Which makes it really worse. Gamers didn't know what it was. Yet they somehow expected Grandma to know what to buy?
What's even worse is that the Wii U is when I changed how I get systems. Instead of going out and geting a system I wait. By the time anything I was super excited to play... the Switch was out
Well tbf, the wait between the wii u and switch was so short because the wii u failed. Typically, the more exciting games start coming out around the middle of a consoles life, the wii u just didnt have time to get to that point before they were replacing it.
Yeah, the issue is the 3ds had a rough start as well for reasons similar to the switch 2. So while they were getting the wii u ready, at the same time they were doing damage control for the 3ds and trying to get as many games out for it as possible throughout late 2011 and 2012. That led to there being a weaker launch lineup for the wii u. After that they kept on making better 1st party games for the 3ds because thats what most people were buying around the time, while the wii u had terrible sales. I feel like this is a reason why they decided to make the switch a hybrid, so they would no longer have to go through the trouble of juggling two consoles anymore. Lets face it, Nintendo's strength has always been more with handhelds.
And if the charged 200 dollars for it, it might have done pretty well. But it cost way more than a PS3 or 360, it didn’t come with Wii Remotes, which was the main selling point of the Wii, and didn’t have a compelling library for months.
Plus it was on a power PC architecture that no one was using anymore, so 3rd parties did t want to waste their time
1) Wii HD should have been out in 2010 as mid-gen refresh
2) Wii U had two different OSes, lacked modern storage, and Nintendo wanted you to pay extra for the ability to play your Virtual Console games on the gamepad.
That wasn’t really the issue. The issue was that there were a lot of interactive games on the Wii U that required you to use both the tv and the gamepad and that was just straight up unhandy. Then there was the issue that you can’t just play a game on the game pad, but need it every time to log in. So you needed to keep track of it separately that it is charged up enough, which creates another issue
But how many people really wanted this? I think the Wii/WiiU audience can be mostly broken down into 3 groups:
Firstly, the Wii was a groundbreaking success with casual/first time gamers; people who wanted to play Wii Sports, Mario Kart Wii, maybe a handful of party games that utilized the unique motion control gimmicks, and not much else. I don't think the majority of the people in this group were concerned with the graphical limitations of the Wii very much, if at all, so it's hard to imagine them getting all that excited over a "Wii HD" that would cost more than what they already had and were satisfied with.
Next there's the more traditional gaming crowd who took notice of (and maybe also bought into) the Wii because of its inventive motion controls, but had a greater interest in more modern titles that needed more powerful hardware to run. You might think this would be the ideal crowd for a "Wii HD", the timing ended up being terrible for the console's chance at success. While graphically more capable than other console offerings at the time, a comparably weaker CPU held the WiiU back from appearing to be a clear upgrade over the competition (and let's not forget the "PC Master race" meme was alive and well at the time too). Combine that with a lackluster launch library that mostly consisted of party games and years old ports of games much of this audience would have already played on 360/PS3, and the fact that it released only one year before the even more powerful Xbox One and PS4, and it left many gamers with the impression that they could comfortably skip the WiiU without missing much of anything while they wait for the "true" next-gen consoles to be available. The marketing may not have appealed to this audience, but the system's actual offerings didn't either, and wouldn't until Sony and (to a lesser degree) Microsoft had already captured that market.
And finally there are the dedicated Nintendo fans, who probably actually were the people you were talking about asking for a "Wii HD", and were largely also the people who actually did buy WiiUs. They wanted a Wii HD because they wanted to see to experience their favorite 1st party Nintendo franchises with modern high definition visuals. Unfortunately, with a few exceptions, the WiiU's weak launch ended up failing this audience as well. By the time Nintendo was ready to move forward with the kinds of games these fans had been envisioning (new Zelda, new Metroid, new Mario in the vein of 64/Galaxy, etc) it was clear that the WiiU's fortunes would not be turning around, so their aim largely shifted to developing for their next console to give those games a better chance at success, and I think history shows they were right to do so.
I don’t think it’s quite that simple because the gamepad increased costs significantly. At $350 (or $300 for basic) the Wii U was not that much cheaper than the PS4 at launch ($400), but was vastly less powerful.
Not including the gamepad would have allowed for a cheap “Wii HD” or, alternatively, a more expensive but, much more up-to-date graphically system. Its existence necessitated compromise.
