Smash Wii U Can Smash 4 save the Wii U?

[CyberWolfBia]

saving or not, I already made my choice; buying a Wii U was one of the best things that I did in years. a very cool system and with enjoyable games; ... if the Wii U can't be "saved" (I believe that correct term, actually, is winning the competition), isn't will turn it a bad console.. seeing how 64 and the Cube are still very well structured consoles for their ages, with a humble library of games, but 70% (or more) of games are excelent (1st, 2nd and some exclusive 3rd parties as Resident Evil Remake).

But, in my opinion, I believe in a recovery of the console .. the line up for 2014 is very decent, and it's clear that Nintendo has more plans for the near future ...btw Mario Kart 8 coming in May is already nice news!
I hoping for the better, but I really don't care what will happen, since, I already satisfied with the product I purchased. (I never cared, actually, I play only videogames =P).

 

[bc1910]

I think it'll contribute to saving it alongside things like Mario Kart but I'm not sure it'll ever have the success Nintendo wanted.

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

One thing does seem certain though; taking it slow and steady isn't always the best answer to solving your problems. If a console doesn't have very many 1st party software titles when it's released, profit issues are prone to happen.

 

[lordvaati]

The Nintendo cycle will happen, remember the 3DS? Nintendo's ALWAYS GOING OUT OF BUSINESS until they shut everyone up with flurries of amazing games.

No one's saying that Nintendo is DOA. The handheld market alone would be enough to keep them around for ages. The issue however is that the Wii-U has been suffering disturbingly low sales, and part of the issue is that it took them so long to bring out their big guns.

No one wants another scenario like the Virtual Boy or Game Boy Micro, where the item is dying to justify it's existence. Or if system sales do stay low, at least the console can die a hero like the Dreamcast did.

 

[LancerStaff]

I'm honestly not of the opinion that the Wii U needs "saving."

This. There's no way Nintendo is loosing money on the Wii U with Nintendo building their systems in ways to avoid loosing money. Nintendo only 'lost' like 15$ per GC, and who'd buy a GC without a game? Bam, Nintendo's back in the dough. I'd imagine the Wii U would be in the same situation.

 

[smashmachine]

oh wow you people
yes, Nintendo is losing money on the Wii U, where do you think their losses are coming from, the 3DS?

 

[pitthekit]

The wii u is a damsel in distress while smash is a secret aristocrat.

 

[ChibiIceClimberz]

oh wow you people
yes, Nintendo is losing money on the Wii U, where do you think their losses are coming from, the 3DS?

Not sure if serious. The Wii U is actually making a profit under certain conditions. Much of their losses come from this year's underperformance for both Wii U and 3DS and software numbers not breaking even, e.g., The Wonderful 101.

On topic, Smash won't really save the Wii U, but it will boost its sales. Saving requires more high-profile and appealing games in order to gain momentum, and as of now it clearly doesn't look like it will considering the long release gap between Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and Mario Kart 8 and post-Mario Kart 8.

 

[LancerStaff]

Nintendo only posted a loss that one year they dropped the 3DS's price and had tons of Wii Us not ready for the market.

 

[1MachGO]

Any Nintendo executive will disagree with you on this. When high profile company executives are taking massive pay cuts just to keep sales afloat they might as well be waving a giant white flag in terms of how terrible they're currently doing in the console war.

You are speculating and it seems like you only glanced at the article you cited.

Take this quote for instance:

"Nintendo's president, senior managing director, managing director and directors said they will take a pay cut for five months starting in February to take responsibility for the poor performance."

This sounds much more like typical Japanese culture than precautionary measures to save a failing company. In Japan, it is far more common for individuals to take responsibility for their actions. Also, like johnknight said, Nintendo is extremely wealthy and they could probably keep "failing" for a long time before they'd be in trouble.

 

[The Real Gamer]

You are speculating and it seems like you only glanced at the article you cited.

Take this quote for instance:

"Nintendo's president, senior managing director, managing director and directors said they will take a pay cut for five months starting in February to take responsibility for the poor performance."

This sounds much more like typical Japanese culture than precautionary measures to save a failing company. In Japan, it is far more common for individuals to take responsibility for their actions. Also, like johnknight said, Nintendo is extremely wealthy and they could probably keep "failing" for a long time before they'd be in trouble.

Once again... This isn't about Nintendo going bankrupt I was merely giving a concrete example of how poor the console is performing on the market.

