To the casual crowd, the Wii U looks and sounds like little more than an additional peripheral for their existing motion-controlled machine. Of course, Nintendo’s latest piece of hardware is the follow-up to one of the most successful consoles of all time, but wouldn’t that be an easier message to deliver if the thing was just called, “Wii 2”? In the mind of Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, the name has nothing to do with the fact that only 1.5 million consoles have been pushed in the U.S.
"The challenges we're facing with Wii U are not issues of the name," Fils-Aime told Kotaku in a recent interview. "The issue is the lack of a steady rate of software launches to motivate the consumer to drive buzz and engagement and to highlight the wide variety of uses of the GamePad. That's the issue."
New releases like Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101 are a good start to putting the Wii U at the forefront of the consumers’ minds, but if sales data coming from Japan is any indication, the software isn’t exactly flying off the shelves. However, the more that Nintendo can release, the greater the value package will look.
"The consumer understands that we have a new system. But the consumer is saying: 'What am I going to play? And what am I going to play that's a new and unique and compelling experience vs. what I can do today, whether it's on the Wii or any other system?’
"And that's why experiences like Pikmin 3, like Wonderful 101, like Zelda Wind Waker HD, with the off-TV play, experiences like Super Mario 3D World—that's why it's critical that we launch those, have consumers experience them in malls across the country, which we'll be doing. It's critical that the consumer see for themselves the range and breadth of compelling software for the system."
It has a lower price and a brighter horizon, but only time will tell if Fils-Aime is right about the current woes of the Wii U.
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