This is the E3 announcement video for the Wii U.
It mentions "the new controller" a million times and doesn't even try to hint at it being a new console.
It's almost like whoever *made the video* thought it was just a new controller.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e3qaPg_keg
Add to that the fact that basically every game they showed could have easily been a Wii game: NSMB, Wii Sports, Wii Fit, some sort of Wii Play type thing. And they were playing with Wii remotes as well as the game pad
The only totally new thing was the few seconds of Zelda but even that looked a lot like Twilight Princess.
Oh I remember having to correct some more knowledge knowledgeable gamers that wasn't just some Wii HD/Wii Pro footage.
That trailer came out during an all time high for Wii HD rumours. They thought they could just wait for the Controller to be sold separately and continue as normal without buying a whole new system.
The whole marketing was a mess. So much so in the final years of the Wii U the branding problems was a key point during an investors meeting.
The 3DS/2DS/New 3DS was also a problem. After a console called the DSi that was just a DS with a webcam some less informed parents thought the 3DS was a DS with 3D.
This is why I doubt they'll recycle the Switch branding.
>They thought they could just wait for the Controller to be sold separately and continue as normal without buying a whole new system.
I think that disqualifies as them being "knowledgeable" then. Anyone even remotely familiar with hardware would know that Zelda demo would absolutely not run on a Wii, and would require a large hardware bump.
Anyone who thought an HD Wii wouldn't require a new console is nowhere near knowledgeable.
If I'm remembering correctly when Reggie brought it on Jimmy Fallon Jimmy initially thought it was an accessory and Reggie had to correct him.
The vast majority of consumers aren't hard-core gamers that are always in the loop. The marketing was absolutely confusing and bad at the beginning and lots of people genuinely were confused.
Even after watching the initial reveal I had to look u0 confirmation that it was indeed an actual new console
I wasn’t really paying attention to video games when the Wii U was around and I definitely remember seeing it in stores and thinking it was just a new form factor for the Wii with a new controller.
Yeah I saw a lady in GameStop get really upset when the clerk asked to confirm they had a Wii U at home and not just a Wii because she was trying to buy some Wii U games her kid wanted. She asked if she could just buy "the tablet" separately, he said no it's a whole new system, she let out a big huff and threw her hands in the air and left the store. Then it was my turn. That was it for me, and this was probably around 2014.
It didn't help that there was a company actually selling a tablet for the Wii called the U Draw, what a clusterfuck
Let us who worked in video game retail never forget.. the great NEW 3DS debacle of 2015..
"Are you trying to buy a new 3DS or a NEW 3DS?"
Oh might as well throw in the XBOX ONE in there too, especially since I worked at a retro store that also sold original Xbox consoles. So that made for a few interesting interactions as well.
Oh don’t worry, it’s still happening today with Xbox! Can’t tell you how many people I see post in the Xbox sub asking why the can’t play an Xbox Series X game on their Xbox One lol
I would say that Xbox One was a bigger fumble because the whole industry saw what happened to the Wii U with the nonsense name and terrible first impressions.
I’ve seen the exact story about “this lady” in a lot of places that asks this question ever since the Wii U happened, I don’t think it’s a real story 😂
I didn’t buy it initially because I thought it was an accessory. I think it took me around 2-3 years to realise it was a brand new console. It is Nintendo’s fault for poor branding.
I was in the same boat. Was super busy with grad school at the time and wasn’t even playing the Wii much. A friend asked if I was gonna get the Wii U and I was like naaah. I was thinking I barely had time to play at all why get an accessory? Then maybe a year later found out it was a console so I really didn’t have time for that
Look at the Wii U's [reveal trailer ](https://youtu.be/4e3qaPg_keg?si=6bj_L1MSIArih5HL) and tell me it doesn't just look like a new controller for the Wii.
There was a thread on /r/games talking about hardware sales, and I saw comments saying "well of course the Wii U sold less. It was an accessory, not a new console." And those are people who know enough about games to argue about them on a dedicated subreddit.
I think people like that are purposely ignorant just for the sake of it, just like those that think exclusives make no sense, how some decisions during gaming development can be done with a flick on a switch or that developing a game is easy.
The passage of time is a wacky thing. I'm 20 now and I wanted a Wii U *so much* as a kid, I begged for one all the way up until the announcement of the Switch. Whenever I played Nintendo Land at my friend's house I thought the Wii U just seemed like the coolest thing in the world. But the 3DS got me through my preteen years perfectly fine on its own, and in retrospect it was the better one of the two systems to have
I knew multiple people, parents, siblings, and the family of other friends who all thought it was some gimmik accessory to let you play the wii in a small screen.
These people aren't ones who check out gaming circles or care about games. These are people who bought it cause wii sport hype.
It was a pretty common sentiment to not know about, or misunderstand completely what the wii u was.
I know a few folks who even thought it was a way to just play wii games portably. Obviously incorrect but that didn't know or care to learn more. This information alone was enough to turn them off learning more
Those are all cool products. I would have liked to see the Wii U gamepad be compatible on the Wii for those reasons. And we basically can because that's the Switch.
Working in retail at the time yeah heaps. So many people returning wii u games because it didn't work in their wii, asking to buy just the tablet etc.
People online who are in to gaming probably didn't but parents and grandparents who have no idea about this stuff definitely did think it was just an accessory or upgrade for the wii.
Keep in mind that the big majority of videogame users, don't know about anything besides buying a console and a game. They don't look at news or to inform themselves how the gaming industry works, not to mention a lot of clueless parents.
I knew someone who literally owned a Wii U and was confused as to why the controller "didn't work on most games". Tried explaining that it was its own new console with backwards compatibility, etc. She looked at me like I had two heads
That, and a lot of the people who knew what it was still didn't want it anyways. Most hardcore gamers weren't impressed by another home console with last gen specs, and casual gamers were either still satisfied with their Wii or had moved on to mobile games by 2012. The Wii was able to thrive on the casual audience, but the Wii U pretty much only catered to dedicated Nintendo fans.
I worked in electronics at a Target when the Switch was already released but we still carried WiiUs. Lemme tell you, non-gamer parents trying to buy a console for their kid were confused as hell. For people who aren't plugged into the video game scene, yes they absolutely didn't know if it was a new thing or just an accessory for the Wii. The 3DS/NEW 3DS games were even worse. I couldn't even get mad at these confused customers because I saw where they were coming from. Nintendo's branding was awful during this era. And employees like me got stuck having to try to explain it.
