The Wii U's Third-Party Concerns Are Brushed Off By 3DS

[Spazzy_D]

RolStoppable said:
The premise of the article holds true. Would anybody really care that the Wii U gets no third party games whatsoever, if there was a consistent stream of quality titles that can't be played on any other system? Not to mention that the GameCube which had the best third party support out of Nintendo's previous three home consoles ended up as the worst selling one out of this bunch.

The main problem for the Wii U is that it's dangerously close to the GameCube though. A me-too console that ultimately gets shunned by the industry. It means that the console was first and foremost built with the industry in mind, with consumers being a secondary concern at best. In the GC's case it wasn't just the hardware though, but also the first party software. Almost everything on the GC went down the experimental route with SSBM being pretty much the only important example of a straightforward evolution. Nintendo lost a lot of consumers that way. The GC was a very affordable console, but it lacked attractive first party software. Sure, those experiments were still good if you were willing to give them a try, but many consumers weren't willing to make those gambles.

The software direction of the Wii U is still up in the air for the most part and it could go either way in the long run. That will be the deciding factor between the Wii U ending up with GC sales or moving into the range of 40-50m consoles sold. Personally, I expect that not all of Nintendo's developers can restrain themselves and thus push the console into the 30-40m range. In any case, I hope that Nintendo learns their lesson and never makes an industry system again and instead will serve consumers as well as expand their development studios to become entirely self-sustaining eventually.

That's not completly true, I would argue that Nintendo screwed the pooch onthis one by NOT making an industry console or truly embracing the Wii approach.  The system is underpowered in comparison to it's competition and the controller is costly and seen as a gimmick by "core" gamers.  At the same time, the screen is not as accesable as motion controls and the system is too expensive when compared to the Wii.

What Nintendo tried to do with this system is "split the difference" between the two approaches, and succeeded in making a console no one really wanted.  (that being said, I love the controller and enjoy my Wii U)