Nintendo and dropping the WiiU

[MrBaskerville]

If they cam get sequels to all of their series out there and get a fouple of deals like the ones they have with Sega and Platinum Games (They even own the rights to the Project Zero franchise), then it might turn out to be a decent platform. Theynget a lot of flack for being one-note and for relying too much on Mario games, but if you look at the franchises they have to work with it actually looks very varied. They have stuff like WarioWare, Rhytm Heaven and Mario Party for the more accesible entries (Both WarioWare and Rhytm Heaven are excellent series btw) and they have Fire Emblem + Advance Wars for the tactical crowd. X, Pokemon and Paper Mario for the rpg crowd and a wide variety of platformers for those who enjoy stuff like that. There's a big difference between the Kirby, Wario, Mario and Donkey Kong franchises and they even have F-Zero and Excite Bike for the racing crowd.

Then there's curveballs like Pikmin, Animal Crossing, Wii Fir and Brain Training games. If only they did a greater effort to supply new games in all these genres it would help broaden the appeal of the console immensly. I also wonder why they aren't trying to get some Trauma Center, Phoenix Wright and Proffesor Layton, it's stuff like this that made the DS great, but for some reason they always keep it away from their consoles. They got the potential to do something great, they just need to get their asses in gear, rather sooner than later.

 

[J Tyran]

Since my crappy Internet (yay Australia) won't allow me to get either the PS4 or Xbone, if I wanted a new console, it would have to be the Wii U (in theory I could get a 3DS, but I am one of many who cannot view 3D without becoming physically ill and the 2DS doesn't fold to help protect the screen, so I don't fancy paying for something I can only use half of), the Wii U would be my only option. But it's games library is pretty lackluster (not a Mario gamer and that's most of the currently available titles).

Maybe I will get it, next year. Depending how good Bayonetta 2 turns out.

You can turn the 3D on the 3DS completely off, it has a little slider on the side that adjusts the strength of the effect as well as completely disabling it.

Wow, you fail at being Captain Obvious. If you were to comprehend 008Zulu's post correctly, He said that the 2DS doesn't fold, so thats a deal breaker, and he doesnt want to pay extra money (the 3DS being more expensive than the 2DS) for the 3D effect that he can't even see. Im sure he knows about the slider. He just doesnt want to pay extra money to use it.

No need to be rude about it, I admit I only skimmed the post but no need for anyone else to start throwing insulting comments around...

 

[JayRPG]

The Wii U doesn't need a price drop, Nintendo doesn't need a new console, they don't need to make any drastic changes... all they need is some goddamn games.

All Nintendo have to do is offer some hefty rewards to third party devs (Namco bandai would be a good start) to make original/exclusive games for the Wii U, they don't have to be big, epic, graphically innovating games, they just have to be fun.

I've always seen Nintendo as a company that does their own thing, look at the games on the Gamecube and Wii and compare them to the xbox/360 and ps2/3 - there is almost no crossover, the gamecube brought games like Tales of Symphonia, Pokemon XD, Baten Kaitos, Geist, eternal darkness.

Instead of releasing their normal types of titles they were trying to go head to head with MS and Sony, trying to bring the exact same games to the Wii U - big, boring franchise games.

Hell, they haven't even really released any of their good first party stuff yet, where is mario kart, SSB, paper mario, Zelda (new, not remake), pokemon etc

They made an extremely niche console and they are doing everything except catering to that niche...
Make it a JRPG machine like the gamecube and I'll sell my blood and semen to buy one.

 

[Petromir]

Really, it would be smart if they droped the WiiU in about 4 or 5 years, right in the middle of the current generation. Competing with the big 2 isnt really where they are going to succeed, Aim for being the second console in the house instead of the main.

And really though, why havent they come out with a DnD style game yet? The players with normal controllers and the GM with the pad just makes too much damn sense.

Also this. In fact, why don't we have something like that on the PC yet? Wait... do we have something like that on the PC yet?

Well, PCs have had online tabletops for years. I play in a few games every week between programs like Roll20.net and OpenRPG. But as far as I recall I dont think there is an actual game where one player acts as the GM while the other people play as characters.

