Did the Wii U launch fall flat on its face?

[mrbigreddog]

LOVE my Wii U!! But for ME anyways, it's basically a "simi" portable Xbox 360 that just happens to play some Mario as well... I really enjoy my 3DS and the only time I get to play it is at home sitting on the couch. The Wii U has taken it's place. Only time I really get to hog the big TV is late at night when the kids and the wife goto bed. But this way, I can still play Call of Duty while chilling in the Living Room and the kids and wife are watching the Big TV... So for that, I love it!

I'm enjoying my Batman Arkham City and Trine 2. I was excited about Zombie U, but I'm not very impressed with it and it doesn't have Gamepad Only play, which really sucks!! Otherwise I'd enjoy it more.

Mario HD looks beautiful!! And it's a lot of fun.

Nintendo Land is fine, I have a lot of fun playing with the kids on that one. Especially the Luigi Mansion minigame and Mario Chase mini game...

Oh and for those that haven't played one yet. When I heard that the Gamepad was only 480p... I was disappointed. But whatever they did to get the Anti-Alias or something. it really looks great on the gamepad only play. Not a huge different between that and the TV. It actually seems like there is a bit more of a delay when playing on the TV and for that I prefer to play Call of Duty on the gamepad only, even when I CAN play it on the TV.

[Barone]

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/201...ime_since_1991

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/05/wii...uy-a-wii-u-ok/

[WarmSignal]

I don't get the vicious cycle Wii U seems to be trapped in. Third parties keep opting out, and sales keep getting worse. These two key factors are interdependent and vital to the success of any console. It's sort of like the Saturn. If there's no software, no one wants it. If no one wants it, developers want nothing to do with it.

I was almost certain the Wii U would do well releasing way ahead of the competition and at a borderline affordable price, but evidently devs are still milking 360 and PS3 while just ignoring Wii U. Plus I keep hearing all this junk about how Wii U specs are way underwhelming for next gen.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Yeah, the Wii U seems to be in a similar situation to the Saturn. That situation being that it seems it can't get a break in the media. All that keeps happening is that it gets bad press for the sake of giving it bad press. In this age when gamers are getting so much news online it really does hurt a system when journalists continue to bash it over every little thing.

[Knuckle Duster]

It's not just media bashing. Nintendo still needs to show open minded customers a reason to buy a Wii U. It's just an expensive toy with no games, a high price, and more promises that awesome new games will come, something that the Wii failed to live up to due to a reliance on recycled games, classic retro digital titles, and nickle-and-dime gimmicks with controller pieces and $5-10 game roms. I'm more than willing to pay for the convenience of games I want, but not if I can't carry them over to new hardware indefinitely. Steam is going to kick the shit right out of them if OEMs decide to enter the market.


Nintendo lost it's software edge a decade ago, coasting on DS & Wii market innovations when they needed to focus on curating a convenient online ecosystem.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

While the Wii did have a lot of shovelware, I felt it also had a good amount of great titles that were worth owning.

[Knuckle Duster]

While the Wii did have a lot of shovelware, I felt it also had a good amount of great titles that were worth owning.

Compared to every previous Nintendo console, it had Wii Sports, and Mario Galaxy as groundbreaking titles. The rest were dumbed down sequels, crippled by Nintendo's reliance on pointing out the obvious with interruptions.

The Zelda's were ok, but they weren't great. Metroid Prime Trilogy remake. Punch out remake. Mario Kart sequel that wasn't anything special. Xenoblade got an extremely limited & late release because Nintendo of America is genuinely fucking stupid.

The writing is on the wall now though, even Japanese developers aren't supporting the Wii U. It's bombing hard, and you can't blame the media for it.

[WarmSignal]

While the Wii did have a lot of shovelware, I felt it also had a good amount of great titles that were worth owning.

Definitely, I think both the Wii and DS were/are well worth what's buried deep within the mountains of trashware. Plenty of good stuff there.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Compared to every previous Nintendo console, it had Wii Sports, and Mario Galaxy as groundbreaking titles. The rest were dumbed down sequels, crippled by Nintendo's reliance on pointing out the obvious with interruptions.

The Zelda's were ok, but they weren't great. Metroid Prime Trilogy remake. Punch out remake. Mario Kart sequel that wasn't anything special. Xenoblade got an extremely limited & late release because Nintendo of America is genuinely fucking stupid.

