Wii U Rant - is the Name to Blame?

[T3GZdev]

i posted this somewhere but im going to repost here to see what you guys think.

this was in response to this post tho, not against the post but againt the thought that the wiiu's name has anything to do with sales.
http://nintendoenthusiast.com/news/dan-adelman-wii-u-deserves-sell-better-name-abysmal/

i personally don't think the name has anything to do with sales.
(xbox vs xbox one), (iphone vs 3gs, 4g, 4gs, 5g, 5gs).
the primary problem with wiiu is the games people think are on it.
sure it has 1st parties & more are coming but, we rarely see any footage of 3rd party games even the few that are coming, where's project cars wiiu footage? watch dogs wiiu? they never show any call of duty wiiu footage when the games are coming they don't even announce them. the way 3rd parties treat wiiu & wiiu customers is hurting the console & its customers.

including all of these 3rd party games that skipped wiiu, or missed features(dlc, multiplayer, online) on wiiu, because of dev/publisher logic. all in all devs need to show more wiiu footage & give us more features if they want their games to be known on wiiu also(not just ps/xbone). not everyone likes using google to see what games are coming. & even then thats not a way to know about every game.
(i'm sharing the video below because i want nintendo & 3rd parties to see how there hurting the wiiu & wiiu customers)

continueing that last comment tho, if i were to go right now, & go hmm what should i buy wiiu, xbone, or ps4.
from all of the commercials & trailers i see now my assumption would be games like call of duty, need for speed, assassin's creed, splintercell, watch dogs, project cars comes to everything but wiiu(when in fact they do come to wiiu), & games like destiny, battlefield, crysis, tomb raider, gta dont come to wiiu because of developer/publisher logic. & the only thing thats on wiiu is mariokart 8, & the games on the rack.

that has nothing to do with the name. games sell a console not its name. & knowing that those games exist on that console sells those games also. these game trailers, commercials, game ads of today only cater to px/xbox users, & the only thing nintendo can advertise are there own 1st party games & the games that they fund like bayonetta & devils third. 3rd parties need to open up their advertising beyond just ps & xbox, then the market can be more like console equality & not just 2 out of 3.

edit: i do agree that nintendo could have named the wiiu something else, but its out & its been out long enough, if everyone doesn't know what it is then newsflash there are people today that still don't know how to use iphones or computers. just saying lol
#wiiu #nintendo

 

[WulfyStylez]

This isn't really hacking, nor homebrew-related...

 

[T3GZdev]

This isn't really hacking, nor homebrew-related...

oh crap someone move this thread?

 

[GorTesK]

stupid video, the end was funny though (dont forget the last 3 seconds after the credits)

 

[Taleweaver]

(i'm sharing the video below because i want nintendo & 3rd parties to see how there hurting the wiiu & wiiu customers)

Wait...you mean you think nintendo or those 3rd parties don't already know this? I admit I fell for that line when they first announced the wiiu. That "better 3rd party support" that was supposedly because the wii was too underpowered to be worth the port. As it turned out, the real reason it's not getting ports is because nintendo barely cares about third party support. If it was just EA, then I would understand it, but ubisoft is releasing their multiplatforms later as well (first Rayman legends, now watch_dogs) or not at all (far cry, anyone?). Heck...even indies barely show interest in it (here's an incident, as described by one of the developers...ninty's spokesman for indies just left his job the other day).

 

[T3GZdev]

(i'm sharing the video below because i want nintendo & 3rd parties to see how there hurting the wiiu & wiiu customers)

Wait...you mean you think nintendo or those 3rd parties don't already know this? I admit I fell for that line when they first announced the wiiu. That "better 3rd party support" that was supposedly because the wii was too underpowered to be worth the port. As it turned out, the real reason it's not getting ports is because nintendo barely cares about third party support. If it was just EA, then I would understand it, but ubisoft is releasing their multiplatforms later as well (first Rayman legends, now watch_dogs) or not at all (far cry, anyone?). Heck...even indies barely show interest in it (here's an incident, as described by one of the developers...ninty's spokesman for indies just left his job the other day).

i really did want some farcry u :/
& i heard about that. i hear hes doing some business indie thing.

