Nintendo Wii U - review

[J0e Musashi]

I've never not had a PS3 game to play since 2006.

What Wii U games will there be in the next six months? I've got Sonic All Star Racing, which seems quite lengthy; but that isn't going to last forever.

[wakka]

It must be amazing playing games in English for the first time J0e.

Agree with others that it's a shame manuals are on the way out - I was actually pleasantly surprised by the lengthiness of the digital manual included with Persona 4 Golden. Honestly though it shouldn't really shock anyone, since games will be digital-only soon enough anyway.

Besides, most modern games keep the controls on screen AT ALL TIMES anyway, even when you've been playing it for the last 25 hours. So I guess they hardly see a need to give the player a guide book.

Ok, so that's probably the final nail in its coffin for me. The transformation is complete. Nintendo is now just another Sony or Microsoft.

what's this supposed to mean? They're not a magical dreamfactory printing their games on clouds made of marshmallows and Pocky? All 3 are giant international corporations trying their best to dominate an industry in which it is extremely expensive and extremely difficult to stay competitive. Do you think it would be a good strategy for Nintendo to keep boxing their games up with lavish colour manuals long after Sony and Microsoft have stopped bothering? Of course not. Look at PC games. They used to come in giant cardboard boxes with filled with all manner of books, posters, statues, scratch and sniff cards and god knows what else. And that was awesome, really awesome. But those days are long gone and now PC games are primarily sold via Steam, Origin or similar.

The box, disc and manual are dead. Manuals are already in the ground. It's just a matter of when the other two will be buried!

[noobish hat]

It didn't take a genius to notice that Nintendo were operating in a completely different manner to Sony and Microsoft over the past generation. Aside from the controls (and some games even used a NES-style d-pad and two buttons input), the Wii was very similar to the consoles of the past. I.e. not a pile of crap. There was no DLC, no patches, no updates, games had manuals, etc etc. Now there is no practical difference between the three companies. That's what I mean.

I see no reason that the disc, box, and manual should be dead, other than greed. If in the PREVIOUS generation it was possible to print full, colour manuals, it's not suddenly become impossible to do the same THIS generation. The only thing that's changed is the publishers' attitudes. Anybody who just accepts it as 'that's just how it goes' or, worse, believes any crap about reducing carbon footprints, is a fool.

[Golgo]

Noobish, there were indeed patches/updates for Wii games. Nintendo usually did it by updating the console firmware (as in Wii Sports Resort) or by adding patches as WiiWare 'channels' (as in Skyward Sword). Quite a mess, tbh.

[originalbadboy]

I've never not had a PS3 game to play since 2006.

Then you either not picky .. Or you invented a time machine and went forward a year or so ...

[noobish hat]

Well I don't know about any of that, but I've never had my Wii online and I haven't noticed bugs or anything in any of my games. The idea of saying the same for the 360 is laughable. Although, you say there was a patch for Skyward Sword? This may explain a lot. But in my opinion, Skyward Sword is where it all began to go downhill (like with the manual for example).

[Golgo]

Well it's true, you're right to say it's a lot less prevalent than in other consoles. There have been a few real clangers, though. Skyward Sword had a game-ruining bug near the end, although I guess for you it was ruined from the beginning anyway lol

[wakka]

I see no reason that the disc, box, and manual should be dead, other than greed. If in the PREVIOUS generation it was possible to print full, colour manuals, it's not suddenly become impossible to do the same THIS generation. The only thing that's changed is the publishers' attitudes. Anybody who just accepts it as 'that's just how it goes' or, worse, believes any crap about reducing carbon footprints, is a fool.

I'm afraid that time moves on. Games at retail have struggled for some time. The situation is not as cut and dried as you're trying to make it appear - while I like most of us on here have a lot of affection for the big collection of boxed games on my shelves and all the associated tat, I genuinely think exclusively digital distribution will be a good thing for the games industry.

- Variable pricing: Eventually, DD-only would allow for far more flexible game pricing. In fact, it's already allowed for the beginnings of this, with releases like Okami HD hitting the ?15 mark, smaller indie games hitting the ?1 - ?3 mark, and other titles hovering around ?8. With physical distribution, this wouldn't have been feasible.

- Less pressure on devs to fulfil unrealistic expectations for what every 'full price' game should entail: When games are not forced to be ?40 minimum RRP every time, there won't be the driving need to include features like multiplayer when they're not really necessary and the core game suffers as a result.

- No trade ins: Yup, it'll be a pain. But it'll be a massive boon for fans of single player games, a genre that's currently much maligned by the fact that as soon as gamers beat the story, they trade it straight in. Why wouldn't they? There's no multiplayer to keep them interested, after all (see above). But with digital distribution and flexible pricing, a fantastic high budget single player experience could be ?25 instead of ?40, and devs could be comfortable in the knowledge that their sales won't be destroyed after week 1.

- Unlimited access to the library of games: We all know how irritating it is when a game gets a limited print run and jumps to ?60 on Ebay. With 100% digital distribution (the only current example is the Vita), the system's ENTIRE library of games (with the very odd exception) will be available at your convenience.

That's a few reasons why I think it would be a good thing. You don't have to agree, but I'm not a fool for accepting that that's the way things are going. The writing's on the wall. If you don't believe me, why not take a look at some other industries? Music was the first to move to digital distribution, with Napster and Kazaa setting an early expectation via piracy that was eventually fulfilled through legitimate services like iTunes and Spotify (who now dominate). Movies - sales and rentals have been slow digitally, but Netflix has been a runaway mega success, and shows that this is how people want to consume film, with the maximum convenience possible. Books - those who live in London will have noticed that Kindles and other ereaders have practically replaced paper books on the Tube. And they're getting cheaper and cheaper - within a few years at most Amazon will have a basic ad-supported Kindle that they'll be giving away to drive book sales and lock users into their store.

So with all of that going on, do you think that games - the most high-tech and digitally oriented of all these mediums - should continue to be sold in boxes on shelves with colourful manuals and pack-ins? Maybe you do, but it's not going to happen. It's not a rip off. It's progress.


EDIT: apologies for how off topic this is.

[J0e Musashi]

Then you either not picky .. Or you invented a time machine and went forward a year or so ...

I think not. Japanese PS3 games were plentiful, and launch PS3's could play PS1 and PS2 games also. I had over 3000 games to choose from.

[originalbadboy]

I think not. Japanese PS3 games were plentiful, and launch PS3's could play PS1 and PS2 games also. I had over 3000 games to choose from.

LOL ... Ok ... whatever .. that's not what I meant and you know it ...

Hey if you had a decent PS3 expereince good for you ...

[J0e Musashi]

As said Japanese PS3 games were plentiful. I had Everybody's Golf 5 almost a year before it came out over here for example.

[vanpeebles]

- Unlimited access to the library of games: We all know how irritating it is when a game gets a limited print run and jumps to ?60 on Ebay. With 100% digital distribution (the only current example is the Vita), the system's ENTIRE library of games (with the very odd exception) will be available at your convenience.

I can't see that at all. A prime example was the other day. Kat got a new PS3 and I told him to get GTI Club. He couldn't find it on the ps store anywhere and it turns out it's been removed. Similar to some of the older titles on xbox live too.

[J0e Musashi]

Removal of games is usually due to licensing issues, nothing else.

[vanpeebles]

So with a physical copy you still have a chance to play it then, regardless of its high price on ebay.

[J0e Musashi]

You can't buy a physical copy of GTI Club or OutRun Online Arcade.