Do You Consider the Wii U A Flop or a Future Classic?

[PGen98]

The Wii U has had most of its great games ported to the Switch at this point, but it has a fantastic library and it's a fun console to play, but there can be no denying that, as a console, it failed miserably by Nintendo standards.  Do you think that the Wii U will always be regarded as a flop, or will it be a future classic, respected for what it was in its' time?

I think it has a chance to be a future classic.  It was a good console, just misnamed and poorly marketed, like the Sega Saturn. 

[Paige]

I forgot it existed up until reading this post!  I could see it being lost in time.

[Uncrowned Guard]

On 9/6/2021 at 10:07 PM, PGen98 said:

The Wii U has had most of its great games ported to the Switch at this point, but it has a fantastic library and it's a fun console to play, but there can be no denying that, as a console, it failed miserably by Nintendo standards.  Do you think that the Wii U will always be regarded as a flop, or will it be a future classic, respected for what it was in its' time?

I think it has a chance to be a future classic.  It was a good console, just misnamed and poorly marketed, like the Sega Saturn. 

I feel like it is almost a question of IF a Nintendo console cannot be a classic.  The Wii U definitely tried to break the norm in this regard, but I have a hard time believing any Nintendo console won't be a classic item at this point.

[StormyFire]

I don't think I personally knew anyone who actually got the Wii-U. It seems like it will be kind of the black sheep of the Nintendo consoles.

[Sharon]

I never did pick up the Wii U. I don't think Nintendo marketed it very well. I love the Nintendo Switch though and consider it my favorite console. I don't know anyone who really loved the Wii U. 

[Heatman]

It was only a poor marketing on the part of Nintendo that made it look like the Wii U console was a flop. It was very well a decent console from the games I had played on it. It's surely a classic Nintendo console. 

[Shortie]

I remember getting the Wii U when it first came out. We played it a few times and then it was just left to collect dust. I remember we ended up selling it as it was never used. I now have a Nintendo Switch and I play that nearly all the time and so do my kids. I do see the Wii U being a flop over a future classic. It was Nintendo's way of trying something new and it didn't work out. So glad the Nintendo Switch did though. 

[Heatman]

18 hours ago, Shortie said:

I remember getting the Wii U when it first came out. We played it a few times and then it was just left to collect dust. I remember we ended up selling it as it was never used. I now have a Nintendo Switch and I play that nearly all the time and so do my kids. I do see the Wii U being a flop over a future classic. It was Nintendo's way of trying something new and it didn't work out. So glad the Nintendo Switch did though. 

Nintendo did gave a lot more attention and even resources to Nintendo Switch console than they ever did with the Wii U. It's very obvious with how good the Nintendo Switch console came out and with the kind of games available to play on it, it's a beauty. You're even very fortunate to see who was able to take off your Wii U off your hands. 

[Excommunicado]

I actually didn’t know a Wii U existed until I found this thread and I’m sure there are others who didn’t know either. That pretty much sums it up. As someone who follows the gaming industry a lot, if I didn’t even know it existed, it definitely flopped. 

[Jason]

I haven't played it myself, but I don't understand what some say is bad about it. In fact, it just seems like an advanced version of the original Wii that I used. Well, can someone tell me some reasons why it supposedly flopped?

[Demon_skeith]

It's a hard flop that might have a small classic circle with some collectors. But I don't suspect we'll see it officially anymore, other than more game ports from it.

[Grungie]

On 11/1/2023 at 9:10 PM, Jason said:

I haven't played it myself, but I don't understand what some say is bad about it. In fact, it just seems like an advanced version of the original Wii that I used. Well, can someone tell me some reasons why it supposedly flopped?

It was a culmination of multiple factors that all added up to its failure:

Bad advertising - they focused a lot on advertising backwards compatability with the Wii and also just focused on the tablet controller. Basically people didn't know it was a new console, and just as a tablet add-on for the Wii.

Lack of third party support - underpowered compared to PS4/XB1, and the tablet controller didn't help. The poor sales also added to the negative feedback loop from customers and developers.

One of the biggest problems was the Wii itself. The Wii caused a lot of damage to Nintendo's image despite the commercial success of it. People probably forgot by now, but the Wii did not have a good reputation with gamers by the end of its life. Nintendo realized it was very appealing to the casual market, and pumped a ton of resources to that. It was also cheap to develop for, so the Wii was notorious for the amount of shovelware. In hindsight, people can remember all the great games they played on the Wii, but forgot the long droughts between the big releases, and in between that, it was party game number 300, or shovelware. So by the time the Wii U came out, people were getting sick of Nintendo.

So when the Wii U came out, it wasn't given its own identity. It was heavily reliant on the Wii branding. "Remember the Wii? Rememer the Wii?". So you ended up with one of two extremes: didn't know it was a new console, or: people were pissed that it felt like a continuation of the Wii.

 

So while I say all that, you can see that most of those factors were less to do with the console, and more of outside factors. Ironically, despite the poor sales. The Wii U actually had more higher rated games per capita than the PS4 and Xbox One. Also the Switch ports of the various Wii U games are well liked, and very little tweaking. Though despite a ton of people who owned one actually enjoyed their time on it, the fact that the majority of the library is available on the Switch kind of defeats the purpose of owning the console.