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[120v]

Wii U is essentially a half baked Switch, as Switch is basically like a Wii U 3.0 of sorts. kind of comical the two are so diametrically opposed on how well they were received, when you think about it

but to answer the question, local remote play simply wasn't a good enough hook.

 

[888eddyx]

Because people understood what the Switch was and knew it existed.

 

[R00bot]

When it's the only handheld sure, but both SEGA and Sony showed Nintendo handhelds are not cutting edge.

There are no faster mobile chips accessible currently. If Sony or SEGA were to make a handheld now they couldn't make it much more powerful than the Switch. The Tegra X1 is still the cutting edge mobile gpu/cpu. You just can't make a more powerful handheld right now, aside from some adjustments you could make to the Tegra such as overclocking, more ram, whatever.

 

[kkg1701]

There are no faster mobile chips accessible currently. If Sony or SEGA were to make a handheld now they couldn't make it much more powerful than the Switch. The Tegra X1 is still the cutting edge mobile gpu/cpu. You just can't make a more powerful handheld right now, aside from some adjustments you could make to the Tegra such as overclocking, more ram, whatever.

Yeah, the only one with a more powerful chip from what I've read here and there is Apple's latest and they aren't gonna share that with anyone else.

 

[Genio88]

Cause the Switch is two console in one, it's also an awesome handheld, plus it is way more attractive than WiiU with its design and it launched with the GOTY Zelda BOTW and has been having a great game almost every month so far, also unlike WiiU, Switch is justified if it won't get some third party AAA, since being a handheld it's impossible to be as powerful as Xbox One X and PS4 Pro, unlike WiiU which was a weak home console and couldn't compete with XB1 and PS4 despite that

 

[Neander]

I can only speak for myself but Switch being a true portable sucked me in.

That and I thought Wii U was an attachment to the Wii when it was first revealed.

 

[PantsuJo]

The hardware is full of nonsensical choices, especially regarding the gamepad.

Also, the marketing was really shit, especially here in Europe (bad name doesn't help too).

 

[sp3ctr3]

For the "blue ocean" crowd, the name was a horrible choice. So many I knew with the Wii thought the Wii U was just an accessory.

came to say exactly this. The Wii U is a great console though with a great selection of games.

 

[Peterc]

Wiiu was rushed, it wasn't finished.

Wiiu development was a hell for 3rd party, there wasn't a good manual

People and developers didn't want another wii console but instead they wanted a next gen. Instead they released a prev gen. So they needed to make games for only one console

Nintendo needed to support wiiu and 3ds, development is needing more resources for bigger games

Not allot of games that taked advantage of the wiiu tablet like wow or starcraft games.

Bad and we could even say no marketing

Bad name, confusing and nobody likes it

So it was already doomed from the beginning.



Beside this, it's nintendo their best first party lineup. They worked hard on it to fix it.

 

[Waji]

The Wii U had off screen play which is essentially the same premise as the docked console (with the major exception of very limited portability. You needed to be in range of the Wii U for it to work). But anecdotally we don't see many people with switches out in the wild or gaming-on-the-go. Obviously this is my experience, and if others have different experiences please do share. But it seems to be most play docked, and maybe take it round the house/garden to carry on gaming or unwind with it.

Docked might actually be the least played way. There are much more people playing handheld than you think, hence all the "I'm mad about motion controls for Mario Odyssey blah blah".

 

[Bioshocker]

Nintendo really bounced back from the Wii U, was it a complete shift or a refining of their strategy?

The Wii U was a flawed concept, an ill-conceived product from the beginning. The two screen experience they aimed for became more of a two screen interference. In the end, very few games used the big, clunky Gamepad for anything innovative, Rayman Legends being one of the games actually improved by a touchscreen (but the game was just as good on the PS Vita).

The Switch is a much more appealing product overall. The portability is its strongest argument. Switch is a portable console you can also plug into your TV. Given how dominant Nintendo have always been on the handheld market, the success shouldn't be as surprising to us. And yet it is, I have to admit. I thought the pricing of the Switch would hurt it.

