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Discussion Fami, I posit a question to you: if you are in charge of launching the Wii U, what do you do to ensure it does well?

Make sure it’s at “least” capable enough to get third party games from the previous gen and not just get them but they can run better than the previous gen. That was WiiUs biggest problem. The majority of third party games it got ran worse than ps360. On top of that I just couldn’t run most of them. It was a nightmare. We see the success switch is having right now. From a third party stance it’s getting those ips Nintendo gamers never played the last 2 generations.
 
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honestly? to much was wrong with it.

The architecture was just the wrong decision for the time.

The idea was fine, but kinda to early for a platform that is static for 5+ years.

The power was above the others, but to far from where the generation would
have been later (Especialy thinking that the Tabled needed to get an image to..)

The storage was pretty abysymal for the size HD games do get

The screen in the gamepad was just not great

the development teams started to late do move to hd and where cought of guard, even if it was obvious
by all japanese studios a generation prior that the move is hard.

The feel of the gamepad was a little to toy like

no native GC disc support was a joke

2GB was just to little. And having the extremly slow and bloated OS have 1 of them was also a joke.

Purchases where again tied to hardware and not to acounts

Restart and dripfeed of Virtual Console

No Seamless implementation of the Wii (that was a joke how they did that)

... i mean, what else, thats already almost everything they had. The streaming tech was cool, there where a handfull interesting concepts for dual screen (that could have been done with current phones as the second screen), the first party games where good.
 
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Not sure if this counts as “changing the hardware” but I’d want the tablet itself to have a more sleek design. It always felt like a Fisher Price toy.

The marketing also needed to show the system and tablet together. The tablet focus made it look like an add on, and the name Wii U didn’t help. Wii 2 or Super Wii or something works so much better.

The more important point though, is for the software pipeline to have heavy hitters at launch and far enough along development to be announced by launch. Launching with yet another New Super Mario Bros and Nintendo Land, with the upcoming slate being… a WarioWare spinoff, a straight sequel for a mid tier series (Pikmin 3), and a good, but extremely niche title (Wonderful 101) was horrific at drumming up excitement.

Mario Kart needed to be there earlier, 3D Mario needed to be there earlier, and be more of a system seller (3D World is great but it does seem like NSMB 3D at first glance), and Zelda needed to exist.

Whoever was managing Nintendo’s teams and software slate during this era just fucked up badly.
 
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Genuinely I think the Wii U's hardware is too shitty, and the Gamepad too big a feature of it without ever having solid justification of its existence, to be able to salvage the console as a "success", but maybe could get it somewhere in the GameCube -> N64 range? Here's what I'd do, with HUGE benefit of hindsight:

  1. Fast track Super Mario Maker to get it out ASAP after the system launch. If I have control from early 2011, then probably can get it out sometime in 2013? That'd be fine. It's probably the one game besides NIntendo land that really showed what the system can do. As for NSMBU..? God idk, scrap it?
  2. Get a HD version of Skyward Sword out around launch with controls like the Switch version does, market it as "experience the legend you missed!"
  3. Change the fucking name of the system to something that doesn't make people think its an accessory. I don't really care about the name itself, but its marketing should hammer home "the next evolution of the Wii from Nintendo"
  4. The tablet is dumb. They shouldn't have featured a whole system around it. The rules also say that I can't get rid of it though so just deemphasize it in the marketing, making it another evolutionary feature, instead of the big main selling point of the system. Instead of it being 100% of what the system is, just make it like 40-50%.
  5. Scrap Miiverse, add a share button that you can send to Facebook & Twitter just like the Switch.
  6. I don't think with the hardware the Wii U has there's any chance of really courting developers. Maybe the deemphasized Gamepad will help a bit, but I think thats a lost cause.
  7. Make the digital deluxe model the default at $300. They did that change pretty early into the system's life anyways, so might as well cut it off at the head.
There's probably more that could be done, and this probably wouldn't actually fix much.. but it'd be something! This is just covering launch anyways, I don't have the brain power to get into the nitty itty bitty gritty of what could be done further into the system's life.
 
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Launch with u Mario maker make it a pack in game also use a better tablet setup.
 
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Gamepad is optional entirely, and software that requires it is reworked (not technically changing the hardware; this is something Nintendo could have done themselves any time post-launch with a patch). Gamepad/Nintendo Land bundle is sold alongside the console at launch. Console is bundled with the pro controller, though it being backwards compatible with the Wii Remote is featured in marketing heavily. Instead of there being two models, there's one model sold at 200$. The system is marketed as sort of the 2013 version of what the PS2 was in like, 2007; a budget alternative to the shiny new consoles with lots of games for the family. That being said, the marketing is a lot closer to what the early era Wii was like, with slick ads featuring 20somethings playing together and having fun (it would still be marketed towards families because kids enjoy things that are "supposed" to be for an older audience).

Even then I'd focus about as much on the 3DS as Nintendo did. If you can't change the hardware or the release date I don't think it's ever going to do great numbers. I'd also find some way to better "pay it forward" to people who invested on the Wii U when it comes time for Switch. Maybe free digital versions of games that were originally Wii U games, and free years of NSO if you bought a certain number of Virtual Console games.
 
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Ok, so if I am stuck with the hardware then here is the best I can do.

  • Do a much better job with the reveal. Like anything other than E3 2011 please.
  • Give it a different name. Market it as something that doesn't sound like a Wii add on.
  • One SKU at launch. $299.99 w/ Nintendoland as a launch unit. Basically do what you did September 2013.
  • Here is the real difference maker. Launch the system March 2013. Yes you lose out on holiday sales, but you give the dev team ~5 extra months to have the system UI is top shape, get a virtual console ready at launch or close to launch, and have more software ready in a steady stream. If Nintendo launched it in March, they could of had one game a month if they coordinate with 3rd parties.
    • March- Nintendoland/NSMB Wii-U/Zombie-U
    • April- Monster Hunter
    • May- Rayman Legends (Literally do whatever you have to do to make sure this game launches and doesn't get delayed for nine months in order get ported to other systems)
    • June- Lego City Undercover
    • July- New Super Luigi U DLC
    • August- Wonderful 101 / Wii Fit U
    • September- Pikmin 3
    • October- Wind Waker HD
    • November- Super Mario 3D Land
    • December- Wii Sports U
At the end, I doubt this is enough to save the system, but at least it shows the system as having a steady stream of content, especially with the lead up to the PS4/X1. At the end of the day, the Wii-U was tied to a Fisher Price built Gamepad that is so expensive and under-powered that they were never able to drop the system below $300.
 
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