Wii U Go turns one year old!

As of today, exactly 365 days have passed since I created Wii U Go. I started this blog last September, long before we had heard anything about Project Café, with the mission to bring all sorts of news and juicy rumours about the Wii’s successor together on a single, convenient blog. Back then, it went under the name Wii 2 Blog.

Today, I’ll be celebrating this event in Wii U Go’s history with this commemorative article recapping the best Wii U/Wii 2/Wii HD/Project Café stories of the past year. You may also have noticed that the blog’s design has received an overhaul. That’s ’cause I’ve switched it to my new Xenos theme – an entirely custom look I’ve been working on for the past three months, consisting of roughly 3,000 lines of code. It’s sleeker, cleaner, faster, and easier to work with from my end than the old theme ever was, and I’ve engineered it for the best possible reader experience. I hope you enjoy it.

Lastly, as a thank-you gift to all of my readers, I won’t be running any of those ugly ads for the next 30 days, letting you take in our content and the Xenos theme without anyone trying to sell you a new TV while you’re here.

Now, the article itself lies just past the break!

Genesis of Wii U Go

On September 15, 2010, I set up a copy of WordPress at wii2blog.feld0.com and wrote this introductory article with the idea of someday digging it up and seeing where it all began. For the longest time, there was hardly anything to report on. One of the only pieces of good, hard news we got was the announcement that No More Heroes 3 would come to the Wii’s successor – whatever it was, anyway.

November 7 was the day of the site’s official “launch”. I was unsure whether I’d end up sticking with the blog until then, but the wii2blog.com domain name dropped and I decided to grab it. With a new, dedicated domain, Wii 2 Blog began to look less like a small-time teenager’s hobby project and more like a proper site.

Wii 2 Boards

I launched the blog’s official forums on December 19 under the name Wii 2 Boards. Much like the blog itself, it was a pretty timid place at the time – we were using the free script phpBB3, and there were somewhere around 10-20 members or so. I think I recall us celebrating our 1000th post as if it was the event of the century or something. Epic Kirby famously found out about the forum before it was ready for the public, registered, and made his intro thread the very first thread on the forum.

Nintendo Logo

Most of you first heard about the Wii U on April 14, the day that Game Informer received a tip that the Wii’s successor would be revealed at E3 2011. I was on a sailing excursion that week, and the swarming Project Café rumours were definitely something to come home to the following day. After five days on the water, I was more than a little shocked that I missed the “announcement” and spent the weekend frantically catching up on it all.

N-Zone

The Project Café era, as I like to call it, was an exciting time filled with rumours – some of them plausible, and some downright ludicrous (remember how crazy the controller-with-a-screen one sounded?). Someone by the name of Emily Rogers started rumour after unsourced rumour, and those of you who’ve been following the blog longer may remember her “leaked” screenshots of Endless Ocean 3 and Pikmin 3. Images of the infamous “painted Windows 7 box” made it online, which were purported to be photos of the Project Café development kit – and I personally leaked one of them onto the Internet, which later went on to be published in the German magazine N-Zone (seen above).

Meanwhile, activity on the forums began to increase; and seeing that it was starting to turn into a bustling little community, I rewarded my then-80 members by investing in a copy of IP.Board – in my opinion, quite possibly the greatest forum software ever made. The move saw an immediate increase in forum activity, and I did it because I knew then that I’d be sticking with my little “hobby” for many more months to come.

The rumours peaked when we heard an official announcement that Nintendo would reveal the Wii’s successor at E3 2011. No details were given – no name, no response to the rumours, nada – but the simple fact that Nintendo were going to show us this mysterious system and out-of-this-world controller in a few weeks was enough to drive some fans into a frenzy. My Wii 2 mockup gallery grew in size until a producer at G4tv got in touch, asking me for permission to broadcast it on TV as part of a feature they ran shortly before Nintendo’s conference on June 7. They sent me the above clip of the segment I made it into, and you can see Wii 2 Blog at 1:14 in it.

Frankly, running a major Wii U blog and forum takes its toll on my free time. Especially as I’m still an ambitious, full-time high school student, I knew I would need some help keeping this place up to date. Ruthie joined me as Wii 2 Blog’s first assistant writer in May, and wrote her first article just a few days later. I didn’t anticipate it at the time, but Ruthie was one of the best things to happen to this blog – she has since proven herself to be an exceptionally valuable staff member, being a friend of the community, writing over 100 articles, and even getting us two interviews!

