Nintendo Wii U - review

[PaTaito]

Personally I don't think there's any kind of bricks and mortar retail that could help games long-term at this point. And when most customers are buying their games from Amazon or Shopto, you can see why publishers would think that they should just cut out the middleman.

While i agree with much of your post, the middleman has to remain in place to shift the hardware. Hence why i think we'll get another generation of physical sales via said websites and the like.....before we get all out digital delivery in 5 years or so(maybe less) when digital becomes more and more "the norm".
In fact i can honestly see sometime mid gen there could be another big shift.

PS+ has stopped my buying physical games on ps3/vita already....this model will absolutely thrive in the coming years. Netflix style.

[Guts]

PS+ has stopped my buying physical games on ps3/vita already....this model with absolutely thrive in the coming years. Netflix style.

That's cool. If you want to wait a year or two to play a game for a cheap price...

Who's going to sell hardware in the future if the games go fully digital? The shops don't make money from selling the hardware so they're not going to stock them without games to sell.

[wakka]

Until today. Dah daaah daaaaaah. etc.

Slight hyperbole maybe >_>;

[noobish hat]

That's cool. If you want to wait a year or two to play a game for a cheap price...

Who's going to sell hardware in the future if the games go fully digital? The shops don't make money from selling the hardware so they're not going to stock them without games to sell.

The hardware will be digital only too. Isn't that obvious?

[Guts]

Oh right, and you'll download the games to your brain directly?



80 gigs of data in your head? Coming 2021!

WOAHHH!

[Brad]

Just a bloody minute. Why am I not playing OnLive games now? Why do I still have the stupid consoles and PC? Where did I go wrong!!?

[wakka]

I have a quick Q for the naysayers. Do you guys genuinely believe that games will never go DD only (and that it's a ridiculous idea which would never work), or would you just dislike it (maybe enough to stop playing new games)?

[PaTaito]

That's cool. If you want to wait a year or two to play a game for a cheap price...

Who's going to sell hardware in the future if the games go fully digital? The shops don't make money from selling the hardware so they're not going to stock them without games to sell.

Hence the emergence of steam box type ideas? There will be ways and means, amazon sell stuff so cheap right now its hard to imagine where the profit comes from sometimes. They sell large amounts cheap, as do many online retailers......that will be no different if it comes to digital. Plus digital codes can still be profitable surely?

Then you also have the concept of media based platforms rather than pure games machines, amazon have lovefilm.....they will lap up anything which can help to shift more subs, the 360 and ps3 already do it. The next machines will obviously be an evolution of the current gaming focused machine, and they will be truly multipurpose.

As for the PS+ thing, of course you dont always want to wait 2 years for releases...neither do you always have to at present(arkham city), but its the model thats important in terms of future content delivery.

People can try and find excuses why it wont work out, but any realist will see the many more reasons that it will work, and sooner rather than later.

It will be funny reverting back to these types of discussions when it does.

[noobish hat]

I have a quick Q for the naysayers. Do you guys genuinely believe that games will never go DD only (and that it's a ridiculous idea which would never work), or would you just dislike it (maybe enough to stop playing new games)?

I don't think it's impossible, but I think it's more likely that physical copies will hang around longer than you say, if only to provide 'special edition' type crap with little figurines etc (like vinyl is there for music buffs). I'd imagine there will be a PSPGo type situation for consoles, with disc drive and non-disc drive versions.

I'd already stopped playing new games with the exception of the Wii, but that's the end of the line now. I won't have any part in this further PC-ification of console gaming.

[dvdx2]

Ok lets get this back on track.

Picked up a 32gb premium and zombi u/nintendoland. Took 3 attempts to get the update downloaded. Impressions?

The controller is a lovely bit of kit. Very comfortable to use and i think its far more than a gimmick. A decent screen, but average battery life. Front end is very wii-ish. I am not a fan of the wii, but its ok (allbeit) a bit slow.