I didn't know this was a typical practice in Japanese culture though... Very interesting.

Nintendo executives did this when the 3DS had issues. Look how that turned out.

I don't think it's fair to compare the two since the console war is an entirely different beast.

But once again I'm going to reiterate that this topic has nothing to do with the well being of Nintendo the company and instead the reputation/performance of the Wii U compared to its Sony/Microsoft console counterpart.

 

[iam8bit]

Nintendo's best Wii U games are yet to come, including Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart, Smash 4 and Zelda.

The combination of all of those will help, because people like me will FINALLY have a reason to purchase the console.

It will surely help... just don't expect the Wii U to jump to 1st place.

 

[dezeray112]

I would say probably a combination of Mario Kart and Smash Bros and a number of key titles will help.

If they ever do a Smash Bros. Wii U bundle, then that is something that I will get (since I do not have a Wii U as of yet.)

 

[ChickenWing13]

This topic gave me cancer.

 

[Norm]

Smash Bros won't save the Wii U but it'll give the system a boost. With Smash, DK, Mario kart, bayonetta 2, X, Watch Dogs, Child of Light, Hyrule Warriors, E3, and whatever else comes out this year they'll probably get a decent boost come next Holiday season. Especially if they give the system a price drop. It sucks that the wii U is doing so poorly but the gamecube only sold 21 million in it's life time. It's still really only been a year and a bit since the Wii U was launched. It was a ****ty launch overall but, if Nintendo buckles down and gets to work they'll do okay.

I think if they keep pumping out big games, getting big scores, oh and I don't ****ing know reviving a few old under used IP's they can turn it around to some degree. F-zero would go over well I'm sure and a new Star Fox would be cool. That and they need to crank out some new IP's and work on getting more third party support. The announcement that they are willing to license out their IP's to other companies to make games on the Wii U is a good start. I'm sure there are loads of companies who are piratically frothing at the mouth for the opportunity to take a crack at some of Nintendo's IP's.

The biggest problem for the Wii U is the fact that graphically it's not really next gen. It can't pump out what the PS4 and X-Box one can. If you're a developer are you going to make a game that can be pumped out on PC, PS4, and X-Box one? Or games that can be pumped out on the Wii U? Financially the answer is obvious. Overall this low is not really anything to be that worried about. Nintendo is still a big ****ing company it can take a hit and keep going. They'll ride this low out, make whatever money they can, and bide their time till the next launch. Besides if they keep pumping out stellar games that get good reviews the sales will go up. Most gamers have two home systems anyway so the PS4 and X-Box one owners are probably just waiting for a price drop and more games to play before they pick up their second system. Which will most likely be a Wii U since it's cheaper and everyone loves Nintendo's main IP's anyway lol, so it'll balance out a bit.

Hopefully Nintendo will use what they learned with the Wii U to make a better go at it next time. But that probably wont be for a decade or close enough to it lol. So we may as well settle in boys and girls things aren't going to change that much any time soon.

 

[Trigger123]

I Dont even have a Wii U and I'm not planning on getting when until this comes near to coming out, I might buy other games like mario kart and whenever they release the next metroid game. And pleas another star fox its been too long

 

[Mr. Mumbles]

What qualifies as being saved? If it makes it to Gamecube levels have we arrived? How about N64? Super Nintendo? Wii? Is it when Nintendo consistently makes a profit?

I think through various titles the WiiU will get to similair levels as the Gamecube, which is quite a bit better then they're doing now, but I don't know if that means that they will be saved or not.

 

[J1NG]

People, people, please.
Games like Mario Kart, Bayonetta 2, and Legend of Zelda are the Krillin, Piccolo, and Tien of Nintendo. As such, all you need to do is realize that the fate of the Wii U is the same as the fate of the planet Earth in an arc of Dragon Ball Z.
All we need to do is just wait. Buy time. Hold on just a little longer.

Sooner or later, Goku will be upon us.
When he arrives, he will carry our hopes and dreams for the future on his mighty Saiyan back.

 

[pitthekit]

People, people, please.
Games like Mario Kart, Bayonetta 2, and Legend of Zelda are the Krillin, Piccolo, and Tien of Nintendo. As such, all you need to do is realize that the fate of the Wii U is the same as the fate of the planet Earth in an arc of Dragon Ball Z.
All we need to do is just wait. Buy time. Hold on just a little longer.

