Miyamoto: Tablets Quickly Evolved Past Wii U

By Jorge Ba-oh 20.06.2015 12

Miyamoto: Tablets Quickly Evolved Past Wii U on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto was recently quizzed about why the Wii U hasn't sold as well as the company had expected.

Miyamoto noted how he doesn't believe it's just price related as "if the system is appealing enough, people will buy it even if the price is a little bit high." He feels that part of the issue was that "perhaps people didn't understand the system." 

During the Wii U's launch, tablets "appeared in the marketplace and evolved very, very rapidly, and unfortunately the Wii system launched at a time where the uniqueness of those features were perhaps not as strong as they were when we had first begun developing them," Miyamoto admitted.

He conceded that "sometimes they work, and sometimes they're not as big of a hit as we would like to hope." 

Going forward, "after Wii U, we're hoping that next time it will be a very big hit."

That said, he feels that interactive experiences with Super Mario Maker and Star Fox Zero will "give people a lot of excitement, and I'm hoping that people will be looking forward to playing those games on Wii U in the fall."

Do you agree that the influx of tablet devices contributed to the Wii U sales issue?

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That and the marketing was pretty terrible with alot of people not knowing if it was a new console or an add on Smilie

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Yeah, the stupid name didn't help. 95% of people who owned a Wii don't know it's the successor or don't even know it exists. All they had to do was call it Wii 2.

L said:
Yeah, the stupid name didn't help. 95% of people who owned a Wii don't know it's the successor or don't even know it exists. All they had to do was call it Wii 2.

This. Seriously, Nintendo's execs and marketing team need a right kick up t'bum.

Cubed3 Admin/Founder & Designer

Would have been better to drop the Wii name completely.

They also should have made the actual console look different to the Wii and when advertising, show the console just as much as the gamepad itself so people can see it's not a Wii accessory.

to be fair, tablets had already evolved past what the wiiu was offering at launch.. and im pretty sure nintendo knew this at least a year before launch

Indeed. Is Japan a few years behind in the tablet market? 

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Darkflame said:
Indeed. Is Japan a few years behind in the tablet market? 

Even if that's true there's no excuse. Nintendo are an international company after all. 

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Cheesing It Up said:

Darkflame said:
Indeed. Is Japan a few years behind in the tablet market? 

Even if that's true there's no excuse. Nintendo are an international company after all. 

An international company which only designs hardware in its home land, based on asumptions made only by Japanese people. I doubt any of Nintendo's foreign divisions had any if at all involvement in the development of the system, at least I never heard anything that would hint to the contrary.

Cubed3 Limited Staff :: Review and Feature Writer

I think Nintendo's biggest weakness this generation was the fact that they thought that they would gain another free pass for optimizing a gimmick on their system and sell it upon that one thing. It worked on the Wii because motion controls have been that one thing people had been asking for in ages, but never been given functionally (Power Glove, it's so bad and even Nintendo knew it). Therefore the system sold like butter.

But it is a high risk to release an one trick pony, and while the Wii U now has many great games the only worthwhile game for it for a long long time was Monster Hunter 3U. And that is only in the most generous definition of an exclusive as it also was out for the 3DS. However, I am of the opinion that a game like Monster Hunter is best enjoyed primary on a big screen, with support for 3DS functionality for great co-op multiplayer (there is a reason why I bought both Wii U and 3DS edition).

Nintendo needs to ensure that NX comes with those games people buy the console to play. Now, three years after its release, the Wii U finally starts to deliver what I bought it for. If DQX actually gets released this year one of the games I had hoped to play back in 2012-2013 is out and if Xenoblade Chronicles X is released this year that is one game that I wanted to play in 2014 being released. The problem is that the momentum is gone. Those games should have been out yesterday.

With that said, 2014 was still a strong year, and 2015 looks to be even stronger, but 2012 and 2013 needed to be strong too, those first years are super important, something Sony was taught the hard way the last console generation, and something Nintendo will learn now.

I can not stress enough how much I love the Wii U as a system. It is perfect for my needs. The ability to play games in the screen on the controller is a godsend for people like me who enjoys multitasking my way through life. Nothing beats having the Wii U controller there and playing while waiting for writing inspiration or such in the bath. It is a wonderful console for my needs and my gaming preferences. But it needs to be a console for other people than just me. It needed those games that should've been out yesteryear.

I do hope NX becomes better at this, I do hope it will have a Zelda or Xenoblade or Smash at or close at release. I do sincerely hope so. The list of games out for Wii U at the moment is so wonderful, yet they came out too late. Its a sad sad thing to witness.

( Edited 22.06.2015 08:14 by Andre Eriksson )

The difference between illusion and reality is vague to the one who suffers from the former and questionable for the one suffering form the later.
Endless Solitude (guest) 23.06.2015#10

Great post by Andre Erikkson. Just one thing:

'Nothing beats having the Wii U controller there and playing while waiting for writing inspiration or such in the bath.'

In the bath???

Is that controller waterproof?

Endless Solitude (guest) said:
Great post by Andre Erikkson. Just one thing:

'Nothing beats having the Wii U controller there and playing while waiting for writing inspiration or such in the bath.'

In the bath???

Is that controller waterproof?


Lol, is isn't. But I think. Well, um. I don't really want to think about what Andre does with the GamePad in the bath Smilie

Reads books, obviously.

Cubed3 Admin/Founder & Designer

No, ofcourse it isn't. But keeping it above the watersurface is safe to go... Also, what do you think of me JB? ;w;... Of course I play Smash or something like that. It is really relaxing and keeps my multitask up. I get clean and refreshed and can get some Smash practice at the same time! :'3

The difference between illusion and reality is vague to the one who suffers from the former and questionable for the one suffering form the later.

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