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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Is Wii U the Dreamcast of the 2010's?

Soundwave on 31 August 2015
Miyamotoo said:
Soundwave said:
Miyamotoo said:
Soundwave said:


Eh, I wouldn't go that far. I doubt in fall 2017 we'll be sitting here talking about new Wii U releases. Wii U will be dead and buried by then for all effective purposes. 

Its big difference between supported and discontinued console.

Who cares really. 

Look at the GameCube support in 2006. Aside from Zelda, which was effectively repositioned as a Wii launch title and GCN owners to add insult to injury had to wait even longer to play it, Nintendo released like 2 games for the GameCube in all of 2006. Effectively they pulled the plug on that system in 2005, and really 2004 if we're totally honest about it. 

 

Like I wrote, Its big difference between supported and discontinued console.

Wii (except Wii Mini) was discontinued in October 2013. so Wii U will not be discontinued at least before end of 2017, in that case Wii U would be discontinued after 5 years while Dreamcast was discontinued after only 2 years.

Wii U could be discontinued in a year. We have no idea. 

Comparing it to the Wii is pointless, the Wii sold 100 million units, the Wii U is struggling to get to 15 million and is the worst selling Nintendo console by a mile. 

I don't think retailers are knocking on Nintendo's door dying to order tons of new units either, Nintendo doesn't just tell retailers "hey stock our product because we say so". It doesn't work like that. If a product is selling like a dog turd, retailers will start to phase it out. 

Also as mentioned above maybe the Saturn analogy is more apt, the Saturn was coming off the massively successful Genesis, and sold incredibly poorly as a follow up due to a lot of poor design decisions. And the Dreamcast replaced it in about 4 1/2 years, which if NX launches next year will be about the same thing. 



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Ronster316 on 31 August 2015

Both deserved far better sales........... however.

First 2 years of Dreamcast software>>>>>>>>> WiiU's software.



Miyamotoo on 31 August 2015
Soundwave said:
Miyamotoo said:

Like I wrote, Its big difference between supported and discontinued console.

Wii (except Wii Mini) was discontinued in October 2013. so Wii U will not be discontinued at least before end of 2017, in that case Wii U would be discontinued after 5 years while Dreamcast was discontinued after only 2 years.

Wii U could be discontinued in a year. We have no idea. 

Comparing it to the Wii is pointless, the Wii sold 100 million units, the Wii U is struggling to get to 15 million and is the worst selling Nintendo console by a mile. 

I don't think retailers are knocking on Nintendo's door dying to order tons of new units either, Nintendo doesn't just tell retailers "hey stock our product because we say so". It doesn't work like that. If a product is selling like a dog turd, retailers will start to phase it out. 

Also as mentioned above maybe the Saturn analogy is more apt, the Saturn was coming off the massively successful Genesis, and sold incredibly poorly as a follow up due to a lot of poor design decisions. And the Dreamcast replaced in about 4 1/2 years, which if NX launches next year will be about the same thing. 

Even if they discounted Wii U next year (that doesnt have any sense beacuse Wii U next year will get Zelda U, Pokken Tournament, Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem..), Wii U would be discounted after 4 years and Dreamcast was discontinued after 2.



Soundwave on 31 August 2015
Miyamotoo said:
Soundwave said:

Wii U could be discontinued in a year. We have no idea. 

Comparing it to the Wii is pointless, the Wii sold 100 million units, the Wii U is struggling to get to 15 million and is the worst selling Nintendo console by a mile. 

I don't think retailers are knocking on Nintendo's door dying to order tons of new units either, Nintendo doesn't just tell retailers "hey stock our product because we say so". It doesn't work like that. If a product is selling like a dog turd, retailers will start to phase it out. 

Also as mentioned above maybe the Saturn analogy is more apt, the Saturn was coming off the massively successful Genesis, and sold incredibly poorly as a follow up due to a lot of poor design decisions. And the Dreamcast replaced in about 4 1/2 years, which if NX launches next year will be about the same thing. 