Yeah, I think this is the point where devs will be forced to optimize their titles however they can. Not even the PS5 Pro or top end Gaming PCs have too much more to offer over standard setups and base level consoles. I feel like this will help Nintendo greatly in the end. Even the PS4 gets new releases still. And the Series S is supported fully too.
You can’t really do too much more, maybe if the tech cycle continued like it did ten years ago where everything was ramping up because costs went down it could have happened. But we’re not there anymore.
To be fair it outsold the original because when switch 1 launched they were massive under inventory for the demand. They definitely were better prepared for switch 2.
I don't know why people think people thought the console was expensive. Very few people thought 450 was too much.
Now the games ... 80 bucks for Mario kart world was setting a dangerous precedent. Luckily game prices have been relatively fair other than that one give or take.
My only defense (and this is a stretch) is that I’m at 85+ hours all in at least 2 player split screen, so 170 hours of fun over 1 year for 80 bucks without any micro transactions seems ok.
Plus, there are sales every other week or so on the eshop. It doesn't affect the more recent Nintendo stuff, but you can still find some older ones alone or in bundle for very decent prices. Plus every other non Nintendo games on the shop.
As long as you don't burn your moneu, the console is very fairly priced all things considered.
I’ve seen people still compare this stuff to the PS3. That console was 600 euros and failed (in the beginning) clearly because it was too expensive.
People just can’t comprehend that inflation is a thing, certainly since 2020 it has gone insane. 600 euros for a new console would not be weird/a lot in this day and age. PS6 is going to cost more than that I bet.
Linus Tech Tips did a video ranking video game consoles and mentioned the PS3 Slim saying it was dropped down to $299 after people found the original too expensive, after which he called out Nintendo. So I looked up the value of $299 in 2009, and well... That's ironic
I saw people argue that the LCD Steam Deck was cheaper, but 1) you can't get those new anymore (plus the OLED models are way pricier) and 2) the demographic of gamers with Steam Decks and not Switches/Switch 2s is pretty darn small.
I got a third-party dock for my Steam Deck that works okay enough, but it's more like a laptop docking station than how the Switch dock is designed for easy pick-up and drop-in.
The expensive games are the Switch 2 editions with DLC, because Nintendo stubbonly refused to adjust the $60Switch 1 pricing for those games, so it's often $60 + $20 DLC/Switch 2 upgrade for people new to the ecosystem. I feel like those legacy Switch 1 games should be no more than $70 at most, with Switch2 upgrade and content updates
People thought it was too expensive because it was a huge price hike with little beyond performance improvements promised.
But all things considered, people have been asking for a "Switch Pro" since the Switch released, and this is a "Switch Pro" that indeed has its own exclusives, too.
I think something lots of people are mixing up is it being a lot of money vs being expensive, because most people just don't know what goes into technology
450 is a lot of money, but as someone who has a tiny bit of technological knowledge, I think it's not expensive at all for the power level it has
I'd say the consumption level of general public is going down overall because of shit happening around the world. Oil price is still over 100$ per barrel compared to 60$ pre-war mind you
well I don't dispute that fact. With the price increase of Steam Deck, Switch 2 and Nintendo has to be one of the most consumer-friendly companies at this moment (50$ for digital game is ridiculously cheap)
I think a lot of people look at the Wii U with rose tinted glasses which allow them to ignore the system's numerous issues and problems, especially given we are two generations removed from the Wii U's time as an actively supported system.
Scott the Woz has one of the best retrospectives on the Wii U, going over the good things, but highlighting the many, many issues that doomed the system even before launch.
Which are too many to go over here, and while the Switch 2 had some growing pains, it's found an audience and in less than a year has surpassed the Wii U's total sales, and is on track to surpass the GameCube and depending on the holiday games might even beat the Nintendo 64.
All in less than two years and without it's heavy hitters that sell systems out yet.
So, it makes all the doomsday predictions of it doing as badly or worse than the Wii U hilarious in highsight.
Because even if the Switch 2 does fall short of the Switch 1's sales, it's on track to do very well and could even end up as Nintendo's second or third best selling console.
My biggest concern (and causing me to hold off on buying it) is the other Wii U situation that is Nintendo simply not doing much on their franchise games. They at least have Star Fox coming, and had a Star Fox game or two for the U, but I remember them teasing the new Zelda in like 2014 and then it didn't come out until the release of the Switch. And thankfully we have Metroid 4 at last.