Sooner or later, Goku will be upon us.
When he arrives, he will carry our hopes and dreams for the future on his mighty Saiyan back.

Hey piccolo tried to stop Freiza and gave my hope as a child to beat that flamboyant gay purple alien.

And in dragon ball z the earth blows up soo many times.

 

[Norm]

People, people, please.
Games like Mario Kart, Bayonetta 2, and Legend of Zelda are the Krillin, Piccolo, and Tien of Nintendo. As such, all you need to do is realize that the fate of the Wii U is the same as the fate of the planet Earth in an arc of Dragon Ball Z.
All we need to do is just wait. Buy time. Hold on just a little longer.

Sooner or later, Goku will be upon us.
When he arrives, he will carry our hopes and dreams for the future on his mighty Saiyan back.

I'd like to think The Legend of Zelda is at least Vegeta or Gohan level. Hmmm Smash Bro's is a merger of all characters does that make it Vegetto?

 

[Hong]

People, people, please.
Games like Mario Kart, Bayonetta 2, and Legend of Zelda are the Krillin, Piccolo, and Tien of Nintendo. As such, all you need to do is realize that the fate of the Wii U is the same as the fate of the planet Earth in an arc of Dragon Ball Z.
All we need to do is just wait. Buy time. Hold on just a little longer.

Sooner or later, Goku will be upon us.
When he arrives, he will carry our hopes and dreams for the future on his mighty Saiyan back.

Or will he arrive to a planet after it has already been destroyed?

... I'll start gathering the Dragon Balls...

 

[HaZarD2kv]

I think Smash Wii U will save the system. For how long though? That answer will come with how competitive the game is. The community is what makes the game and the meta-game is based off of tournament play. This will determine its life for the system.

 

[Graydient]

No, I don't think Smash 4 will save the Wii U. It will definitely help a lot, but there's a few things I never really quite see being mentioned:

A) The Wii was incredibly successful because of the Motion Sensing gimmick. At the time of its release, the Wii opened up a new way of playing games, something that the PS3 and 360 could not offer at the time (and later imitated with little success). In this case, the Wii's killer app wasn't Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart, Skyward Sword, or even Brawl: it was Wii Sports. Combined with the fact that it was ridiculously cheaper to manufacture and produce games for (hence the mountain of shovelware), pretty much all the stars lined up for the Wii to succeed.

B) The Wii's lifespan was at a time when mobile gaming was relatively new. Nowadays, most casual gamers get their fix from apps, which is in direct competition with Nintendo if viewed as a "cheaper alternative with a lower entry barrier". Also, the novelty of motion sensing control is mostly gone.

C) Even aside from the poor marketing the Wii U has as an upgrade to the Wii, the Wii U does not offer anything immediately visible and desirable to consumers. The Wii U's main gimmick is asymmetrical gaming via using a giant controller tablet hybrid. Although there is plenty of potential in that concept (particularly for local multiplayer party games), the gimmick is just not immediately intuitive or revolutionary.

My 2 cents.

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

Truthfully, no consoles can truly be saved, as sooner or later, they will be discontinued. I think the story should be more, "Can Nintendo make a comeback from its profit drops?".

 

[Kevandre]

What Nintendo needs to focus on is games, not the console. There’s nothing wrong with the Wii U’s hardware (Aside from a lack of an ethernet port). But they haven’t marketed it correctly. Instead of connecting the name to something popular (Wii), they should have called it something new because people seem to think that it’s just an extension of the Wii. Which is entirely incorrect.


The Wii U wasn’t worth buying until very recently and even then, I don’t know. It’s only recently started getting games worth playing (Mario 3D World being the most important, but the HD Wind Waker & Pikmin 3 help a lot) but it’s still not enough. When Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros come out, then it’ll be a different story… For a while. I don't think those two alone can save it. Nintendo has forgotten their fanbase. They need more games that people will actually like.


There’s more they can do. Nintendo has money. If they want to reclaim their core market, here’s what they do:


1) Buy RareWare from Microsoft. MS isn’t doing jack with this developer, and the only halfway decent games they’ve made for them has been Viva Pinata related. Let’s get Rare back to what they were when they made any game amazing. Donkey Kong. Banjo Kazooie. Freaking Goldeneye. The N64 is well remembered for a LOT of what Rare did, people still go back to this day to play these games. Why waste such a good company?


