Wii got it WRONG: How do you solve a problem like Nintendo?

Gameplay is more important than graphics. But as with most things, it's all relative. It was OK for the Wii to introduce a fairly radical motion control, coupled with not top of the line hardware. But the Wii U doesn't really do anything interesting, and the hardware is far behind the PS4 and Xbox One.

That doesn't just matter for graphics, but gameplay as well. If it was just slightly more basic graphics, coupled with an original, interesting input mechanism, it would be fine. But lacking in processing power affects also the kind of simulations / AI that it can run - limiting the possibilities for gameplay.

Tablets and phones are getting advanced enough now that it completely undermines Wii U's position in the market.

If you're going to do a dedicated console now, you need to give it enough power to make it worth being a console, otherwise it's impossible to sell.

It's not surprising it failed

The Wii U was very expensive at launch, underpowered (even compared to 6 year old PS3 and 360), and has failed to attract 3rd party support. It simply doesn't have the hardware sales to justify 3rd party game development (or even ports). Probably Nintendo is the only one making money from games and even that's questionable. The platform is in a downward spiral.

They should probably give up the West as a lost cause and target emerging markets like India, China and Brazil. Maybe with a price adjustment they can make more headway there.

Another option of course is to do a SEGA and dump the hardware business altogether. Think of all the opportunities brands like Mario, Pokemon etc. are missing out on by not supporting Android or the other consoles.

Or maybe they should get themselves bought out by someone like Disney who'd probably do the SEGA for them but could also diversify the brands out into theme parks, merchandising, TV shows etc.

Opened up the casual gaming market

The Wii- to be fair- *did* tap in to the underexploited "casual" gaming market, even if the very nature of that market meant it wasn't as lucrative over the long-term as it first appeared.

It seems to me that Nintendo's problem with the Wii U is that they want lightning to strike twice. That controller struck me as a contrived and gimmicky (*) attempt to replicate the innovation of the original Wiimote. The other problem is that the casual market has moved on since the Wii launched seven years ago, having significantly transferred to tablets, smartphones et al that didn't even exist back when the Wii launched in 2006 (**)

The marketing has also been awful- many people don't even know the Wii U is a brand new, "next generation" console. Well, "next generation" compared to the original Wii- like that, it's still a generation behind its contemporaries (PS4 and XBone). That's the other problem- the Wii got away with being behind technically because it wasn't trying to appeal to the polygons-per-second obsessed, teenage-bedroom-hardcore-gamer types, but opened the whole new "casual" market... so Nintendo think they can get away with that again. But that would only apply if the Wii U offered anything new, and it doesn't- it's trying to replicate the Wii's playbook when that's already been done, and in a more competitive environment for casual gaming.

BTW, from the article:-

"..the company would have emphasised production of Zelda, Mario Kart, Star Fox, Smash Bros. Metroid and Mario [..] re-imagined in next-gen visuals and with robust multiplayer. [..] The resulting success of a Wii U alternative would have meant less dependence on classic NES, SNES, N64 and GBA games as system sellers."

Makes it sound like this is meant to be something new and interesting, when it still appears to be suggesting Nintendo's same old exploitation of the same old franchises (especially Mario and Zelda) that they've been milking on every new console for god knows how many generations now.

How far can they push this alleged endless fondness for their tedious franchises that is probably more reliant on people who grew up with them in the 80s and are now *parents* with happy memories than it is on today's kids? (***)

Seriously, Zelda is *old* now:-

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4922/1159/400/zelda.jpg

(*) And expensive to produce and purchase, which in turn reduces the multiplayer appeal that the original Wii relied upon- who wants to have to buy a screen controller for every one of your friends you might want to play?

(**) At least, not in their present form, nor as remotely mass-market devices

(***) I say "alleged" because it always grates that Nintendo nostalgia is pushed in the UK as if *we* grew up with the NES in the 80s. The NES was outsold by the Sega Master System in the UK, and neither were as culturally dominant as the NES was in the US and Japan- our market remained far more home-computer driven. It wasn't until the early-90s 16-bit SNES era that Nintendo became really popular here- I was an 80s kid, and Nintendo never meant much to me.

Memories

I remember seeing a presentation from an expert explaining how the Wii was the on the "next gaming curve" while the Xbox and Playstation were on the "previous gaming curve".

And now it seems like the Wii was just a one-off niche product… Goes to show that only hindsight is 20/20.

They still have an amazing back catalogue

I think if Nintendo focussed a significant proportion of their energy and resources in getting their digital store laden with games of olde, which could be played on the Wii U gamepad, the Wii U could claw back a lot of what it's lost.

As a Wii owner, I would want my digital purchases on that platform to be freely available on the Wii U platform too, maybe even my 3DS ones too like I can crossplay some of my PS3 stuff on the Vita. After all, it is MY account, not my console's account.

Don't know what you're talking about, Nintendo have a great current gen console

It's visually impressive, fast enough, innovative, uses social features well and has a great back catalogue.

What, Wii U? Hell no, I'm talking about the 3DS XL! Fantastic handheld and the 3D is used well on many occasions. Also loving indie games in the marketplace.

There was nothing wrong with the Wii

There was nothing wrong with the Wii when it came out. It introduced the world to a more natural way of playing games that expanded the game playing market from spotty teenagers to families. Sony and Microsoft were eventually forced to follow their lead.

However there were a number of problems.

1. The controllers themselves were obviously not ready, meaning a separate add on was sold later to add extra axis and sensitivity. This in turn meant you had a segmentation in the games market meaning that buying games became confusing. The better controllers should have come out with the original console.

2. The console was not discounted enough. It took ages for the price to come down, way past the time the original development costs were covered. The PS2 and the XBox discounted heavily after the initial subscribers had been catered for. This meant the Wii started looking remarkable expensive. Both MS and Sony realised what Nintendo didn't. There is more money to be made from software licencing than hardware.

