoke about a wide range of topics, including the ill-fated Wii U.

[-Foxtrot]

They would have done the Switch regardless if the Wii U was a success or failure

[septemberindecember]

Possibly, but the point is that it was the Wii U that was the stepping stone to the Switch. So regardless of whether it was a success or a failure it led to something that is a success (the Switch)

[_SilverHawk_]

The failure of the Nintendo play station led to the success of 25 years of playstation domination of consoles also.

[bouzebbal]

Wiiu isn't a failure you moron.. The same guy was saying absolute opposite when wiiu was around.. Nintendo killed the console.
I love wiiu, it can do much more than what switch does.
And has its proper exclusives, not ports from previous gen.

[darthv72]

The WiiU will go down as one of the most underappreciated (not underwhelming) systems of all time. It did so many things right but still people werent interested. For all intents and purposes... it is Nintendo's Dreamcast moment. A failed system that will be beloved as the years go by.

[Welshy]

@Foxtrot I think you've been misunderstood a bit. You are partially right, Nintendo were always going to need a new system anyway, the Wii U's failure merely accelerated its release.

It's just ironic that Nintendo abandoning the Wii U was seen as a stroke of genius and celebrated by Nintendo fans, personally if I'd paid for a Wii U I'd be pissed, not pleased that I suddenly had a new system to buy regardless of if it was as great as the switch or not.

As a Switch owner who skipped the Wii U I'm not so upset, but if I was made to buy a new system and rebuy the games as "Deluxe" editions at full price over again I'd be pretty salty.

[King_Noctis]

The Wii U came out in 2012 and Nintendo “stopped” supporting the system in 2017. That is around 5 years, and while it doesn’t seem like much, the Wii U didn’t have a Pro version to carry it like the PS4/Xbox One. Also the Wii U had 38 exclusive games and a total of 764 games on the system, so its not like there is a shortage of game to play.

“ but if I was made to buy a new system and rebuy the games as "Deluxe" editions at full price over again I'd be pretty salty.”

So why would you rebuy those games if you had already played them or already owned them on the Wii U? This make absolutely zero sense.

[Neonridr]

so basically the entire first two years of the PS4/XB1 lifespan, full of re-releases and enhanced ports. Nobody is forcing any Switch owners to re-buy any games they might have owned on the Wii U. I didn't re-buy any of them, because I already played them on my Wii U.

And let's not pretend like 5 years is a short time. The PS4 received a pretty significant upgrade only 3 years into it's lifespan. While it still plays the same games, the improvements between the PS4 Pro and base PS4 are more significant than the Switch to the Wii U was in terms of tech.

[BigTrain]

This right here. I'm that guy. I havent touched Nintendo since they abandoned the WiiU and didn't make the transition a sweet one in any way for existing WiiU owners. When Sega had made the same move with the 32X, Sega CD, and Sega Saturn and then came with the Dreamcast they'd pissed off their fanbase and caused their own demise. Granted, Nintendos not exactly the same as them but they're not too far off. I will skip Nintendo this generation and hopefully their next gen system, if that ever even comes will be worth the wait.

[raph360]

are u an idiot ?

[wheresmymonkey]

True, But I think it would have been called the s-Wii-ch if it had been a success.
It is is the Wii 3 in everything but name.

[Neonridr]

we don't know that. They may have kept the whole console + gamepad idea and ran with that. I'm glad the Wii U failed, because it made Nintendo change things up a little. And they did. And the Switch is a great little system.

[Profchaos]

The switch feels like it's everything the Wii U wanted to be. Tablet gameplay featured prominently even when it wasn't required and allowing gamers to play on the couch while the tv was occupied.

The switch is really the next step after that cutting the need for the console but keeping the gamepad

[SpeedDemon]

I don't think so. The Switch was built on the same idea that the Wii U was, just that they learned from their mistakes and improved on the idea. Nintendo likes to try new things with their systems, had the Wii U been successful they wouldn't had tried the concept again and we would have something very different from the Switch.

[rainslacker]

Switch is basically their new portable. What exactly does it take from the WiiU to call it Nintendo learning and expanding on the WiiU idea.

The WiiU was a dual screen product that was supposed to follow the success of the 3DS. The Switch is a portable with detachable controllers and can be docked to behave as a home console.