Even if they discounted Wii U next year (that doesnt have any sense beacuse Wii U next year will get Zelda U, Pokken Tournament, Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem..), Wii U would be discounted after 4 years and Dreamcast was discontinued after 2.


It would be more like the Saturn in that case (which I'm not really sure is a compliment, I'd rather be compared with the Dreamcast). Though Dreamcast released a year earlier in Japan too, so effectively it was active from 1998-2001. 

And it was discountinued because of business issues within Sega, not because it couldn't have been stretched out another year or two. 



Rafie on 31 August 2015
AEGRO said:
The Wii U wont be remembered 5 years from now, let alone the 16 years that the Dreamcast has since it launched.

I LOVED the Dreamcast, one of the best catalogs of games ever.


TRUTH! I absolutely adored my Dreamcast. It's why I still have one in mint condition with 4 controllers and VMU's to date. Not to mention the many games I still have for it. *sigh* Very underrated.



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NoirSon on 31 August 2015
Darwinianevolution said:

I would say the WiiU looks more like the Saturn. After the breakout success of their predecessor (Genesis/Wii), their inner problems, odd design choices and the rise of their competition makes the system less appealing by comparaison. And with thay, only the first party stays in enough numbers to support the console. Also, both systems are more relevant in Japan than in the West.


This. Especially if Nintendo does indeed try to release a successor in NX during this current generation in 2016. The Saturn had some wonderful games from Sega and a handful of third parties that are forgotten because they didn't compare to the N64 or PSOne. The Wii U technically has better games than it but they are in a similar position in being doomed for a third place finish, no matter what they do now because third parties have given up on it entirely.



LudicrousSpeed on 31 August 2015

Uh, no. The Dreamcast was ahead of its time in terms of online functionality (built in Internet capabilities, first dedicated gaming network akin to XBL/PSN, first to charge for online play) where as the Wii U is still way behind the competition. The DC also had an amazing library in a very short span of time while the Wii U has been out the longest and has the weakest library of games. The DC also got a lot of good 3rd party support, except EA, and the Wii U gets virtually none.



Miyamotoo on 31 August 2015
Soundwave said:
Miyamotoo said:

Even if they discounted Wii U next year (that doesnt have any sense beacuse Wii U next year will get Zelda U, Pokken Tournament, Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem..), Wii U would be discounted after 4 years and Dreamcast was discontinued after 2.


It would be more like the Saturn in that case (which I'm not really sure if a compliment, I'd rather be compared with the Dreamcast). Though Dreamcast released a year earlier in Japan too, so effectively it was active from 1998-2001. 

And it was discountinued because of business issues within Sega, not because it couldn't have been stretched out another year or two. 

Also GC was discontinued in 2007. one year after Wii launch, same like Wii was discontinued one year after Wii U launch.

Dreamcast:

Release date
  • JP November 27, 1998
  • NA September 9, 1999
  • EU October 14, 1999
  • AUS November 30, 1999
Discontinued March 31, 2001

In Japan was in market only around 2.5 years before discontinued, on all other markets was only around 1.5 year before discontinued.

Wii U will be at least 4 years on market before discontinued, but probably 5+ years, I cant see it Nintendo discontinued Wii U next year.

 

I didnt talk about reasons why Dreamcast was discontinued, I just mentioned that there is one big difference when we comparing Dreamcast and Wii U, Dreamcast was discontinued after only around 2 years on market and Wii U will be probably discontinued after 5+ years on market.



DerNebel on 31 August 2015

Not really, I think it's going to be quite the opposite, at this point in time we still have people severely overselling the Wii U (for instance by comparing it to the Dreamcast), while in a couple years I think even those will acknowledge what a shitshow Nintendo has pulled with this system.



Soundwave on 31 August 2015

Actually looking back at the DC library I think some of it is a bit overrated in hindsight. The DC has maybe 15 truly *great* games.

But the Wii U is going to match/exceed that by the end of its lifecycle too. Splatoon, Mario 3D World, Bayonetta 2, NSMBU, Smash U, Mario Kart 8, Xenoblade X, Captain Toad, Pikmin 3, Rayman Legends, Mario Maker, DKC: Tropical Freeze ... we're getting close.