UPDATE: Malstrom changed my mind. After listening to that self-absorbed know-it-all bash that ND even harder that I did - it occured to me, we are both just grumpy old men, upset that we are no longer the focus of Nintendo's home console. IE: No new Wii Sports Golf for us. :(
Most of my points are still very valid. WiiU will probably never be another Wii. But yesterday's ND was wonderful news for the Nintendo fan is all of us.
______
We all know Nintendo home console business had been in a state of continual decline since the NES right through to Gamecube.
Nintendo realized they couldn't win a straight on battle with MS/Sony for the core gamer, so they did something remarkable. They decided to create a whole new audience. Their 'blue ocean strategy'. To this end they embraced the wiimote - a controller that did away with the monstrousity of buttons and sticks of the dual analog controller, that most common everyday people wouldn't touch and replaced them with simple intuitive motions. They devised games like Wii Sports, Wii Fit and Wii Music - themes that everyone could immediately understand and enjoy. And excepting Wii Music, but including Mario Kart Wii this drove sales to all new audiences. Vast amounts of women, girls, 'lapsed gamers' (like myself), non-gamers and even retired folks played, loved and purchased Wiis.
But dispite the success of the blue ocean strategy, after 2010 Nintendo abandoned it to instead release only classic fare - mostly 2D platformers and games that did little to nothing to push the gaming envelope or even provide their new audience with anything to play except for lacklasture fare like Wii Party and Wii Motion Play.
Meanwhile MS and Apple were stealing thier audience with Kinect (which has now outsold GC in half the time) and ipads/iphones.
WiiU was Nintendo's opportunity to reclaim their new audience and dominance. But instead of following the path of simplicity, accessibilty and fun that made Wii, Kinect, and iphones/iPads so successful, they went right back to the monstrousity of the dual analog controller now with added touch screen and motion and need for wiimotes still, and optional pro controller to create the most convoluted mess of a controller ever. There's simply no initial enticement for anyone to want to use this. People will either stick with their Wiis, tablets or their PS3/360s.
In the end it's all about the games. Wii Sports is what sold the idea of motion controllers. So despite Wii being about as powerful as a previous gen Xbox, everyone still wanted one, because it could do something the other HD systems couldn't. At least, up until 2010 when it stopped being unique.
Powerwise WiiU isn't significantly better than current gen system. So once again Nintendo needs to provide a unique experience, that's fun, accessible and appealing to all. Else, there's simply no reason to leave Wii/360+Kinect or PS3+Move or tablets with their simple, fun and often free games.
So today Nintendo did something daring and surprisingly out of character and spilled the beans on all their upcoming games. Nintendo fans rejoice!! More Zelda! More 3D Mario. More Mario Kart. More Fire Emblem. More Yoshi. More Xenoblade (maybe) and even a HD Wind Waker. Okay great news. If you're a Nintendo fan. If not... There's nothing here. WiiU Party and a bit of new info on WiiU Fit is the only casual fare they gave and neither one of those is going to get much more than a passing glance from the casual crowd Nintendo won over with Wii. On the flip-side, if your a core gamer but not into Nintendo franchises there's still nothing here.
WiiU is a direct return to Gamecube status - catering to the Nintendo faithful with only paltry attempts to win over core/casuals. Now moreso than ever before, I expect WiiU to emulate Gamecube in sales. The market has grown and WiiU will get some leftover Wii love so I've no doubt WiiU will outsell GC but by returning to a red ocean strategy with aging IPs and no innovation (touch screens are not innovative in 2012) Nintendo is guaranteeing themselves a third place finish this gen.
