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Nintendo: We Should Have Explained Wii U Better (Gamasutra)

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Wolves Evolve

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http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/35156/Nintendo_We_Should_Have_Explained_Wii_U_Better.php
(Writer: Mike Rose)

The company has seen its share price fall two days in a row to the lowest in five years, as analysts said that "market expectations [for the console] had been far too high".

Talking to the London Evening Standard, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata admitted that the company should have shown off the console first, rather than jumping straight to the controller, although he made the point that "Wii U is about the controller".

"Because we put so much emphasis on the controller, there appeared to be some misunderstandings," he said. "We should have made more effort to explain how it works."

"We haven't made any kind of blunder, but I should have shown a single picture of the new console, then started talking about the controller," he continued. "The console is not drastically different, and Wii U is about the controller. The console itself will be almost invisible."

Iwata said that the press was also to blame, noting that it's not possible to see how important the Wii U console is unless you've actually given it a try.
Click to expand...

My take is that this was only a tiny problem in the overall quite terrible first public showing. The reveal of the Wii was confident, well-organised and full of details. This year's presser had none of the polish or details (save on the 3DS front, perhaps) and lacked any sensible statement of vision for the new console. They might well do better next time, but this was important and I think they blew it in the way they didn't with Wii.
 
You guys also probably shouldn't have given it the kind of name that gives the impression it's a revision, but you guys did anyways.
 
i was only confused at the part where Reggie yelled at Geoff about the 2nd roundtable and how online information was gonna come, and then boom an hour of ghost recon and shit.
 
Dabookerman said:
Was that online box checked then?

I was promised it would be..
Click to expand...
Yeah I'm interested in this too, is there a thread with all the Wii U online information collated? Was it talked about at the developer roundtables?
 
Neo C. said:
I'm still amazed how many people thought the controller were the Wii U.
Click to expand...

Really? I watched the event from start to finish, and I was totally baffled at the end by what they had actually shown. I don't think Nintendo even mentioned a seperate console at any point.

They kept talking about Wii U in terms of the controller. I think it's pretty natural that people would assume that the controller WAS the console.

It was a mess!
 
From the unveiling and throughout the rest of the conference, I thought it was an accessory for Wii and contained all the new tech in the controller itself.
 
They should have called it the Nintendo U. Its more sensible and it would carry a huge power in the press. Wii U sounds like a compromise, just a step forward. But he actually says its not 'drastically different'. Wrong answer, buddy. We want drastically different.
 
because the feed we were watching kept cutting in and out, i thought that they had pulled a fast one on everybody and just announced a new controller. plus, they kept calling it the wii u controller. and then the line was marked with a sign for "NEW CONSOLE" instead of "WII U" so i thought perhaps the console was going to be called something else while the wii u was going to be compatible with both the wii and cafe.
 
Dabookerman said:
Was that online box checked then?

I was promised it would be..
Click to expand...
Ubisoft showed Ghost Recon with an account system, but I got the distinct impression it was an account system only for Ubisoft games.

I think Geoff Keighley's prediction might, horrifyingly enough, be right:

Geoff Keighley said:
Geoff Keighley
Sounds like each game on Wii-U has to set up its own online network.....no unifying Nintendo service, at least not yet. Box checked?

Geoff Keighley
I wonder if Nintendo's online strategy is to let devs control online themselves and they get 100 percent of revenue, not 70?
Click to expand...
Source: http://twitter.com/#!/geoffkeighley
 
I've read in a couple of newspapers that Nintendo unveiled a new controller for the Wii.

Yep, they screwed it up big time.
 
A Link to the Snitch said:
I don't even know what the fuck the name is supposed to mean
Click to expand...
We = People with Wii Motes + Nunchuks
You = The Dude with the Funky Tablet Controller Screen

We + You = Wii U
 
I thought it was perfectly clear in the promo video what it is good for.

The rest of the presentation was all over but the promo video explained the concept perfectly imho.
 
Neo C. said:
I'm still amazed how many people thought the controller were the Wii U.
Click to expand...

Most people still do think that. Three gaming friends have no idea Nintendo are bringing out a new console, a week later. They are not idiots, either.

1) Show new controller
2) Don't show new console
3) Call it the same as the old console, basically
4) Don't show game media, basically

5) Guess what? People think you just announced an accessory.
 
When you confuse even your most ardent supporters, its the very definition of a blunder. Thankfully they have a whole year to get the message right by launch.
 
Nirolak said:
Ubisoft showed Ghost Recon with an account system, but I got the distinct impression it was an account system only for Ubisoft games.

I think Geoff Keighley's prediction might, horrifyingly enough, be right:


Source: http://twitter.com/#!/geoffkeighley
Click to expand...

Utter wank if true. Granted, I am mainly interested in the online for games like Smash Bros, Kart etc. I want to hear what Nintendo are doing. Reggie said they would say, and it seems E3 is over.

Wankers.
 
Well, at least they admitted to it. I think we'll see more of the Wii U at their usual early October conference. We should get more of an understanding of it then.

Still think E3 2012 is going to be another E3 2006. Hype train begins now!
 
The only thing that confused me was the number of people who clearly weren't listening during the press conference. Everything was made pretty clear. :-/
 
Turnstyle said:
Really? I watched the event from start to finish, and I was totally baffled at the end by what they had actually shown. I don't think Nintendo even mentioned a seperate console at any point.

They kept talking about Wii U in terms of the controller. I think it's pretty natural that people would assume that the controller WAS the console.

It was a mess!
Click to expand...

