GameStop CEO Paul Raines sat down with alistdaily for an interview. In it, he discusses the Wii U and the reception it has gotten since the console was released. Raines mentions that the Wii U was “disappointing to everybody, including them [Nintendo]”. Raines continues by saying that Nintendo “made some bold bets, and maybe some of them didn’t work out”. Despite the Wii U’s situation, Raines did say they never count out Nintendo. He explains why, complimenting them for having “a lot of creativity” and being “a very innovative group of people”. Raines talks about Nintendo’s IPs and how strong some of them are, using Pokemon as an example.
There were also some remarks about the NX. Raines reveals that “there is some excitement around NX”, and that GameStop has been “hearing a lot more buzz than we have in the past”. He complimented Nintendo again, calling them “interesting in that they really are able to keep things as quiet as they can for a while”. Raines concludes by saying that the NX “is exciting”, and that GameStop is “looking forward to it”. In fact, Raines even goes so far as to say that he thinks GameStop will be the “dominant distributor of that platform”.
“dominant distributor”
I wonder what that means exactly… Like, I assume we will be able to buy it anywhere, but perhaps Gamestop will have some exclusives? Unless that is just bullish talk from the CEO of a company that very much would like the hottest console coming out to be sold the most at his stores
he’s just talking about total gross sales. that’s all ceo’s care about
I’ve been a Nintendo fanboy my whole life and have owned every Nintendo console. The wii u was/is definitely the biggest letdown of them all.
Yeah, gotta agree there… There where some good titles, but the console itself was something I was never excited for. The original unveil didn’t excite me at all either, since I thought Nintendo would go a totally diferent way with the next console.
When the Wii U first released, and people were already bashing it and saying it was doomed (even before anyone could possibly know that), I used to get mad at them and defend the Wii U. I thought the Wii U was amazing with it’s beautiful HD graphics and such. And I was proud of Nintendo for their first leap into the HD world. But even I can’t deny that it’s been a horrible letdown. Between the stupid name, the weak 8GB/32GB hard drives, poor advertising and third party companies abandoning the console, it never stood a chance. It was basically just a console for indie games.
It wasn’t disappointing to me, got and enjoyed more games for it than for any of the 7th gen consoles.
I played all multiplats on PC so that takes away a lot of games for the PS3 and Xbox360.
The Wii U sucks. Even the original 3DS is better. :-)
the wii U was dissapointing to my wallet*
Wii U was kind of disappointing when compared to the other “current gen” consoles because they had more power, and thus more 3rd party devs made games for them and not Wii U. Which lead to lower Wii U sales and to a degree less 1st party support because the install base wasn’t as high as Nintendo would’ve liked.
As far as the games it did get though, I thought they were pretty solid. It could just be because I’m in my 20’s now and have more expendable income than I did as a child but I bought more games for Wii U than most other platforms I’ve owned. Sure I couldn’t really get any of the multiplatform games I wanted on this system but the first party efforts were still pretty good. I love Off-TV Play and having a second screen for certain games like Zelda where it isn’t required but actually enhanced the experience. (Haven’t gotten to Star Fox Zero yet, so I can’t comment on that).
Overall I think if the Wii U came out against 360 and PS3 it would’ve done great, or maybe if it’s specs were comparable to PS4/Xbox One then it could’ve kept up sales-wise. At this point though I think they need to wait and see what PS4K/Neo and Xbox One… Elite? is gonna do as far as specs and leapfrog that to ensure that they stay current and can get 3rd party devs on board for now. Who knows what they’ll do if/when Sony and MS take full generational leaps again…
The “only” reason I bought a Wii U was to play some of the Wii U exclusive games or I would have by-passed it completely, largely due to the gamepad. I love the original Wii U and still have it right next to the Wii U.
Can’t say I consider it a disappointment for me either, but it could have been MUCH better.
This site really needs and edit button.