It really does seem like an untapped market, but I can see why it is going untapped, the other two console developers are moving as far away from in local gaming as much as they can it seems. Which is why I think it would be PERFECT for nintendos "in the same room multiplayer" philosophy, and would definately attract buyers.

Hell, if Nintendo announced a game like that I would go down to a store and throw my money at one of the employees so fast I would get arrested for assault.

I think there have been a couple attempts at it in the MP of a couple of PC games, or at least a mode offering something designed to apporach it. Unfortuneatly they tended to make it too adviserial to a degree, making it a vs affair whereas a true GM is there to ensure the others have a good time, tell a story and other objectives not to win themselvs.

THis was likely as producing a game that required a good GM to enjoy limits your market quite a bit. From memory though I think they were largely ages ago when the tech was often not that conducive to a GM led expereince that was as rich as the table top.

THe advent of tablets and tablet addons may help here The WiiU the PC (whether through tablet or muliple screens or even PCs) and the XBox one (through smartglass) could easially be used to provide a cohesive expereince in this sort of affair. I'm not conviced the PS4s prefered 2nd screen solution the Vita, has the potential the other systems do for this particular function. That is quite the niche disadvantage though.


That said a Game where the GM had access to a couple of regualr screens, and a Oculas rift, and all the players had Rifts, ran through either a beast of a PC or a network of them seems like an oppetunity to good to miss RPG wise. Niche as hell (both people wise and equipment wise) but as a way of actually allowing a real toolkit to augment the tabletop RP experience its looking like a good way to look. (yes screens could be used instead but the rift may well help.

 

[Vivi22]

Nintendo isn't really in the same situation as Sega, though. They're likely still sitting pretty off the blazing success of the DS, Wii, and 3DS

For the record, the 3DS hasn't exactly been a blazing success. It was selling so poorly after launch that Nintendo had to cut the price so much they were selling it at a loss, and gave existing customers free stuff to not hate them for dramatically cutting the price mere months after it came out. It's selling well now so they're probably going to do well on it in the long run, but the reality is they dodged a bit of a bullet on that one. If the price cut hadn't worked the 3DS would have been in a lot of trouble.

but it's still doing about as well as the PS3 had been doing in the same span of time; Which is to say, it's not rocketing off of store shelves, but it's still moving a relatively respectable number of units.

Actually, it's really not. In it's first year on shelves the Wii U sold about 3.8 million units globally. In the PS3's first year it managed about 5.6 million. So after it's first year, the Wii U was almost 2 million units behind a console that most people at the time considered a sales flop (it really wasn't, but that's not really the point). But perhaps the most damning part of it all for the Wii U right now is that almost 1.8 million of it's sold units happened in it's second month of release. It sold more than 46% of all of the units it sold in it's first year last December. Since then, it's monthly sales have been anywhere from one third to half of what the PS3's monthly sales were in it's first year for the most part.

That's pretty bad. Actually, that's downright awful. It's been pushing not even 300,000 units a month. Usually it's anywhere from just under 100,000 to just over 200,000, and November wasn't any better for it, so I doubt it's going to change dramatically in year two. By comparison, the PS3 in it's second year was pushing anywhere from 500,000 to almost a million each month. More during the holiday months of November and December.

The Wii U is simply nowhere near the PS3's sales numbers. It's first two months were pretty damn good, but saying that it's been even in the same ball park as the PS3 in it's first year is just flat out wrong. And if this keeps up it's only going to fall even farther behind in year 2.

 

[shrekfan246]

Nintendo isn't really in the same situation as Sega, though. They're likely still sitting pretty off the blazing success of the DS, Wii, and 3DS

For the record, the 3DS hasn't exactly been a blazing success. It was selling so poorly after launch that Nintendo had to cut the price so much they were selling it at a loss, and gave existing customers free stuff to not hate them for dramatically cutting the price mere months after it came out. It's selling well now so they're probably going to do well on it in the long run, but the reality is they dodged a bit of a bullet on that one. If the price cut hadn't worked the 3DS would have been in a lot of trouble.

