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Nintendo Posts Yet Another Loss, Despite Mario Kart 8
redletterdave (2493036) writes Nintendo posted its third loss in four quarters on Wednesday. Even though Mario Kart 8, its big first-party game released in May, shipped more than 2.82 million copies by the end of June, the Mario-themed racing game was not enough to help Nintendo's struggling Wii U console perform in this particular quarter. The company said it lost $97 million between March and June. Nintendo shipped 510,000 units of the Wii U in the June quarter, bringing the total to 6.68 million consoles sold — it's a big jump from the 160,000 units it sold in the same quarter a year ago and a small improvement over the 310,000 units it sold in the March quarter. Still, the Wii U is still lagging behind the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles, and Nintendo must also contend with mobile games available on Apple and Google's app stores, which cost but a fraction of a Nintendo game.
Open up your platform so that anybody who wishes to can program for it, that way you aren't dependent on just a few titles.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
Sony's Vita doesn't compete on mobile because of reasons. Only Nintendo has to compete with mobile games.
I know they have some large cash reserves, but how long can you bleed $100 million every 4 months?
The Gameboy/DS line is the only thing keeping them afloat, but even that looks to be winding down, bowing to smart phones and tablets.
Nintendo must also contend with mobile games available on Apple and Google's app stores, which cost but a fraction of a Nintendo game.
Very few console gamers are buying cell phone games in favor of console games. Where Nintendo is competing with app stores is with its 3DS handheld, not really with the Wii U. I'm sure that's still contributing to the big N posting losses, but the summary makes it sound like Mario Kart 8 is losing out to Crappy Mobile Minecraft Clone no. 873.
Next week: Nintendo miraculously saved from impending doom by the the slashdot effect.
so you want color dreams level games on wii?
Bonus points if it is waterproof.
This generation of consoles seems like it will be lead by the PS4. The PS4 typically outsells both the XBox One and the Wii U week by week, and Sony's gaming division is seeing increased revenue.
As the summary says, their market, the casual gamer, can get their fix on their cell phones. Candy Crush did more damage to Wii U sales than the PS4 or Xbone could do.
Most people I know are still holding out until the next Zelda game, which might finally be the killer app Nintendo so desperately needs.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
He's a plumber, of course it's going to be water proof!
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
Thanks, Nintendo, for the Wii-U
MacPro 4,1 2.66GHz/Radeon HD 4870/Mac OS X 10.6.x
I bought a Wii U because I moved overseas and wanted a console. The entire concept of their "Virtual Console" is the biggest scam in the world. When they choose to bleed the few customers who still buy their products, the train's come off the rails and it's time to abandon all hope for the country. Bought some games on Wii Virtual Console? Oh I'm sorry that 25 year old copy of Mario has to be repurchased OR you can choose to pay $1.99. Didn't keep your Wii/Lost your SD Card? Even though we have record of your sale, there's nothing we can do. Oh you bought a $40 accessory for the Wii U, but you want to play a Wii Virtual Console game (because we haven't "ported" it?)? Too bad. Completely anti-consumer with the classic titles.
With the Wii they realized they couldn't keep up with the PS and Xbox. Instead of trying to get people to buy their consoles for their games they should switch to just making games. Even if they required custom controllers for some of their games I doubt it would be hard to come out ahead.
That those mobile games that cost a fraction of a nintendo game, are complete and utter shit. Most of them are pay to win grind fest or boring social network "game" for the filthy casuals.
Between old games still being there for us to play, new free to play web games, playerbases condensing into specific multiplayer games, and the extra power XBOX and PS4 go, Nintendo can only offer us sequels to popular games they had. Cell phones and Tablets are huge competitors to Nintendo too. I think Nintendo could pull out a win by stop gimmicking it up with their controller. Better yet, they could make the defacto standard controller designed for cell phone/Tablets and continue to make software.
