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Miyamoto: “I Hope Consumers Look Back At Wii U As A Necessary Step In Order To Get To Nintendo Switch”

TIME magazine has run an extensive interview with Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime which has seen him discuss a number of things related to the Nintendo Switch. Fils-Aime was asked point-blank by the publication as to whether the Wii U was a necessary failure? He then brought up an interesting quote which I believes was from Shigeru Miyamoto which went along the lines of “I hope consumers look back at Wii U as a necessary step, in order to get to Nintendo Switch.”

“I don’t recall who said it but, one of our executives said something similar — I think it might have been Mr. Miyamoto, the last time he was here in New York, where he made the comment “I hope consumers look back at Wii U as a necessary step, in order to get to Nintendo Switch.” Which is another way of saying what you did.

And it’s interesting, you know, as consumers think back, the fondness and the memories shift. I joined the company as GameCube was ending its life. And as we look at the install base of the platform, certainly it’s not one of our higher install base platforms. And yet it seems the talk now is all about how consumers are hoping that there’s a GameCube virtual console, which I just find interesting.

But yes, you can look at Nintendo Switch and certainly see a lineage, not only to Wii U, but as our Switch presentation highlighted, really to so many of our historical platforms. And there is certainly no mistake in that.”

Source

85 thoughts on “Miyamoto: “I Hope Consumers Look Back At Wii U As A Necessary Step In Order To Get To Nintendo Switch””

  1. Nintendo First Order Commander Quadraxis

    ||Just provide double the weaponry we had from the Wii U and most will not look at the Wii U as it is being looked upon today…||

  2. I actually quite like the Wii U. Whilst it might not have had as many titles as other consoles, the titles it did have were, for the majority of the time, pretty damn good. Whilst my game collection is small (due to lack of funds, being a student), I managed to get a collection of good games, including:
    -Super Smash Bros
    -Bayonetta 1 & 2
    -Super Mario Bros U
    -Super Mario 3D World
    -Wind Waker (great pickup for anyone who missed the Gamecube/wants a HD one)
    -Mario Kart 8 (although the Switch port promises to be better)
    -Pokkén Tournament (fun to play, sadly couldn’t keep up with the main Pokémon series or Smash though)
    As well as this, the virtual console has allowed me access to games that I never got the chance to play, such as the Metroid Prime trilogy, the Mega Man and Mega Man X games.Despite what most people say, the Wii U will forever hold a place in my heart.

          1. Omega King Kalas Ridley X3 (Greatness Awaits at Nintendo Switch & Sony PlayStation 4! Come join us in the Light of Darkness!!)

            I hate when people in a comments or discussion thread say shit like that. “I never asked you!” If you don’t like people butting in, get the hell out of PUBLIC areas where many people actually like, hope, & expect people to be SOCIAL.

              1. Omega King Kalas Ridley X3 (Greatness Awaits at Nintendo Switch & Sony PlayStation 4! Come join us in the Light of Darkness!!)

                You’re fine since you mentioned how you’re use to dealing with trolls as I know how that is.

          2. I guess I always thought that the Xbox1 had better graphics then the PS4, my bad on that. But this will be the best graphics Nintendo has had so far, and they’re still working on making the graphics 1080p before it comes out.

              1. No problem, i’m just used to having to deal with trolls on this site so I’m glad you not one of them. Yeah I really hope they can get 60fps running, but I won’t have a cow if they don’t.

  3. I’ll always remember the wii u as the one that lacked a console fire emblem, metroid, animal crossing, kirby, etc… traditional entries so in other words not very good imo. Hopefully the switch will be different.

  4. Do not buy true that it would affect the price to attach a game, is probably more that they earn more money this way. 

  5. If the Wii U had a better U.I, OS and a GamePad that feels less like a Fisher Price toy, it would go down as one of Nintendo’s best efforts.

  6. I was initially a little bummed to not hear anything about being able to port my digital purchases from my Wii U to Switch, and though they haven’t directly said you won’t be able to(unless I have missed that) it is pretty safe to say that that is how it will be. I got to thinking though; to me the Wii U is the epitome of Nintendo’s “Golden Age”. Think about it; it is backwards compatible with Wii games and accessories and outside of GameCube games you can get a lot of older system games on the virtual console. One of the high-points is the free online access with the Wii U(now that they have stated online-pay is coming to Switch).