Spoiler

im going into indie development soon, so kinda had to do some research on this guy.

not saying nintendo & 3rd parties don't know this but do they see how it's impacting their customers? not everyone owns more than 1 current gen console. nintendo is my primary pick because its the only place i can get my favorite 1st parties & 3rd parties, but 3rd parties are making that hard.

 

[endoverend]

I totally agree with this. Why is "Wii U" a worse name than "PS4" and "Xbox One"? Hell, the Xbox One is a terrible name. Why not call it the 720 like everyone expected? When I hear "Xbox One" I think of the original Xbox.

I can recall Nintendo's E3 presentations featuring Wii U. They showed off more 3rd party Wii U games than you could imagine. Nintendo seemed to be so proud of the support that they got. And they had good reason to. But 3rd party devs didn't seem to notice. Everyone makes the assumption that for some odd reason the Wii U was a failure off the bat because the name was bad.

However, it is easy to assume that the name caused sales drops considering nintendo's console history.

--Nintendo Consoles--
NES -> Super NES -> Nintendo 64 -> Gamecube -> Wii -> Wii U

The Super NES had a similar name to the NES but it was a huge success. But when Nintendo tried the slight name change again with the Wii U the console was (not to say there's no hope for a turnaround, but there's not) a failure.
There has to be a reason the Wii U failed other than its naming. Like you said, it has to do with developers and their nearsightedness when it comes to Nintendo products.

 

[Foxi4]

EDIT: Thread re-opened as long as you guys keep it civil and stick to the topic. The Wii U situation has been discussed through and through again, so this is specifically about the name and why it is or isn't to blame for the system's current situation. In my opinion it isn't - there are many more important things that were botched even before the launch - the line-up wasn't all that great, the marketing department dropped the ball and there just weren't any killer apps released for it until much later when Mario Kart and came along.

Have fun, guys!

 

[Gahars]

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, sure, but if you called roses "shitcunglers," people would probably be a bit more hesitant to stick them near their noses.

Yes, the name is related... but it's also not the whole issue. Like you said, the Xbox One is also a pretty shitty name and it's having a much better go at the things. The difference is, however, Microsoft knew how to effective market the device and make sure that consumers absolutely knew the Xbox One was a brand new machine. Nintendo's marketing department is either hilariously inept or just asleep at the wheel.

The name isn't helped by the fact that Nintendo tried to put all the emphasis on the new controller, something that a) consumers in general don't care about ("A tablet? I already got one of those, I don't need another!"), and b) makes the Wii U seem more like a peripheral than a new console. Considering how many peripherals the Wii had, it's easy for Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public to not make the distinction. Shit, even retailers have made mistakes in this regard. The unclear name made this confusion all the worse.

There's a whole lot of other factors at play, too, but Nintendo still fumbled out of the starting gate with their poor choice of name.

 

[Deleted User]

Is it too late to rename anyway ?

 

[emigre]

Let's think of issues with the Wii U:

1) small library of gaems
2) near non existant 3rd party support
3) unattractive price point
4) no conventional account system
5) complete lack of functionality of the Wii U's features
6) small amount of storage

IMO these are bigger problems than the name. At least MK8 is good.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

I think this whole "It's the name's fault!" is just some shit Nintenyearolds tell themselves to avoid the real reason it doesn't sell: it's a bad console.

I mean sure there's some minor confusion with the name but that's not why people won't buy it. People won't buy it because it sucks.

