Wii U - General Discussion Thread

They aren't going third-party. They may change their strategy a bit but nothing that drastic. I also don't think they are going to abandon or discontinue the WiiU - eventually Zelda and a proper 3D Mario will be released. Maybe we get a kick-ass Metroid and a few more exclusives. They will eventually sell enough to make a profit like always.

If anything, I think that the WiiU was an experiment leading up to them unifying the portable and home consoles. Eventually they will release a DS powerful enough to display in 1080p on your TV. Imagine not having a WiiU but being able to play all the same games across the WiiU and 3DS whether you are at home or not. The WiiU is essentially a home version of the 3DS anyway. This will allow them to focus on one device that captures 2 markets.
Did you even read what Iwata said?

 
I don't think it's anywhere near that doom and gloom for Nintendo. Just for the Wii U.

Nintendo is sitting on mountains of cash after the raging success of the DS and Wii. Losses are never good, and the Wii U is a definite failure. But there not at the point where they have no choice but to go third party. They're not in the situation Sega was. Sega had an ok success with the Gensis, but the Saturn and Dreamcast sucked in sales and they never had a successful portable. So when the Dreamcast tanked, they had no cash reserves and were done.

Nintendo just needs to figure out how to best ride out the Wii U for another couple years, make as much money as they can selling first party software on it to keep losses as contained as possible, and take the time to really plan out what they want to do with there next hardware rollout. I'd still suggest the above. Consider some portable/console hybrid if they can get it out for $250 or less. If not, keep the handheld at $150, the console at $200 and keep them on the same architecture so every game can be ported to both platforms so they're not splitting their development resources across two platforms. Think of the library either the 3DS or Wii U would have if every first party game across both was playable on either platform.

As for the mobile stuff, I would expect to see a lot of ports since most of their games wouldn't work well with touch screen controls--other than some DS games, things like Tetris Attack/Planet Puzzle League etc. I'd expect to see them make casual games (think simple stuff like Angry Birds, Candy Crush etc.) featuring their characters. They're dumb to not do so as those games don't cost much to develop and would likely sell very well as Nintendo games are safe bets for parents to let their kids buy on their phones, tablets and iPods.
I wouldn't call it doom and gloom for Nintendo but it certainly is for the Wii U, which is a shame since it's a pretty good system. If Nintendo is forced to abandon the Wii U then it will greatly change their business model. Also, IMO the CEO of a company can only shrug off adversity for so long before stockholders call for his/her head.

 
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I wouldn't call it doom and gloom for Nintendo but it certainly is for the Wii U, which is a shame since it's a pretty good system. If Nintendo is forced to abandon the Wii U then it will greatly change their business model. Also, IMO the CEO of a company can only shrug off adversity for so long before stockholders call for their head.
Their number one shareholder used to own 10% of the company but he died recently and the people inheriting the money are said to be selling half the shares in order to cover estate taxes so the management at Nintendo will be much less protected.

 
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I wouldn't call it doom and gloom for Nintendo but it certainly is for the Wii U, which is a shame since it's a pretty good system. If Nintendo is forced to abandon the Wii U then it will greatly change their business model. Also, IMO the CEO of a company can only shrug off adversity for so long before stockholders call for his/her head.
Yeah, the Wii U is a lost cause as I said. I knew that before buying one, but decided there were enough games out and announced that I'd get my money's worth. At a bare minimum there's NSMBU, NSLU, Mario 3D World, Rayman Legends (best version), W101, Mario Kart, Smash Bros., and a Zelda in the works.

And as they can't pull the plug too soon--or else they'll piss off everyone who bought one and canabalize a bunch of potential sales of their next platform by alienating their hard core fans--I'm sure there will be at least a handful more solid first party games. So I don't think they'll abandon it. They've got little choice but to ride it out for at least a couple more years, unless they do say fuck it and go third party or portable only and give up on home consoles. Which I don't see happening. I think they put out at least one more home console (or a hybrid portable). If that bombs, then yeah, they're done at that point.

They should really pump out some more HD remakes. Apparently Wind Waker HD only took them six months or so. If that's true they should get an HD collection of 3D mario games out, Metroid Prime Trilogy in HD etc. That wouldn't cost much, would sell well to the existing base and probably help entice some more fence sitters.

 
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" It’s not as simple as enabling Mario to move on a smartphone.”

Uh, sure it is. Look at Sonic Dash. How much did Sega rake in with it? How much more brand awareness did they get from millions of downloads?

 
Uh, sure it is. Look at Sonic Dash. How much did Sega rake in with it? How much more brand awareness did they get from millions of downloads?
I think he's saying that the platformers and other games that Nintendo puts out need a controller because the player needs more delicate control of the character. It's why I think they'll do a couple of games to test it and probably continue with the 3DS and make 3rd party games for the X1 and PS4.