The writing is on the wall now though, even Japanese developers aren't supporting the Wii U. It's bombing hard, and you can't blame the media for it.

You can so blame the media for a lot of this. While Nintendo is to blame for late titles, the media is to blame for the overall negativity. Even when the console was doing well around late December early January the Media was going "OH NO WII U IS DOOMED!" and spreading unneeded negativity. All Nintendo has really done wrong is delay some titles, which is par for the course for Nintendo.

As for Wii titles, I can list plenty of great games for the system beyond Zelda, Mario Galaxy and Wii Sports. And I wouldn't consider Metroid Prime Trilogy a remake, it's a collection with Wii controls added to the first two titles. My top 10 Wii titles, not including Zelda or Mario titles, would be the following:

Super Smash Bros Brawl
Sonic Colors
NiGHTS Journey of Dreams
Sin and Punishment Star Successor
Tatsunoko vs Capcom
Metroid Prime 3 Corruption
Batallion Wars 2
Resident Evil 4
Xenoblade Chronicles
House of the Dead Overkill

[Knuckle Duster]

The media negativity is sourced from popular opinion. We all know what's coming this year. The Wii U's shaping up to be a secondary console all over again, only this time it's expensive and will need to compete with Xbox 360 & PS3 skus with an already massive install base.


Why would any developer want to recompile and optimize old games for the Wii U when spending money on PS4/Durango/PC development is so easily merged now, and the Wii U itself can't move software like a 360 or PS3 can? Nintendo sells it at a loss and it's still too expensive. They priced themselves out of being able to compete.

The traditional Nintendo software drought is just icing on the cake to this problem. I think they have the resources & IP to barely break even in 4 years, if they start money hatting all over the place right now for good games people want.

They're trying, but they're also doing stupid shit like avoiding E3 and showing off terrible marketing.

[old man]

I think that wonky touch screen gimmicks have had their time in the sun also. They're on phones and everything. We've all used them, sometimes to the point of nausea, and I don't think it's much of an attention grabber anymore.

[Lan Di]

UK supermarket Asda has slashed the price of the Wii U for the second time in two months. This is not good.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/uk-supe...d-time-6407856

[TrekkiesUnite118]

The media negativity is sourced from popular opinion. We all know what's coming this year. The Wii U's shaping up to be a secondary console all over again, only this time it's expensive and will need to compete with Xbox 360 & PS3 skus with an already massive install base.


Why would any developer want to recompile and optimize old games for the Wii U when spending money on PS4/Durango/PC development is so easily merged now, and the Wii U itself can't move software like a 360 or PS3 can? Nintendo sells it at a loss and it's still too expensive. They priced themselves out of being able to compete.

The traditional Nintendo software drought is just icing on the cake to this problem. I think they have the resources & IP to barely break even in 4 years, if they start money hatting all over the place right now for good games people want.

They're trying, but they're also doing stupid shit like avoiding E3 and showing off terrible marketing.

That's just it though, low software sales for new systems is typical. Why on earth should any developer expect millions of sales on the Wii U right now? There's just over 3 million of them sold.

The media has taken the Wii U launch and spun it negatively while completely ignoring the fact that many "issues" are par for course for new system launches. I'd say that is hurting the Wii U just as badly right now. Why would an average gamer buy the Wii U when every news site is reporting it's dead? Bad press has done nothing but fuel the Wii U's problems.

The only real problem with the Wii U is Nintendo's Drought. Beyond that it's just bad press blowing things out of proportion which has created a bad image for the system.

[Bottino]

Super Smash Bros Brawl
Sonic Colors
NiGHTS Journey of Dreams
Sin and Punishment Star Successor
Tatsunoko vs Capcom
Metroid Prime 3 Corruption
Batallion Wars 2
Resident Evil 4
Xenoblade Chronicles
House of the Dead Overkill

Those are some powerfull titles indeed.
One of my brother's have a Wii, now i need to convince him to get some of those games.

[FuturePrimitive]

I'll add a few Wii games:

The Last Story
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Kirby's Return to Dreamland
Donkey Kong Country Returns
Rhythm Heaven Fever
The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces

There are some really solid titles for the system if you know where to dig. I always thought of it as Nintendo's PS2.