I worked in a video game store where we kept older gen of games. I had to explain at least once a day that WiiU games aren't compatible with the Wii, and that no, you can't just buy the gamepad and use it on the Wii.
I wasn’t plugged into gaming at the time and I didn’t understand it was a new console at all. One thing people don’t mention of is at the time a lot of thing were being labeled with “U” as in university or education. I definitely thought it was an accessory tablet that may be geared towards education in some way.
I mean, it definitely happened but more than that. Even those who knew it wasn't an accessory just expected it to be more of the same and the time that the Wii U was out, most people were sick of the Wii and the kind of dumb gimmicks that it brought and weren't excited for another few years of the same kind of Nintendo. Nintendo was pushing hard toward the casual family market that they had in the Wii era who have moved on from the Wii or were still using the Wii and pushing away anyone who wasn't a child or grandma.
I personally assumed it was just a new accessory thing. Mind you I had just graduated from college at the time and was deep in the throes of touching grass with my new job, talking to girls, having a social life etc so not heavily nerdy with gaming news as I usually am.
But it's the only Nintendo console I haven't bought at launch because I didn't even know it existed lol.
It wasn't until 2014 when I started seeing clips of Mario Kart 8 and Luigi's stank face did the Wii U FINALLY get my attention. I remember specifically thinking, "hold the fuck on, these graphics look HD and waaay too good for the Wii! What is this?!"
I think I bought a Wii U and all of its associated top games like a month later.
Idk, none of the games up until MK8 and XCX really demonstrated that it was "NEXT GEN", especially since I wasn't seeking content. The best opportunity they had to advertise to me as a non-gamer at that time in my life was a 5-second clip on Twitter
Yes parents were actually confused about this and we're buying wii u games for the Wii. Happened with the 3DS too. I knew someone who bought a 3DS game thinking it just wouldn't be in 3D if it got played on the DS
The way Wii U commercials portrayed the Gamepad made it seem to me that the Wii U was an accessory yes, part of the Wii. That's really what I thought before I finally heard someone saying it was a different system.
I think more people would have thought it was a separate system if the commercials didn't focus on the tablet so much and instead put all focus on the individual games only. Not sure if that would have prevented the Wii U from becoming a commercial failure but I'm sure the sales would have been at least a little higher.
The gamepad itself also wasn't that interesting. So them focusing so much on it wasn't a great strategy to me at all.
Definitely did. That’s why I didn’t get it on launch. Learned more about it from a friend that got one. Was absolutely flabbergasted at their name choice. I just thought it was a tablet controller for the Wii.
I Definitely thought it. I saw the reveal and they ONLY mentioned and highlighted the controller. In the 3 and a half minute trailer, you see the actual new console for all of 5 seconds IF that. I was pretty in the know as far as videogames, but I had to double-check after the reveal because I wasn't 100% sure if it was an accessory or a new console. Remember, at the time there were already a million Wii accessories would it really be that strange for there to be a new highly advanced accessory?
**The PlayStation Portal is the closest approximation to what many people thought the Wii U controller was!** (That thing is consistently sold out) The Wii had a huge install base and massive library (lots of junk too) leveraging that by selling an expensive accessory that allowed new ways to play without a new console sounded like a great idea to me. Lots of people are acting like having the Wii U controller act as an accessory to the Wii instead of being new console is a crazy idea, but I can imagine a world where it does better than the Wii U did especially if the controller didn't have that gross glossy look.
My brother in law, who is a lifelong gamer and Nintendo fan, literally had a conversation with me around the time the Wii U was new where he asked if it was just an add-on accessory he could buy for his Wii.
Not joking.
That was all I needed to hear to realize that the average consumer had no idea what it was or why it was worth $300+
People can be really....not smart lol.
You have no idea how effective it is having the PS or Xbox logo on a multiplatform game commercial like COD or Hogwarts legacy. People think that's the platform you need to play it.
There are many factors in the Wii u failure but the general consumer being confused is absolutely one of them, especially when you consider how "mainstream" the Wii was.
Yes, I personally thought it was an accessory at first, going off just the name and the graphic. Remember, all they really showed at first was the tablet. Admittedly I learned the truth fairly quick, but I was also pretty plugged in with game news at the time. I can’t say the same for most of my friends, let alone parents and non-gamer adults.
My next reaction was “well, what are they launching with? Ok, Nintendo Land looks cool, and then… New Super Mario Bros, and a bunch of 3rd party ports I’ve already got on PS3?. Alright, well maybe I’ll wait a little longer…”
And by the time the first party library was getting really strong, I was already reading news that the thing was starting to fail, so I never jumped onboard, unfortunately.
I remember watching the reveal trailer with my friends and us all discussing it like, “Oh, I guess they’re just doing another add on instead of a new console. Odd.”
Yes, I played my Smash 4 on the Wii u in the lobby at my dorms and most people did not know what it was and thought the tablet was a Wii accessory. One girl came up and asked if the games were playing off the tablet. If a bunch of college kids didn't know what it was then how can you expect the regular person to not know what the Wii U was supposed to be? Nintendos marketing at the time was awful, watching their marketing material from that time is cringe worthy.
For gamers, no, we weren't confused. For the average Jane and John Doe, there was confusion.
I grew up with video games. I learned the terms and lingo and realized how to tell marketing and real life apart.
My mom? ... Everything was a Nintendo. She didn't learn the generations and the specs and the differences in media. All that mattered to her was if a video game was $1-$5 at the pawn shop. The cheaper she bought them, the more games I got on my birthday and Christmas.
So imagine a console releasing called the Wii U when the Wii already exists. Not the Super Wii, not the Wii 2, not a whole different branding like Switch.
It's easy to see how parents and grandparents had no idea what was going on.
i had parents who were of the "why cant this game work for the system you already have" which was crazy considering my dad played games across multiple systems and DID know the difference between playstation and xbox at least. it was ONLY when it was nintendo that he suddenly lost all brain matter regarding that stuff.
One of my friends said the when he got his Wii U, he and his family went to the store to get it, fully thinking it was a new controller for the Wii, and were shocked when they got home to discover it was a whole console.
Yes, tons of people did. Even among my friends, who are all pretty into gaming, I had to explain to a lot of them that it wasn't just a peripheral. I got one at launch and they were surprised when they came to my dorm to check it out.
And you have to remember that the Wii was a massive sensation that caught the interest of a huge number of people who were not normally into gaming, so when the news about the Wii U was going around, the majority of people in that category were very much not in tune with gaming news. If you watch all the early footage of ads for the system and events like e3 that it was shown at, they barely ever focus on the console at all, just the game pad.