What exactly is so similar between the Switch and the WiiU to call one a learning experience of the other? Switch isn't even built off the same idea that the successful 3DS was.

If Nintendo learned anything, it's that people in general don't care about their home consoles. Their success since the SNES has come from portables, or gimmicks. People say that people buy Nintendo systems for the games, which I agree with, but that didn't help the WiiU, because people in general, just don't care about Nintendo home consoles that much.

[UltraNova]

Even stark failure is success in the Nintendo realm...

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

My head is spinning from all his spin.

[CrimsonPheonix]

it's not a spin when he's the one saying it failed.

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

Spin is saying failure is a positive, Nintendo tried to convince people the WiiU was a worthwhile investment - even after many were burnt form the Wii.

PR speak mate. That's all.

[Welshy]

At best you can say it maybe encouraged them to do better to avoid 2 flops in a row, but ideally you shouldn't need a crap system to force you to make a good one. Not a company with the funds and stature of Nintendo.

This bit of PR spin is probably the closest you'll ever see to official acknowledgment the Wii U was a failure in terms of home console numbers you'd expect from Nintendo.

[SpeedDemon]

Is it really PR spin considering Reggie no longer works for them.

[rainslacker]

It's PR for Reggie, since this talk was about trying to turn a negative into a positive. That's kind of what they do with college, and trying to promote how one can learn from failures.

Personally, I see this more like they realized that people don't care about the Nintendo home consoles, but didn't want to leave the home console market, so they marketed a portable as a home console. Yes, it's a hybrid, but the Switch isn't even an advancement of the things they built with the 3DS, the Wii, or the WiiU. It's your basic next gen portable, with some home console additions, some good games, and an attractive price point.

[mastershredder]

I love the speaking from Nintendo's perspective, or excuses as to why it was or was not a failure. Better yet, correcting others with fabricated bs. Wow. Kids, please stop making wild ass crap all for the sake of posting.

[bluefox755]

That's one way of framing it.

[Protagonist]

That is ironic considering nintendo fanboys on this site kept saying (til the end) The Wii U was not a failure. Now Reggie says the Wii U was a failure?

[rainslacker]

Fanboyism is one hell of a drug.

[Fritzwochel]

The biggest fault with Wii U was the name. I still can't wrap my head around that it's not a tablet for the Wii.

[rainslacker]

Think it's more the power and price. Too late for last gen, too weak for this gen. It only had a small window for being within either generation, and failed to get enough support after the first 6 months.

[LoneGaymer]

I love my Wii u. The BC is so worth it. Plus it got fatal frame and botw. Great console. Switch is great too. You can get a used one for 100 bucks.

[rainslacker]

I liked it for the good games it had. It is what it is, like most Nintendo consoles. Not the most powerful, but enough there to make it worth having.

[LoneGaymer]

For sure. The virtual console is excellent

[Fraggle1987]

Nice spin on the failure

[traumadisaster]

I bought into wiiU as soon as early rumors started about the switch, it was Christmas time 2016 and I got it for my kids with dozens of exclusives that were a different kind of fun that could be had on the ps360. WiiU was under $200 and used games cheap.

At the time only us on these websites could sniff out vague rumours of the switch but the main stream elementary kids were excited with the wii u games. On a big screen tv, kids jumping around tearing my house down!

We've since continued to collect and play unique, bc to wii, and exclusive, fun WiiU games while sharing time on pc and x1. For the right age, done the right way the wiiU worked great for us.

[Magog]

No, it was just a failure. Luckily they had enough money in reserve to recover but don't pretend it was some blessing in disguise. A smaller company would have been destroyed by a setback like that.

[rlow1]

So what most people on this site are saying, Nintendo shouldn't have turned a negative situation into a positive??? How does that make any sense? He admitted it was a bomb, still supported it, and that situation led to the switch.... To me that's called life....hell look at your own life with it's ups and downs.....they did good.

[Exvalos]

This man is a master of damage control. Failure forward lmao, that's like how ea tried to win a case for loot crates by calling then "Suprise mechanics"

[Cobra951]

He doesn't work for Nintendo anymore, so what he says here is his personal opinion (not Nintendo's spin).