Waht went wrong

Most people didn't even know Nintendo announced a new console. The marketing couldn't have been worse.

youtube.com/watch?v=SChWdprUnzw

>they refuse to embrace change
lolwut?

They're the only ones that take any kind of risks with their hardware, they facilitate change, look at the DS and Wii. Touch screens are now commonplace and a standard feature, motion controls are commonplace and are standard feature. While Sony and MS delivered basically the same experience with every console, just with better graffix.

It was never meant to be
Just a tech demo to hold over after the Wii while they were designing the switch

Nintendo's weird. They push their own innovations while refusing to adopt everyone else's. They're still God knows how many years behind in terms of online functionality and app support. Mind you, the latter at least keeps their consoles game oriented but it's still a bit out of touch nonetheless.

They're not really out of touch, they're just perhaps overly protective of their brand and its image, specifically when children are involved

I think it was an honest attempt, but the hubris of Wii's flash in the pan success blinded them. They figured slapping Wii on a product in 2012 would make it sell when in reality Wii was already slowing down as far back as 2009.

>Wii was already slowing down as far back as 2009
2009 was its best year though?

They sold 26 million Wiis in 2009, it was its best-selling year

The entire narrative around Sony's stance on censorship versus Nintendo's suggests the contrary as of late. Nintendo's always been a brilliant company for as long as they've been developing vidya, but they've also lived in a bubble. It bit them in the ass with the N64 and it did so again with the WiiU.

They got too cocky. They thought all the casual Wii buyers (notice I didn't said owners) would buy into the cyclical console bullshit.

Well then, fast forward it to 2010. Lord knows that momentum certainly didn't extend into 2011 when it had Skyward Sword and...fuck, what else for Wii came out in 2011 anyways? Point is, by 2012 the Wii brand had ran its course.

>No Pokemon
>No 3D Mario
>Zelda is multiplat and came at the end of its life
>Star Fox, Metroid, etc still dead or get a shitty new game
Geez, I wonder. Some say the name was shit and confused consumers (which may be right), but the library was so lackluster, even a better name wouldn't have helped much. It's like even Nintendo didn't even really try to support it

>No 3D Mario
Super Mario 3D World

>No Pokemon
Well it wasn't a handheld, no console Pokemon game prior to SwSh had sold more than a couple million, let alone had been a system-seller.

The problem wasn't a lack of any specific game beyond perhaps a good 3D Mario or Zelda, it was a lack of strong first-party games early on in general.

Pile that on top of the horribly botched marketing and launch and the fact that they simply overestimated how appealing the tablet controller would be when they were deigning it in ~2009, and it lead to the console just not appealing to many people. Looking back it really just seems like a stepping stone to the Switch, like they got halfway there and couldn't push it to where it needed to be to be successful.

It has 3D in the name but its not the same kind of game, its like a weird hybrid of the side-scrollers and the 3D games. Its a fine game but wasn't really the "big" Mario game they needed to sell the console, it didn't have the same weight 64, Galaxy or Odyssey had.

Even the other homeconsole games had Pokemon. The N64 had the two Stadiums and Snap, GC had the two Orre games and lol Channel and even the Wii had PBR. It really strikes me as weird how they don't try to bring too many Pokemon games to home consoles anymore.

And lack of 1st party is pretty much what I said. It's rather telling when Platinum games did a rather significant job in supporting it.

You are a moron if you believe everything else was fine.

>Nintendo Land was fucking terrible compared to Wii Sports/Play - no mainstream appeal
>New Super Mario Bros U. is a phoned in soulless clone of NSMBWii
>3D World was a shitty linear autismfest with cats
>Mario Tennis U was literally a beta-test for the Switch game
>Breath of the Wild got delayed for like four years

>Console was ugly and expensive as fuck
>Yet was on the same powerlevel as a PS3
>Nobody gave a shit about the tablet controller, not even developers

But none of those games sold particularly well relative to the mainline handheld games, and more importantly they didn't really move hardware.

So I don't really see the Wii U lacking a console Pokemon specifically as being a major contributing factor to why it flopped when no prior console Pokemon game has had much affect on the console's success. N64 and GC had two each and they're the next two poorest-selling Nintendo consoles, while the Wii had PBR, which was little more than a glorified 3D filter for your DS battles, and sold 100 millio units.

It was a combination of the botched announcement, marketing and launch, the lack of first-party games in general early on and the fact that the console's tablet gimmick wasn't particularly appealing to most people. Again, I imagine Nintendo thought it would be a much bigger selling point when they were designing it during the tablet boom a few years prior to its release, but by 2012 no one really cared and everyone already had an ipad.

>New Super Mario Bros U. is a phoned in soulless clone of NSMBWii
NSMBU is one of the best side-scrolling Marios, get fucked.

That said, it was not a good title with which to launch the console, it needed something more substantial, not a fourth NSMB game.

NSMBU adds nothing new to the series and is essentially just a level pack for the Wii title.

Compare the production values of Super Mario Galaxy and NSMBU. NSMBU looks like a fan game made by high schoolers in comparison.

slim and sleek console, had better performance than it's competitors (PS3 & X360), offered free online gaming.
That controller just made the whole system clumsy and awkward.

Horrible marketing and a gimmick that wasn’t strong enough to hold attention. The tablet is neat, though it requires you to be very near the console or it will start dropping frames and it’s a rather shit 480p screen. Atleast it feels better in the hand than the Switch. I still do play mine, but mainly with the Pro controller which I think is one of if not the best first party controller ever.

They forgot to put games on it.