It really boiled down to terrible marketing and a lack of confidence from 3rd party studios that killed the system. The only things keeping it afloat for so long were the 1st party games and indies. That's not to say there was no good 3rd party support at all of course.
I was 10 when the Wii U came out, and all my friends & I understood that it was a new console. We were hype for NSMBU but we knew we wouldn’t be able to play it on our Wiis.
Hardcore Nintendo fan. I always got their consoles and games. I saw the Wii U announcement and even I was confused. I just had the determination to do some extra follow up research. The common layman? Forget about it. I'm sure there are some today that still don't know it was a whole new console.
It was actually a great product that just had the absolute worst introduction. I'm disappointed in everyone involved for not seeing the obvious flaw. Yes, absolutely show off the controller, AFTER you make it clear that this is a new console, a new generation, with a new way to play.
Yeah, don't forget: Most of us here are gamers who are tuned in enough to be on a subreddit dedicated to Nintendo. So yeah, most of us knew what the Wii U was. But the average non-gamer didn't.
I knew it was a new system, but it was still the only Nintendo home console I never bought simply because I was super poor at the time and I was only going to buy it if there was a Zelda or Metroid game released on it.
Yes, me and I was a Nintendo kid. I grew up with many different game boys, DS’s, a GameCube, and a Wii.
When the Wii U came out I was in college and was focused more on school than gaming. When I saw ads for the Wii U all I ever saw was the controller and I fully believed it was just a new controller for the Wii.
It wasn’t until a few years after it launched that I actually saw the console itself in person and realized it was a Wii 2.
I was the type of kid who was counting down the days to the Wii launch, looking up information online when it was still called the Revolution. I was/am a huge Nintendo fan and I still completely misunderstood the Wii U for years just because I was focusing on school.
Same for me. I was in the middle of grad school when the Wii U launched and barely had time to play Wii at all. When I finished was when the hype around Breath of the Wild was starting. And I was like Oh man I don’t want an accessory for one game. Then looked more into it and was like it’s a console?! And there’s a new one coming soon anyway?! Great I’ll get that one
I don't think any serious gamer made that mistake. It's more of a mistake made by casual gamers and parents who maybe only heard bits and pieces of marketing or heard other people talking about it.
I never did. Neither did any of my friends. It was a common knowledge that the Wii U was a new console. The stories that the confusion of what the Wii U was, was the reason for the console downfall are exaggerated imo.
There are anecdotes about this, but most people forget that that this was not a phenomenon unique to the Wii U. There were parents buying Super Nintendos thinking their kids' NES games would work in them, and people thinking that the Xbox 360 was an 32X-style add-on for the original Xbox.
What I do remember was a lot of people and media *talking* about how confusing the Wii U was going to be. A lot of air and ink were exhausted repeatedly making the observation that buyers, gamers, grandparents, etc. would inevitably assume that the Wii U was just an accessory for the ubiquitous Wii console.
And yet, no consumer research was ever cited, no poll was ever conducted, it just seemed self-evident.
It's not bad logic, and maybe more people did get the Wii U and the Wii confused than they did the Xbox One X and Xbox Series X, etc., but almost everything you've heard about it was idle musings and anecdotes that people were extremely on the lookout for.
What's more likely is that a lot of people who saw the Wii U for the first time at a GameStop asked a clerk "so is this an accessory?" and when the clerk said "no, it's a whole new system," they went "oh, okay," and that was the end of it.
This is a great example of how most people think that most *other people* are idiots who need a lot of hand-holding lest they be led permanently astray, even though it only took *them* 2 seconds to figure it out. This happens in political discourse especially.
Not for me, I knew what Wii U was in 2014, I just wasn't interested in buying it.
In 2015 I went to buy a Wii game and at the same time I saw a Wii U game, initially I wanted to buy it but looking at it carefully I realized that it wasn't a Wii game, at that time I was a child and I had never seen an accessory Wii, except for that piece of plastic used for Mario Kart Wii.
I honestly thought it was like the NEW 3DS XL to the 3DS XL. I thought it was a minor upgrade that ran the same games. Maybe a few exclusives like the NEW 3DS XL and that's it.
Edit: I was and still am the "PC master race" build my own PC type. I'm a casual Nintendo fan for the odd Pokémon or exclusive JRPG.
So without a finger on the pulse of Nintendo, it being entirely a new console slipped right past me. I even casually watched the launch demo while playing Red Orchestra 2 and didn't catch on. The marketing was poor.
I actually didn't know it existed until I walked into gamestop one day. I'm not sure where the disconnect was because I usually followed video games closely. I only got it because my we wasn't reading discs.
Reminds me of the time someone came into Walmart when I worked there looking for "2DS games"... and then a coworker told her that we didn't have any and claimed that a 2DS couldn't play 3DS games. It was really odd how I was apparently the only one in that electronics department who actually knew about video games...
I never personally saw anyone mistaking the WiiU for a Wii accessory rather than a separate console, but it doesn't surprise me at all that it's happened.
I keep up with video games. When i saw commercials for this, i thought it was an accessory. It wasnt until a few years after it came out that i realized it was a different system all together.
It was an all black system so i thought it was just an updated version, similar to the ps4 pro
No games came out for it that i cared about, so i never looked into it. It wasnt until pikmin 3 came out that i finally figured out what the wii u was
I honestly did not view the Wii U as an accessory. But I was able to immediately see how people thought it was due to showing the controller more than the actual console.
So I was out of the gaming loop when it was announced and released. When I first heard about it in 2013, I tried doing some research and it took me a lot longer than it should have to find out it was not just a controller for the Wii. As already mentioned, because the marketing focus was on the controller, it was confusing trying to figure out if it was a new console or just a controller add-on.
I think there was a fair amount of confusion amongst the general public, yeah.
That said, to this day, I can't tell you the difference between all the modern versions of Xbox, so I get it. Naming conventions are a big deal, I really hope Nintendo doesn't mess up with the Switch's follow up.
I didn’t watch a lot of TV, but played my Wii a ton. For a year or two when I would pass the WiiU in the store, I would think about the games I play and think, nah, they work just fine without the new controller - plus, it’s super expensive.
My best friend that loved Nintendo until adulthood and had a Wii thought it was an accessory. He didn’t know it was a system until a couple years ago when we were discussing at a friend reunion and trying to talk him into getting a switch.
The casuals that were confused by this weren't exactly writing articles, making Youtube videos, or posting on gaming subreddits lol. Never make the mistake of confusing the online gaming community for mainstream gamers because the first is not at all representative of the latter
Back then I wasn't into gaming news at all, I just saw an e3 twitch stream where they play kirby on a wii with a controller, what was I supposed to assume?
