Nintendo president Satoru Iwata says the Wii U will learn from the "bitter lesson" of the Nintendo 3DS's troubled launch.
"We are planning to launch the Wii U, which is the successor to the Wii, during the next fiscal year," he told investors in Japan.
"We would like to show the final format of the Wii U at the E3 show next year. As we learned a bitter lesson with the launch of the Nintendo 3DS, we are trying to take every possible measure so that the Wii U will have a successful launch."
In the same meeting the Nintendo boss said he feels "greatly accountable for missing our financial forecast for the half year ended September and revising downward our forecast for the full year".
He explained: "The company was unable to launch much-anticipated first-party titles for the Wii nor for the Nintendo 3DS in a timely fashion in the first half of the term. In the game platform business, creating momentum is very important, but the momentum was once lost, and it has had a large negative effect on our sales and profits."
Comments
32 comments so far...
alan666 on 28 Oct '11 said:
needs to get the loyal Nintendo fans back on board though, people currently don't have money to waste & splash about on things like the 3DS & people feel VERY let down, what Nintendo has done with the 3DS is far worse than the Sony hacking incident because this was 100% all Nintendo's fault & some free games to help ease the price drop was a hollow gesture because only weeks later the extra-stick add-one was announced, yet rubbing Nintendo fans faces in it yet again.
so as for the Wii U learning from the 3DS release, well the Nintendo fans have because i certainly won't be buying a Wii U for a few years (if ever) i cancelled my pre-order for it when the extra-stick add-one was announced.
never has a company disappointed so many people, well maybe Apple with the 4s !
ricflair on 28 Oct '11 said:
PSN being hacked and a lacking launch line up are not even comparable as they're totally different things. And pre order? The price hasn't even been announced.
I have a feeling Nintendo are going to come back with a much more powerful console than they'd originally planned. The later they launch it they more powerful it'll have to be.
lostimage on 28 Oct '11 said:
Totally agree with you, i had a wii when it first came out then promptly got rid of it when i realised there was practically no first party games worth playing (had Twilight Princess for Gamecube). I have had a go on the 3DS but even after a couple of minutes trying it in Best Buy my eyes started to hurt and itch.
Thats another Nintendo console i can do without and now we get to the Wii-U which to me wont even be worth looking at. The whole screen thing looks a little odd and i can really see it being an improvement over the standard Wii really. its just now you've got a little screen that you can point at the telly to try and aim rather than a white moulded plastic stick tied to a large plastic globule, That and the fact that the best games on the Wii-U will probably be Third party Multiplatform Releases.
I used to be a Nintendo Fan boy. I'll admit that now but they have just lost e with the last two generations of hardware. IMO their best console was the Gamecube.
yerbluesjohn on 28 Oct '11 said:
E3 2011 eh. Well maybe the time machine they've obviously invented will make them some money to cover those losses.
richardgeefe on 28 Oct '11 said:
Personally, I wouldn't just go back to 2011. If you have a time machine, go back to the late 90s and bring out an NPod. MARKET DIVERSIFICATION.
alan666 on 28 Oct '11 said:
yes they are different things but have both damaged the brand/image & affected fan's & customers, people feel Sony let them down by not protecting their data & people feel let down by Nintendo for releasing a incomplete console, however Sony can carry on because it was a software problem but Nintendo have a hardware problem & people have spent hundreds of pounds on their 3DS's, now ok as a early adopter there is a risk i agree but come on you surly have to admit that nobody expected the price to be slashed in half within three months of release & then a extra-stick add-one was announced a month or so later, after all this would anyone be prepared to risk a few hundred pounds on a Wii U, after all the Wii didn't take long to fall away did it, it only lasted a few years before the games dried up, what makes you think the Wii U will be any different, people will just carry on with their Xbox's & PS3's & then buy a new Xbox & PS4 when they are released, even if the Wii U had a killer app/game like Call Of Duty it would always be available on the Xbox/PS3 because of the user-base & online capabilities, so what does the Wii U have to offer over Xbox/PS, being able to play your game when somebody turns the TV channel over ! come on how many people only have access to one TV.
kimoak on 28 Oct '11 said:
I wouldn't be at all surprised if they revised the hardware for the Wii U also. They need to pull something out of the bag and releasing a more powerful machine than planned would be a very good idea in my eyes.
thelazyone on 28 Oct '11 said:
Guys when Iwata vow's something like this or when your hear an article like this, all it is, is damage limitations with their investors.
He's gonna apologise, and draw counter measures to improve business, at the end of the day he just doesn't want his investors to drop out. Plain and simple.
I wouldn't take much from these articles .
thelazyone on 28 Oct '11 said:
You may have a point there kimoak. If they pullout that off as early as next year, god its gonna be interesting.
sweatyBallacks on 28 Oct '11 said:
I dunno guys I deduce the opposite from what he is saying there.