I know a lot of people had fun on the N64,gamecube,wii, and WiiU, but the last game system I took serious that Nintendo made was the Snes. It was the last game system which controller wasn't a gimmick, and before PC games became generally better in terms of content. Now don't get me wrong, there were a couple games there after SNES that I know are popular, but I didn't get into. I always thought the idea of console gaming was focused on the controller to be action reflex oriented, and hidden buttons underneath the controller, or motion sensors just distract. The best games link your brain with pure cerebral responses to what happens in the game. If your controller requires 200 extra milliseconds just to engage the button, or you can't hit all the buttons with any hand configuration, you screwed up as a game controller designer. The games should be the toys, not the gimmick controllers.
God spoke to me
Again, I'll say it that I think Nintendo would have a lot of success in Android/iOS/PC markets just making games and controllers. I mean what they could do easily is have their old games available on Android/iOS/PC through some sort of official emulator instead of the underground doing it. Then they could use Steam and people could buy old Nintendo games for whatever discounted price they wanted to sell them for. People living today can't get all those old games easily unless they go the illegal rom route, and not everyone feels it is right to use ROMs they didn't pay for. Sure some don't care, and I have nothing against piracy, but some do. I bet there would be a bunch of money in either: A: releasing those old games on other platforms, or B: Lowering the price drastically on the WiiU on those old games so they're not 30$, but maybe 1$. If people knew they could buy a WiiU and a ton of old games on the cheap, they would be buying the WiiU.
So yes, if I was CEO of Nintendo, I'd have as many old games to buy on WiiU for as cheap as possible: like 30-90 cents. If your WiiU system had such legacy dominance that people could know they had all the old games, more people would be buying WiiU. I bet they'd fly off the shelves. Then once having paid the overhead of having the system, they'd buy more premium games. It is time to stop pretending pirates aren't out there, and competing with them for your legacy software. Every sale of legacy software is one more than you'd have otherwise. Not every 12 year old has been around for the past 30 years or has parents who have been video gamers. You start giving kids the ability to play video game history on the cheap, and your system will be loved.
In fact I'd make it a selling point of every Nintendo system from here on out to provide an online network to buy legacy titles at the appropriate price point. There's a point where you don't want to sell the last generations titles which are still around for too cheap, but the general concept to allow legacy titles to be purchased on future Nintendo systems, and this could be a way Nintendo not only dodges today's storm, but sures up an unsinkable ship moving forward. It would be almost similar to a homebrew Steam store... Nintendo could even swing license deals with people who made old games to get them on there.
God spoke to me
I feel like Nintendo and Apple would make a really great team with similar attention to detail and customer experience.
The Generation
I'd say something witty here, but I'm not that bright.
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I'd just like to point out the WiiU changed significantly after the launch. The procedure nowadays is:
1. Grab Tablet.
2. Press home, click game from menu (in *under one second* if it's one of your eight most recent picks or the disc in the drive - Even many smartphones are slower than that).
3. Modest load time (shorter than what it was at launch, comparing Nintendoland then versus Nintendoland now), and play.
Pointedly, Nintendo's quick-in element is something that the PS4 and XBox One cannot emulate (since it relies to no small part on the screen on the controller, which can turn on faster than most modern TVs).
That said, it's not like the PS4's short on good stuff either. Overpriced demo though it may be, Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes is quite lovely.
This story is bigger than it looks. You can also find this in non-English online newspapers.
Confirming the above.
Also, I'm not sure what exact problem the GP ran into with their Pro Controller, but at least in 2014 the Wii U can be started and controlled completely from the Pro Controller; no gamepad is required for the menu system. (Though games can still require it)
The reality is that you can build a decent set top box for casual gaming for under $50.
Do that AND open it up to developers with an App Store and Nintendo will create a whole new category.
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
I just went to a major game review site, scrolled down the ample front-page list of recently reviewed games...not a single one for Wii-U. Every other platform had multiple games reviewed in the last few weeks, not a single Wii-U title. Imagine saying that for any previous Nintendo platform - it's unthinkable.
Why keep paying 30$ - 50$ for each game the kids may play for a few hours to a few weeks at most. They can download tons of free to 3$ games on their tablets or phone.
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Some developers are still making 360 and PS3 games, those are also PPC based systems.
So lots of tools and talent will be available for the only PPC platform going into the future.
I guess it depends on how you look at it. Yes going X86 has an advantage for easier PS4 and PC ports (Xbox One has "issues" so it requires a lot more effort that it looks like when your just considering the CPU arch alone.)
