Wii U - General Discussion Thread

Deader2818 said:
How many people would really get a Nintendo Console over a Sony or Microsoft console if it had the same specs or better?
Click to expand...
This is the problem with everyone spouting off about them losing their way with the "gimmicks". The thing is, they couldn't compete with MS/Sony on pure specs. Even if they managed to match the specs and even if they somehow managed to pull a fully-formed online experience out of thin air (which would be tough when in competition with these two mega-companies), mainstream CoD/Madden type gamers still wouldn't buy the Nintendo console. So they have to differentiate themselves. I don't think by any means that the Gamepad is the problem. Some of it is design choices (mostly around the DRM/account issues), marketing, and third-party relations, but most of it completely out of their control and there may just be nothing they can do about it other than hope for a 3DS-like turnaround when more games come out. (Though I would never expect as much of a turnaround as the 3DS - but maybe it could become respectable at least).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ah, the Dreamcast talk has me feeling nostalgic. I loved that console--Shenmue was epic at the time.

As for the Wii U, I love the system and hope it gradually catches on enough so as not to fail. My gamer buddies are on the fence, and I think a lot of people are interested but just don't see the game library yet. No matter, count me in for the new Zelda, Mario Kart, and DK Country. I'll get my use from the system, but it's obvious that it's struggling along and probably will have a shorter life cycle than usual.
 
For all the so called "wii money" they raked in, they sure don't use well in the ares they need too (Marketing, etc). They only have themselves to blame.

 
I'd love to see a new "black box" era for Nintendo: a lineup of original titles (not mini-game collections) that do not rely on their legacy characters or series.  2D, 3D, long-form, or short and infinitely replayable, I don't care, but just something NEW. 

That being said, I've loved my Wii U since launch and will greatly enjoy iterative titles like Mario Kart 8 too.

 
It doesn't even have to be completely new franchises. Remember that gif that got all the core gamers hot before release? It had Eternal Darkness 2, Beyond Good & Evil 2, and a half dozen other games that had people excited for the console. Mario, Zelda & Metroid just don't cut it anymore. People want a variety of experiences. Granted an ED2 isn't going to sell Mario numbers, but these are games that have the power to sway people back. Nintendo has become too reliable on 20m selling franchises. Not everyone is going to buy Wonderful 101 & Boyonetta but they help build a varied library to attract people on the fence about getting a WiiU.

Jesse_Dylan said:
Power Glove... :) I remember wanting one of those so bad. They were $100 when they came out, and they were awful! I saw one on clearance eventually for $20, but I think I must have known by then that they were crap. $100 was a ton of money back then, too!
Click to expand...
Power Glove was Mattel, not Nintendo and was $75, IIRC. I bought it when it came out. :(

Deader2818 said:
How many people would really get a Nintendo Console over a Sony or Microsoft console if it had the same specs or better?
Click to expand...
If one doesn't need to have a functional online experience and just want single player experiences then the WiiU is the console of choice.

io said:
This is the problem with everyone spouting off about them losing their way with the "gimmicks". The thing is, they couldn't compete with MS/Sony on pure specs.
Click to expand...
But they could compete if they had comparable systems. Third parties would have no qualms dropping a port on the WiiU if it was easy enough.

The biggest joke of all of this is HD catching Nintendo off guard. Despite sales, the Wii was outdated on November 19, 2006. Someone somewhere deep in Nintendo had to know the Wii successor would have to be HD, right? The struggles of HD development on other consoles were widely known. Why wait to start learning and programming things in HD until the WiiU launch date is staring at them in the face?

Same with an online infrastructure. Live was probably the biggest thing that came out of last gen and Sony had PSN hot on it's heels closing out the generation. WiiU launches and we still get not even the slightest whiff of a remedial online service or unified accounts.

It basically boils down to one question. What the fuck were they doing for 7 years? Because all I can come up with is swimming around their money bin ala Scrooge McDuck. It's become painfully clear they just can't focus on two platforms (console & mobile) at the same time and they are unwilling to invest in more teams to do such.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
kill3r7 said:
I got a Wii U for Christmas and so far have enjoyed it immensely. Granted my wife and I have been playing Mario 3D World so it is easy to understand why we've had a blast with it. From all next gen systems it gets the most play when friends are over because the controls are intuitive and easy to pick up for non "hardcore" gamers. This "feature" alone makes it worth while for me. Yet Nintendo has failed to market the device correctly. For fuck sakes parents and kids still are not aware that the Wii U is a next gen system. Hopefully Mario Kart and Smash Bros sell well enough to turn their fortunes around.

