Seven early takeaways from the eighth generation

[NightDragon83]

RolStoppable said:

NightDragon83 said:
Good read but I wish people would stop calling the Wii U the "spiritual successor to the GameCube". The GameCube wasn't a generation behind in power, nor did it have 3rd party companies avoiding it like the plague... in fact many of the big multiplatform titles of that generation were released on the GC alongside the PS2 and Xbox versions, and the GC even had a respectable lineup of 3rd party exclusives.

Can't say any of that for the Wii U, which only receives ports of last-gen versions for 3rd party games (if it receives a version at all).

Third parties began to abandon the GameCube as soon as 2003, that's when the general consensus was formed that Nintendo was going to be the next Sega. The next Nintendo console was never going to see as much initial support as the GameCube did. Even you acknowledge that power is not the issue for the Wii U in your last sentence. The Wii U picked up where the GameCube left off: Lack of multiplatform releases, even though the power is there.

Yes, third parties started to curtail support for the GC in 2003... 2 years after the system's release and after the PS2 had already been established as the de facto lead platform of the generation with the Xbox carving out its own niche among Western / PC crossover gamers.  Third parties started jumping ship from the Wii U before it was even released!

And c'mon... power is not the issue for the Wii U???  It may not be THE issue, but it is a big reason why the console's third party support is so lacking.  Imagine if the GC's hardware was on par with, say, the Dreamcast when it was released in 2001... it would've been dead in the water compared to the PS2 and Xbox.

The power is NOT there for the Wii U... why should developers be forced to devote extra time and resources to develop a separate version of a game that was initially planned with the PS4 / Xbox One / typical gaming PC's specs in mind, and on a console whose primary audience either doesn't care or or outright refuses to buy 90% of titles from third parties anyway?