we'll they sure as shit have done well in tucking it out of sight. the public at large doesn't know about it or they think it is an addon for the wii.

From Kotaku:

Then, make it not look so much like the Wii. I don't understand why this is such a difficult concept to grasp...

If you don't want people to think it's a Wii, then put a big orange racing stripe on it. Make it stand out in my living room, so that when people come over, they say, "WTF is that?!" If they see the controller, I'll have to explain to them how it's not a Wii attachment.

This is Nintendo in a nutshell.  Do they literally live in a cave?  Are they so sheltered in their own world that no one suggested this obvious idea until now?  The two Gamepads thing was the same scenario.  Like, no one at Nintendo thought of this until last year when everyone said "hey, why can't I use more than one of those?"

Though his answer about making it not look like a Wii could be him pulling an answer out of his ass.  It might be horizontal only arbitrarily.  They might not have a real reason to do that.  But "I don't know, it just is" would make him sound like an idiot and unfortunately the answer he did give made the whole company sound like idiots.

Just make it ANY COLOUR OTHER THAN WHITE OR BLACK and the problem is solved.  Nintendo needs an "obvious answer consultant".

They said last year at E3 they were working on a way to have two GamePad's work. And it doesn't really look too much like a Wii.

You're a gamer who posts on a Nintendo message board. Ask a 40 year old mom the difference and watch her face contort into a look of sheer confusion.

They shoulda just made it have a totally different look. Along with that stupid name too... Wii U... -.-


At least could have called it the N-Joy. It's actually an English word, and it stands for Happiness and could be Nintendo Joy. Double entendres make the best names for products. Wii was this, but it sounded horrendous. If Nintendo intends to truly shed the Casual persona it has with the Wii. It should do this... but it's futile.

@ian

obvious answer consultant? I think I can handle that job...

Hey, nintendo! I'm 65k a year and I'll save you 10s of millions of disappointed fans and angry comments. It's a steal at twice the price!

Wouldn't the Wii U's granddaddy be the Gamecube?

But the current Wii is horizontal so now all the late adapters will be confused!

Putting it sideways...
Saves space, and looks less ridiculous.


I like this better than it upright.

What they should do is make it bigger so it can house a HDD and make the console and the Gamepad orange.

Yes because making the Gamecube bright colors worked wonders for it.  Nearly everyone I know (including several children) preferred the black version to my trusty purple lunch box and it was probably a safe bet for Nintendo to not even release the Orange color in the states (although seeing as how that was my fav color at the time I would've snapped that up).  Now the Red Wii, that was a looker and it can tie into the Mario appeal (similar to how the only odd colored Xbox 360s are tie ins to a game franchise like Halo or Gears... and even then they only went so far as to be silver). 

As for calling it the N-Joy?  That is far to similar to the N-Gauge don't you think;).

On the Color thing.  I wish the allow for snap on and off shells.  Especially for the Gamepad.

orange stripes sound fashionable.

They made a yellow Xbox 360 around the time of The Simpsons Movie (though I don't think they sold it, you had to enter a contest to win one).

The real reason they are making it horizontal only is because this way they don't have to include a stand which helps them save a little bit of money.

Miyamoto's explanation that they "didn't want it to look like the Wii" is a joke and it would be laughable, except for the fact he might actually be serious... which makes it more sad than funny.