P.S. Supporting a failed device is bad idea. Most major businesses try to avoid the "Concorde Fallacy".
Click to expand...
Same here. My daughters and I are having lunch today and then coming back to my place to play some NSMBU and SM3DW. We have a blast playing them.

I bought the Wii with the idea that I'd buy about a dozen first-party games, some VC games, and that'd be about it. I've owned most other consoles along the way excepting for Microsoft's Xbox line and, when I go back and think about the games that were fun and had replay value, I think of the first-party games for Nintendo over and over again along with old arcade games I grew up on.

The thing is, I can only think of a few games on other console that were really good and I had fond memories of.

TG16 - Bomberman

Genesis - Sonic (although it always felt pretty simple with just running to the right as fast as possible)

PS1 - Crash Bandicoot

PS2 - God of War 1&2

PS3 - God of War 3

Nintendo, though, really has a good hold on how to make fun games. Now, I know folks will say, "Oh, but there was Halo on Xbox and what about whatever else on the PS2/3/whatever." Yes, I know we all have our favorites.

Nintendo, to me, is like the Disney of video games. I know when Disney releases an animated movie that there's a good chance it'll be good and that I'll rematch it again, over time (sort of like how Star Wars or Raiders is - 30 years later you'll still sit down and watch them). I can't say the same for most of the other consoles.

Anyway, that's why I figured this time around, even with Wii U's crappy numbers, that I'd pick one up, grab their 1st party games, and then let that be that.

I think a lot of gamers get caught up in the technical specs instead of thinking about the gameplay. The technical specs were important as we went from Odyssey -> Odyssey 2 -> Atari 2600 -> Intellivision -> ... -> Game Cube -> PS2 -> Wii but I think they sort of leveled out a good bit once we arrived at 1080p consoles, in terms of what the technical specs mean. Yeah, you can toss more moving crap on the screen on a PS4 and that is technically spectacular. More moving crap doesn't mean a better game, though. When I see side-by-side shots of PS4/WiiU/XB1 they're all pretty close. Yeah, I can pick out one being more sharp than the other if I look closely but it's not like Atari vs. Intellivision or NES vs SNES - they're all pretty close.

 
Blaster man said:
I think that Nintendo could really clean up putting games like Tetris and Animal Crossing out on iOS/Android.
Click to expand...
I think they could make games for iOS/Android and do well. They just need to rethink what type of game they'd make. A good example is the difference is a mouse on a PC vs a regular game controller. Both are useful, but for different types of games. Mario would be horrible to play with a mouse. Using a game controller is painful for building games like Sim City.

That being said, I think that there's this fallacy that all games are moving over to phones. Yeah, there'll always be a market there, but outside of a few games and the novelty of playing on my phone early on (Angry Birds, Plants vs Zombies, Words With Friends - and others - all good games), there's a lot of crap out there and I don't know of any one who still regularly plays games on their phone. I don't. I basically use my phone as a sort of "life" device. It gets me my banking, helps me handle my schedule, is my GPS, etc. I haven't had a game on it in well over a year. I see my daughter occasionally play a game on hers but it's not as often as it once was. Mostly she's posting to Facebook when she pulls it out or taking a picture of something. It's been a while since anyone asked me to get a game to play with them (like Words With Friends) or even recommend a game.

 
io said:
...they have to differentiate themselves. I don't think by any means that the Gamepad is the problem. Some of it is design choices (mostly around the DRM/account issues), marketing, and third-party relations, but most of it completely out of their control...
Click to expand...
I agree that engaging Sony/MS in a spec war is a lost battle from the start, and Nintendo's responsibility is to "surprise" consumers, as Iwata put it in the quarter announcement. However, I disagree that the gamepad isn't the problem, and I think Iwata's implicitly saying something similar by explicitly stating that they didn't do a very good job of surprising gamers. Furthermore, the naming convention confused people far, far more than it helped build on the momentum of the Wii phenomenon. I think those are the two main issues.

Had the gamepad arrived 2 or 3 years earlier, before tablets took off, it'd be a different story, the console-that-shouldn't-have-been-called-WIIU could have been a success. But that experience was already played out by the time they made it a feature of a new console, and worse yet, it wasn't exactly the feature they wanted it to be because it's tethered to the living room/TV in a weird way. Yeah, you don't need the TV on to play, but that freedom kind of confuses more than it helps: so do I need the console part?, people wonder. I can't begin to enumerate the weird WIIU questions I've gotten from friends and family, but they can be boiled down to: 1) Is it like the iPad? and 2) Do I need a Wii to play it? [whatever "it" is].

