Why Nintendo ditched Miiverse

Miiverse was a great social media platform, exclusive to Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. You could post screenshots, messages, drawings and more, and people would be able to respond to you. It was a system that allowed for communication between others who owned Wii U’s and 3DS’s. However, Miiverse is a feature missing from the Switch and it has been closed down on both Wii U and 3DS. This blog will explain Nintendo’s decision making when they decided to not go ahead with Miiverse when the Switch launched.

Withdrawal from anything Wii-related

When the Wii U came out, many people, including Nintendo fans, were confused as to whether it was a new console or an add-on for the Wii. The similarity between the Wii and the Wii U led to consumers failing to understand that the Wii U was a separate product. The marketing team realised their mistake and planned out that the Switch would be almost completely separate from the Wii and the Wii U. There was essentially no one who was confused as to whether the Switch was an add-on for the Wii, thanks to their great marketing!

Apart from Miis, everything that was unique to the Wii and Wii U brand was removed from the Switch. This meant that s could not use Virtual Console and Wiimotes or play Wii/Wii U games. One of the things they also dropped was Miiverse. However, it was likely for the better because keeping the Switch separate from the Wii brand has contributed to it selling over 20 million units so far!

Other Social Media Forms

Now, instead of posting photos to Miiverse, you post them to Twitter or Facebook. This is free marketing for Nintendo. Since you are likely to post only your favourite photos, the moments of games that end up on Facebook and Twitter are the very best. If a friend sees an incredible video of you playing Super Mario Odyssey, they might see that and come to the decision that the game and system look cool enough to buy. Otherwise, if people posted to Miiverse instead, people wouldn’t get this exposure to the Switch and Nintendo wouldn’t have such a popular cultural phenomenon.

You may wonder why Miiverse and Twitter and Facebook can’t coexist. This is because giving people the option to post to Miiverse immediately makes them less likely to post to Twitter and Facebook. In fact, since everyone who cares about your screenshots and videos likely already has a Switch, you would post it to Miiverse just for them to see. The amount of people posting to Facebook and Twitter would immediately decline even if Miiverse were just an option.

It may at first appear as if it is a relatively small impact that posting screenshots to Facebook and Twitter would have on sales. However, if enough people in one person’s feed post one of these screenshots or videos, then the bandwagon effect will motivate them to buy a Switch. The bandwagon effect is when people “jump on the bandwagon” and buy a product if it is popular. It is extremely powerful and Nintendo knows this, which is possibly a reason that the switched Miiverse out for platforms that people without Switches can view.

Poor Quality

There is no doubt that moderation and quality control was very poor when it came to Miiverse. When you give lots of little kids the power to create whatever they like, they tend to not produce high quality content. However, it would be inappropriate to remove that content from the Miiverse because the appeal was that anyone could say something and removing content would directly infringe on that. Nintendo simply did not want to have to deal with the problems that Miiverse had so they had to close the service down.

Questions of the day

Did you like Miiverse?

Before its closure was announced, did you expect it to close down so soon?

Have you switched to Facebook or Twitter, or do you just not post your photos anymore?