Switch is easy to grasp, easy to use and easy to market.

For me, the interesting thing will be to see how the Switch will do in its second and third years. Nintendo learned from the lack of games during the Wii U's first year and really hit a homerun with the Switch releasing (albeit Wii U games) Mario Kart 8 and Breath of the Wild early on and topping that with new games like Splatoon 2 and Mario Odyssey. Now they blown the load, so to speak, and will probably need help from third parties to keep the momentum going in 2018 and 2019. And then there's Pókémon, Animal Crossing and a few other IP's of course.

 

[Jacqli]

When I tried to play Project Zero on my bed with the gamepad, but couldn't because there was no sound during the cinematics, I realized that the Wii U made absolutely no sense.

 

[Taker666]

Wi U had-
Poor branding.
Poor marketing.
Wrong games at the wrong time.
Too expensive due to a gamepad that massively bumped the price of the system up...but was pretty much useless for the majority of games released on the platform (unless you wanted a handheld you could play a few feet away from the tv you could be playing on).
A Basic and a Deluxe SKU to cause additional confusion/problems(Deluxe was way overpriced..while nobody really wants a system describes as basic).

By the time Nintendo started putting out decent new first party games that made use of the gamepad (Splatoon, Mario Maker) the machine was already dead.

Switch has-
Better branding
Better marketing
The right games at the right time
There is also one standard machine...no hardware differences beyond colouring.

 

[kkg1701]

Docked might actually be the least played way. There are much more people playing handheld than you think, hence all the "I'm mad about motion controls for Mario Odyssey blah blah".

Yeah, I've got a feeling that poll that determined most switch owners used it at home didn't take into account how they were used in their homes.

EDIT: Reading through the financial report; 30+% plays primarily in handheld and 50+% in both modes so you're right according to Nintendo's own numbers.

 

[Randall365]

The problem the Wii had was lack of third party support and eccentric controllers which only suited certain first party titles.

The Wii U compounded these problems and made the controller even more impractical.

The Switch not only has great third party support on the way, but also has the best controllers of this generation - in the pro and the little motion ones.

 

[hiro_x]

Here’s what I think

1. Portability - I think this has a lot of factor in why the Switch was successful.

2. Hardware - The Switch is sleek that you’d think it was made by some other company other than Nintendo. The Wii U gamepad was thick and the console itself looks like a wii.

3. Games - Games! There’s just too many games!

 

[UltimateUnknown]

Switch is a home console and handheld combined, so it's unfair to compare it to the Wii U.

It would be more appropriate to compare Switch sales to Wii U+3DS sales in order to determine if it's a success in the long run. Nintendo had to abandon pursuing handheld and console markets separately.

 

[BanjoLayleeYookaKazooie]

2013 was just brutal for the Wii U. The launch in the holidays 2012 was decent enough, 3rd party ports, couple of good Nintendo games and decent sales. But once that 50k January 2013 NPD came in it was done and dusted, Nintendo could not create any momentum (just watch that January 2013 Direct betcha the early 2018 one for the Switch will be filled with much, much less hopes and dreams for games that were 2/3/4 years away), 3rd parties jumped ship and most of Nintendo's attention and success that year was on the 3DS. Even when 3D World came out after 10 months-previously 'bolstered' by Pikmin 3, The Wonderful 101 and Wind Waker HD- Zelda A Link Between Worlds was released on the *same day* and the Xbox One and PS4 were stealing all the headlines and attention. Compare how people were getting genuinely annoyed around here at the Switch threads/headlines/topics to *that* above. It's like night and day. The Wii U had virtually no good WoM or momentum, and it only started off in mediocrity anyway, starting with the name and the default controller obviously being significant issues.

 

[amdb00mer]

Price, form factor, naming convention, and launch line up.

 

[Mister Wolf]

Price, form factor, naming convention, and launch line up.

The Switch is portable and Nintendo's portable systems always sell well.