That's entirely Nintendo fault, which is to say I disagree that they're victims of chance, that the WIIU fiasco was even partially out of their control. It's their fault for being behind the market on the tablet experience, for giving the console a shitty name, and for not being able to articulate what the hell they want the WIIU consumer experience to be.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
io said:
This is the problem with everyone spouting off about them losing their way with the "gimmicks". The thing is, they couldn't compete with MS/Sony on pure specs. Even if they managed to match the specs and even if they somehow managed to pull a fully-formed online experience out of thin air (which would be tough when in competition with these two mega-companies), mainstream CoD/Madden type gamers still wouldn't buy the Nintendo console. So they have to differentiate themselves. I don't think by any means that the Gamepad is the problem. Some of it is design choices (mostly around the DRM/account issues), marketing, and third-party relations, but most of it completely out of their control and there may just be nothing they can do about it other than hope for a 3DS-like turnaround when more games come out. (Though I would never expect as much of a turnaround as the 3DS - but maybe it could become respectable at least).
Click to expand...
The Gamepad isn't the reason it's not selling, but it is the reason why the losses are so huge as it drives the cost up so much to where they're losing money on each console sold per reports/estimates. And it drove up the launch price to a price not many people where willing to pay for a Nintendo console--especially with one with a fairly weak launch and first 6-8 months software wise.

They do need to differentiate themselves. The Gamepad just didn't really offer anything new. Most people don't care about off screen play and want to game on the big screen when at home. It's useful for people who share the TV, but obviously not enough to sell a lot--similarly Vitas aren't flying off shelves now that you can use it with PS4s for remote play. It doesn't offer much new in terms of gameplay since few games use it for more than mirroring the screen, displaying a map or managing inventory. It doesn't offer much new period since everyone and their sister has a tablet already--one with a better resolution screen, and nice capacitive touch function rather than an outdated resistive touch screen.

That's a far cry from the gimmick of waggle with the Wii that got non-gamers into the mix. The gamepad just strikes most people as odd, clunky and pointless, and thus hasn't differentiated them in any meaningful way. It's just resulted in a $300-350 box that's pretty much good for nothing but playing Nintendo games. And clearly its a pretty small niche of people willing to pay that.

I think they need to differentiate themselves by being cheaper, focusing on their games, and getting to some hybrid portable/home console set up and really focusing on the ability to play all your games everywhere. On the big screen in HD and surround sound at home, and on a nice portable on the go. There strength is in portables so focus on that, and make it hook up to the TV to sell to gamers like me who don't have that much interest in portable gaming.

corvin said:
If one doesn't need to have a functional online experience and just want single player experiences then the WiiU is the console of choice.


But they could compete if they had comparable systems. Third parties would have no qualms dropping a port on the WiiU if it was easy enough.
Click to expand...
I think the first is overstating that. There are plenty of single player only gamers who don't care for Nintendo's franchises and thus don't want/need a Wii U. There are plenty of great single player experiences on Sony/MS/PC. Single player focused FPS like Bioshock, WRPGs like Mass Effect, Skyrim etc., JRPGs, action/adventure games like Tomb Raider, Uncharted, The Last of Us etc.

So I don't know how well they'd compete with comparable specs. A lot of people just aren't into they types of games Nintendo makes. So even if they had all the big third party games, why would the average western mainstream gamer buy a Nintendo console when they don't care about Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Pikmin etc? They won't, they'll buy an MS or Sony console and play all those games and the first party titles in similar genres like Halo, Gears, Uncharted, Infamous.

Brad Bishop said:
I think they could make games for iOS/Android and do well. They just need to rethink what type of game they'd make. A good example is the difference is a mouse on a PC vs a regular game controller. Both are useful, but for different types of games. Mario would be horrible to play with a mouse. Using a game controller is painful for building games like Sim City.

That being said, I think that there's this fallacy that all games are moving over to phones. Yeah, there'll always be a market there, but outside of a few games and the novelty of playing on my phone early on (Angry Birds, Plants vs Zombies, Words With Friends - and others - all good games), there's a lot of crap out there and I don't know of any one who still regularly plays games on their phone. I don't. I basically use my phone as a sort of "life" device. It gets me my banking, helps me handle my schedule, is my GPS, etc. I haven't had a game on it in well over a year. I see my daughter occasionally play a game on hers but it's not as often as it once was. Mostly she's posting to Facebook when she pulls it out or taking a picture of something. It's been a while since anyone asked me to get a game to play with them (like Words With Friends) or even recommend a game.
Click to expand...
Simple games on mobile are still selling gangbusters though. And people do play the crap out of them. I know a ton of people sucked into Candy Crush.

