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Are Switch owners not Wii U owners?


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Is there any proof that the majority of Switch owners never owned a Wii U, therefore justifying all these Wii U ports?

 

I keep hearing fans saying this, and I'm not seeing the data to back it up. 

 

You get the personal testimonials of, "Well my friend, well I didn't, I know two people..." That's not proof.

 

I can't say for certain, but it can be assumed because of basic marketing principals that the people who are buying Switch are the same ones who bought Wii U. They are the early adopters, the Nintendo faithful. Every product launch has early adopters, and Nintendo isn't any different.

 

I guess I'm a bit annoyed seeing people defend Nintendo for porting Wii U games this early on, claiming that no one bought them on Wii U because no one bought a Wii U. 13 million people bought Wii U, and Wii U had a high attach rate. Mario Kart 8 was proof of this.

 

We're seeing all these ports because of a lack of third party support, and a lack of preparation on Nintendo's behalf. Just because early adopters are keen on repurchasing games, as most loyal fans are, doesn't mean that there's this huge new/old market lining buying Switch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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13 million people bought a Wii U. I don't think any proof is needed to say that there's a LOT more than 13 million people that didn't buy a Wii U. If anything I'd imagine the purpose of the Wii U ports are for prospective Switch owners as opposed to people who already own it. Heck, if anything I'd imagine the people who went and bought a Switch at launch were largely Wii U owners. I feel like launch windows are for the fans but that's purely speculation on my part. Bottom line is that I feel like they're trying to recapture that massive Wii audience of the casual market.

 

I bought a Wii U. I'm salty as heck- but honestly I can't blame them. There's a potential huge market for the Switch and if a thin coat of paint on an already-made game is all it takes to squeeze out some extra cash with little effort I'd probably do it too.

Edited by Carl321
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Although 13 million sounds impressive, it's worth remembering that Wii U is Nintendo's worst-selling console, lagging behind GameCube by almost 10 million users. There's a hell of a lot of people who haven't purchased a Wii U that Nintendo is hoping to grab with Switch, and porting games that people might've heard good things about to fill the usual post-launch software gaps isn't terrible. In the very least, as Gold noted, it's not uncommon.


By the way, outside of Mario Kart 8, Lego City Undercover, and now Pokken Tournament, what Wii U exclusives were/are being brought to Switch? 

Edited by Namevah
Added link with the sales numbers.
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No doubt there are a lot of repeat buyers but there's likely a lot of new people jumping in as well so it's really not all that surprising.  Besides they've only "up ported" a small handful of titles and that's not counting some of the games people in various communities want to see brought over like Smash, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Hyrule Warriors, etc.  Even if we go with the notion that Nintendo is only doing this to pad out their library it's not as if there aren't willing consumers ready to buy these titles whether or not they had the opportunity to do so with the previous platform.

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All the people that I know personally that have bought a Switch also own a Wii U, but it's pretty clear that the Switch is a bigger part of the current pop culture zeitgeist than the Wii U was, possibly even at the height of its popularity.

 

But more to the point of this thread: like other people have already said companies port their games forward to new systems all the time, especially if it's an easy way to pad out the early library for a new system. Personally I have no interest in rebuying games I've already bought on the Wii U, but I'm not shocked to see them rounding out the Switch's library for now.

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It is most likely that the bulk of Switch owners are Nintendo fans who also owned a Wii U. Whether that will really change much when you can actually buy a Switch (if you don't live in Germany) remains to be seen, but I honestly quite doubt it.

 

The real reason these ports exist is much the same as the third party ports exist on the other consoles: they offer a relatively low effort way to pad out the release schedule. Maybe getting people to buy Mario Kart 8 this time is just a bonus.

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Based purely on the sheer amount of adoption at launch (and nearly 3 million consoles by the end of April alone), I think it's quite clear that many more people are picking up the Switch than people who were interested in the Wii U. I've also heard of plenty of Wii U owners who are delaying their Switch purchase, especially since BotW launched on the previous console.

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It depends on what is being done with these Wii U games when they move to the Switch. I'm not buying Pokken over a handful of characters, only 1 of which actually being exclusive to the Switch version, but I certainly did buy Mario Kart 8 for a proper, expanded Battle Mode with a handful of additional racers (Bowser Jr., Inkling Boy, Inkling Girl, Dry Bones, King Boo, fuck Gold Mario). I also don't really see Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as the same game as what's available on Wii U, where as Pokken is not doing enough to really differentiate itself from the original.

 

It'll be interesting to see which direction Smash goes. I think the right way to handle a Smash 4 DLX would be to combine the content of the 3DS and Wii U iteration, add a handful of new arenas, assist trophies and collectible trophies then top that off with 3-5 new playable characters not present in either previous iteration. The wrong way would be to simply take the Wii U version and throw in those 3-5 new characters, if that, and call it deluxe.

 

In general, I'm fine with these Wii U ports as long as they seem to have effort behind them that stands out next to the original. Currently, they're 1-1 in my opinion. Once 2017 ends though, I would prefer to see no more ports, at least from the Wii U, and a focus on actual Switch games. I'm much more okay with this approach early on than later.

Edited by IU
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2 hours ago, Gold said:

Found the image I wanted for this.

 

Like, a few months after those systems came out

 

CA4wck6WsAMZXGk.jpg

 

To be honest, I actually thought there were more than that but it still makes the case for the point you were making.  Having ports/remasters isn't exactly the most egregious thing in the world especially when there are quite a few new titles pouring into Switch's lineup just the same.

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8 hours ago, Gold said:

Found the image I wanted for this.

 

Like, a few months after those systems came out

 

CA4wck6WsAMZXGk.jpg

 

And you know, when the PS5 comes out, there's going to be Dead or Alive 5: Last Round: Definitive Edition, what with all the DLC.

 

They're up to six season passes at $92.99 a pop.

 

I wish I was joking.

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