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Can the Wii U Survive Against the PS4 and Xbox One?
An anonymous reader writes "Now that both Sony and Microsoft have announced their next-gen consoles, and we've gotten solid information about their hardware, technology, and features, Eurogamer asks whether Nintendo's struggling Wii U will be able to hold its own once the new competition arrives. 'Wii U has tanked — there's no other way to put it — with even the release of traditional big-hitters like Dragon Quest 10 failing to make a dent in the Japanese market. If you believe certain analysts, April saw things getting even worse in the U.S. with the Wii U shifting under 40,000 units, easily outsold by the 360 and PS3 — and, even more embarrassingly, the Wii.' If the Wii U doesn't see a miraculous turnaround, Nintendo may be left with the difficult choice of whether to port its software to competing consoles. It'll also serve as a bellwether to see if the big gamer complaint about the new Sony and Microsoft consoles — that they're only partly about games — is honest. 'At a time when the goal of its competitors is to own the living room, the extent of Nintendo's ambition is simply to be in it — a dedicated games console, and no more.'"
Spoiler alert: no.
... can the game industry survive expensive AAA games?
THQ recently went bankrupt, EA's stock has taken a huge dump from past highs and activision survives mainly by WoW and Call of duty. At this point the next console generation is the least interesting console generation in a long while. Since games have become some multi-headed hydra of trying to be a jack of all trades, master of none in order to sell games to the lowest common denominator. Most modern games are little more then movies /w over simplified gameplay at this point.
A revolution in tools is needed to scale back team sizes and game development costs and that's decades away. If anything the game industry is probably the most out of touch industry looking for fast $ by releasing games too early with little to no changes.
The best outcome Nintendo can hope for is that the Sony and Microsoft consoles tank too.
All those "classic" 8-bit games -- Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Archon -- became classics not because of the awesome graphics they packed into a ROM space too small for a fucking To Do list for your mother these days but because of the gameplay. Compare and contrast with Clickfest Diablo 3.
Tanking? Nintendo are out there not resting on their laurels and working on the one thing that leads to long-term success. Or do you play Minecraft for the incredible graphics experience only achievable with a €3,000 rack of graphics cards?
Can't think of what to write without going insane with all the restrictions on the xbox one, so I'm just going to say that it's a bad decision. I won't even comment on the Wii considering it's useless. The ps4, hey I all ready have my bluray player in my PS3. The halo series has been going downhill, I couldn't even muster getting myself through all of the last halo game and the 13th release or whichever one we're on with call of duty, not worth it for that arcade game to invest in a new $500 console.
I will buy into the platform that lets me buy and sell used games openly, without paying a tax to the mothership.
I buy maybe 1 or 2 games a year for my xbox 360 and I buy them all used because I play to relax and to me Halo 3, 4, 5, 6 whatever all look pretty much the same, I run, I shoot I am happy. That said, I will ony buy a next gen console that allows me the freedom to do two key things:
1: Loan games to friends, and play games that I am loaned
2: Buy and Sell used games freely without paying a pimp fee to MS/Sony/Nintendo/Activision/EA/whoever
Simple as this: if I cant walk into game stop 30-45 days after a title is released and buy it for ~1/2 new price, and sell my 2-3 year old game back for like $5 to lower that cost a bit more, then I just wont game at all because its too expencive for what it is. Again, I have plenty of disposable income, so it isn't an affordability thing, its a value issue.
Yes. Yes it will.
Consoles in general are going the way of the dodo. This all-in-one media center thing is pretty stupid, you can get a nettop/boxee/android based player for 50-100 bucks that can do all the advanced interactive media features Microsoft and Sony are so excited about (play netflix and youtube).
I don't know if people are stupid enough to pay 5-6 hundred to Microsoft or Sony for the same functionality.
I don't expect to see record breaking sales from any of the big three consoles. But Nintendo is smart to keep the cost down (oh noes hardcore gamerz, it doesnt have 32 core mega gigablips), and trade off their in house titles.
Nintendo consoles end up in kids bedrooms, not living rooms. Things will pick up for them after a price drop. Nintendo doesn't need to outsell Sony or MS, they play their own game. They just need to sell enough to keep pushing out the Mario and Zelda titles.
in about 2-4 years the next console will hit the market, and all the fanboys will be over the new thing once again.
consume, dont think.
Considering that sales of the Wii U have *spiked* since the Xbox One announcement, I think it's pretty clear that Nintendo can survive.
What's different about this generation? That most third-party games are ignoring the Wii U? Guess what - that happened with the Wii and Gamecube (to a lesser extent) as well. No good launch titles? Look at the 3DS - dead on arrival, but it's picking up, and while it's not the runaway success of the DS, it's no failure.