3. The Nintendo title conveyor belt was very slow. As a family we loved Mario Karts, but they never came with a follow up or even extra tracks, so after 3 months it got boring. Even now there are really no games to play for the wii. The Important point. It's about the software stupid.

The Wii U just doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. What people want is a better Wii, HD graphics, better controllers etc and aggressively priced. Instead Nintendo tried to pull the same trick as with the original wii and introduce a new way of playing games. This time however it just doesn't work

Losing the magic

Totally agree with the author that the Wii was an aberration. I think it succeeded because the TV ads promised one to one control of an onscreen avatar with the wii-mote. Once anyone used the thing for more than 5 minutes they realized this wasn't the case. But this bait and switch combined with a knock down price was decisive. Microsoft repeated the trick with Kinect, but most consumers are warier now.

The other reason was that Nintendo had built up a lot of goodwill with great games on the N64 and Gamecube (even if the gamecube came 3rd equal with the Xbox). But contrast Mario Cart 64 with Mario Cart Wii. Nintendo horribly compromised the controls just to shoehorn the wii-mote into it.

Also, you can't keep churning out the same games forever, no matter how fun they are. People got sick of guitar hero. They'll eventually get sick of COD multiplayer. The next big thing will be something slightly evolved and different. The more processing power you give developers, the more chance they have of improving things.

I think Nintendo's days as a hardware manufacturer are now numbered and it will go the way of Sega sooner or later.

tbh

I, much like old Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation, am rather divided over Nintendo.

They;re the only people that still put out a proper games console, remember why we used to enjoy consoles? You could get all your mates around the machine and play fun games (at all stages of life) when you're young drinking cola and eating sweets, when you're a teen smoking gear, drinking coke and munching on mac donalds, into the twenties smoking less gear but drinking more booze, so on and so forth. Always providing games that a stimulant/depressent addled mind can understand for a good time. This is what Nintendo still gets and Sony and Microsoft don't, Sony and Microsoft sell obsolete PC technology in a compact package, Nintendo sells a games console.

At the same time, Nintendo's game range is pretty crap. Which is a shame. But at the end of the day it's far better drunk fun then any of the alternatives.

But "Hardcore" (can't be real hardcore if you use a console) gamers will stick to their xbones and playstation 4s. They really should just move on to using PCs though if they aren't getting a bunch of mates around to play local co-op.

We bought a Wii in the Christmas of 2009 - pretty late to it, but we still enjoyed it when we got it, played Wii Sports for a good while and had the fitness bundle too. But that only lasted about a month or two before we'd played Wii Sports to death and then discovered there wasn't really anything more to it. So it's been sat under the TV, switched off, for years now.

The Wii U didn't offer anything new, a controller with an iPhone in it? Great...

The main issue is that people who bought a Wii remember why they stopped playing it, so why would we want to buy another one?

Mode 7 Starwing?

I think you're mixing up your Super FX with your Mode 7. Mode 7 was the background scaling and rotating Effect Du Jour that was used in a ton of games from the likes of F-Zero onwards. Super FX was the Argonaut-developed chip that was popped in Starwing and others.

As a "non gamer" former Wii user, I would have happily forked out for it's replacement. I kicked the tires on it when it was released, but it did not take the original motion control concept to any new heights. It appeared to be a gaming console like all the others. They thought their market was gamers, but it was really the rest of us.

I quite like it

I think the WiiU is a little underrated. Like many others we had a Wii and it did quickly fall out of favour for any kind of actual gaming. However unlike many of the other people who had one we also have a PS3, 360 and a well specified PC. Many of the titles we did pick up for the Wii were really quite quirky while others seem to struggle to make full use what the controls offered. There was little incentive to buy non-exclusives as Wii versions.

If you play with the WiiU, you will find the new controller does in fact offer a wealth of new possibilities, conceivably it may have been cheaper to offer some kind of dock that adds physical controls to your existing phone or tablet, but that would almost certainly introduce problems with crappy underpowered hardware, poor chipsets and crappy sensors.

There is surely a place for Nintendo and its consoles in the market, steering clear of the violent, stressful or intense gaming that typify what is offered by the other platforms is surely a good idea. Why not focus on the fun, playful, family friendly stuff that befits a device located in the family living room (where the Xbox wants to be) rather than being consigned to the bedroom of a spotty teenager.

The online stuff could do with some work, and so could game pricing. Nintendoland is great fun but it feels like a tech demo and so could really be much cheaper.

More than just a doorstop...

I have hacked (bit of a grand word... installed some software would cover it!) my Wii to run the Homebrew Channel.

It now has a second lease of life as a media server under my telly, a reasonable juke box and handles netflix, youtube etc reasonably well, albeit in SD. It will stream movies as well as playing them direct from a USB stick.

I think that if this functionality (yes, I know Netflix and YouTube are on there now) was baked in and available from the start, there would be a lot less dusty Wiis switched off and sat on top of the sky box under the TV.

the créme de la créme of gaming aristocracy

"Mario, Luigi, Link, Samus Aran, Donkey Kong, Fox McCloud, Kirby, et al"

OK so I know who the first two are, and Donkey Kong obviously, but Fox McCloud of the clan McCloud? Does he have a Spanish friend and mentor who sounds suspiciously like an Edinburgh milk man? And, who the hell are Link and Samus Aran? I've been plying computer games since Pong and I've never heard of them.

When I think of Nintendo, I think of that annoying plumber and his crappy platform games, stupid cart racing games with children's characters and crappy under powered hardware like the NES, SNES, N64, Wii or Wii U.

I will not shed a tear for Nintendo, the sooner they die the better.