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Soundwave on 21 November 2013
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DevilRising said:
Soundwave said:

 

Looking at some of the monster sales the PS4 is putting up and it looks like X1 even at $500 is going to sell through some massive numbers it seems clear that mood of the gaming audience was this -- 

"We are sick of the 360/PS3 generation going on for so long and want to upgrade. Casual gaming and novetly controllers are not what we want. And definitely not another 360/PS3 type console."

Basically in a nutshell. 

One wonders if Nintendo simply made an honest to goodness "regular" next-gen console with a 2012-era GPU that wasn't gimped by a 33 watt electrical output limit that they easily could've probably cruised to a 10 million unit head start this generation. 

I mean it's not like either the PS4 or XB1 have spectacular software driving their sales, I think it's simply pent up demand from people waiting so long for true next-gen consoles (and sorry, Wii U is not what the audience was asking for). 


A) The Wii U GPGPU is fairly current, just not top of the line, and I'd hardly call it "gimped".

B) Nintendo cannot afford to make the kind of overpowered system like Microsoft and Sony can. Those companies are mega-corporations that make their money through other products NOT related to video gaming, and can afford to throw millions of dollars out the window on console cost.

C) The argument that Wii U "isn't next gen" is beyond old, and ignorant besides. It absolutely is, far more so than the Wii was last gen. And the fact of the matter is, Wii U did not come out with any one game that was a "must have". Not only has it not had a truly "must have" piece of software to drive sales yet, but then they went and had that massive drought in 2013, which totally killed whatever momentum Wii U built up. From launch through the end of 2012, Wii U sold around 3 million units. That's pretty fuckin' good, honestly, and shows me that even WITHOUT a "killer ap" title, there was in fact enthusiasm for it. The third party publishers were also obviously on board at launch, even if it was mostly ports, the point is, it was a bunch of ports of the kinds of games that Wii in most cases never got, which was a great sign. And then, again, the drought happened, no "must have" game, system sales tanked, and there you go.

It's not rocket science, and at this point these types of threads are really beating a dead horse. It is by NO means "too late" for Wii U. In fact I fully expect it to still continue a gradual resurgance as games like Mario 3D World, and Mario Kart 8, and Smash Bros., etc. continue to come out. The one thing I keep hearing, personally, from a lot of folks, is that they would buy a Wii U, but just haven't had that one or two games that really gave them the reason to yet. Well now those games are coming. Mostly next year, yes, but they're still coming. The next Zelda is guaranteed to turn some heads, "X" has a lot of RPG fans hyped, and Nintendo obviously has many other unrevealed games in the works as well.

 

You can absolutely make the argument that Nintendo missed a major opportunity for a much bigger lead over the competition than they currently have. They did totally drop the ball, and the worst part is, it all could have been avoided by better development cycle management. But their missed opportunity does not spell then end for them, they are absolutely still going to be in the thick of this three-way console race, and it certianly has nothing to do with whether or not they had made Wii U's hardware more powerful.


Better games would've helped the Wii U but honestly ... simply put I don't think people want another PS3/360 level system. Not even one moderately better. It has to *blow* the PS3/360 out of the water. 

"Well it's not as bad as the gap between the Wii and 360/PS3, and maybe some engines will scale pretty well" is not something that excites any one. People have waited 6-7 years to leave behind their PS3/360 and quite honestly I can't blame them for being fixated on systems that offer a more substantial upgrade. 

Nintendo miscalcuated by thinking they could re-use the Wii formula this generation -- ie: a console that has more in common hardware wise with the existing generation driven by a new controller novelty. What they did by making their system too close to the PS3/360 was make the most red ocean console possible. 

It's compounded by the fact that the market for mini-game compilations and casual games is dying right in front of them. Wii Party U and Mario & Sonic look to join Game & Wario in the bomb bin and Nintendo's already bailed on Nintendo Land being the lead pack-in for the Wii U in under a year.