June 7th was quite the day for Nintendo fans. A major portion of Nintendo’s E3 press conference focused on a seemingly never-ending lineup of Nintendo 3DS nirvana, and a live orchestra in the hall played a selection dedicated to the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda. And then came the fabled “Project Café” we had been hearing so much about. Taking the stage, Reggie infamously made the anticlimactic announcement of the incredible, high-tech, trounce-your-competition-and-leave-them-in-the-dust…

Wii U Logo

…Wii U. Some impressive demos followed, but the announcement was hasty enough for the fact that the eighth console generation’s pioneer had been revealed to fly over more than just a few journalists’ heads. Wii U-wise, Nintendo’s show at E3 was a bit on the weak side, with no first-party games and the confirmation of Pikmin 3 and Super Smash Bros. 4, but no visuals of them. But Nintendo promised us that this new console was just getting started, that it would solve every major quibble fans had with the Wii. Better online, awesome graphics, and endless gameplay possibilities – if Iwata’s and Reggie’s words are to be believed, they very well may be onto something special.

Wii U Forums

Shortly after the conference, I renamed Wii 2 Blog to Wii U Go, and Wii 2 Boards to TheWiiU.com. Moreover, I entered into a partnership with David Turnbull, a good friend of mine and the owner of Nintendo 3DS Blog and Wii U Blog. This meant that we would share a single forum community and openly recognize and link to each other’s blogs, while each of us would continue to offer our own viewpoints on Wii U news. It has been a very rewarding partnership, which has so far resulted in exponential growth for the community and opened the doors for working together more closely in the future.

Since E3, Wii U news has been quite slim, consisting mostly of various developers voicing their approval of the console, but stopping short of confirming any actual support. But Nintendo promised us that this would change, telling us that it was a console created with developers in mind. EA’s support of the Wii U’s online system in particular was something that caught the cynics off-guard, and the network continues to be a hot topic of speculation to this day, what with Nintendo patenting a “massively single-player online game” and all.

Dragon Quest X Online Logo

Finally, just over a week ago, we received a formal announcement that Dragon Quest X Online would be coming to the Wii U. Despite it being an enhanced port of a Wii game, the appearance of such a large and ambitious multiplayer game on a Nintendo console was enough to spur lots of interest and instill at least a measure of confidence in those who were afraid of being disappointed by the Wii U’s online network.

And lastly, we come to today, September 15. Hard to believe I’ve been sitting around, blogging about the Wii 2, then Project Café, and now the Wii U for an entire year already, isn’t it? Not all sites make it through even their first year of life, let alone see as much growth as Wii U Go did.

Baby Yoshi (by Feld)

Welcome to the world, little one.

As the 16-year-old owner of the site, it truly humbles me to see and take part in the incredible community that has grown around it, and to be a leading source of Wii U news for thousands of real people. Whether you were here last September, found this blog looking for Project Café leaks, or are just now discovering my little spot on the Internet, I sincerely wish to thank you for coming here, reading our work, and being part of what made it all happen. If it wasn’t for the knowledge that real people like you are taking time out of their lives to read mine and Ruthie’s writing, I don’t know if we would have made it this far.

But we have, and as long as the community remains strong, I’ll continue to do my best to make Wii U Go your favourite spot for Wii U news. If there’s anything I can do to make it better, feel free to leave a comment on any article or send me an email anytime.

Here’s to many more months and years of awesome Nintendo coverage!

Sincerely,

~Feld0

P.S.: This is our 333rd article!

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Comments, Reactions, and General Hooliganism

  1. Wertville

    Great work. I can happily claim to be one of the ones who was here back in September/October. I found the site looking for news on the Wii 2 (Duh), because I knew that the 3DS meant that Nintendo couldn’t simply be leaving their console outdated. It was only a matter of time… And Pachter was really starting to get annoying with how much he said something like that. 😛

    I remember seeing the forum announcement the day it was made… But I didn’t join up for a few days because I was nervous. XD. Those were the days, where we had a small community and a craving for news of the new console… And, once SuperDarkYoshi joined, I just had to talk at least a bit about Umineko. 😛

    The future is now, though, and the console is less than a year away! The forum was merged, people have come and gone, Atsubro and I have started a game project and the blog has been skinned. So many changes have happened since the moment I joined, it’s almost overwhelming to think about… But, really, I’m just happy to be a part of such an event and a place!

    Here’s for this year, and many to come! While the blog may not last forever, the community it fostered will. Heh… I just know that in 20 years I’ll get all nostalgic about that one little ‘Forum about that retro Wii U console.’ And I don’t think I’ll be the only one 😉

    • F0

      Thanks for taking the time to leave such a long and thought-out comment, Wert!