 

[Alx]

Yeah true portability is probably the main reason we see a different reception. The WiiU may have had an interesting concept, but you had to stay in the same room as the base station to use the "remote play" reliably, which defeats the purpose. It only solved the "don't hog the TV screen" issue, but not the "let me play everywhere" one.

 

[ljubomir]

For me personally, WiiU is a great console:

- Unlike many people I thoroughly enjoy Nintendoland, and to this day it's a game we regularly play at gatherings, especially Mario Chase and that ghost thing. Nothing on the market allows such fun asymmetric gameplay, except for maybe Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes and Overcooked, and thats the number one reason why my WiiU is still connected to the TV.

- Bad as it is, virtual console on the WiiU still has some interesting titles, and as someone who regularly plays SMB1 & 2j this is great.

- NES remix, MK8, Zelda. Latter two are also available on Switch, but that doesn't lesser their value on WiiU, especially since I've been playing MK8 for years.

- WiiU gamepad is the least painful "portable console" for my hands. DS, 3DS, PSP and Vita give me the cramps after more than an hour of gameplay, while I could play on U gamepad for hours straight.

The biggest disappointment for me was weak gamepad signal which prevents me from playing in bedroom in my new apartment (it worked ok at my last, small, place), and the inability to play Wii games with just a U gamepad.

The limited success in my opinion was due to lackluster support from both 3rd parties but also Nintendo. While it has a bunch of great games now, waiting for them to materialize was a painful process. Also, usage of U gamepad was not standardized - some games can completely be played on the gamepad, while others required a TV. Not ideal.

 

[Jaymageck]

Marketing + better core concept.

 

[iswasdoes]

Wii U - cordless phone
Switch - Cellphone

 

[Pepboy]

Wii U was a flawed concept with some decent but poorly realised ideas and the software draught was the killer blow in the first year.

I have to agree on drought. They clearly prioritized saving 3ds.

But it was never going to sell gangbusters. The factor form felt cheap and the marketing was off.

 

[Matesamo]

Remember how slow the system was when it launched? Just getting to the home screen took 5-6 seconds after you pressed the button. The range was too short as well, if you could have easily taken the tablet controller anywhere in the house it would have been better. The Switch just improves upon everything about the Wii U tablet.

 

[amdb00mer]

The Switch is portable and Nintendo's portable systems always sell well.

Uh, yeah, form factor... that's what I said. In my opinion, it is a portable console with a docking feature.

 

[Mr Nash]

The Wii U was way too clunky and didn't have enough games early on to attract a userbase.

 

[neckthrough]

Yeah, the only one with a more powerful chip from what I've read here and there is Apple's latest and they aren't gonna share that with anyone else.

Even if Apple were hypothetically willing to sell their chip to others, it would be too expensive for a $299 console. Especially a console that appears expensive to manufacture - it's complex and tightly-packaged (as opposed to a big black box) and the BOM includes 2x joycons, an IPS display, a big battery and a dock.

 

[Journey]

Wii and Wii U, there wasn't a clear distinction, some people thought it was the same console... and for those that knew, the only difference between Wii and Wii U was performance, so now you're targetting gamers that are seeking performance which will likely choose PS4 as their primary console instead.

Switch is a new name and a fresh new idea with a clear distinction from Wii U that focused on things you cannot do on the competition.

 

[PaulBizkit]

Great games. Marketing, naming, etc completely irrelevant.

The Wii U's first 7 months of software was pitiful. Switch has had the best first 7 months of any Nintendo console ever. Two GOTY locks and Mario Kart? Unprecedented.

The truest truth ever told.

The Wii U was badly named and marketed nobody knew what it was. However, the Switch's purpose is as clear as water: a new nintendo home console that you can take on the go. That's it, simple.

Having two GOTY contenders on the same year helped it BIG TIME. If they manage to get a new mainline Pokemon game next year, the Switch will go massive.

The only discouraging thing is that once the big 3 are out (mario, zelda and pokemon), what's there for the mainstream appeal? Metroid, DK and Kirby?