The WiiU turn around.

Nintendo has failed with the WiiU and they know it.

They barely received high profile releases for WiiU in 2012, they completely failed on getting the high profile games in 2013 and 2014 it's lucky to still have Watch Dogs on the TBD lists.

The System has seen the lowest sales of any console that has come before it, and what little 3rd party support they get it seems to be lowly supported or inferior to the other consoles.

Nintendo has failed their casual customers, their hardcore customers, developers, store owners, and themselves for this product, and they know it.

Which is why in recent months unless you absolutely have been ignoring it, We've started to see something Change.

It probably first started when Nintendo announced Earthbound for WiiU. They said they had been reading what many WiiU owners across seas have been saying about the game and decided to bring the game over to Europeans and Americans. After all this time, after many MANY attempts from the Earthbound community and many Opportunities Nintendo has missed over the years to FINALLY bring the Mother franchise to the West.

Was that all? Of course not. It may not be the 3DS Virtual Console, but we are still seeing the Gameboy Advance come back on the WiiU, and what was one of the first games to come out? Of course it's Advance Wars, everyone has been wanting that game to come back for a long time and Nintendo decides that game will be one of the first to show up on the GBA Virtual console. Coincidence? Maybe.

The Next thing was Nintendo's Megaton Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and WiiU. Their recent Direct has surprised many with the Online modes For Fun and For Glory with For Glory showing off the Final Destination like stages and of course the many updates the game has been showing it's clear they are taking consideration for the Tournament scene to this game and of course have since created a Super Smash Bros Invitational Tournament to coincide with E3 of this year, something that seems to be a complete 180 of what Nintendo tried to do on EVO 2013 which was to take Smash Bros. off the roster.

Nintendo has also started to talk with Youtube to try to find a middle ground for Content Creators so they can make money again using Nintendo footage.

and last Nintendo announced the biggest megaton recently with the Gamecube Controller Adapter for the WiiU meaning you can play Super Smash Bros. WiiU the way it was "meant" to be played.

They may not be able to convince 3rd Parties to jump back to their wagon, but they are changing, slowly but surely. Will they be able to "Win" this E3? I don't think so, but it sure sounds like it's gonna be a game changer.

What do you guys think? WiiU done for? or WiiU is going down fighting?

I think if they show some extended Project X footage with a 2014 release date for it and SSBB it would be a win for them. SONY and MS will show new stuff that wont be out for a year or two.

I dont feel the Gamecube Controller Adapter for the WiiU is a megaton either. Unless the adapter is dirt cheap , like under $10, I have no interest in it. I'll play the game with Wiimotes or the gamepad.

Why do you write so much but get so little across?

Nintendo has been doing great things with this system since launch. The biggest megaton is getting Bayonetta 2. This gamecube controller adapter is mostly irrelevant, imo.

I hope things do turn around. I really don't care about sales (for any system). As long as I get games I enjoy, it's k.

I finally broke down and got a Wii U a few weeks ago. As it dawned on me that it has slowly built up a rather strong exclusive line up while quietly sitting in the back of the room. Then I factored in the games to come, the cheaper price, backwards compatibility and no bullshit subscriptions for online and suddenly it was a no-brainer. I love it far more than I was expecting as well. It's a great system.

Well. As long as they don't copy Sony and Microsoft they'l be fine.

Spilled my iced tea.

@tonitorsi: I'm not saying it to be rude, but two things

1) A Wii U topic in System Wars. Know the audience.

2) So many of the pedantic, less compelling parts get in the way of the wall of text showing off the decent parts. Concise, concise, concise Legato!

They haven't turned anything around yet. Nintendo's Virtual Boy was the lowest selling game console. Actually the Ouya and Steam Box will probably break that record now. lol!!

Nintendo better have some HUGE news at this years E3 or they will have to start from scratch. I'm sure they are already working on a new console now. Nintendo's problem is they don't like to solicited 3rd party developers to make games for their consoles. Since back when the NES, SNES and N64 were hugely popular, 3rd party devs would seek Nintendo out and purchase dev kits to make games for their systems. Now, 3rd party devs aren't doing this and Nintendo is making little effort to go out and get them. Nintendo has always felt their own 1st party games could carry their systems without any help. lol!! Now they are seeing the results of that policy.

3rd parties haven't sold well on Nintendo consoles since the N64

Nintendo HAS carried their own system since that day with almost no help.

Nintend 64 - Top 20 selling games are 1st or 2nd party

Gamecube - Top 11 selling games are 1st or 2nd party

Wii - 15 out of the top 20 selling games are 1st or 2nd party

Nintendo hasnt needed 3rd parties for quite some time. No one buys their consoles for 3rd parties. They are only reaping the results of poor marketing and lack of system sellers at launch.