 
They just need to make touch screen friendly casual games featuring Mario et al.

Most games aren't portable as no one is buying controllers for phones/tablets in mass yet.  And won't on the Apple side of thing anytime soon since they're all $100.  I guess Nintendo could do something like put Mario All Stars out for iOS/Android and bundle it with a controller if they wanted to go that route.

But it seems easier to just make mobile specific games using their characters as a way to create another revenue stream.  I don't think many people want to play full fledged, retro games on their phones.  At least not nearly as many as play casual stuff like Angry Birds that are suited for short bursts here and there.

 
Yeah, the Wii U is a lost cause as I said. I knew that before buying one, but decided there were enough games out and announced that I'd get my money's worth. At a bare minimum there's NSMBU, NSLU, Mario 3D World, Rayman Legends (best version), W101, Mario Kart, Smash Bros., and a Zelda in the works.

And as they can't pull the plug too soon--or else they'll piss off everyone who bought one and canabalize a bunch of potential sales of their next platform by alienating their hard core fans--I'm sure there will be at least a handful more solid first party games. So I don't think they'll abandon it. They've got little choice but to ride it out for at least a couple more years, unless they do say fuck it and go third party or portable only and give up on home consoles. Which I don't see happening. I think they put out at least one more home console (or a hybrid portable). If that bombs, then yeah, they're done at that point.

They should really pump out some more HD remakes. Apparently Wind Waker HD only took them six months or so. If that's true they should get an HD collection of 3D mario games out, Metroid Prime Trilogy in HD etc. That wouldn't cost much, would sell well to the existing base and probably help entice some more fence sitters.
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".

 
P.S. Supporting a failed device is bad idea. Most major businesses try to avoid the "Concorde Fallacy".
It's tough with something like gaming consoles though--at least if they want to put out another one.

Pull the plug way early on a console people paid $300-350 and very few of even your core fanbase are going to buy your next console. If they want to stop supporting it, they can really only do that if they intend to get out of the home console hardware business and go third party. If that's what they want to do, then yeah, they should just put out the games like Smash and Mario Kart that are far along in development and pull the plug on the Wii U in early 2015 and move on.

If they want to keep giving home console hardware a go, then they have to ride out the Wii U for at least 4-5 years if they want to have any chance of consumers trusting them enough to buy their next console anywhere near launch.

Personally, my ideal situation would be for them to give up on home consoles and partner with Sony. Nintendo makes their console games exlusively for the PS4 and beyond. Sony gives up in handhelds since they've failed with the Vita and let's Nintendo handle that hardware and put out their first party portable exclusives for it.

It will never happen with the bad blood between the companies dating back to the fall out over the planned partnership Playstation CD rom drive. But it would be great for gamers IMO to have a Sony/Nintendo major Japanese power in the market competing against Xbox and PC gaming from western companies.

 
That would be pretty neat if Sony and Nintendo joined forces.  Sony has gotten so Western-centric, though, that I doubt they'd bother, and I doubt it would happen anyway.  This reminds me of the 1990s where people were saying Nintendo was going to buy Sega and make a Super Sonic Mario Bros.

It's fun to speculate, but all we can do really is speculate.  Iwata was tremendously vague, in the Japanese tradition of vague politeness.  What he said could mean anything.  I don't think they'll pull the plug on the Wii U anytime soon, and they certainly won't pull the plug on the 3DS.  I have a feeling they might go down like a flaming battleship before they ever did that.  But I'm just speculating, too.  Edit: And if they did go down like a flaming battleship, that would be when they'd become a 3rd-party and mobile developer.

 
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That would be pretty neat if Sony and Nintendo joined forces. Sony has gotten so Western-centric, though, that I doubt they'd bother, and I doubt it would happen anyway. This reminds me of the 1990s where people were saying Nintendo was going to buy Sega and make a Super Sonic Mario Bros.

It's fun to speculate, but all we can do really is speculate. Iwata was tremendously vague, in the Japanese tradition of vague politeness. What he said could mean anything. I don't think they'll pull the plug on the Wii U anytime soon, and they certainly won't pull the plug on the 3DS. I have a feeling they might go down like a flaming battleship before they ever did that. But I'm just speculating, too. Edit: And if they did go down like a flaming battleship, that would be when they'd become a 3rd-party and mobile developer.
Or like the 90s when Nintendo and Sony actually were partnering together to make a CD add-on to the SNES?

 
It's tough with something like gaming consoles though--at least if they want to put out another one.

