| OoSnap said: @ Soundwave Most gamers don't care much about graphics. The fact the Wii is on cusp of selling 100 million, the DS dominated the more powerful PSP and the 3DS doing the same with the more powerful Vita attests to that. I know gamers on forums love their high end graphics but the mass market doesn't care and I have no doubt Sony and Microsoft have caught on and that is why I speculate their next consoles are not going to be as powerful as a lot of its fanbase expect. I wouldn't doubt Microsoft and Sony are brainstorming or considering a new gaming concept or control interface instead of just offering more powerful hardware. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft and Sony (more so Sony) came out with their own tablet gamepad. As I said before if Nintendo acquires most multiplats and if its competitors brings nothing new to the table that would appeal to the mass market then Wii U will easily dominate next gen despite being the weakest console. With development cost being higher I seriously doubt 3rd parties are going to neglect the Wii U as they did the Wii. Plus Nintendo seems to be much more aggressive getting 3rd parties on board. They already have (timed?) exclusives such as Rayman, Lego City, P 1000, Zombie U, and DQ X and a lot of multiplats. Because Wii U is likely to be the least expensive, have most 3rd party multiplats, have its tablet gamepad and asymmetric gameplay concept, Nintendo is going to easily dominate next gen. This I have no doubt and I am going to stick by this prediction for years to come. Of course this could change if Wii U doesn't get the major multiplats and/or Sony/Microsoft brings something creative. Microsoft and Sony should be worried because having just a more powerful hardware is not going to cut it. They need to pull out sonething creative if they want their next gen consoles to sell as much or more than its predecessors. |
If gamers don't care about graphics why do the Call of Duty games sell 20 million on the HD consoles versus like 2-3 million tops on the Wii? No one wants to play the Wii version with crappier graphics, that's why.
The Wii had tremendous success when it was the hot new thing, but it's not 2006-2008 anymore, a lot has changed and Nintendo quite frankly since Wii Fit has not been able to come up with another casual fad/craze to maintain momenteum. Wii Music failed and since then they've been recycling old formulas (Wii Sports 2/Resort, Wii Play 2/Motion, Wii Fit 2, Brain Training 2/3, Style Savvy sequels, etc.). Nintendo Land isn't anything new either, it's Wii Play with Mario Party thrown in and the same tired mini-game formula.
If anything, Microsoft's Kinect is the more recent product hit in this cateogrey, but really all of this is becoming Apple's domain. Now that the hipster/soccer mom/teen girl audience has fallen in love with iOS/iPad/iPhone etc. the Wii is yesterday's news.
The next gen is probably from a casual POV going to be more about who (if anyone) can get the next set-top-box done before Apple takes over with iTV. And quite honestly, Microsoft is probably the best positioned to challenge there. Nintendo has good ideas, but they rarely follow through with non-gaming aspects (the 3DS eShop still feels like something straight out of 1996).
Nintendo is basically competing against Apple for the soccer mom/hipster audience. Sony/MS have a more reliable audience of core gamers who live, eat, breathe gaming and will buy a new game console because they have to have the new games. Soccer mom? Does she really need that $300 Wii U? She already has Wii Fit which she last used in 2009. That's much more unreliable of a bet if you ask me. That type of consumer is just likely to walk out of the store with an iPad mini or whatever instead of a Wii U.
I think Nintendo will have a good launch period just because there's nothing new and the 3DS/Vita have failed miserably in North America to ignite the market (again casual gamers are not coming back to the 3DS, they have smartphones now). But 1-2 years from now it wouldn't surprise me if Wii U is already running out of steam.
