30 replies to this topic

[Wolfy]

It's not the 3rd party developers fault that the Wii U is underpowered compared to the other consoles and that no one is buying it. 

 

[IvyT]

It's not the 3rd party developers fault that the Wii U is underpowered compared to the other consoles and that no one is buying it. 

 

Underpowered doesn't mean not capable. Say, the 3DS is technically underpowered compared to the Vita and we all know who's the clear winner there. The Wii U's only weakness at this point is Nintendo's lack of a good marketing strategy for it.

[Desert Punk]

I think Nintendo themselves sabotaged the wii u. They got complacent from the success of the wii. Ubisoft have been brilliant but EA made little effort with the launch games. It's almost like Nintendo and EA had an agreement that EA would support the wii u and maybe Nintendo paid financially for that but EA screwed them over with the wrong games.

 

Most of what has happened since is just companies seeing that the wii u isn't selling and therefore they are either reducing or cancelling support for the wii u.

 

Nintendo have made some terrible decisions with regard the specification of the wii u and the oversized gamepad. The launch pricing was wrong. In some ways its a confusing product. I'm near certain a wii u will arrive with a smaller gamepad at some point.

 

Whatever your viewpoint on what the wii u hardware is ultimately capable of, most of the existing wii u software is fully achievable on current gen platforms. In fact if you were to show off the most technically impressive games on the 3 platforms the wii u would currently be the weakest of the three. Yes part of that is because of their maturity and the fact the best developers in the world have programmed for those consoles but how do you sell a console that is delivering less than current gen but at a higher price. It is a difficult sale. Nintendo could easily have made a low cost console that performed above current gen consoles in everyway to make porting games to it cheap, fast and they would show enhancement over the current gen versions in frame rates and updated graphic detail. I think many people would have bought into wii u on that basis but a console that is struggling to match current gen but is close to next gen console pricing, in fact even more expensive than ps4 when you factor in no hard drive. I personally think most of the blame game should be directed at Nintendo themselves. I don't like EA but they are not the main reason for low sales of wii u consoles.

 

In the UK Asda have been clearing out wii u stock of games cheap which they don't plan to restock currently. I believe Foxconn have stopped production of the wii u basic model and switched to producing the wii u 32GB only. By all accounts if sales don't pick up soon I guess Nintendo will be manufacturing the wii u at the lowest production rate possible, perhaps even halting production temporarily. The wii mini has been an absolute disaster too and production of that has likely completely stopped already never to be restarted. I guess Nintendo were hoping the wii mini would be a surprise hit but again the specification had been massively damaged by cost cutting the design leaving no reasons for people to buy one.

 

Despite my love of Nintendo games and being a wii u owner myself I can't honestly blame consumers for not buying into the wii u. Unless you really love Nintendo games it is a really difficult sell.

 

I just hope Nintendo has some great ideas, bundling and pricing for this christmas. If they fail to turn it around this christmas I think the console is pretty much doomed to be a niche product that Nintendo will probably abandon in 2014 like Sega did with the Dreamcast.  Worldwide the wii u is selling at frightening low figures. The wii continues to beat it in sales despite the world wide market being saturated with wii's and there being a huge s/hand market in wii's at very low prices. The PSP is still selling well over double what the wii u is selling. Even the Dreamcast's 10 million total console sales over 2 years approx seems difficult to achieve unless Nintendo make the wii u the console to buy for Christmas 2013 but PS4 and Xbox one are launching in the same period which will make it exceptionally difficult for Nintendo. Also annoying that Mariokart isn't going to be released until 2014. Nintendo really needed this game for christmas, ideally in a bundle. I'd like to think Nintendo software will save them but the Sega Dreamcast had absolutely amazing software and still people waited to buy a PS2.

Edited by Desert Punk, 07 July 2013 - 03:22 AM.

[grahamf]

>calling Ubisoft and Square Enix selfish for not putting their games on a low selling console

It's in more homes than the One or PS4 though...

[Cloud Windfoot Omega]

Obviously there will always be deals and other stuff going on in the background that we will never know. Everyone's in the business to win, to get more money and that means that they have to weaken the competition. Now, can others be fully faulted by some of Nintendo's mistakes, mistakes that have even been admitted themselves they made them?

