Why is the Wii U not succeeding?

[masticina]

Because Nintendo

The Wii printed money for them so much that even the huge amount of utter shovelware was not seeing as damaging the brand. When the list of good Wii games began to dry up the last 2 wii years well they began to question about shovelware.

The WiiU came out with very little reason to own one. Zombies? Right.. oh and there is that Call of Duty game that actually is good. Except better on the other consoles. I mean Call of Duty on the WiiU aint bad. But really the problem is indeed games.

It seems as if Nintendo lost the magic touch. Games for children are fun and a great time yeah but gamers want more. And the mother/father/grandpa's kinda stopped after their Wii's became dust collectors. Yeah I mean it I bought my Wii second hand of a family that OBVIOUSLY simply stopped playing. Of course they only owned Wii Sports so there you go.

So even though the Wii was a money maker the seed already was there. How many times haven't we here had developers saying "No we are not making a Nintendo version" pointing at sales numbers. And they are right.

So this drought is their own fault. yes this year and next we get a few games direct from Nintendo. Will it save the WiiU? In part I hope so, the PS4 and the Xbox One are so equal that the idea of the WiiU does matters.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

I still don't trust Nintendo because of Nintendo of America's unwillingness to release Xenoblade, Last Story and Pandora's Tower.

Given how poorly a lot of hardcore games(god I hate using that term)sold on Wii can you blame them for being hesitant to release 3 hardcore japanese games so late in the Wii's life?For all the talk of the Operation Rainfall crowd those 3 titles only shifted about 600,000 copies combined in North America so maybe it wasn't such a silly idea in the first place

On top of that I worry that we'll get dull 4kidsized versions of titles like Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem because Nintendo of America is so focused on being 100% Family Friendly...

Did you get kiddified versions of Xenoblade Chronicles,The Last Story and Pandora's Tower?

What about Shin Megami Tensei IV? I don't see much in that game for kiddies...

As far as I can tell the North American Version of Shin Megami Tensei 4 was published by Atlus USA who has always been faithful with the products they've brought over. Besides, Shin Megami Tensei 4 hardly fits Nintendo Of America's "MUST BE A MILLION SELLER TO LOCALIZE!!" mandate... hell I'm surprised we got Fire Emblem Awakening out of them...

EDIT: For those of you in Europe, Nintendo of Europe seems to have a smaller market than Nintendo of America anyway, so they don't seem as aggressive when it comes to the "MUST BE SUPER PROFITABLE" mindset. Also they don't seem as ultra-terrified of losing their 100% family friendly image.

 

[Evonisia]

It's name might be an issue, doesn't really sound that different from the Wii but it is (as opposed to say the Xbox 360 is what people refer to when they say 'Xbox'), so people might be mistaken.

The controller is horrible, really it's literally the only reason I don't want to get a Wii U, especially because I wasn't a fan of the Wii's handheld motion controls either.

There aren't many games out for it that people want to buy. Despite the fact that it can play Wii games there's not a lot of reason to buy it when the Wii is more popular and has the larger library. Maybe when Zelda, Metroid or another popular franchise (like Bayonetta 2 which is generating some buzz) releases an installment on it it'll get sales.

 

[Ratties]

My wii is essentially a $200 netflix machine. The game I played the most on my Wii was Wii sports. Why would I invest in a new system when the old was essentially a party gimmick? So in my case, I'm not buying one because I dont see what it does better than the Wii, which I didnt like that much in the first place.

Here is all the games that I own on the supposed Netflix machine you are talking about.

Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2.
Super Smash Bros Brawl.
Xenoblade Chronicles
Rayman Origins
Donkey Kong Country Returns
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Punch-Out!!
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars
No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Kirby's Epic Yarn
Boom Blox
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure
Little King's Story
Super Paper Mario
Madworld
Sin & Punishment: Star Successor
Phantom Brave
Goldeneye James Bond 007
No More Heroes
Trauma Team
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Monster Hunter
A Boy and His Blob
Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love
Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny
Rune Factory Frontier
The Last Story
Klonoa
De Blob 1 and 2.
Metroid: Other M
Mario Kart Wii
Harvest Moon: Animal Parade
Geometry Wars: Galaxies

 

[eBusiness]

All that being said though, Wii U isn't really doing bad. It's not selling great, but you've also got to consider that they're making more money on those few sales than they would on the Wii, and are therefore in healthy financial standing: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/126475-Nintendos-First-Quarter-Shows-Rising-Profits

I think you got that backwards. With tablet controller and blu-ray drive there is no way Wii U consoles can do better than breaking even. The 3DS consoles on the other hand probably make a decent margin, but it is still the games that make the biggest load. On top of that, while they are not selling a lot of Wii consoles there is still a strong market for Wii games.