Another thing to consider, if I can get the port for my PC why would I need to buy a PS4 or an Xbox One? Last gen was bad enough with most of the great games released on the PC it felt pretty redundant to own a PS3. Now with easier ports... I am not sure I should even bother with the PS4 at all. I am already going to own a PC anyway, why not just spend the extra 400 bucks making it a gaming PC and enhance my PC experience at the same time.
Neither Sony nor Microsoft's gaming divisions are doing particularly well right now either. Whats your point?
The reality is that you can build a decent set top box for casual gaming for under $50.
Do that AND open it up to developers with an App Store and Nintendo will create a whole new category.
This category was already opened by Ouya, a $99 Android-based game console.
Last month, I went into the local Target, looking for a Ouya for my kids. They were out, so I ended up buying a Wii Mini, Nintendo's downgraded version of the previous Wii generation. The kids are having a blast with it. The $300 Wii U was not even an option - 3 times more expensive isn't justified by the long list of irrelevant "advantages" like that silly game tablet which looks more like a liability than a real advantage (the nice thing about the Wii that you can enthusiastically play standing up and jumping around - a huge tablet just cramps your style ;-)).
FWIW the biggest problem in porting isn't the CPU architecture. It's not like you can share binaries between the platforms, and most of the code is not written in assembly anyway. The biggest time-suck tends to be different APIs
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
You see, I know how to Google. I even remember "The Great Video Game Crash Of 1983"
I also know that just name dropping Sid Meier does not make your argument any stronger.
A snarky link to a Wikipedia article with warnings to its factual accuracy and reliability doesn't help.
-- Sig under construction...
seems everything next gen is lacking when it comes to games. then again so did the ps3 360 halfway threw there lives just some random fps every 6 months or so.
There's been software updates recently that change that quite dramatically. There's no more waiting for the disc and there's no requirement to pick up the Wii U controller.
With a single click on the controller the Wii you will power up and start the game. Just grab your controller of choice. If the game disc isn't in then it will ask you to insert it. I haven't seen the home screen of the Wii U for a long time.
Ignore my other post.
Just like to point out the update which created the quicklaunch only came out in March or April of this year so your original post is not surprising at all. The Wii U used to have a horrible loading system.
Who cares about the architecture? You're talking as if people didn't port games between consoles on the XBox 360 and the PS3 the latter which was also a Power based architecture.
People program in high level languages and then compile for different systems. The only thing really left then is optimising, and that is still an incredibly complicated task because while the remainder of the systems are x86 based, they are actually very different hardware architectures. Arguably the most portable is the Xbox and the PC since programming for either can be done using DirectX, however even then there are some massive differences between optimising a game for a PC and the Xbox, which has lead to some horrendous experiences on both platforms due to poor porting.
All of this doesn't really matter for Nintendo, just look at the titles they have released. They have always played their console hand very close to the chest and the vast majority of hit titles on their console are actually their own titles.
The Wii U had more systems sold the last time Microsoft gave numbers for the Xbox. In their last report Microsoft refused to clearly state how many xboxes sold were xbones and which were 360s so it's doing badly and probably still in third place. Hell they were / are taking a breaking from manufacturing in order to sell through what's on the shelves. Let's not try and pretend Nintendo is in some distant 3rd place position given they're probably in a somewhat distant 2nd place position.
and Nintendo must also contend with mobile games available on Apple and Google's app stores, which cost but a fraction of a Nintendo game.
That's because they're only worth a fraction. What a bullshit comment to make. I'm sure McDonalds is cheaper than your local star restaurant, but fuck me if I'll ever eat at one.
Also, "the Wii U is still lagging behind the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles", I'm sure you'd love to believe the Xbox is doing so well but NEWSFLASH, it's selling less than the WiiU right now despite the price cut and still hasn't caught up with it in total sales numbers. Nintendo will soldier on, the most likely party to bow out of the console race at this moment is MICROSOFT whether you like it or not. I'm sure it's not what you want to believe, because the bullshit "Nintendo is doomed" narrative is something you're so goddamn invested in. Why? What the fuck is with you people?
... but instead, my kids will just drive up ad revenue for those sites with all the Flash ripoffs. (To be fair, some of them quite creative.)