Except the whole HEY SOMEONE WANTS TO WATCH TV, LET'S SWITCH TO THE CONTROLLER.
It was kinda obvious there was a console. Duh.
 
They had too much faith to the audience I guess. The situation is a little baffling to me, in my opinion the demonstrations were very similar to and as effective as the various Wii reels showing game concepts with pointing, flashlighting, waggling, etc. I suppose it's the first time a system doesn't do completely away with what came before it (controllers in this instance, with the emphasis in reusing Wii controllers as well as the tablet) but it's not that hard to grasp and naming it Wii also helps with that. People will see Wii controllers for sale and know it works with their Wii also, even if it has that little U icon on top. I can see Sony and MS doing the same with their future systems. Why buy a third nearly identical iteration of the dual shock or Move/Kinect if they won't present vastly improved or different schemes. And come on, was anyone here, or any journalist really confused about it being a new system or a Wii accessory? Maybe some random non gamer would get confused but thankfully the journalists of the mainstream media they read were able to ask questions to clarify it for themselves if needed (it shouldn't be) and thus get the right message across with their articles and videos. They were even perfectly clear about its graphical capabilities not being represented by their gameplay design demos but with their actual graphics demonstrations. Either way, it's very early and thus a non issue.
 
Dabookerman said:
Utter wank if true. Granted, I am mainly interested in the online for games like Smash Bros, Kart etc. I want to hear what Nintendo are doing. Reggie said they would say, and it seems E3 is over.

Wankers.
Click to expand...
Clearly Reggie and the rest of NoA were so busy readying Xenoblade for release in North America that releasing the online specs for the Wii U completely slipped their mind.

Oh wait, when I said Xenoblade above, I really meant to say Wii Play: Motion.
 
I REALLY hope they delay it now. Launch in September with a real games line-up and online service, add ram, change the name to "U" or "Cafe". I know they are manufacturing early, but holy shit this was a mess.
 
Takao said:
You guys also probably shouldn't have given it the kind of name that gives the impression it's a revision, but you guys did anyways.
Click to expand...

this is, as already mentioned, their worst mistake.

"Wii U" is to consumers like "DS i", some mild revision to spur sales.

It will be a VERY hard sale, they still have time to change the name if they wanted, don't they?
 
It really was one of the poorest system unveilings that I can think of. I understand that they wanted to emphasis the importance of the controllers (as they did with the Wii), but that caused them to ignore every other part of the system. It made no sense at all to completely ignore the online portion of the system given that they're attempting to target the "core" gamer.
 
Maybe its just me, but it seems like people are becoming completely stupid in this day and age. They showed the controller, showed a game streaming, and showed various ideas about how to utilize it....and then went on to say that lots of popular third party games are going to come with extra features. Shit seemed pretty self explanatory to me lol
 
No confusion here. But they didn't show single image for Console itself shocked me.

edit: That lead me doubt GAF console image at very first. LOL
 
Man said:
I thought it was perfectly clear in the promo video what it is good for.

The rest of the presentation was all over but the promo video explained the concept perfectly imho.
Click to expand...
The promo explained the functionality well, but I feel it didn't explain that this was a new console well.

Like, had they just debuted this without any prior rumors and I saw that promo, I would have assumed it was a Wii peripheral.
 
Ronok said:
The only thing that confused me was the number of people who clearly weren't listening during the press conference. Everything was made pretty clear. :-/
Click to expand...

Not ONE image of the actual console during the console's own reveal. Good job, Nintendo. How the cock does that make sense?
 
Gravijah said:
To be quite honest, I think they showed it off way too soon.
Click to expand...
I agree, and I think it was the leaks that forced their hand. They were put between a rock and a hard place- either show nothing and everyone blows a gasket of show something underwhelming because it's not ready for prime time yet. It would appear they went with the lesser of two evils.

Still think it was really stupid of them to keep Vigil from showing Darksiders 2 though.
 
Wolves Evolve said:
Not ONE image of the actual console during the console's own reveal. Good job, Nintendo. How the cock does that make sense?
Click to expand...
Its a rectangular box that will be hidden in people's entertainment centers. Who cares what it looks like?
 
DXB-KNIGHT said:
They should've shown GAMES and show how the controller works with these games like what they've done with the Wii.
Click to expand...

They should have went through every demo on stage. Not with clunky delays for Japanese translation mind you... but just quickly showing them on the stage in front of everybody watching in the theatre and at home. The Zelda demo would have went over particularly well, even though it was non-interactive. The hawk demo would have been more impressive by showing you could exercise some camera control too...

they definitely could have organised it better. The segment on Excitebike and Pokedex 3DS was just daft, and purely for mainstream media consumption.

That said, the orchestra section and the amazing screen made the conference quite awesome.
 
wonderfuldays said:
No confusion here. But they didn't show single image for Console itself shocked me.

edit: That lead me doubt GAF console image at very first. LOL
Click to expand...

Wolves Evolve said:
Not ONE image of the actual console during the console's own reveal. Good job, Nintendo. How the cock does that make sense?
Click to expand...


Actually, if you were paying attention you would have seen it in the conference like I did. It was sitting right next to the TV in the demos. No they didn't hold it and scream "OMG OUR NEW CONSOLE LOOKS LIKE THIS!!!!!!" but they made it pretty clear that it was one and they did in fact show it.
 
Over the past couple days I've showed the reveal video to both my brother and one of my friends. They both responded something to the effect of, "so it's just a new controller for the Wii, right?" Not a good sign.
 
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