Too Much Wii, Not Enough U?

This is only going to get worse before it gets better.

Last week on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, he revealed that one of his guests would be Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime, who would show off the upcoming Wii U! But what is the Wii U? Well, according to Fallon at the start of the show…

This is the new system. You add it to your Wii or you don’t even need to use the Wii. Do you need to use the Wii? You can just use it on your own, but you can also use it with the Wii.

While Fallon seemed uncertain and probably did not help his audience’s understanding of the new product, Reggie would attempt to try to remedy the situation when he appeared later:

Regardless, this cannot be a good thing for the Wii U. The console looks quite similar to the original Wii, enough that the untrained eye might not pick up on the subtle differences. Nintendo even designed the Wii U to sit flat to further distinguish it, but might have sabotaged their own efforts by recently releasing a second version of the original Wii which does the very same thing.

I’m not one who dislikes the Wii U name in itself, but as it stands, it may run the risk of being a little too subtle for uninformed consumers to pick up on. Following others such as CNN and The Wall Street Journal, Fallon’s show is just the latest mainstream outlet to fail to pick up on what the Wii U truly is, and if they are at all reflective of the greater public at large, then Nintendo may be in for an uphill battle to sell its latest hardware with their current brand.

David Oxford

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

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