There are always times in history when someone or something very successful hits a bump in the road. Their momentum is stopped, and people wonder how things “went this way” and how the company or person will recover. That kind of thing happens a lot in video game history, as every publisher of consoles or games has “bumps” that they wish they could’ve avoided in hindsight. There have been a few times for Nintendo when they hit some big “bumps.” The Virtual Boy stands out, or the eReader, or some of their decisions regarding fans and their content. But the biggest failure that Nintendo has ever had was the Wii U.
The irony of this is not lost on some fans and historians. The reason for that being the Wii U came right after one of the biggest successes that Nintendo ever had via the Wii. While heavily underpowered, the Wii brought plenty of “casual gamers” to the fold, and the system sold over 100 million units! So thus, its successor would do similar numbers and be just as great, right? Well, no.
Despite being more powerful than the Wii, the then-new console left gamers confused more than anything else. Most who “weren’t in the know” weren’t sure if it was a new console or an extension of the Wii. Nintendo tried to bank off the naming of the Wii, as it was so popular, and it backfired on them. The console sold terribly, and it didn’t even sell 15 million units in its lifetime. For comparison, the console that would succeed it is almost at 115 million units right now.
However, despite its failings, some still remember it fondly and want to remember its 10th year of life:
The question about games is a great one. While the Wii U was a hardware failure, its games made many people happy. Through it, we got Splatoon, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Mario Kart 8, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Pikmin 3, and more. All but one has been ported to the Switch and had good or great success.
Plus, the Wii U was a “stepping stone” for the tremendous success of the Nintendo Switch. The console gave layers the option to play on their TV or in handheld mode, something the Switch would make legendary after some improvements.
So while history will remember the system as a failure overall, it’s important to note that it served a purpose, and Nintendo endured despite the failure.
Source: Twitter
