Nintendo WiiU : Thread 04

[wakka]

It was basically a NES controller if you turned it sideways. Not actually that different to what Nintendo released in the past. If you plugged in a nunchuk it felt a bit like an N64 pad.

Plus the Wii sold about 5x as many units as the Gamecube, which did have a 'normal' controller.

The last thing Nintendo need to do with their next console is be conservative.

[fishbowlhead]

Im still utterly baffled at how Ninty managed to post a loss, even taking into account the poor performance of a relatively new console.

3ds is storming ahead sales wise and they make huge profit on machine and games. Is the WiiU that expensive to produce? the innards must be relatively cheap now given the age of the chipset (plus only a tiny amount of flash memory), which leaves the controller as the main contender for the bulk of the cost.

Would love to see all the figures for it and find out exactly where all this loss is stemming from, cause its certainly not from over advertisement of the WiiU thats for sure

[gIzzE]

It was basically a NES controller if you turned it sideways. Not actually that different to what Nintendo released in the past. If you plugged in a nunchuk it felt a bit like an N64 pad.

But you can't play all the best games with it like that, or the classic controller.

Plus the Wii sold about 5x as many units as the Gamecube, which did have a 'normal' controller.

The last thing Nintendo need to do with their next console is be conservative.

That is exactly what they need to do, go back to basics, making a machine that has full support from all the third parties as it has a control system and power that matches PS4 and XBone, and that has some exclusive Nintendo gems.

The beauty of Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, Zelda, F Zero, Pilot Wings was the simplicity of the controls, the control method was never even thought about, the controller just sat in your hands unnoticed, too complicated and you loose all that. I was always shouting at the control system on the Wii, on the SNES and N64 you never had that, if you messed up it was you, not the game or dodgy controls.

Whether you found that is up to you, but all my mates who had grown up with the NES, SNES, N64 and GC all hated the controls on the Wii, they all bought a system because it was a good system for playing with the family, getting Nan on the Sherry doing a Ski jump was always good for a laugh, but sit down and play Resi or Twighlight Princess and it was the GC that got pulled out again.

[Lebowski]

http://www.destructoid.com/cnn-estimates-the-cost-of-wii-u-s-parts-to-be-228-249435.phtml

this pretty much sums up how nintendo are loosing money on the wiiu,

A tear down reversals the basic parts cost $228

That $228 total doesn't factor in the actual manufacturing process, pre-loading the OS, packaging, additional pack-in materials, shipping, and so on. Then you must consider that retailers make a profit off of markup, meaning the units are sold to them for less than MSRP. CNN even acknowledges that its estimate doesn't consider the up-front costs of R&D, though that won't stop some people from crying that Nintendo must be screwing them over somehow.

If you take into account Dev costs for wii u games that aren't selling either and that pretty much everything on the wiiu last christmas was a Nintendo developed game the amount of time and money each of them games costs to make, and the failed return on the advertising spend on the console and the games then you can clearly see how Nintendo are loosing money on the wiiu.

[wakka]

Whether you found that is up to you, but all my mates who had grown up with the NES, SNES, N64 and GC all hated the controls on the Wii, they all bought a system because it was a good system for playing with the family, getting Nan on the Sherry doing a Ski jump was always good for a laugh, but sit down and play Resi or Twighlight Princess and it was the GC that got pulled out again.

I just really don't agree that all Wii games control badly. I actually loved the comfortable Wiimote/nunchuk combo, which I thought worked very well for traditional games like Mario Galaxy. It was so versatile too - it could be a lightgun for GHOST Squad or HoTD 2 or a NES pad for multiplayer NSMB. The accuracy of aiming in games like Metroid Prime 3 and Sin & Punishment 2 was fantastic as well. I did forget about the pad when playing these games - it felt more natural to point than use a stick.

There is a lot of stuff on the system that controlled awfully though. I hate waggle as much as the next man. I always thought Wii Sports was a crap game and I was really disappointed when I got my launch Wii and played it for the first time. The beating on the ground in the otherwise excellent DKCR was pointless. Twilight Princess also had really awful fighting controls, but Nintendo redeemed themselves with the excellent Skyward Sword Motion+ controls. Holding the sword in the air felt awesome.

We will have to agree to disagree really. You hate the controls and I think they're sorely underrated. My friends and I did grow up playing all of those Nintendo systems too.

In terms of Nintendo's next console, yeah they could release an Xbox/PS style console. I don't think it would be a success though. Nintendo's online infrastructure is too poor for one thing. It took Sony years to catch up with MS on this front, and it would probably take Nintendo even longer. On top of that, do we need a third console that's basically the same as the other two? At heart Xbox and PlayStation are very similar consoles with similar controllers and largely the same library of games. I'm not sure there's room for a third player doing the exact same thing. Nintendo need an angle.