    I have preordered my Switch but the Wii U will maintain it’s place in my den as the collection of everything from Nintendo so far.

      1. I haven’t! I worked on it this weekend actually.
        I want to have at least three videos done to upload before I launch. I spent 2 hours yesterday hiking with my dog (German Shepherd) and had some stuff to get caught up on around the house.

        I haven’t switched the channel on yet. (There is one under my name somewhere, but that’s not the one I’m launching that relates ton gaming.)

        Just too much to do, too little time!

        1. Nintendo First Order Commander Quadraxis

          ||I see, yes too much to do for many regardless of planet, keep me updated though if you want me to visit your base…||

    1. It doesn’t have one. You’re expected to use your phone just like you are with Nintendo’s services. This $300 device just plays games and does nothing else. Maybe you’ll get Netflix and Hulu but the only Nintendo service it will run is the eShop. Everything else is a setting.

      1. Omega King Kalas Ridley X3 (Greatness Awaits at Nintendo Switch & Sony PlayStation 4! Come join us in the Light of Darkness!!)

        If that’s the case, they took those “I use my phone for voice chat” way too much to heart. :/

  7. Maybe Switch will be an unnecessary step for realizing you need to compete in terms of power, to attract third party developers.

    1. That’s what they did with the gamecube (one of my personal favorite consoles of all time) and it sold horribly. I actually think the switch is a more proper direction. If I want power I go play on my PC. If I want to play with friends I have a PS4. What I’m interested in the switch for is a fun and relaxing console that I can take on the go with me when I want to, and dock and keep playing when I get home. If this was 2011 I might agree, but what most consumers seem to want right now is good games.

    2. Gamecube was powerful, but for that console, Nintendo created their own disc format which could only contain 1.5 gb, where DVDs (PS2, xbox) could contain 4.7gb. This was a problem for porting bigger games. Also, you could not play DVDs movies for obvious reasons, which was a big deal back then. Why oh why Nintendo…..they have the best exclusives in the world, if they would just play along a bit in the competition, they would destroy the competition..

      1. I love when people bring up gamecube and 64 as a defense on why powerful systems don’t matter without looking at the obvious reasons they sold lower. 64 was cartridge and cause square and others to leave, FF7 came out and blew 64 away, and PS1 had far more games. Gamecube had the small discs like you said, looked really childish with the toaster handle and purple color, at a time when microsoft just came in to get all the teen kids to care about how mature games looked, and PS2 had the dvd player so many casuals bought it to have something for them and their kids. Gamecube was seen as the kiddie toy, so many didn’t buy it. As stupid as that may be, it definitely happened, I know in my school it did for sure.

        1. Omega King Kalas Ridley X3 (Greatness Awaits at Nintendo Switch & Sony PlayStation 4! Come join us in the Light of Darkness!!)

          As much as I loved the Gamecube’s design, I have to admit it most likely didn’t inspire much confidence from certain circles.

  8. I still enjoyed it and don’t regret my purchase. The only thing is it made me more cautious of Nintendo and may be my last entry with Nintendo.
    Regardless, I loved following it’s news and once BoTW launches I think I’ll be leaving MNN as I will no longer have anything to look forward to on my Wii U.

  9. Glad I skipped the Wii U, the first Nintendo console I chose not to own since NES. If the reports on the switch specs are accurate, this will be the second.

    1. i honestly believe the way they marketed the Wii U was where Nintendo failed; had they marketed it as some other name, like “NTab” that is also fully backwards compatible with Wii games and peripherals, it would have done much better.

      1. Nope. Wii left a bad taste in gamers mouth, so touting that it could play wii games wouldn’t help. The name didn’t help, marketing didn’t but at the end of the day, the weakness and lack of 3rd party was the issue. People say marketing like it really matters. We live in 2017, internet has been around a while. People knew what wii u was, they just didn’t care. No matter how they marketed it, it would still be the same system most people didn’t care about.

