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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Nintendo not replacing WiiU for at least a few more years! ~Iwata

 

2017?

yes 200 54.35%
 
no 77 20.92%
 
see foolish answers 90 24.46%
 
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curl-6 on 08 May 2014
rolltide101x said:
curl-6 said:
Faust said:
wii wasnt supposed to die back in 2012 either (even tho, it was already dead by 2011). Not saying that im expecting an early dead for the wii u, but we shouldnt take iwata's word as granted.

Blatantly false. Wii sold 16 million consoles after 2010.

Yeah but you can not pretend that its support was not lackluster after 2010.

It was indeed, but people throw the term "dead" around far too easily, to the point where it's almost lost any meaning.



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Kaizar on 08 May 2014

I had sooo called this.



rolltide101x on 08 May 2014
curl-6 said:
rolltide101x said:

Yeah but you can not pretend that its support was not lackluster after 2010.

It was indeed, but people throw the term "dead" around far too easily, to the point where it's almost lost any meaning.

That is true. The Wii technically is not dead even yet according to 10k people last week! lol. I really hope the Wii U gets decent support for a while yet so I can get my money out of it. Mario Kart 8 + New Super Mario Bros U should add to that soon :)

 

Currently I only have Zelda: Wind Waker HD and 3D World



Frogger on 08 May 2014
superchunk said:
spemanig said:


It's not selling. I obviously know that it's selling something. It's not sell "just not really well." It's sales are abysmal. Shameful. Terrible. Atrocious. Bad.

Marginal isn't good enough when your system is selling as poorly as the Wii U. I love Smash and Kart, but they aren't going to change people's minds about the thing if their minds are already made up. I don't think the Wii U's not worth $300, but the vast majority do. Nintendo can't afford to cut the price as is. Releasing a cheaper Wii U along side the original with cheaper parts and, sorry, no gamepad would allow them to sell the system for cheaper while acrewing more profit. Bundle that with a redesigned pro controller plus with new NFC capabilities and a software patch update, and they have the Wii U's version of the 2DS, only more people would buy this one.

Nintendo has also never posted three years in a row of losses. We need to get out of the mindset that the Wii U will have a "long life." I still think their new hardware will be out by 2016. Nintendo's not going to say that the Wii U is ending soon. That would be stupid. No one would buy a console with an expiration date, but there is one.

Wii U will get great games. It's a great console, but it's stupid to keep thinking that a company as big as Nintendo will continue a console expected to sell 3 million units in the next year for many years to come. You can't even say it's the new Dreamcast. It's selling less than that. Nintendo is not even expecting it to outsell the Dreamcast by this time next year. That kind of failure can't be allowed to continue "because it's finally starting to sell at a profit."

Two Wii U models. Side by side. Wii U Deluxe includes the Gamepad as per usual for $300. "Wii U Pro" includes Pro controller and no gamepad for $200. Gamepads are now sold separately for like $100. Both sell at a profit. Nintendo pleases everyone. The end.

I'm going to basically repeat part of my OP as it completely answers your entire point.

EVEN WITH NO GAMES WII U IS NOW MAKING MONEY. That means if it sells 4m a year for the next two years, that is still a profitable venture even with a zero game attach rate. Of course that won't happen so they'll make really good money, especially when MK8 and SSB and more than like this new NFC figurine platform.

Fact is that it makes more sense to make money now on what is out there AND not piss off your actual paying customers while proving that you will always stand behind your products so others will hopefully jump in or definitely consider jumping in when you do decide to move on.

Its also absurd to think a console that requires the gamepad to fully work amd has a new game being shown at E3 to prove its gameplay value will be altered to release without a gamepad.

Wii U as is, with only possible change being increased memory/better battery for gamepad/more bundled game options... will remain as is for now.