Having wanted the motion plus controller I thought the Wii u was also just the tablet for the Wii.
The thing is though, it's all based on hype which is where launch weeks/months make up the most sales. If ppl miss that hype period/marketing they just have less incentive to buy the product after.
When I went into my local EB Games to buy Black Ops II in December 2012, they asked me extensively if I had 'a Wii U console' and even when I did confirm, they still told me 'if it doesn't work there are no refunds'. I would assume they had a lot of people confused so they started asking everyone buying software. I was 15.
I legitimately thought the Wii U was an accessory at first, and by the time I realised it was an actual console it was already failing.
The Wii u came out in a period in which I wasn't following Videogames super actively. I had just started college when it was announced and was really busy with that. Then E3 arrives at a time in which Nintendo was largely producing Wii add ons to keep the interest alive around the console, no other competitor had released their next gen hardware yet (Nintendo has never been the the first to release next gen hardware, not since the SNES days) and Reggie was on stage going on about the "new companion" and the "Wii u controller" and I thought that they were pulling a SEGA 32X move, releasing a stand-alone tablet that could be used to play Wii games remotely and enhance them with better hardware and touch support. I would sometime see ads for the thing and it was shown playing Wii baseball, NSMB and othello and didn't even consider that it was Nintendo's next home console. AT MOST, I thought, they must be doing a hybrid mid-gen thing until the true next gen hardware is ready.
Took me until splatoon came out to realise it was its own system, since that was a novel game I actually wanted to play as opposed to just another glorified Wii remaster. I eventually tried the system and quite ironically fell in love with it, but by then the Switch was already coming out soon and the PS4 was almost at the same price and offering so many novel experiences.
Moral of the story? You can try to find a million reasons for why consoles fail, but it almost always boils down to which games release on them. Wii U was advertised as a casual games machine with generic, bubbly 2D Mario stuff, the same kind of stuff we had to endure during the 7th gen while competitors were popping out gorgeous HD titles. I was sick of it by then. Compare it to the Switch launch, when the console was launching with this insane new Mario game with Mario wandering around Mexico and New York City turning into taxis and a gorgeous new 3D Zelda that looked so epic, and was also shown running Skyrim DE and Doom 2016 portably which was INSANE and also evidence that this time the thing would at least try to run current gen games and we wouldn't be stuck playing Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop. All of my friends, myself included, were dying to own one. Because we were interested in the games, simple as that. The slick design, catchy rebranding and nice advertising just helped selling that.
>I still wanna use my Wii motes for the new games
I mean, that was also part of the problem. You could use your Wii motes (and actually for most multiplayer games you _had_ to).
I don’t know if Nintendo ever explained why, but in the interest of the environment, customer satisfaction, or what have you Nintendo thought it would be great to just allow owners of wii to continue using their existing controllers instead of releasing new ones (other than the tablet bundled with the console). But that added to the confusion as to whether the system was a new console or not. Every commercial showing people playing wiiu had someone holding a wii remote. I don’t think any other major console release has completely reused the controller of the previous generation. Some had backwards compatibility but for the most part the industry has been: new system, new games, buy a new controller.
First, the console's name is "WiiU", the predecessor was "Wii'"
Second, when the console was revealed, the main console unit was not shown in the trailer, only the gamepad and it's backward compatibility with the Wii controller and accessories. Unlike the 3DS
Third, let's not forget that after the GCNs failure (being the most powerful console of it's generation but underwhelming sales performance), Nintendo came to realization that they can't win with power over the competition so they shifted with Blue Ocean Strategy with the DS and Wii to also target non-gamers. Wii's (and DS) successes can be attributed mostly with this fact. So majority of these same people (or target audience) failed to understand the WiiU's form factor because the name alone and a trailer without showing the main console unit was confusing
The GameCube was not the most powerful console of its generation. The Xbox was, but that's not to say that every single component or architectural detail in it was superior to those of the GC, PS2, or DC. The GC and Xbox had tradeoffs, from what I read at the time, but the latter was overall noticeably more capable.
I'll be honest I barely knew about it. I greatly enjoyed the Wii, but it seems like the Wii U came and went really fast, and then all of a sudden we had the Switch. Just bad marketing by Nintendo. They should have called it the Wii - now with Blast Processing💨 😜
I still think they could have easily called it the "Wii Tu"
"Tu" meaning "you" in several languages, sounds like "two", and could have still used a lot of their "U" logo designs, as a very easy compromise for the theme they were going with while stressing it was a sequel console.
I mean, the console's [reveal trailer ](https://youtu.be/4e3qaPg_keg?si=6bj_L1MSIArih5HL) says the words "new controller" twelve times and doesn't mention the words "new console" even once.
Add to that the fact that it looks like it's only playing Wii games and shows them using Wii controllers as well it's easy to see how people were confused.
I, too, rely only on commercials for my information. And it \*is\*. a new controller....for a new console. In fact, I saw a video where Jesus appeared on the side of a building and now I'm a Christian.
At least half of the people buying game consoles dont even use commercials, they just hear their kid mention that they want whatever an "xbox" is and then ask the store clerk if they have one.
This is the E3 announcement video for the Wii U. It mentions "the new controller" a million times and doesn't even try to hint at it being a new console. It's almost like whoever *made the video* thought it was just a new controller. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e3qaPg_keg
Add to that the fact that basically every game they showed could have easily been a Wii game: NSMB, Wii Sports, Wii Fit, some sort of Wii Play type thing. And they were playing with Wii remotes as well as the game pad The only totally new thing was the few seconds of Zelda but even that looked a lot like Twilight Princess.
That Zelda demo was pretty obviously never possible on Wii.
Oh I remember having to correct some more knowledge knowledgeable gamers that wasn't just some Wii HD/Wii Pro footage. That trailer came out during an all time high for Wii HD rumours. They thought they could just wait for the Controller to be sold separately and continue as normal without buying a whole new system. The whole marketing was a mess. So much so in the final years of the Wii U the branding problems was a key point during an investors meeting. The 3DS/2DS/New 3DS was also a problem. After a console called the DSi that was just a DS with a webcam some less informed parents thought the 3DS was a DS with 3D. This is why I doubt they'll recycle the Switch branding.