Hell, the only "different" thing about this generation is how badly Nintendo botched the naming (a lot of consumer confusion because "Wii U" sounds more like a new hardware iteration of the Wii than a new console). But fortunately, Microsoft came out with an even worse name for their console.
And Nintendo also has the advantage of having a strong focus on games. Sure, they don't actually have too many actual games right now, but even when talking about the hardware, their message is always "how it makes better games". Compare to Sony's distractions with Youtube uploading or "social gaming", or to Microsoft's "it's a set-top Windows 8 box that also plays Call of Duty" abomination of a conference.
But there's one fundamental reason why Nintendo can survive Sony and Microsoft - they don't care. Most Nintendo console owners buy them to play Nintendo games, which isn't the case for Sony or Microsoft consoles. First-party games might boost the other consoles up, but they always exist as much to play third-party games as first-party.
So the only threat to Nintendo is... Nintendo. Which, admittedly, it a pretty big threat right now - a lot of their recent games have been going downhill (Skyward Sword, Other M), and they haven't yet come up with a good killer app for the Wii U.
I would be extremely happy of being able to play the next Mario on something else than a Nintendo console. I bought the Wii just for Super Mario Wii, I loved the game, but now I have a white piece of plastic doing nothing underneath my TV.
It's not going to happen, but it would be very nice.
It couldn't survive by itself...
(no serious... people are just tired of buying dust-gathering prototypes... Wii as half-baked, sold a lot of consoles and so few games... nobody is gonna fall for that again... specially when you release a console with fewer cpu power than stuff release half-decade ago...)
My wife and I played the shit out of this level over the weekend trying for hours to get the best score we could and claim a gold trophy. For me it’s a classic platformer with incredibly tight controls and beautiful graphics. For her it’s a touch based game similar to something you might play on the iPad.......
I have been married to my wife for 13 years and I cannot remember a time before this weekend that we un-ironically high fived. When we finally got the gold trophy we leapt up and slapped hands like two dudes at a flag football game. I will say that it took us hours of trying the same level over and over again before we got there though. There was a lot of communication that had to happen. “is it better for you if I leave this platform up or down?” “Should I run through this part or slow down before I jump?” There was were mistakes made by both of us. “Sorry, that was my fault I missed that wall jump.” “Crap I didn’t lower that spike wall in time, my bad.” and there were a couple (joking?) threats of divorce. At the end when we had the gold trophy I tweeted that it was the greatest thing we had ever accomplished as a couple. Someone asked about our kids and I said I was including the kids.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
There's simply been no compelling games for the system - and I'm saying that as a fan of most big-hitter Nintendo games, who has purchased all the previous major systems to play those big games, and a large number of the more quirky third party titles and RPGs too.
No Metroid Prime games (haunting and epic), no Mario Galaxy games (wonderful and diverse exploration), no Zelda games (charming and intricate systems to explore), no compelling RPGs over here at least (Dragon Quest, etc.), and nothing interesting like a Kirby game. Even the one captivating game I played at PAX - Pikmin 3 - hasn't even been released yet.
All I've noticed has been lame party games, shameless re-releases, cross-ports, and a freakin' zombie game. Even more for the download titles.
That is precisely a system that should not sell well.
If they wanted to sell this system, there's a risky thing they could do though - open up a downloadable game section devoted to indies, and release a quality free SDK. Only let them be free downloads, but allow an optional (based on developer intention) greenlight-style voting mechanism for them to become sold in the marketplace, with multiple voting questions like "is this game bug-free enough to be a professional product?" THEN, you can charge the indie developer for an in-house testing cycle and you can end up having something more than re-releases to remind people about. This likely wouldn't be acceptable to staunch managers from a software 'piracy' perspective, but if the system is selling so poorly - really, lure the potential pirates in, and let a community of indie developers convert them into paying customers.
Ryan Fenton
Why the knock on the One not being dedicated to games? The thing has nearly the same specs as the PS4, meaning it's got plenty of power, it's got a monster network infrastructure in Live, so why shouldn't we expect it to be capable of other things, like firing a warning shot towards AppleTV? Would those people who want a pure gaming system be happier with an Atom-based console with a monster video chip?
It didn't survive against the XBox 360 and PS3 .. there's no way it'll survive consoles 2 generations ahead of it.
kinda off topic but - i bought a copy of Dragon Quest 8 for my Playstation 2, but I haven't started playing it yet. wow.. thanks for reminding me that I have DQ8 on my shelf.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The Wii U's biggest competitor is the Wii. I have the Wii, and I really don't see the point in getting a Wii U. The Wii is kind of special, at least I use it to play games together with others, in the living room.
As I understand it, the U makes it possible to continue playing if somebody wants to use the TV... Eh. But if we're playing together, why would one of us suddenly demand to sit down and watch TV? (also, the only "TV" we watch nowadays is Netflix, on the Wii or the PS3).