Pull the plug way early on a console people paid $300-350 and very few of even your core fanbase are going to buy your next console. If they want to stop supporting it, they can really only do that if they intend to get out of the home console hardware business and go third party. If that's what they want to do, then yeah, they should just put out the games like Smash and Mario Kart that are far along in development and pull the plug on the Wii U in early 2015 and move on.

If they want to keep giving home console hardware a go, then they have to ride out the Wii U for at least 4-5 years if they want to have any chance of consumers trusting them enough to buy their next console anywhere near launch.

Personally, my ideal situation would be for them to give up on home consoles and partner with Sony. Nintendo makes their console games exlusively for the PS4 and beyond. Sony gives up in handhelds since they've failed with the Vita and let's Nintendo handle that hardware and put out their first party portable exclusives for it.

It will never happen with the bad blood between the companies dating back to the fall out over the planned partnership Playstation CD rom drive. But it would be great for gamers IMO to have a Sony/Nintendo major Japanese power in the market competing against Xbox and PC gaming from western companies.
Keep in mind, 100 million people bought a Wii. 5 or 6 million will have bought a Wii U by the end of March. Huge difference. I don't think pulling the plug on the Wii U will really hurt their chances of selling their next console because they don't have much chance anyway.

I also think they should go to Sony but TBH it might be most beneficial to Nintendo to talk to MS because MS has shown a willingness to pay companies massive stacks of cach for exclusives (or timed exclusives).

That would be pretty neat if Sony and Nintendo joined forces. Sony has gotten so Western-centric, though, that I doubt they'd bother, and I doubt it would happen anyway. This reminds me of the 1990s where people were saying Nintendo was going to buy Sega and make a Super Sonic Mario Bros.

It's fun to speculate, but all we can do really is speculate. Iwata was tremendously vague, in the Japanese tradition of vague politeness. What he said could mean anything. I don't think they'll pull the plug on the Wii U anytime soon, and they certainly won't pull the plug on the 3DS. I have a feeling they might go down like a flaming battleship before they ever did that. But I'm just speculating, too. Edit: And if they did go down like a flaming battleship, that would be when they'd become a 3rd-party and mobile developer.
Here's the thing though, they have a lot of cash BUT they can't sustain losses in perpetuity. At some point they have to make profits again. The Wii U is driving their losses and the idea that they'll continue to eat those losses for another 5 years is simply closing your eyes to the facts. On top of that, there's almost a 0% chance that they're ready to launch another console.

 
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Sony and Nintendo would make for a pretty good marriage but I doubt it happens. Too many financial obstacles to overcome. It would have to be an equal partnership. That's like saying Microsoft and Valve/Steam merging....not happening.

Also, no way Nintendo abandons the 3DS in the near future. Worse case scenario they create some sort of VitaTV for the 3DS.

 
Keep in mind, 100 million people bought a Wii. 5 or 6 million will have bought a Wii U by the end of March. Huge difference. I don't think pulling the plug on the Wii U will really hurt their chances of selling their next console because they don't have much chance anyway.

I also think they should go to Sony but TBH it might be most beneficial to Nintendo to talk to MS because MS has shown a willingness to pay companies massive stacks of cach for exclusives (or timed exclusives).

Here's the thing though, they have a lot of cash BUT they can't sustain losses in perpetuity. At some point they have to make profits again. The Wii U is driving their losses and the idea that they'll continue to eat those losses for another 5 years is simply closing your eyes to the facts. On top of that, there's almost a 0% chance that they're ready to launch another console.
While that's true, they'll never come close to selling 100 million consoles again. I doubt any company will as gaming seems to be a shrinking market in general with consoles unlikely to sell Wii or PS2 levels again.

PS4 and X1 will probably get 70-80 million each and end up just a bit short of 360 and PS3 sales. The best Nintendo can hope for is around GC numbers--which was in the low 20 millions if IIRC. And they can't do that if they alienate their hardcore fans who've bought a Wii U--or are on the fence about one after another price drop--by cutting support way short.

Plus, as you note, there's no way they'll have another console ready to go anytime soon anyway. So they have little choice but to ride out the Wii U. Focus more on 3DS where they can sell more software, get some casual mobile games with their characters out to cash in on that huge market etc. Find ways to make cash to off set Wii U losses much as possible and put a bunch of effort into a successor console (or portable/console hybrid) to launch in late 2015 at earliest, 2016 more likely. They can pull the plug earlier than the usual five year minimum and be ok (MS launched the 360 four years after the original Xbox). But they can't drop it in 2014 or early 2015 if they want to have any chance of selling their next hardware.

