35 replies to this topic

[routerbad]

I'm 28 but have been gaming since I was about 5.

 

Games aside, I just don't understand the Wii U in general. The selling point is a huge, bulky controller with a standard definition screen built in?

 

So I can check my inventory by looking down? Big deal. So I can play games by looking at a SD screen instead of a 50in HDTV? Why would I?

 

The other part I don't get is... what market is the Wii U trying to attract?

 

Obviously the original Wii was marketed to kids, fat people, and old ladys to get them off the couch and active. It was a great idea and it sold amazingly well.

 

The Wii U?

 

Well, first of all... 97% of the population still thinks the Wii U is an add-on to the Wii that's currently collecting dust in their living rooms. And since the Wii U's selling point is a tablet controller, it loses the "get up and move" appeal that the Wii had... so there goes that demographic.

 

Then there is the "hardcore" crowd that favors more 'FPS" and third party games. Well, do I really need to go into this point on how the Wii U has failed with that demographic so far?

 

So the Wii U has basically shunned both the casual and hardcore crowds. An amazing feat really when you think about it.

Man, wrong on all counts.

 

The Wii was marketed as the games console the every man could play.  It was intuitive, fun, and didn't require a huge time commitment to enjoy.  It was great for gatherings, for local multiplayer, but there were some excellent single player experiences on it as well.

 

The WiiU hasn't managed to "alienate" any group of gamers, the people who think that its still a peripheral aren't in the "core" demographic.  They released it with little advertising because they knew they would have a decent chuck of early adopters that advertising dollars would have been wasted on.  Not only that, but they have been to every trade show in the last year and have marketed the console and the exclusive content fairly well there.  The gamepad has a resolution of 854x480, fairly close to widescreen SD, but when you scale that resolution down to 6.2 inches, the image is still very crisp.  Higher resolution would have undoubtedly been better, but much more expensive to include and to replace, with very little visual impact and with a much higher power requirement.

 

The Wii U is still compatible with Wii Remotes, and most games offer them as a control option, so the "get up and move" is still there, for people who prefer to play that way (and there are a large number of those people playing BLOPS2)

 

You obviously don't own a WiiU so I have no idea why you waste your time on a forum dedicated to it.  having the inventory available at a quick glance can be useful, but not necessary.  Forcing a user to look away from the screen to check inventory can make certain genres, like survival horror, much more immersive and nerve wracking by not allowing you to pause the game to manage your inventory.  For games like LEGO City, and coming soon Deus Ex and Spliter Cell, the gamepad integrates nicely as an integral part of your toolchest for completing in game challenges.

 

I understand that some people have a hard time understanding what it could actually bring to gaming without having any experience with it first hand, but for many games it does integrate well, and when off screen play is available, the image is still very good and they've managed to make it translate well to the small screen, though I personally don't use it at all (my console is hooked up in my office, away from the living room TV)

 

As far as "97%" thinking its an addon, did you know that 92.7% of statistics are completely made up on the spot? I understand that there are those people that believe to this day that it is just an addon, but keep in mind Nintendo haven't done a whole lot of mainstream marketing yet, and whether that is intentional and poignant remains to be seen, though I think they were banking on a larger number of early adopters, that would have been there were there any bigger first party launch titles. 

 

So, bottom line, they haven't really shunned anyone, but they haven't done the mainstream marketing that needs to be done to attract them either.

As for me, I'm 28, and I have played the Wii U more than any other console, so far as consistency is concerned.  After 7 years I obviously put most of my time into my 360, considerably less in my PS3, but I use the Wii U more consistently than either.  Even if I'm taking a break from actually playing games, or watching Netflix or Amazon Video, Wii U is where I go for it, and I'm consistently just roaming around Miiverse to see some of the artwork and commenting to help people out or share my experiences.

[abluehaze]

I'm 28 but have been gaming since I was about 5.

 

Games aside, I just don't understand the Wii U in general. The selling point is a huge, bulky controller with a standard definition screen built in?

