Miyamoto says that the Wii U partially stemmed from former Nintendo President Yamauchi’s philosophies
“When we developed the DS, we started from the question, ‘If we make a high spec Gameboy Advance, is it something people will want?’ If you make the same sort of thing, there’s no uniqueness to it. When there’s nothing unique, all you get as a result is a price war. [Former Nintendo President] Mr. Yamauchi had no direct input in the development of the Wii U, but indirectly, you could say his idea from the DS is connected.” – Shigeru Miyamoto
The idea Miyamoto is referring to is Yamauchi’s philosphy of adding something new and unique to every console or handheld, a concept he applied to the original Nintendo DS, and then carried over (more than just functionally!) to the Wii U. I’d say this has worked out for the better so far for Nintendo, and– sales notwithstanding– it looks like it’s going to work out well for Wii U as well!
