| Soundwave said: They have Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, a better main bundle (NSMBU for $299.99), DKC, Rayman, Wii Party U, Zelda: WWHD, etc. this year over last year though ... really they've spent pretty much all their big guns except Smash Brothers, which like Mario Kart 8 will likely be good for a 2 month boost and then they're basically screwed again. Things like Bayonetta 2 as much I personally would love for it to do well, are not going to do diddly squat for the baseline. Wii U is just a mediocre selling console, that's all there really is to it. |
I'll tackle the very end note first: No software. That was a gunshot wound to the WiiU from the Wii and is a shame because the WiiU is a fantastic system with a bad rep because its not "graphics intensive" for big budget AAA (on the flip side, its becoming home for almost all excellent indie games with high returns for said developers). On the other hand, Nintendo was caught pants down on HD development because of the Wii cycle and games that had been scheduled to fatten up the launch line-up experienced delays as long as six months. This is, in all aspects, the growing pains of Nintendo into HD and, fortunately, it came after they had fattened up their coffers from the Wii/DS. We'll see how well they proceed from here. (And they're certainly not going to lose money to the levels of the PS3's 6$+ billion while, very likely, building up a good image with a solid library and "games for the gamers". Heck, by the end of the generation they may well end up net positive on the WiiU just as they did with NGC.)
As for the rest, they have a bunch of titles this year over last, you're right, and we've seen the affects of that with a stronger baseline but you'll also notice that it took a kick in the butt from MK8 to get things moving. Smash will be another kick in the butt and then, after that, you're right that they start to lose on the big hitters but one could argue they've actually planned for that with the spacing of Zelda, Starfox, and Xenoblade, all of which are titles that carry "hype" to their names and will also give, albeit smaller, kicks to the system. They can also introduce other titles along the way like a Pokemon title, which will be a big deal.
The rest of the line-up, like Bayo2, are just there to tip the fences.
No one should have an illusion of the WiiU doing anything but possibly NGC numbers if that and finishing in a distant third, but what should be obvious is that the system will not have nine month long droughts of gamelessness and baselines to match. It will end up as a system with low sales and a fat library of solid games, probably positive in profits by the end of the generation and with a likely high adoption rate for software. (And it won't single handedly kill the entire Japanese home console market and development ala PS3.)