I think the bitter lesson with the 3DS was the poor line-up and price. So for sure they will try to release the Wii U at a very competitive price, which certainly means no hardware mark-up (from what is rumoured) in my eyes and possibly even a downgrade from estimations.
ricflair on 28 Oct '11 said:
My main reason for thinking it'll be more powerful is the delay - the longer they leave it the less advantage they'll have time wise over Sony/MS, and if they are going to wait until the end of 2012 to release and there's an announcement at E3 2012 about a new xbox/PS which s**ts all over the Wii U graphically (complete with CGI'd 'target' renders to boot!!), Nintendo will be facing an uphill task and will have to really pull something out of the bag.
My thoughts on this weren't effected by what Iwata's said though. As we've got closer to 2012 with no concrete news, I've just thought they're redoing the hardware. The 3DS launch has been a bit of a f**k up though, the third parties didn't really take up the slack, the second stick debacle, the price... maybe they'll learn in terms of not trying to profit so much on the console, releasing first party games at launch, hardware design etc etc.
It could be a good time to go back into the uber powerful market anyway, they're in a great position financially and nobody else is dominant.
Eclipse Dj on 28 Oct '11 said:
If they are going to learn from a hardware perspective in regards to 3DS (and the second slider add-on) then they will certainly need to revise the Wii U controller. If it doesn't have true analog sticks/stubs (not flat sliders), analog triger buttons and click-able sticks, then many developers won't bother to bring multiplatform games to the Wii U.
The Wii U controller is meant to be able to offer a more traditional gaming experience, so if they cut corners here they will lose out massively. They also need to be able to offer at-least two Wii U controllers being connected at once, otherwise people will not buy into it, as it will look like a backwards step.
I love Ninty but my fingers were badly burnt by the 3DS price drop and lack of real compensation, maybe one free 3DS game of choice would have kept me sweet, but a handful of retro roms that can be played on the latest smart-phones did little to cushion the blow tbh.
If they can deliver the above and offer some genuinely interesting and new gaming experiences, along with a strong launch line-up then I'm sure they will be back on top (at least until the next PS and Xbox arrive) Personally I feel the Wii U needs to be at-least 1.5 or x2 more powerful than the 360/PS3 tech which is 6yrs old now anyway, if they can deliver that at a reasonable price it will make it a more viable investment or a worthy 'bridge-gap' console until the big guns arrive.
Padua on 28 Oct '11 said:
"loyal Nintendo fan" = fanboy i.e. the category of people that didn't drive the phenomenal Wii/DS Sales.
DS and Wii are brilliant products that appeal to so many people and I don't think that either needs to be improved upon.
Instead they need to be supported better. I think the average Nintendo customer is content with a few games that the can't live without : i.e WiiFit/ Zumba Fitness
I think the 3DS is cool but I don't want one and the problem Nintendo seems to have is the huge casual consumer base they acquired don't need or want it eiher. It is more than there aren't many games. They are simply happy with their DS - and well should they be. I know my sister loves her DS and iPad but has no interest in upgrading to something new... unless it breaks. Same with my mother who is enjoying her Wii.
Nintendo should just hunker down and support their current excellent products better until things pick up or the Wii-U will only result in a further U-turn in their fortunes. I can already feel the next Microsoft/Kinect console being a run away success next generation and that would be a far better focus for Nintendo than what happened with the 3DS.
NEO_SUPERMAN on 28 Oct '11 said:
Agreed.
RavenxPrime on 28 Oct '11 said:
And here we go again, an endless list of posters that have nothing better to do than moan, throw featherlite threats at Nintendo and in general act like douches.
I'll be picking the Wii-U up day one, couldn't care less if it's not as powerful as the general game playing populous demand, or if it's a bit more expensive than your penny pinching ways.
Do you really think they care if you throw out random threats of cancelling pre-orders, and as for that comment that only 3rd party games will be any good on it ... hello ... this is Nintendo ... you know that company that tends to get the best out of it's OWN systems ... duh!
I'm just glad I ain't no Nintendo fanboy or this could have been a little ranty
ted1138 on 28 Oct '11 said:
So, a Nov/Dec 2012 release then?
I bet we see Sony and MS "Paper Launch" their next consoles before that. 
humanhand on 28 Oct '11 said:
That's what I thought too.
ps. they need to get rid of the Wii U nubs, and throw in some sticks on that fuggly controller!
Agent75 on 28 Oct '11 said:
The Wii U will still be over priced like the 3DS....
Flamestrike on 28 Oct '11 said:
QFT.
alan666 on 28 Oct '11 said:
how will you feel after six months of buying a Wii U, that Nintendo have already cut the price & announced hardware revisions for a Wii U2 console releasing a further six months down the line ?
if Nintendo are the company that "get the best out of their systems" why are they releasing the extra-stick add-on ? whats wrong with the touchscreen or Augmented Reality ?