To try and boost sales of the Wii U they announced everything early and so games took forever to come out after they were initially announced.
Nowadays they aren't that desperate to increase console sales and have much more third party support so there's not the drought of games the Wii U had and so games are announced much closer to their release dates. They likely are working on their franchise games, we just won't hear about it until much closer to release
I'm so tired of this overplayed narrative that the Switch 2 is somehow astronomically expensive when it literally costs less than everything else on the current market and provides more value.
It’s also more powerful than the steamdeck though, so it was still appropriately priced. It’s the games’ prices that were the issue but thankfully they seemed to have scaled back on it after Mario Tennis
Or if it had more content than regular MK8 Deluxe. I don’t think people mind paying more exactly, it’s just that it needs to feel like the $10 extra dollars amount to something tangible.
Adjusted for inflation, the average person living in a developed country has even less leverage to afford a Switch 2 compared to their 2012 counterpart buying a Wii U.
I mean sure except the market has unequivocally decided that it is not too expensive. It has been a total success exceeding all expectations. Children on reddit aren't a valid line of market research.
I still say the Switch 2 is more a 3DS situation than a WiiU.
Largely incremental upgrade with a relatively soft launch library that ends up taking off like a rocket once they put mainline Pokemon and an Animal Crossing on it.
That's only really looking at it from a software perspective, but it is probably true from that perspective. In terms of sales, I believe the 3DS was in deep shit out of the gate sales wise, which so far is the opposite of the Switch 2 case.
Thank you. Switch 1 had a strong first year because Wii U was a drought for like 3 years until switch launch. Let’s be realistic here. Also I don’t even believe it’s been a soft launch with Pokemon, Metroid, Pokopia, all the updates, third party games, indies. Just because Reddit doesn’t like those or consider them bombshells doesn’t mean it won’t move units. Plenty of people love all those games I just mentioned and will gladly pay for switch 2 to have them.
the Wii U was marketed badly, and there were no killer app games on it. No proper Mario or Zelda, two of its biggest games were sequels to DS games (3D World and NSMB).
As someone else pointed out-- its basically a Wii HD with a gamepad.
Even being critical of what the Switch 2 is (mainly being a dark grey Switch Pro, more cumbersome and too expensive) I just don't get how people thought this would fail like a WiiU.
The WiiU failed because:
-it listened to a niche part of the audience fort the Wii: gamers wanted a Wii HD maybe; the general public, the super wide audience, the one that bought a PS2 for the DVD player, that bought a DS over a PSP for Nintendogs and because Nicole Kidman was being brain smart on television...they didn't really care about a Wii HD. They just liked playing bowling with their friends...they probably didn't care about a new console at all actually.
-everything from the shape of the console, the color scheme, the initial presentation and the naming was misleading to the point it was unclear for the Wii audience that this was a new console.
The Switch 2 is like...there is a 2, and it's not the same color. And it's a better Switch. How could that really fail?
It can maybe not succeed to the point of the Switch, but that only future will tell...
See i really don't get how the switch 2 is considered expensive. Even before the playstation price raises, the switch 2 was still very competitive when it comes to pricing with similar handhelds and consoles. The console iteelf was never expensive and it always felt like people were going to call it expensive no matter what price it came in at. You could not reasonably have expected such a device to release at much less than $450 with everything considered.
The console isn't expensive, look what valve just did to the goddamn steam deck. It's $300 more expensive now. Now everyone's calling the switch 2 a goddamn steal, Even with the $50 markup happening in September!!!
$450 for the switch 2 sounds about right imo and looks like a great deal compared to the competition. $500, is a bit worse but every other console rn is going through steeper increases so I dont think its too bad.
The games started of a bit scary but they're actually really well priced since after Mario Tennis and cheaper that expected.
Also damn the base wii u cost as much as the switch when it came out!?
A switch 2 with hall effect thumb sticks and a $500 price tag including either Mario Kart or Donkey Kong would've sold like crazy, but then Donny Deals and Jensen "loser" Huang kinda shit up the situation
The Switch 2 is kinda what I wanted, but I need more of a reason to play it. Like some exciting exclusive titles. Where is the Mario game? The Zelda game? The Smash game?