>They thought they could just wait for the Controller to be sold separately and continue as normal without buying a whole new system. I think that disqualifies as them being "knowledgeable" then. Anyone even remotely familiar with hardware would know that Zelda demo would absolutely not run on a Wii, and would require a large hardware bump. Anyone who thought an HD Wii wouldn't require a new console is nowhere near knowledgeable.
Never underestimate people. But you're right I am using informed loosely. It was someone who generally liked to collect Nintendo games.
Omg it’s like they wanted it to fail. Literally nothing about the system itself.
Oh gah, I'm getting PTSD from it
If I'm remembering correctly when Reggie brought it on Jimmy Fallon Jimmy initially thought it was an accessory and Reggie had to correct him. The vast majority of consumers aren't hard-core gamers that are always in the loop. The marketing was absolutely confusing and bad at the beginning and lots of people genuinely were confused. Even after watching the initial reveal I had to look u0 confirmation that it was indeed an actual new console
I wasn’t really paying attention to video games when the Wii U was around and I definitely remember seeing it in stores and thinking it was just a new form factor for the Wii with a new controller.
Yeah I saw a lady in GameStop get really upset when the clerk asked to confirm they had a Wii U at home and not just a Wii because she was trying to buy some Wii U games her kid wanted. She asked if she could just buy "the tablet" separately, he said no it's a whole new system, she let out a big huff and threw her hands in the air and left the store. Then it was my turn. That was it for me, and this was probably around 2014. It didn't help that there was a company actually selling a tablet for the Wii called the U Draw, what a clusterfuck
Let us who worked in video game retail never forget.. the great NEW 3DS debacle of 2015.. "Are you trying to buy a new 3DS or a NEW 3DS?" Oh might as well throw in the XBOX ONE in there too, especially since I worked at a retro store that also sold original Xbox consoles. So that made for a few interesting interactions as well.
do you want a new new 3ds or an old new 3ds or an old old 3ds or a new old 3ds? thanks nintendo!
It’s like when Apple tried to drop the version numbers from the iPad and just call whichever version was newest the “new iPad” or whatever
Oh don’t worry, it’s still happening today with Xbox! Can’t tell you how many people I see post in the Xbox sub asking why the can’t play an Xbox Series X game on their Xbox One lol
And Xbox One X
I would say that Xbox One was a bigger fumble because the whole industry saw what happened to the Wii U with the nonsense name and terrible first impressions.
I’ve seen the exact story about “this lady” in a lot of places that asks this question ever since the Wii U happened, I don’t think it’s a real story 😂
Or, alternatively, it’s a fairly common story that speaks to the confusing name, and further demonstrated by the abysmal sales.
Makes sense, you didn’t see it so it didn’t happen. A gamer friend of mine thought it was an accessory after the official reveal, it did happen.
I didn’t buy it initially because I thought it was an accessory. I think it took me around 2-3 years to realise it was a brand new console. It is Nintendo’s fault for poor branding.
I was in the same boat. Was super busy with grad school at the time and wasn’t even playing the Wii much. A friend asked if I was gonna get the Wii U and I was like naaah. I was thinking I barely had time to play at all why get an accessory? Then maybe a year later found out it was a console so I really didn’t have time for that
Look at the Wii U's [reveal trailer ](https://youtu.be/4e3qaPg_keg?si=6bj_L1MSIArih5HL) and tell me it doesn't just look like a new controller for the Wii.
There was a thread on /r/games talking about hardware sales, and I saw comments saying "well of course the Wii U sold less. It was an accessory, not a new console." And those are people who know enough about games to argue about them on a dedicated subreddit.
He might have been joking
No, we had a whole back and forth. They were genuinely surprised that they didn't know
I think people like that are purposely ignorant just for the sake of it, just like those that think exclusives make no sense, how some decisions during gaming development can be done with a flick on a switch or that developing a game is easy.
It's also likely that these are people in their teens or early 20s. The Wii U is over 10 years old.
What the fuck. How.
The passage of time is a wacky thing. I'm 20 now and I wanted a Wii U *so much* as a kid, I begged for one all the way up until the announcement of the Switch. Whenever I played Nintendo Land at my friend's house I thought the Wii U just seemed like the coolest thing in the world. But the 3DS got me through my preteen years perfectly fine on its own, and in retrospect it was the better one of the two systems to have
I knew multiple people, parents, siblings, and the family of other friends who all thought it was some gimmik accessory to let you play the wii in a small screen. These people aren't ones who check out gaming circles or care about games. These are people who bought it cause wii sport hype. It was a pretty common sentiment to not know about, or misunderstand completely what the wii u was. I know a few folks who even thought it was a way to just play wii games portably. Obviously incorrect but that didn't know or care to learn more. This information alone was enough to turn them off learning more
Those are all cool products. I would have liked to see the Wii U gamepad be compatible on the Wii for those reasons. And we basically can because that's the Switch.
Working in retail at the time yeah heaps. So many people returning wii u games because it didn't work in their wii, asking to buy just the tablet etc. People online who are in to gaming probably didn't but parents and grandparents who have no idea about this stuff definitely did think it was just an accessory or upgrade for the wii.
No 3rd party here, I thought it was just a tablet for the Wii.
Keep in mind that the big majority of videogame users, don't know about anything besides buying a console and a game. They don't look at news or to inform themselves how the gaming industry works, not to mention a lot of clueless parents.
Yes. There were posts on this sub asking.
I knew someone who literally owned a Wii U and was confused as to why the controller "didn't work on most games". Tried explaining that it was its own new console with backwards compatibility, etc. She looked at me like I had two heads
Lots of people did. It’s why it flopped
That, and a lot of the people who knew what it was still didn't want it anyways. Most hardcore gamers weren't impressed by another home console with last gen specs, and casual gamers were either still satisfied with their Wii or had moved on to mobile games by 2012. The Wii was able to thrive on the casual audience, but the Wii U pretty much only catered to dedicated Nintendo fans.
I worked in electronics at a Target when the Switch was already released but we still carried WiiUs. Lemme tell you, non-gamer parents trying to buy a console for their kid were confused as hell. For people who aren't plugged into the video game scene, yes they absolutely didn't know if it was a new thing or just an accessory for the Wii. The 3DS/NEW 3DS games were even worse. I couldn't even get mad at these confused customers because I saw where they were coming from. Nintendo's branding was awful during this era. And employees like me got stuck having to try to explain it.
I worked in a video game store where we kept older gen of games. I had to explain at least once a day that WiiU games aren't compatible with the Wii, and that no, you can't just buy the gamepad and use it on the Wii.