 

So I can check my inventory by looking down? Big deal. So I can play games by looking at a SD screen instead of a 50in HDTV? Why would I?

 

The other part I don't get is... what market is the Wii U trying to attract?

 

Obviously the original Wii was marketed to kids, fat people, and old ladys to get them off the couch and active. It was a great idea and it sold amazingly well.

 

The Wii U?

 

Well, first of all... 97% of the population still thinks the Wii U is an add-on to the Wii that's currently collecting dust in their living rooms. And since the Wii U's selling point is a tablet controller, it loses the "get up and move" appeal that the Wii had... so there goes that demographic.

 

Then there is the "hardcore" crowd that favors more 'FPS" and third party games. Well, do I really need to go into this point on how the Wii U has failed with that demographic so far?

 

So the Wii U has basically shunned both the casual and hardcore crowds. An amazing feat really when you think about it.

You echo a lot of my concerns with the console.  

 

In some regards I see the gamepad controller as just another gimmick.  Nintendo has made comments in the past that they see Apple as their biggest threat right now so I see the gamepad as just a desperate attempt at recreating the iPad experience for Nintendo.  In reality though the Wii U is just Nintendo bringing the DS effect to the living room.  

 

I agree that it's troubling that the gamepad has such a low resolution.  It bothers me that they're still not giving up on the whole Wiimote motion control crap.  Motion control was a fad that has passed.  Not even the geriatrics in old folks homes care about motion control anymore.  

 

There seem to be a lot of odd decisions and stupid mistakes Nintendo made with the Wii U just like the completely idiotic mistake of not including a second analog stick on the 3DS and then releasing one as an add on just a few months later.  

 

I would hate to see Nintendo fail and fade into obscurity in the same way that Sega has but if they keep making these dumb mistakes I fear that's what their future holds.  

While I resent being called an "older gamer" I've gotta chime in on how Nintendo won my personal console war. I had a Wii and nothing else and i was pretty happy. Them came an opportunity to get a 360 for free. I had a hankering to play the dead space games cause i really liked the Wii one. It was probably a year or two before i ever touched the Wii again. I was playing all the awesome bad a$$ games for 360.
But then Skyward Sword came out and i decided to dust off the old Wii before i played it, get used to the controller again.
That's when it hit me. I've been playing/buying all these high graphics intense games, pouring hours into them, and none of them were fun for me. Nintendo is still stuck in the 90s, back when people played video games for fun.
Some people may want to play super intense games where you're an awesome space dude who shoots everything that moves to progress to the next level, but I'd take Metroid's isolated environment and clever puzzles any day.
When Wii u came out i did away worth my 360 and I've never regretted it. there's nothing i find fun on the other consoles anyway. (with some small exceptions eg Portal, LBP, L4D)

I definitely agree with you in some regards when it comes to better graphics not equating to more fun.  I have a closet full of current gen games that I've only played for an hour or so before I became bored with them or disenchanted some way or another.  In many cases I feel like modern games are too complicated and require more thought than I really have the patience for at my age.  

 

Life is stressful enough, I've got enough to worry about with everyday life.  When I sit down with a game I want a simple objective like kill kill kill or progress from point A to B etc.  I don't really want to sit down with some huge open world game where I have to stress over every little decision and manage huge inventories and complex systems etc.  Sometimes games like that can be fun but out of all the games I've played in this current gen I enjoyed Mirrors Edge and the Uncharted games the most I'd say.  Both of those games were very old school in that they were primarily about progressing from point A to B.  There's enough complexity in life.  Games should be fun and entertaining and a break from the complexity of everyday life.  

Edited by abluehaze, 29 April 2013 - 03:34 PM.

[cannonshane]

I play PC 95% of the time I spend gaming. And 100% of that time is spent in front of a 50 inch LED TV. Big screen mode man, big screen mode. I still use a keyboard and mouse though, the only good gaming controller

Work in IT and the last thing you will want to touch when you get home is another keyboard and mouse.

[Cyanotic]

 

The Wii was marketed as the games console the every man could play.  It was intuitive, fun, and didn't require a huge time commitment to enjoy.  It was great for gatherings, for local multiplayer, but there were some excellent single player experiences on it as well.

