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[//ARCANUM]

So I just stumbled upon the Wii U reveal trailer...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e3qaPg_keg

And my god, it's so bad. NO WONDER consumers didn't understand it. They keep saying "THE NEW CONTROLLER" over and over and over again in the trailer. If I was joe schmo consumer, I would absolutely think it was an add-on for the Wii. And then if you told me it was $300, for what they're selling as "the new controller", I wouldn't even consider buying it.

It's amazing how such a bad reveal did so much damage to the Wii U and its lifespan.

It really puts the Switch presentation into perspective to me. The more I think about it, while I was disappointed at first after the presentation, I'm think Nintendo has done an excellent job of communicating what the Switch is and what it does from both the initial reveal trailer and the subsequent presentation. Especially compared to the horrible job they did on the Wii U.

Consumers clearly understand that it's a home console they can pick up and take with them on the go, just like Karen.

If you haven't seen it, or just haven't watched it in years, do yourself a favor and check out that Wii U reveal trailer and see just how bad it truly is.

 

[Forkball]

What is it that you don't like about the New Controller?

 

[ckaneo]

I feel like people underestimate the failure of the wii u. It wasn't a very good console outside of marketing as well. I mean 13 million sold? That's not just confused moms.

I'm worried Nintendo thinks that marketing is enough for the Switch and not the acknowledgement of several company flaws.

 

[aggienader]

Interesting for sure

 

[WhoaIsThatMars]

I don't think they even showed the actual machine during the reveal presentation either. I get they were trying to feed off the Wii name, but man...what a disaster

 

[Zalman]

It's always easy to say these things in retrospect. I remember watching the Wii U trailer imagining the possibilities of the GamePad. Sadly, for the most part, it didn't go anywhere. It was dumb that they kept referring to it as "the new controller" though.

 

[Banjotanooki]

"Switch from TV to the New Controller"

IT WAS THERE ALL ALONG!!!! 0___o

 

[//ARCANUM]

I feel like people underestimate the failure of the wii u. It wasn't a very good console outside of marketing as well. I mean 13 million sold? That's not just confused moms.

I'm worried Nintendo thinks that marketing is enough for the Switch and not the acknowledgement of several company flaws.

Yeah they're by no means in the clear yet. They have a lot of work to do, but I am impressed with what they've accomplished so far (and I've played the Switch personally) and I think the Switch has a real chance whereas the Wii U.... did not. Especially after that reveal. It's not solely to blame, but dammmmmn. And this is coming from guy that owns a Wii U.

Also, that Zelda footage is painful considering how long it's taken to get a new Zelda on the system.

 

[Ms.Galaxy]

It's always easy to say these things in retrospect. I remember watching the Wii U trailer imagining the possibilities of the GamePad. Sadly, for the most part, it didn't go anywhere. It was dumb that they kept referring to it as "the new controller" though.

I was more confused if it was an official console or a new controller when I saw that first trailer. Having New Super Mario Bros and a bunch of Wii Sport/Play looking games didn't help. Like, I knew it was a new console soon after, but not at first.

 

[FluxWaveZ]

It's always easy to say these things in retrospect. I remember watching the Wii U trailer imagining the possibilities of the GamePad. Sadly, for the most part, it didn't go anywhere. It was dumb that they kept referring to it as "the new controller" though.

Back when I saw this live during E3, I didn't even know what this exactly was. I thought it might be a new controller for the Wii while it was playing. It was easy to tell, for me, that the messaging was confusing right then.

 

[SMG]

I lost faith in the thing when they showed the example if using the pad to show golf dirt. Only Bayonetta 2 was classic enough to get be to buy the system.

 

[//ARCANUM]

It's always easy to say these things in retrospect. I remember watching the Wii U trailer imagining the possibilities of the GamePad. Sadly, for the most part, it didn't go anywhere. It was dumb that they kept referring to it as "the new controller" though.

I have a Wii U, but don't do anything other than play games on it and the only game I've played that has remotely inventive controls is WarioWare. Do those web browsing features even exist in the Wii U? I've never actually used the browser on it, lol.

 

[jwk94]

Yeah this was terrible. I started my stream late and couldn't figure out if they were advertising a new add-on for the Wii or a whole new console. Even after the trailer was done, it took forever for them to clarify it again.

I don't think they even showed the actual machine during the reveal presentation either. I get they were trying to feed off the Wii name, but man...what a disaster

They kinda did. It's in the background in the trailer.

 

[Nights Owl]

I have a Wii U, but don't do anything other than play games on it and the only game I've played that has remotely inventive controls is WarioWare. Do those web browsing features even exist in the Wii U? I've never actually used the browser on it, lol.