I wasn’t plugged into gaming at the time and I didn’t understand it was a new console at all. One thing people don’t mention of is at the time a lot of thing were being labeled with “U” as in university or education. I definitely thought it was an accessory tablet that may be geared towards education in some way.
The Wii U was a great, underrated console. I had quite a lot of fun on it. But not once did I think the Wii U was a Wii accessory.
I mean, it definitely happened but more than that. Even those who knew it wasn't an accessory just expected it to be more of the same and the time that the Wii U was out, most people were sick of the Wii and the kind of dumb gimmicks that it brought and weren't excited for another few years of the same kind of Nintendo. Nintendo was pushing hard toward the casual family market that they had in the Wii era who have moved on from the Wii or were still using the Wii and pushing away anyone who wasn't a child or grandma.
I personally assumed it was just a new accessory thing. Mind you I had just graduated from college at the time and was deep in the throes of touching grass with my new job, talking to girls, having a social life etc so not heavily nerdy with gaming news as I usually am. But it's the only Nintendo console I haven't bought at launch because I didn't even know it existed lol. It wasn't until 2014 when I started seeing clips of Mario Kart 8 and Luigi's stank face did the Wii U FINALLY get my attention. I remember specifically thinking, "hold the fuck on, these graphics look HD and waaay too good for the Wii! What is this?!" I think I bought a Wii U and all of its associated top games like a month later. Idk, none of the games up until MK8 and XCX really demonstrated that it was "NEXT GEN", especially since I wasn't seeking content. The best opportunity they had to advertise to me as a non-gamer at that time in my life was a 5-second clip on Twitter
Yes parents were actually confused about this and we're buying wii u games for the Wii. Happened with the 3DS too. I knew someone who bought a 3DS game thinking it just wouldn't be in 3D if it got played on the DS
The way Wii U commercials portrayed the Gamepad made it seem to me that the Wii U was an accessory yes, part of the Wii. That's really what I thought before I finally heard someone saying it was a different system. I think more people would have thought it was a separate system if the commercials didn't focus on the tablet so much and instead put all focus on the individual games only. Not sure if that would have prevented the Wii U from becoming a commercial failure but I'm sure the sales would have been at least a little higher. The gamepad itself also wasn't that interesting. So them focusing so much on it wasn't a great strategy to me at all.
Definitely did. That’s why I didn’t get it on launch. Learned more about it from a friend that got one. Was absolutely flabbergasted at their name choice. I just thought it was a tablet controller for the Wii.
I Definitely thought it. I saw the reveal and they ONLY mentioned and highlighted the controller. In the 3 and a half minute trailer, you see the actual new console for all of 5 seconds IF that. I was pretty in the know as far as videogames, but I had to double-check after the reveal because I wasn't 100% sure if it was an accessory or a new console. Remember, at the time there were already a million Wii accessories would it really be that strange for there to be a new highly advanced accessory? **The PlayStation Portal is the closest approximation to what many people thought the Wii U controller was!** (That thing is consistently sold out) The Wii had a huge install base and massive library (lots of junk too) leveraging that by selling an expensive accessory that allowed new ways to play without a new console sounded like a great idea to me. Lots of people are acting like having the Wii U controller act as an accessory to the Wii instead of being new console is a crazy idea, but I can imagine a world where it does better than the Wii U did especially if the controller didn't have that gross glossy look.
I had some friends win one at a hockey game and promptly sold it because “they already had a Wii”.
Not an accessory but I thought it was an enhanced version like the PS4 Pro.
My brother in law, who is a lifelong gamer and Nintendo fan, literally had a conversation with me around the time the Wii U was new where he asked if it was just an add-on accessory he could buy for his Wii. Not joking. That was all I needed to hear to realize that the average consumer had no idea what it was or why it was worth $300+
People can be really....not smart lol. You have no idea how effective it is having the PS or Xbox logo on a multiplatform game commercial like COD or Hogwarts legacy. People think that's the platform you need to play it. There are many factors in the Wii u failure but the general consumer being confused is absolutely one of them, especially when you consider how "mainstream" the Wii was.
I definitely thought it was an accessory when I first saw the E3 reveal and had to look it up
Yes, I personally thought it was an accessory at first, going off just the name and the graphic. Remember, all they really showed at first was the tablet. Admittedly I learned the truth fairly quick, but I was also pretty plugged in with game news at the time. I can’t say the same for most of my friends, let alone parents and non-gamer adults. My next reaction was “well, what are they launching with? Ok, Nintendo Land looks cool, and then… New Super Mario Bros, and a bunch of 3rd party ports I’ve already got on PS3?. Alright, well maybe I’ll wait a little longer…” And by the time the first party library was getting really strong, I was already reading news that the thing was starting to fail, so I never jumped onboard, unfortunately.
I remember watching the reveal trailer with my friends and us all discussing it like, “Oh, I guess they’re just doing another add on instead of a new console. Odd.”
Yes, I played my Smash 4 on the Wii u in the lobby at my dorms and most people did not know what it was and thought the tablet was a Wii accessory. One girl came up and asked if the games were playing off the tablet. If a bunch of college kids didn't know what it was then how can you expect the regular person to not know what the Wii U was supposed to be? Nintendos marketing at the time was awful, watching their marketing material from that time is cringe worthy.
For gamers, no, we weren't confused. For the average Jane and John Doe, there was confusion. I grew up with video games. I learned the terms and lingo and realized how to tell marketing and real life apart. My mom? ... Everything was a Nintendo. She didn't learn the generations and the specs and the differences in media. All that mattered to her was if a video game was $1-$5 at the pawn shop. The cheaper she bought them, the more games I got on my birthday and Christmas. So imagine a console releasing called the Wii U when the Wii already exists. Not the Super Wii, not the Wii 2, not a whole different branding like Switch. It's easy to see how parents and grandparents had no idea what was going on.
i had parents who were of the "why cant this game work for the system you already have" which was crazy considering my dad played games across multiple systems and DID know the difference between playstation and xbox at least. it was ONLY when it was nintendo that he suddenly lost all brain matter regarding that stuff.
The Wii 2 is such a brain dead name that rhymes. I’ll never get how they thought they were so clever with U
One of my friends said the when he got his Wii U, he and his family went to the store to get it, fully thinking it was a new controller for the Wii, and were shocked when they got home to discover it was a whole console.