Personally, I don't do a lot of gaming on my iPhone or iPad. But I do play Words with Friends and Hanging with Friends daily, and occasionally some Bejeweled. I've had a hard time getting into full fledged games like Clash of Heroes or Infinity Blade though. I just don't see the point of playing those types of games on my iPad when I could just play on my 3DS if traveling or one of my consoles at home.

But that said, mobile stuff sells gangbusters and they'd be stupid not to develop some simple touch screen games featuring their mascots as that's an easy, safe revenue stream.

DNukem170 said:
Little problem with that. 1) Tetris isn't owned by Nintendo. 2) It is on iOS/Android already (via EA).
Click to expand...
Yep. They should work on getting a Tetris Attack/Planet Puzzle League game out though. Obviously they can't use the Tetris name, and Planet Puzzle League is generic, so they'd want to brand it after whatever of their franchises is most popular among casuals (maybe Pokemon--think there was already one of those, or Animal Crossing). It's perfectly suited to touch screen controls.

RedvsBlue said:
Which is exactly what they tried to do with the GameCube, and look how that worked out.
Click to expand...
Yep. But that 22 million or whatever is probably about the biggest market they can hope to hit in the future, and probably less given mainstream tastes have shifted so far away from the types of games they make.

But if they can sell 20-30 million of their next home console, they may be ok with that. If they can sell it for a profit for day one, sell millions of most every first party game, they could make a tidy profit from their smaller niche market and probably be happy with that.

If not, it's time to swallow their pride and make much more money just putting their heavy hitters on other companies machines.

 
This recent news on how poorly Wii U is selling is depressing, but I still want to buy it more than a PS4 or Xbox One for the BC alone. I think the tablet controller is a great idea and the system would have sold more if you could use it as a tablet running Android or IOS. Having the Rayman demo was a great way to advertise how fun the games are, but I wish their on screen advertising was better. Hell, even at E3 two years ago they weren't pitching the sysem well enough.

I think they did a better job advertising the 3DS/2DS based on the title alone. People are going to see 3DS and think 3-D is a requirement whereas 2DS takes that doubt away. Of course the 3DS has the slider but I bet Joe Schmo doesn't know that.

Speaking of 3DS/2DS, does it have any functionality with Wii U in the same vein as the Super GameBoy for the SNES and Gameboy Player for Gamecube? 

 
Cage017 said:
This recent news on how poorly Wii U is selling is depressing, but I still want to buy it more than a PS4 or Xbox One for the BC alone. I think the tablet controller is a great idea and the system would have sold more if you could use it as a tablet running Android or IOS. Having the Rayman demo was a great way to advertise how fun the games are, but I wish their on screen advertising was better. Hell, even at E3 two years ago they weren't pitching the sysem well enough.

I think they did a better job advertising the 3DS/2DS based on the title alone. People are going to see 3DS and think 3-D is a requirement whereas 2DS takes that doubt away. Of course the 3DS has the slider but I bet Joe Schmo doesn't know that.

Speaking of 3DS/2DS, does it have any functionality with Wii U in the same vein as the Super GameBoy for the SNES and Gameboy Player for Gamecube?
Click to expand...
No, there is no "Super 3DS". I suppose it's possible for them to do it via the USB ports. There are 2 screens after all.
 
you are starting to see other companys like ms/sony come up with new 1st party ips left and right .while nintendo is keep pumping out same old ip's they have had over 20 years. i do love alot of nintendo ip's but at this point how much mario,zelda,mariocart,smash bros can you play? i don't care how well 3ds sells sooner or later the loss in home systems will come to bit them from behind. I trully feel before this new current gen is done nintendo will be 3rd party game maker for other systems.  

 
Last edited by a moderator:
TimboSliceGB said:
you are starting to see other companys like ms/sony come up with new 1st party ips left and right .while nintendo is keep pumping out same old ip's they have had over 20 years. i do love alot of nintendo ip's but at this point how much mario,zelda,mariocart,smash bros can you play? i don't care how well 3ds sells sooner or later the loss in home systems will come to bit them from behind. I trully feel before this new current gen is done nintendo will be 3rd party game maker for other systems.
Click to expand...
Nintendo has already stated that they will not go third party. If they stop making home consoles they will just put all their effort into handhelds which they still kill with.

Microsoft isnt exactly known for coming up with new IPs.

Nintedo as a company is fine for a very long time (MUCH more stable than Sony) so they can take losses on the Wii U and still be fine. They have over 10 billion dollars in assets. They are fine for a while, lol.

 
Nintendo has a ton of great IPs.  That's why they can keep fiddling with the same stuff instead of coming up with new stuff.  What do Sony and Microsoft really have?  You can list off some Western IPs that Sony has managed to squeeze from various development studios (Uncharted and such, yawn), and luckily they have some decent Japanese IPs (though I doubt we could name many), too, but...

