Alternate History: Wii U as a standard 8th gen console

[Wman1996]

TeachMeHisty said:

Shatts said:

I mean isn't that just the GameCube? So how about this scenario? What if it was just the Wii U and no 3DS? All the resources spent on the 3DS go to the Wii U. Do you think the Wii U would have sold as much as the 3DS? Or would it have sold the same? I feel like one of the reasons why the Switch is such a success is because there's only 1 platform from Nintendo. Perhaps the Wii U would have done better without the 3DS. Although I believe it would be worse for Nintendo overall without the 3DS.

Wouldnt say so.

The GameCube:

• released at a time where the PS2s integrated DVD player was a major USP
• once again screwed developers by using low capacity mini dvds
• is the successor of a (comparatively) "flopped" system
• released after the PS2

The WiiU

• released when a DVD/BlueRay player wasnt a USP anymore
• supported standard discs
• is the successor of a successful system
• released before the PS4

My conclusion:

The hypothetical "playstation WiiUs" life cycle would have probably played out similar to the XB360s

Yeah. The number of third-party games bigger than the miniDVDs 1.46 GB limit are exaggerated, but it nevertheless was a bottleneck. A lot of the demanding third-party games that didn't make it to GameCube would require compression, 2 discs, or would be virtually impossible. 

The N64's cartridges were a much bigger problem to devs, but N64 still sold more because it was coming off of the SNES and it had the triple-whammy of Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, & Ocarina of Time. 

25 GB wasn't too bad of a limit for Wii U discs, but Wii U would likely use Blu-rays in this what-if, allowing them to store up to 50 GB. However, it would have to have mandatory installs like Xbox One and PS4 so that the games can actually run.