Wii showed its not about the polygons, its about the fun. DS showed fun can be portable, and Android tablets show it can be delivered on a tablet. Worse the current generation churn out last console standard graphics or better.
So will we even have a console this round?
More likely it will end up as a function of the tablets.
Nintendo is not Sega. It has plenty of hit first party titles and franchises and knows how to execute them well, Wii U is only selling poorly because such titles have not been released, or even announced, yet.
A few years ago, Nintendo adopted a really bizarre politic of not announcing their own games until a short time before they are ready to launch, so the landscape of the Wii U is completely empty.
The situation will likely change after E3 (or not).
Simply put, the WiiU can survive if they maintain their in-house software. I bought a WiiU, basically, so I could buy the next Zelda game. And Super Metroid for the third time. The problem with the WiiU right now is most of the games available are cross-platform. I could already have those games on the 360. And I do like the 360, and especially enjoy the XBLA, but after seeing the dashboard get more and more cluttered with junk, and reading about Microsoft's noose-tying, shoe-polishing announcement on the XBOX Nao, I'll stay off that sinking ship. And Sony has always been the high-end multimedia platform that Microsoft now wants to copy, which isn't my boat. I don't need the most powerful system if all it plays are Greened out military shooters and Dance Beat 16; I play retro classics and puzzle adventure games. So to sum up, Sony people will buy the PS4. Die-hard Xbox fans will buy, and be disappointed by the Xbox One. And Nintendo owners will make the switch if Nintendo puts out a few more quality games that only play on the WiiU.
My kids are too young to play the Wii-U and they can barely play anything but Mario Kart. I hope the big N can hang on for a few more years.
And I'm still up in the air about a PS4, and definitely not getting an Xbox One, so it's at least in contention. Ultimately it will come down to the games, like it always does. Nobody thought the DS could compare with the PSP, and then the games came out and everybody realized what was important.
I got the feeling the Wii U was... like the Wii but with a U... not terribly new and exciting. But maybe it's still picking up pace, just like 3DS was for a while before reaching the current sales which are pretty decent. Perhaps handhelds will be Nintendo's only focus eventually?
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Look, it's not about graphics. It's not about some shooter some other console has. It's about the fact that you can spend money on their console, have it break, and be out all the money you spent, or beg Nintendo for help. It's about the fact that if you transfer your games from a Wii (Assuming it works, which apparently it frequently doesn't) then it bricks your Wii. That's like saying once you buy a ps4 your ps3 will refuse to turn on again. It's ridiculous.
I won't touch their consoles again until they tie online purchases to a proper account that can be transferred to other consoles. Otherwise it is a disaster waiting to happen and money down the drain.
Same ol' games, same ol' consoles, same ol' doom and gloom. The problem is software, and always will be. If the gaming industry hopes to pull in more customers, they'll have to try something different that brings about new and exciting gameplay.
Stagnation aside, anonymous surmises that even DQX couldn't sell Wii U's. What a shitty example of why the Wii U is under-performing. A port of a game that launched last year for the Wii isn't making consoles fly off the shelves? Shocking. Wait until Nintendo's core titles come out, and then, if the system is doing poorly, you can panic. Not having EA's full support will definitely hurt the Wii U too, but ports from EA have never been Nintendo consoles' bread and butter.
What the Wii U desperately needs is a Wii Sports type of game that pulls in a ton of new players to the gaming industry. I don't expect Sony or Microsoft to expand the player base, so for the sake of the future of video games, I sure hope Nintendo has something up their sleeves.
Yes, the games are less exciting and on a smaller screen, but the devices are nearly ubiquitous right now, and the games are a fraction of the price of a console game. People get used to paying $0.99 for Plants vs. Zombies, then wonder why it costs $20 for the same game on the Xbox? Add the possibility of similar bargains and freedom with the upcoming Ouya (but on a larger screen), and suddenly, these consoles and their respective games seem massively overpriced for what you get. Yes, they offer a richer experience. Is it worth 10 times of the cost of a similar iPad version? That's what consumers are grappling with right now. Add in the fact that the console makers treat their customers like garbage, and many people are saying, forget it. I'll just play games on my phone.
All Nintendo has to do to sell a console of release a new Mario game, new Mario Kart game, new Zelda game and hint at a new Smash Bros game and boom; Instant profits, regardless of how little the sequel differs from the previous installment.
I'm not even anti-Nintendo, I'm just anti-cowardice and god knows Nintendo doesn't want to take chances. Can you imagine a world where a flagship Zelda game gets released with a female version of Link as the main character. I can't.
And this belief that Nintendo won't charge you for used games is silly. Once the precedent is set-up you'll see how quickly Nintendo adopts a similar strategy. They are a business, not your best friend.