4 million isn't enough. That's my point. Staying in a failing console cycle for too long is not a sucessful business venture. Who will it piss off? Who was pissed when the 3DS XL came out? Who was made when the DS Lite came to be? Wii Mini? If they can sell a more profitable version of the same console for less, they'll do it. Especially if the Wii U needs to make up for the 3 years of losses the company gained because of it. Releasing a remodel of the Wii U is making money now.

The console does not fundamentally need the gamepad to "work." That's a bold faced lie. A marketing falacy. 99% of Wii U games can be played with out the gamepad and the entire UI can be patched to work without the thing. The only "unique" things that will be missed out on are Miiverse drawing and Nintendo land. Everything else can be patched to work fine or be labled as "gamepad required" the same way some games for the Wii were labled "motion plus" or "wii balance board" required.

Nintendo aren't stupid. There are people who won't but a Wii U with a gamepad, but will without it. Just like with the 2DS, they will do what is financially right for the company.



Roar_Of_War on 08 May 2014

In other words, it's going to stick to at least a 5 year life-cycle. This is good.



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nomad on 08 May 2014
Hedra42 said:
Soundwave said:
greenmedic88 said:


Except that's really a load of crock honestly. 

The DS is Nintendo's most successful platform ever, and it came after cutting off the GBA after 3 1/2 years, and that was a faaaaaaaar more successful platform than the Wii U could ever dream of being. 

The XBox 360 is Microsoft's most successful console venture to date and that came after cutting off the XBox after 4 years. 

Even the Wii, Nintendo's most successful console came really after they basically abandoned the GameCube and left it for dead for most of 2005 and pretty much all of 2006. Mario Party 7 was their big holiday GameCube game for 2005, lol. They bailed out on that system, lets be honest.

Saying Nintendo supported the GameCube for a full 5 years is like saying a couple that was married for 5 years, but only lived together for maybe 3 1/2 of those years had a nice 5 year marriage. Only on paper. 

3 years is actually probably the minimum amount of support people want for a platform. Sega really screwed this because they released Sega CD in 1992, 32X in November 1994, and Saturn in April/May 1995. No one would've complained if the 32X got 3 years of support. 

Actually, the Gameboy Advance, the Gamecube and the Xbox all had far more than 5 years support. Neither the DS, X360 or Wii 'cut off' their predecessors at launch.

Gamecube 2001/2002 - 2007

GBA 2001 - 2006/7/8 (depending on region)

XBox 2001 - 2007/8.

A console is supported until it is discontinued, regardless of how many games are being released for it. Their successors might already have been released, but they were still being produced and sold and games were still available.

That the DS, X360 and Wii came in slightly earlier in their predecessor's lifecycles makes me think how much belief the companies had in their new products, because all went on to be a phenomenal success.

Yes, exactly.

GBA recieved strong support in 2005 and good support well into 2006. It's was not "cutoff", DS was originally released as a third pillar (atleast for it's 1st year) before it skyrocketed in it's 2nd year. So, at the very least one could say DS only became a true successor after GBA's 4th year.

In 2005, Nintendo had 3 Mario games, 1 pokemon, 1 donkey kong, starfox, and fire emblem and Gamecube had decent support even in 2006. Sure, Nintendo's output severely dropped that year, but Gamecube still got a good amount of games from third parties. Then, it still got a Zelda TP.  It may not have had outstanding support but not even close to "Gamecube was left for dead in 2005".



Faust on 08 May 2014
curl-6 said:
rolltide101x said:
curl-6 said:
Faust said:
wii wasnt supposed to die back in 2012 either (even tho, it was already dead by 2011). Not saying that im expecting an early dead for the wii u, but we shouldnt take iwata's word as granted.

Blatantly false. Wii sold 16 million consoles after 2010.

Yeah but you can not pretend that its support was not lackluster after 2010.