 

 

Is that not exactly what I said originally? The Wii was marketed to the "every man"... young, old, fat, lonely, etc.

 

The WiiU hasn't managed to "alienate" any group of gamers, the people who think that its still a peripheral aren't in the "core" demographic.  They released it with little advertising because they knew they would have a decent chuck of early adopters that advertising dollars would have been wasted on.  Not only that, but they have been to every trade show in the last year and have marketed the console and the exclusive content fairly well there. 

 

The Wii U has most definitely alienated a huge portion of gamers, both casual and "core". As you have stated, the people who think that the Wii U is a peripheral are the exact demographic that Nintendo needed to market to and has failed miserably. They released it with little advertising because they are lazy and just assumed that if people saw the name "Wii" they would impulse buy it, which is why they named it the "Wii U". Well, they were very wrong and it has backfired in a spectacular fashion. Obviously there is a small core demographic that knew what the Wii U was and were early adopters, but Nintendo has never been a company that thrived on the core market. Nintendo has failed to achieve the mass appeal that the original Wii had and has lost their window of opportunity to do so. With the Xbox 720 and PS4 coming this holiday season, time is running out quick for Nintendo to make an impact.

 

 The gamepad has a resolution of 854x480, fairly close to widescreen SD, but when you scale that resolution down to 6.2 inches, the image is still very crisp.  Higher resolution would have undoubtedly been better, but much more expensive to include and to replace, with very little visual impact and with a much higher power requirement.

 

The fact that Nintendo is so far behind technologically is still baffling to me. Nintendo has finally caught up with the rest of world with a high definition console (only about 8 years late) but still uses SD in their world changing, system selling controller? There is no excuse to release a SD screen no matter how small it is when your main focus is gaming. And by the way, only 4 hour playtime with a SD screen? Are you kidding me? And like usual, Nintendo will be light years behind again when the new consoles are released and 4k support will be the new technology everyone is raving about. "4k resolution? Bah... Check out my 6 inch SD screen" Doesn't sound very next gen to me.

 

I understand that some people have a hard time understanding what it could actually bring to gaming without having any experience with it first hand, but for many games it does integrate well, and when off screen play is available, the image is still very good and they've managed to make it translate well to the small screen, though I personally don't use it at all (my console is hooked up in my office, away from the living room TV)

 

 

You are right to assume I do not own a Wii U. I base my information and opinions on playing it first hand with people who do own it and in my opinion it is not a enjoyable experience. You hold a controller the size of a book and have to be tethered to an outlet because of the ridiculously short battery life. The console itself has seriously outdated hardware and is a bit more powerful that an 8 year old Xbox 360. I get it that you want to justify your 350 dollar purchase, but as a relatively intelligent individual, you must admit the shortcomings of this console and understand why Nintendo has turned off a massive amount of gamers, both core and casual.

Edited by Cyanotic, 30 April 2013 - 06:51 AM.

[Blade of Dyna]

Is that not exactly what I said originally? The Wii was marketed to the "every man"... young, old, fat, lonely, etc.
 
 
The Wii U has most definitely alienated a huge portion of gamers, both casual and "core". As you have stated, the people who think that the Wii U is a peripheral are the exact demographic that Nintendo needed to market to and has failed miserably. They released it with little advertising because they are lazy and just assumed that if people saw the name "Wii" they would impulse buy it, which is why they named it the "Wii U". Well, they were very wrong and it has backfired in a spectacular fashion. Obviously there is a small core demographic that knew what the Wii U was and were early adopters, but Nintendo has never been a company that thrived on the core market. Nintendo has failed to achieve the mass appeal that the original Wii had and has lost their window of opportunity to do so. With the Xbox 720 and PS4 coming this holiday season, time is running out quick for Nintendo to make an impact.
 
