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What If The Wii U Launched This Month?

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It's hard to put into context the incredible news that both Sony's PS4 and Microsoft's Xbox One both sold over a million units worldwide within their first day of release. Those numbers are unprecedented, with the PS3 and Xbox 360 only selling a few hundred thousand units apiece during their launch years ago.

And yet, another " next gen" console launched last year, and no one was singing songs about its sales records. I'm talking of course about the Wii U, which moved a respectable 400,000 units in its first week of sales in the US. Now of course, that number has been dwarfed by the PS4 and Xbox One launches, and with 3.91M total units sold to date, sales of the Wii U still seem relatively anemic, even if things aren't quite as dire as they used to be.

All this made me wonder what might have happened if Nintendo had simply waited a year to launch the Wii U. How might that have changed the next-gen console landscape when right now, everyone's talking about it like it's two horse race between Sony and Microsoft?

In a year's time, Nintendo would have had the ability to continue to strategize about the launch of the Wii U, and perhaps they might have avoided some of the mistakes they made with the console when they released it in November 2012.

I won't go through every little thing the Wii U should have changed, like the name for example (how did no one think "Super Wii" would have moved more consoles and caused less confusion?). But a delayed launch until say, next week instead of last year could have made it clear that Nintendo is the third combatant in this next-gen console war. There would have been far less confusion about the Wii U being a brand new system if it was being marketed alongside the PS4 and Xbox One. All the PS4 vs. Xbox articles would have been forced to include the Wii U as well if Nintendo's system was being released in exactly the same time frame.

What else would a delay have done? They would have had more time to work on the hardware, and a year might have allowed them to increase the Wii U's power enough to be useful. No, even a year probably wouldn't have the system's specs matching the PS4's or One's, but maybe it could have been enough so that many 3rd party developers wouldn't abandon ship. Perhaps they could have spent that time building the necessary relationships to get big companies on board with the system's launch, instead of eyeing the console with suspicion.

Out of all the reasons to delay, games might have been the most important factor. It's obvious that none of the three consoles have terribly good launch titles, but the Wii U had additional issues in that regard. It had a few popular third party games available at launch, but unlike the PS4 and Xbox One having upgraded versions of just-released Assassin's Creed 4 or Need for Speed: Rivals, the Wii U debuted with very old titles like Mass Effect 3 or Arkham City, games players had long beaten, or really didn't care about playing on a new console that didn't offer a significant visual improvement over their current PlayStations or Xboxes.

But now? The Wii U has a much, much better stable of games available than the Xbox One or PS4. They've finally managed to get out sought-after first party titles like Super Mario 3D World and Wind Waker HD. The also have a few very solid 3rd party games as well like Skylanders Swap Force and Rayman Legends. Games like Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros U would be just over the horizon instead of years away. The new consoles really don't have the games to match them at launch, but is anyone really talking about the Wii U right now? No, because it launched a year ago instead of this month.

It's just strange to see the Wii U at a lower price with better games barely even being discussed as everyone clamors for Xboxes and PS4s. It seems to me that if Nintendo had simply waited a year, spent more time developing the system's capabilities, ensuring there were quality launch titles and crafting an effective marketing campaign, they could have debuted the next-gen Wii with a bang, rather than a whimper.

All this is to say that the Wii U is a better system than many think, and it should be a part of the next-gen conversation. While PS4 and One are more or less identical, Nintendo's Wii U actually feels like something of a real alternative, though it is restricted by lackluster third party support and painfully long wait times for "proper" first party games. Though really, the big story these days is the rising tide of the 3DS, which alone will keep Nintendo in the game for years to come, even if the Wii U is underperforming.

I've often said Nintendo is their own worst enemy, and I think the launch of the Wii U is one of gaming's biggest disappointments because the failure isn't necessarily with the system itself, it's how Nintendo handled it. Strange to think how things might have been different with just a year's delay.

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