Wii U or Vita - which was a bigger failure?

Both systems had potential and hype (to a considerable degree). They were supposed to be unique and influential systems for their time. Both end up getting demolished by tablets and smartphones. Which one do you think flopped harder, SW? I think the Wii U was a bigger flop. The original Wii was an outstanding success; Nintendo was making money hand over fist. Then they released the Wii U to a whimper (and no games). It was terribly marketed. And even with Nintendo supporting it eventually with strong AAA titles, it never recovered and is largely forgotten. The Vita's problem, on the other hand, is that it's just a niche system, but it's' legacy is still going strong. What is your take on this, SW? Let us know your thoughts.

Obviously the Wii U

Conceptually: Wii u

Execution: Vita

As I have had a PSV since launch and felt the sting of a lack of quality content a mere 18 months after its release, I'm going to have to say the Vita.

Worst. PlayStation. Ever.

That's a tough one. I'm inclined to go with the Wii U, because I think it got less out of its potential than the Vita did

wiiU

it had a bigger selling predecessor.

psp was a success but not really compared to the DS. only sony fanboys were hyped for Vita at release.

the wii was a huge success for nintendo. their best selling console. to follow that up with the wiiU is a huge letdown.

as a sheep myself the first 2 years of the wiiU were brutal. the amount of ridicule from the playstation and xbox fanboys was at mach 10.

The vita is the best handheld I've ever used. Commercially it's potential never realized. The device will be worth a purchase looooong after its done being produced.

Vita by far. It's not even up for debate. Not sure why this is even question.

Another Flop from Sony.

Vita. At least Nintendo didn't make statements where they felt less confident about staying in the console race, unlike Sony and handhelds. Lack of first party support didn't help either.

What's a Vita?

It's like a Wii U, but with a better screen and no sweet Mario games

There will be another Nintendo console. There will never be another Sony handheld

I totally forgot about the Vita until this topic but I'd still pick the Wii U since it was riding on the massive sales success of the Wii and it has a poor game library. Nintendo did a terrible job marketing the system and really expected fans to want another Wii-like system.

Overall, I'd say Wii U. Personally, it'd be the Vita.

The Wii U may not have sold well, but it at least has a great library of exclusive games. Can't say the same about the Vita.

@SolidGame_basic:

WiiU ended with a weaker point with a weaker collection of games. The Vita loss Western support but the device's online store is still going strong with Japanese game releases. So even though Vita's potential from the West wasn't realized, the fact that it's still supported and still selling proves that it has outlived the WiiU and it's still a powerful little device!

WiiU is dead, Vita is not. Vita wins! If this was a fight against 3DS, now that's another story.

Why the Wii U was a failure:

A tablet that nobody asked for that kept its price align with PS4 and Xbox One.

Why the Vita failed:

A proprietary memory card that costed too much.

@KBFloYd: "it had a bigger selling predecessor."

You expected the WiiU to recapture the same audience it had with Wii?

Vita killed sonys participation in the handheld market after the hugely successful psp.

How is this even a discussion?

The lolVita,by far.

As someone who plays games from both regions, I would say the Wii U. While both systems are great, currently the Wii U only has a handful of games coming out for it, while the Vita, which is dead outside of Japan, is still getting tons of games for it.

I second this

3rdededed

WiiU all the way everyday.

The Vita, it's not even a point of contention, while the Wii U has unremarkable sales it has consistently delivered quality and good exclusive games. The Vita? Its sales are piss poor as well, however it has only a handful of noteworthy games to call its own, the reality is games are even hard to find for it at most stores because it's so undesired and unsupported by Sony.

nintendo sure did

Vita. At least WiiU has Mario, Mario Kart, Smash, Bayonetta 2 and other quality games. Vita has the worst library I've ever seen for any system.

Gonna have to go with the Wii u. I know it has better games,but its death was quick and it came off the popular wii gen and sold so little. The vita still will get support for many years even if they get digital only trash weeb games.

Personally I would say Vita. It is a glorified port machine for me and I'm not even exaggerating. WiiU has my favorite games by far out of the consoles this gen.

