Nintendo WiiU : Thread 04

[Sam The Man]

Its not Mario that's the trouble . Its the age old trouble of lame spec, lame 3rd party support, and lack of new games coming from Nintendo/3rd parties every few months that are to blame for the Wii U piss poor sales. Nintendo has lost far to much ground on On-Line gaming , Spec's, High Def gaming, Die Hard gamers, and Big hitting 3rd party games (like Fifa,COD, GTA )to the likes of SONY and MS to every really catch up on the non hand held gaming consoles.

This is pretty much spot on.

It seems the WII U might be to Nintendo what the Saturn was to Sega in that it was the wrong console to release and came off a successful predecessor and may force them to release a newer console too early. Fortunately Nintendo are far better off financially so they can just ride this bad spell out and not panic into releasing a successor too early.

For Nintendo to get all the 3rd parties and big guns on board aswel as the games like GTA, C.O.D, FIFA, e.t.c they need a powerhouse console with full multimedia capabilities which the average mid 20's + gamer would want to buy to have under their HD tv. With all the 3rd party support they wouldn't have to worry about supporting the machine with games themselves.

The kids market that the Wii had doesn't really exist for consoles anymore or not nearly as big as it did anyway as they have all gone to tablets and mobile phones, trust me i know as i have 2 younger brothers aged 13 & 11 and a younger sister aged 8 and that's what they spend there time playing along with the awesome 3DS.

[PaTaito]

Ditching 3D isn't the same as ditching the Wii-U controller, though, because the 3DS already has a 2D mode.

Sure, you might not consider the controller useful but others may miss it. Plus, there are games being made now by Nintendo themselves and third parties that use it. Imagine developing a game only to find Nintendo have decided to axe the pad in a few months' time.

Pretty much like the WiiU has a pro controller.

Removing the gamepad makes no impact to players who still have one...

[dataDave]

I'll miss playing off-screen if they decide not to opt for a screen next time.

I wasn't too arsed about it before buying it, but I use it much more than first thought.

Maybe they can make a conventional controller standard with a screen controller optional.

[dataDave]

The 3ds ditched 3d with the 2nd...

No one's ditched 3D. The 2DS is a slightly cheaper alternative for people who don't care about 3D all that much. Games are still, and will always be, developed with 3D visuals.

[gunrock]

No one's ditched 3D. The 2DS is a slightly cheaper alternative for people who don't care about 3D all that much. Games are still, and will always be, developed with 3D visuals.

This. 3d is considered by the medical profession to be bad for children under the age of 7.

[Sam The Man]

I think Nintendo are starting to phase out 3d and will do with their next handheld because they now have to pay 1.8% in 3DS royalties due to the 3D tech patent infringement on top of a 15 million dollar damage award fee. I think it's the REAL reason they released the 2DS and it's something i think they saw coming a long time ago.

[nakamura]

According to the medical profession we should only drink water and eat fruit and fibre.

3D on the machine is amazing, I use it a lot. However it is superficial and will not be used on the next machines.

[Team Andromeda]

They'll hold out and play the plucky underdog comeback card just as they have before

Come back ? Nintendo has lost the die hard gamer, they've lost 3rd parties , they've lost the On-line side, losing out to the kids and casuals market in the home console gaming and lets face it the Wii U as already lost out to the XBox 1 and PS4 .

Unless Nintendo come out fight with a new system in 5 years time that can match SONY and MS spec's , spend serious amounts on money on getting their In-House studios and 1st Party studios to producer a number of titles each year, have online systems that's a match of LIVE or PSN, get major 3rd support back, I really don't see how they're going to come back.
Its' not money that the issues, its the how much market share Nintendo is hemorrhaging to both Sony and MS for the home console sector and how much 3rd party are retail are backing SONY and MS at the cost of Wii U support

Even the kids don't want to play a 2nd best cut down FIFA or COD on their consoles and like to play GTA and for that Nintendo is found wanting

[nakamura]

You talk like the PS1 didn't sell 100m compared to the N64's 33m or that the PS2 didn't sell 150m compared to the GC's 20m.

[Team Andromeda]

You talk like the PS1 didn't sell 100m compared to the N64's 33m or that the PS2 didn't sell 150m compared to the GC's 20m.