 
The fact that Nintendo is so far behind technologically is still baffling to me. Nintendo has finally caught up with the rest of world with a high definition console (only about 8 years late) but still uses SD in their world changing, system selling controller? There is no excuse to release a SD screen no matter how small it is when your main focus is gaming. And by the way, only 4 hour playtime with a SD screen? Are you kidding me? And like usual, Nintendo will be light years behind again when the new consoles are released and 4k support will be the new technology everyone is raving about. "4k resolution? Bah... Check out my 6 inch SD screen" Doesn't sound very next gen to me.
 
 
You are right to assume I do not own a Wii U. I base my information and opinions on playing it first hand with people who do own it and in my opinion it is not a enjoyable experience. You hold a controller the size of a book and have to be tethered to an outlet because of the ridiculously short battery life. The console itself has seriously outdated hardware and is a bit more powerful that an 8 year old Xbox 360. I get it that you want to justify your 350 dollar purchase, but as a relatively intelligent individual, you must admit the shortcomings of this console and understand why Nintendo has turned off a massive amount of gamers, both core and casual.

routerbad is about to school you

[routerbad]

Is that not exactly what I said originally? The Wii was marketed to the "every man"... young, old, fat, lonely, etc.

 

 

The Wii U has most definitely alienated a huge portion of gamers, both casual and "core". As you have stated, the people who think that the Wii U is a peripheral are the exact demographic that Nintendo needed to market to and has failed miserably. They released it with little advertising because they are lazy and just assumed that if people saw the name "Wii" they would impulse buy it, which is why they named it the "Wii U". Well, they were very wrong and it has backfired in a spectacular fashion. Obviously there is a small core demographic that knew what the Wii U was and were early adopters, but Nintendo has never been a company that thrived on the core market. Nintendo has failed to achieve the mass appeal that the original Wii had and has lost their window of opportunity to do so. With the Xbox 720 and PS4 coming this holiday season, time is running out quick for Nintendo to make an impact.

 

 

The fact that Nintendo is so far behind technologically is still baffling to me. Nintendo has finally caught up with the rest of world with a high definition console (only about 8 years late) but still uses SD in their world changing, system selling controller? There is no excuse to release a SD screen no matter how small it is when your main focus is gaming. And by the way, only 4 hour playtime with a SD screen? Are you kidding me? And like usual, Nintendo will be light years behind again when the new consoles are released and 4k support will be the new technology everyone is raving about. "4k resolution? Bah... Check out my 6 inch SD screen" Doesn't sound very next gen to me.

 

 

You are right to assume I do not own a Wii U. I base my information and opinions on playing it first hand with people who do own it and in my opinion it is not a enjoyable experience. You hold a controller the size of a book and have to be tethered to an outlet because of the ridiculously short battery life. The console itself has seriously outdated hardware and is a bit more powerful that an 8 year old Xbox 360. I get it that you want to justify your 350 dollar purchase, but as a relatively intelligent individual, you must admit the shortcomings of this console and understand why Nintendo has turned off a massive amount of gamers, both core and casual.

"fat, old, lonely" isn't exactly the most apt description of the "everyman" though if thats what you were referring to I agree there.

 

They released it with little advertising not because they were lazy, but they knew there would be a large number of early adopters and everyone else would only be convinced with solid software.  They didn't have a whole lot of solid software at launch, they didn't even have final devkits for their own internal developers until a few months before launch.  They knew that it would be harder to translate the concept of the gamepad than the wiimote.  

 

They did market the console at trade shows, with huge booths covering the games and experiences available on the console, especially ZombiU.  I had a discussion with someone on Twitter who makes it to many of them (journalist) and he said the marketing at the shows was fantastic, but people were still a little confused, even the press.  Nintendo didn't use mainstream advertising, which I personally think was bad judgement and a mistake on their part, but now that the early adopters are out of the way, its coming close to time for them to start generating headlines with software announcements and advertisements. I don't agree with their marketing strategy, but it has worked for them before.  

 

I don't agree that "time is running out" to make an impact, gaming generations last a long time, and PS3 was very weak even two years into the last generation, most people who bought the system didn't even buy games for it, they had a terrible attach rate.  Nintendo has a very strong attach rate with the Wii U, and digital sales (not reported by NPD) have been taking off quite well for them, despite the lack of included storage.

