Did Microsoft just make Nintendo's Wii U tablet irrevelant?

[thx1139]

happydolphin said:

thx1139 said:

h2o1977 said:
There is no way that the smart glass is going to beat Nintendo Wii U..
It sounds interesting but it has a long way to go, in order to compete with Nintendo.

People just dont understand shades of grey and competition.

SmartGlass doesnt need to beat Wii U. It is competition and from what we have seen the uses of the Wii U except for whats being done with Zombie U (And even that can be done, just maybe not as effieciently) can be done with SmartGlass.  Most of the games that Nintendo has shown so far make use of the Wii U screen as a screen for an extra player or for informational purposes. Things that SmartGlass can do quite well. Some examples this gen.

Just Dance series on Wii doesnt really know that you are dancing when you shake the Wii Mote and Dance Central tracked full body movement with Kinect. People playing Just Dance still had fun.

Most of the games in Wii Sport only relied on using the Wii Mote as a motion controlled switch.  You didnt need to make the actions like the real sport to play.  People still had fun.

Not to mention that no one is speaking about what SmartGlass features that the Wii U controller doesnt have.

1) SmartGlass is multi-touch. Yes Nintendo says they dont need it.  We will see.  We will see how many people expect pinch and zoom and it never works.
2) Xbox 360 can handle up to 4 SmartGlass devices.  Wii U can handle 2.
3) SmartGlass works with the devices people already know.
4) SmartGlass devices will be more powerful devices with developers more experienced with the platform.
5) SmartGlass will have a much larger install base and that will appeal to publishers when it comes to decisions about building in features common to both platforms or to provide special features for the larger install base.

Good post.

@bold. I agree with that, and hinted on it in my last post to you. However, I wouldn't blame h2o, I would blame OP and the thread title.

1) I agree, and I think Nintendo said they don't need it because they just don't want to up the HW costs, as an excuse. Multi-touch is an added value to smartglass that's for sure.

2) It's debatable as to how this will affect bandwidth and image broadcasting. If it does support 4 devices it will most likely be programmatically limiting the visual output the controllers will receive, if the WiiU's 2 padlet and downing of framerate limitations are any indicator.

3) That doesn't matter. The Wii is a product people know, and Nintendo is a brand the mass recognizes. This is a non-issue.

4) Yes, but at the same time this requires interoperability and/or specific experience of various devices. This leads to increased development complexity imho. Unless the MS API does it for you automatically, in which case this is not an argument. On the flipside, the con to this is that some devices will not support all features due to missing HW pieces (in HW differences, kind of like for Android). Talk about consumer confusion...

5) I guess, then again the WiiU has the advantage of being a new console, with all the marketing involved in the launch of a new console, as well as the sourrounding SW purchasing culture that revolves around launch period into the 1st and 2nd years of the console. So it's again debatable since by that time it's likely that the WiiU will already be catching up to a 40M install base.

Like I mentioned before the word "irrevelant" is harsh.  The real change between this generation and last is that the Wii U will be introduced into a market with a competitor that has a machine basically as powerful as the Wii U and with many of the same capabilities (and in some ways more) for devices that people already have.

Last generation Nintendo was able to introduce a console far less powerful than competitors, but had a compelling capability that was not present on the competitions consoles until 4 years later.  Nintendo doesnt get this 4 year head start this time and the Wii U will be drastically underpowered compared to the Xbox Next and PS4.

This all leaves the Wii U as a console that I feel will wilt in the market quicker than the Wii did.  Look at the Wii. It had 3 great years, but since Kinect and Move hit the market the Wii sales have plummeted.  I find it very doubtful that the Wii U has an initial couple of years like the Wii had. Sure the Nintendo faithful will purchase a Wii U sight unseen, but dont expect the market from the rest of consumers to jump on board like they did with the Wii and SmartGlass is one of the reasons.