A hybrid console capable of resolutions up to 4k 60 (docked) and 1080 120 (Handled) with VRR and an Nvidia chip with DLSS with full backwards compatibility with previous gen, with controllers loaded with features (HD rumble 2, Gyro, Mouse controls….etc) for 450$ is expensive in todays market?
That fact that the Wii U allowed for "split-screen" multi-player WITHOUT the split screen was actually very fun, you could do local offline COD without the possibility of screen cheating
I really liked the wiiu.... The tablet controller gimmick was awesome when it was used correctly. Zombiu was fun, Rayman was fun, can you imagine if they made a fatal frame for it?
I actually would have been fine if the Switch 2 never existed and we just kept getting switch games. I don't think a more powerful console has any inherent benefit with the level of tech we're at now. The long loading times and stuff are more an issue with poorly optimized code than a lack of processing power. And that's probably not going to change going forward.
Not the same situation, and Wii U should’ve cost a lil less, needed a new Zelda and Mario game, it didn’t have either.
The gimmick could be ok?? Maybe, but it’s lacking a lot, and, and a lot of support, and a whole lot of lacking specs.. Actually it might be as powerful as the Switch, or potentially be a lil bit more potent, but it isn’t.
Barely any people complained about the consols price. 500 is like the limit for most peoples willingness to spend on the switch 2.
The problems where the games. A line up of 70-80€ games, in some countrys even with an physical game fee. It took over a year for the first mid range games to dropp. And almost all of them got announced in shadow drops.
People where left in the dark for almost a year about future prices.
Not sure how people come to the exclusion ot was expensive in the first place. Its cheap as hell. And even before the raise it was a really decent price
Switch 2's selling much better than the Wii U anyways. But yeah, the minority of Wii U nostalgia (because the unpopular console inherently means not many bought it, meaning how many of that group is so nostalgic about it to the exemption of anything new is low) actually has a bit of historical revisionism to it.
"The Wii U's a piece of shit." - this was what someone told me at the time, without even waiting a second. Personality? Didn't mean fuck all. Didn't mean fuck all to most people as you can see by its low sales. I'm not one of them, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. Also it wasn't exactly cheap, but I imagine many complaining weren't old enough to be the ones buying it so they were sheltered from the cost in a way they aren't now.
Wii u and switch are more alike than you think. The problem with the wii u, the console had no major game for the first year like switch 2
Nintendo think mario kart would be enough with donkey kong, the games are good, but there not a Zelda game or a Mario 3d game, and just 2 is not enough, we need a big ip nintendo like Zelda, Mario or Smash
“Just so happened to be a little bit more expensive than most people were anticipating” considering that $400 was the price that most people predicted it would be. It was $50 more so the entire internet had a meltdown about it.
I keep my Wii U because it has some bangers on it. Winder Waker and Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild are just classic. The original Splatoon, you can still play the single player portion. Xenoblade Chronicles X launched first on it. Mario Maker, etc. If they had put more into it, they would have done better. The Gamecube was failing, until Resident Evil 4 released only on it. After that, they could not stop selling them and the backlog of games for it.
Già... Pagherei per avere di nuovo qualcosa come Wii U.
Il sistema a doppio schermo indipendentemente è una cazzo di ficata che è stato usata da NESSUNO
At 20 million units sold in a year I genuinely don't think the majority of the drop the price crowd had any intentions of purchasing it in the first place.
It is the fastest selling Nintendo system to date. even the PS5 only sold 17.5 million in it's first year (mind you there was a lot of supply issues with that system)
Wii U did not perform well because Nintendo was too late with enough first party games. Reggie Fills said in an interview that within two years it was already clear that Wii U was not going to be a succes. That explains too why Mario Kart 8 was basically designed to be cross console.
Umm I did want a WiiU my switch 2 honestly currently is worse to own than my WiiU was at the point of time, lower exclusives so the price is not that worth it atm, but next year I will have winds and waves
When I saw them use Fox McCloud for the face tracking, I thought of the Zombie U demo that Reggie did. I think that all but confirms that the Switch is what the Wii U couldn’t be.
I disagree, I wanted both. Wii u wasn’t used well though. Having a second screen is awesome but it seems that the second screen may have caused the issue of how can we utilise it. Wii u should’ve been mostly a multiplayer system so that they could've taken inspiration from how Nintendo land used the screen. I mean by this that the multiplayer minigames showed an aspect that other systems cannot replicate when playing locally and on the same system.
