With the reveal of the PS4 and it's specs, is the WiiU in trouble?

[ShinyCharizard]

No. It's all about the games. Always has been always will be. Whichever console gets the best and most games will be the most successful.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

Nah, the WiiU's not in trouble because of the PS4, especially since around the PS4's launch, the new Mario game is gonna come out, and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Sunshine] They [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Galaxy] Always [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Galaxy_2#Sales] Sell [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_3D_Land#Reception] Amazingly [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Super_Mario_Bros._U]. (The Only thing that sells more then a Mario game is Call of Duty and the Madden Series) And heck, maybe shortly after the release, a new Mario Kart game will come out! That'll sell even more!

But yeah, I wouldn't worry about the WiiU. The PS4's gonna have a hard time entering the market, just like the WiiU did. Unlike the PS4 though, the WiiU will almost be 1 year old, and that's when consumers really start appreciating Next Gen stuff. If Nintendo actually played their cards right, they could (Possibly) pull a Sony on Sony and kill them before they can even do anything about it. (Referring to the PS2 killing the Dreamcast)

A lot depends on exactly what games Sony has lined up for the PS4 at its launch (I've heard that Watch Dogs will be one of them? If so, units will be flying off the shelves) and its pricing point.

Actually, The WiiU has it too... [http://wiiudaily.com/2013/02/watch-dogs-confirmed-for-wii-u/] So, people could either buy a console for one game that's available on other consoles, or stick to a Console they already own and buy the game for that console. (And heck, it's coming to the PS3/Xbox 360 too...)

 

[nathan-dts]

I would think so, but I was wrong about the 3DS, too. So I may not be the best judge of impending failure.
I don't see this gimmick as having mass market appeal. DS' touchscreen was new and cool. Wii's motion controls were new and managed to get purchases from people, even though they'd never play it. With the Wii U, people have have already used tablet devices before and know that they're nothing special.

The gimmick is why it's failing, despite the fact that the horrible library of ports and the weak specs are even more of a reason to avoid it. I guess we'll see around Christmas.

 

[Epona]

1) No

2) No

3) Don't think so, but who knows.

Different consumers mate. Sony and Nintendo have never had the same users regarding videogames. If anything Apple is more menacing for Nintendo and Microsoft/maybe Valve for Sony.

Yes they have, I'll bet most posters here have both Sony and Nintendo consoles. I personally own every Sony console and every Nintendo console (except the WiiU). Nintendo may fantasize that they aren't really competing against Microsoft and Sony but they are. I don't look at my PS3 as a game console and my Wii as a VTech computer. I see them both as consoles.

 

[Epona]

Nintendo have always went with a less powerful machine, and behold they bath in money. i think a lot of that is to blame on blind fanboyism, but even beside that, they got their niche, and thier filling it. so that works for them, fine, now let me get back to high end gaming.

No, Nintendo went with POWER until the Wii.

NES had no serious competition that I know of.
SNES > Genesis (atleast where graphics were concerned)
N64 > PS1
Gamecube > PS2

Wii wasn't only less powerful but the gap was huge. Add in that the controller made ports even harder and the Wii was left out in the cold. You can't win with the least powerful box unless you can run what the other machines are running. I don't remember many N64 ports making it to the PS1 but the PS2 had Gamecube ports whereas the Wii wouldn't get PS3 ports.

WiiU may run PS4/720 ports, we'll have to see.

I would wager that every future home console (this includes the WiiU) is in trouble. The landscape of gaming has changed and I don't know for how long consoles can sustain their existence. Many people are already gaming on their tablets, and this will only increase and overtime become the norm for the mainstream. And I doubt home consoles can survive on the support of us geeks alone.

I agree and have said before that I believe this is the last generation of consoles. Handhelds and other mobile devices are becoming competent enough that people can play quality games without being tied to a television. However, in the console war, there has to be an ultimate loser and I think it will be the WiiU. I read that sales in January were only 55,000 units sold. That's sad and since Nintendo confirmed that they will not be dropping the price, things aren't looking so bright.

 

[Soxafloppin]

It will probably depend on First party releases.

Smash Bros, Mario etc.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

The Wii specs were pretty low compared to the 360 and PS3, yet the Wii destroyed them in sales. I could see the same happening again. Not to mention that the PS4 will probably be pretty expensive for the hardware.

I read that sales in January were only 55,000 units sold. That's sad and since Nintendo confirmed that they will not be dropping the price, things aren't looking so bright.

