I think Nintendo would have gotten more people buying the hardware if it were an add-on.

Sticking with the Wii name could have worked better had they used a better name than Wii U. As others mentioned Wii 2 would have been fine. It easily establishes that this is the follow up to the Wii.

I agree. I’ll add, I think simply calling it Wii 2 might have changed Nintendo history. LOL!

I remember thinking “I’ll probably get the new Nintendo console” before they announced the Wii U. Then they announced it, I heard the name and thought, “Nope, they haven’t learned anything.” Never bought a Wii U.

That’s true. But that part didn’t worry me too much because I figured because of the DS they knew what they were doing with a 2 screen set up. Turns out, they never really did.

They just didn’t want to give up the cachet of the Wii name that had made them so much money (sometimes Nintendo really acts like a cargo cult) but didn’t realize the Wii was already dead.   Those people were bored and moved on long ago. Even us ‘hardcore’ people were mostly sick of the stupid gimmicky Wiimote that…

It was honestly so, so, so bad. I was working for GameStop at the time and for MONTHS I had to try my best to explain to people that no, it wasn’t an add-on for the wii, it was a whole new thing, and no it wasn’t a handheld, that was the controller, and it had a second screen on it, and.... you get the idea. They…

Actually, the commercial makes me believe that even the marketing team was not aware the Wii U was a brand new console, and thus tought it was a new hardware add-on that would work on the Wii...

Keeping the “Wii” moniker was the first mistake. People couldn’t even tell if it was a new system, or an upgrade/expansion.

The Xbox One was a stupid name but the marketing made it perfectly clear it was a new console. The Wii U did not.

“With permadeath and” Aaaaand I just instantly lost all interest. God damn, when are indie devs going to get over this boner they have for permadeath? It’s a horrible scrappy mechanic that should have died back in the 80s from whence it spawned.

I’ve seen that happen, but never that far back

I live in the area. This is just an old ad in the background when they removed the current one.

It’s amusing how a system with 5 launch games, only one of which looks to be any good, and an abysmal gaming year of 25 titles getting released (with over half of them being ports) is getting so much attention

What?! They already sold all 5 of them?!
G.. get it.. because.. Nintendo always under-stocks. *sighs*

If I find a place locally that has availability I’ll most likely sell my preorder on eBay depending on going rate. Nintendo gets theirs, i get mine, and someone gets the system they want that will only have 3 games worth playing for a year. Win win win.

I know the GameStop near me was only taking 25 pre orders while for the PS4 they had about 60.

Beauty of living in a small town. My gamestop will get a few units and it’s a town full of rednecks who don’t understand video games, so i’ll be able to walk in and get one.

yeah you’re real smart to preorder a nintendo console, that could never backfire.

Fucking gamestop man, what a joke.