They may have dodged a bullet, but the 3DS is doing well now and it's been out long enough that Nintendo is likely already recouping their losses on it.

but it's still doing about as well as the PS3 had been doing in the same span of time; Which is to say, it's not rocketing off of store shelves, but it's still moving a relatively respectable number of units.

Actually, it's really not. In it's first year on shelves the Wii U sold about 3.8 million units globally. In the PS3's first year it managed about 5.6 million. So after it's first year, the Wii U was almost 2 million units behind a console that most people at the time considered a sales flop (it really wasn't, but that's not really the point). But perhaps the most damning part of it all for the Wii U right now is that almost 1.8 million of it's sold units happened in it's second month of release. It sold more than 46% of all of the units it sold in it's first year last December. Since then, it's monthly sales have been anywhere from one third to half of what the PS3's monthly sales were in it's first year for the most part.

That's pretty bad. Actually, that's downright awful. It's been pushing not even 300,000 units a month. Usually it's anywhere from just under 100,000 to just over 200,000, and November wasn't any better for it, so I doubt it's going to change dramatically in year two. By comparison, the PS3 in it's second year was pushing anywhere from 500,000 to almost a million each month. More during the holiday months of November and December.

The Wii U is simply nowhere near the PS3's sales numbers. It's first two months were pretty damn good, but saying that it's been even in the same ball park as the PS3 in it's first year is just flat out wrong. And if this keeps up it's only going to fall even farther behind in year 2.

I take it you missed the clarifying part after mentioning the PS3?

I made the comparison specifically because at the time everyone considered the PS3 a failure.

And I still believe that the biggest fault of the Wii U is simply its lack of pulling games to people who aren't really interested in the likes of Mario or Zelda. While still niche titles, once games like Bayonetta, X, Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem, Super Smash Bros., maybe even Yarn Yoshi come out, I don't think it'd be unreasonable to expect Wii U sales to pick up a bit.

 

[J Tyran]

Since my crappy Internet (yay Australia) won't allow me to get either the PS4 or Xbone, if I wanted a new console, it would have to be the Wii U (in theory I could get a 3DS, but I am one of many who cannot view 3D without becoming physically ill and the 2DS doesn't fold to help protect the screen, so I don't fancy paying for something I can only use half of), the Wii U would be my only option. But it's games library is pretty lackluster (not a Mario gamer and that's most of the currently available titles).

Maybe I will get it, next year. Depending how good Bayonetta 2 turns out.

You can turn the 3D on the 3DS completely off, it has a little slider on the side that adjusts the strength of the effect as well as completely disabling it.

Wow, you fail at being Captain Obvious. If you were to comprehend 008Zulu's post correctly, He said that the 2DS doesn't fold, so thats a deal breaker, and he doesnt want to pay extra money (the 3DS being more expensive than the 2DS) for the 3D effect that he can't even see. Im sure he knows about the slider. He just doesnt want to pay extra money to use it.

No need to be rude about it, I admit I only skimmed the post but no need for anyone else to start throwing insulting comments around...

If you took offense, I apologize. It looked like you were being a jerk to the other guy. If you read the whole post next time, this kind of thing wont happen

How would offering advice constitute as "being a jerk" to anyone? Non sarcastic advice is often the very opposite of being a jerk, like I said I only skimmed the post on my phone and I thought he didn't know you could turn the 3D down or off. Dropping into a thread and throwing "you fail!" and "LRN2 comprehend!" instead of something constructive like "he doesn't want to pay for a feature he won't use" around though... well I am sure you can see how that could be interpreted as "being a jerk" in certain circumstances.

Just saying.

 

[Xman490]

Since the newest consoles are half as strong as high-end PCs, they will be too much weaker 5 or so years from now. Then, Nintendo could sweep the floor with an open-source, multi-tasking, discount-overrun, community-driven console to rule them all! The video game crash people suspect due to wallet-crushing DLC and hardly-innovative sequels will be dust in the wind!

But Nintendo will probably just do another proportional upgrade like Wii-to-WiiU. One can dream...