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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - When will Nintendo wake up to the Wii U issues?

Soundwave on 21 March 2013

If they were walking into a "no win situation" against the PS360, then they shouldn't have made another PS360 type system, lol.

It's not like technology hasn't advanced far beyond the 2005/2006 era chips of the PS360, Nintendo is simply stubborn and formulaic.

The Wii was basically 5-6 years old tech + a new controller, so Nintendo was to going to use that same formula over again, no matter what logic told them.

Their new controller hasn't taken off like the Wiimote did though, and now they are stuck with their pants down.

I also think in general the whole "mini-game" formula has grown tired. It was fun in 2006. It's not as fun six years later after Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, Wii Play, Wii Play Motion, Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus, Wii Party, and the 1000 other knock offs (Carnival Games, Kinect Sports, etc. etc. etc.). Even on Kinect you can see Kinect Sports 2 did considerably worse than the first one and Wii Party wasn't that big of a hit in the West. 

"Mini-games" are now the domain of smartphones and tablets where you can get them for $1-$5 a pop and a lot of times they actually have more depth than a lot of the Wii Sports mini-games. People love their Planets Vs. Zombies or Farmville or Angry Birds. 

Nintendo Land would've sold 10+ million copies on the Wii four years ago I have no doubt (retooled to work with the Wiimote of course). But today? It's a tired concept, and even if it is entertaining, people simply don't want to pay $350 to play that when there are far cheaper options. 



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JGarret on 21 March 2013
Screamapillar said:
Soundwave said:
Screamapillar said:
Soundwave said:
curl-6 said:
BatMaxExposedWorld said:

If you want to sell the whole "last gen tech" (more or less) then yes, you need to have a killer hook of a controller. 

And that doesn't just go for Nintendo, If the Playstation 2 was a moderately more powerful Playstation 1 with an Eyetoy in the box, the GameCube and XBox would've wiped the floor with Sony, because who the hell wants to pay another $200+ to play PS1-esque games with some watered down hook? 

If you are going to lower tech route, then your interface appeal has to be through the roof. That's Nintendo's own fault for putting themselves in that position, if you're not going to give people the rush of a large hardware upgrade, then you have to bring something else that's special to the table. It's Nintendo's job to IMPRESS the consumer, Nintendo fans sometimes make it sound like it should be the opposite, that the consumers need to work on understanding Nintendo, lol. 

That is not how home entertainment works, people have a lot of choices for their entertainment dollar today and have no time for a company that doesn't know what its doing.

I understand your point... basically that because Nintendo no longer participates in the tech-race with graphics that the only selling point their consoles have is through the interface.  I think that's mabye 30-40% true.  Not false, just not the whole truth.  You have to take into account that they have by far the largest number of recognizeable and popular franchises of any modern entertainment company.  In other words, the value of their brands is pretty much unequaled by anybody. 

Since the Wii/DS generation, they've also made enormous gains in spreading their brand awareness.  A lot more people from outside the realm of videogames are aware of what Nintendo is and what they do nowadays.  Thanks to the broad success of their previous two hardware systems, they have a much larger addressable market going into the Wii U/ 3DS generation than they had from the GCN/GBA era before the original Wii and DS.  It's not as if their addressable market has gone back down to what it was during the GameCube era.  Nintendo is by no means a niche company any longer.  Even though Wii U sales are slow, it is not because the Wii U as a device isn't appealing, it's because there's no reason to pick one up owing to the fact that Nintendo announced the delay of significant software releases in January.  Potential buyers are merely biding their time.

I hope you´re right about that, but I wouldn´t rule out that possibility just yet.It´s possible the Gamepad with its asymetric gameplay, the design philosophy behind the Wii U, won´t resonate with the market, but that´s something we´ll only be able to find out once the other problems are taken care of (price/marketing/games).

If, even after a price cut/better marketing/Mario Kart/WiiFit U/WiiSports U/games games and more games/...the system still appears to be heading for a Gamecube/N64 like performance, one could conclude the device itself isn´t appealing.



Screamapillar on 21 March 2013
JGarret said:
Screamapillar said:
Soundwave said:
Screamapillar said:
Soundwave said:
curl-6 said:
BatMaxExposedWorld said:

I understand your point... basically that because Nintendo no longer participates in the tech-race with graphics that the only selling point their consoles have is through the interface.  I think that's mabye 30-40% true.  Not false, just not the whole truth.  You have to take into account that they have by far the largest number of recognizeable and popular franchises of any modern entertainment company.  In other words, the value of their brands is pretty much unequaled by anybody. 