Thats more an indictment on the intelligence of your kids and their low attention spans I'm afraid. Not a good point to be bragging about.
The reality is that you can build a decent set top box for casual gaming for under $50.
If it is so easy then why haven't you or anyone else done it? Sure you could probably come up with a cheap piece of hardware that can play simple games, though $50 is probably pushing it a bit. You'd have to do some serious volume to get to that sort of price point and to get that volume you'd have to have the software ready to go on day one or else no one will buy it. Chicken meet egg. Furthermore people already have a device they carry with them for casual gaming in the form of a smartphone. Why would they spend an extra $50 plus more for games to get something they already have in less convenient form. FDevices like Roku (which are close to that price point) could fill this function but pretty much nobody uses it for that even though it is possible today.
The reality is that the economics of that business are more complicated than building a cheap box and then hoping developers will flock to it. "Build it and they will come" is a pretty shitty business model in most cases.
The WII-U has a well known issue where the consoles get harder and harder to turn on and then die. We had this happen. When sent back to Nintendo they said "no warranty - you modded the console". Well sure the kids downloaded some mod to make their own maps in a game or something, but that does not cause power issues. Well we'll suck it up and PAY for the repair, right? Nintendo says NO - they wil NOT repair it for any amount of money. To add to the insult, if they repair it or you buy another one, either way paid-for downloadable content is GONE. They are reaping what they have sewn.
iOS and Android games don't share the same market as the Wii U, it's dumb to compare them just because they're games. PS4 and Xbox One, sure, but mobile gaming is its own ecosystem. 95% of the iOS and Android games available don't even come close to major release titles in terms of scope and depth, and their prices reflect that. A person is extremely likely to own both a smartphone/tablet and a gaming console, and I seriously doubt anyone is going to have to weigh a purchase of a console game against that of a mobile game. It's like comparing Wii U games to board games just because they share a word.
"Not all who wander are lost" -- JRR Tolkien
On the other hand, look at the previous generation:
Sony: modified PowerPC architecture
Microsoft: PowerPC architecture
Wii: PowerPC Architecture.
And before that:
Sony: MIPS
Microsoft: x86
Nintendo: PowerPC
Sega: SuperH
Prior to the PS4/Xb1, the only consoles to use x86 were the original Xbox, and a Japan-only handheld called the WonderSwan.
Remember, the WiiU was developed without knowledge of the PS4 or Xb1. You can't fault them for not following a trend that started after they released the WiiU.
As someone who owns a PC and just bought a backwards-compatible PS3, I can say that owning a PS3 really isn't redundant. Owning a 360 is, because MS is pretty open about having 360 games ported to the PC, but Sony are tightwads with anything that lands on their system. For instance, after how well-received Dark Souls was on the PC, FROM wanted to port Demon's Souls... but couldn't, because Sony insisted upon owning the IP to Demon's Souls when it was released.
Now, owning a PS4 is a different beast altogether. I was initially going to buy a PS4 so I could play through some of the PS3 games I missed (Demon's Souls, Valkyria Chronicles, Jojo All Star Battle, Dragon's Crown, Dragon's Dogma) and catch up on the last two major upcoming releases for the PS3 (Persona 5 and Persona 4 Arena: Ultimax). I was all set to blow $400 on a PS4.. only to find out that the PS4 isn't at all backwards compatible with the PS3 and likely never will be outside of being able to do "timed rentals" of PS3 stuff on Gaikai and stream it.. but that won't happen until sometime in 2015.
Naturally, I went with the PS3, and I've got no regrets.
If there's both Zelda and Metroid made for the Wii U, I'll strongly consider buying it.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Actually, prior to the current "next-gen" (of which the WiiU technically belongs...) the story is as follows:
Sony - PowerPC
Microsoft - PowerPC
Hmm... Interesting, isn't it?
Speaking as a game developer, it's worth noting that your "porting" time is dependent on not only Target CPU, but OS. With Sony, you're NOT going to avoid porting because it's not a PC. With X-Box, your porting time is lessened, but it's not removed because it, too, isn't a PC.