 

None of the new consoles will support 4k this gen, and probably not next gen either, unless the uptake starts skyrocketing.  Nintendo's system is actually not "behind technologically", the gamepad was costly to produce and perfect, and adding a screen with a higher resolution would have only added to the complexity, and the wireless video standard they developed may not have worked well with a much higher resolution, we'll never really know I guess.

 

I will say that looking at the resolution can leave someone a little befuddled, but looking at BLOPS2, or any of the other games that support off screen play clears up the confusion.  Despite the lowered resolution, it still comes across as impressively clear, crisp, and smooth.  You can't really tell that its only an SD screen when you are actually watching it do its thing.  For that reason I think that Wii U is something that needs to be experienced before you form an opinion, though you are certainly welcome to yours despite experience.

 

As far as the console hardware, its all new.  The CPU is a custom amalgamation of Power7 and PPC750 design, the fact that they used design cues from PPC750 at first sounds like a bad thing, but the ideas behind what made that processor great are continually used today in the iCore series of CPU's.  The GPU is a custom amalgamation of Radeon HD6XXX fully programmable shaders, along with a lot of custom logic designed to pull effects and functions off the SIMD shaders for commonly used or power hungry effects.  The memory architecture is sound, and 2GB is plenty for any game today, though more is better, it doesn't always go to better use, and doesn't really change what the system can do.  

 

I appreciate your response immensely, and I can definitely admit shortcomings when they become clear.  The problem is that the system is a fairly decent performer and pretty much what most people would expect from a next generation system, but there aren't any games available yet that make that perfectly clear, I expect that to be remedied hastily.  Their marketing strategy managed to get a healthy number of early adopters, though clearly not as many as they were expecting.  I don't need to justify my $350 purchase, I choose to because I enjoy the platform and believe it is being unduly trudged through the mud by videogame media and people that get excited about big numbers that don't amount to much of a difference.

 

My experience, and even my wife's experience so far with the console has been extremely good (and she absolutely abhors videogames, though she indulges my hobby) and I have very clear doubts that Sony or Microsoft could exceed the level of enjoyment I'm already getting from it.  They may match it, but despite slightly more powerful hardware, they will not exceed it.  Diminishing returns has caught up to Sony this gen, and despite being much more powerful than both the XBOX720 and the WiiU, the difference will not be experienced through their software offerings.

 

For the record, what I believe to be shortcomings in the Wii U are:

limited internal storage

resistive touch screen

lack of compatibility with unpowered USB devices

lack of analogue triggers (not extremely important, but a confusing decision nonetheless)

small internal battery in the gamepad (I have a nyko that was $15 and extends the life to ~8 hours, and I place it on the dock during intermissions and loads)

The existence of the basic set (there should only be one SKU, the deluxe, and it should be available in white or black, not including bundle SKU's)

Lack of account based software licensing (they are working on this)

overuse of RAM for system use (should be ~500MB for system, 1.5GB for games, I expect this to be the case at some point)

lack of LAN video streaming capability (vidiiu helps, though)

lack of social media integration with Miiverse (not much of a problem now that Miiverse is a webpage, but would still be nice and would give Ninty some free twitter and facebook advertising with drawings being posted)

lack of blu-ray playback (its a bluray drive, it should play blu ray movies, extra set top boxes suck)

 

Most of this can be fixed through software updates, and they will be releasing an extended battery, though it should come standard in later models I would hope.

 

The hardware itself, I'm satisfied with.  We can always want more, but as long as Nintendo bring convincing software the hardware will matter very little, and when it becomes obvious that the more powerful hardware in other systems doesn't make a big difference visually, it will matter even less.  They had to weigh many factors when designing the system, its easy for us to nitpick after the fact.