Just about anything's going to win against the Xbone. I'm not putting up a dime for it and if casual and bros want to buy it they can, but it won't be a machine for gamers. Given the option of buying an NES or an Xbone I'd buy an NES, and since there is a lovely new release of one I can. The Wii U may or may not be able to handel the PS4. If the PS4 does the same thing with Used Games and Lending that MS has done then Wii U wins. Really the 3DS was in hot water and Nintendo now has it on the route to success. They can pull off the same hat trick or survive the same way they did with the Game Cube.
The problem with the Wii U is that Nintendo did not go after a Kinect-like interface. I buy our video-game system for my kids and right now they are happy with the Wii but as the new games migrate to the next generation of consoles we will have to upgrade. From what I have seen Micro$oft One is going to be the choice. My son likes jumping around like an idiot while he is playing games. The online portion of the One looks much more robust than Wii U as well.
Thanks for the usual puppeting insight Lord Mike. Crazy how most people who buy consoles aren't in fact interested in playing casual time wasters like the mobile crowd.
Which one is the one of the three that allows used game sales? (To the point of EA refusing to work with them when they refused to let EA block used game sales on their own?)
Wii U? ... Yeah, ok. Good luck with your XBox One ("Now with less games"(tm) ) and Playstation 4 ("Oh god we forgot the games.") purchases.
Most of the games I've played on my smartphone are fun for about ten minutes and that's being very gracious. They're Flash quality games that are free everywhere else on the web. And I don't mean "pirated" free - I mean they're free - http://armorgames.com/
The kind of games I get on my console are good for 40 or 50 hours and worth spending some money on.
When you say "consumers" you're talking about people who look for free games and services and complain whenever they have to see an ad. Consoles market to people who have money to spend. That's not killing the console market, that's getting rid of freeloaders.
It's this article. Again. That I see every single generation, both portable and console. It's this simple. Nintendo knows it's power exists in first-generation titles, and it will never publish its A-list properties on other consoles. And as long as they don't, they will never fail. I'm sure someone will, or already has, argued the VirtualBoy against the idea of Nintendo's continued success, and of course there's some merit there, but lets be honest, they were simply ahead of their time. After all, here we are a decade or two later, and what's the rage? A true 3D portable. I could also argue that they're basically the only company still creating/publishing games that still hold to the old premise of gaming: that games should be fun - but that is admittedly opinion. And yes, I own a PS3 and an X360 - they are entertaining, in their own right. But none of their titles seem to induce that giddy Saturday morning feel of childhood quite like a Zelda game, or Smash Brothers. Add in the fact that Nintendo produces the most polished and least buggy titles on the market, and... yeah. I think I'll buy a Wii U. Sony and their flat out abuse of their user base, and Microsoft and their pouting over 3rd party sales - can take a next gen dive.
The Wii U is failing for one reason only: it is a truly awful product - an unmitigated design fiasco for which Nintendo deserves some special punishment in the market. Why? Let me count the ways. The wifi implementation is a complete disaster (maybe the antenna?) Sitting right next to an old Wii, the U failed to connect to wifi (read the endless online complaints about this) - it took hours just to do the initial OS update (I used to set up networks for a living.) The device itself is painfully slow in the simplest interaction - click a menu option and you can sit and wait for ten seconds or more to get a response - it is like the entire GUI is written in interpreted basic running on some early edition x86 ... The U console is a neat idea, but terribly implemented - if you're playing old Wii games the entire device enters some primitive emulation mode, and the U console becomes inactive. Conversely, if you're using the U, the Wii motes become inactive. Unlike on the old Wii that plays DVDs or the PS3 that plays Blu-Ray, the Wii U has no such utility. Wii Motion Plus is still not standard, etc.etc. Fortunately the market for game systems is pretty efficient, and customers are clearly voting with their wallets against this turkey.
The worst thing about the wii u is the released it before having a solid set of games. That will be resolved and it will be a good games console with a solid line up of Mario, Zelda, etc games. The xbox wants to be a cable tv box and won't let you give away games to friends. Anyone with half a brain who is a gamer won't buy it.
If it were 149$
one thing I noticed with the Wii compared to the previous nintendo consoles and PS1 and PS2 I have is the lack of good gameplay. Even the mario games were poor as each level seemed to be too similar to the previous, either that or just difficult but not thought out to make it fun. I don't really care for graphics, as most of the best games I play daily today were made over 10-15 years ago. What I do care about is something to get me interested in playing, and graphics alone will not do that. With the other consoles moving to always on play its not a new console nintendo needs but better games, the Wii and Wii-U have enough power to be a success with good gameplay.