So...if you're porting *ANYHOW*...it's not a story of going with the other two or Nintendo, it's something else. In this case, it's odds-on the OS is clumsy to work with, the dev-toochain for WiiU sucks (which is likely...Nintendo...), and they are screwing the studios with title restrictions and an onerous royalty structure.
*DING* *DING* *DING*
Give that man a seegar! (You got closer than most everyone else- close enough to count)
The biggest problem isn't even porting, folks.
A title ends up on a given console for varying reasons, including studio preference (There's games that could and SHOULD be on Android that're only on iOS, etc...), studio familiarity with the platform (They will make Windows, X-Box, PS3, and OSX titles, but won't make a Linux version even though the OSX version is blindingly close or dead on exactly the same code as a Linux version...), business relationships (Microsoft tends to only publish titles for X-Box, funny that... Same goes for Nintendo and SOE...again...funny that...), and royalty stories (Nintendo has, from what I understand, a bit of a screwy royalty structure. A screwball royalty structure is part of what cost SEGA their position in the industry...).
The bulk of most game engines are done in C/C++ code with calls to one of several other APIs, including OpenGL/OpenGLES, DirectX, FMOD, Miles Audio, and the like. If you're using something "sane" like FMOD, the sound ports right over. If you're using one of the common GPU API's it's a drop-in or close to it (Done right, your DirectX code should have similar, or possibly better performing OpenGL analogs, for example...). The real effort for development on several differing platforms isn't the main development work- it's in the verification work. Which if some of the above (royalties, etc.) presents too much of a tradeoff, you won't see a studio or publisher investing the effort into the "port". In that context, the only way you're going to see the effort is if they're fans of a given platform.
"Porting" is more a line someone uses when they don't know JACK about how it gets done.
And with Android rising ascendant with 64-bits and very capable GPUs that sip power compared to the generations prior...heh...
I see the console companies re-thinking a handful of things to stay relevant. It remains to be seen if Nintendo's going to make that leap or not, but one hopes so. Losing a player is not healthy to the space, really.
The type of people who bought the Wii will use it until it dies. Nintendo saturated the market and should have focused on selling Wii games or attachments. Of course, some MBA tool will decide that future consoles should self destruct when a newer console becomes available. That will kill your brand faster than anything.
The WII got played with for about a month before it became a glorified netflix box / DVD player.
And after a month of that the DVD drive died, so then it became a netflix box.... which frankly the xbox does better.
Nintendo used to be a thing for me. Now they are just the *publishers* of Pokemon in my eyes.
Metroid? Other M, enough said. You have to be a pretty hardcore fan to be able to ignore it.
You might be thinking, "but it was co-developed with Team Ninja, famous for their depiction of women involving Boob Physics©, how dare you blame holy Nintendo?", because Team Ninja tried to SAVE that trainwreck, by at least adding cool combat animations. The baby thing? The pure worthlessness of Samus' character? The "I am not doing shit until my father figure/crush tells me", that's all from the ORIGINAL CREATOR of Samus.
I for one don't want to play as such a dumbass character ever again. Until then she was my idea of strong female lead, now...she reverts to helpless infancy for facing a monster SHE'S KILLED AT LEAST 2 TIMES in canon, by that point of the timeline (Metroid 1, Metroid 3 (Super) and maybe one more depending on where Prime series fits into the timeline). If anything it should be Ridley shitting his pants for seeing Samus, not the opposite.
Zelda? Since it went 3D with Ocarina, with the shining exception of Majora's Mask, it's been terrible. All that focus on story, yet it has almost no plot, all that focus on characters, yet only a couple are actually likable. And tying all the games into a timeline with the whole Hero of Time crap, just makes me not give a damn about Link because I am playing a different one every time.
The worst is that when Zelda became 3D, it lost most of its content *density*. In Zelda 1, 2, 3 and Link's Awakening, pretty much every screen has something to do with it. In Ocarina, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, all you do is roll from place to place because it's all EMPTY. It feels less like vast space and more like plain void.
Sure, it's all whimsical and celtic-ish now, but I don't really feel that trade-off. I liked it more when it was simpler in plot yet complex in gameplay. Now it's plot that tries to feel complex, and a lot of dead space between fights and events.