[Guts]

Anyone claiming that the Wii games had bad controls either sucks at gaming or did something wrong. Mario Galaxy, Zelda, No More Heroes, Mario Kart etc. all had absolutely perfect controls on Wii remote + nunchuck and for many games the motion controls added more fun and immersion to the gameplay. Wii Sports was great too, at least golf and bowling were, the others not so much.

And I totally agree with Wakka. We don't need a THIRD box that does the same crap as the other two.

[gIzzE]

Anyone claiming that the Wii games had bad controls either sucks at gaming or did something wrong.

That's a bit harsh.

It is an opinion and many didn't like the controls, changing them for the sake of changing them.

[gIzzE]

And I totally agree with Wakka. We don't need a THIRD box that does the same crap as the other two.

And they have done their own thing again, and looks like it is working well for them!

[Guts]

Well, when you take risks you sometimes win and you sometimes lose, it's capitalism. Look at Apple, they were almost bankrupt in the early 90's and now they're the most valuable company on the planet. People were saying how the Wii will bomb and look how that turned out. Nintendo tried to continue the success of the Wii with the new tablet controller and obviously didn't achieve the desired results this time. That's still better than stagnation though. Gamecube approach didn't work the first time. I'm not saying going back to basics is always bad and obviously Nintendo need to do more to get results, but simply going back to what they did 10 years ago (with poor results) isn't the answer.

[fishbowlhead]

$79 estimate for just the gamepad, I hope whoever green lighted it as a good idea in the first place had learned his lesson. While it's a fine idea, given the fact that's there arnt games that actually require the pad to run, should of been cut from the start.

[Brad]

With the Wii Nintendo innovated. Wii Sports was amazing and a system seller. The Wiimote made Metroid an amazing controlling game.
Mario Galaxy was a great game that would have played better with a normal pad. So was Mario kart and so was almost every other decent game on that system other than light gun games. One Zelda game that was really a gamecube game is pretty poor for their biggest selling home console ever. But, at least the console was innovative and had an innovative launch title, even if they failed to follow it up with anything else other than the sequel. Imagine if the Wii didn't have wiimote controls. How would it have performed at retail? Well, that's the situation WiiU is in right now. Nintendo need to have either a compelling gimmick or a machine that is technically comparable to its peers and has compelling first party titles. What they have though is a non-compelling gimmick and a machine that is technically inferior to its peers and not a great deal of compelling first party titles; not enough anyway. Someone here commented the other day that, rightly or wrongly, people buy the hardware and then expect the games.

I do agree that a third console with PS4/XBone performance isn't something that I want from Nintendo.

I think they will drop out of the home console market after WiiU and focus solely on handhelds.

[wakka]

Mario Galaxy was a great game that would have played better with a normal pad. So was Mario kart and so was almost every other decent game on that system other than light gun games.

I really think this is a matter of opinion. I don't think Galaxy or MKWii would have played any better on a DualShock personally (bearing in mind that I've always played MK with a nunchuk). Galaxy had some fun elements like those blue stars that you could grab onto by pointing, and the waggle that made you do tricks was perfectly reliable and very quick to perform in MK.

And again, it was so versatile. The Wiimote's single handed nature was fantastic for party games like Mario Party, Fortune Street and You Don't Know Jack. Those are all at least 'decent' games (more like excellent) - with the exception of Mario Party 8.

It wasn't perfect, but I think that the Wii controller gets an unnecessarily bad rep.

One Zelda game that was really a gamecube game is pretty poor for their biggest selling home console ever

Dude. There are two Zelda games on Wii! And one of them has arguably one of the best implementations of motion controls in a home console game ever (not that there's much competition on this front).

[Zaki]

I think they will drop out of the home console market after WiiU and focus solely on handhelds.

Small sales are better than no sales, surely? 5 months to E3, c'mon people! Put your positive caps hats on!

[Brad]

Dude. There are two Zelda games on Wii! And one of them has arguably one of the best implementations of motion controls in a home console game ever (not that there's much competition on this front).

Oh yeah! Totally forgot about the new one lol!

I loved the Wiimote. Wiimote + nunchuck = better FPS controls than dual analog by MILES! But, my point is that other than Metroid and Wii Sports I think it was an inferior control scheme for the majority of games. They even brought out 2 classic controllers so even Nintendo agree with me.

@Zaki - Well, we'd like to think so but Nintendo's figures they just published indicate that WiiU's existence is actually harming their profits. It's a real shame. I played ZombiU and thought that the WiiU pad was brilliantly done and was looking forward to the Colonial marines game because of it. Almost all the current XBox One and PS4 owners - if they're honest - have really bought those machines based on the promise of what's to come so even if Sony and MS deliver late on stuff they've already got a lot of consoles owners out there ready to buy. I'd like to think that I'll have a reason to get a WiiU as a secondary console at some point but I just don't see it yet.

[nakamura]

Mario Kart Wii used all types of controllers including classic and Gamecube.