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Soundwave on 02 August 2014
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spemanig said:
Soundwave said:

Backwards compatibility with the Wii U ... Nintendo's least successful and most niche console ever is not a big priority IMO. If they can ease the burden of porting games, so be it.

Price of the next handheld is much more important, one of Nintendo's biggest blunders this generation was using highly propietary components (Power PC + highly customized GPU) instead of using more economical modified off-the-shelf components. 

It's why they can't make money on the Wii U even now, whereas Sony who used a more PC-like architecture is already not only profitting off the PS4 but seeing bigger than expected drops in hardware manufacturing. 

No one is going to give you a sweetheart deal on components that only you use, even if they're not as powerful as what others are using. 

What Nintendo is doing today is actually the antithesis of what Yamauchi did with the NES. 


It was a big priority for the Wii. I doubt a 5m unit difference will break their decision on that one. They've already made it clear that making the hardware transfer as painless as possible, and keeping consumers with each new hardware generation. They don't want to hit restart with each new generation. Losing BC is the perfect way not to do that.

Each console after the NES sold less and less under Yamauchi. 


Well the Wii U results speak for themselves, not only did Nintendo manage to make a console only moderately more powerful than a 7 year old XBox 360, they managed to lose money on it too. 

It's time to stop making hardware based on niche ideas ... like backwards compatibility and having a console that's small and only runs at 33 watts because Japanese housewives and eco-friendlies that like low power consumption. The general gaming audience doesn't give a f*ck, yet Nintendo expended all that effort into these areas that yielded a more expensive console to mass produce. 

If they want to make a console for an audience of like 10 million people though, that's their business. It's just not very good business. 

There's really only 10 Wii U games that maybe are worthwhile in terms of having for BC anyway -- Mario 3D World, DKC, MK8, Smash, Zelda U, Xenoblade, Bayo 2, Splatoon ... the rest really ... if you can't live without Mario & Sonic Sochii games ... c'mon. If they can create some dev tools that make it easier to port the 10 or so Wii U games that the masses really give a crap about, then it's better to simply go with the most cost effective for power chip.