Nintendo would amit to  lots of things they themselves did not do wrong. Because unlike other  companies does not like to play the blame game.

[Byakuya Togami]

It's in more homes than the One or PS4 though...

 

Maybe because the One and PS4 aren't out yet, silly. 3rd parties supported the Wii U at the start and no one BOUGHT 3rd party games, besides maybe ZombiU. Because Nintendo fans only want Nintendo games.

[GAMER1984]

There are strange things going on at Nintendo I'm convienced won't change until Iwata and Miyamoto are gone. They are too set in their ways to change. Come on how many Nintendo games released for Wii U thus far have online multiplayer. It doesn't exist. You can't expect third parties to release their games with online multiplayer and DLC when they know nintendo themselves aren't promoting. That type of gaming experience. I'm not a fan of online muktiplayer but I'm not foolish I know its the most popular thing in gaming right now. Seriously I love my Wii U and whatever games it gets I will choose and pick and enjoy those games just like with me being Wii only gamer last gen. But if you are buying a Wii U for 3rd party you are setting yourself up for failure.

Edited by GAMER1984, 08 July 2013 - 06:23 AM.

[Rockodoodle]

Pretty much how I feel.  I'm a bit disappointed that EA isn't supporting Wii U- some of this could indeed be that the system is a bit underpowered.  BUT, I didn't buy a Wii U for EA or any other third party.  I've always liked Nintendo and this will be my system. Can't imagine not being able to play MarioKart, Donkey Kong or Mario Bros.  

 

With that said, I am already pretty busy with the games that I have (Madden, SNMB, Nintendoland, Monster Hunter, Injustice, Sonic & All Stars Tranformed, Trine, Nano Assualt), and there's at least a dozen more that I will get in the next year.  Hopefully Wii U has a good Christmas and we at least see Madden back on Wii U for 2015.

 

 

There are strange things going on at Nintendo I'm convienced won't change until Iwata and Miyamoto are gone. They are too set in their ways to change. Come on how many Nintendo games released for Wii U thus far have online multiplayer. It doesn't exist. You can't expect third parties to release their games with online multiplayer and DLC when they know nintendo themselves aren't promoting. That type of gaming experience. I'm not a fan of online muktiplayer but I'm not foolish I know its the most popular thing in gaming right now. Seriously I love my Wii U and whatever games it gets I will choose and pick and enjoy those games just like with me being Wii only gamer last gen. But if you are buying a Wii U for 3rd party you are setting yourself up for failure.

[Cloud Windfoot Omega]

There are strange things going on at Nintendo I'm convienced won't change until Iwata and Miyamoto are gone. They are too set in their ways to change. Come on how many Nintendo games released for Wii U thus far have online multiplayer. It doesn't exist. You can't expect third parties to release their games with online multiplayer and DLC when they know nintendo themselves aren't promoting. That type of gaming experience. I'm not a fan of online muktiplayer but I'm not foolish I know its the most popular thing in gaming right now. Seriously I love my Wii U and whatever games it gets I will choose and pick and enjoy those games just like with me being Wii only gamer last gen. But if you are buying a Wii U for 3rd party you are setting yourself up for failure.

Most the games you are talking about would not really suit online play. Mario 3d World for one, i know would just become a bubble fest with everyone trying to do their own thing. Or having people run ahead. And it has multiple stars per level. You are just asking for trouble with it that way.

[ganados0]

I am starting to think it is a stopgap system or Nintendo relaxed their marketing to see what PS4 and Xbox One would be doing and have done themselves no favors.

[Rockodoodle]

To an extent, I agree.....  Tho I think the system still has four years left in it easily.  The Wii went from 2007-2012.....Would guess that Wii U would go from 2012-2017.....

 

At that point, they will probably release something 2x as powerful as the PS4, Xbone.....  16 gigs, connectivity with multiple gamepads......

 

 

 

I am starting to think it is a stopgap system or Nintendo relaxed their marketing to see what PS4 and Xbox One would be doing and have done themselves no favors.