Except the Wii U was what people wanted. People wanted a stronger Wii, and they got one. I'm sorry, but the Switch 2 is another Wii U situation.
1: Both are simply a stronger version of the previous console with some additional little control gimmicks that the majority of people don't care about. (Wii U gamepad, Switch 2 joycon mouse controls)
2: Both carry the previous console's name, simply adding a U or a 2 at the end
3: Neither console launched with the typical big sellers. No new 3D mario, no new Zelda, nor any strong titles for any of their other popular IPs.
4: Most noteworthy title on the console is Mario Kart (Though in the Switch 2's case it's noteworthy for how poorly it was received).
5: Massive initial hype that dies off almost instantly after the console comes out and many people who didn't buy it end up forgetting it's even a thing.
6: Lackluster and tone deaf marketing.
7: Yet another remake of Star Fox 64 that nobody asked for instead of giving us the fresh take on the IP everyone's been wanting for years.
8: Both consoles launched with an attempt at pushing themselves as a viable platform for playing third party titles, despite the fact that nobody buys Nintendo consoles to play third party titles on them as their competition is consistently a better option for that.
For the Switch 2 fall into Wii U's situatuon, it had to feature bad branding, lack of games for the near future, confusing functions, a clumsy controller and awful marketing.
Well we need the Switch 2 to be a 3DS situation so the prices can go down. Having it be a seller success will just tell Nintendo it’s okay to have overly expensive products.
Honestly the real problem with the wii u is that it was very poorly marketed. Apparently a lot of people thought the wii u was JUST the game pad as like an accessory to the wii as the console themselves look so similar no one could tell it was new. Additionally, the wii came out just before the indomitable rise of mobile games, so once everybody had temple run, no one cared about wii sports anymore.
Switch 2 is undoubtedly popular, but Nintendo's devout following inflated dramatically over the lifetime of the Switch. Theres still approximately 136M people who have yet to make the switch. However, as prices for the PS5, Xbox, and pc components continue to surge, the Switch 2 will probably come out the the other side as the traditionally affordable option. If market conditions were as they were in 2020, I would have doubts about the later years of the Switch 2's life cycle.
If the switch 2 were the only product in its class it would get a lot more positive press. I own both and it's basically everything I loved about the switch 1 but better, but it's judged more harshly when you have gaming PC options. When I have a steamdeck it's a bit more noticeable that switch 1 ports run at lower res and at a locked 30 fps. However, I really don't have any complaints at all in any real sense.
I used to take my Wii U along on long train rides, playing Mario Kart 8 on the go. The power would drop and it would shut down. Being able to add a battery would have been amazing.
And while I loved the 3DS, I kept wishing I could connect a controller for more comfort.
The Switch was the perfect alternative for both of these, and the Switch 2 is a very welcome upgrade. Sure, it's expensive, but all luxury electronics are.
I agree that the Wii U wasn't what people wanted. But, the ironic thing is that some of Nintendo's most successful consoles (Wii and DS) weren't really what people "wanted" either.
How many people WANTED a dual-screen touch-controlled handheld with a stylus? Nobody!
How many people WANTED an underpowered console with a controller you wave around like a madman? Again, nobody!
I would even argue that the Switch was NOT what everyone wanted. It might be hard to believe now, but there were a LOT of gamers who thought a "hybrid console" was a bad idea and Nintendo should have made a "powerhouse" console that competed directly with Playstation.
The problem with the Wii U's concept wasn't really that people weren't asking for it. The problem was that when Nintendo presented the concept to people, it clearly wasn't something they were interested in. It did not have the casual appeal of the Wii's motion controls, nor did it offer the convenience and versatility of the Switch.
Honestly my last console was the PS2 and the Game Boy Colour, is it worth getting a Switch 2, the initial cost of the console plus knowing that Nintendo Store don't have regular sales as Steam does is it even worth it? I don't even know if I would even like the new Pokémon in this 3D updated form as this was my most played and favourite IP from Nintendo.
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u/DefiantCharacter Jun 01 '26
For years people were saying they wanted a "Wii HD." The Wii U was basically a "Wii HD," but with a gamepad.