As for MS... shrawg...

My own personal disinterest in a lot of MS and Sony's stuff biases my opinion.  But Nintendo is the only one with a great, solid base of IPs. 

 
DNukem170 said:
Another problem is the difference in philosophy. Most publishers see the industry as on par with movies or TV, whereas Nintendo sees video games as...games. They're more interested in how to make games more fun than breathtaking cutscenes or celebrity voice actors.
Click to expand...
that's another issue. Look at the games that have most success and wins awards year in year out they have amazing story and game play. example last of us beyound two souls from this past years. For me nintendo games are good when im looking to sit down for hour and two for just plain fun alone or with friends. If i want to play game for story and great gameplay i go else where.

 
TimboSliceGB said:
that's another issue. Look at the games that have most success and wins awards year in year out they have amazing story and game play. example last of us beyound two souls from this past years. For me nintendo games are good when im looking to sit down for hour and two for just plain fun alone or with friends. If i want to play game for story and great gameplay i go else where.
Click to expand...
And thats totally fine and thats why Nintendo offers games you can't really get on PS/Xbox.

I enjoy Nintendo games because they don't try to be like everyone else.

 
Deader2818 said:
Nintendo has already stated that they will not go third party. If they stop making home consoles they will just put all their effort into handhelds which they still kill with.

Microsoft isnt exactly known for coming up with new IPs.

Nintedo as a company is fine for a very long time (MUCH more stable than Sony) so they can take losses on the Wii U and still be fine. They have over 10 billion dollars in assets. They are fine for a while, lol.
Click to expand...
i agree seems like only time ms comes up wiht new ip's is launch of systems are a year after was the case with 360 and now x1 we shall see if thye keep doing for life of this new gen.

 
I'm definitely looking forward to playing Beyond: Two Souls, for sure (and Last of Us, for that matter, even though I just regard it as typical walk around and shoot stuff with nice graphics and neat cinematics and story).  But, I think citing games people have made for Sony, that Sony has taken as exclusives, is like comparing apples to oranges when talking Nintendo.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Jesse_Dylan said:
Nintendo has a ton of great IPs. That's why they can keep fiddling with the same stuff instead of coming up with new stuff. What do Sony and Microsoft really have? You can list off some Western IPs that Sony has managed to squeeze from various development studios (Uncharted and such, yawn), and luckily they have some decent Japanese IPs (though I doubt we could name many), too, but...

As for MS... shrawg...

My own personal disinterest in a lot of MS and Sony's stuff biases my opinion. But Nintendo is the only one with a great, solid base of IPs.
Click to expand...
i agree they have great ip's but sooner or later you have to come up with new ips or at leat add new people in current ip's like maybe a new evil person in mario games. sony does amazing job at starting new ip's they just had two new ones come out in 2013. ms looks like they are doing same with some great looking new ips out and announced for x1.

why would people buy a 300 doller wii u to play games like mario 3d world and other nintendo ip when they can play the same game brands on a 100 doller wii they already have.

something has to be going on that is making all this money issues go on. you could say well game industry is going down thanks to tablets and phones. Not sure how ps4 selling 4.2 million in six weeks and x1 selling 3 million same time supports that.

i can tell you that with the gimmick wii u crazy sale number good chance over looked the issues that was going on in nintendo and now wii u is starting to show them with poor sale numbers.

with that all said im just sad over all this news first gaming memory i have is playing mike tyson punch out on nes and only have nintendo systems as a kid first non nintendo system was ps1 around 98

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Jesse_Dylan said:
I wasn't aware Beyond: Two Souls had much gameplay. :)
Click to expand...
Everyone hated Beyond: Two Souls that reviewed it and most people that later played it hated it. It was my favorite game of last year, and yes I played The Last of Us. Beyond: Two Souls, you'll either love it or you'll hate it. I've noticed a propensity for older people with kids or women to enjoy it more than 20 something single childless males. I read some complaints about some of the scenes...which to me showed more about their discomfort with their own sexuality than the game itself.

TimboSliceGB said:
which is sad because story of the game was amazing but yes most people did not like it seeing it's nothing more then hit button here hit button there
Click to expand...
Most of the complaints leveled at it could easily be said about The Walking Dead but that got a shitload of GOTY awards in 2012. They're both adventure games.