As for the future, if Nintendo get their games together of course the Wii U will sell, but I don't see the production price dropping fast, the screen and battery of the tablet are components that don't drop production cost nearly as fast as computer chips, and the chips of the console are already so small that there is hardly anything gain left to be made. Compare that to the PlayStation 4 which has a lot more of its cost bound in chips, in 5 years time after a couple of die shrinks those chips are going to be pretty inexpensive to make, leaving Sony very little in the way of shipping some very cheap consoles, the Wii U on the other hand will still need its tablet.

the Tablet Controller is more weird than inspiring

The diagnosis probably doesn't get more concise than that, developers and consumers alike think: "What are we supposed to do with that?"

 

[Iron Gix]

i think it's games mostly,that seems to be the biggest issue i hear from other people, but a big line up of games are coming soon so i believe after xmas time and earlier 2014 the WiiU will pick up hugh amount of sales

 

[Random Argument Man]

Obviously it's because we friend zoned Nintendo. Don't try to deny it! It's been treating you nicely and you decided to chase Sony and Microsoft because you thought that you would have more excitement and that maybe...just maybe...you'll be the one to change them. Bad news, they treated you badly and you've been complaining on how you wish that you just had a gaming company that treated you nicely. Too bad for you. Now Nintendo will go hit the gym, become someone better and find someone else in its life.

Okay okay, in all seriousness... It's probably because of lacking in marketing and mostly lack of interesting games.

But then...That whole Bayonetta 2 fiasco which everyone complained about even though Nintendo was probably the only company willing to save the franchise...Just shows some people ask for something and then become hypocrites when they get it.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

I still don't trust Nintendo because of Nintendo of America's unwillingness to release Xenoblade, Last Story and Pandora's Tower. On top of that I worry that we'll get dull 4kidsized versions of titles like Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem because Nintendo of America is so focused on being 100% Family Friendly...

This. A lot of us also still feel the sting of when Nintendo bit us on the ass when switching over from the Gamecube to the Wii. The gamecube had great titles and even Nintendo exclusives that weren't family friendly like Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, Resident Evil 4 (before it went multiplatform), and the first 2 Metroid Prime games, Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes and others and it still got some ports of 3rd party titles like Second Sight and Blood Omen 2. That was completely thrown out the window with the Wii where they wouldn't release a game unless it was clean enough to play in front of your grandma while also completely alienating 3rd parties so we would never see some of this gen's classic titles on the console unless they were completely gimped cause the Wii was just a gamecube with an overclocked graphics card. Yay for ninty keep back-compat. It must have been so hard with them selling us the same console again but with motion controls and wifi. Yes, I'm still a little bitter

Edit: I also forgot things like Nintendo refusing to release certain games like the ambassador titles for the 3DS and just now releasing earthbound

 

[funkyjiveturkey]

old hardware, gimmicky controls, lack of adequate storage capacity, nintedo's frequent problem's with third party developers (also that most third party developers have stated they want nothing to do with Wii-U anyway), bad price point, crap games library, and a fanbase that has dwindled due to previous failures with the Wii and 3DS.

and yes, the dreamcast comparison is very apt because i consider this nintendo's last run before they're forced to pull a sega and go strictly software-only.

 

[Roxas1359]

The WiiU is failing because Nintendo are competing with themselves.
They are losing and winning at their own game.

On the one hand, the 3DS is really picking up.
On the other hand, they made the 3DS so good that Nintendo fans have no reason to get a WiiU.

I agree with this. They've been putting some much more time and effort it seems into the 3DS, and while at first it needed it the 3DS can definitely handle itself just fine. They need to just start focusing on the Wii U itself like how they did for the 3DS. Like I said, the Wii U is Nintendo's PS3, it'll sell eventually, but they'll be taking huge hits before it starts taking off.

What about Shin Megami Tensei IV? I don't see much in that game for kiddies...

That was localized by Atlus USA which is why it really wasn't censored at all. Heck as other people have said Nintendo's reluctance to publish Xenoblade Chronicles was a real kick in the pisser, especially because you couldn't simply just import it since the Wii and Wii U are region locked. My whole thing is that at least allow your customers to import your games so that they can play them. Hell I'm still upset that the US will most likely never see the new Unlimited Cruise game on the 3DS, and because I can't simply just import it and play it I'm locked out of the game. Part of the blame goes to Bandi-Namco and their localization, other part goes to Nintendo for implementing a region locking feature that screws over us people who actually know Japanese. >.>

 

[Jack Joe Tip Toe]

I'm going to sound like a broken record but there is nothing on the Wii U that I want to play. If Nintendo wants me to get anymore of their consoles they would stop showing me familiar faces and show me newer ones. I know they have some new IP's, but even those games don't look that great to me. I need something that will leave me speechless looking at it. Something truly amazing. Something that will show me that they still have some magic left.

 

[lastjustice]

I have no desire to buy the Nintendo Pronoun heh.