2) Work with Double Fine and acquire the exclusivity rights to the Psychonauts franchise, bring Psychonauts 2 exclusively to Wii U. This is a game that isn’t being made only because of lack of funding. While the first game didn’t sell much when it initially came out, it’s become a serious classic and the Steam release easily outsold the Xbox’s version within 24 hours of release. This game alone would be enough to sell a lot of consoles. Need marketing for it? Put Razputin in Smash Bros. Done.


3) 1st party games have been forgotten if they aren’t Mario or Zelda. A true sequel to Star Fox 64 with no damn ground missions or annoying blue foxes. A new F Zero with kickass HD graphics. Metroid Prime 4 (Really, even though I’m not a big Prime fan, it’s a system seller). Look what it did for Pit. Kid Icarus Uprising is the 17th highest grossing 3DS title, which is great for a series that hasn’t seen a game since 1991.

I seriously hope Nintendo reads random smashboards posts because they really need to turn around and those things I just mentioned would bring back the market.

 

[LancerStaff]

1) Buy RareWare from Microsoft. MS isn’t doing jack with this developer, and the only halfway decent games they’ve made for them has been Viva Pinata related. Let’s get Rare back to what they were when they made any game amazing. Donkey Kong. Banjo Kazooie. Freaking Goldeneye. The N64 is well remembered for a LOT of what Rare did, people still go back to this day to play these games. Why waste such a good company?


2) Work with Double Fine and acquire the exclusivity rights to the Psychonauts franchise, bring Psychonauts 2 exclusively to Wii U. This is a game that isn’t being made only because of lack of funding. While the first game didn’t sell much when it initially came out, it’s become a serious classic and the Steam release easily outsold the Xbox’s version within 24 hours of release. This game alone would be enough to sell a lot of consoles. Need marketing for it? Put Razputin in Smash Bros. Done.


3) 1st party games have been forgotten if they aren’t Mario or Zelda. A true sequel to Star Fox 64 with no damn ground missions or annoying blue foxes. A new F Zero with kickass HD graphics. Metroid Prime 4 (Really, even though I’m not a big Prime fan, it’s a system seller). Look what it did for Pit. Kid Icarus Uprising is the 17th highest grossing 3DS title, which is great for a series that hasn’t seen a game since 1991.

There's tons of problems with all of that.
1, Rare's original workers are all gone and doing their own projects.
2, It'll be Bayonetta 2 all over again,and Nintendo fans haven't been interested in traditional shooters since the GC because they're 'generic'.

And 3, Those franchises have major issues. The biggest complaint about 643D? 'Too short'. Even lining up the stages isn't enough for more then a day. F-Zero? It's too hard, and this is coming from somebody who's 100%ed MMZ1-4. Take away the outrageous difficultly, and there's nothing left but C.Falcon on the box. Those two franchises only sell to the most hardcore Nintendo fans.

 

[Ulti-Bman]

Nintendo made some big mistakes, but I simply can't resist good ol' Nintendo first-party. What are the sales now...? I believe it's Wii U with 5.86 mil, PS4 with 4.7 mil, and Xbox One with 3.3 mil. Wii U has moved about....230,000,000 units this month, pretty meh. PS4 has moved 600,000,000 this month and Xbox has moved about 355,000,000. I'm actually impressed, however, that the Wii U has managed to move that many consoles despite it not having any major titles released recently. How many units did 3D World manage to move? I think that at it's current pace, the Wii U still has some hope seeing as though the 2014 lineup is pretty hype-worthy. In fact, I myself am still adamant to buying PS4 until it's lineup improves. Until then, it's my future Kingdom Hearts Machine. However, not everyone shares my opinion, and I can easily see PS4 overtaking Wii U in about a year, regardless of Smash or its other games. I don't see how the Xbox One is all that successful. It's recently been launched....yet it's only moving 355,000,000 a month and that number is sure to go down over time. Call me crazy, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Wii U is still surpassing Xbox by the end of 2014. Wii U and Xbox One share the same problem....publicity. Seriously, waltz on over to IGN (yes, it sucks, but it has a wide audience) and you'll see the console obviously held superior. PS4, full stop. Wii U also suffers a LOT of gaming bias due to it's past mistakes (late release, poor marketing,). Here's proof:

As you can see, Nintendo dug themselves into a pit, yet it's not too late to crawl out of. My research (mainly viewing comments on various gaming sites XD) shows that the Wii U is slowly, yet surely gaining popularity as gamers become more aware of the 2014 line-up, but time will tell if this will be enough. To put it in perspective, the Wii U has the capability to still sell over 200,000,000 units with no recent games. That's a good thing, but is it enough? What does this mean when games DO come out? All I know for certain is that Nintendo needs to take drastic steps to make the Wii U more successful. I don't think 3rd-party is the answer, even if it was, it's practically too late. I think it lies on improving public image. They NEED to advertise more, and at a much better quality. At least they're spreading their wings a bit by setting up partnerships to handle things. This should allow them to multitask, and I wouldn't be surprised if old franchises make a return. This wouldn't boost sales drastically, but retro fans will definitely see benefit in Metroid and Star Fox once more, and perhaps give some NES/SNES series reboots a la Uprising? Furthermore, Sakurai's decision to put Smash on 3DS is too risky in my opinion. I mean, does the casual market really care about the upmost competitive experience (Wii U version)? This now gives Smash fans a reason to NOT purchase a console for their beloved franchise, and thus, they won't be able to branch out into games such as Mario Kart 8 or X or Bayonetta 2 or DCK: TF, all games with HUGE potential (I guarantee these three games will get average reviewer scores of 9 AT LEAST). Look at 3D World! Incredible game, but Wii U's publicity stunts it's sales. Nintendo needs to make itself look good. It needs to integrate into a better online system for example. Pretty abrupt ending, but that's all I have to say about the Wii U. I own one, and I love it, but Nintendo missed some opportunities that set it back millions of units. I have high hopes with Iwata's new plan, but we need to see much more.

 

[JediLink]

There’s nothing wrong with the Wii U’s hardware

There's everything wrong with the Wii U's hardware. It's underpowered compared to the PS4 and Xbone so it has no chance of getting ports, but because of the expensive gamepad it costs almost as much as systems it's vastly inferior to spec-wise, and significantly more than systems it's equal to (as opposed to the DS, Wii and 3DS, which, although underpowered, had an edge over the competition by being much cheaper).

The gamepad also makes developing games to the Wii U a pain in the ass for third parties. It's like "Oh great, now we've got to figure out what the gamepad's going be used for". However, even if you do have some amazing idea that can only work because of the second screen, you still wouldn't want to develop for the Wii U because the 3DS has the exact same gimmick and is almost always going to be the better option.

I think everyone knows at this point that the Wii U is beyond saving, even Iwata. Smash 4 is going to cause a noticeable spike in sales, but after that it's just going to go back to how it is now.

 

[Eternal phoenix Fire]

saving or not, I already made my choice; buying a Wii U was one of the best things that I did in years. a very cool system and with enjoyable games; ... if the Wii U can't be "saved" (I believe that correct term, actually, is winning the competition), isn't will turn it a bad console.. seeing how 64 and the Cube are still very well structured consoles for their ages, with a humble library of games, but 70% (or more) of games are excelent (1st, 2nd and some exclusive 3rd parties as Resident Evil Remake).

But, in my opinion, I believe in a recovery of the console .. the line up for 2014 is very decent, and it's clear that Nintendo has more plans for the near future ...btw Mario Kart 8 coming in May is already nice news!
I hoping for the better, but I really don't care what will happen, since, I already satisfied with the product I purchased. (I never cared, actually, I play only videogames =P).

I'm glad you're optimistic, but the first part of your post is without a doubt a delusion of grandeur. The Wii U is doing terribly at the moment and is far from being ahead of the competition in the home console department, the leader would be the Playstation 4, which has sold more in the last couple of months than the Wii U has in it's last year and some change being out, with some of the most heavily anticipated games coming out for the PS4/Xbox One.

There are some good games coming out but the Wii U is ****ed. Final Fantasy XV, Kingdom Hearts III, Metal Gear Solid 5, Destiny...scratch that, the Wii U is royally ****ed.

 

[HammerHappy]

What Nintendo needs to do to make me buy a WiiU:

- Smash 4 needs to have the best aspects of Melee and Brawl without the garbage (here's looking at you, tripping).

- New Kirby Air Ride

- Kirby N64 sequel (Seriously, why has Nintendo never replicated the combine copy mechanic? And crap like "Fire/Ice/Electric sword doesn't count. I want to turn into a damn curling rock and steamroll enemies.)

