Reggie Says Nintendo Has “Thought Deeply” About The Wii U’s Underperformance

Since its release, the Wii U has vastly underperformed when compared to its predecessor the Wii, which sold a staggering 100 million units in comparison to the Wii U’s 13 million. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime recently spoke to Gamespot about the Wii U and its shortcomings, saying that Nintendo has “thought deeply” about the ways in which the console underachieved and has come to two conclusions.

First off, Reggie revealed that Nintendo believes they did not effectively communicate the system’s novelty. The “clarity of the consumer proposition” was not strong enough, he said.

“Nintendo Switch is a home console you can play anywhere, with anyone. Clear. Compelling,” he said. “We see the reaction by consumers whether it’s measured in Twitter trending topics or views of videos on YouTube or just the frequency with which I get called by old high school buddies that I haven’t heard from in 30 years who are asking me how to get their hands on Nintendo Switch. We have communicated the proposition clearly and it is compelling.”

As for the second reason for the Wii U’s underwhelming performance, Reggie noted the system’s lack of flow of compelling games. However, when it comes to the upcoming Switch, Reggie mentioned that he believes Nintendo has done a much better and more thorough job at communicating to consumers about what exactly the Switch is. In addition, he said he is confident that there won’t be a lack of compelling games.

“Wii U will go down as having fantastic content–the issue was as you look at the reality of exactly when the games were launched, there were large gaps in between,” he said.

You can read more from Gamespot’s interview here.

The Nintendo Switch will release on March 3rd, 2017.