I just don't see them giving up. They've been around too long, are coming off huge successes with the DS and Wii, and even with the Wii U debacle the 3DS is still selling quite well--just short of their ridiculous projections. It's just not as doom and gloom for them as a company right now as many make it out to be. The Wii U was just a disastrous failure. All they can do is control damage for a couple years and come out with a much different produc the next go around.

 
So the 3ds was the best selling console of 2013 but is a failure? That's bad news for the gaming industry as a whole.
It wasn't really a failure. Their internal projections for 3DS and Wii U were just absurdly high. None of the private estimates from people like Pachter were anywhere near that high.

But yes gaming does seem to be declining from PS2/Wii sales peaks. There's much more competition for people's entertainment hours these days. Streaming video makes it much easier and cheaper to watch a ton of movies and TV. The rise of tablets and smart phones has people dicking around on those every spare moment etc.

Gaming is still a HUGE market, but it probably is going to continue receding some from those peaks and getting back more to the core market of people playing traditional games as a lot of the Wii Sports/Fitness Games/Music Game/Brain Age crowd had their fill and moved on to other things.

 
Was going to reply, but I think anything I wanted to say has been said. :p Personally, I think the Wii was a huge fluke. It was a horrible system with a gimmick that normal people got excited about. It became a toy and a pop culture item. In my opinion, the best games on the Wii (and there were a lot of good ones) didn't even make use of the Wiimote.

And, unfortunately, the gamepad is the gimmick on the Wii U, and it did not catch on. It seems as though Nintendo was trying to win back gamers but keep the masses, and they missed both crowds (not counting us, or me specifically--I really like my Wii U).

But, again, I think the Wii was a fluke. I suppose in today's market, the trouble is that a console needs to sell in vast quantities to create and install base. I've lost touch with the market, personally--I see the PS4 and Xbone selling off shelves and can't for the life of me figure out why or drum up any interest in any of the games. I feel like an old person. "You damn kids and your rock 'n' roll!"

I think eventually companies are going to have to downsize and be satisfied with smaller market shares. Not every company needs to be enormous and churn in billions of dollars. There are other ways, and those ways will emerge and become more prominent. Things change. Nobody buys albums (CDs) anymore, sadly, just singles, and music itself has become about the spectacle and the radio garbage. And about reality TV "talent show" nonsense, the cult of the beautiful people doing karaoke.

Or like the 90s when Nintendo and Sony actually were partnering together to make a CD add-on to the SNES?
I still think that would have been awesome. I remember Square used to put out a tiny little newsletter through postal mail, and they had a short article speculating on what Square could do with CD-ROM storage space on the SNES with that CD add-on. Man, I got so excited. I wanted that to happen so badly. Probably would have flopped like pretty much all console add-ons ever have, though.

 
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I don't think the Wii U is a failure, its not the game.com and its not the virtual boy, no it may not be selling up to projections but can anything really top the Wii right now? Its foolish to think they will have Wii type success in a market that is flooded by other devices. Apple is king in every household I know of and pretty much no one in my family is even buying dedicated gaming consoles since they can't afford them and those that can afford them are now playing games on their laptops via steam since it is the most accessible and doesn't require purchase of a $200-500 box and apparently offers a superior experience with very inexpensive games plus the laptop can be used for other things. Gaming consoles are just a shrinking market right now, so you can't expect them to sell like in the PS2 days.

I doubt they would drop the Wii U now as they have several big games planned for this year and that would pretty much ensure that no one would buy their next console. Another problem with the Wii U is that each household only needs one, vs the 3DS where you need one for each kid or each member of your family in order to play properly. No one buys 2 Wii U's unless your kids are incredibly spoiled but its common for people to buy multiple 3DS systems especially if someone wants to upgrade to an XL or a limited edition. Again the Wii U won't sell as much since there is no reason to buy more than one per household. I don't know anyone with a Wii U, but I know several people who have 2 3DS's each and several households with more than one 3DS per house.

A lot of people are still satisfied with their Wii's.  I know a lot of people who still play the original Wii Sports on their Wii's. These people don't have any interest in upgrading to Wii U. I agree with everyone, the Wii was really a fluke, it was a product that came at the right time and was more of a toy or a pop culture fad. To assume that every consumer Nintendo lured in with the Wii will buy their next system is just a ridiculous thought. Now there a lot of products vying for the attention of the consumer from all different manufacturers, and in 2006 when the Wii came out there was no iPhone or iPad or roku boxes or anything like that.

I am very satisfied with my purchase of the Wii U but there are quite a few things that need to be changed #1 being the VC games need to be integrated into the Wii U instead of re-releasing 1 VC game a week, because that is just ridiculous. This really should have been completed at launch.