- A real Paper Mario sequel (SPM doesn't count. It's a decent plat former that took PMs aesthetics and trashed them.)

- New Starfox

- New F-zero

Basically all the things I wanted for the Wii but instead got bubkiss.

 

[fbs397]

Wii U is dead, and I think Nintendo has finally realized that now. Their new "third pillar non-wearable" hardware will be introduced next year, and by then I expect the software supply for the Wii U to be cut.

Neither Smash Bros. or Mario Kart can save it. The only people who buy these games are Nintendo fans - just like how only Nintendo fans bought SM3DW.

I don't think their next home console will arrive until 2016, earliest. It takes a lot of time to develop new hardware, to develop games for it and to mass produce it.

 

[Vann Accessible]

I honestly wish Nintendo would just focus on portables and go third party for home consoles.

I'm sick them always being one step behind. They are way too conservative for the home console market.

 

[Reznor]

I honestly wish Nintendo would just focus on portables and go third party for home consoles.

I'm sick them always being one step behind. They are way too conservative for the home console market.

the only Nintendo systems that were weak for their gens are the Wii and Wii U

 

[RODO]

This should have ended with johnknight's post on page 1

 

[Halfhead]

At the very beginning of the Wii U's lifespan, it only had one problem: the sh###y specs. They are really bad guys. Some devs don't want to touch it for that reason alone. It's built like it's four years old instead of one.

This evolved into the first third party exodus, which begot low sales numbers because of the lack of games, which begot another third party exodus, which dropped sales even lower. It seems like a complicated issue looking back, but in my heart of hearts, I believe that if the specs of the console were actually of the 202nd decade we live in, none of this would have happened.

It sucks because Pikmin 3, 3D World, and Wonderful 101 should have been HUGE deals this last year. They were incredible.

The question now is "how could ninty fix it?" Well, the answer is not very simple. One way to get around it would be to immediately start making a new console (one WITHOUT the Wii name to make sure customers absolutely know it is different) with an actually decent amount of power and RAM. Developers will, provided Nintendo has learned their lesson about being a closed off company that only responds to calls and doesn't make calls, flock to the new device and everything will be fine.

That would be totally unlike Nintendo, however. We're stuck with the Wii U for a while.

Original question: Will Smash and Mario Kart 8 sell the Wii U the amount Nintendo wants them to sell it? Probably not. Nintendo needs that third-party support, it is no longer optional.

 

[D-idara]

how it is now.

A great, underrated Nintendo console with amazing games, yeah.

 

[iLLuMinati_EYE]

im personally buying a wii u for this game, but i think this game won't save the wii u it can certainly help it out though. I just hope smash 4 has a stable online mode with great features like a battle point system for ranked matches, rankings for singles and doubles, and obviously a private lobby

 

[smashmachine]

Wii U has 0 chance of catching the Gamecube
at this point, it'll just crawl past the Dreamcast and land somewhere around 12 million before being quietly replaced

 

[Kaye Cruiser]

This should have ended with johnknight's post on page 1

Nah, it should've ended with JediLink's post on this page.

He's pretty much got it down 100% correct.

 

[LancerStaff]

There's everything wrong with the Wii U's hardware. It's underpowered compared to the PS4 and Xbone so it has no chance of getting ports, but because of the expensive gamepad it costs almost as much as systems it's vastly inferior to spec-wise, and significantly more than systems it's equal to (as opposed to the DS, Wii and 3DS, which, although underpowered, had an edge over the competition by being much cheaper).

The gamepad also makes developing games to the Wii U a pain in the *** for third parties. It's like "Oh great, now we've got to figure out what the gamepad's going be used for". However, even if you do have some amazing idea that can only work because of the second screen, you still wouldn't want to develop for the Wii U because the 3DS has the exact same gimmick and is almost always going to be the better option.

I think everyone knows at this point that the Wii U is beyond saving, even Iwata. Smash 4 is going to cause a noticeable spike in sales, but after that it's just going to go back to how it is now.

Hmph. Ever notice how Nintendo hasn't had third parties since the N64? Even if Nintendo made an easy to develop for counsel that blows the competition out of the water, third parties would still avoid it completely because of Nintendo's image and fans. 99% of Nintendo fans are content with practically zero third party support. Non-fans don't want Nintendo games. It'd be utterly pointless for Nintendo to even try.