 

[p1ngpong]

The Wii U is doing badly because console gamers are not interested in Nintendo first party games and haven't been interested in them for almost 20 years. The GameCube and N64 flopped because of that reason and before people cry Wii 100 million sales that console only succeeded because it was the right price, with the right gimmick at the right time and didn't succeed because of the games it offered up.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

The Wii U is doing badly because console gamers are not interested in Nintendo first party games and haven't been interested in them for almost 20 years. The GameCube and N64 flopped because of that reason and before people cry Wii 100 million sales that console only succeeded because it was the right price, with the right gimmick at the right time and didn't succeed because of the games it offered up.

Pretty much this.

It's definitely not the name that's the problem. People keep blowing Nin10doh as if their home consoles are infallible, when in reality they haven't done well since the SNES age, with the Wii being some fluke thanks to the millions of casual users which affordable smartphones and tablets now attract. The only thing they've consistently done well with is portable handhelds, and even then it only seems to be because of Pokemon and Mario with the occasional RPG (go look at the top 10 selling DS games, it's Mario, Nintendogs, Mario, Pokemon, Pokemon, Pokemon, Mario, Mario, Pokemon etc etc). They aren't going to survive on a few successful IPs, despite what all the Nin10yearolds seem to fap to.

 

[WiiCube_2013]

Today I went around gaming shops and I remembered one specific had Xbox one games which led to

Me: Do you have Xbox one games?
Employee: Yeah Xbox One games are there
Me: No I meant the old Xbox

The "old Xbox" is pretty vague because that could mean Xbox 360 too. Microsoft didn't do much better naming their current-gen console "Xbox One" as there was already an Xbox one.

So in Wii U's case I'd say it's more to do with Nintendo's lack of advertisement and support than the name itself.

 

[endoverend]

The Wii U is doing badly because console gamers are not interested in Nintendo first party games and haven't been interested in them for almost 20 years. The GameCube and N64 flopped because of that reason and before people cry Wii 100 million sales that console only succeeded because it was the right price, with the right gimmick at the right time and didn't succeed because of the games it offered up.

I almost entirely agree, except I think that relating the Wii U to the Gamecube and 64 is not really accurate since the Wii U's flop was much more significant than those two.

*snip*
3) unattractive price point
*snip*

There's no reason to blame the Wii U's price. It's a next gen console that now costs as much as the Wii did at launch. Makes sense, right?

Nintendo made an amazing series of good decisions that caused the Wii to soar beyond reasonable expectations in terms of sales. The Wii U, however, had a gimmick that was nowhere near as innovative as the Wii remote, and failed to make up for that with third or first party games at launch.

 

[goober]

Names don't mean a damn thing. I mean, yes, the Wii-U is a very dumb name and it explicitly causes confusion to the totally uneducated consumer, but that's not the source of the problem. Apple's name used to be synonymous with antiquated terribleness reserved for school systems. Then Jobs came back, updated the lines AND the marketing behind it. People actually made fun of the names, iPod and iPhone at first.

The Wii was a very stupid name to begin with but Nintendo followed that up with SEVERAL clever and successful ad campaigns. Brilliant ones, really. And their hardware was technically gimmicky enough to get people to pay attention moreso. When Nintendo dumped the Gameboy name and said their new handheld would be called simply, Nintendo DS, everyone -including me at the time- cried foul. Turns out, after a redesign and better ad campaigns, it wasn't a big deal in the end.

The Wii-U is failing because there hasn't been a good ad campaign for it. I mean, there's other things that take it a step back as well, but that's truly the main problem. It's why there's so much money in advertising. It works.

 

[endoverend]

Names don't mean a damn thing. I mean, yes, the Wii-U is a very dumb name and it explicitly causes confusion to the totally uneducated consumer, but that's not the source of the problem. Apple's name used to be synonymous with antiquated terribleness reserved for school systems. Then Jobs came back, updated the lines AND the marketing behind it. People actually made fun of the names, iPod and iPhone at first.