This upcoming generation is going to be a let down and will probably cause many video game developers to lose their jobs. Publishers are getting greedy and customers are tired of being treated like crap. I do see Nintendo just riding the storm since every console they sell is at profit, even if their software selection sucks. Microsoft just loves to put the kiss of death on their products, the used game policy is just one of these. As for Sony, I still don't know how they will do. Sony needs to release the PS4 at $400 if they want to do well this time. The big winner I see this generation is Steam and PC gaming since it seems all the console makers are alienating their customers. If Valve could sell the Steam Box for $400-$500 and include a blu-ray player they would do really well.
Small Correction:
Mobile and Tablets COMPLETELY kill the casual gaming market that was Nintendos way of success with the Wii. They managed to outsell PS3 and XBox 360 because they did target people who normally would not by a game console.
That ship has sailed.
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
Wii U never competed with neither of them. It was always a family-oriented entertainment device, not a kid-in-a-basement-wanking-over-graphics-oriented device, like PS or Xbox. The thing is - these kids have a very short attention span and suffer from all forms of ADHD combined, which makes them more than likely to abandon a product they seemed loyal to, for a newest gimmick their friends have. Handheld, including mobile gaming is swallowing a large share of the market ATM, and both MS and Sony try hard to alienate other demographics, so my guess is both PS4 and Xbox will tank in terms of predicted vs recorded sales.
The Wii is doing most of the TV things that the Xbox One is supposed to do, aside from voice recognition. It also has apps such as Netflix, Amazon, etc for video, and various Google apps and a web browser.
I still have an NES, SNES, N64 and Gamecube. I have owned PS2, Xbox, Xbox360 but not anymore. Could there be a particular reason why I keep my Nintendo systems and not my Sony or Microsoft systems? Yes, the games on the PS2, Xbox, Xbox360 are not fun, they will never be "classic" aside from maybe Halo (in my opinion). No one is going to look back and be like "Man, MW2-Extra FPS rage edition was a classic, I want to play that until I die." But they will continue to play Super Mario Bros iterations and The Legend of Zelda saga. That's just half of my 2 cents because I just woke up and saw people semi-flaming my favorite console company of all time. Sorry they don't put out gorey FPS and overly sexy games.
Survive against the next generation consoles when its not even coping against the PS3 and Xbox 360 currently? lol
Here's an easy way to save it. Make an all-start edition for $50-100 more that has all of the NES/Super Nintendo content on it already.
I agree to a point. However, the new shared-memory architecture of new consoles and high end computing devices opens the floodgates for new types of gamelpay that haven't yet been possible. There are several kinds of game mechanics. The two basic types are designed and emergent. The lower power devices are fine for tightly honed designs of jumping on blocks, logic puzzles, or a even First Person Looking Game (seriously, in a FPS its' just hide and seek with scoring for looking at people more precisely). The low end machines are capable of some types of emergent gameplay (tactics games), but the massively emergent gameplay require a lot more RAM and parallel processing power, by their very nature.
You dodged the flamethrower and knifed the guy in the knee incapacitating him, running past you grab a smouldering stick and use it to set fire to the fuel tank under the guard tower; That falls over on the fence and allows access to the inner compound. We could script all that, but only if we have thought of everything you can possibly do -- Which we can't. These types of emergent physics scenarios can sort of be performed on the CPU, but with a shared memory architecture we can harness unified physics and much more complex AI / damage models. Not just for war games either. Why can't Mario throw the frogsuit at Bowser then stomp him while he's confusedly hopping about without all those spikes on him? Because, emergent gameplay means programming in base rule-sets and seeing what's possible, not
if ( player.item == frogsuit ) doFrogLogic();
Instead:
FrogSuit.touch( actor ){ actor.texture = frogTex; actor.moveLogic = frogLogic; }
The more types of logic logic systems that can interact the more CPU and RAM you need to process and store it all. Mobile and Tablet can serve a certain type o gameplay, but there are other types of gameplay that they can not yet service well. Hell, there are types of gameplay that consoles can't service well either. If the games you like to play are on PC, Consoles or Mobile, that's fine, but Mobile isn't threatening the console market.
If you really must know, what's happening to consoles is the same thing that happened to arcades: General Purpose Hardware. Arcades used to have mechanical machines, one game per box. Then some became digital and programmable. They were still one game per box. Their dedicated setup and higher budget meant that they could provide experiences better than PC or Consoles. Consoles overtook Arcades because they were more general purpose and could thus play many more games on one piece of hardware, they were more accessible and cheaper to play. Imagine playing contra with quarters!? Arcades died, consoles ruled. Consoles' dedicated hardware for games meant they could provide a better experience than PCs (and later, smart phones). However, the PCs more general purpose design meant they could do more, not just games. PCs eclipsed Consoles in terms of specs. Even my 4 year old laptop w/ integrated graphics (min sys req. test rig) beats a 360... Just like the Arcades did, the Consoles will try to compete with the cheaper faster more general purpose hardware, but the end will be the same. There's no reason to spend hundreds of dollars to play Street Fighter and Galaga at an arcade you have to drive to. Very soon (if not already true) there will be no reason to pay more for overpriced dedicated gaming console hardware, you already have a PC. This is why consoles are more PC like, but they can't supplant a PC without becoming a PC. Those who do not heed Moore's Law are doomed to repeat this tale, time and again. Next time the tale will be Mobiles vs PC. Mobiles are just 'lite' PCs with a capital P for Personal Computer.
