Stupid News: People still confused by Wii addon known as WiiU
I’m sure many of you saw the news last week that the WiiU, the shoe-box long, three Wii’s taped together follow up to the Wii, is scheduled to invade stores everywhere the last weekend before Thanksgiving (also known as November 18th, for those of you reading this outside the US). Now, aside from crazy announcements like Bayonetta being a Nintendo console exclusive, Platinum Games’ wacky beat-em up ‘P-100′ finally getting a name, and a painfully boring demo that tried desperately to make the WiiU look as comfortable in the living room as your Xbox 360 (whose only pay off was that Reggie loves Breaking Bad…as much as everyone else), there’s one main issue that Nintendo is still doing a lousy job of clearing up: the fact that the WiiU is a new ‘freakin’ console.
While this may not seem like a big issue to mainstream gamers who are in the know, it’s a big hurdle for those who only own a Wii and may not feel like upgrading or aren’t sure about what they’re getting with this “new hotness” that shares three out of four letters with the thing they already own. And the truth is Nintendo has brought this confusion on itself. I mean, the WiiU has “Wii” in the title for a reason. Nintendo doesn’t want to make people think it’s a new console; a replacement, something that makes the Wii obsolete. They want people to think it’s an upgrade to what they already have. Something that will enhance and bring new life to the experience they already enjoy. And they’ve gone to great lengths to assure people it will most definitely work with Wii gear they already have in their homes.
Additionally, Nintendo has spent much more time talking about the new gamepad that comes with the WiiU as opposed to the console itself. This tactic is, of course, all be design. If you see the console, you’re sure to see the gamepad in the shot as well, because Nintendo has, over the last to decades, become the company of novelty. They’re looking for ways to sell an idea or a mode or a style of gaming rather than games or the act of playing those games (Virtual Boy says “hi”). And while some might argue a gamepad isn’t nearly as earth shattering as the Wiimote was in the world of the iPad and the Vita, Nintendo is going back to its bag of tricks that worked so well in selling oodles of Wiis to millions of people over the past 5 years.
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