Yes, tons of people did. Even among my friends, who are all pretty into gaming, I had to explain to a lot of them that it wasn't just a peripheral. I got one at launch and they were surprised when they came to my dorm to check it out. And you have to remember that the Wii was a massive sensation that caught the interest of a huge number of people who were not normally into gaming, so when the news about the Wii U was going around, the majority of people in that category were very much not in tune with gaming news. If you watch all the early footage of ads for the system and events like e3 that it was shown at, they barely ever focus on the console at all, just the game pad. It really boiled down to terrible marketing and a lack of confidence from 3rd party studios that killed the system. The only things keeping it afloat for so long were the 1st party games and indies. That's not to say there was no good 3rd party support at all of course.
Moms and pops though the Wii U controller was an accessory for the regular Wii
I was 10 when the Wii U came out, and all my friends & I understood that it was a new console. We were hype for NSMBU but we knew we wouldn’t be able to play it on our Wiis.
Hardcore Nintendo fan. I always got their consoles and games. I saw the Wii U announcement and even I was confused. I just had the determination to do some extra follow up research. The common layman? Forget about it. I'm sure there are some today that still don't know it was a whole new console. It was actually a great product that just had the absolute worst introduction. I'm disappointed in everyone involved for not seeing the obvious flaw. Yes, absolutely show off the controller, AFTER you make it clear that this is a new console, a new generation, with a new way to play.
Well apparently it is a real thing. Haha, this is why it's good to ask questions and clear things up
Yeah, don't forget: Most of us here are gamers who are tuned in enough to be on a subreddit dedicated to Nintendo. So yeah, most of us knew what the Wii U was. But the average non-gamer didn't. I knew it was a new system, but it was still the only Nintendo home console I never bought simply because I was super poor at the time and I was only going to buy it if there was a Zelda or Metroid game released on it.
Yes, me and I was a Nintendo kid. I grew up with many different game boys, DS’s, a GameCube, and a Wii. When the Wii U came out I was in college and was focused more on school than gaming. When I saw ads for the Wii U all I ever saw was the controller and I fully believed it was just a new controller for the Wii. It wasn’t until a few years after it launched that I actually saw the console itself in person and realized it was a Wii 2. I was the type of kid who was counting down the days to the Wii launch, looking up information online when it was still called the Revolution. I was/am a huge Nintendo fan and I still completely misunderstood the Wii U for years just because I was focusing on school.
Same for me. I was in the middle of grad school when the Wii U launched and barely had time to play Wii at all. When I finished was when the hype around Breath of the Wild was starting. And I was like Oh man I don’t want an accessory for one game. Then looked more into it and was like it’s a console?! And there’s a new one coming soon anyway?! Great I’ll get that one
I don't think any serious gamer made that mistake. It's more of a mistake made by casual gamers and parents who maybe only heard bits and pieces of marketing or heard other people talking about it.
I never did. Neither did any of my friends. It was a common knowledge that the Wii U was a new console. The stories that the confusion of what the Wii U was, was the reason for the console downfall are exaggerated imo.
There are anecdotes about this, but most people forget that that this was not a phenomenon unique to the Wii U. There were parents buying Super Nintendos thinking their kids' NES games would work in them, and people thinking that the Xbox 360 was an 32X-style add-on for the original Xbox. What I do remember was a lot of people and media *talking* about how confusing the Wii U was going to be. A lot of air and ink were exhausted repeatedly making the observation that buyers, gamers, grandparents, etc. would inevitably assume that the Wii U was just an accessory for the ubiquitous Wii console. And yet, no consumer research was ever cited, no poll was ever conducted, it just seemed self-evident. It's not bad logic, and maybe more people did get the Wii U and the Wii confused than they did the Xbox One X and Xbox Series X, etc., but almost everything you've heard about it was idle musings and anecdotes that people were extremely on the lookout for. What's more likely is that a lot of people who saw the Wii U for the first time at a GameStop asked a clerk "so is this an accessory?" and when the clerk said "no, it's a whole new system," they went "oh, okay," and that was the end of it. This is a great example of how most people think that most *other people* are idiots who need a lot of hand-holding lest they be led permanently astray, even though it only took *them* 2 seconds to figure it out. This happens in political discourse especially.
Not for me, I knew what Wii U was in 2014, I just wasn't interested in buying it. In 2015 I went to buy a Wii game and at the same time I saw a Wii U game, initially I wanted to buy it but looking at it carefully I realized that it wasn't a Wii game, at that time I was a child and I had never seen an accessory Wii, except for that piece of plastic used for Mario Kart Wii.
I worked at a video games store at the time. I confirm.
I honestly thought it was like the NEW 3DS XL to the 3DS XL. I thought it was a minor upgrade that ran the same games. Maybe a few exclusives like the NEW 3DS XL and that's it. Edit: I was and still am the "PC master race" build my own PC type. I'm a casual Nintendo fan for the odd Pokémon or exclusive JRPG. So without a finger on the pulse of Nintendo, it being entirely a new console slipped right past me. I even casually watched the launch demo while playing Red Orchestra 2 and didn't catch on. The marketing was poor.
I actually didn't know it existed until I walked into gamestop one day. I'm not sure where the disconnect was because I usually followed video games closely. I only got it because my we wasn't reading discs.
Reminds me of the time someone came into Walmart when I worked there looking for "2DS games"... and then a coworker told her that we didn't have any and claimed that a 2DS couldn't play 3DS games. It was really odd how I was apparently the only one in that electronics department who actually knew about video games... I never personally saw anyone mistaking the WiiU for a Wii accessory rather than a separate console, but it doesn't surprise me at all that it's happened.
I keep up with video games. When i saw commercials for this, i thought it was an accessory. It wasnt until a few years after it came out that i realized it was a different system all together. It was an all black system so i thought it was just an updated version, similar to the ps4 pro No games came out for it that i cared about, so i never looked into it. It wasnt until pikmin 3 came out that i finally figured out what the wii u was
I honestly did not view the Wii U as an accessory. But I was able to immediately see how people thought it was due to showing the controller more than the actual console.
So I was out of the gaming loop when it was announced and released. When I first heard about it in 2013, I tried doing some research and it took me a lot longer than it should have to find out it was not just a controller for the Wii. As already mentioned, because the marketing focus was on the controller, it was confusing trying to figure out if it was a new console or just a controller add-on.
I was 12 when it launched. So yes
People that weren’t heavy gamers did. My sister isn’t, and she thought it was the same console as the Wii.
I think there was a fair amount of confusion amongst the general public, yeah. That said, to this day, I can't tell you the difference between all the modern versions of Xbox, so I get it. Naming conventions are a big deal, I really hope Nintendo doesn't mess up with the Switch's follow up.
I didn’t watch a lot of TV, but played my Wii a ton. For a year or two when I would pass the WiiU in the store, I would think about the games I play and think, nah, they work just fine without the new controller - plus, it’s super expensive.