Jesse_Dylan said:
I'm definitely looking forward to playing Beyond: Two Souls, for sure (and Last of Us, for that matter, even though I just regard it as typical walk around and shoot stuff with nice graphics and neat cinematics and story). But, I think citing games people have made for Sony, that Sony has taken as exclusives, is like comparing apples to oranges when talking Nintendo.
Click to expand...
"Rain" is on sale on PSN right now for 7.50 or 3.75 for PS+ members. It's about 3-5 hours long. I beat it in a couple play sessions but it was excellent, I'd highly recommend going for that game. It's an art game. Sony's really been putting out a lot of those little artsy experiences and it's really moved me to the Sony camp. I like these games.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
TimboSliceGB said:
you are starting to see other companys like ms/sony come up with new 1st party ips left and right .while nintendo is keep pumping out same old ip's they have had over 20 years. i do love alot of nintendo ip's but at this point how much mario,zelda,mariocart,smash bros can you play? i don't care how well 3ds sells sooner or later the loss in home systems will come to bit them from behind. I trully feel before this new current gen is done nintendo will be 3rd party game maker for other systems.
Click to expand...
It was probably a couple dozen pages ago, but there was a list of around 30 brand new Nintendo IPs since the GameCube. However, the majority of them are digital-only.
 
:rofl: at the notion that Microsoft comes up wih new IPs. Sony definitely (although largely due to the fact that they've bought up and made exclusivity deals with so many developers over the last few years) but Microsoft? nah, that dog don't hunt.

Furthermore, calling out Smash Brothers is just ludicrous. There's already been more Forza, Gears of War, Fable, and Halo games than there have been Smash Brothers. Hell, if you count Spartan Ops and Anniversary as separate games, there's more Halo games than Mario Kart games (which is an over 20 year old franchise vs Halo's 12 years). Nintendo needs new IPs? Puhlease, Microsoft is miles ahead of Nintendo in terms of going back to the same well over and over.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Pikmin is an amazing "new" IP (not that new though). I know it is not for everyone but I think it should be! Pretty much everyone I know who has sat down with it for 30 minutes is hooked. Give it a try people!
 
I'm 46 and and I thought the Beyond Two Souls demo was terrible. LOL.

Wonderful 101 is a new IP, but it didn't do great.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
RedvsBlue said:
Nintendo needs new IPs? Puhlease, Microsoft is miles ahead of Nintendo in terms of going back to the same well over and over.
Click to expand...
I think it's safe to say that new IP like Nintendogs, Wii Sports, Wii Fit, and Brain Age led Nintendo's resurgence back in 2005-2007, bolstered by the familiar Mario, Zelda, Kart, and Smash titles.

I think it's also safe to say that the second (and third) iterations of those new IP did not build on past successes (Nintendogs + cats, Wii Sports Club, anyone?)

I believe at least part of the lost momentum stems from the fact that the major new IP were centered around mechanics rather than characters. When a designer comes up with a really cool 3D action platform idea, I personally would like it to come in a new wrapper instead of being incorporated into the next Mario or Donkey Kong. Variety of setting does make a difference to some of us!

 
RedvsBlue said:
:rofl: at the notion that Microsoft comes up wih new IPs. Sony definitely (although largely due to the fact that they've bought up and made exclusivity deals with so many developers over the last few years) but Microsoft? nah, that dog don't hunt.

Furthermore, calling out Smash Brothers is just ludicrous. There's already been more Forza, Gears of War, Fable, and Halo games than there have been Smash Brothers. Hell, if you count Spartan Ops and Anniversary as separate games, there's more Halo games than Mario Kart games (which is an over 20 year old franchise vs Halo's 12 years). Nintendo needs new IPs? Puhlease, Microsoft is miles ahead of Nintendo in terms of going back to the same well over and over.
Click to expand...
I guess all the new ips coming out for x1 don't count in your mind. Sony and ms blow Nintendo away at this point when it comes to new ips and 3rd party support.
 
RedvsBlue said:
Furthermore, calling out Smash Brothers is just ludicrous. There's already been more Forza, Gears of War, Fable, and Halo games than there have been Smash Brothers. Hell, if you count Spartan Ops and Anniversary as separate games, there's more Halo games than Mario Kart games (which is an over 20 year old franchise vs Halo's 12 years).
Click to expand...
That is largely because Nintendo keeps those "side" titles to 1 per system instead of releasing a new one every year.
 
New IPs are a mixed bag.

Some sell well, but most don't. Gaming is an industry dominated by sequels and franchises. There are a few breakout huge hit new IPs each generation. But rarely at launch, and sales charts are dominated by sequels be it Nintendo's franchises, Halo, CoD, Battlefield, Assassin's Creed, Madden and other sports games, Forza, Gran Turismo, Grand Theft Auto etc.

