18 months in, what are your thoughts on the Wii U Gamepad? Success or disappointment?

[SubiyaCryolite]

RolStoppable said:

Okay, but from your perspective (I am basing this on the context in your previous post), casuals are those who bought the Wii for its motion controller. However, you claim that the Wii U with its Gamepad is targeted at casuals. Isn't that completely illogical? 

-- No its not, my mother mastered her Nexus 7 in one day. She struggles with browsers on my PC. The genral consensus is that tablets are ridiculously intuitive and anyone can figure them out. People these days spend a lot of time on tablets or touch phones, theres no barrier to entry.

Granted, you are right that Nintendo's masterplan with the Wii U was to please everyone. But the central aspect of the console, the Gamepad, first and foremost is about serving third parties. Even if we use your breakdown of demographics, we can only come to this conclusion.

-- No we cannot. Not a single 3rd party would put tablet controller at the top of their next gen wishlist. Procontroller + Wiimotion plus would have been more desirable fom their perspective and cheaper than a gamepad too.

Casuals: Bought Wii for motion controls, no interest in dual analog controllers. Otherwise they would have bought other consoles.

 -- True. But Nintendo barely marketed the devices touch, asymetric gameplay or offscreen play to anyone. If executed correctly it could have had some resonance given how tablets are as common as cellphones these days. Even today many "regular" people dont know the WiiU exists, or know what it is. The Wii on the otherhand was like a viral video, even non gamers were aware of its existence.

Nintendo faithful: Buy everything Nintendo like the sheep that they are. No specials required to lure them in.

- Very true

Hardcore: Want to play the big third party blockbusters which weren't on the Wii. Logically, this means that Nintendo has to get third parties on board to get the hardcore. Subsequently, this necessitates the dual analog standard, because the games in question are programmed for such controllers.

-- The analog sticks and buttons are a sensible middleground. The wiimote and nunchuck did the same. Only fighting games couldnt transition properly to that setup.

-- If the gamepad was a pure tablet the hardcore wouldnt even touch it, it would be a non portable portable. A nunchuck without buttons or an analog stick would be retarded, just like a wiimote without buttons.

-- The Wii missed out on many AAA multiplats because of the huge disparity in power. Even the lowest spec PCs listed as the minimum requirement for 7th gen ports were magnitudes stronger than the Wii.

-- Even with the Wiis sales the PS3 + 360 made for a bigger market to third parties. Throw in the PCs and things become worse. Porting a game to the Wii just wasnt worth the effort at all. Of course with hardware parity things would have been completely different.

-- What the hardcore want is a SNES HD with proper storge, basic multimedia functionality, proper online and which doesnt look like a toy or lunchbox. Basically Nintendos own PSOne or PS2, a truly sensible middleground.

That's not to say that third parties are to blame for the Wii U. Nintendo is the sole culprit for designing such a diasastrous console by their own choice.

-- Poorly thought out and poorly executed. No one expected it to do this badly, no one.

-- If Nintendo marketted the device propelry

-- If its 1st party games werent delayed

-- If they money hatted a Gran Theft Auto V port (I mean really, even a shoddy port with FPS issues would have really helped)

-- Selling the console without Fifa is Europe is incredibly dumb, should have swallowed their pride and moneyhatted entry 13 and possibly 14

-- If we got Metroid and not  Donkey Kong (If the 360 was a shooter box the Wii U is a platformer box)

-- If it had a few more titles like X and Bayonetta on the horison

-- If it had basic multimedia features

-- And a sensible achievement/trophy system integrated into miiverse

-- Then Nintendo would have probably achieved its goals of U and Me, Casual and Hardcore. Right now the casuals dont know it exists and it has nothing for the general hardcore.