Pokemon Bank needs to come out NOW!!!! I am frankly sick the waiting and incompetence of Nintendo and Gamefreak on this one. It is almost a month after launch and there is no news whatsoever on this. I was eagerly awaiting this application but now I am more likely not to use it, or use it once during the trial period, or pay for it just because of the fact that they have delayed it infinitely. This is bad for Nintendo since I was willing to give them money for a product that they failed to deliver, and now, I probably won't even be using it other than during the free trial if that will even still exist.

 
I don't think the Wii U is a failure, its not the game.com and its not the virtual boy, no it may not be selling up to projections but can anything really top the Wii right now? Its foolish to think they will have Wii type success in a market that is flooded by other devices. Apple is king in every household I know of and pretty much no one in my family is even buying dedicated gaming consoles since they can't afford them and those that can afford them are now playing games on their laptops via steam since it is the most accessible and doesn't require purchase of a $200-500 box and apparently offers a superior experience with very inexpensive games plus the laptop can be used for other things. Gaming consoles are just a shrinking market right now, so you can't expect them to sell like in the PS2 days.

I doubt they would drop the Wii U now as they have several big games planned for this year and that would pretty much ensure that no one would buy their next console. Another problem with the Wii U is that each household only needs one, vs the 3DS where you need one for each kid or each member of your family in order to play properly. No one buys 2 Wii U's unless your kids are incredibly spoiled but its common for people to buy multiple 3DS systems especially if someone wants to upgrade to an XL or a limited edition. Again the Wii U won't sell as much since there is no reason to buy more than one per household. I don't know anyone with a Wii U, but I know several people who have 2 3DS's each and several households with more than one 3DS per house.

A lot of people are still satisfied with their Wii's. I know a lot of people who still play the original Wii Sports on their Wii's. These people don't have any interest in upgrading to Wii U. I agree with everyone, the Wii was really a fluke, it was a product that came at the right time and was more of a toy or a pop culture fad. To assume that every consumer Nintendo lured in with the Wii will buy their next system is just a ridiculous thought. Now there a lot of products vying for the attention of the consumer from all different manufacturers, and in 2006 when the Wii came out there was no iPhone or iPad or roku boxes or anything like that.

I am very satisfied with my purchase of the Wii U but there are quite a few things that need to be changed #1 being the VC games need to be integrated into the Wii U instead of re-releasing 1 VC game a week, because that is just ridiculous. This really should have been completed at launch.

Pokemon Bank needs to come out NOW!!!! I am frankly sick the waiting and incompetence of Nintendo and Gamefreak on this one. It is almost a month after launch and there is no news whatsoever on this. I was eagerly awaiting this application but now I am more likely not to use it, or use it once during the trial period, or pay for it just because of the fact that they have delayed it infinitely. This is bad for Nintendo since I was willing to give them money for a product that they failed to deliver, and now, I probably won't even be using it other than during the free trial if that will even still exist. I don't even think its necessary as I can just simply leave my Pokemon on my cartridges and if I want to down the road I can upload them to Pokemon Bank and use it then saving a couple years of subscription fees.
 
Three missed internal sales targets is not good. Those aren't targets set by analysts, those are estimates N uses to go about their business. It's certainly not a success, and if "failure" puts you off, call it a non-success.

An analyst quoted in the Wall Street Journal had it right: they're out of touch. They've lost their way, and now they're churning through cash reserves. They feel a bit like MS, groping around for a foothold while they eat up cash. I hope they straighten things out.

One thing I'm almost certain of is that they're not going into the third party development game. I don't see how a "new business structure" alludes to that. It sounds to me, based on context, that the new structure would address Nintendo's difficulty outside of Japan (alluded to by Iwata in his "In Japan I can be my own antenna..." remark).

I don't understand their structure enough to know if rejiggering is going to put them in a better place. I hope so.

 
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I don't think the Wii U is a failure, its not the game.com and its not the virtual boy, no it may not be selling up to projections but can anything really top the Wii right now? Its foolish to think they will have Wii type success in a market that is flooded by other devices. r than during the free trial if that will even still exist.
It has sold less in over a year than the PS4 sold between launching in mid January and the end of 2013 (roughly 6 weeks).

It's a failure. It's not a matter of needing to hit Wii levels. It's not even going to sniff Gamecube levels--and that was only in the low 20 millions. It's costing them tons of money. They had projected a 55 billion yen profit, and now are projecting a 25 billion yen loss.

I like my Wii U. When all is said and done it will have more than enough games that I feel I got my $300 worth. So it's not a failure in a personal sense. But it's a huge financial failure for Nintendo as they're losing a ton of money on it, have lost a ton of market share from even the lean GC days and are unlikely to ever end up making a net profit on it.