Not really. It basically is the same thing on both screens. Damn good browser though.
__________________________________________________

Man, I can actually see why people thought this was confusing. They didn't make an effort at all in that to make it clear it's a new system. If you weren't someone who was really familiar with games it'd be hard as heck to understand it's a new console from that.

Only thing that really gives a hint at it, are the graphics from the Zelda Tech Demo. Jeesh. That's rough.

 

[Ms.Galaxy]

Yeah this was terrible. I started my stream late and couldn't figure out if they were advertising a new add-on for the Wii or a whole new console. Even after the trailer was done, it took forever for them to clarify it again.



They kinda did. It's in the background in the trailer.

Yeah, kinda, but it looked like a Wii from the distance sooo...

Really easy mistake to make, it doesn't look that different from the Wii from afar.

 

[Infernal Monkey]

I remember being so fucking bummed out that they chose to focus on a Wii Sports port, a Wii Fit sequel and yet another Mario game using the tired, worn out NSMB art style.

 

[Forkball]

I don't think they even showed the actual machine during the reveal presentation either. I get they were trying to feed off the Wii name, but man...what a disaster

They didn't. There was a picture of it on Nintendo's website though. I remember the first time I saw it was because someone on GAF posted it. I have no idea when they official unveiling of the actual console was though, maybe E3 2012. Ironic that with the Wii, they showed the console first and the controller much later but did the opposite with the Wii U.

 

[takriel]

LOL the first word you read in the Wii U reveal trailer is "Switch"

 

[show me your skeleton]

good lord that wii-controller light gun monstrosity.

 

[//ARCANUM]

good lord that wii-controller light gun monstrosity.

I KNOW RIGHT? What IS that thing?

 

[Forkball]

good lord that wii-controller light gun monstrosity.

Did such a thing even come out? I can't imagine that being comfortable.

Also the E3 2011 thread is pretty funny in retrospect.

WII U WHAT THE FUCK

My analysis:

BOMBA

I was right.

 

[nubbe]

Switching is a failed concept!

 

[jabuseika]

So many gimmicks...

Kinda feels like something else I saw recently.

 

[120v]

well that reveal was for folks who already knew it was a different system. not particularly 1:1 with the Switch reveal that was supposed to be viral by design

though in general there was way too much focus on the controller. really should've been marketed as a "wii 2", as in, "hey you know that wii that's collecting dust? relive the fun and upgrade it. oh and we'll throw in a tablet controller too". i don't think the messaging was particularly the problem, it's just the controller wasn't the amazing pitch nintendo thought it was

 

[SpokkX]

Yeah even I was confused if this actually was a new system or just a 32x addon to wii

 

[spekkeh]

I do think it suffers from the benefit of hindsight. At that time, tablets were still somewhat novel. The iPad only just released, so the idea of having a large touch screen for gaming was still exciting and could've sold the concept quite well. The release then stalled a bit though and by the time it was released it wasn't nearly as impressive anymore. Now it's really old hat.
It's true you only really see a new console in the end shot, so it may have led to confusion. Then again, in my experience, most people don't even know what a Wii U is, let alone be confused by it.

 

[WhoaIsThatMars]

They kinda did. It's in the background in the trailer.

what I mean is that they didn't say "hey, this is the machine that plays Wii U games."

I remember Reggie constantly being asked about the hardware and he had to keep saying "we think the core of this system is the Gamepad [blah blah blah]."

 

[takriel]

They showed so many uninteresting bullshit "gimmicks" in that trailer. So off-putting. Compare that to the Switch unveiling.

 

[SomeRandomWeirdGuy]

I was introduced to GAF during the Project Cafe leaks. I was all into Nintendo's new system and inhaling every detail and alleged leak. Nintendo said they were gonna show their new console, I knew it, and even I was confused by that godawful reveal. I was thinking, "That has to be the console right? The leaks said the controller had a screen didn't they?"

I was in the know, I couldn't even imagine what it was like for an average person.

And this was after the somewhat confusing marketing for the 3DS too. I met tons of people who thought it was just a new DS like the DSi that could play their old games in 3D.

How they made that mistake in marketing twice in a row is fucking beyond me

 

[EatinOlives]

I remember fans who defended it kept saying everyone who was confused was just faking it, and that it was EXTREMELY obvious it was a new console.

Good times.

 

[Ms.Galaxy]

I was introduced to GAF during the Project Cafe leaks. I was all into Nintendo's new system and inhaling every detail and alleged leak. Nintendo said they were gonna show their new console, I knew it, and even I was confused by that godawful reveal. I was thinking, "That has to be the console right? The leaks said the controller had a screen didn't they?"