It was indeed, but people throw the term "dead" around far too easily, to the point where it's almost lost any meaning.


sry dude, i just care about the games that are available on my console. Wii wasnt meant to be a dust collector (i think), so yeah, it was pretty much dead way before the launch of the wii u (well, according to Iwata, they still supporting the system...)



curl-6 on 08 May 2014
Faust said:

sry dude, i just care about the games that are available on my console. Wii wasnt meant to be a dust collector (i think), so yeah, it was pretty much dead way before the launch of the wii u (well, according to Iwata, they still supporting the system...)

Wasn't dead for me in 2011-2012, I quite enjoyed Zelda Skyward Sword, Xenoblade, The Last Story, Pandora's Tower, MW3, Rayman Origins, and Project Zero 2: Wii Edition.



Hedra42 on 08 May 2014
Faust said:
curl-6 said:
rolltide101x said:
curl-6 said:
Faust said:
wii wasnt supposed to die back in 2012 either (even tho, it was already dead by 2011). Not saying that im expecting an early dead for the wii u, but we shouldnt take iwata's word as granted.

Blatantly false. Wii sold 16 million consoles after 2010.

Yeah but you can not pretend that its support was not lackluster after 2010.

It was indeed, but people throw the term "dead" around far too easily, to the point where it's almost lost any meaning.


sry dude, i just care about the games that are available on my console. Wii wasnt meant to be a dust collector (i think), so yeah, it was pretty much dead way before the launch of the wii u (well, according to Iwata, they still supporting the system...)

As I previously mentioned, a console is supported until it is discontinued. The Wii was discontinued in Oct 2013 in Japan and Europe. (not sure about US) Nintendo will be stopping the Wii and DS Nintendo Wifi Connection later this month. The Wii Mini, which has no online capabilitiy, was launched in 2013.

To say that a console is 'dead' is subjective and nonsensical, especially when applied to a console like the Wii. I bought my Wii in 2010, and it opened a door to a huge library of games, as well as the Gamecube back catalogue. The rate of new games coming out from 2010 onwards was irrelevant to me, and probably to  the several other million who purchased a Wii after I did.

Supported or discontinued are the key words here.



Soundwave on 08 May 2014

The Wii U honestly could by the end of 2015 will have pretty as good of an output as the GameCube did LTD.

If we confirm every Nintendo published Wii U game we know to be in development through 2015, lets even assume the only games that we don't know about that Nintendo releases for the Wii U in 2015 is Metroid U and Mario Party U:

Nintendo Land
NSMBU + New Super Luigi U
LEGO City Undercover
Game & Wario
Pikmin 3
Wii Party U
The Wonderful 101
Wii Sports Club
NES Remix Vol. 1 + 2
Wii Fit U
Zelda: Wind Waker HD
Super Mario 3D World
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Mario Kart 8
Bayonetta 2
X (Xenoblade 2)
Hyrule Warriors
Super Smash Bros. U
Pokken Fighters Tournament
Yarn Yoshi
Fire Emblem x Shin Megami Tensei
Fatal Frame U
Metroid U
Zelda U
Mario Party U
*End of 2015*

Lets compare this to really all the major Nintendo published games from the GameCube era prior to the Wii's release:

Luigi's Mansion
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Wave Race: Blue Storm
Eternal Darkness
Super Mario Sunshine
Animal Crossing
Star Fox Adventures
Metroid Prime 1/2
Zelda: The Wind Waker
F-Zero GX
1080 Avalanche
Donkey Konga
Mario Strikers
Mario Sluggers
Mario Party 4/5/6/7
Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat
Battallion Wars
Zelda: Four Swords Adventures
Paper Mario: TYD
Star Fox Assault Pikmin 1/2


To me Nintendo is really only "on the hook" for the Wii U through the end of 2015. If they want to phase it out after that, they will be well within their rights to do so IMO, and they'll have delivered enough Nintendo content to justify its existence. 

The OP kinda stretches what Iwata said too, he never promised any number of years, but if Nintendo provides all the above listed Wii U titles, then to me a Nintendo fan can't really complain about the system not getting enough Nintendo support -- it's fairly easily on par with the GameCube at least even after just 3 years.