The Wii was a very stupid name to begin with but Nintendo followed that up with SEVERAL clever and successful ad campaigns. Brilliant ones, really. And their hardware was technically gimmicky enough to get people to pay attention moreso. When Nintendo dumped the Gameboy name and said their new handheld would be called simply, Nintendo DS, everyone -including me at the time- cried foul. Turns out, after a redesign and better ad campaigns, it wasn't a big deal in the end.

The Wii-U is failing because there hasn't been a good ad campaign for it. I mean, there's other things that take it a step back as well, but that's truly the main problem. It's why there's so much money in advertising. It works.

A thousand times yes. If Nintendo maybe put out a price dropped smash bros bundle and had a good ad campaign to go with it, sales would shoot up. I've seen one ad for the wii u, and it was just for MK8.

 

[The Catboy]

I am going to be honest, I spent a half-an-hour with a parent arguing over the Wii U vs Wii. They were trying to tell me all you needed was the gamepad and the games will work on their Wii because the Wii U is just the same as the Wii.
Now of course this seems isolated, expect this happens all the time at the WalMart I work in and even the Gamestop that I hunt.
People are stupid, naming things too similar just results in stupid effects.

 

[Qtis]

Today I went around gaming shops and I remembered one specific had Xbox one games which led to

Me: Do you have Xbox one games?
Employee: Yeah Xbox One games are there
Me: No I meant the old Xbox

The "old Xbox" is pretty vague because that could mean Xbox 360 too. Microsoft didn't do much better naming their current-gen console "Xbox One" as there was already an Xbox one.

So in Wii U's case I'd say it's more to do with Nintendo's lack of advertisement and support than the name itself.

I agree with the Xbox vs Xbox One naming oddity, but then again, I tend to speak of the Xbox as the original Xbox and the Xbox One as the Xbox One. The original Xbox was never named or talked about as the Xbox one, so it's understandable. Alas, for the Wii U and its naming, I'd say Wii U is far less descriptive than Super NES was at its time not to mention the SNES looks nothing like the NES. The Wii on the other hand had a ton of peripherals (including motion controls), so the idea of Wii U = new tablet controller for Wii is not that far fetched (especially with Nintendo's huge marketing going on with the Wii U!).

The Wii U has a huge problem with the lack of games. It has quite a few good titles, but the releases come every 4 months or so.. 2014 has pretty much been Mario Kart 8 and nothing else from Nintendo themselves with a few interesting indie games here and there. Otherwise, nada, nil, nothing. The future is also a bit the same with a few games here and there compared to the ever growing list of PS4/Xbox One games (even though quite a few are multi-platform).

Names don't mean a damn thing. I mean, yes, the Wii-U is a very dumb name and it explicitly causes confusion to the totally uneducated consumer, but that's not the source of the problem. Apple's name used to be synonymous with antiquated terribleness reserved for school systems. Then Jobs came back, updated the lines AND the marketing behind it. People actually made fun of the names, iPod and iPhone at first.

The Wii was a very stupid name to begin with but Nintendo followed that up with SEVERAL clever and successful ad campaigns. Brilliant ones, really. And their hardware was technically gimmicky enough to get people to pay attention moreso. When Nintendo dumped the Gameboy name and said their new handheld would be called simply, Nintendo DS, everyone -including me at the time- cried foul. Turns out, after a redesign and better ad campaigns, it wasn't a big deal in the end.

The Wii-U is failing because there hasn't been a good ad campaign for it. I mean, there's other things that take it a step back as well, but that's truly the main problem. It's why there's so much money in advertising. It works.

Comparing Apple to Nintendo is a bit far fetched in the case of the Wii U. The Wii would be accurate, but the rest, not so much. The iPods, iPhones and iPads all were revolutionary products entering the market at the right time with a good enough solution (especially compared to competition). The Wii was revolutionary with motion controlling and a very attractive price point. No one had (and in general has even now) a fully integrated motion control scheme and platform. A tablet on the other hand.. Everyone and their kitchen sink has one or can buy one for a fraction of the price of a Wii U. (something, something, console exclusives, something, something, iOS/Android/WP exclusives).