Nintendo land (bundled in pack), is another cutesy party pack - not my cuppa at all and was bayed straight away

Zombiu is amazing (which i bought the wiiu for) . The game makes great use the controller, from managing your backpack to controlling machine gun turrets. Very atmospheric game. Has met expectations, despite some average reviews. Its basically condemned mixed with dead island, with an intutive control system.

I downloaded nano assault neo and if you like twin stick shooters its a must buy.

Sonic and tank tank tank coming tomorrow - trine 2 is tempting me too

The uncompressed audio that the wii u outputs is fantastic too; a big step up from DD and nice to see 1080p support too

If it gets the support, i think it will be a great edition to the gamers inventory. I honestly cant see it though, but i hope i'm wrong

[rmoxon]

Digital downloads will only become the main way to get new games if people are willing to pay the money for that kind of thing over physical copies, which you'd hope they wouldn't be so stupid to do.

But the fact is that people seem willing to pay ?54.99 to download copies of new games online when you can get a boxed copy cheaper. So chances are that both idiocy and pure laziness will win out and digital downloads will become the norm.

It's already very much happening with music, and films are going that way too, games won't be far behind, if not eventually ahead of the digital download pack.

I can see that in the future anything physical will purely be for collectors, and may be quite hard to get hold of. Which is quite depressing really, because personally I like to hold what I buy in my hands, otherwise I don't really feel like I've bought anything.

One thing I have to point out is that I would actually be a lot more supportive of the format if digital downloads were cheaper than boxed copies. They simply aren't worth as much, you neither actually own them physically nor can you sell them on if you like after you have played them. Although there's an idea... Second hand digital downloads.... I'm pretty sure there's a market for that.

[noobish hat]

That's what gets me so worked up. The fact that MY hobby has effectively been destroyed by the bad taste and idiocy of other people, and largely other people who care less about gaming than I do. 'Live and let live' only works if both sides agree to that.

[Guts]

Those prices need to come way, way down though for people to start going all-digital. If you look at Spotify or Netflix as an example, games cannot be $50/game in the future if you have to subscribe to Microsoft's or Sony's Online gaming service to be able to play.

As for the record, I don't like the idea of all-digital future too much, but I fear that's where we're going. Maybe I'll turn noobish then too.

[kryss]

Last time I read a manual for a game was when I got Link's Awakening. Posting games with huge manuals (or two as I sometime get here) is bloody expensive. And guess what? The French manuals I get with/in my games? GET RECYCLED.

I have no issues with digital only provided the prices reflect the lack of physical media and re-sellablility. Nintendo have started working towards this slightly with some of their newly released games on the Japanese 3DS store being 5~10% cheaper. It's not great but it's definitely a start.

On topic:
Yeah nothing new. Playing more TTT these days, really wondering if I can stand to play all of the 500 missions it takes to unlock the last tank.

[PaTaito]

The irony of the current price model for new releases digitally(er ?59.99 far cry 3 PSN....really!??), is that they may very well be the thing which keeps physical games on physical media for longer.

You would imagine that things would have gone south much sooner if they were all your standard ?39.99 at release, and with healthy discount shortly thereafter. PSN have already started releasing games day one, so its just price and infastructure that stands in the way now. I have just been upgraded to 10mb from 3mb recently, and i live in the sticks....so dl'ing those massive ps+ games is also a non issue with my sky unlimited package.

Of course the ridiculous prices may well be so that they simply dont upset retailers.....

That's what gets me so worked up. The fact that MY hobby has effectively been destroyed by the bad taste and idiocy of other people, and largely other people who care less about gaming than I do.

Thats one way to look at it, another way would be that its being destroyed by advancing technology, or changing tastes and wants/needs.

Also lets face it the average gamer nowadays is likely much older than when the SNES was king of the hill....that changes things too.

When digital arrived there was always going to be a percentage that didnt mind much about value, but rather valued not having to get off their arse.

Hey it sucks but its the way things are going. Personally if someone had told me 10 years ago that we'd be short changed on the game manual front, i would have laughed at them.