Did the Wii U launch fall flat on its face?

[JCU]

What, it was Phantasy Star Games and LAN play for Mario Kart.

I don't even know why I had bought the BB adapter for the GC; I never took it online.

Four or five utilized this adapter.

Many of us believed Nintendo and its "solid strategy" pertaining to online play and thought it would be supported and when it was minimal we always thought it would get better. Nintendo itself made it sound as if the online play would be seriously addressed since Sony and MS were going that route as well. Also, don't forget finding this adapter wasn't very easy to find for some odd reason. Around here you took a trip to Walmart at midnight if you had any hopes of finding it and if you find one you purchased it regardless of what was available.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

What, it was Phantasy Star Games and LAN play for Mario Kart.

I don't even know why I had bought the BB adapter for the GC; I never took it online.

Kirby Air Ride and 1080 Avalanche used it for LAN connections as well. There's also a Japan Only RPG that uses it for both LAN and Online play called Homeland.

I bought the BBA just for PSO. It was more than worth it for that game alone if you ask me.

[WarmSignal]

All you have to do is look at the software release schedule. The Wii U should be sharing a lot of games with the the current consoles, but it's not. A lot of companies figured it out a long time ago; People buy Nintendo consoles for their games and don't buy a lot of 3rd party titles.

I just figured a lot of those had been in developement too far along to go back and port to Wii U. But at this point yeah some of them should be appearing when they aren't.

[gamevet]

Kirby Air Ride and 1080 Avalanche used it for LAN connections as well. There's also a Japan Only RPG that uses it for both LAN and Online play called Homeland.

I bought the BBA just for PSO. It was more than worth it for that game alone if you ask me.

I had planned on playing PSO III: Card Revolution, but it still sits in its shrink-wrap to this day.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

I had planned on playing PSO III: Card Revolution, but it still sits in its shrink-wrap to this day.

Episode III isn't bad, but Episode I&II is the better game for sure.

[Hidden_Darkness]

I actually like the game cube more than the N64. The GC is way underrated IMO.hardly anybody talks about it.

agreed, I also enjoyed the gamecube quite a lot. I still use mine a lot although I play a lot of gba games on it with the gameboy player attachment.

[kool kitty89]

I'm going to agree with the con. Nintendo should have released the Wii U a couple of years earlier, when Wii sales were starting to spiral down. The hardware just isn't powerful enough to convince people to stop playing their 360s and PS3s.

Michael Pachter talks about it in this interview. Scroll forward to @7:30 in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?vMfe2oMTSd70

The same hardware (or close to it) would have been very well suited to a fall 2010 release. They could have launched a technically competitive platform complemented by the features/gimmicks the Wii was sporting (including having motion plus as standard) and moved forward from there.

The whole WiiU gamepad thing could have been done later as an (expensive) accessory, and avoided the major risk of that being a fundamental part of the system. (it would have been too expensive to do in 2010 anyway, but keeping it separate later would still keep the base hardware prices down too -alongside the aging Sony and MS competition) Decent mainstream hardware combined with refined motion controls, conventional controls, and the IR pointer could have worked great for them in 2010 IMO.

2010 would have been a good time for a new competitor (another company) to enter the market in general with all the aging hardware out there, but Nintendo themselves had a lot more incentive to push new hardware too given the obsolescent at launch Wii architecture. (unlike MS and Sony who obviously wanted to keep milking their old hardware in the mainstream multiplat market)

I actually like the game cube more than the N64. The GC is way underrated IMO.hardly anybody talks about it.

It's a neat system, and the last technically impressive home console architecture Nintendo introduced. It didn't do all that badly on the market all things considered either: Nintendo's market share decline with the N64 combined with even more aggressive marketing of the PS2 and MS coming in (cutting deep into the NA market -the N64's only real stronghold).
They still ended up a distant 2nd place in Japan with the Xbox being basically nonexistent, but North America obviously was another matter entirely for Microsoft's black box. (not sure how the GC fared next to Xbox in Europe)

Still, it held up reasonably close to the Xbox's total sales figures, and almost certainly was far more profitable than MS's venture. On top of that, Nintendo had technically powerful hardware that was consistently cheaper than the competition on the market as well.

It's a shame the Wii didn't end up closer to that . . . if not actually on par with 360 raw performance (or as close as the GC was to Xbox), it still could have been much closer than it ended up being, especially for a platform running 480p, and still have the added gimmicks and much lower price points than the competition (albeit without quite the profit margins the Wii hardware pushed). Something roughly 2x as powerful as the Wii would have been about right for the time.

[Pulstar]

Nintendo is another filthy faceless corporation. They all are. I had to chuckle at Ninty's move to claim all Youtube vids featuring their games to themselves. Excellent fan service.

[Gogogadget]

Nintendo is another filthy faceless corporation. They all are.

All game companies ever are in the business of making money, what else would they be doing? Just being nice?

Sony, Microsoft & Nintendo are all guilty of treating their fans poorly at times but they don't owe people shit anyway.

[kool kitty89]

All game companies ever are in the business of making money, what else would they be doing? Just being nice?

Sony, Microsoft & Nintendo are all guilty of treating their fans poorly at times but they don't owe people shit anyway.

What differs is how they try to make money, and what other goals go parallel to that . . . including staff/divisions with more than just money on their minds. (aside from pure upper management . . . but in addition to the quality of said management, and how well the management style matches with those other divisions)

Another topic entirely though. (and a big one)

[Vector2013]

Isn't the WiiU dead by now anyway ? Nintendo won't be at E3 right ? What games are coming out, super mario 2d volume 98, super mario 2d volume 99, zelda 74, super wiiu racers, Nintendo all star fighting 35, and ?

[Segadream]

"Sony, Microsoft & Nintendo are all guilty of treating their fans poorly at times but they don't owe people shit anyway."

Actually that's the problem with the corp attitude in todays market.
They think they deserve our business and owe us nothing for it.
We give them what they want, but don't get it in return.

[MrSega]

"Sony, Microsoft & Nintendo are all guilty of treating their fans poorly at times but they don't owe people shit anyway."

Actually that's the problem with the corp attitude in todays market.
They think they deserve our business and owe us nothing for it.
We give them what they want, but don't get it in return.

It's basically that corporate mentality that's existed since the beginning of the 6th gen.(Right after Dreamcast) except the difference is that they weren't putting out shitty FPS clones, crap party games and tired old rehashes. They also weren't putting out unmemorable systems with stagnated shelf life.

I really think people are starting to miss SEGA. I'm personally glad that they've been filing paperwork to move towards changing course(something that they weren't doing at the beginning of the 7th gen). People are asking for the old Sega back. We'll get it once the SegaSammy merger FINALLY splits. (I forgot it took a full 2 years to form).

The world needs the old SEGA back,sans the disharmony, bad businesses decisions,poor management. The one who made fantastic quality consoles, flawless hardware, aggressive marketing, and stupendous 1st party talent.

[Knuckle Duster]

A shill template for MrSega posts:

1. Give a poorly thought out statement.

If nobody criticizes:

2. Give a reason the statement is relevant toward Sega's definite return to making consoles.

3. Reaffirm that Sega is awesome because of these fictional reasons.

If criticism arises from statement:

2. Call people trolls, unworthy fans, or non-believers.

3. Continue to steer threads toward conspiracy.

4. Argue that any further discussion is over before bringing it up all over again in another thread.

[Segadream]

Well did it? Guess time will tell for now.Attachment 6817