Yes, the games are less exciting and on a smaller screen, but the devices are nearly ubiquitous right now, and the games are a fraction of the price of a console game. People get used to paying $0.99 for Plants vs. Zombies, then wonder why it costs $20 for the same game on the Xbox? Add the possibility of similar bargains and freedom with the upcoming Ouya (but on a larger screen), and suddenly, these consoles and their respective games seem massively overpriced for what you get. Yes, they offer a richer experience. Is it worth 10 times of the cost of a similar iPad version? That's what consumers are grappling with right now. Add in the fact that the console makers treat their customers like garbage, and many people are saying, forget it. I'll just play games on my phone.
Or they're different markets entirely with very little overlap.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
I have a Wii U. I use it at least some. I have no intention of getting either the PS4 or the Xbox One. This is not unique among gamers I know.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
Thanks for the usual puppeting insight Lord Mike. Crazy how most people who buy consoles aren't in fact interested in playing casual time wasters like the mobile crowd.
Except, of course, the usage statistics on them show the exact opposite. The "hardcore" gamer market isn't big enough for any of the three big console makers to give them much attention. When you've got 10 or 50 casual players for every "hardcore", the investment just isn't warranted. What you do is try to making something good enough for everyone. You'll lose the low end to the tablets and the high end, perhaps, to PC gaming. But you'll make an order of magnitude more revenue.
It'll also serve as a bellwether to see if the big gamer complaint about the new Sony and Microsoft consoles — that they're only partly about games — is honest. 'At a time when the goal of its competitors is to own the living room, the extent of Nintendo's ambition is simply to be in it — a dedicated games console, and no more.'"
This implies (or assumes?) that people who want a gaming-specific system will outright reject anything that does have extra things they don't need, instead buying whatever the latest gaming-focused system is, regardless of quality... And that if they don't, their complaints were false.
That doesn't fit at all. People don't just decide on a choice based on one factor, they find the best fit between several... And, imo, will probably be more inclined to budge on "isn't weighed down with useless functionality" than "doesn't have a cripplingly limited range of mostly gimmicky games". That doesn't make a complaint about the lack of gaming focus valid, it just means its the best of a bad situation. Personally, I've already decided not to bother with any of the next gen systems.
This has been an experiment, hopefully it's been worth the wait.
Nintendo shot itself in the foot for not go forward with the optical console add-on for the Super Famicom back in the day. It later became the Playstation1 and it took off like a rocket. I hated Nintendo still to this day. They have a real knack for offering subpar hardware among other things. Partly thanks to that, many companies abandoned them. Nintendo just never learn. Square-Enix stopped making games for them, especially those nice RPG games like Final Fantasy and the likes.
I know many peeps purchased the PS3 JUST so they could play the latest FF titles. I don't see casual gamers purchasing any Nintendo consoles JUST so they can play that one cool game....unless they are a diehard Nintendo fanboy. I hope Nintendo dies already. I hate the Gamecube, Wii, and most the Wii U. They were just novelty toys. Nothing revolutionary nor as feature packed nor powerful as its rivals.
Yet the console makers have historically been opposed to micro-ISVs developing for their platforms, like when Nintendo rejected Bob's Game because Robert Pelloni couldn't demonstrate the trappings of a "legit" business. Among seventh-generation console makers, Microsoft was the most indie-friendly with XNA on Xbox 360. Have the console makers announced their plans for courting indie developers this generation? Or are PCs ready to open up to genres traditionally associated with consoles, such as fighting games, party games, and cooperative platformers?
No, make that five. Steam Box adapts the existing PC standard, and Ouya adapts the existing Android standard.
The Wii also never played DVDs
Not officially at least. But the first few drive chip versions also supported DVD media, and some apps were released for the Homebrew Channel to play DVD Video.
I'm definitely back with my PC after a brief flirtation with my 360. Whole multitude of reasons:
PC is 'better' - long current console generation means even a modestly priced PC can spank any console.
Steam - Only service that actually delivered on it's promise of a 'digital-dividend'. Getting hold of a new game easy and usually cheap. Steam sales are a frenzy of gluttony for anything I've ever vaguely been interested in. Consoles whilst able, have been gutted by desire to keep publishers happy (I don't think it's possibly to download anything on my Vita that isn't £10 more expensive than buying the physical game from Amazon). Unlike many people (or at least vocal people), I'm fine with the killing of the 2nd hand game market - I just want to get something back in return.