Most people I know have no idea what the WiiU even is (except for the ones who have seen mine/heard me talk about it). They did next to nothing to market it or even let the average person know it exists. Doesn't surprise me that they haven't sold much.

 

[Guffe]

I don't think they're in trouble
I bought the Deluxe version of the WiiU for xmas since I got 4 games with the console in a bundle thingy and I'm enjoying the console at the moment. There are games I'll buy when I'm finished with the current one and since my gaming isn't the fastest paced in the world when I finish a game there'll be a new game on the store shelves that I want.
Also it's Nintendo, I doubt they'll die out anytime soon especially as they now start porting stuff like MassEffect, AssassinsCreed and Batman already out on the console, people who only had the wii can get into these games, like myself.

 

[Brotha Desmond]

I think the WiiU is in trouble due to the Wii. The Wii was so popular that everybody bought one, but after a while nobody was playing it. The name "WiiU" makes it sound more like an add on than as an actual new console, so many parents might not get it for their kids under that misconception. Also, at least from what I can tell, you aren't hearing as much about the WiiU as much as the original Wii.

I also feel that not many people look at the specs when buying a console. I like to think that there are more people like me who prefer quality of gameplay over how pretty it looks.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Nope, WiiU will be fine as long as they keep Mario, Zelda, Metroid plus every other game with Mario added to make money as WiiU only, they will be fine. Where as Xbox/PS are similiar in games styles etc the Nintendo consoles are normally in a niche of their own with regards to type of games.

 

[Sylveria]

In case you haven't seen the PS4 specs by now (there may be 1 or 2 people who haven't).

CPU: AMD 8 core x86-64
GPU: AMD Next gen Radeon based graphics engine, 1.84 TFlops
RAM: 8 GB GDDR5 Shared

Do you think this will leave Nintendo with a less successful repeat of the Wii? Will the WiiU be too weak to run next gen games and therefore not receive ports and receive only minimal third party support?

1) Will Nintendo replace the WiiU in the next couple of years?
2) Will we see a price drop on the WiiU?

3) Will the WiiU come out on top like the Wii?

1. No
2. Yes, but it isn't because of the PS4 as the PS4 has no known price-point yet and, given the hardware in it, will easily be at least $100 more than the Wii-U unless Sony is willing to sell the consoles at a massive loss.
3. Probably.

The Wii-U will not be as successful as the Wii. That's almost impossible. There's almost as many Wiis, if not more, than there are PS3s and 360s combined. The Wii had mass appeal from ages 1 to 100. There's a Wii in every day-care all the way up to every nursing home. The Wii-U probably won't have that same appeal just because the game-pad is a more traditional input device, and more dexterity demanding, than the Wiimote's 3 buttons and waggling.

The Wii-U will probably have the same level of 3rd party support as it does now. It may even have more as smaller dev studios who can't invest the money to make games pretty enough for the PS4 and 720 will gravitate toward the Wii-U as it is a less powerful machine but still has all the necessary inputs that allow for a more "hard-core" experience without the "hard-core" price.

Additionally Nintendo has their first party stable which has always had the power to move consoles. Right now they've barely dipped in to that, only having a pretty mundane Mario game.

 

[Epona]

The Wii specs were pretty low compared to the 360 and PS3, yet the Wii destroyed them in sales. I could see the same happening again. Not to mention that the PS4 will probably be pretty expensive for the hardware.

I read that sales in January were only 55,000 units sold. That's sad and since Nintendo confirmed that they will not be dropping the price, things aren't looking so bright.

Most people I know have no idea what the WiiU even is (except for the ones who have seen mine/heard me talk about it). They did next to nothing to market it or even let the average person know it exists. Doesn't surprise me that they haven't sold much.

You know why the Wii sold so well? It was the motion controls that people just had to try. The WiiU has nothing unique to sell and that is why it isn't selling. Maybe Nintendo doesn't even know how to market the thing because there is nothing to market.

 

[MetalDooley]

I read that sales in January were only 55,000 units sold. That's sad and since Nintendo confirmed that they will not be dropping the price, things aren't looking so bright.

