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What Do You Think is the Reason for Wii U's Low Sales?

キラ

Yo!
Joined
Feb 14, 2014
Location
Illinois
A lot of people say that the Wii U isn't selling well because of the lack of many good games. A lot of people say that the Wii U isn't selling well because of poor utilization of the Gamepad. A lot of people say it's because the Wii U's online infastructure isn't very good. I disagree with these reasons.

I think the real reason is that the Wii U isn't as powerful as the other two next-gen systems - the PS4 and the Xbox One. I think that people care too much about how a game looks rather than how a game plays. I really think that is the bottom line. Let me tell you why.

Both the PS4 and the Xbox One don't have amazing libraries right now. Yeah, there's Killzone, Knack, Ryse, Forza, but other than that, a few multi-platform games and then nothing noteable. I think that happens when every new system comes out. But both systems still sold very well.

The PS4 has a touchpad that is barely even being utilized at this point. The Wii U's gamepad has a touch screen, gyroscope, accelorometer, etc. Its new capabilities aren't being used to their potential either. But the PS4 sold like hotcakes when it came out. Why? The PS4 is more powerful. Although new, unique ways to use controllers are awesome (really, they are), people don't really see them as priorities. As long as the Wii U was just as powerful as the other 2 consoles.

I really would like to have voice chat in more video game besides Call of Booty for Wii U, and for any video game in 3DS. An instantly accessable friend's list and instant access to messaging. Sadly, this isn't so. But, I REALLY like the Miiverse! I think it's fun! It's like Nintendo's own forum! So I don't really mind that Nintendo doesn't have those other features. I wouldn't really care if Nintendo didn't even have Miiverse. I just like playing video games. BUT, the 3DS is selling a lot. The online system for the 3DS isn't the greatest.

The Wii sold amazingly. I think it was because everyone was excited for motion controls but people didn't care after a while because the Wii, despite its success, wasn't talked about as much as the PS3 or 360 unless it was to bash its stats - because people wanted to play on the more powerful systems. People care too much about graphics!

But then I guess I'm contridicting myself to say that people only care about graphics because the 3DS is selling more than the Vita. The Vita is more powerful... It's all really confusing to me...

Why do you think the Wii U's sales are low?
 

Mercedes

つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
Joined
Nov 12, 2007
Location
In bed
Gender
Female
There's so many reasons why. To start off with, what people tend to miss is the Wii U's been out a year longer. Always keep that in mind. I've seen a lot of people use the claim that the Wii U has a better library and the XB1/PS4's sucks, which you could argue is true but I'd bloody expect it to when it's had a year longer to do it! Compare the Wii U of today with the XB1/PS4 of today in a year's time and that's a fair comparison but one rarely people make. I don't think Nintendo fans want to make fair comparisons these days though.

Also let me just begin with saying that I like the Wii U! I like Nintendo! But liking them doesn't stop the fact that their are problems, clearly, and the act of discussing them is not some attack on Nintendo like people automatically assume. Every negative thread about the Wii U always gets annoying people who just defend them, thinking everyone's just a hater for simply discussing it, whereas everyone who contributes to an Xbox/Microsoft hate thread are all bang-on correct and justified! Blind haters are as stupid as blind supporters, but the act of discussing a console with problems does not inherently make you 'a hater'.

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To get into it, why is the Wii U failing? I think Nintendo just completely mis-read the market and released a less-than-desirable product, it's not the next 'cool' thing kids want, and with a schizophrenic target audience which just ended up alienating some gamers (those who thought the Wii was 'kiddy' and not for them aren't likely to change that opinion with a console called 'Wii U', though Nintendo claimed they wanted to capture that type of player) and not attracting the ones they hoped for (casual market which made the Wii soar).

The name was also a mistake, when they had hoped for other results it just made consumers confused, and it didn't help that they barely showed off the actual console itself. The PS4 is a great name, simple and plain, and the Xbox One took its beating for the name but it's clearly a different product to the Xbox 360, no problems there. The Wii U didn't have that same luxury, and it's pretty well-known a common misconception was the Wii U was just a peripheral for the Wii. A horrible first-year line-up of games also didn't help; I know people will point out a few good ones, but, where the hell was the A-Team? Games that are coming out in the near future, games that people claim will 'save' the Wii U, are games that should have been out as close to the launch window as possible so it didn't need saving and just sold well to begin with! It would have given them some strong-selling titles to market, and that leads to the next-point which is marketing. In contrast to the frankly brilliant Wii advertising, the Wii U got barely anything. I'm not sure what it's like in other countries, though considering I've heard many people agree with this I'm going to assume it was bad too, but I'm not exaggerating when I say Wii U advertising in the UK was almost non-existent. Like Sony and Microsoft do, try and get their adverts in prime-time spots (I saw an Xbox One advert while watching Top Gear, which is a big show), Nintendo didn't seem to bother/care at all. And the UK responded in kind. I mean, Microsoft is making more effort in Japan for the Xbox One than Ninty did with the Wii U in the UK!

Finally, I think it just dropped off people's radars now. When a new product doesn't make a splash and just slowly fizzles away in the eyes of the public, usually that's it. You either need a new marketing push or a new product, which would ensure a brand new marketing push, but, it's not like the general person sits on IGN and looks at Wii U news and patch notes and new features. If they didn't like it at the start, they won't actively seek out if it has gotten better. That's Nintendo's job, to tell them it's better and to tell them that they want it! Which leads back to why I think Nintendo dropped the ball with the marketing and they need to do an almost re-brand of the console to liven it up. Otherwise I doubt they'll ever really capture anymore gamers than the core Nintendo crowd, and unfortunately that isn't a crowd with size enough to keep a console happily afloat.

And now? When I walk into my local GAME, there's a wall dedicated to the PS4 and a wall dedicated to the Xbox One, with tonnes of games there. And the Wii U? It shares a shelf with the Wii, 2 boxes for the Wii U and 1 box for a Wii, and all of their games are just together. Not even separated, literally, the Wii U games take up 1 and a half shelf and then the Wii games take up the rest, which is about 3 more shelves. I mean, consumer confusion was a problem and that can't exactly be helping the situation. Even the Ouya and Gamestick have their own shelves! Even the Microsoft Surface and other tablets do! A next-gen console not having it's own big area in the biggest dedicated game store in the country is really when you know you've hit some bumpy roads!

I know people will valiantly leap to Nintendo's aid, but, I'm not bashing the Wii U. I like it as a console. It's not trying to be some cut-down Gaming PC, it's just a simple and efficient gaming machine, albeit with some ridiculous and short-sighted design choices (MS and Sony had digital games tied to accounts last-gen, Ninty!!!!) and I do quite like it. And I can respect a company at least trying to innovate, though I don't feel the Gamepad is as exciting an innovation as Nintendo has had before. It's the same reason why I like the Xbox One, I want more than just better graphics with a new console generation, and at least the Gamepad and Kinect try to do that. Whether they succeed or fail is an opinion, but, I'd rather all companies try and fail to innovate than never get anything new.

I also don't feel the people who desperately try and defend Nintendo are helping the situation. If a company does something bad, it's not a betrayal or anything to say so. I love Nintendo but the Wii U, while okay, is not at all what I imagined it could have been. I feel it's lackluster. And I'll say that and I don't need some fanboys raging because they have a different opinion about it. I mean, I love Valve, they're my favourite gaming company, but when they do something stupid I go on the forums and I post my opinion on it. No matter how much I'm bias to them, surely you want a favourite company to flourish? Some people may be perfectly alright with some of Nintendo's decisions and genuinely not care, sure, but I feel at times it's just white-knighting and is the stupidest thing you can do for a company you like.

To reply to some a point from the OP:

Ghost said:
I think that people care too much about how a game looks rather than how a game plays. I really think that is the bottom line.

I definitely disagree with that. People do care about how a game looks as well as it plays, yes, that is a fact, however much people try and furiously down-play a game's looks in the overall scheme of things, but if they cared about it too much then why is Call of Duty selling? Not every single game on every single platform looks the same, there's better looking ones and worse looking ones. If people cared too much about graphics then why would they be buying Call of Duty games on their consoles when Battlefield looks an entire generation ahead of it almost? Because they don't care about it too much. They care about it a normal amount, and at the end of the day they like COD's gameplay and so buy it.

People tend to care more about art-style than raw graphics. Nintendo could release games that look miles better than anything else on the other consoles, but their games are colourful and bright. Look at 3D World. If your not a fan of that type of art-style, then you wouldn't like the game, however graphically superior it is to other games.

Also, your mistaking more power in a console simply giving graphics. This is just not true, more power gives you more everything. The size of a world, the spread and intensity of content, the complexity of AI and how much there is, dialogue, every single bit of sound executed, and emergent branches in gameplay. All these things, everything, requires more power. When you play a game there's millions upon millions of processes going on in the background. So people like more powerful hardware because it has more potential. I mean, look at Skyrim. It was a massive world but it was dumbed down in other aspects not because "lol bethesda sux" or anything, it's because a world of that size with all that content is one hell of a strain on the console, and so they couldn't make stuff better. People think you can slot in more advanced AI or more sophisticated random events but that required processing power that, evident from the problems it had on PS3, just was not an option.

----​

tl;dr

Nintendo's problem was just trying to make the Wii U do everything, hit 2 markets of which neither cared anymore/still, and attempting to clip the other consoles to the post by releasing early and almost squandering their year lead with a lack of games and a greater lack of marketing.

I'm enjoying my Wii U, it's good, but I don't really see it ever kicking off anymore. Nintendo might save it, but I think anyone expecting more than a third-place finish is being very optimistic right now.
 

Justac00lguy

BooBoo
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Gender
Shewhale
OK so there are few main problems in my eyes:

  • Outside perspective
  • It's competitiveness
  • Marketing (advertising and as well as product and image)
  • Familiarity

Outside perspective is a big issue and I think it essentially stops Nintendo from ever appealing to be, and a I apologised for this term as it can be inaccurate, "Core Fans". The Xbox and Playstation demographic are loyal to their console and Nintendo will most likely never appeal to a good percentage of this crowd. The reason for this is because Nintendo likes to be different; they separate themselves from the rest of the pack by offering an alternative gaming experience. This is one of the reasons why Nintendo has been so successful, just look at the Wii for example -- it was a huge success and it was most certainly the niche at that time. However, it seems like Nintendo will only ever appeal to its loyal followers, or those who are fond of the games etc, and that's a problem. Business is all about expanding and growing, so if you're not doing that you're not going to be successful. The Wii was successful because it was completely different at the time and, while motion controls weren't anything new, they had never had this big of a emphasis and detail before. The Wii U doesn't have that same impact.

Marketing also applies here: outside perception of the Wii U is best summed up as "confusing". Even I, and other Nintendo fans, we're confused by the announcement. Just what was the Wii U? Was it a new console? Is it a new controller? Etc. The console looked the same, it had a similar name, it brought over the same control scheme and it had familiar games that were best labeled as "rehashes" - and I hate to use that word. Here is a post a while ago where I outline Nintendo's problem of being too familiar:

Nintendo is a good company at making quality games (exclusives) and they've been consistent; however, the Wii U is doing bad. Let's face facts, it is doing really bad. Now sure you could put the blame on bad marketing or lack of power (don't post about power please for the love of god). Though is it that Nintendo is just more of the same? They constantly makes sequels that are strikingly similar to its predecessor - I'm not necessarily saying this is a bad thing; it's just that I think this might start biting them in the back... well it kind has done already.

One of the Wii U's biggest downsides, from a marketing perspective, is that it's just too damn familiar to the Wii. In design, in name, in control scheme, in marketing etc. The thing is that games are also following this pattern:

  • Super Mario Bros Wii U
  • Game and Wario
  • Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics
  • Pikmin 3
  • Wind Waker HD
  • Wii Party U
  • Wii Fit U
  • Super Mario World 3D
  • Super Smash Bros [4]
  • Mario Kart U
  • Donkey Kong Country: Tropicals Freeze

There's so many games there that are great exclusives by their own merit, and a lot have received large praise by professional reviewers and players alike; they're just not doing well for the console itself and it shows. I have no problem with games being similar to their predecessor, but when most, if not all, of Nintendo's main exclusives are basically rehashes of their predecessors then where's the new innovative titles? That's what I believe this consoles is lacking and lacking big time.

So you have a problem with the image, which affects the outside perception; however it's also having a negative impact on Nintendo fans. Familiarity can be a good thing but too much is bad. I see the Wii U and I see it as more of the same: it has the same games just as sequels, it has little 3rd party support, it has a similar design, and a similar experience which sets the tone for the console itself. I owned the Wii U by its release date and it really failed to impress me. The biggest problem was that it didn't feel new. Every time I play a new console I get that feeling of something new and it's great; the Wii U just didn't have that and it left a sour taste in my mouth ever since.
 
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ihateghirahim

The Fierce Deity
Joined
Jan 16, 2013
Location
Inside the Moon
A lot of waht I tihnk has been said, but there's still some more problems with the Wii U.

There's a big lack of third party titles. These appeal to hardcore non-Nintendo gamers a lot. Games like MGSV, GTA, RE6, and others that fall well within the Wii U's graphical capabilites are not being ported, leaving Nintendo gamers to look elsewhere for them. Granted, a lot of games were ported at the launch window, but soon Deus Ex and Rayman weren't exclusives anymore, ports were cancelled, and games like Arkham Origins had their features stripped. Developers have lost confidence in the system.

A company like Nintendo needs to branch out and expand its market, not seclude itself in a niche market. Nintendo really either needs to expand its games and roster at this point or die. Falling sales show that some first party titles aren't enough to win over most gamers.

Nintendo could boost third party sales several ways.

1. Make a machine with cutting-edge graphics that appeals to the modern graphics-obsessed market- too late, we're screwed now.

2. Increase investments in other companies, and outsource unused franchises to other developers. This can happen. Some ports, with perhaps some added Wii U features, could add greatly to the console's strength. Nintendo made a good move by investing in Bayonetta 2, but they really need to step it up.
How about getting Snake for Smash 4 and getting a port of MGSV?
What about getting Platinum to go 2nd party, as was rumored, and getting their IPs?
Outsource games like Star Fox to Platinum and games like F-Zero to Sega. Developers have wanted to work on Nintendo's franchises. Nintendo needs to take them up on that. They've said they'll do this, but I've seen no evidence that they've actually started working on it.

Nintendo has the ability to develop new games. They've got a lot of cash for investment. Come on Nintendo, I take criticism for my fandom from xbox gamers, don't fail me now.
 

sailormars109

Finding Love by the Moon
Joined
May 28, 2012
Location
Macy, Indiana
The price of the Wii U and the lack of interesting titles as well. Maybe with the upcoming games that will be released, there will be more purchases.
 

キラ

Yo!
Joined
Feb 14, 2014
Location
Illinois
Also, your mistaking more power in a console simply giving graphics.

I'm not mistaking it, I know that more power = more than just better graphics. But I think people tend to look more at how the graphics look on a new system more than most things and a lot of people will buy a new system because it has better graphics because I still stand by what I said when I said that people care way too much about graphics.

But I agree with all of the other things you said.

EDIT: Okay, okay... Yes, power definitely does matter in it as well, yes.
 
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DarkestLink

Darkest of all Dark Links
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
Same reason the N64 and GC failed. It's pretty much the same, really: An underpowered console that's hard to make 3rd parties for.

They could have made it work, except the Gamepad doesn't appeal to casuals. If they had stuck with the motion gaming and maybe tried to improve it, I'm sure it would have done well. Is this what I wanted them to do? No. But I'm sure it would have gotten them more sales.
 
Joined
Oct 20, 2008
Gender
Timecube
It's obvious, consoles are doomed.




















The price of the Wii U and the lack of interesting titles as well. Maybe with the upcoming games that will be released, there will be more purchases.

I think this pretty much sums it up. Nintendo keeps making the same mistakes of rushing gimmicky technology in place of incremental development and better games.
 
Joined
Nov 28, 2011
It was released too early without anyone knowing how (or wanting) to develop for it. A longstanding lack of innovation in software to compliment the innovation in hardware. ****** marketing. While it's definitely more gaming focused than the PS4 or the Xboner, it's still got a whole bunch of unnecessary nonsense tacked on as well, Miiverse and the like. The biggest thing is definitely the library though. There really aren't many stand-out or worthwhile titles for the console at this point. Maybe things like SSB4 or a new Zelda could be potential system sellers, but you know, not probably.
 

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