Back to the subject, I think the WiiU is dead in the water - the people who Ninty brought into gaming with the Wii are now feasting on their ipad games. Whilst back-porting a touch-screen to a console will probably be 'compatible' with these users, I fail to see how this is going to get them to bin the ipad that they own.
PS4 - I dunno, just seems more of the same with a few bolted on software features - "share to youtube!"... oh ffs. Play a game as it downloads! (I can do this anyway, and I suspect I'm not going to be buying any digital games from you, see above).
Xbox One I think has a chance - and for some of the features it's being bashed for. I feel the TV component is going to be the seller for a couple of reasons. Most of us have a laptop/tablet/phone to hand as we watch, and I refuse to believe anybody out there hasn't scrabbled to see "what else was that guy in?". Additionally, rather than being a host for video clients, this Xbox seems to have it baked in deeper. I can easily see when you upgrade your cable subscription, you'll be offered a basic box, a Tivo or a XBOne. As happens in the mobile market, there'll be the contract and the physical client (which 'only costs a few dollars a month') - ffs they could even chuck a discounted family gold account in, along with your movie package.
Oh - and something that's been touched in is the fact what you see is a VM running - one for the game, and one for your TV. With my thinking hat on, this is ideally designed to allow what I mentioned above. The 'Game' VM is identical for all users and upgraded by MS - the 'Media' side can be customized for your cable operator.
Just realized I've wandered completely off-topic - but I guess it's mainly when I look (or even think about) the Wii-U, I'm not sure where it fits in - WHO is the target market?
However, the new shared-memory architecture of new consoles
What "new shared-memory architecture"? Nintendo 64 had shared memory. So did Xbox and Xbox 360. So do any PCs with "integrated" graphics on the northbridge or CPU.
PCs eclipsed Consoles in terms of specs. Even my 4 year old laptop w/ integrated graphics (min sys req. test rig) beats a 360
The 360's screen is probably bigger,* which allows up to four players holding Xbox 360 Controllers to fit comfortably around the screen. You could plug your laptop into the same HDTV monitor and plug the same controllers into the USB ports, but I'm told most don't.
* I'm referring to physical size measured in diagonal inches, not resolution measured in pixels. A lot of 360 games run at 1024x576, but 1024x576 on a 32" monitor is better for multiplayer than 1920x1080 on a 15" monitor.
But that's just to play the latest versions of Mario, Zelda etc.
Problem is I'm reluctantly to continually buy the consoles for those ~5 games a generation (makes those games damn-expensive).
The games are clearly being used to make me buy the hardware, and finally I think I've had enough.
I still remember Twilight Princess being 'shoved' into the Wii (and then appearing on the GC anyway). Life would be much easier if they just did a Sega.
First off I really get sick of the "well nintendo's system might come in last, so they will go 3rd party". First off if history is anything to go by, that ain't going to happen. Nintendo is as determined and as stuborn as sega. Contrary to popular thought, sega didn't go down after 1 system failure. Sega had 1 success, and a huge series of failures. Genisis, Success, gamegear, failure, segaCD failure, 32x failure, Saturn Failure, Dreamcast, not quite a failure, but not particularly profitable, not enough to pull sega out of it's financial crisis it hit form the previous failures. Nintendo on the other hand, has pretty much profited on every system (possibly with the exception of the virtualboy). Even the systems that failed to overtake the competition, such as the N64 and the gamecube, were profitable. If say the WiiU tanks, and say performs on par with the sega saturn, nintendo is not going to just go 3rd party, it doesn't suit them. Look at sega right now. I don't know why, but them turning 3rd party had a pretty negative impact on their games. People who found it worth it to buy a dreamcast just for the handful of great sega titles, don't even find modern sega titles worth picking up
WiiU is being out of almost 9 months now .... and it hasn't sold that many units.
Wost, the platform hasn't generated any kind of "hype". Have anybody actually heard of read anything (positive or negative)( about it since the week it came out??
Sorry, but the Wii U is already a failure.
It's not whether or not the Wii U can compete against the PS4 or the Xbox One, but rather if the eighth console generation will be the last for Microsoft or Sony. Nintendo can weather the shitstorm and is currently doing rather well with both the 3DS and the Wii U, but Sony lost billions on the PS3, and Microsoft lost billions on the defects of the early Xbox 360s. The PS4 has a chance if it's not 599 USD and launches with more than Ridge Racer (rumors abound suggest a PC and PS4 release of GTA V before Christmas), but the Xbox One is barely a game console. The damage control by MSFT is that the announcement was for "getting the boring stuff out of the way," but given how they touted the non-gaming aspects of the system, it looks like Microsoft is just trying to make TiVo and had it backfire.