Both WordPress AND Miiverse need an edit button. Maybe not enough of us are being very loud & vocal about the absence of an Edit Button.
I found the reply button, its on the top of a comment now. I still hate this new site setup though, the ads are way too in your face.
The replies aren’t even layed out in a way that shows that it’s a comment thread -_- At least on a phone. The site doesn’t keep reloading the page while I try to comment anymore though, so that’s a plus lol
Its over all a change for the worse and i wish Sickr would change it back!
Me first comment! What do I say… uh… though the Wii U was a disappointment in sales, we must not forget the true quality of the game console. This had to have been without a doubt my favorite nintendo console yet and I can’t wait for the NX to improve upon the formula the Wii U set out, and smooth out those rough edges.
The Wii U was your favorite Nintendo console? Wow, it’s honestly one of Nintendos worst.
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I’m not disappointed at all with my U, I’m just disappointed with Nintendo not adjusting in the current market. My huge back log for the U supports that.
Dominant distributor? Hilarious.
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Sales wise, yes. Nobody can dispute that. In terms of the quality of the Console, then it depends on each person’s experience with the System. For some, it was a Great Console, for others, it was a Bad Console and for the rest, it was very middle of the road.
Gamestop was disappointing to everybody, including WiiU owners.
there, all fixed.
actually, this guy needs to shut his pie hole and go back to figuring out how mobile phones and tablets are gonna save his shit-show sham of a business before it bankrupts.
fuckin clown.
And you disappoint everyone except yourselves Gamestop. XD
That Electrode avatar is too fitting.
Thank ya. Made it myself.
I had some really good times with the Wii U from about 2014 all the way through 2015. It’s finally starting to die down for me, I’m ready for the NX. I need something fresh, bring it on Nintendo!
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^I bought a shirt from this guy and it gave me the Zika virus. BUYER BEWARE! BUYER BEWARE!!
I would say the wii U itself is not a disappointment but Nintendo produced half-baked ideas which did not hit the consumers and the marketing material/execution was so…. well we all know how it was. On the top of that Nintendo did not make the same move as Microsoft and Sony during black Fridays and Christmas (2014 and 2015 edition). I clearly remember the Xbox being being the wii U before those event and went on to overtake them.
The wii U have so much potential and yet I do believe less than 70% were used. I think the network infrastructure would have been better as the wii U sales grow stronger.
Nintendo TVii is one of those half baked idea which did not materialise very well. I still believe that Nintendo had lot of plans for the wii u which now has been transferred to the NX
Again that only my opinion but those who complain about the Gamepad and found it a gimmick are just pussy and not real player. A player need to be challenged constantly (which include different way of control) and the game pad did that. If people want a simple controller which has been use for the past 30 years and can’t handle an innovative controller then go and see Sony and Microsoft.
Personally I found the gamepad to be a great and unique idea. Of course the battery life of the gamepad is … not very good but I hope Nintendo will not give up on it. Again I am pretty sure the Wii U can output a game on two gamepads but that again did not materialise.
To be honest I don’t think the NX will sell if Nintendo don’t do any aggressive marketing. In UK the marketing was really terrible and from what I can gather in the comment sections the same happened in North America. To conclude that long tirade it’s not the product itself but the delivery from Nintendo which was a really disappointment
You should get a high capacity battery, i got one off the nintendo website for $39.99. It lasts 8 hours! I love it. I played all the way through the first run of Starfox and still had plenty of battery life left!
you know what? this is one of those thing where I say: “yeah I will get it next time”… then time flies and 2 years after.. “yeah I should get one soon”. I am playing xenoblade chronicle X and on the week-end it’s not rare I have a 10h session. Now the Wii U will be phase out I really need to get one LOL. I heard the High capacity is like night and day (unless my sources were a bit too please with the high capacity one)
Even at this point I think it’s still worth the investment. I see my self still playing Splatoon and Mario Maker, and regardless of what the haters say I’m enjoying Starfox. And if you don’t plan on getting the NX right away and are going to go with the Zelda U edition then it will be worth the investment for sure.
