Pachter: Wii U has failed to capture consumer imagination

wii-u-lifestyle-shot

Everyone’s favourite games industry analyst Michael Pachter has chimed in as to why he believes the Wii U hasn’t struck a chord with consumers, especially after the runaway success of its predecessor.

That discussion largely revolves how the Wii U GamePad isn’t as intuitive as the Wii Remote, baffling those that found the Wii such an accessible entry point. The crux being that Pachter believes it was perhaps “a little too innovative,” that Nintendo won’t recover and will need to scrap the idea and go back to the drawing board.

“They’d have to really surprise us,” Pachter explained to Game Informer, asked if there was a positive way forward for Wii U. “The Wii did something that the Wii U isn’t doing – it captured our imagination, because the way the Wiimote worked, it was so easy and intuitive and fun that people were willing to give it a try.

“The price point, which I believe was $249 at launch, was so cheap relative to the $399 Xbox 360 and the $599 PS3 that a lot more people were willing to try it. And then there was Nintendo’s reputation as having much more family-friendly games.”

He continued, “I don’t think the Wii U does any of those things. My mom came over to my house – she was 83 when I got a Wii – and she was playing and laughing so hard that tears were running down her face. She picked up the Wiimote and she knew exactly what she was doing to the play Wii [Sports] Tennis. It was just obvious.

“She came over last year, and we had the Wii U. She wanted to know if we had any new consoles. We handed her the GamePad she was completely baffled – no idea what to do with it. If you play, you know that it’s not that intuitive. I think that they are so interested in innovating, that they tried something that was a little too innovative, and it wasn’t intuitive.

“So, no, I don’t think they recover. I think they screwed that up royally. They’re going to have to scrap it. There’s a reason why we have game controllers, and if you remember back in the day, Nintendo invented the game controller. The NES came with a game controller. They were the first guys who did it, and they came up with something because it made sense.”

[Thanks Gamenesia]

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  1. The WiiU is a great system and the gampad overall once you “learn” how to use it is probably one of the best game controllers released. The problem is

    1: people have become complacent (lazy gamers. They want the same games with the same controls and don’t want to experiance or learn anything new. Sony and Microsoft pretty much have cookie cutter systems. If you have one.. well there really isn’t much differences in game controls or type of games on their systems. When it comes down to it with the other systems xb1 and ps4 (to speak of) you just decide on brand name and services that those systems offer. Not really games overall as both have basically the same thing. The WiiU on the other hand offeres a huge variety of games and ways to play. The touch screen, the wii remotes, the Pro controler and so on and many of the games are system exclusives. The WiiU while it still has several of the games on other systems allows you the choice much of the time in how to play them and on games that use (those companies that took the time to use it) like Wonderful 101, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and many others the gamepad and it’s additional uses are amazing!

    2: Media over reaction! I know many people that have told me they wanted to get a WiiU and really want to play the games out for it (Pikmin 3, Super Mario 3D worlds, MH3U, W101, Wii Party U, Zelda Windwaker hd, Lego City and many many more) but whenever they look on the internet to learn more all they see are people like Patcher talking about how horrible the WiiU is and though they really wanted one were scared away from it. A good example if the recent “WatchDogs” scare. Right away without any evidence Media started attacking the WiiU/Nintendo and stating how they “knew” this game would get cancled and saw it coming and so on. The titles for the posts were pretty bad too and when it was proven to be false and a computer error (which happens with other systems to but never gets this blown out of propotion), the articles attacking the WiiU only had a small littel edit (if anything) stating it was a mistake. But no title changes or appologies and by the time the edit was even done.. well the damage was done. That’s a small example and saddly it has been happening even before the WiiU was released. Even with the 3DS/Wii media seemed to attack Nintendo and try there best to show why they should get other systems like the Vita, 360, ps3.. and so on. The 3Ds and wii proved most media reports completely wrong which seemed to make them feel obligated to go after the WiiU even more. In the end their attacks seem to work though because people who want the WiiU have gotten scared off even with all the great games it has and “FREEDOM OF CHOICE” in the way you can play many games.

    3: Granted Nintendo seems to not know how to advertise. The WiiU isn’t just for little kids. Games like UnEpic, Bayonetta2, MH3U, SMT vs FE, and others should show that and instead of letting people know it’s a new system that still allows you to play your old wii games they insit on saying its an “Upgrade” and have children whining to their parents for it.

    4: Spec’s.. people get confused on specs so much and because the WiiU utalizes its hardware in a different way than other systems people think that it cannot do as much without realizing it does something different.

    The WiiU is a great system, has many great games out and coming out for it and most people who have played it or own it know how much fun it is and how much it can do with MiiVerse, Nintendo TVii and so on. What needs to happen is Nintendo of course needs to market it better and as always get the games out without delay but media and game reviewers need to also stop their vendictive attacks on the wiiu/nintendo and give the system the credit and the support its due.

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