When Nintendo sells me a console, I'm not purchasing it for their hardware. What Nintendo sells is quality games at reasonable prices. Their console could have been half as powerful as the Wii U, but as long as it has a new F-Zero, Smash Brothers, Zelda, or Metroid Title then of course I am going to purchase it. Nintendo has always put gaming first, which is why the Gamecube and Wii didn't function as dvd players or social hubs. People can always purchase a stand-alone device for their media needs.
Its not Nintendo thats in trouble this console generation, its Sony and Microsoft.
Glad to see the xbots are hard at work on damage control on /.
Xbot go home
Right, which is why Mercedes should stop making luxury cars and church out Honda Civic knockoffs. Because you always want to hit the lowest common denominator and no higher.
Or, try for different market segments and be a big fish in a small pond.
DRM, always-on connection, restricted sales of used games, DLCs, targeted advertising, unlocking 'achievements', all-in-one entertainment box in the living room...
Give me a good, clean offline gaming console with great content, with online multiplayer gaming as an option rather than the focus.
Right, which is why Mercedes should stop making luxury cars and church out Honda Civic knockoffs. Because you always want to hit the lowest common denominator and no higher.
Or, try for different market segments and be a big fish in a small pond.
That's a bad example -- Mercedes is not a luxury brand in much of the world. Their revenue comes from everything from commercial trucks, to small econo-boxes, to more traditional MB American-style luxury.
They wouldn't exist, in 2013, as an independent company that size making limited market cars. That's why virtually all limited market manufacturers are no longer independent. Lamborghini? Part of Audi. Porsche? Volkswagen. Ferrari? Owned by Fiat. Hell, Porsche and Lamborghini vehicles are basically just rebadged versions of their corporate owner's vehicles today, with the number of parts they take from the corporate parts bin.
Even in traditionally "snooty" fields like high fashion, you're seeing designers pushing their brand into the mass market.
Big fish in a small pond doesn't work in the 21st century global economy. If a company if big enough for you to know about, its too big to succeed small market.
it's just an issue of whether or not they want to port over.
Then we'd have to figure out a way to make porting it over attractive to the big game publishers. Otherwise, there'll end up being one box for major label games (one of the big three consoles) and a separate box for indie games (an HTPC or Ouya), and that would push a lot of people to just not buy the box for indie games. Case in point: Mortal Kombat (2011) is on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 but not PC. I imagine that it's easier to port an Xbox 360 game to PC than to PS3 because DirectX for Windows is closer to DirectX for Xbox 360 than libgcm for PS3 is to either. Yet WB chose not to port the game to PC.
Hate to say it, but the only console I'd buy out of the current lineup is the Wii U. Microsoft and Sony have both been nothing but a disappointment in presenting their next console offerings. I don't need another all-in-one media device. I just want to play games and not be bothered by obtrusive DRM. Nintendo may not be the best, but I want fun, and Nintendo usually does fun right.
Bad? You're improving the example and going right back to where I started: Mercedes should just forget about that niche luxury car market and churn out lowest-common denominator vehicles.
Suuuure. Of course Marketing 101 will tell you that you want to maximize your customer base for your product. It will also tell you to differentiate your product in the marketplace.
Which is why EA makes RPG's and shooters and Sim games. And why independent developers make stuff like Minecraft, when no major studio makes something like it.
Most people don't care about the console, they care about the games they can play on it.
That's why the PS4 and Xbox One are not really competitors to the WiiU. If you want to play Super Mario, Zelda, Mario Kart or Smash Bros, you need to get a Nintendo console.
Right now we only have a 2D "New Super Mario". As for the other big "exclusives" : Monster Hunter 3U is also available on 3DS, which seems to be the preferred platform and Dragon Quest X is also available on Wii. It's no wonder the WiiU doesn't sell that well but it says nothing about the future.
The Xbox One and the PS4 are boring. The backlash against the two was unexpected, at least to me. Once Nintendo starts rolling out their games, the two main consoles will be steamrolled.
Again.
After all everyone thought that the Wii, DS and 3DS would suck but they didn't.
Last generation most gamers had 2 consoles: Wii + Xbox360(majority) or Wii + PS3(minority), following the recent disasterous XboxOne reveal I see this generation playing out the same way with WiiU + PS4 being the majority and WiiU + XboOne being a minority. I don't believe most people will feel a need to have both a PS4 and XboxOne, in addition, most gamers will pick up the WiiU for Nintendo's exclusive games. Personally, I already have a WiiU which I enjoy thoroughly as I find the off-TV gameplay to be the killer feature, and looked forward to picking up a PS4 whereas I absolutely hated the PS3 last gen. XboxOne is going to have to get some serious exclusives to get me to pick it up.
Note: I am a lifelong gamer since Pong and have played nearly every console to exist to date, last gen I owned all 3 consoles giving each a fair shot, my opinions are my own.