The follow up to the Wii console had some fairly large shoes to fill, and by all accounts, the Wii U has achieved only a fraction of the success its predecessor has. However, some within the company still feel there’s hope.
Looking ahead to the remainder of 2014, Nintendo’s marketing executive Scott Moffitt thinks the coming year could finally be what puts them over the top (thus squashing rumors they’ll do away with the hardware all together). In a recent interview, Moffitt states that “As I look at what we have coming this holiday, now with Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros., plus the innovation of Amiibo , I think we are right at that tipping point… I think there are a lot of people that are going to have a hard time resisting buying a Wii U once Smash Bros. comes out. I think that’s going to be a major hardware driver for us. So that’s the narrative we hope that plays out and that I think we are starting to see play out.”
While many would point to the limitations of the Wii U’s hardware as one of its biggest limitations in the current video game climate (with powerhouses like the One and PS4 on the market), Nintendo feels their console is currently offering the truly innovative technology. When referring to their second screen experience of the Wii U GamePad, he states it’s “… the only innovation that’s come in this new generation of consoles. So we have the only real point of difference. Certainly graphics are faster, graphics are better. This is not a real innovation for gamers. We are fully committed to leveraging the GamePad, to keeping it bundled with the system.”
Do you think 2014 will be the year Nintendo and the Wii U make a serious come back? Let us know in the comments below!