@blackace

I totally agree with Wii U's lack of 3rd support.... But they can't just Approach everone like Microsoft and Sony can..... Nintendos Philosophy is usually at odd with what other people want..... How they managed to swing getting Watch Dogs on the Wii U is a miracle but they've always had a decent relationship thanks to Rayman and Ravin Rabbids !

But the can't approach guys like EA or Bethesda or many western developers, they just don't think the same way.

You calling megatons the Gamecube controller Adapter , the youtube for Content Creators and the gameboy Advance emulator ... let alone Earthbound...

As for SSB ... If mario couldnt save the day why the heck you think SSB will ? Mario main series >> SSB !!

These "megatons" WONT bring anyone on Wii U !!! I personally , dont give a crap about all these things you mentioned as megatons in order to give more than 500$ for Wii U and 2-3 games more or less.

Wii U not me

Nintendo has carried their own systems , i agree. But point me 1 console after SNES era that did good and explain me why.

Being the best secondary platform has very little to do with 3rd party.

Wiiu:

1) NDS's, 2DS's, 3DS's Etc, Need to be able to bu used as additional controllers. Total Epic fail they haven't done this yet!

2) Every Wiiu Should have been packed with at least 1 Pro Controller and the Publisher's would not have abandoned the system like they did.

3) The marketing sucks. 90% of NON Gamers do not even realize their was a NEW Wii System. They thought it was a controller, or hell didn't know anything!

@High-Res: 1) And that point of that is? Sony has tried this before too, failed completely with it.

2) No 3rd parties left for your reason number 3

3) Yes, this is true. Nintendo were way too cocky. They thought they could sell both the 3ds and Wii U with just one game. Same thing happened with the Wii but lighting never strikes twice in the same spot...

@mexicangordo: I'm speaking as a fan. As a Gamer and a parent I have 3ds's and 2ds's laying around the house. The Wiiu would get much more attention and much more of my money if we could just for example, Use those 2ds's as Controllers for let's say, the New Mario Kart.

I would go out and purchase Mario Kart 8 today for the Wiiu if that was the case...However I am not going to go out and purchase Mario Kart 8 in addition to 3 Pro or 3 Wii Remotes.

I'm not willing to buy additional controllers for the Wiiu. Also, I never understood why they didn't sell the special Wiiu Controller individually. I think people would have bought it.

In regards to 3). Yes, but I can't help but feel those 3rd parties games would have sold better. Let's just take Call of Duty for example, If everyone owned the pro Controller, I think people would have been a lot more willing to play & purchase Call Of Duty on the Wiiu. At the time of (Black Ops 2?) It WAS the ONLY Next Gen system on the market!

At my house...the order goes like this 1 - Being the most used 5 the least.

1) X360

2) PS4

3) WiiU

4) Cell Phones & Tablets

4) Miscellaneous Nintendo Handhelds

5) XBOX One

I was told and have not verified that the PS Vita can be used as a Controller on the Ps4, is this true? I would never buy a vita but if this was the case, It would diffidently be a good reason to consider buying one.

They have been more attentive of core gamers than usual, yes. As someone whose actually followed competitive Smash for a little while, the way Nintendo has actually been helping the community is surprising to say the least.

Hopefully this trend can continue.

I don't know if its possible at all (probably not) but with firmware update could then enable the Wii U play gamecube discs? Then the adapter would be well worth it.

Uh... what? All they've done is continue with old ports and safe sequels, we all knew Smash and Mario Kart were coming...

The stuff about the Gamecube controller and Youtube uploads is nice, but Capcom released fighting sticks and PS4 has video uploads already.

The WiiU is still a wasteland for games.

It's not a turnaround, so much as Nintendo staggering after the other consoles as usual...?

Nintendo ain't turning shyt around... The Wii ewww is simply too awful of a console to be turned around. The same game x 20 isn't gonna help the pos

A turn around would be more games in the imminent future.

We can't count Nintendo out...we are talking about the guys who CREATED and brought to homes just a few of these standard technologies:

Force Feed Back/Rumble

Analog Control

Motion Control

There is no doubt Nintendo will rise from the ashes. The one thing I don;t really careful is their overall consumer strategy. As we grew up, and got older. Nintendo did not grow with us. Instead, we were forced to out grow them and switch to systems like Playstation One.

I can't find the quote but their Strategy IS and ALWAYS has been:

Why would I cater to a growing , maturing customer base and try to keep up with that when their is a new 12 Year old every year.

Here's Nintendo's problem, it caters to Nintendo fans and pretty much only them. Its console just doesn't have a diverse enough portfolio to draw in a wider audience. Alot of people, myself included, got burned last gen when they bought the Wii for Wii Sports and really nothing else last gen appealed.

