Wii U must be kept in a horizontal position
For a number of years, the Wii was displayed vertically. In fact, all units of the console included a special stand so that the system could be propped up correctly.
The situation is different with Wii U. It’s always been shown at a horizontal position. You may be interested to learn that the console can’t actually stand up vertically without falling over.
As for why this is the case, Shigeru Miyamoto explained to Kotaku:
“”I guess we could make a stand. I think maybe it was because we didn’t want people to think it was a Wii.”
When prodded further, Miyamoto said:
“It kind of goes back to our idea of the Wii U itself which is: ‘What is the role of the physical hardware?’ And in this particular case we felt that the physical hardware is something that’s becoming something that is less and less important from an identity perspective for a game machine.
“So, for example, with even something like Kinect you can have your hardware put away and out of sight and you can wave at the TV and maybe the game will come on or something.
“Similarly with Wii U, when we [considered the question] ‘What is the face of Wii U going to be?’, for us the face of Wii U really isn’t the console box itself. It’s the controller; it’s the Wii U GamePad. So just like a set top box is non-descript and tucked away, our feeling was that the Wii U hardware was something that could be tucked away and out of sight.
“The Wii U GamePad is really the face of the system, whereas, with the Wii system, we had really designed it so that that system itself really stood out when you looked at it.”
In the end I suppose this isn’t too big of a deal, but it’s worth mentioning.