1)Those figures have yet to be officially verified though as far as I know.I've seen reports that put the sales anywhere between 47,000 - 100,000 units.On top of that they're US only so they're not taking worldwide sales into account so it might not be as bad as it's being made out to be

2)January is traditionally a time when people don't spend a lot of money anyway.On top of this we're still in the middle of a global recession.Taking those 2 factors into account and low sales figures for the month aren't that surprising

3)Everyone seems to be glossing over the fact that in the 6 weeks prior to January the Wii U shifted 3 million units.That's only slighty less than the Wii managed in it's first 6 weeks and substantially more than the PS3 and Xbox 360 managed in the same time

Personally I don't believe the Wii U will be as successful as the Wii sales wise but neither do I believe it'll be the Dreamcast level failure everyone seems to be making it out to be.I mean it took the PS3 and 360 quite a while to start selling well yet I can't recall anywhere near the same level of negativity around those 2 consoles

As for the specs...meh.If the industry has taught us anything it's that most powerful=/=best selling.The PS1,PS2 and Wii were the best selling consoles of their respective gens yet they weren't the most powerful

 

[Epona]

In case you haven't seen the PS4 specs by now (there may be 1 or 2 people who haven't).

CPU: AMD 8 core x86-64
GPU: AMD Next gen Radeon based graphics engine, 1.84 TFlops
RAM: 8 GB GDDR5 Shared

Do you think this will leave Nintendo with a less successful repeat of the Wii? Will the WiiU be too weak to run next gen games and therefore not receive ports and receive only minimal third party support?

1) Will Nintendo replace the WiiU in the next couple of years?
2) Will we see a price drop on the WiiU?

3) Will the WiiU come out on top like the Wii?

1. No
2. Yes, but it isn't because of the PS4 as the PS4 has no known price-point yet and, given the hardware in it, will easily be at least $100 more than the Wii-U unless Sony is willing to sell the consoles at a massive loss.
3. Probably.

The Wii-U will not be as successful as the Wii. That's almost impossible. There's almost as many Wiis, if not more, than there are PS3s and 360s combined. The Wii had mass appeal from ages 1 to 100. There's a Wii in every day-care all the way up to every nursing home. The Wii-U probably won't have that same appeal just because the game-pad is a more traditional input device, and more dexterity demanding, than the Wiimote's 3 buttons and waggling.

The Wii-U will probably have the same level of 3rd party support as it does now. It may even have more as smaller dev studios who can't invest the money to make games pretty enough for the PS4 and 720 will gravitate toward the Wii-U as it is a less powerful machine but still has all the necessary inputs that allow for a more "hard-core" experience without the "hard-core" price.

Additionally Nintendo has their first party stable which has always had the power to move consoles. Right now they've barely dipped in to that, only having a pretty mundane Mario game.

The PS2 was $100 more than the Gamecube and we all know how that went down. I say the PS4 can be $400-$450 safely.

 

[Epona]

I read that sales in January were only 55,000 units sold. That's sad and since Nintendo confirmed that they will not be dropping the price, things aren't looking so bright.

1)Those figures have yet to be officially verified though as far as I know.I've seen reports that put the sales anywhere between 47,000 - 100,000 units.On top of that they're US only so they're not taking worldwide sales into account so it might not be as bad as it's being made out to be

2)January is traditionally a time when people don't spend a lot of money anyway.On top of this we're still in the middle of a global recession.Taking those 2 factors into account and low sales figures for the month aren't that surprising

3)Everyone seems to be glossing over the fact that in the 6 weeks prior to January the Wii U shifted 3 million units.That's only slighty less than the Wii managed in it's first 6 weeks and substantially more than the PS3 and Xbox 360 managed in the same time

Personally I don't believe the Wii U will be as successful as the Wii sales wise but neither do I believe it'll be the Dreamcast level failure everyone seems to be making it out to be.I mean it took the PS3 and 360 quite a while to start selling well yet I can't recall anywhere near the same level of negativity around those 2 consoles

As for the specs...meh.If the industry has taught us anything it's that most powerful=/=best selling.The PS1,PS2 and Wii were the best selling consoles of their respective gens yet they weren't the most powerful

3) During the first 6 weeks, WiiU software sales were "far behind" Wii and Gamecube levels.

"Totals for the November-December period were -43% lower than software sales for the Wii and -50% lower than those for the GameCube."

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/386207/wii-u-game-sales-far-behind-launch-levels-for-gamecube-and-wii/

You can pretend all you want that the WiiU is doing great and the slump in sales is excusable because of the economy/Santa not delivering/etc... but we will see how it performs in the future.

I have seen quite a few articles questioning whether the WiiU will be the next Gamecube. It's not about which console is the most powerful, it's about which console is too weak to get ports.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

The Wii specs were pretty low compared to the 360 and PS3, yet the Wii destroyed them in sales. I could see the same happening again. Not to mention that the PS4 will probably be pretty expensive for the hardware.

I read that sales in January were only 55,000 units sold. That's sad and since Nintendo confirmed that they will not be dropping the price, things aren't looking so bright.