Nintendo fans don't seem to get this view and react furiously, "BUT WHAT ABOUT GAME X AND Y?!?!" Yes we get it, you love Mario and Zelda and whatever else, and that's fine, but compared to what else is out there its just not enough for most people to buy another Nintendo console.

Its the same company that struggled with N64

The same company that super struggled with GC

The same company that let Wii die so prematurely despite its amazing sales . Did i mention that 2 years prior of its death was literally in life support with only 1 game worth mention and thats Zelda SS ?

The same company that now struggles with Wii U where if Wii died with so many sales ...what do you think will happen to Wii U with those low sales ?

After NES/SNES what saved Nintendo is Miyamoto and some really nice first party titles. The new generation of gamers though DONT care that much about mario , mario smash or Kart .. They just dont !! Dont you ever think that Wii sold that good because of first party titles ... It sold just because of the new gameplay approach that was super casual appeal.

And if we want to be honest , all the nostalgia guys that cant live without Nintendo titles ..are getting bored with the same games over and over except very few exceptions ( zelda or mario main series )

Nintendo golden days NES/SNES! After that is a parody more or less.

Even if the system could read Gamecube disks, you would still need something to read the memory cards. I think they are probably going to start putting the games on the eshop, but having BC with physical copies seems pretty unlikely to me.

@PurpleMan5000: Agreed, giving customers the ability to play old games they will not make any money is not a good idea. Re-Releasing them through their Nintendo E-Shop for $$$ would be much more likely.

Dude, we've already been through this you and I.

Did good in what context? As a company? Nintendo has turned a profit on every console they've released except for Wii U

As a game publisher? That's a matter of opinion. We clearly disagree based on our conversation in that thread a couple of weeks ago. I think they are successful with amazing and iconic games. You don't. I don't think there has been a bad main Mario game, Zelda game, or Metroid game. Some have been better than other sure, but the vast majority are still monumental moments in gaming. You can disagree and thats fine, but I'll take most of Nintendo's franchises over other studios any day of the week.

Earthbound is coming to WiiU? hmmmm.

@Pray_to_me: Been on the Eshop for a while now. No other earthbound games have been announced for the west yet though.

LOL. The only way a WiiU can turn around officially, is having strong 3rd party support. Building a strong relationship with 3rd party developers/publishers and Nintendo fully explaining to them as well as the consumers about their goals and objectives with the WiiU, something that hasn't been CLEARLY addressed since the launch of WiiU.

Honestly, it's like kicking a dead horse with Nintendo. I don't see anything happening or improving what I just mentioned, ever happening at all for the entirety of this generation. I see Nintendo still having their heads deep in their asses for the long run, until their new console comes out. And that's pretty sad and shameful.

I'm not saying that it will "save" the Wii U. I think commercially the Wii U is beyond saving honestly, but when it comes to the public you're wrong. They are about even in sales, with Smash having a slight edge.

Smash Bros Melee 7.09 million > Sunshine 5.9 million

and

Smash Bros Brawl 12.14 million < Galaxy 12.22 million

I saw ads for Mario Kart 8 and Kirby Triple Deluxe in the movie theater. Took me by surprise. This is the kind of stuff they should have started doing on day 1.

It'll be a solid system like the gamecube, but nothing more.

Earthbound isn't going to cause a boost in the Wii U sales, but it's nice they're building up their eShop library.

@blue_hazy_basic: Nintendo fans are pretty much the only people that have been buying WiiU to begin with.

Wii U does not have online, so no buy(most people). Even my friends are not buying Wii U for same reason.

I think the Wii U will die off and years later will become the hard-to-find cool system like the dreamcast was.

Which they've utterly failed to capitalize on so far. It would be much more likely with a business that had a good head on its shoulders.....but this is Nintendo we're talking about.

E3 will determine for me whether Nintendo is starting to make much needed changes. I'm not holding my breath.

If it wasnt for handheld gaming ..

Not even close to what NES/SNES did ... They even let Wii die just like that letting 100m+ userbase with no support at all , did you ever wonder why ? Compare all those consoles with SNES , its not that hard and you have your answer.

3rd parties were never going to jump on, regardless of the machines power. The only way they were going to would be if they were forced to...if nobody supported the other two consoles. Fact of the matter is Nintendo is nintendo. THEY are game developers that sell consoles to play THEIR games. They do this to maintain the company. Yes profit is profit, but game development in nintendos ideology is more akin to a trade, like instrument making or painting. Whereas MS and Sony simply go out looking for development studios that can make them money.

Nintendo hasn't been relevant in the console industry since the N64. Sure they had some great games, but the competition was miles ahead most of the time.

Then why do Nintendo handhelds get awesome 3rd party support and consistently win?

Fixed