So Nintendo's problem isn't that they lack new IPs. It's just that the mainstream gaming market has shifted away from being interested in kid friendly cartoony games, platformers etc. to shooters, sports games and WRPGs. So I guess you could say they need new IPs in those areas, and that would be a fair point. New IPs in the ilk of the games they're famous for making wouldn't help sell hardware.

Really, they just need to accept that their market has shrank, there aren't enough people interested in the types of games they make to justify having their own hardware, and that they should just focus on selling their games to people who want to play them on hardware they already own. They're proud and stubborn, so that won't happen. Hopefully they figure something out the next go around. As I've said a bunch, getting price down to $200-250 at launch is a must for a console that appeals to families/kids or as a second or third platform for core gamers. Maybe buy a couple western developers and get some exclusive shooters, WRPGs etc. out as well.
 
I'm a big fan of most of the arts games that Sony puts out.  Stuff from Santa Monica Studios and Japan Studio.  MS has nothing to compare to that stuff.  Almost all of that is "new IP" though not in the sense that it's going to have sequels.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
It's a lose, lose situation for Nintendo. They stop production of the Wii U/move onto another console they would receive quite the backlash. At the same time, if Mario Kart, Smash, Bayonetta 2 and X, all supposedly out in 2014, what the hell is going to save the WIi U? It already had a price drop, and obviously systems like the X1 selling at $500 indicate price is not the issue at all here.

Either way the Wii U is a great system. To me the biggest cons are still the graphics being behind the PS4/XB1 and the battery life of the Wii U gamepad, but Nintendo fixed that via me spending more money on a new battery.

I think at this point Nintendo should consider a 3ish year life span of the Wii U and start working hard on the successor. If the successor fails to sell then they should strictly focus on handhelds. Maybe add some sort of Nintendo Tablet or Phone in addition to the 3DS or whatever is out by then.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I really don't think people even hardcore Nintendo gamers will buy the next iteration of the Wii U anytime soon... unless they release like 5 years from now

I think gaming companies just have to realize that the focus for most causal players is not on them anymore. For hardcore gamers again in my family I am seeing a huge shift to the steam platform with people not wanting to pay for a $200-500 box that does the same thing their computer does except doesn't do it as well. Even if a person doesn't have the most powerful computer they can still play plenty of games. They also hook their laptop's up to their TV via cable creating the gaming experience on the TV as well. The PC experience is just superior to any console right now. This results in me knowing no one personally who actually owns a Xbox One, PS4 or Wii U since everyone is just playing on steam or their phones. Low sales of the Xbone and the PS4 could be explained by this. I didn't see anyone camping out for the Wii U, Xbone or PS4
 

The other set of players who are casuals that bought the Wii previously are either still playing on their Wii or they are playing on their iPhones or iPad's. They don't have interest in buying more Nintendo products especially after spending lots of money for that iPhone plan.

The people that are buying Nintendo are those who grew up with the games and want to introduce their kids to those games. Now those kids will eventually grow out of Nintendo and move onto CoD on the Microsoft, steam or sony platforms because there will be a point where Nintendo is uncool in their lives and some of those kids who grew up with the Wii are now hitting the stage where Nintendo is no longer cool and they are looking for something more.

I see enough games on the system for now,  the problem is the low stock at local retailers. I don't see the public other than the very hardcore embracing digital through Nintendo right now so Nintendo needs to get with the program and get some stock to retailers.

There are quite a few products that I would throw money at right now if they would just come out or if I could find them in stores.

Dear Activision, please release more skylanders wave 3, I still have not seen a single shipment in my area, if you stock them, I would happily pay for them.

The fit meter, not available ANYWHERE locally, and trust me I have checked. No gamestop here even got one shipment. The nearest BB is 45 min away, at that point I am better off ordering online... I already tracked one down through a seller on amazon, but you know I might buy a second for my mom if I could find one in a store. But that won't happen since there is no stock. Also how are we supposed to take advantage of the Wii Fit offer when there is no stock of the product?

Pokemon Bank.. not out yet, I would again, happily pay $5 per year for it. However Nintendo fails to deliver.... Heck I would probably pay a little more than $5 for it per year right now.

If Nintendo refuses to stock products in locations where people can get them and impulse buy them then I have no sympathy for them if they cannot manage stock to popular retailers in the USA, the places where their products are normally purchased by those who live in the USA. Please do not complain about low game sales when shelves are empty and not being restocked. Again if they refuse to release promised games and releases again I have no sympathy for them, either step up your game or just don't even start to promise to release things that you are not fully equipped to release.

