What should Nintendo do?

[Uragan]

@WearySky

If memory serves, many people said very similar things about the Wii’s hardware. And yet, Nintendo managed to sell 100 million of those. Unfortunately, it looks like the Wii U is not going to be quite as successful.

I think there’s more than two options (go software-only, like Sega, or fix their home console situation) for Nintendo - go handheld-only. Nintendo seems to have that market fully cornered, at the moment (despite recent missed sales numbers for the 3DS).

There are a myriad of problems when trying to compare the Wii and the WiiU.

1. The Wii had a pretty solid marketing strategy that showed off its key asset. Motion Control and that everyone of all ages can enjoy that control scheme. The WiiU, on the other hand, has very poor marketing. Hardly any ad presence at all to speak of. And there was brand confusion between the Wii and WiiU. Many people have thought and continued to think that the WiiU is just an upgrade to the Wii.

2. The Wii was launched at $100 cheaper than the WiiU. Unfortunately for the WiiU, it had to compete against the PS3 and 360 which were, at the time of launch, the same price and had much more established game libraries to choose from.

3. The Wii had a relatively solid gimmick with the motion controls and most games required that to be used for playing. The WiiU’s touchpad is horridly underutilized within their own first party games.

4. The Wii had many more first party games ready out the gate to capitalize on the new hardware. Third party developers also had a good number of games ready for launch day. On the other hand, Nintendo has been extremely reticent to release games for the WiiU and third party developers/publishers have all but abandoned, quite vocally, the WiiU. (Ubisoft not included in that bunch.)

The problems with WiiU are a double edged sword, and it is extremely unfortunate for Nintendo in that case. If Nintendo continues to support the WiiU, then they’re pumping money into a dead console, so that’s money just down the drain. If they decide to pull support for the WiiU, then they have to spend a LOT of money to do a crash development of a new console which would put them in the same position they were with the WiiU in the first place, releasing a console mid-generation cycle. Also, if the PS4 and the XboxOne are to last a seven year cycle, then Nintendo would have to wait approximately seven or so years to release a new console which takes even more potential money out of their coffers in the meantime.

Lastly, we can’t forget that the 3DS also had similar problems. The 3DS had a problem selling until Nintendo lowered the price and had brand recognition problems with respect to the original DS. Nintendo has been, unfortunately, resting on its laurels for far too long.