 

[MetalDooley]

One thing about Xenoblades. Nintendo made a deal with GAMESTOP. Gamestop also made it so that the only way you could get the game new was to pre-order the game. You wanna know why that game did terrible in sales? There were no other places selling Xenoblades. Not a single walmart, best buy, or even a mom and pop gamestore had them in stock. So basically xenoblades was pinched on both ends.

Also the games were already translated and localized already so there wasn't any sort of cost increase aside from replication and shipping.

Gamestop has 4,434 stores in the US so it's not like Xenoblade was only available in a half dozen locations.Also doesn't change the fact that the other two games sold piss poorly.Pandora's Tower only sold about 60,000 copies.Given how poorly previous "hardcore" titles sold on Wii you can understand their reluctance

They don't count, they were localized in Europe and brought over to North America by companies other than Nintendo (Xseed for Last Story, and Pandoras Tower and Gamestop of all people for Xenoblade).

Ok wasn't aware of that.I assumed Nintendo published all 3 like they did in Europe

My case would be Fire Emblem: Awakening got a little bit of censoring in its North American release to cut down on some more "risque" bits and maintain Nintendo of America's family friendly image.

And was that little bit of censorship enough to make it a dull 4kidsized version as you previously claimed?

 

[Flatfrog]

For me it's definitely the controller above everything. It just feels like a solution in need of a problem, and everything I've seen that uses it looks stupid. I hated the WiiMote enough as it is (I surely can't be the only one who finds it impossible to play any game using it in the sideways mode without accidentally pressing the reset button every five minutes), and the pad is a completely pointless device.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I think there's still some confusion about what the Wii U is to people who don't follow what's happening when it comes to gaming. Some of you are likely too young to remember the transition from NES to SNES (I am too) but Nintendo don't seem to be doing enough to show that the Wii U is its own, new console. The TV Spots I've seen for it show off a kid or, family using the game-pad but the console itself isn't often shown on-screen.

And then there are things like this:

This ran in this week's Target ad in the US and if you own a Wii or Wii U (or know what they both look like) than you'll be able to spot the problem; namely that the console has been confused with the offer. If you're the kind of person who memories sale ads instead of E3 announcements, you're going to remember that not too long ago you could buy Wii consoles on sale for as low as $99...now suddenly the price has more than doubled! Well at least they've added a new tablet thing...maybe it's an e-reader (thinks the ill-informed consumer)

---

As for everyone else it's games. Pikmin 3 is great but aside from that there are few true exclusives out at the moment. In the next few months as Zelda, Mario 3D World, Donkey Kong etc release more units will sell. By the time Smash is out that will also boost units. Whether it's enough to save the system is unclear but hey, if Nintendo keeps making millions off of microgames for the handheld that it's already making millions off of then maybe they can afford to keep the U on the market long enough to make it at least somewhat profitable.

 

[Talvrae]

I think, and it's my personal opinion here, that's partelly because the majority of the success of the Wii was on the casual scene, it didnt get much sucess on the so called "hardcore" crowd of gamers and well the Wii got to sit on a shelves not being played in a lot of cases. Thuse poeple who have a buy a Wii and play it maybe once or twice a year at party are probably not ready to spend money on a new console they arent sure they will play when the wii still fit theyr needs.

 

[False Nobility]

I honestly think its as simple as 'no games'. And maybe people are finally jaded as to how bad consoles are in their first two years. We've had quite a few examples in the last few gens. How many original Xbox games were successful that had nothing do with Halo? All the playstations had slow starts, the Gamecube and Wii as well.

 

[Snotnarok]

I could only say the reasons I personally don't have an interest in the device
Games:
I'm not really interested in the current exclusives on the system and the multiplatform titles are more expensive on the device so I'm less inclined to purchase one (as in Mass Effect Trilogy is 40 right now on everything else, Mass Effect 3 is 40 on WiiU, it makes no sense to invest)

Digital policies:
Their Virtual Console games are fairly pricy, ah-ah no don't tell me the physical cart of a rare game is reason enough, yes some games are cheaper but a lot I like are cheaper elsewhere or in big bundles. The biggest problem is games are locked to the WiiU hardware so they're stuck on that system after paying a lot of money, and if I had invested in a 3DS any games I wanted to play on the go from the VC ..I'd have to buy again, which given Sony allows you to have a single purchase PSOne title on PSP, PSV and PS3 at the same time ON the same time I just can't find any reason to be excited over that.

The device:
The second screen is neat in it's own way but I have handhelds (GBA SP, PSP, PSV, laptop) So I'm not really into the whole idea of gaming in a separate room than your console, because the handhelds can go anywhere and the WiiU controller can't.

So the games don't interest me, their digital market doesn't interest me and the gimmick of the console doesn't interest me because I have better alternatives. So that's why I personally have no interest.

Everyone else? ...Well Smash Brothers isn't out yet, Zelda is a touched up port that didn't need touching up visually.