Now the Wii U games, I have no excuse there, I could easily order them from Amazon or Best Buy online since both offer free shipping usually over the price of the games, but for the other items its not easy to get free shipping unless you buy over a certain amount or pay for a subscription which I don't pay for. But still, these games should still be regularly stocked in stores, not just one shipment and when it sells out, there is no stock. Over here there is lots of empty shelves at various stores, and of course Gamestop only has used copies in stock at this point.

Now all of this does not mean that I am dissatisfied with what I have purchased, I just didn't think that Nintendo would do this poorly with stocking local retailers of the things it needs to sell.

 
The PS4 sold over 4 million and the X1 over 3 million in six weeks or so. They are some if the fastest selling consoles in history at launch.

The Wii U has sold a but over 3 million in over a year. So the problem isn't people not wanting game consoles in general. They just don't want the Wii U.

The two new consoles flew off shelves despite having pretty lackluster lineups with a bunch if the big games also in last gen machines. Time will tell whether they keep selling of course. But they're off to a great start.
 
dmaul1114 said:
The PS4 sold over 4 million and the X1 over 3 million in six weeks or so. They are some if the fastest selling consoles in history at launch.

The Wii U has sold a but over 3 million in over a year. So the problem isn't people not wanting game consoles in general. They just don't want the Wii U.

The two new consoles flew off shelves despite having pretty lackluster lineups with a bunch if the big games also in last gen machines. Time will tell whether they keep selling of course. But they're off to a great start.
Click to expand...
With the amount of Xbox Ones sitting on shelfs at several retailers and having talked to people at different stores saying they can hardly even see them, inclined to believe Xbox One sales are dropping off. PS4 on the other hand seems to be moving along very nicely. Once Japan launched they are going to have a good 2-3 million lead on the Xbox One worldwide.

 
SaraAB said:
Also how are we supposed to take advantage of the Wii Fit offer when there is no stock of the product?
Click to expand...
I'm still confused by this. I'm guessing their answer would be that anyone internet savy enough to have known about the offer could order it online and that they didn't really want people buying just the meter, they'd rather charge people the extra $30 and have people buy the bundle with the game and meter.

I'm not sure Nintendo has any choice but to take the financial hit and fight through the rest of the generation if they want to stay in the console hardware business. If they bail after 3 years, they're going to alienate a lot of long time fans (myself included) who purchased a Wii U. And they'd be trying to release new hardware mid-generation. Starts to sound a lot like the Dreamcast...

 
It's in stock at Amazon, too.  Which reminds me to download that trial and boot it up so I can buy the Meter and get my free thingy.

(Now where the hell are the footpad/carpet things for my board?)

 
The gamepad is one of the main reason I won't buy it. Of the games I've played on it, none of them used it well enough to justify it over a normal controller. When I played Bayonetta, I played for hours at a time. During the 10 minute demo of Bayonetta 2, I didn't look down at the screen once. When I tried Scribblenauts on it, it was just mirroring the TV. The demo of Donkey Kong was the same; I didin't use the gamepad screen once. So like the Kinect on the Xbox One, I don't like the idea of paying that much extra for something that I don't want.

It also offers no real benefit. It's range isn't great, and I can't use it as a portable device on trips. It adds a ton of cost and weight as well.

The games are lacking. I understand some people might like playing Mario for 29 years. That's fine, but that group is shrinking. There's tons of award winning platformers out there now, that Mario is pretty basic, and unexciting to most people.

As for Zelda, remakes aside, the last great console one was what, Majora's Mask? The two Wii ones were more of a turn-off for non-diehard fans than anything.

Smash Bro. and Mario Kart I see the appeal of, but they're really not my cup of tea. But I'll admit Mario Kart is probably their strongest IP, and I do play it occasionally on the 3DS. But I also got it for free on my 3DS XL.

I honestly still don't know 100% exactly what Wonderful 101 is about, other than it's now the first P+ game I don't own. And Bayonetta 2 will soon be the next.

Another huge problem for me is their "tied to console" BS. I have literally no other device that does this. I can play my PC games on any of my computers, Android games on any of my devices, my Sony games... etc.

There was a recent article by two developers about the Wii U that was a really good read. Processing-wise, the Wii U has a better GPU than the 360/PS3, but a generally worse CPU than the two. Gamepad utilization aside, the Wii U is difficult to port things to than between the PS4/Xbone, so third party support really plummeted. Even then, why would anyone buy inferior versions on the Wii U?

They need games like non-ported third party games like Wonderful 101 (even if it did poorly) to really recover, IMO. And not just 3 titles. But that's a Catch-22, because the Wii U sold so poorly, third parties don't want to make games for it, so the Wii U sells less. If they threw money at a lot more games like Bayonetta 2, they have a chance of turning it around.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top