Mario? Damn the last ones are ridiculously easy. I still like Mario games and characters but damn, it used to be a challenge. No other complaints other than that. I mean Mario 3 and World gave you tons of extra lives, but at least you USED them instead of having them reach 99 in a couple stages. I might have become too good, but I still die to the very first Goomba while I am adjusting myself to Mario physics, so I don't think I am that good.
Starfox? Sure let's bring in Krystal, everyone likes Krystal, right? (maybe the furries, because damn she's boring). Also let's have our STAR fox walk on land for half the stages, because flying in space is for stupid people, like Peppy, who isn't in the team anymore because furries need porn. Starfox Assault was the less Starfox game I ever played. Only two traditional stages, for crying out loud (the very first and the very last no less! Everything else is free-range or on foot) The worst is that the unreleased SNES Starfox 2 suffered from the same issue of most stages being free-range, but back then Nintendo was smart enough to realize it'd alienate fans. But not now.
Nintendo still does the occasional awesome game, but it seems every time they try to reinvent their classic franchises they make a new disaster. The only thing I genuinely enjoy from them is not even exactly from them, as Pokemon is a second-party (GameFreak) and suffers certain second-class citizen problems (see the whole E-Shop not being ready to handle the traffic caused by Pokemon players, which anyone can figure it's going to be the best-selling game of the season as it's always been, and the whole Bank debacle). Nintendo's head reeks of old corporate Japanese businessmen, and that's not something that the consumers like, specially outside of Japan were we see such tactics as retrograde. Heck, even in Japan some see them as relics of the past.
If you just want to see what is there, you have to wade through pages of flappy bird clones, runners, and all the other crap just to see anything interesting.
I'm inclined to believe that runners like these are an artifact of the lack of directional control and discrete trigger buttons. Virtual gamepads don't work so well because the player can't feel where his thumbs are relative to the on-screen buttons. (I tried the free version of Pixeline and the Jungle Treasure and was disappointed with its control until I used a Bluetooth keyboard.) If the player is concentrating on the action in the middle, then the only control gestures that work are taps, tilts, and swipes, and those gestures are more suited to runners like Splashy Fish and Canabalt than to platformers with any sense of exploration.
I've heard of lazy, but this takes the cake. Or maybe, in your case, has the cake delivered, not to your front door, but to your sofa.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
But between when the PC didn't die and about 2009, how many people had gaming PCs in the living room where more than one player could comfortably fit around the monitor? How well would something like Mario Party or Smash Bros. (with different characters obviously) have done on PC? I know you're an advocate of living room PCs, but until very recently, not enough major publishers of local-multiplayer games seem to have got the hint.
Why shouldn't they code for PC instead?
Because apart from Hairyfeet, most people don't have the PC next to the TV or any other monitor big enough for 4 people to fit around.
Wii had an easy controller, easy appealing games, like Wii Sports and Wii Fit. With WiiU, they said they gone hardcore. But the hardcores don't want Nintendo products. So, I'm a casual gamer. I loved Wii. My wife loved. My tiny kids loved, because it was easy. Now, with WiiU, they offer a bad tablet experience, that requires recharge all the time. No easy controller, no wide appealing games. Wii Sports, Wii Fit, all the best selling games for all the times. Nintendo is the only company over the world, that produced a big hit in the market (and their best selling product), and denied it totally later.
The 3DS has one big advantage over smartphones and tablets: it can handle games in genres that need directional controls and trigger buttons. A touch screen is good for racing games (of which runners are a subgenre), shmups, and point-and-click, but not much else.
When they finally hack the WiiU to do homebrew, you'll see an increase of console sales.
If someone wants something comparably capable to the Wii U for running homebrew, why doesn't he just buy a slim PC, such as a Mac mini or Intel NUC, and connect its HDMI out to a TV?
Why can't the Wii U GamePad experience be had in theory on a PC plus an Android gaming tablet? I was under the impression that one could use an NVIDIA Shield, an Archos GamePad, or a JXD tablet as a PC controller and get the same experience.
I think Slashdot's filter is detecting the word "troll" multiple times in your comment. Otherwise, thank you for your insight.
