I Believe in the Wii U

It’s been almost a year since the Wii U’s release and it would be a lie to say that it hasn’t had a bad first year. It’s first year run was a gaming desert with only a select few titles released. I remember when the system came out and its dismal sales lead many people to decry that the Wii U was a failure and that Nintendo should stop making consoles and go third party. Things seem to be slowly shifting and according to an article on MCV Wii U; Wii U sales are up.

I was an early adopt of the system and I had to deal with the dry spell myself. There were games that I did enjoy playing but most of them were multi-platform games. I did have a lot of fun with Lego City Undercover and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate though Monsters Hunter 3 Ultimate was a port of Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii. Regardless of the fun I had with those games it’s hard not to acknowledge for a time that the Wii U was, for lack of a better term, collecting dust.

I didn’t give up, though. This was a system I had bought and I planned (and still plan) to support it. Games like Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101 have proven to help the system somewhat but it seems, at least to me, that it was The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD that has helped the system.

I admit I was skeptical that an old game such as The Wind Waker would help the system but it seems like that is what happened. Sales for the month of September were up 200 percent. I’m sure the Wind Waker has helped but I won’t say it’s the sole reason. I have good reason to believe that the $50 price cut on the Wii U Deluxe Set also helped as it, obviously, makes the console cheaper.

Seeing this is nice but I’m not going to just say the Wii U is going to have smooth sailing. It’s got an uphill battle to go and with the upcoming release of the Xbox One and Playstation 4 I see that it’s going to be a little more difficult for the struggling system. However, I have faith that the Wii U will do better as more and more games get released. The install base will grow if the system can produce quality products that people will want and, despite what many Nintendo haters say, there has always been a market for Nintendo IPs. Nintendo will be able to pull the system out of its slump as they’ve even acknowledged it and have began to release a steady stream of quality titles with more coming out for the 2013 holiday season.

It’ll be interesting to see where this goes but, as I’ve said already, I do believe in the Wii U.