 
IMO Nintendo's obsession with using gimmicks to differentiate themselves from the competition has been their downfall. Starting with the Wii, they decided that being "different" was their most important goal to succeed, as opposed to just delivering solid gaming hardware. These gimmicks ruin the gaming experience, for me at least (and many others, judging by sales). I have no interest in waving wands around or in having a bulky, low-res, wannabe tablet for a controller. I believe Nintendo's own arrogance (or at least Iwata's) has led them to this point.

There are so many missing/gimped features on Wii U, its a wonder that it went past the design stage. It seems like they scaled the console way back in features, to accommodate the relatively high cost of the gamepad. That of course left the console unable to compete for the next generation.

Sad that they've come to this point, but they only have their own shortsightedness to blame.
 
I still think that would have been awesome. I remember Square used to put out a tiny little newsletter through postal mail, and they had a short article speculating on what Square could do with CD-ROM storage space on the SNES with that CD add-on. Man, I got so excited. I wanted that to happen so badly. Probably would have flopped like pretty much all console add-ons ever have, though.
Well, if it did end up happening (successfully or not), then we may not have the Playstation as we know it today; since this failed partnership was what led to the birth of the PS.

 
IMO Nintendo's obsession with using gimmicks to differentiate themselves from the competition has been their downfall. Starting with the Wii, they decided that being "different" was their most important goal to succeed, as opposed to just delivering solid gaming hardware. These gimmicks ruin the gaming experience, for me at least (and many others, judging by sales). I have no interest in waving wands around or in having a bulky, low-res, wannabe tablet for a controller. I believe Nintendo's own arrogance (or at least Iwata's) has led them to this point.

There are so many missing/gimped features on Wii U, its a wonder that it went past the design stage. It seems like they scaled the console way back in features, to accommodate the relatively high cost of the gamepad. That of course left the console unable to compete for the next generation.

Sad that they've come to this point, but they only have their own shortsightedness to blame.
Well, the thing is, their first gimmick was the Nintendo DS. I remember when they were saying it would be their "third pillar" alongside Game Boy Advance and Gamecube. Well, the DS was a runaway success. So much for "third pillar." It was pretty much *the* pillar.

And their next gimmick was the Wii, and even bigger runaway success.

And then there was the 3DS, yet another gimmick if you really think about it.

But that doesn't explain what they thought they were doing with the Wii U, the gimmick being the gamepad. I still think they were trying to recapture the gamer market while retaining the fickle non-gamers.

I don't really buy the whole "people can't afford consoles" thing. People are paying out their rear for cellphone contracts and obnoxious (my opinion only--no offense intended) Apple products. PS4 and Xbone have sold pretty well (for reasons beyond my comprehension). If people wanted Wii U, they could and would buy it. I guess it's just not cool like being able to fiddle with facebook and play crappy games on an iPad, or get the swankiest new iPhone so you can tweet faster while you're pooping, or shoot someone in the face in the next Call of Duty that is exactly the same as all the rest but in slightly higher resolution with more textures and longer load times.

In my opinion, the focus has been lost. Great profit lies in pleasing fickle mass markets. Nintendo is not pleasing the fickle mass market. But what have "we" gotten from companies pleasing the mass market anyway? There will always be a niche of people who want to play Nintendo games, a big niche. I suppose the question is, how will Nintendo reach that niche, and will they keep striving to reach the fickle mass market as well?

Well, if it did end up happening (successfully or not), then we may not have the Playstation as we know it today; since this failed partnership was what led to the birth of the PS.
(re: SNES CD-ROM) Funny thing there, on the PS, we got all those really ugly 3D games and such. To be fair, Japan had lots of neat 2D games, too, but Sony was so against releasing anything 2D in the US, and against RPGs in general until FFVII. I wonder what glories we would have gotten on an SNES CD-ROM.

 
I am liking Wii Fit U. And the Fit Meter Challenges are a cool way to motivate you to walk/hike/run. I'm working on NYC and the pyramids. Taking the kids for a walk in 30 minutes to make some progress. :)
 
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.
 
I don't think the Wii U is a failure, its not the game.com and its not the virtual boy, no it may not be selling up to projections but can anything really top the Wii right now? Its foolish to think they will have Wii type success in a market that is flooded by other devices. Apple is king in every household I know of and pretty much no one in my family is even buying dedicated gaming consoles since they can't afford them and those that can afford them are now playing games on their laptops via steam since it is the most accessible and doesn't require purchase of a $200-500 box and apparently offers a superior experience with very inexpensive games plus the laptop can be used for other things. Gaming consoles are just a shrinking market right now, so you can't expect them to sell like in the PS2 days.