[SoldMyWiiUAndLeftTheForums]

Simple answer: YES I LOVE MY WII U

[Smertrius]

im 30+ getting close to my fortys and i still love games like nintendo games like mario, zelda, metroid, super smash bros, and i cant wait for wind waker and super smash bros 4

[caryrae73]

I will be 40 next month and have been enjoying the Wii U. Right now Lego City has been my favorite (almost finished at like 97% complete) but also play Super Mario, COD, and Sonic Racing. I love the Zelda games and can't wait for one for the Wii U. I also like to play the Tiger Woods golf games and think if they make one it could make good use of the Gamepad. I really like the Gamepad and have played games on it when my wife is watching one of her shows. Now if the Wii U would have been able to play Blu-Ray movies my PS3 would not be used. I had the Wii which I sold to help pay for part of the Wii U and it was nice I could still use the Wii-motes and didn't have to buy new controllers.

[abluehaze]

im 30+ getting close to my fortys and i still love games like nintendo games like mario, zelda, metroid, super smash bros, and i cant wait for wind waker and super smash bros 4

 

 

I will be 40 next month and have been enjoying the Wii U. Right now Lego City has been my favorite (almost finished at like 97% complete) but also play Super Mario, COD, and Sonic Racing. I love the Zelda games and can't wait for one for the Wii U. I also like to play the Tiger Woods golf games and think if they make one it could make good use of the Gamepad. I really like the Gamepad and have played games on it when my wife is watching one of her shows. Now if the Wii U would have been able to play Blu-Ray movies my PS3 would not be used. I had the Wii which I sold to help pay for part of the Wii U and it was nice I could still use the Wii-motes and didn't have to buy new controllers.

Sounds like we're all very close in age.  I loved the NES era and love the Metroid series and used to love the Zelda games but I was really let down by both TP and SS.  The last Zelda game I really enjoyed was Wind Waker.  I'd love to see a Zelda game come out that I can actually get into but I'm not holding my breath.  

 

I will probably just bite the bullet and end up buying a Wii U I just have a feeling it will end up like my Wii after the newness wears off (a shelf for dust).  

Edited by abluehaze, 04 May 2013 - 08:46 AM.

[XxNightfallxX]

I turned 26 like 2 days ago and I can safely say I have little to no complaints about the Wii U.  Pretty much enjoying it ever since I got it.  I still think the touchpad is heavier than the actual console though.

[boogiedjsmertrius]

im 30+ getting close to my fortys and i still love games like nintendo games like mario, zelda, metroid, super smash bros, and i cant wait for wind waker and super smash bros 4

Edited by boogiedjsmertrius, 05 May 2013 - 10:16 AM.

[BrosBeforeGardenTools]

I'm 24 and will probably never grow out of Nintendo.

[djlewe78]

Im 34 and ive posted topics similar to this.
Ive always been nintendo and always will. I do however enjoy playing PS3 and XBOX with my friends, and last year i was considering buying a PS3 as the wii just didnt have enough games and big titles for it, i loved it but other than a few amazing games it just became a bit of a joke unfortunatly, i bought wiiu on day one after seeing the E3 presentation as it looked like nintendo had realised it had to step up and PROMISED to compete to win back core gamers for the next generation, but i cant help feeling they havent done that yet, and the news from certain devs about the hardware etc etc is enough to scare off potential new gamers, theres no gta, no borderlands, no battlefield, and now NO FIFA 14 so winning back the masses is not gonna happen. Its a shame Nintendo didnt give us a power house these devs need to make amazing games. Imagine top aaa titles and nintendo classics on a beast of a console? Why nintendo, why didnt you listen. I paid £350 which is a lot, im intersted to see how much PS4 will be cos looking at the tech that has it should be £600! If nintendos pricing was right that is?

[Rockodoodle]

That's how I feel- I don't care about the so-called shortcomings.  It's not perfect but I've thoroughly enjoyed mine.  I only have Nintendoland and Mario brothers- these two games have kept me pretty occupied. 

 

I will say this tho- I agree a little with the notion that they might have lost their target market.  They need to come out with more games that are easy to play for the masses.

 

Simple answer: YES I LOVE MY WII U

 

[thechamp80]

Kinda harsh but hilarious