Most people I know have no idea what the WiiU even is (except for the ones who have seen mine/heard me talk about it). They did next to nothing to market it or even let the average person know it exists. Doesn't surprise me that they haven't sold much.

You know why the Wii sold so well? It was the motion controls that people just had to try. The WiiU has nothing unique to sell and that is why it isn't selling. Maybe Nintendo doesn't even know how to market the thing because there is nothing to market.

The screen on the controller is pretty unique, and is pretty awesome if the developers take advantage of it instead of just finding some way to say "hey, we used it!". The Microsoft/Sony consoles haven't done much more than beef up the hardware.

 

[Uriain]

Nope.

Just cutting down your post for ease of readings sake. Firstly, great post, I think you highlight many of the strong points on the Wii U and while we might differ in opinion slightly on the Wii U's "trouble" that it may/may not face these are all really good points.

My question/comment to you is twofold;

1) While the Wii U is a pretty powerful machine, it does not "blow the doors off" current gen consoles. Is this an issue in itself? I personally don't think so but I can see the argument for why it could be, but when you have a jump from Wii U/360/PS3 -> PS4/720/?? it does feel like your missing from Nintendo in the new consoles. So my question/comment (I did have one) is what steps are Nintendo missing, in your opinion, that makes their current console seem like a "last gen" console to many consumers/developers.

I personally think that it could be their specialized hardware which, much like the PS3, can be a HUGE deterrent to 3rd party developers

2) How will the influx of huge (or at least huge hyped) games being exclusive or non-Wii U impact their strength in this console generation (again in your opinion).

For me, I see Nintendo's main issue is missing out on games from new iterations in a primarily Playstation/Xbox dominated franchisees. Getting Batman/Mass Effect and other "mainstream" titles 6-8 months after they have already been released because they need to be optimized for the console does not fill me with confidence to purchase the console

 

[Epona]

The Wii specs were pretty low compared to the 360 and PS3, yet the Wii destroyed them in sales. I could see the same happening again. Not to mention that the PS4 will probably be pretty expensive for the hardware.

I read that sales in January were only 55,000 units sold. That's sad and since Nintendo confirmed that they will not be dropping the price, things aren't looking so bright.

Most people I know have no idea what the WiiU even is (except for the ones who have seen mine/heard me talk about it). They did next to nothing to market it or even let the average person know it exists. Doesn't surprise me that they haven't sold much.

You know why the Wii sold so well? It was the motion controls that people just had to try. The WiiU has nothing unique to sell and that is why it isn't selling. Maybe Nintendo doesn't even know how to market the thing because there is nothing to market.

The screen on the controller is pretty unique, and is pretty awesome if the developers take advantage of it instead of just finding some way to say "hey, we used it!". The Microsoft/Sony consoles haven't done much more than beef up the hardware.

There is nothing unique about the bottom half of a DS/3DS or a tablet. If the developers do something unique with it then that's something but right now Nintendo can't really market it as something unique. In fact, I believe the whole point of the WiiU pad is to create a sort of console/handheld/tablet hybrid.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

The Wii specs were pretty low compared to the 360 and PS3, yet the Wii destroyed them in sales. I could see the same happening again. Not to mention that the PS4 will probably be pretty expensive for the hardware.

I read that sales in January were only 55,000 units sold. That's sad and since Nintendo confirmed that they will not be dropping the price, things aren't looking so bright.

Most people I know have no idea what the WiiU even is (except for the ones who have seen mine/heard me talk about it). They did next to nothing to market it or even let the average person know it exists. Doesn't surprise me that they haven't sold much.

You know why the Wii sold so well? It was the motion controls that people just had to try. The WiiU has nothing unique to sell and that is why it isn't selling. Maybe Nintendo doesn't even know how to market the thing because there is nothing to market.

The screen on the controller is pretty unique, and is pretty awesome if the developers take advantage of it instead of just finding some way to say "hey, we used it!". The Microsoft/Sony consoles haven't done much more than beef up the hardware.

There is nothing unique about the bottom half of a DS/3DS or a tablet. If the developers do something unique with it then that's something but right now Nintendo can't really market it as something unique. In fact, I believe the whole point of the WiiU pad is to create a sort of console/handheld/tablet hybrid.

Well, there isn't anything else that anyone is doing that is at all unique, so I don't see why you seem to have so much hatred towards Nintendo (or it is at least coming off that way). The PS4 is just a PS3 with move built in and the specs of a three year old gaming computer.