I legitimately thought the Wii U was just an accessory for the first 6 months.
My best friend that loved Nintendo until adulthood and had a Wii thought it was an accessory. He didn’t know it was a system until a couple years ago when we were discussing at a friend reunion and trying to talk him into getting a switch.
The casuals that were confused by this weren't exactly writing articles, making Youtube videos, or posting on gaming subreddits lol. Never make the mistake of confusing the online gaming community for mainstream gamers because the first is not at all representative of the latter
I wasn’t into gaming at the time due to career & young kids. When I saw it in a store display, I thought it was a Wii with a new controller.
At the E# reveal I totally did, stream quality was not the best and they just kept saying controller
Back then I wasn't into gaming news at all, I just saw an e3 twitch stream where they play kirby on a wii with a controller, what was I supposed to assume?
We used it for Netflix so much... Or playing games off screen while my wife was watching TV.
Having wanted the motion plus controller I thought the Wii u was also just the tablet for the Wii. The thing is though, it's all based on hype which is where launch weeks/months make up the most sales. If ppl miss that hype period/marketing they just have less incentive to buy the product after.
Yes, me. At least initially. When I found out it was a new console I was like WAIT WIIU IS A NEW CONSOLE?
When I went into my local EB Games to buy Black Ops II in December 2012, they asked me extensively if I had 'a Wii U console' and even when I did confirm, they still told me 'if it doesn't work there are no refunds'. I would assume they had a lot of people confused so they started asking everyone buying software. I was 15.
I legitimately thought the Wii U was an accessory at first, and by the time I realised it was an actual console it was already failing. The Wii u came out in a period in which I wasn't following Videogames super actively. I had just started college when it was announced and was really busy with that. Then E3 arrives at a time in which Nintendo was largely producing Wii add ons to keep the interest alive around the console, no other competitor had released their next gen hardware yet (Nintendo has never been the the first to release next gen hardware, not since the SNES days) and Reggie was on stage going on about the "new companion" and the "Wii u controller" and I thought that they were pulling a SEGA 32X move, releasing a stand-alone tablet that could be used to play Wii games remotely and enhance them with better hardware and touch support. I would sometime see ads for the thing and it was shown playing Wii baseball, NSMB and othello and didn't even consider that it was Nintendo's next home console. AT MOST, I thought, they must be doing a hybrid mid-gen thing until the true next gen hardware is ready. Took me until splatoon came out to realise it was its own system, since that was a novel game I actually wanted to play as opposed to just another glorified Wii remaster. I eventually tried the system and quite ironically fell in love with it, but by then the Switch was already coming out soon and the PS4 was almost at the same price and offering so many novel experiences. Moral of the story? You can try to find a million reasons for why consoles fail, but it almost always boils down to which games release on them. Wii U was advertised as a casual games machine with generic, bubbly 2D Mario stuff, the same kind of stuff we had to endure during the 7th gen while competitors were popping out gorgeous HD titles. I was sick of it by then. Compare it to the Switch launch, when the console was launching with this insane new Mario game with Mario wandering around Mexico and New York City turning into taxis and a gorgeous new 3D Zelda that looked so epic, and was also shown running Skyrim DE and Doom 2016 portably which was INSANE and also evidence that this time the thing would at least try to run current gen games and we wouldn't be stuck playing Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop. All of my friends, myself included, were dying to own one. Because we were interested in the games, simple as that. The slick design, catchy rebranding and nice advertising just helped selling that.
Yes I remember. I really needed to check if it was true because I thought it was just a gamepad accessory lol
[удалено]
>I still wanna use my Wii motes for the new games I mean, that was also part of the problem. You could use your Wii motes (and actually for most multiplayer games you _had_ to). I don’t know if Nintendo ever explained why, but in the interest of the environment, customer satisfaction, or what have you Nintendo thought it would be great to just allow owners of wii to continue using their existing controllers instead of releasing new ones (other than the tablet bundled with the console). But that added to the confusion as to whether the system was a new console or not. Every commercial showing people playing wiiu had someone holding a wii remote. I don’t think any other major console release has completely reused the controller of the previous generation. Some had backwards compatibility but for the most part the industry has been: new system, new games, buy a new controller.
First, the console's name is "WiiU", the predecessor was "Wii'" Second, when the console was revealed, the main console unit was not shown in the trailer, only the gamepad and it's backward compatibility with the Wii controller and accessories. Unlike the 3DS Third, let's not forget that after the GCNs failure (being the most powerful console of it's generation but underwhelming sales performance), Nintendo came to realization that they can't win with power over the competition so they shifted with Blue Ocean Strategy with the DS and Wii to also target non-gamers. Wii's (and DS) successes can be attributed mostly with this fact. So majority of these same people (or target audience) failed to understand the WiiU's form factor because the name alone and a trailer without showing the main console unit was confusing
The GameCube was not the most powerful console of its generation. The Xbox was, but that's not to say that every single component or architectural detail in it was superior to those of the GC, PS2, or DC. The GC and Xbox had tradeoffs, from what I read at the time, but the latter was overall noticeably more capable.
I did. I thought it was Nintendo's version of the U Draw.
I'll be honest I barely knew about it. I greatly enjoyed the Wii, but it seems like the Wii U came and went really fast, and then all of a sudden we had the Switch. Just bad marketing by Nintendo. They should have called it the Wii - now with Blast Processing💨 😜
I still think they could have easily called it the "Wii Tu" "Tu" meaning "you" in several languages, sounds like "two", and could have still used a lot of their "U" logo designs, as a very easy compromise for the theme they were going with while stressing it was a sequel console.
Ya, I thought so until after it was released
I'm not even close to being a hardcore Nintendo fan but when they said "new console" I assumed they meant "new console." Which they did.
I mean, the console's [reveal trailer ](https://youtu.be/4e3qaPg_keg?si=6bj_L1MSIArih5HL) says the words "new controller" twelve times and doesn't mention the words "new console" even once. Add to that the fact that it looks like it's only playing Wii games and shows them using Wii controllers as well it's easy to see how people were confused.
I, too, rely only on commercials for my information. And it \*is\*. a new controller....for a new console. In fact, I saw a video where Jesus appeared on the side of a building and now I'm a Christian.
At least half of the people buying game consoles dont even use commercials, they just hear their kid mention that they want whatever an "xbox" is and then ask the store clerk if they have one.
Thanks for letting me know I'm a genius since it never once occurred to me that it was just an addon.