Until they get frustrated at not being able to make a jump because their thumbs keep slipping off the on-screen buttons. Look at Pixeline and the Jungle Treasure for example. I tried its free version on my Nexus 7 tablet, and it was heck just trying to keep my thumbs in the right place.
The 3DS hardware is pretty high quality. As in, I've had my 3DS fall from 3+ feet onto concrete multiple times and all it has is scratches.
Can't speak to graphics, though. I think it's fine and that "better" graphics would probably just drain the battery, which I think would be a bigger problem. But I don't play cell phone games. I can't stand touch-only interfaces - especially ones that don't come with a stylus. The standard UI gives me enough trouble as it is, let alone playing a game on it.
only to find out that the PS4 isn't at all backwards compatible with the PS3 and likely never will be outside of being able to do "timed rentals" of PS3 stuff on Gaikai and stream it.. but that won't happen until sometime in 2015.
Playstation Now Open Beta is up and running as of right now. The Selection isn't large yet.
Nintendo has about a half dozen or less strong game series supporting the platform (Mario Kart, Super Smash Bro., Mario Party, Zelda, or Metroid for example). They royally hosed themselves when they released a next gen console without the backing of these series. Nobody wanted the console because they couldn't play the series games they loved. Instead, those people went out and bought a new media center or phone/tablet which doubled as a gaming platform. If they wanted to sell the WiiU, all they had to do was time their major game series release dates to within 6-12 months of the console release. This would have kept a strong console buzz going in the market long enough for Nintendo to get their console into people's home. Creating artificial product scarcity didn't help either.
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I bought the Wii U at launch, and IIRC, you could always use the Wii U Pro controller to turn on the system, select a game. Left analogue stick gives you a cursor; if the WaraWara Plaza [Mii Plaza] is on TV screen, X to switch. Unfortunately mine mostly collects dust, as I'm a PC gamer at heart, but I wouldn't trade it for a PS4/XB1.
Wow, hello Mr Context-impaired. VMWare is tough to port, but that is an artifact of VMWare: it deals directly with the architecture. Games don't.
Learn how the context of a conversation makes a difference, it will make your life better.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
1. Grab Tablet.
I have a Wii-U. I consider the tablet bulky and inconvenient, without offering enough advantage in exchange for the inconvenience. It often needs to be plugged in, making it even more inconvenient.
I'm not sure I believe that modern laptops can handle several hours of gaming.... My 3DS and laptop are both three years old and my laptop only lasts 30 minutes - tops - while my 3DS still can go for several hours. Part of the problem may be that the 3DS is a few years old. I don't think cell phones had as good batteries or processors when the 3DS was released. Perhaps it's time for the next generation of Nintendo handhelds.
I think there are some good uses of the touch screen, just not for general control. And you need a stylus. Pokémon games since Diamond and Pearl have used the touch screen pretty well, I think. But unlike dumb capacitive screens, I can actually be precise in my movements and they always recognize my inputs, rather than my phone which types the wrong letter half the time and doesn't get zooming in or zooming out.
I haven't played either of those games with gyroscope, but I did play Rhythm Thief. And I agree, the gyroscope mini-games were the worst.
So Todd, hows the masturbation thing going? You need to start saving your jizz and see how much you produce in a week or a month. Seriously, I probably shoot out a quart or more in a good month. I'm thinking of keeping it in the frig.
Mario Cart 8?
Unless you love your kids enough to provide them with quality Nintendo games insetad of the asswiped shit they get for 1$ on tablets/phones.
The quick start feature has been mentioned elsewhere, but you can now control the menu, as well as other apps that were restricted to the GamePad and Stylus such as eShop and Internet Browser, with Wii Remote or Pro Controllers.
Leela: "Is all the work done by children?" Alien: "No, not the whipping."
Boohoo, lazy basement dweller thinks he is the only person to work a twelve hour shift.
Look, the tyranny of having to put down one remote control device in order to pick up a second device is perhaps a textbook example of 'first world problems'.
Hey, I can solve the world's problems in one go. You are an underemployed super genius. Nintendo is staffed and managed by people who are short bus riding morons. You go there, get a 9-5, and parades will be thrown in your honor.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
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Poor, poor ignored armchair CEO. "If only they would listen to me! ME! ME!"
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon