Note: This was written all the way back in June when I had plans to make a video about it, but unfortunately I don't really have time to make it at the moment and with NX about to be revealed soon, I want to get this up.
Oh
Nintendo, how I love thee, yet you make it so hard with each passing
day. With the Wii U’s upcoming library consisting of only one
exclusive and with no NX news in sight, it is a pretty depressing
time for Nintendo fans. It seems like Nintendo is living off of
plastic figurines and are trying to get promotional deals to revive
their brand. It seems like they are in a rut, but what lead them to
this point?
That
was sarcastic; by the way, of course it’s because of the Wii U!
What
can you even say about the system that many other people haven’t
said before? People proclaimed that the system is underpowered. Many
complained about the gamepad, and many were disappointed by the lack
of third party support. If you were to ask anyone why the Wii U
failed, they would list at least one of those reasons, but were they
actually the reasons why the Wii U failed? Well, partially, but
there’s a lot more to it that I feel that a lot of people are
missing. So in this video, if you couldn’t tell in the title
already, I’m going to talk in detail about why the Wii U failed.
Prologue
The Wii U's initial reveal at E3 2011
Let’s
go back to the year 2011. Nintendo is riding high off of the
successes of the Wii and DS, with both selling over 100 million units
by that point. Nintendo’s software sales have been the best that
they’ve ever been, with multiple titles selling over 10 million
units on a single platform. This meant that most Nintendo games that
sold on one platform generally sold better than the majority of AAA
titles that were being sold on all other platforms combined, plus
Nintendo had the bonus of their games being cheaper to make since
they were using older hardware. Many people loved the fitness aspect
of numerous Wii titles and many were also obsessed with creating
their own Miis for games. Hell, even Mario surged in popularity
thanks to the success of the New Super Mario Bros. series. Nintendo
was on top of the world during the last generation thanks to
targeting a new audience that wasn’t just the enthusiasts. This
caused many companies to take notice of this new audience and soon
Nintendo began to face some fierce competition.
By
this time, smartphones were quickly gaining popularity, with app
stores giving developers a new avenue of delivering games. Even with
the limiting control scheme due to a lack of buttons, developers were
able to compensate by focusing on simpler games, which meant that
they could be made quickly and could be released at significantly
lower prices than retail games on the DS and PSP, with some titles
even being free. Even though most of these games were comparable to
free Flash games on Newgrounds and AddictingGames at the time, a lot
of people were quick to drop their DS systems with its $30 games in
favor of multimedia devices that could cater to their every
entertainment needs. Thus starts the downfall of handheld gaming, but
that’s a tale for another time.
Pictured: The main killer of Nintendo's handheld business
Pictured: The main killer of Nintendo's handheld business
On
the console side, Sony and Microsoft lost a ton of money with the
last generation of systems. Despite console titles generally selling
well on traditional consoles to traditional gamers, the console
manufacturers were still losing money on each console sold. When the
Wii was initially shown, nobody thought it would take off, but after
seeing just how many consoles and games Nintendo were able to sell in
a short period of time, Sony and Microsoft wanted to take a piece of
the pie. Instead of focusing on another expensive technical arms race
in 2010, Sony and Microsoft decided that they needed to recoup the
losses of the 360 and PS3 and extended the last generation by another
few years. In order to attract new customers, they decided to focus
on creating their own motion-controlled add-ons for last-gen systems,
which might not seem interesting for the current install-base, but it
would definitely be a worthy purchase for the current Wii install
base. Thanks to the HD graphics and expanded multimedia features,
many Wii owners fled to the “newer” consoles, giving Sony and
Microsoft dominance over both casual and hardcore gamers…at least
for a little while.
Thanks
to the new competition, sales of the DS and Wii quickly dropped,
which Nintendo saw as a time to release new hardware. Although the
strategy to support casual gamers worked for a little while, many saw
the Wii and DS as mere amusements and quickly switched over to the
new hot devices. With that in mind, Nintendo realizes that in order
to continue with their success, they will also need to cater to an
audience that they’ve been ignoring for a while: traditional
gamers. Nintendo started catering to their core fanbase by the end of
the Wii’s life with titles like Goldeneye, Donkey Kong Country
Returns, and Mario Galaxy 2, and saw success with many of those
titles, but they they still wanted to cater to the casual market,
thinking a more diversified library will allow those gamers to
diversify their own tastes and stick with the brand. However,
Nintendo’s plan has many flaws to it.
E3 2011
Initial prototype of the Wii U Gamepad
So
now it’s E3 2011. Nintendo is about to announce a new console so
all eyes are on them. After the disappointing launch of the 3DS a few
months prior, many are skeptical about Nintendo’s next console,
especially since many were disappointed with the library of the Wii.
When Nintendo finally did show off the device, a lot of the Wii U’s
problems were present even from the very beginning. These issues are
generally regarded as the reasons why the Wii U failed so because of
this, here’s a brief overview as to why.
The
Name
By
God is Wii U such a bad name. Not only is it awkward to say, as it
sounds more like an ambulance coming over to save a dying system, it
doesn’t even convey that this is a new console that is the sequel
to the Wii. It will be a mystery why they didn’t just call it a Wii
2 or a Super Wii, but for many, it just sounds like one of many Wii
accessories that Nintendo released over the years, which leads us to
our next problem:
Marketing
When
showing off the Wii U for the first time, they placed all of their
emphasis on the new Gamepad, which is essentially a standard
controller with a resistive touchscreen in the middle. This would’ve
been a fine approach to show off a new console, but there was one
problem: not once during the entire presentation did they ever
mention that the Wii U was a new console. Sure they mentioned they
were showing a new console during their investor meeting, but the
majority of people don’t pay attention to those. Instead, when
people saw the Gamepad for the first time, most people thought that
the Wii U was going to be a tablet accessory for the original Wii. It
also doesn’t help that the Wii U console looks almost identical to
the original Wii, making people think that the Gamepad was running on
regular Wiis. This confusion would be a consistent problem for the
Wii U going forward, causing many people to wonder why a Wii
accessory costs over $300.
Even
with the confusing messaging, Nintendo continued to push the idea of
the Gamepad to the masses. Hey, here’s another problem:
Gamepad
Well,
not exactly with the Gamepad itself. The technology works fine and
it’s generally comfortable to hold, but the main issue lies with
its implementation. Unfortunately at E3 2011 there were no
full-fledged games shown for the system outside of announcing a New
Super Mario Bros. and Smash Bros. game. Instead, Nintendo decided to
show off the new Gamepad by demoing minigames that they felt showed
the true potential of the new controller. However, when playing
through the demos, a lot of people were having trouble grasping the
concept.
One
of the major reasons why the Wii was such a huge success was because
of how easily accessible it was. People could just look at the
Wiimote and easily understand how to use it. If you wanted to control
a tennis racket or throw a bowling ball, all you needed to do was to
just mimic the movements and it would work quite well. People were
able to easily understand the concept and get excited for it while
the Wii U’s Gamepad had the opposite effect on the system. Many
people were confused on how to use the new Gamepad and the fact that
you needed to switch between two screens in order to get the full
effect of the game. You could argue that Nintendo already tried this
with the DS with success, but the main difference is that you’re
generally viewing both screens of the DS at once while with the Wii
U, you will need to constantly switch your view between the TV and
Gamepad, making many games disorienting for most people and generally
making the Gamepad a pain to use for singleplayer games.
Out of all the demos shown, the most popular ones were those that
focused on “asynchronous multiplayer”, or the ability to give two
different experiences between the person using the Gamepad and those
using the TV. This was not a new concept, though, as Nintendo tried
this in the past with Gamecube/GBA connectivity. Games such as
Pac-Man VS. and Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles allowed players to
use their own Gameboy Advance systems to show different gameplay
aspects, but mostly it was used for menu navigation. It was a novel
concept at the time, thanks in part to needing up to 4 GBAs to make
good use of the feature, but it could be interesting to see more of
it in the future. Unfortunately, the Wii U would only work with one
Gamepad. There were plans for supporting two gamepads, but were
scrapped possibly because it was too taxing on the hardware to render
multiple screens.
After
the showing, thanks to a confusing presentation and lackluster demos,
many people’s thoughts on the Wii U during the show were lukewarm
at best, but there was some slight optimism about the system:
particularly with the third party support. During the press
conference, numerous developers were announced to be working on
titles for the Wii U, with games such as Assassin’s Creed,
Darksiders II, and Metro Last Light being announced for the new
console. Also, Nintendo went out of their way to announce an
“unprecedented partnership” with EA, where they announced that
nearly all of their titles, like Madden, FIFA, and Battlefield, were
coming to the Wii U. With the added bonus of impressive tech demos,
many had hope that Nintendo was starting to focus more on traditional
gamers instead of their casual-oriented focus with the Wii. However,
many of the more dire issues with the Wii U were still brewing.
The Year-Long Silence
Pictured: Nintendo's thoughts on the lack of info on Wii U for long periods of time
After
the E3 press conference, Nintendo did perhaps the worst thing they
could’ve done with their new system: be absolutely silent about it
for the next year. Not once, besides a mention about Nintendo Network
during investor meetings, did they give any further details about the
Wii U’s features or games. Because of this, and after the Wii U’s
lackluster showing at E3, many people soon forgot about that weird
accessory for the Wii, but for the dedicated fanbase who wants to
know more about what’s next for Nintendo, all they had to work with
were random rumors. A lot of rumors that were going around at that
time seemed very positive. Developers were praising the Wii U at E3,
stating the console was powerful and very easy to develop for, but
over time, rumors began to change. Soon, we heard developers saying
that they weren’t happy with the Wii U. They say that the console
is weaker than an Xbox 360 and that the console is now difficult to
develop for (1). What changed about the Wii U between then and now?
The Main Issue With Nintendo
At
this point, I would like to deviate for a moment. While interning on
the west coast, I met someone who used to work as a developer at a now-defunct publisher. He told me all about the relationships between the publisher and the different
console manufacturers and he said that Nintendo was the absolute
worst to deal with. He told me they were very hard to get in contact
with and were extremely critical of their games when they tried to
release on their platforms. One particular example he gave was when
they were working on a 3D platformer for the DS and NOA stated that
they wouldn’t approve the game in its current state because they
didn’t like the logo.
It’s
well known that Nintendo usually doesn’t play nice with third party
developers, particularly those in the west, that has hurt their
platforms for decades, yet they still continue to treat them terribly. Thus creates the main problem with Nintendo: their Japan-first
attitude when it comes to game development.
It’s
well known that Nintendo is a Japanese company, and over the last
decade, they want you to know it. Although this isn’t necessarily a
bad thing, as it lead us to getting more obscure titles like Tomodachi Life in the west, it
does explain some of the more unconventional decisions that went into
the design of the Wii U. For starters, let’s take a look at the
idea behind the Wii U Gamepad. For the last decade, Japanese gamers
have been moving away from consoles in favor of handheld and mobile
gaming. To combat this, it seems like Nintendo wanted to create a
handheld-like device for their new console, but since they didn’t
want to compete directly with the 3DS, they tethered the handheld to
the console.
Another
choice that would seem baffling to Western gamers is the choice to
design a power-efficient console above everything else. Surprisingly,
when Nintendo initially revealed the Wii U at E3, they showed off the
new hardware with a couple tech demos, which seemed to impress people
at the time. We also had numerous developers like Epic and Nordic
praising the Wii U hardware during that time, stating the console is
powerful and easy to develop for, but throughout the next year, their
tone began to change. Right before E3 2012, we’ve been hearing
developers calling the Wii U hardware crap and even being weaker than
an Xbox 360. Their tone would only get even harsher the closer the
Wii U was to launch. So what happened that caused many developers to
change their tone. Simple: the Wii U’s hardware was actually
DOWNGRADED from the initial dev kits (1).
An image of the Wii U's "Espresso" CPU
An image of the Wii U's "Espresso" CPU
To
make sure that the Wii U hardware can be stored in a similarly size
box as the Wii and not overheat, some sacrifices needed to be made.
One particular component that was significantly downgraded was the
CPU, which, because it also needed to accommodate for backwards
compatibility with Wii games, was a slightly overclock, three core
version of the Wii’s “Broadway” CPU. Although at the time it
might’ve seem commendable to go with energy efficient hardware,
especially after the disaster at Fukushima, but when it comes to
western developers, they were not buying it. Around that time, Sony
and Microsoft were already in talks with developers to make games for
the new consoles, and during that time, they worked with developers
in order to create a platform that they all want to make games for.
But with Nintendo, they did whatever they felt was necessary in order
to meet their goals at the expense of developer support. All this
managed to do was frustrate developers even further and, in many
cases, caused people to completely rewrite the code to their games.
Because of the weaker hardware, developers struggled trying to get
360 and PS3 games working on the Wii U, with many of them having
performance problems by the time the Wii U launched. For the others,
many just gave up developing for the Wii U entirely and focused on
the new generation (3).
For
those that stayed, many developers continued to face issues with
Nintendo. Eurogamer’s article on the Wii U’s early days does a
great job in explaining some of the development woes with the system.
It stated the initial devkits were a pain in the ass the use, taking
up to 15 minutes to compile any code. Also, many features that most
devs would need to make their games, like their online network, were
not shipped with the initial dev kits, and many of those features
would not be shipped to developers until months before the Wii U was
supposed to even release. It also doesn’t help that most developers
couldn’t get a hold of any Nintendo representatives, and when they
did, responses usually took weeks because the messages needed to be
translated into Japanese.
Nintendo’s
lack of communication with third party developers, especially those
in the west, caused many developers to skip the console entirely, and
the weakened hardware will cause many to bash the device throughout
its launch period. By the time the system finally launched, most
third party developers changed their views on the Wii U from cautious
optimism to completely hating the system, and it would be one of many
problems that would plague the Wii U in the following year.
E3 2012
The ending of Nintendo's E3 2012 press conference with "fireworks" from Nintendoland
So
now we have finally reached E3 2012. Nobody has heard anything about
the Wii U since last year’s show. People had high expectations of
this showing since new consoles are always talks of the show, and boy
were people disappointed. Instead of the slew of Nintendo games that
we expected to see, we were greeted with a slew of late ports and HD
upgrades of Wii games. The demos shown at last year’s event were
shown again in the forms of Nintendoland and Game and Wario, which,
again, did not impress.
Let’s
discuss Nintendoland for a moment. Throughout the Wii U’s reveal,
Nintendo was pushing this game as the killer app for the system. Its
sole purpose was to show the capabilities of the Gamepad, much like
Wii Sports showed off the capabilities of the Wiimote. Unlike Wii
Sports, Nintendoland wasn’t able to sell the Wii U to people, but
why? For motion controls, Wii Sports was the perfect game to
represent the technology because it’s a collection of games that
people already know how to play and each game has a control scheme
that closely represented their real life counterparts. To swing the
tennis racket, you move the controller like you would with an actual
tennis racket. To bowl, you move the controller as if you were
throwing an actual bowling ball. For boxing, you hold a controller in
each hand and punch as if you’re actually boxing. It was a game
that anyone could understand and play. With Nintendoland, they tried
to apply that same principle to a standard Gamepad with a
touchscreen, which isn’t nearly as intuitive as motion controls,
meaning a lot of casuals were intimidated by the new controller. For
those that did understand the controls, most people complained that
the games were too simple to enjoy for long periods of time and
simply weren’t interested in the game. If this was going to be the
flagship title for the system at launch, then the console was going
to struggle.
The
sad part ahout the disappointing Nintendoland showing was that it was
one of the best titles shown for the Wii U at E3. Outside of Pikmin 3
and The Wonderful 101, all the other Nintendo titles shown for the
Wii U were mainly HD versions of big Wii titles, with no new Zelda,
Metroid, or Smash Bros. in sight. I guess Nintendo was banking on
third parties to deliver the goods, but since Nintendo didn’t
properly accommodate them, all they brought were late ports of titles
that were coming out on other consoles, and in some cases, many of
those titles ran even WORSE on the Wii U.
Many third party Wii U titles suffered from graphical hitches and slow framerates as well as missing features in comparison to their 360/PS3 counterparts.
Not
only was the Wii U lacking in games, it was also lacking in many
online and multimedia features. With the lack of a Bluray player and
barely any media apps besides the standard Netflix and Youtube, the
system was seen as a worse value in comparison to consoles that
released seven years prior. Online features are also severely
limited, with its lack of communication methods, besides a simple
FaceTime ripoff, and the fact that there were barely any online
multiplayer games at launch. All online titles that were available at
launch were third-party games, and since many third party games
didn’t sell on the Wii U, many of those titles were left with
barren online communities. Nintendo wouldn’t release their first
online title for the Wii U until Mario Kart 8, 18 months after the
system launched, and even then it lacked the functionality of many
online games on other platforms.
In
the end, Nintendo managed to show off a product that tried its best
to appease everyone, but ended up appealing to nobody. Casual gamers
were not interested in a complicated controller and ports of Wii
titles while hardcore gamers were not impressed with the hardware
capabilities and weren’t interested in late ports of 360 games,
especially when Sony and Microsoft’s new consoles were just around
the corner.
Aftermath
Thus
begins the never-ending cycle of bad publicity for the Wii U, ranging
from making fun of its name to consistently bashing its lack of
features and interesting titles. At $300 for a console with only 8 GB
of storage, it seemed like a bad deal for many since you can get the
other consoles with better features and a larger library for the same
price. It also doesn’t help that most of the features that were
shipped with the Wii U were inaccessible unless you downloaded a
large update using Nintendo’s poor online infrastructure. First
impressions are everything in the consumer market, and the Wii U had
horrendous impressions from both the press and gamers alike, causing
the new console to just sit on store shelves. Hell, on its first
month of release in the United States, during Black Friday no less,
the Wii U was even outsold by the original Wii. By the end of that
holiday season, it was reported that the Wii U had one of the worst
launch periods of any console in history, where barely any of the
launch titles sold decently. All this managed to do was piss off the
remaining developers that managed to jump through Nintendo’s hoops
and cancel all other projects that were scheduled to release for the
Wii U. After only a year after launch, nearly all third party
development has ceased on the Wii U, leaving Nintendo to once again
carry their own system.
Despite
the rocky start, Nintendo continued to push its titles to the system,
and the heavy hitters finally showed up after some troubled
development by the end of 2013. Games like Pikmin 3, The Wonderful
101, and Super Mario 3D World were highly praised by both critics and
gamers alike, but nobody paid attention to those games as all eyes
were on the shiny new consoles that were blowing people away. Even if
the initial launch titles weren’t that great, people were still
very excited for the potential of these new consoles, making them an
instant hit at launch. With the new generation officially starting,
all eyes were on Sony and Microsoft while Nintendo gets completely
ignored. This is especially important in 2014, which in many ways
placed the numerous flaws of AAA development directly in the
spotlight. With a slew of buggy and disappointing titles coming out
for the new consoles as well as many of the big hitters getting
constantly delayed, the initial launch period of this generation
wasn’t very promising, but Nintendo absolutely killed it that year.
Nintendo’s
big guns, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 8, and
Smash Bros, were released with huge sales and wide critical acclaim,
with many fans proclaiming these games to be the best in their
respective series. Platinum Games were also able to release the long
awaited sequel to Bayonetta and despite the numerous complaints about
console exclusivity, was met with large amounts of praise and getting
9’s and 10’s across the board, but despite the Wii U’s
impressive showing in an otherwise dull year, many still continued to
ignore the Wii U in favor of the new disappointing title of the hour.
Despite the large amounts of praise from the press, barely any Wii U
games were mentioned during GOTY awards, leaving one of Nintendo’s
greatest years ever go completely unnoticed.
Bayonetta 2 received great reviews at launch, but it went completely unnoticed in terms of sales
Bayonetta 2 received great reviews at launch, but it went completely unnoticed in terms of sales
Since
nearly all of Nintendo’s heavy hitters have released and didn’t
help to boost sales for the failing console, it would seem as though
nothing was going to save the sinking ship but the surprising thing
about the Wii U is that its software sales are still pretty strong
despite the extremely small install base. Many Nintendo games still
sell in the millions and are generally well liked by everyone so I
don’t really see the problem with the Wii U having to do with any
negative views on Nintendo’s games, but I do see a problem with
what I believe to be Nintendo’s fifth and biggest mistake for the
Wii U: The Nintendo 3DS.
Like
with the Wii U, the 3DS struggled initially due to a lack of decent
titles at launch as well as rising competition from the mobile
sector. Many were not expecting the 3DS to be a success because of
this, but there was one thing that made all the difference: a
significant price drop. The price of the 3DS was lowered to $170
after only a few months on the market due to poor sales, and it
helped garner some interest for the system. Also, like with the Wii
U, the 3DS’s software library began to show its potential with…a
new Mario, a new Mario Kart, and a new Smash Bros. Once again,
software sales of the 3DS are still relatively strong, but the main
difference is that Nintendo is now working with an install base of 60
million, which might be significantly less than the original DS’s
install base, but is still pretty large and comparable to the current
adoption of PS4s and Xbox Ones.
In
comparison, the Wii U’s price was never dropped lower than $300 and
the games go for around $50-$60. With the 3DS, you can buy a standard
model for as low as $80 and get your Mario Kart, Smash Bros, and
Pokemon for $30-$40. Because handhelds are now powerful enough to run
console-like games, many people felt that they can get the same
Nintendo experiences on the 3DS for cheaper than buying a Wii U so
many Nintendo fans just stuck with the 3DS. You can make the argument
that the Wii U versions of these games are better, but for most
people, it’s a cheap and decent replacement to get their Nintendo
fix. The shared library between the two consoles is probably the
reason why many people are speculating the NX is a unified platform.
Hell, it’ll probably help with their HD development issues by not
needing to divert resources to two versions of the same game.
3DS managed to sell well despite rising competition from smartphones, but it's still projecting to become Nintendo's worst-selling handheld.
3DS managed to sell well despite rising competition from smartphones, but it's still projecting to become Nintendo's worst-selling handheld.
What Lies Ahead
No
matter how you view the Wii U, there is no debate that the console
was an absolute failure for many reasons. From poor marketing to poor
relations with developers, the development and release of the Wii U
could not be summarized any better than an absolute trainwreck, and
despite many people claiming that the Wii U has the best library out
of all the consoles, many people get their Nintendo fix through the
cheaper 3DS. Although I wouldn’t call it Nintendo’s Dreamcast
since they’re releasing a new console soon, you can definitely
consider it to be Nintendo’s Saturn as it still did a ton of damage
to its brand, especially since they’ve killed it prematurely in
order to rush out their next console. Now the only question left to
ask is whether or not Nintendo has learned from their mistakes when
it comes to the NX.
Unfortunately,
at this point, Nintendo has shown no signs that they’ve changed
their ways. I don’t think it was a great idea to announce a new
console as soon as they did and are now paying the price for it. It’s
been over a year and we still have no idea what the console even is,
giving us a ton of rumors that will most likely end up not being
true. There haven’t been that many “leaks” about the NX either,
and many developers, such as Rebellion, have stated that they know as
much about the NX as we do (4). Even with the NX's reveal being iminent, numerous publishers, like EA and Bethesda, has been relatively silent about their support for the NX, if they even plan to make games for the system, while Ubisoft appears to be bringing only Just Dance to the system at the moment. When your console is supposed to launch
within the next 6 months and barely any third party developers know
anything about the system, it might be safe to assume that Nintendo
is not working with many third party developers, or at least western
developers, and are focusing on trying to create a platform that is
self-sustainable. If rumors of the NX being a unified
console/handheld platform are true, then Nintendo might be able to
provide enough software to make it happen, and if they find another
“gimmick” that can gain mainstream appeal again, then of course
it will succeed, but would it be enough?
If
you were to ask any gamer about what Nintendo should do to become
successful, many will say the same thing: essentially copy the
strategy of Sony and make regular consoles again, but would that even
work? Many gamers are this point are situated into the Xbox and
Playstation ecosystems that trying to break into that market would
probably cost billions to not only build competing hardware, but to
also convince third party developers to actually support the system.
The only way Nintendo could create an audience for AAA games on
Nintendo platforms is if they start making the same M-Rated violent
titles that the rest of the industry is making, and besides a few
games like Bayonetta 2 and Devil’s Third, Nintendo doesn’t show
any interest in going after that audience, meaning Nintendo will
probably not succeed in that sector in the near future.
The
most likely route that Nintendo looks to be taking is to go after the
biggest gaming market out there: mobile gaming. If you analyze the
current mobile gaming market and see the most successful games out
there, you’ll find most of them follow similar gameplay-first, easy
to play, hard to master design philosophies that Nintendo has held
dear for these many years while finding a new way to profit with
microtransactions. Nintendo is already diving deep into this market
with Miitomo, as well as some Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem apps in
the future. It’s too early to tell if their push into mobile has
been successful or not, but it seems like they are banking on it for
their future. Most of their intended audience, aka kids and families,
play games on these platforms and Nintendo wants to gain them back by
trying to create a healthy niche for themselves with a new idea while
using mobile games to attract people to their platform. Although Miitomo was a bust, their strategy is beginning to work with the success of Pokemon GO and the buzz about Nintendo's deal with Apple.
I guess I was dead-on with that last part, especially with the success of Pokemon GO
And
now what’s left is to talk about the people who are still left with
Wii U’s: Nintendo fans. Going back to the Saturn comparison,
because the console failed to take off, Sega quickly rushed a new
console out to market, completely ignoring the current Sega fanbase
in order to salvage their hardware sales. Because the Saturn was only
3 years old when they essentially discontinued the platform, many
Sega fans that bought a Saturn felt burned that it wasn’t supported
to its fullest potential. Many Sega franchises didn’t get a sequel
on the Saturn, not even Sonic. With the Wii U, Nintendo is facing the
same issue. Many Nintendo fans are not happy that the Wii U is being
discontinued so quickly. The Wii U had a lot of potential for being
Nintendo’s first HD console, but what we got was a console with no
Metroid, no F-Zero, no open-world Mario, and no exclusive Zelda game.
Will these fans come back for the NX? Only time will tell, but as a
Wii U owner, I don’t really feel confident about Nintendo’s
ability to support their own console.
Thus
leads us to the Nintendo of today. Because of their failing games
business, Nintendo is looking to other ventures to support their
company, including the mobile push, Amiibos, and licensing deals.
Does Nintendo have a future in the console market? Is Nintendo trying
to make their brand relevant again by branching into other markets?
Who knows. Let’s hope that Nintendo can find some success with the
NX, or else we might see yet another game developer lose its way.
Works Cited
1. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-04-02-wii-u-less-powerful-than-ps3-xbox-360-developers-say
2. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=710765
3. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-04-02-wii-u-less-powerful-than-ps3-xbox-360-developers-say
4. http://www.videogamer.com/wiiu/sniper_elite_2/news/rebellion_still_in_the_dark_on_nintendo_nx.htmlIf you guys want to see more of this, feel free to let me know.