_Marty_ on 28 Oct '11 said:
I'm still unsure what Nintendos target audience is. If they are trying to compete with the Xbox/Playstation crowd, they need something, as sad as it sounds, *cool*. And calling a console 'Wii-U' is not cool, it's toilet.
I can see the only folks picking up the Wii-U are those that already have a Wii. To truly wow the hardcore gamers, they need to take another year, throw in Blu-Ray, super high specs (like a current mid to high end PC), a better name(!) and a launch line-up of 15-20 games, half of which are AAA.
ricflair on 28 Oct '11 said:
If you really think Nintendo are going to significantly redesign a home console after six months or even a year then you need your head read. Nintendo have revised their handhelds before, obviously the design of the 3DS was a misstep though. They've never redesigned a home console.
They do seem to have an identity crisis at the mo - although I don't buy the argument that 3DS casual sales are 100% dead because of iphones etc, there's still a big market there just maybe not as big, but they definitely need a good launch. I'm not sure why they need ten AAA games on release when no other console has ever launched like that.
Nitramuse on 28 Oct '11 said:
I said it before and I'll say it again: Nintendo needs to drop the Wii U name. It sounds -and even looks- horrible. Whenever I hear the name 'Wii U' I can't stop thinking of a €10 handheld system with those 16-bit built-in games...100 of 'em. It just sounds weak.
Just like the Wii itself...'Revolution' was the name to go, but noooooo...they chose 'Wii"....
Nomad44 on 28 Oct '11 said:
I think the first thing they need to do is make the Wii U work properly with two of those controllers. Then you could see some very interesting games coming out to play vs or co-op.
Also I think it's a different kettle of fish than the 3DS. I'm interested by the Wii U but right now i'd only get it if it can run two controllers.
thelazyone on 28 Oct '11 said:
On your own there mate, personally Revolution is pretty wack, firstly it contains four syllables which is a mouthful, if an irishman, scots man, jordie man where all to say "revolution", they would all say it completely different and nobody would have a clue what they are going on about.
This is a world wide brand after all, how you expect other nations to say revolution? Every other non English speaking country would have another word for what revolution means, what are Nintendo gonna do there?? Have their product localised to a 100 different versions?
Wii, like the Ipod, like ps3, like 360 are all incredible simple to say, regardless of which ethnic background and easily understandable and transferable.
Nintendo created their own brand, so their sticking with it, its the most popular gaming console name this gen.
Ohh and if a guy would say "Yeah tonight I'm just gonna go home and play revolution" that makes no sense and sounds like the lad should have paid more attention at school.
Nintendo aren't stupid.
The_Jaster on 28 Oct '11 said:
Nintendo could do all that & that particular audience would still find something to moan about........bunch of spoiled brats the lot of them.
thelazyone on 28 Oct '11 said:
hhaha 15-20 games with ten being at least 10 being AAA???? Can you develop a business/cost plan and present this to Nintendo please because that sort of demand is what dreams are made off.
Yes The_Jaster, I think you may onto something there lol
Nitramuse on 28 Oct '11 said:
Sure, it's my opinion. And I -I'm sure I'm not the only one- Wii just sucks as a name. And that's just how I see it.
But what you're saying about localising the consolenames, that's just not right. PlayStation is also a normal word, did Sony localised it to SpeelStation (dutch)? Did MS localised the Xbox to Xdoos? Did Nintendo localised the GameCube to SpelletjesCubus? iPod a iPeul? iPhone to iTelefoon? And so forth...
Yeah, PS3 is easy to say. But is Playstation Three easy to say? No, everybody literally say "Pee-Es-Three", same for Xbox 360 namely just "360". So why not the "Rev" or "Revo"...
"Yeah, toningt I'm just gonna go home and play revolution"...First of all it play WITH the Revolution. Secondly, if that was the real consolename then it would be as normal as "Tonight I'm gonna play with the Wii"
shogunreaper on 29 Oct '11 said:
Yeah..Who knew that people would actually want good games to play on their system before they spent money on it?
Who knew...
Balladeer on 29 Oct '11 said:
Nitra, who cares if the Wii's a rubbish name? People laughed at Google and Virgin when they first emerged, I'm sure. Nintendo made a brand with that name, and they're not stupid to follow it up.
What could be a problem is that the brand is one that's oriented towards the party game crowd or the bored housewife, not the gamer who might want to pick up the WiiU. And we've already had the confusion as to just what the WiiU is. So there are problems with the name, but not the one you outline.
Agent75 on 29 Oct '11 said:
Nintendo are shaking in their boots (Zelda included....). If the 3DS launched at £229, how much is the Wii U going to cost? The new controller is a great idea, but as we all know, it's all about just playing the games. The controller is a bad idea due to cost, but I can't see Nintendo ditching it now. By the time it's launched, the Xbox 720 and PS4 will be knocking on the Nintendo door.
The_Jaster on 29 Oct '11 said:
http://1-2knockout.typepad.com/.a/6a00e5505fc4968834010536e09336970b-800wi