Why do Nintendo continue to shoot themselves in the foot with the Wii U?

Nintendo had a huge opportunity to draw in more potential buyers for the Wii U. Instead, they make yet another marketing mistake for the struggling console.

[Yep]

I don't think the editor knows what the expression "shoot yourself in the foot" means.

But I agree, that 3DS commercial practically blueprinted how Wii U commercials should be.

[RexFury]

It means to 'inadvertently make things worse.' Which Nintendo do when they make silly adverts. I REALLY want the Wii U to be successful, but I lose a bit of faith with marketing like this.

[Yep]

I thought the Wii U commercial was good, just not better than the 3DS commercial.

A commercial not being as good as another does not mean Nintendo shot themselves in the foot. Lol that doesn't even make any sense.

[JohnnyTower]

Nintendo really didn't get out of the gate with the Wii U launch. A solid PR campaign would have really helped them. Im like you and I really want Wii U to succeed, but they need to take a page out of Xbox and PS and advertise more!

[rdgneoz3]

"I thought the Wii U commercial was good, just not better than the 3DS commercial."

The 3DS commercial is good. But the WiiU commercial to someone who is not familiar with it makes it seem like a modern version of Sega CD (an addon).

[UltimateMaster]

They've removed chat function from the 3DS.
That's shooting yourself in the leg.

[ChickeyCantor]

"The 3DS commercial is good. But the WiiU commercial to someone who is not familiar with it makes it seem like a modern version of Sega CD (an addon)."

It doesn't. It really does not. If they wanted to sell it like an add on they would say "Wii U, an addon for the Wii".

Upgrade can be interpreted differently and I've said this before the gaming community seems to project how consumers will and should act/feel.

People really need to drop this fallacy.

[RexFury]

This is a reply to your other comment. The article is not about comparing the two adverts. I just believe the Wii U advert was a terrible piece of marketing. The Wii U is in dire need of sales and Xmas is fast approaching and is one of, if not the most important time of the year to do something good and these adverts are extremely important to sales.

[Cernunnos]

I work next to studies at an electronics store, and a lot of our customers have no idea what a Wii U is. A lot of people buy Wii U games, and end up returning them because they meant to buy a Wii game, and had no idea that such a thing as Wii U existed.

[Dunban67]

It should be "Why does Nintendo continue to shoot themselves in the face?"

When I was playing MH3U yesterday I could forge a new weapon or I could "upgrade" an existing weapon-

considering the amount of reports, data etc that say too many people don t understand the Wii U is a separate console, I don t understand why they can t just come out and say it- upgrade is too ambiguous as it relates to the Wii U

As good a job as they do marketing some of their games, the 3DS and past consoles they have done a horrible job marketing the Wii U

I think this article is on target- most people that are critical of Nintendo are doing so as supporters, consoles owners and people who sincerely care about Nintendo- The Wii U is performing at historically poor levels but they do not appear to be willing to deviate from the plan that got the Wii u to this point- so naturally people are going to comment and write about it as they should - I own a Wii U and I want to see it do well over the next 5-10 years but so far Nintendo does not appear be doing what is needed to see that will happen

[Klonoa-dreamtraveler]

both horrible commercials i dont see how 3ds commercial was even good. all they could explain in their product was uuhh ummmmm cauuuse its nintendo.

[RAFFwaff]

And by inference, that means that you can trust that the 3ds will be a great experience because nintendo consistently make great portable games machines.

[Klonoa-dreamtraveler]

can you explain how its a good commercial and how it explains anything that stands out to even get a 3ds not saying its a bad product not saying its not selling well that alot of trigger happy fanboys are disagreeing about. im talking about the commercial it self doesnt say anything but its nintendo and people are saying its a good commercial should of done it for wii u as if sayings ummm its nintendo would even help that out.

[Yep]

It's an arrogant slogan that works. People say "Because it's Nintendo" because its a good way to gauge quality. Nintendo knows how popular their brand is so something as simple and too the point as that will help to sell 3DS's.

[shuuwai]

Nay Nintendo is focusing where the money is, and that's the 3DS.

[RexFury]

So.....they are trying to make the Wii U look worse so that the sales of the 3DS get better?

[JohnnyTower]

Im with you Rex, it seems counterproductive to slander one product to boost sales of another. My friends still think Wii U is just a tablet. That right there tells me Nintendo needs to get some PR on this, fast!

[CPTN MITCHELL]

ohhh okkk

[Theyellowflash30]

These armchair analysis don't even know what they are taking about.

[RexFury]

Do you honestly think that advert was good for the Wii U?

[Theyellowflash30]

The advert was fine, its marketing to families and kids.

Yeah, I thought it was good.

[Summons75]

Releasing excellent games and making sure development is as perfect as can be before releasing... yeah how dare they give gamers a good time, shame on them!

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

I'm half tempted to risk an almost certain lawsuit and just simply sponsor some Wii U advertisement in my hometown on my own.
Lord knows I could do it better than Nintendo has been lately, even with my meager resources...

[contradictory]

that is hilarious.
i award thee 15 internetz

[contradictory]

i hope that Wii U will gain some momentum
because the console itself is pretty damn cool
too bad there's not much to play on it...
which is a real shame...

i'll get one eventually when LoZ happens.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

If you haven't given The Wonderful 101 a playthrough or two, you're missing out on a great reason to own the system.
Rayman Legends, Pikmin 3, and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate are also good reasons.

[contradictory]

Rayman Legends is on pretty much every other platform and i wasn't much of a fan of the Rayman Origins so....

but yeah Pikmin 3 and Monster Hunter are probably pretty good from what i've heard.

[Tales RPG addict]

Ok seriously has this idiot heard of Xenoblade 2. It's made by "Tetsuya Takahashi" creator of XENOGEARS, and the XENOSAGA Trilogy. If you haven't seen XenoGears its one of the Best Fucking Games of all time, and made back when Square-Enix was SQUARESoft.

[Tales RPG addict]

Oops forgot the Awesome XenoBlade Chronicles.

[toddybad]

It's a shame Nintendo is such a waning force. The Wii was amazing at the time (Well Wii Sports was) but it was just a flickering moment in time. Once upon a time Nintendo were the best outfit around on consoles - Sega and Nintendo were the Sony/Microsoft of today - how did they fall into the 5-12 entertainment bracket?
Why can't they cut their losses, support the Wii you for a few more years but release something truly unexpected - beat the PS4 specs with a new console with the Nintendo exclusives on top - they'd have a winner. It won't happen though.
Sad to say I think they might be dying before our eyes.

[LOL_WUT]

They got lucky with the Wii ;)

[MadMen]

WiiU is dead, nintendo needs to cut their losses and outsource their software and run with the handhelds and think on launching a real console that can hold its on.

[RPG_Lover]

why do sites continue to write stupid crap?

[Realplaya]

The Wii U commercial clearly says upgrade.

Upgrade:an occurrence in which one thing is replaced by something better, newer, more valuable, etc.

Talk all you want but the commercial is aimed at parents who buy systems for their kids.

[tweet75]

nintedno makes enough on 3ds and games and mario and zelda to make up for any losses on wii u

[corrus]

Awesome title cos they are dumb that's why