Overall though WiiU takes the cake. Squandered potential due mostly to low sales and it's a console which probably had a whole lot more money and reputation riding on it in comparison to the Vita.

I don't know as I didn't expect much from either. I guess the WiiU since the Wii was successful.

WiiU. At least the vita was a nice piece of tech. WiiU was a piece of shit on release.

I'd say, Wii U - it supposed to be a home console; Vita failed because of the rise of the smartphones and their games - simple as that.

I think both are actually decent systems.

yes i did.

but when i actually got it and played it...i knew it would be too hard for the casuals. nintendoland mini games required a gamer to teach you how to play. wii sports was pick up and play by anyone.

also the main controller was not motion controls anymore it was a big controller. scared off the casuals even more.

so yes before launch i thought it would...after a few months i knew it wouldn't.

Wii U by far. Vita was a side project in Sonys terms. Just another failed handheld coming from a long list of handhelds not by Nintendo.

The wii u puts Nintendo in a perilous position not unlike sega found itself.

Depends on how you look at it, but the way I see it?

The WiiU is a Nintendo console.

The Vita is a Sony handheld.

One of these things is a much bigger fucking deal than the other.

If I had to decide to throw away my Wii U or my Vita I would get rid of the Wii U. I love the Vita for being a portable indie system and not for any Vita exclusive games though. It's really the only way to play some awesome games like Hotline Miami without getting eye cancer. It fits perfectly. But I understand that it's not what most people wanted the Vita to be.

I would have to give the bigger failure nod to the Wii U. It is nearly only supported by Nintendo and get very few releases. The Vita is still very much alive in Japan and gives me the Dreamcast vibe. What I mean is that I feel this system will be highly regarded long after its death and looks like it will have a large community that will create games for it after it is officially not getting supported by gaming companies. I do not see this happening on the Wii U in the future.

Obvoously the Wii U. Nothing comes close to it, not even products that sold significantly less than expected.

A Nintendo consoles *failing*? This shit will be never forgotten.

I felt like the Vita just followed in the original PSP's footsteps. The PSP suffered huge droughts not too many years after release, and the Vita just hit that point way earlier. But still, everyone should have seen that coming.

The Wii U on the other hand everyone DID see coming... except Nintendo. Good to see they still gave the system some sort of support for a couple years, but man. They release the 3DS to all this confusion about whether it's a new system or just a DS upgrade, the games don't look much better, and the price is out of whack (which they promptly cut by $70 four months later) and then they just release the Wii U the exact same way.

It's not a surprise that the 3DS sold less than half as well as the original DS, and the Wii U flopped spectacularly. It's as if Nintendo didn't even listen to consumers. Hopefully they've changed their ways going into the NX, but I doubt it.

People had an expectation of a reasonable showing rather than a complete fail.

That's not the only reason. If it was, then the 3DS would be just as big of a failure. The Vita also failed because of other reasons like it's lack of quality exclusives and it's insanely overpriced proprietary memory cards.

The Wii U at least got some pretty great original content that made owning one worthwhile.

The Vita struggled to even get some decent third party ports. Sony didn't even want to support their own device.

Vita by far and if there's one thing I can about Wii U is that Nintendo never gave up on it and that's a fact!

Nintendo actually supported Wii U with a slew of very high quality games. When the sales weren't there, Nintendo tried to turn the ship around with updates and content.

It felt like Sony just tossed the Vita out there and hoped others would make it a success for them. When the sales weren't there, Sony threw the system under the rug.

I think Sony handled things much worse with Vita. It flopped a lot harder from the perspective of people who jumped in early in hopes of things to come.

I'm going with they both suck. I didn't like the PSP, so I never expected the Vita to be any good, but I did anticipate at least one or two worthwhile games from Nintendo.

Obiously the VITA

Wiiu has excellent games.

VITA has... no games?

I'm still enjoying my WiiU to this day.

In the meanwhile I gave my VITA away to my brother in law. Nothing to play on it

Vita. Sony abandoned it.

The Vita. That thing has had nothing to offer besides like 2 games, meanwhile the hardware is amazing.

The Wii U, as much as I hate the hardware, has stuff to play on it.