  10. I will wager in 10 year the Wii U will be the hottest retro console. I’ve loved my time with the Wii u.Short on games, but almost all of them were worth playing and plenty were pure gold.
    Alas in 10 years I think we will be looking back and realising Miyamoto, as good as he is, was Nintendo’s problem all along.
    The more we learn the more we realise he is the one to blame for Nintendo poor 3rd party relationships and that he keeps wasting the company’s time on endless projects that never come to be. It’s time he was locked away where he can make his own games but can’t interfere with the decisions of others.
    He is holding Nintendo back.

    1. A post is not valid when you blame 1 person for a whole company. 1 person don’t make all the suggestions. Actually Miyamoto is more open to suggestions than you think. You are forgetting the producer now studied under Miyamoto. Splatoon wouldn’t happen without Miyamoto’s influence. 3rd party relationship issues goes back to the N64 days. They wanted a platform they can run like they did Atari. They found it with PS and Xbox.

          1. They were not bad days. Those things he did occured over many months. Nintendo had the founders of Rock star in their hands, they screwed them over and lost any chance of GTA on Nintendo consoles. Sure he can;t read the future, but it’s another example of Nitnendo thinking the west does not know how to makes games – Much like how they ruined their American team.

            1. Again nobody’s perfect. There are more things behind the scenes for all these companies. Maybe their presentation wasn’t good enough. One man doesn’t make the decision in Nintendo. Never have and never will.

              1. The question is, to which the answer seems no, have they learned? Like I said, not seeing any proof they have. I don’t hate Nintendo, I just think the higher ups are living in a bubble that they refuse to pop, even though they know they should.

                1. That may be. I don’t know since I don’t work for Nintendo or know their thinking process. In every company there are decisions people won’t like. There some at my job but even they have their reasons for the decisions.

  11. Omega King Kalas Ridley X3 (Greatness Awaits at Nintendo Switch & Sony PlayStation 4! Come join us in the Light of Darkness!!)

    I’ll always look back at the Wii U as the console that made me see Nintendo as no longer being a viable option as my primary video game console. That honor goes to Sony now. Maybe that will change some day…

    1. Wii was the console that shook me, Wii U was the one that made me lose trust in nintendo and faith. And passion for gaming in general. But let me tell you about the ten good games on it that will make it the best retro system of all time cause I have to come up with something good to say about the system, for my fanboyism won’t allow me to say only negative things about it.

  12. No offense to Miyamoto but how could the Wii U be necessary stepping stone to get the Switch when they’re in no way similar? I know idiots like to say they’re really similar because of the screen but off-screen gameplay was just an extra feature of the Wii U. That screen was really there for touch and dual screen gameplay, both of which we lose in the console experience in the Switch.

    With the Wii U, a developer can reliable create games around touch, a second screen, a mic, a camera, plain-ass buttons, or even interaction between the Wii Remote and the gamepad. As a console, the Switch doesn’t have a mic, camera, touch screen, or second screen experience. And while the screen the Switch DOES have is multi-touch, the multi-touch functionality likely won’t be used because an IR pointer which is only capable of emulating one touch point is being used as it’s replacement.

    Really, the most common home console gameplay experience of the Switch will play more like a GameCube and the primary handheld experience would be more similar to a GBA.

  13. lets face it everyone. the Wii U protection is ending its life. so, everyone is thinking about selling there Wii Us so they can get the switch. besides, i see other people are still bagging to get it before anyone else. yeah, Nintendo Wii U is good for me, but the sad part is, nintendo admit themselves that the Wii U line is ending this year.

  14. I’m going to remember the Wii U as the console I defended and got backstabbed in the end with. In the end, I only have myself to blame for thinking too highly of Nintendo at one point. The Wii U was a failure from launch and it will be remembered as a failure. The End.

  15. In other words as the Fast & Furious: Extreme Close-Up (Universal Studios tour stop) leading to Harry Potter & the Forbidden Journey.

  16. i may b one of few to feel this way but i love my wii u. i wish insted of the switch they just keep upgrading the wii u . i meet so many people who love super mario who dont evn kno the wii u exists. when i tell them about it they allways say they want to get it.wii u has way more mario games than the switch will have. i spend hours with my wii u and will keep on doing so. i am ad allways hav been plenty happy with my wii u an games. and the mario odysey looks amazeing but im so sad i cant play 2 players on it no Luigi caus i spend 5 hours a week playing 2 player mario games with my mom who had a stroke 5 years ago and the games have realley helped her recovery!!

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