GameStop CEO: Unannounced Titles Will Help Switch To "Very, Very Strong" 2018

[Jumpin]

Miyamotoo said:

Jumpin said:

I don't think the Wii U had strong software.

Unlike the Switch, there was no benefit to purchasing the software on Wii U. There was no unique hardware feature that provided a mode to play that would somehow make the Wii U version preferable. There was the unique off-TV play, which was good in theory, but only went so far (about 5 meters). The Switch offers users the ability to pick it up and take it anywhere in the world to play, this creates a unique feature for the software that trumps the higher fidelity or, in some cases, provides a reason to double dip. 

So, in short, while the Wii U did have Mass Effect 3 and a couple of Assassin's Creed games, these would only be strong software if they weren't already available in superior form elsewhere. The only people who benefitted from these releases were those in the market of "I want these games, but refuse to buy games on consoles that aren't Nintendo" which is only a very small number of Nintendo fans. For the majority of Nintendo fans, these releases were utterly pointless.

SM3DW, Mario Kart 8, Smash Bros, Splatoon, Mario Maker, Zelda BotW were all strong games, but they all come out too late. You can bet that if Wii U in its first year had games like Splatoon, MK8D and Mario Maker for instance, sales would be quite difrent.

Can't disagree - at their core, those are strong software; timing aside, are they half as interesting as they could be given Wii U's single Gamepad focus?

I'd argue that in Mario Kart 8's case, the hardware severely weakened it. The focus of the Wii U was the single player experience with the Gamepad; how many Wii U owners had additional Wiimotes sitting around?

I know I'm being anecdotal here, but Mario Kart 8 on Wii U was the only game in the franchise I didn't really play a lot of multiplayer - I got in about 20 hours of online multiplayer and maybe 3 hours of local; but I would guess most of the other Mario Karts I played exceeded 100 hours easily, maybe as much as 300+ hours in cases like SNES, N64, Wii, and DS (all of which I played a disgusting amount of). I think that's a large part as to why the Switch version has generated more excitement, it's because people are actually playing a lot of local multiplayer because they can pick up their Switch's and play it anywhere. I do a lot of multiplayer at the office, I can only imagine Universities. I'm seeing multiplayer games in excess of 6 players almost daily.

BotW definitely came out too late.

Splatoon seemed like one of the best fits for Wii U's hardware of any game ever released for it.

Would people play more multiplayer for SM3DW had it come out for the Wii or Switch? I would guess probably just based on NSMB Wii being a major local-multiplayer title, despite it being kind of a crap (multiplayer) experience compared to the Kirby games that came out later.

Last edited by Jumpin - on 13 April 2018