I doubt they would drop the Wii U now as they have several big games planned for this year and that would pretty much ensure that no one would buy their next console. Another problem with the Wii U is that each household only needs one, vs the 3DS where you need one for each kid or each member of your family in order to play properly. No one buys 2 Wii U's unless your kids are incredibly spoiled but its common for people to buy multiple 3DS systems especially if someone wants to upgrade to an XL or a limited edition. Again the Wii U won't sell as much since there is no reason to buy more than one per household. I don't know anyone with a Wii U, but I know several people who have 2 3DS's each and several households with more than one 3DS per house.

A lot of people are still satisfied with their Wii's. I know a lot of people who still play the original Wii Sports on their Wii's. These people don't have any interest in upgrading to Wii U. I agree with everyone, the Wii was really a fluke, it was a product that came at the right time and was more of a toy or a pop culture fad. To assume that every consumer Nintendo lured in with the Wii will buy their next system is just a ridiculous thought. Now there a lot of products vying for the attention of the consumer from all different manufacturers, and in 2006 when the Wii came out there was no iPhone or iPad or roku boxes or anything like that.

I am very satisfied with my purchase of the Wii U but there are quite a few things that need to be changed #1 being the VC games need to be integrated into the Wii U instead of re-releasing 1 VC game a week, because that is just ridiculous. This really should have been completed at launch.

Pokemon Bank needs to come out NOW!!!! I am frankly sick the waiting and incompetence of Nintendo and Gamefreak on this one. It is almost a month after launch and there is no news whatsoever on this. I was eagerly awaiting this application but now I am more likely not to use it, or use it once during the trial period, or pay for it just because of the fact that they have delayed it infinitely. This is bad for Nintendo since I was willing to give them money for a product that they failed to deliver, and now, I probably won't even be using it other than during the free trial if that will even still exist.
It's not the failure that the Virtual Boy was, I agree. The problem is that you're comparing it to their worst selling product. You can't say, "its better than VB therefore it's not a failure". There's plenty of room to fail between that and where the Wii sold. For the record, they weren't expecting Wii sales numbers. They were predicting that between April 1, 2013 and March 31, 2014 the Wii U would sell 9,000,000 units. They've now lowered that estimate to 2,800,000 during that same time. That is bad. Their install base is so small that most games don't sell more than 200,000 copies which means that 90% of games do not cover development costs and end up losing money.

I'm happy with my Wii U also but then I knew this would happen. What should matter to you is the fact that this means that Nintendo will have less incentive to develop for it's own platform knowing that most games will lose money. It also means that they'll probably discontinue the platform. Maybe they'll throw the current owners a bone by giving them some free eshop cash or something?

 
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I am liking Wii Fit U. And the Fit Meter Challenges are a cool way to motivate you to walk/hike/run. I'm working on NYC and the pyramids. Taking the kids for a walk in 30 minutes to make some progress. :)
I really want to get in on this, but it's generally either too cold or too windy or too snowy to walk here in the winter. :( I think I've gone on maybe 10 walks all winter. Maybe I'll download the trial, get a Fit Meter, link it up, and then just wait until spring to use it.

 
Well, the thing is, their first gimmick was the Nintendo DS. I remember when they were saying it would be their "third pillar" alongside Game Boy Advance and Gamecube. Well, the DS was a runaway success. So much for "third pillar." It was pretty much *the* pillar.

And their next gimmick was the Wii, and even bigger runaway success.

And then there was the 3DS, yet another gimmick if you really think about it.

But that doesn't explain what they thought they were doing with the Wii U, the gimmick being the gamepad. I still think they were trying to recapture the gamer market while retaining the fickle non-gamers.
I know the Wii motion controller is deemed a gimmick by most of us but it is the easiest and most intuitive controller to use for non/casual gamers.

 
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I know I'm old but damn.  Nintendo's first gimmick was R.O.B.!  They have been doing this shit as long as they have been making video games and I'm sure someone older than me will chime in and tell me that the Game & Watch handhelds were gimmicks or they way they printed playing cards back in the 1800s was gimmicky.  This is what they do and they have made it this far.

 
I know the Wii motion controller is deemed a gimmick by most of us but it is the easiest and most intuitive controller to use for non/casual gamers.
Yeah, it does make sense, why it sold so well. I'm surprised Nintendo didn't find a better way to keep riding that train. I was excited that the Wii U was more of a gamer machine in the traditional sense, but I didn't want it to be at the cost of the system itself.

I know I'm old but damn. Nintendo's first gimmick was R.O.B.! They have been doing this shit as long as they have been making video games and I'm sure someone older than me will chime in and tell me that the Game & Watch handhelds were gimmicks or they way they printed playing cards back in the 1800s was gimmicky. This is what they do and they have made it this far.
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!