I was in the know, I couldn't even imagine what it was like for an average person.

And this was after the somewhat confusing marketing for the 3DS too. I met tons of people who thought it was just a new DS like the DSi that could play their old games in 3D.

How they made that mistake in marketing twice in a row is fucking beyond me

Nintendo's marketing department kinda went to crap after 2008, even Wii commercials were starting to become bland and generic to the point they weren't catching anyone's eyes.

Does anyone remember Wario Land Shake It's marketing? No? That's because it didn't really have any, and yet it was really the only game they had for their Summer and Fall of 2008 releases. They instead focused all their marketing money on that shit we called Wii Music.

 

[AmyS]

 

[Smokey]

Really was WOAT.

"New controller. New controller. New controller"

Not one mention of it being a new system. Fucking awful.

 

[takriel]

And to think that Zelda Wii U still isn't even out yet!

(I'm so glad they went with that beautiful art style instead of the boring one from the tech demo).

 

[SMattera]

Is there any proof anywhere that consumers didn't understand what the Wii U was?

People have said this for years, but I've never seen one study, one survey, one poll, anything backing it up.

I think people understood the Wii U, and they just didn't want it.

 

[Hastati]

I laughed more than I should have at the Karen amiibo

Otherwise I think their marketing has been on point so far, the switch seems practical and fun relative to the awkwardness of the Wii U.

I think calling it the Wii U was definitely a huge mistake, without a number or a new name people might associate the U with it being an add on or police sirens or something.

 

[matrix-cat]

Honestly, if the Wii U really had been just a new controller add-on for the Wii, you wouldn't have to change a single thing about this trailer and it'd work perfectly.

 

[Ms.Galaxy]

Is there any proof anywhere that consumers didn't understand what the Wii U was?

People have said this for years, but I've never seen one study, one survey, one poll, anything backing it up.

I think people understood the Wii U, and they just didn't want it.

I think Nintendo did an internal study on it some time after launch. I recall Iwata saying something like that they failed to make the public understand this is a new console. They even had to make this chart to help the public understand.

 

[JoeM86]

Thing is, even though they said "the new controller", in the conference they did call it the new console from Nintendo multiple times.

I remember defending that like crazy, never considering people may have actually only watched the trailer My bad.

 

[FloweryMarston]

Dark times, i was extremely disappointed by every aspect of the system, using resistive touch instead of capacitive, the proposal of the system itself was bad, the bundles were bad, the gamepad looked ugly, their marketing was bad. The only game announced that had me super hyped was pikmin 3, which took months to release and it's a super niche game. Combine this with the difficult of HD development, and nintendo had a system that had extremely bad droughts from the get go.


They also were aiming full on the casuals, releasing it with a new super mario game, which while a good game, it's not the mind blowing 3d mario that you want to see when you are getting a new nintendo system. They were also at the time saving the 3DS releasing an incredible amount of great games, but couldn't focus on both at the same time.

They thought that the brand (wii/ds) was good enough to maintain sales. While they suffered a lot, and i think us fans did too, it was a good learning lesson and you can see how different the switch feels in general compared to it, it's a much better system, with a "gimmick" that realises the only easily communicable thing of the wii u: off-screen play, but with a good screen, completely portable, a library that shows ambition from nintendo, and general interest from the public is much bigger. Of course that are some details that need to be clarified, but it's night and day from the nintendo of that time.

 

[SMattera]

I think Nintendo did an internal study on it some time after launch. I recall Iwata saying something like that they failed to make the public understand this is a new console. They even had to make this chart to help the public understand.

Found this quote:

“We have not been able to solidly communicate the product value of Wii U to our consumers yet, which has been a grand challenge for us.Some have the misunderstanding that Wii U is just Wii with a pad for games, and others even consider Wii U GamePad as a peripheral device connectable to Wii. We feel deeply responsible for not having tried hard enough to have consumers understand the product.”

But even if that is true, why didn't more people buy it? Or at least be curious enough about this alleged Wii peripheral to investigate it.

Console peripherals have a poor track record, but for example, Microsoft sold twice as many Kinects for the 360 than Nintendo sold Wii Us. And the Wii had a larger install base.

The Wii U may have suffered from poor messaging, but that always seemed like a scape goat issue. "We just didn't message it properly" is a lot easier problem to fix than "third parties have no interest in developing for our platform, our online infrastructure sucks, and we only release 2-3 good games a year."

 

[AmyS]

Dark times, i was extremely disappointed by every aspect of the system, using resistive touch instead of capacitive, the proposal of the system itself was bad, the bundles were bad, the gamepad looked ugly, their marketing was bad. The only game announced that had me super hyped was pikmin 3, which took months to release and it's a super niche game. Combine this with the difficult of HD development, and nintendo had a system that had extremely bad droughts from the get go.

