Hynad said:
mjo011 said:
I really hope it will end up selling better than the GameCube when it's all said and done, but right now it doesn't look like it will. So what if the 3DS started selling really well after it had a pricecut and started getting great software. It doesn't mean that the same will happen to the Wii U. The N64 struggled while the GameBoy thrived. The GameCube struggled while the GBA thrived.
Things can obviously change.
Nintendo needs to advertise it a lot more aggressively, and they need to get long-time Nintendo fans back with IPs that appeal to them: Star Fox, F-Zero, Wave Race, Paper Mario, Metroid, Earthbound and some new, impressive ones too. |
They need a couple titles that clearly differentiates the Wii U from anything else. But those also need to have a clear visual appeal. Visuals sell. That's lame, I know. But it's the same for everything in the medias.
The next Zelda needs to be a stunner. People have to go WOW when they see it for the first time. Not "WTF is that art style!"
It has to have an incredible atmosphere, a unique take on the franchise... They can't mess this one up. People are looking from not that far a distance the first time a proper Zelda will be in HD (Yeah, there's Wind Waker, but that one wasn't made to take advantage of the Wii U's hardware).
People bought a Wii for Wii Sports, Mario Kart, Super Mario and fitness and dance games... The Wii U has nothing comparable to that so far. Yes, there will be games from those franchises on the Wii U, but the Wii had the first Wii Sports, the first good fitness titles... The Wii U will look like more of the same to all those millions of casual gamers who got the Wii because it was a hot and unique item back then. Not so with the Wii U. Nintendo needs a new differentiator of that caliber that takes advantage of all the Wii U's feature set, if they want to get a fraction of those who got into the Wii's disruptive approach.
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Agreed on these points. Wii U has brought no big, bold new ideas as disruptive as Wii did, and Wii U has also entered a far more unstable market than Wii did, making it harder for Nintendo to be the disruptive force. The marketing has been poor, most of the games of niche appeal, the branding confused, and the thinking behind the system confused. Nintendo have attempted to please everyone--the wider audience, the dedicated audience, third parties, their own internal teams--and ended up pleasing almost no-one. They designed a system that could be an alternative console, but then pitched it as a direct counterpart to 360 and PS3, and attempted to attract the third party brands so successful on those systems, when Nintendo should have primarily focused on getting out an affordable box that plays plenty of Nintendo games.
On the Zelda front, I think Nintendo need to be fairly conservative with the visual style and theme of the game. They need to go along with the adult Link on horseback Ocarina/Twilight Princess approach in order to maximise commercial gain. If they don't have Zelda at the end of next year though, which I highly doubt they can manage, then I don't see them matching GameCube's sales. They need to cut the price, improve their digital service, properly unify their accounts, ramp up Virtual Console support, and focus on getting games out on a consistent basis--buy support if need be. In the long-term, they need to re-evaluate what they want to do with their hardware business. They failed to capitalise on what Wii and DS did, so a rethink is necessary.
You aren't a hater if at this point you don't blindly believe Nintendo can somehow pull this out of the fire. I'm a Wii U owner, and I see Nintendo struggling to beat GameCube's lifetime sales. That doesn't make me a hater. Right now, it makes me a realist.
