Future of the Wii U

[Bazoo]

With the release (and major success) of the Switch, how do you think future gamers and collectors will see the Wii U? I would like to compare it to previous consoles but I find its position to be fairly unique.

Two comparisons I've heard are to the Dreamcast and the Atari Jaguar. In terms of the Dreamcast, the console and its titles might be viewed with better favor in hindsight, at least compared to its sale performance. I would have agreed with that if it weren't for the ports of major titles to the Switch. I think those ports aren't going to make the Wii U versions worthless, but they will slash the value of certain titles. For that reason, the retrospective on the console might fly the way of Jaguar or other consoles that are still seen positively, but the libraries suffered from major titles getting ported or better versions being released. Then again, this is Nintendo we're talking about, and there are many quality titles.

What do you all think, how will the Wii U be viewed 5 years from now? 10 years from now? What will prices look like for completionists out there? Another factor might be that the game pads could have a limited lifespan. They can obviously be repaired but it might affect availability.

[ncman071]

i am just glad i decided to keep my wii u even after we got the switch...i have almost sold the wii u several times...once for the switch and most recently thought about selling it to get a playstation vr....but i'm happy with it...lots of good quality games...not a ton of games are on the system but the first party titles are really good....i enjoy breath of the wild on the wii u...

as far as how it will be viewed in later years...i think it will get expensive but be viewed in a positive light...not like the jaguar...the jaguar for most people was a piece of crap although its really not for those of us who experienced the jaguar.....i havent heard a lot of people talk badly about the wiiu...but it just didnt sell like it needed to....

i think eventually its gonna skyrocket because if the current collecting trends continue, then in 10 or 15 years from now people are going to go nuts over the wii u just becuase they want to re live their past/childhood....kind of like i did with the 16 bit systems...

[Colorado Rockies]

I think in 10-15 years it will be similar to how the Gamecube is now. The good first party games will hold their value decently but hardly anything will be over their original msrp prices of around $60. Maybe 2-3 obscure shovelware games that had low print runs might get close to $100 for people who have to have a fullset, but the actual good games like the Mario's, Zelda's, Splatoon, Smash Bros. etc should still be around the $20-$40 range.

[Scream And Fly]

The Wii U really is a great system. I was fully expecting Nintendo to pull a crap move and release the latest Zelda on the Switch only, but they surprised me. I’m sad that the Wii U had what, 4 years on the retail market? The thing that really bothers me is that like the first Wii, purchased and downloaded games are tied to the console. That should be account-based. Well alright, what happens 5 years from now if my Wii U has a major hardware problem? By then, Nintendo probably won’t even be supporting it, and I’ll be SOL.

I agree with Colorado Rockies in that the Wii U will probably be like the GameCube is viewed today - a good system with some great games that never caught on as much as Nintendo had hoped, and it faded into never-never land.

[Pr3tty F1y]

I know that I'm insane for thinking this, but I'm still holding out hope for Bad Land Games to bring out a NTSC region physical release of Axiom Verge: Multiverse Edition. I love my Wii U (and I'm also super happy I hacked it). I own all of the physical 1st party releases and most of the must have exclusive eShop releases (e.g., Fast Racing Neo). However, knowing that the eShop for the Wii U won't be around for forever, I found a very likely illicit program and downloaded all of the DLC (most, if not all of which I already own) and game updates and have them backed up for that day in the future where you can no longer get them so that I can still play my Wii U discs with all updates.

I actually own two Wii Us (my first one's 5ghz wifi that communicates with the gamepad went out the day after Christmas 2015 so I ran out to GameStop and bought a used one which I'm currently using and then I had the original repaired by Nintendo). I've thought about giving away one of the units over the years to family or friends, but I just can't give it up because I always want to be able to play my Wii U if and when I want to.

Be it Captain Toad or Super Mario 3D World or Breath of the Wild, it's just great gaming. I even powered through Paper Mario: Color Splash which has an absolutely charming world and story and absolutely atrocious battle mechanics (again, I hacked my Wii U and cheated and the game still was only barely passable thanks to the great in-game world - I couldn't imaging playing it with out cheats). The Wii U was something special and something under appreciated. BotW as it's swan song is very apt.

[kupomogli]

I'm going to keep my Wii U since it can play Wii games and I've never owned a Wii, so I essentially have two consoles in one, however I still feel that even both systems libraries together aren't very good, despite the lists that people may post. However, with as few good games that are exclusive to the Wii U, almost every single one of those games have been ported over to the Switch. Yes, there's still exclusives like Tokyo Mirage Session, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Super Mario Maker, Wonderful 101(and for how long since the dev keeps stating he wants it on the Switch,) the first Splatoon which is pretty much the same game as the second,) Windwaker HD, Twilight Princess HD, and well, that's about it. Yes. There's games like Mario Party 10, NES Remix 1 and 2, etc, but while some collectors that collect everything, I don't tend to collect bad games.

I don't think Wii U will be collectable for these reasons. Why collect a system full of inferior versions of games and a limited amount of exclusives. I feel the exact same way about the Vita despite owning 80 games. I feel like I have to buy the games to justify my purchase of the system. At the very least though, I can see why people would buy a Vita version or a Switch version, because the games are portable.