      I remember you were one of the very first readers here, and there was definitely a lot of Pachter nonsense going around back then. I didn’t mention it in the retrospective article, but those were some good times.

      I’m glad that you enjoy being part of the community so much, and also want to thank you for supporting it right since its inception, even when some of the other initial supporters are now long gone. There certainly have been an awful lot of changes, but I think it was all for the better.

      It warms my heart to know that I’ve created a place that you and lots of other people keep coming back to, day after day, week after week, month after month. You, I, and many others have made many new friends around this blog and its forum, and I have no doubt that many of these new friendships will outlive the sites they started on.

  2. Brendan

    I like the new site look, but I don’t remember seeing any ads before. and is the wii u coming early next year, or later in the year?

    • F0

      We had lots of ads on here before, trust me. Maybe you had just developed the so-called “ad blindness” to them. 😉

      All we know about the Wii U’s release date is that it’ll launch sometime after April next year. You can follow all the updates about that on our dedicated release date page.

  3. AMAC

    Happy Birthday Wii U Go! This place really has come a long way since I found it back in January. Back then the forums only had 30-40 members and there was no real Wii U news. Lets hope that this place continues to grow and that it will have many more birthdays!

  4. CRAZY FOR WIIU

    Happy Birthday!! Hope this site stays successful for a very long time ;D

  5. Mariomaster1

    Wahoo! Happy Birthday, Wii U Go! I hope that you shall continue to offer awesmazing Nintendo related news for years to come……1-Up!

  6. BigGoof

    Congrats on the 1st birthday. The site is really great and is where I go to for my Wii-U news and is only getting better and better. I was shocked to find out it’s ran by a 16 year old high school student; very impressive indeed.

    Now, where’s my Skyrim update on whether or not it’s coming to Wii-U? 😛

    • F0

      Wii U Go is going to get even better when I finish the front-end to our Wii U games database. And you better believe it that I’m 16 – this is actually the first time I’ve ever run my own blog, so it makes me really happy to hear such positive feedback!

      I’m afraid your Skyrim update might have to wait. I know as much about that as you do.

  7. Brendan

    Oh, and I can’t believe I forgot to say happy first birthday to Wii U Go 🙂

  8. Waller

    Wow, it’s been a year already. I remember finding this site in November 7, exactly when the site had it’s official launch. It took a while before I actually started to follow it, I would visit randomly, which is my justification for not joining the forums the very first day.

    Back then the forum was pretty small, but with the best community I have seen, and the best admin I have seen.
    Fast-forward a year, and the forum changed it’s engine, changed it’s name, changed practically everything for the better.

    Happy birthday, Wii U Go!

    These sites you manage, Feld0, just seem to get better and better as they keep growing, so I can’t wait to see just how good they’ll be by the time the Wii U comes out!

    • F0

      With age comes maturity. Wii U Go’s definitely much closer to a “professional” site now than it was when you found it. But with that said, it’ll always be the little Wii U blog run by a teenager from his bedroom. 🙂

      It’s really great to have you as part of the community, Waller. I know that Wii 2 Boards was your first forum, and am really happy that it left such a positive impression on you. You’ve certainly seen quite a lot happen to it and the Go over the months, and I hope you stick around for many more months to come!

  9. Jmaster720

    Wow I havent Visited this Website in a long time Good work making it look better Fedl0

  10. Jenetty72

    I actually discovered this site by accident while i was searching for “Wii-U mock ups”.I’m glad i did.It’s probably the best source for Wii U related news.I like the new style .It looks more polished and it has a clean look wich makes it easier to enjoy your articles.Keep up the good work and keep digging for more juicy Wii-U news 😀

    • F0

      Looking for Wii U mockups, eh? Even now that we know what the console will look like? Well, I’m glad you enjoyed my little gallery. You’re definitely not the only one who liked it – G4tv did, too. 😛

      It’s great to hear your positive feedback on the new look! It was a lot of work, but I haven’t heard one single negative thing about it, so it was well worth it. My idea was exactly to clean up the look and bring the focus of the site back to the content, and it’s nice to hear that I achieved that goal.

  11. wolvesgod

    I remember, with Wiiboy, then all the excite meant from reading almost every day, there will be something new.

    God then just imagine how busy you’ll be once the console is released, with new games and then wow, it’s been so long since I first came here.

  12. Kinda late, but happy birthday Wii U Go!