Since the Wii/DS generation, they've also made enormous gains in spreading their brand awareness.  A lot more people from outside the realm of videogames are aware of what Nintendo is and what they do nowadays.  Thanks to the broad success of their previous two hardware systems, they have a much larger addressable market going into the Wii U/ 3DS generation than they had from the GCN/GBA era before the original Wii and DS.  It's not as if their addressable market has gone back down to what it was during the GameCube era.  Nintendo is by no means a niche company any longer.  Even though Wii U sales are slow, it is not because the Wii U as a device isn't appealing, it's because there's no reason to pick one up owing to the fact that Nintendo announced the delay of significant software releases in January.  Potential buyers are merely biding their time.

I hope you´re right about that, but I wouldn´t rule out that possibility just yet.It´s possible the Gamepad with its asymetric gameplay, the design philosophy behind the Wii U, won´t resonate with the market, but that´s something we´ll only be able to find out once the other problems are taken care of (price/marketing/games).

If, even after a price cut/better marketing/Mario Kart/WiiFit U/WiiSports U/games games and more games/...the system still appears to be heading for a Gamecube/N64 like performance, one could conclude the device itself isn´t appealing.


GameCube-like performance = absolute market failure from a company that was able to release Wii/DS

N64-like performance = meh.  it could be worse. (see above)

An install base of more than 32 million would make Wii U the eighth-most successful home console ever.  But I think if Pachter's prediction of 40 million becomes true, then Wii U will be fine.  40 million isn't bad for a home console.  Only in the context of the explosive Wii/360/PS3 gen would 40 million be considered sub-par. 



The Screamapillar is easily identified by its constant screaming—it even screams in its sleep. The Screamapillar is the favorite food of everything, is sexually attracted to fire, and needs constant reassurance or it will die.

SecondWar on 21 March 2013

Don't all consoles have a slow start? There were similar threads about the 3DS until about mid-2012. The 360 saw sales growth for the first 4 or 5 years, partially due to a fairly sluggish start, and it took a major redesign before the PS3 really got going.



Soundwave on 21 March 2013

I would imagine the PS4/720 will sell more than 40 million a piece also.



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Soundwave on 21 March 2013
SecondWar said:
Don't all consoles have a slow start? There were similar threads about the 3DS until about mid-2012. The 360 saw sales growth for the first 4 or 5 years, partially due to a fairly sluggish start, and it took a major redesign before the PS3 really got going.


Yes and no. The PS2, N64, GameCube, XBox, and even Dreamcast all had considerably faster launches. The PSP and DS had reasonably solid launch periods too. The Wii obviously had an explosive launch too. 

The PS3 was $600 and the 360 was heavily supply restrained though so its harder to gauge those. What's worrisome about the Wii U though is its Jan/Feb post launch period is trending below the $600 PS3 and the supply restricted 360, and its not like those two consoles had a ton of new games their first few months after launch either. So me this indicates that once the Nintendo core faithful picked up their systems, there was a definite lack of interest from regular consumers. 

There's no rule that says consoles have to start slow. If the PS4/720 have some good games at launch, a reasonable ($399 or less) price, and reasonable supply, there's no reason to expect them to start slowly. 



curl-6 on 21 March 2013

One would hope Nintendo is doing something about this godawful mess, but they need to SHOW US that they're doing something about it.

Do a new Nintendo Direct, where they how us actual gameplay of Bayonetta 2 and Yoshi's Yarn, and give us actual release dates for Pikmin 3 and Wonderful 101. That'd be a good start.



Soundwave on 21 March 2013

It's about for a new Nintendo Direct. I don't think they want to show Bayonetta 2 until E3 if they can help it though.



Nirvana_Nut85 on 21 March 2013

It's way too early and there is by far too much speculation considering that it has not even been 6 months since the console has launch. While they clearly made the mistake of beefing up the later half of the year with releases and expecting demand to remain steady with no games in sight after launch, I do not beleive they are in as deep of water as most people are stating. As pointed out earlier in the thread, the PS3 is a shining example of this.



" Rebellion Against Tyrants Is Obedience To God"

noname2200 on 21 March 2013
Nirvana_Nut85 said:

Gamerace said:

 By 2010 the HD consoles had set the bar so high that Wii couldn't possibly compete at what was now considered an AAA level.    Except for 'kiddie' Marios and Zeldas.

 

Last time I checked , Mario and Zelda were not kiddie games.

I guess with the mentality your probably using, anything that does not have guns, blood and blowing up shit would be considered a kiddie game. Try giving your head a shake, it might do you some good. 

The phrase was in quotation marks for a reason.