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happydolphin on 11 March 2012
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Andrespetmonkey said:
happydolphin said:

I understand. The key thing here is that there is a threshold, one that must be crossed in order to be on the same playing field. If Wii U lags behind, but less so than the Wii does (as you said), the real question is, will it have passed that base step. See, the Wii, while being lesser than the twins, never crossed that step. The PS2, being lesser than the GC/Box, did.

True, but we are in a very different time now, a time where multiplayer and online functionality is key, and microsony already have a lot of experience in this area due to this gen and they will invest heavily into this area, no doubt. Both companies have learnt their lesson with pricing and making the consoles easy to develop for. The way I see it is SONY and Microsoft are in very good positions, whereas Nintendo still needs to build it's online infrastructure, which MicroSONY already has, and Nintendo needs to convince and appeal to 3rd party developers, which again MicroSONY already does.

So ultimately, I personally believe Nintendo will never allow itself to be in a position where it can be left out due to HW considerations by not making it past that invisible benchmark. So, even if WiiU is less than the 2 others, even at a PSX vs N64 level (at the very worst), it should then be subject to market factors, such as launch timing, price, customer adoption, rate of conversion, 3rd party library, 1st party library, the ability to do more than a trad console can (video playback, apps, media center) and so on and so forth.

If the Wii U is less powerful, I still don't think their will be anything severe enough in terms of scaling from MicroSONYs console to Wii U that will detract 3rd parties, but 3rd party devs won't exactly flock to it, and gamers still won't see Nintendos platform a go-to for 3rd party. This however, isn't much of a problem for Nintendo, judging by the success of the Wii, and Nintendo has other qualities that make up for not-so-great 3rd party support, like 1st party and cheaper hardware. 

We both think the Wii U will succeed, so maybe debating the specifics is irrelevant at this point. I guess we'll just have to wait and see :P

 

Though I agree that MicroSony's Online infrastructure is superior at the moment, for 1 we were discussing graphics (though I think you understood the invisible threshold concept I was trying to describe, which is really the key there so we can move on). Now I'll come to your side of the debate for a sec, matter of constructive discussion.

While MicroSony have proven their Online infrastructure to the world, their architecture is 6 to 10 years old (Xbox live is about 10 years old). On the flipside, Nintendo's online infrastructure will be built on a 2011 architecture, with all the lessons learnt from the past. Knowing Nintendo's ability to breathe life where others do the main offering, we are likely to see a Nintendo flavor to online, with a very big accent on community building (as could be seen by MK7). Also, given 3rd party enthusiasm over Nintendo's online offerings, I predict and expect Nintendo to surpass the services of their competitors, the highest one being Live. I believe the WiiU's online will be as explosive as the Wiimote was for the Wii.

Nintendo's IPs are vibratingly eager to make the jump to online modes: Mario 3D, Zelda, Super Smash (failed with Brawl), F-Zero, Kid Icarus (which 3DS will offer), Metroid, just so many games that could take advantage of online, it's going to explode.

On top of that, with Wii being the dominant console this gen without mainline 3rd party support, you can be sure 3rd parties will flock to them this time around. I personally have no doubts about it. But we will have to wait and see