Agree with you and I am one of those who won’t buy the NX (even if it means to avoid mario kart 9 and xenoblade chronicle X2) purely because I feel that Nintendo conned me and to be honest even if I wanted it I have a lot of backlog with the Wii U anyway. Furthermore I planned to buy the wii U version of zelda (1 reason among 4 I decided to buy the wii u in the 1st place).
I’m also getting Zelda U on the WiiU. Don’t worry, IF there is an X2, it won’t be for a very long time. Same with Metroid. Same with anything except your standard issue Mario, Yoshi, Kirby, Captain Toad… they can crank those out in their sleep.
I’ll get the NX maybe 2 yrs after launch. Pay a fuck-ton less and probably get a Metroid Bundle or some such. There is no reason that I’ve seen to pay Nintendo early-adopter premiums anymore.
Let the new and naive Nintendo fans waste their money funding Nintendo’s bullshit. I’ll jump on the NX train once Nintendo puts a few solid Boxcars behind the engine.
Minus the getting Zelda U for Wii U, I agree with everything else. Unless the NX has a nice little launch line up of 1st party games that are either new or are ports of Wii U games I didn’t get, in which case, I won’t mind being at least a Month 1 buyer. But if it doesn’t have what EYE want, I’ll wait a year like you & just get it when it’s either cheaper or on sale.
Yep . Love my High-Capacity battery. No external shit hanging off the gamepad, you can walk away from it without worrying about it dying in two minutes… good call!
It’s largely because of so many third-party companies abandoning the Wii U. I think it would have stood a much better chance if that didn’t happen.
Bleh, Gamestop. They have the most expensive products anywhere.
PREPARE FOR A SUPER LONG COMMENT..
The Wii U was a disappointment to me within the first year or so. After that, it started to get some really amazing games. Pikmin 3 showed me how the Gamepad could improve gameplay, and I love it. Mario 3D World is fantastic, played through the entirety of it with friends. Mario Kart 8 is by far the best of the MK series (imo). Smash Wii U proved that I could actually like a new entry more than Melee (I hated Brawl). Splatoon is a super creative new IP that got me back into the shooter genre (grew tired of shooting games, having primarily played games on the xbox360 last gen… played too many shooters). I could go on, like Bayonetta 2 being my favorite 3d action game, or Star Fox Zero being very unique and fun… but, I think I made my point.
The Wii U had quite a few great games. It’s not a perfect console, and they definitely didn’t think through all the problems they’d encounter. But I’ve LOVED far more games on Wii U than I have the other consoles out right now (gotta shoutout to Bloodborne though, I LOOOVE bloodborne). Sure, it’s specs aren’t up to date, and it doesn’t get third party support as a result of that (and other factors). But, for me, the Wii U was a hell of a lot better than the original Wii. The Wii is my least favorite Nintendo console (despite it having 5 games I like.. yes, literally 5). I gave up on Nintendo last gen, and the U’s amazing exclusives brought me back. I hope Nintendo knocks it out of the park with the NX. There’s a LOT of room to improve upon after the Wii U. And more importantly, I want more amazing games.
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It was disappointing to me. I think it’s ok. Was a massive let down imo. Could’ve been so much better.
Wii U makes me miss the Gamecube. :/ Such a way better gaming library. And Nintendo of America wasn’t as censor happy with the games they published in the West. Imagine how bad Eternal Darkness, Baten Kaitos, & a few others would have been censored if they got released on Wii U in the last 6 months. :/
Only difference is Gamecube was awesome while Wii U is it’s less successful, more hated brother.
I love my wii u and while yes granted the game cube was vastly superior with fire emblem path of radiance and pn03 eternal darkness timesplitters 2 and the awesome phantasy star online and my faves tales of symphonia harvest moon soul calibur 2 the zelda collection and smash if they added cube backwards compatability i think the wii u would of had more love