Nintendo Wii U

[Jumpman]

I agree that the Wii Mini may outsell Wii U this holiday season. But that alone doesn't mean that the Mini will be cannibalizing Wii U's sales to any real degree.. If people still don't understand the difference between Wii and Wii U then they were probably never going to buy a Wii U to begin with.

I agree 100% on that^

They should be working on making that distinction, as the overall market still has the perception that the WiiU is just another form of the Wii. I understand releasing a barebones system like the Wii Mini, as it's a good way to capture the bargain bin market, but the Mini is just bad overall(a really gimped machine).

What would have been a better choice, was releasing a WiiU sans the tablet controller for $99-150. That would be a killer deal, as the WiiU has all the bells and whistles and is backwards compatible. I still think they will go that route next, if the WiiU doesn't start to sell better over the next 6 months. The tablet is their main roadblock at this point, and why the hardware is so costly. No one, including "N" has really used it for anything worthwhile, so excluding it from the overall package seems like a smart move. Especially considering most consumers don't know what it is, or what it does.

Chris

 

[DaMummy]

The one thing most of those system had going for them, was a successful follow up system, or a very distinctive name difference and no confusion at retail. If the WiiU was selling great, like the SNES and PS2 did, no problem.

 like the game boy and game boy advance you mean? or maybe the ds and ds lite or dsi? or maybe even the PS1 PS2 PS3 PS4?

 

[DaMummy]

Happy Birthday Shigeru Miyamoto

 

[Jumpman]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=753029

Well, it looks like the WiiU boat is beyond repair. I can't say I'm sorry to see "N" current problems, as they have brought them on of their own devices. Sadly, It looks like Iwata is destined to go down in flames, and take Nintendo along with him, as he is refusing to resign. 

Chris

 

[Klumpen]

Like I said, Nintendo will be reduced to a game publisher for their competitiors, just like Sega back then, although Sega ironically went down with its greatest console.

 

[Null]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=753029

Not any more by the looks of things.

 

[Jumpman]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=753197

Now he's saying they need a new business structure. WOW, you think? You needed that about 5 years ago when the Wii bubble burst. This guy is a complete tool, who is going to go down in history as the key person to completely ruin Nintendo. Making Mario games for smartphones is great, but not the complete answer. Having a console with a proper account system, region free games, proper online are all basic industry standards, and they have no clue how are why consumers want such services or how to deliver them. So sad to see such a great company go down due to one mans EGO.

Chris

 

[WizardStan]

Keep in mind that they are sitting on huge stacks of cash. A few billion yen (240 million USD) loss one year is a huge setback but hardly a sunk ship. Microsoft and Sony were both negative for quite a few years. Nintendo has time to turn it around, let's see if they can: declaring them dead too early will only ensure that they have no chance of recovery.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

They need to make Dreamcast 2 - Nintendo Dreamcast 2

 

[iprice]

The failure of WiiU will not sink the company. I can see it re-evaluating the worth of home consoles though and perhaps eventually going handheld/mobile only.

It's bad news, but Nintendo have still yet to release 4 traditional BIG hitters on the WiiU (that we know of) - Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze, Zelda WiiU, Mario Kart 8, and Smash Bros. There's also Yoshi's Yarn (or whatever it'll be called). I doubt it'll turn their fortunes around, but each of those games will bring a large number of new users to WiiU.

They've got loads of franchises to fall back on, including the massive selling Pokemon games, Metroid and Animal Crossing - don't tell me that none of those are being worked on right now. This is excluding merch and Near Field type games.

3DS still has strong support from third parties - unlike WiiU and is doing pretty well in a market dominated by mobile games. Last year saw some real 3DS love from Nintendo and others with a wealth of cracking games - I'm still playing Animal Crossing every single day since it came out.

WiiU is going to become a first party only machine by the look of things.

Nintendo also need to sort their eStore out and start selling old games at realistic prices; it beggars belief that they charge £5+ for an old SNES game and that their new titles are more expensive to buy online than a full retail package.

 

[Klumpen]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=753197

Nintendo creates software for Sony's console.

Sony creates software for Nintendo's handheld.

One and done.

 And watch in amazement as Nintendo's console development and Sony's handheld development ceases to exist!

 

[Null]

Nintendo also need to sort their eStore out and start selling old games at realistic prices; it beggars belief that they charge £5+ for an old SNES game and that their new titles are more expensive to buy online than a full retail package.

Agree, this is why I don't bother with the eStore.

 

[iprice]

Agree, this is why I don't bother with the eStore.

That's a shame as there are some really great games on the eStore that aren't available elsewhere. Unfortunately they aren't universal either - there are some games available in the US/Japan that are not available to us Europeans or Aussies etc.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Screw eStore, I want real catridge

 

[WizardStan]

And if they could link games to your account instead of the console so that I could get a new 3DS and get the games that I did buy back from when my 3DS was stolen, I would be SOOO happy.

 

[iprice]

And if they could link games to your account instead of the console so that I could get a new 3DS and get the games that I did buy back from when my 3DS was stolen, I would be SOOO happy.

Yeah, and that.

They've just started linking 3DS and WiiU, so maybe that's coming down the line. It's scandalous that it's taken them so long to do anything about that.

 

[Null]

That's a shame as there are some really great games on the eStore that aren't available elsewhere.

I dare say i'll give it another try someday, like when there's a sale on.

 

[iprice]

There's always a sale on. unfortunately most of the sale stuff is tat and the discounts aren't good enough. There is an occasional bargain though. So definitely worth having a look.from time to time. I used to visit it every week, but now it goes for weeks without me viewing, even for demos.

 

[Null]

So definitely worth having a look.from time to time.

B) will do.

 

[thatgui]

WiiU is going to become a first party only machine by the look of things.

While I know, that this can't be good - the idea is kind of appealing. But thats probably the biased view of a person that sank a lot of his pocket money as a kid/teen in bad/mediocre games for the NES/SNES from third parties.

Nintendo also need to sort their eStore out and start selling old games at realistic prices; it beggars belief that they charge £5+ for an old SNES game and that their new titles are more expensive to buy online than a full retail package.

I only have some virtual console titles as I got a 25€ ehsop card as a birthday present, otherwise I would not spend a single dime in the eshop - totally over priced. It may be a regional thing, but in my opinion the sales on the eshop are not noteworthy as the discounts are minimal.
Otherwise I'm happy with my investment. I played some good to very good titles on my WiiU this year (Lego City Undercover, Pikmin 3, Rayman Legends, Zelda The Wind Waker and Super Mario 3D World) and even grew fond of the "play on the pad only" feature, which I deemed useless but proved to be quite handy on several occasions already.