And the Power Pad. I think I did have one of those. Maybe. I can't remember. My friends across the street did at least. :)

R.O.B. was actually kind of a neat idea. I'd love a robot to play games with. That one was too far ahead of its time to be decent.

 
Yeah, it does make sense, why it sold so well. I'm surprised Nintendo didn't find a better way to keep riding that train. I was excited that the Wii U was more of a gamer machine in the traditional sense, but I didn't want it to be at the cost of the system itself.

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!

And the Power Pad. I think I did have one of those. Maybe. I can't remember. My friends across the street did at least. :)

R.O.B. was actually kind of a neat idea. I'd love a robot to play games with. That one was too far ahead of its time to be decent.
I had all three of the aforementioned gimmicks when they came out and yeah, they really weren't all that great. Power Glove was just awful, made even worse when my brother lost the code manual. The Power Pad was probably the best of the three, since it did what it was supposed to without much trouble. It was just easier to sit on the ground and fist pound it for faster times in the running events.

ROB... ugh. Way ahead of it's time, for sure. My biggest problem was that it was too complex to control with the same controller you were playing with. But the highlight of it for me was when the glue holding the metal label onto the disc came loose one day, and for some reason I went to grab it off the spinner with my hand and missed the handle and ended up slicing my hand a bit. I should've sued ;)

 
I hope they can get sales of the Wii U moving because I like the console.

Developing for iOS and Android makes sense and I'm sure they'll do it. Make games and apps that tie into their 3DS and WiiU games.

I imagine that dropping hardware and developing for other consoles (and even Steam/PC) will be a last, last resort, but not off the table.
 
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.
I disagree. I feel like most developers are trying to push gaming forward with their games by making games that weren't possible before like Assassins Creed or Little Big Planet and by making completely new games like Minecraft or Tearaway. Nintendo on the other hand continues to make games like it's the 90s, following the same formulas they always have. It’s been 20 years since Super Mario World yet their 2D Mario games still have a timer. Why? Why can't I save anywhere in Zelda a Link Between worlds?



Nintendo needs to start updating their games for the modern era like other companies have done in order to reach a wider audience. Capcom has been around almost as long as Nintendo but their games like Street Fighter 4 or RE 5/6 don't feel like games made in the PS1/SNES era. I still don't understand how Nintendo has made 3 different 4 player Mario games yet none of them have online play.

 
I disagree. I feel like most developers are trying to push gaming forward with their games by making games that weren't possible before like Assassins Creed or Little Big Planet and by making completely new games like Minecraft or Tearaway. Nintendo on the other hand continues to make games like it's the 90s, following the same formulas they always have. It’s been 20 years since Super Mario World yet their 2D Mario games still have a timer. Why? Why can't I save anywhere in Zelda a Link Between worlds?



Nintendo needs to start updating their games for the modern era like other companies have done in order to reach a wider audience. Capcom has been around almost as long as Nintendo but their games like Street Fighter 4 or RE 5/6 don't feel like games made in the PS1/SNES era. I still don't understand how Nintendo has made 3 different 4 player Mario games yet none of them have online play.
I think he was specifically talking about a couple of games. That's the kind of hyperbole people spout when they want to make false arguements about gaming. Another one of those is that all people that play non-Nintendo consoles just want to play "dudebro shooters" when in fact, the other consoles have a MUCH larger variety of games than Nintendo does. Yes COD and a select few games are Hollywood boom boom boom games. I'm playing "Rain" right now on PS3.

 
Well of course, but I think their point was more that both have been making video games for 30ish years.

I'd disagree that Capcom's games feel any fresher than Nintendo's though.  Both suffer from relying too much on old IPs and not enough taking chances creating new ones.

 
Well of course, but I think their point was more that both have been making video games for 30ish years.

I'd disagree that Capcom's games feel any fresher than Nintendo's though. Both suffer from relying too much on old IPs and not enough taking chances creating new ones.
Even then, Nintendo had been making electronics and arcade games since the late 60s. The company has been around a long time.

However, back then they had an eye on what people enjoyed and made products to satisfy that need. Recently they seem to be ignoring some of the things people clearly enjoy now.

 
Indie developers like the dev of Terraria can take chances that the AAA devs can't. Terraria didn't need to sell millions of copies to turn a profit. They can have modest sales and make money.

Nintendo is not an Indie.
 
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One thing's for sure, after the Dreamcast then the Wii U, no one will ever release a controller with a screen on it again.
It's not the screen... it's that both machines were under-powered compared to the competition, and relied on the screen to push the hardware rather than good games (which is the primary reason people buy consoles).

 
This image sums up the Dreamcast's library, even if it was talking about the Saturn:

130200_v1.jpg


 
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