This.

 

[//ARCANUM]

I think Nintendo did an internal study on it some time after launch. I recall Iwata saying something like that they failed to make the public understand this is a new console. They even had to make this chart to help the public understand.

Man, even that graphic is bad. You never see MS or Sony describing a new console this way (to my knowledge). You'd never see a PS4/PS3 comparison chart like that. I feel like this chart tells people that it's a new console, at least, but it makes it just sound like Wii 1.5 rather than a new gen machine.

 

[ASIS]

Forget about the average joe, I'm as big of a Nintendo fan as they come and I remember being confused when they played that trailer. I had to watch the entire conference to reassure my assumption that this is, in fact, a new console.

 

[//ARCANUM]

Found this quote:

“We have not been able to solidly communicate the product value of Wii U to our consumers yet, which has been a grand challenge for us.Some have the misunderstanding that Wii U is just Wii with a pad for games, and others even consider Wii U GamePad as a peripheral device connectable to Wii. We feel deeply responsible for not having tried hard enough to have consumers understand the product.”

But even if that is true, why didn't more people buy it? Or at least be curious enough about this alleged Wii peripheral to investigate it.

Console peripherals have a poor track record, but for example, Microsoft sold twice as many Kinects for the 360 than Nintendo sold Wii Us. And the Wii had a larger install base.

The Wii U may have suffered from poor messaging, but that always seemed like a scape goat issue. "We just didn't message it properly" is a lot easier problem to fix than "third parties have no interest in developing for our platform, our online infrastructure sucks, and we only release 2-3 good games a year."

Well, I think random person thinks "oh new Wii add-on! Oh, it's $300? Lol forget that, not even looking into it". ¯_(&#12484_/¯

 

[Sixfortyfive]

I think Nintendo did an internal study on it some time after launch. I recall Iwata saying something like that they failed to make the public understand this is a new console. They even had to make this chart to help the public understand.

The worst part about this is that I remember a very similar issue and chart for the 3DS, where Nintendo felt that they did not do enough to convey that the 3DS was a new system with new games and not just a redesigned original DS.

They made the same mistake twice.

 

[Ms.Galaxy]

Man, even that graphic is bad. You never see MS or Sony describing a new console this way (to my knowledge). You'd never see a PS4/PS3 comparison chart like that. I feel like this chart tells people that it's a new console, at least, but it makes it just sound like Wii 1.5 rather than a new gen machine.

I mean, even after that, their efforts to try to market it as the successor to the Wii was terrible. Let's not forget this stupid ad:



They called it an upgrade, they once again didn't differentiate itself from its predecessor and made it seem like it was an upgrade like the iPhone 4s is to the iPhone 4. When you do that, you're saying that the Wii is "good enough" and it doesn't need replacing.

 

[openrob]

Reveal comes in on page 52
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=432783&page=55

Is there any proof anywhere that consumers didn't understand what the Wii U was?

I think people understood the Wii U, and they just didn't want it.

Well...

wait..do you need a wii to play it?

its just a wii peripheral?

Don't tell me its just an add-on for wii....please don't tell me that.

LOLOL WIII ADD-ON!!!!

OMFG the controller IS the new console

HAHAHAHAHA

They just are trying to make a ipad

Is that all cafe is, just a controller?

it's ... a controller ?

IS THIS EVEN A NEW CONSOLE LOOKS LIKE JUST A CONTROLLER

ahaha it's a portable wii

nextgen is here

its a handheld?

lol lol lol

Yup, it's a controller to complement Wii.

...Yep crystal clear mate.
I know these comments are the minority, but these people are on GAF. I mean, they were aware.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Yeah they're by no means in the clear yet. They have a lot of work to do, but I am impressed with what they've accomplished so far (and I've played the Switch personally) and I think the Switch has a real chance whereas the Wii U.... did not. Especially after that reveal. It's not solely to blame, but dammmmmn. And this is coming from guy that owns a Wii U.

Also, that Zelda footage is painful considering how long it's taken to get a new Zelda on the system.

It would be great if they allowed a wireless mode for the dock that enabled asymmetric gameplay like Wii U did. Wii U's concept was not bad really... it was executed way worse than it should have (a big red flag should have been raised by the unboxing actually, cheap cardboard box inside without any identity... check out Wii unboxing vs Wii U Premium unboxing).

I think we will ultimately miss a good second screen experience into the game world.

 

[FloweryMarston]

They also were selling it at a loss, which made a huge contributor for them having negative income in those years.