Different times and with the N64 it did really well in the USA and still got decent levels of 3rd party support, Cube did really well in Europe . The rot started with the mid way through of the Cube life cycle in terms of mainstream games,online and 3rd party support and being a number 1 or 2 system for most gamers . These days Nintendo is a distance 3rd for 'most' gamers when it comes to their main machine , might be fine for Nintendo (though it doesn't look like ) its not great for retail or 3rd parties

It's all reflected when you go into the shops.. all the stores prime retail shelve space is devoted to the PS4,XBox 1 or the 360 and that's also reflected in 3rd party support . Nintendo even lost the kids these days , they much rather play COD or FIFA on their PS3,360 or XBone or PS4 and even the kids love on-line too . In the Digital age, Nintendo is like an analogue dinosaur and its paying the price .

The Wii may have seemed like a great success for Nintendo in the end it cost it dear with the Teams pipe lines being so behind the times on what it takes to make On-line games,making games in High Def and getting enough games out each year ;Like Japan where the the dominance of HH gaming have seen so many of its once world leading developers lose out and see their pipe lines fall way behind the times and lost out to Western developers on the console, thanks to the focus on HH gaming

[Neon Ignition]

Ideally next time they'll go for something more powerful than PS4, a stepping stone system between gens that keeps them open to third party support and in with impatient core games but cost effective by the time the next big powerhouse systems are head to head. Bottom line is though, regardless of power it won't be a system like PS4 or XBO, Nintendo will still have some usp to it to try and capture the families and kids markets attention because ultimately they care little for the core gamer as its such a small portion of the market who is already being heavily courted by two rivals. Releases like the Wii, DS and ultimately 3DS just confirm to Nintendo that that approach works best for them, they're probably right too. They struggle most when success goes to their heads and they get lazy and stop pushing hard on the marketing front. It's why the 3DS struggled, why the Wii died off prematurely and why WiiU is stagnant.

[Team Andromeda]

Nintendo are stuck with the Wii U for the next 4 to 5 years and when the 3rd parties shut down their 360 and PS3 pipe lines then ports of 3rd party games are going to dry up, worse than they are now . Unless Nintendo game out with a serious power house system next gen (that allows 3rd parties to port their games across easily ) then can kiss goodbye to even more 3rd party support and even more main stream gamers , because Nintendo simple don't make enough In-House or published enough games to make up the shortfall .Nintendo also has another serious issues to address than that's On-line . On-line games are now on their 2nd or 3rd generation of XBox Live and PSN networks and that's where they'll go to play on-line games, because all their friends use those networks.

It's only going to get worse too when the Big hitting 3rd party games start to come out, along with the likes of Halo 5 and no doubt MS and SONY will start to introduce price cuts this year to ram home their advantage

[ETC]

I'll miss playing off-screen if they decide not to opt for a screen next time.

I wasn't too arsed about it before buying it, but I use it much more than first thought.

Maybe they can make a conventional controller standard with a screen controller optional.

Maybe it could be their first step in to smartphones, an app like smart glass to turn your ipad/droid/Surface in to that screen

[S3M]

In fairness though, I would agree that perhaps the strength of Nintendo's IP might not be quite what it was even a couple of years ago. Is a new main Mario or Zelda game going to shift units like they did in the past? I'd honestly like to think so, but I'm not so sure.

It's true that the sales of these games are limited by the install base, but that's the point - these games need to be system sellers, selling the system.

That my feeling also, Nintendo quality of games are noticabely poorer due to over milking of the successful brands and it's come at the cost of a good to average games, when compared to previous releases.

Currently Wonderful 101 has been there only new IP in years, F-Zero and Starfox appear to be dead and a new Metroid is a long way off after the sales faliure of Other M. Nintendo have ended up backing themselves into a corner.

The real reason for the Wii U failure is the Wii, the Wii became some what of a fashion statement with it's gimmick controller. During the early years of the Wii Nintendo were able to reach a new casual market for a few years they couldn't have dreamed of reaching before. During that period they ignored all their hardcore fans on the Wii, Nintendo and Iwata seem to think that the same casual players would buy the Wii U.

They haven't and Nintendo's only hope is to attract back their hardcore fans, but withe such a poor release of games it seems unlikely, they will do any time soon. For many Nintendo fans the Wii was not the console they wanted and add to that the poor marketing and naming of the Wii U, have resulted in people thinking the Wii U is just a upgrade for the Wii.

[dataDave]

Maybe it could be their first step in to smartphones, an app like smart glass to turn your ipad/droid/Surface in to that screen

Maybe they will just make their own pad with a screen on it.