With the announcement of the NX, Nintendo admits defeat with the Wii U

[Yharnamresident]

Yea the thing still costs $300. It has a 10-year-old PPC750 processor, DDR3 RAM thats slower than what the 360 has, and it has no HDD.

A very tempting purchase IMO.

[parallaxscroll]

Yea the thing still costs $300. It has a 10-year-old PPC750 processor, DDR3 RAM thats slower than what the 360 has, and it has no HDD.

PowerPC 750 is actually way older than 10 years. The original 750 was introduced in 1997 with the Mac G3.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC_7xx#Processors

[old man]

And people still believe Nintendo is selling the console at a loss. lol

[Dr Robotnik]

I always thought the Wii U was a final attempt to rebuild the home console market in Japan. The gamepad was there to make it feel like a handheld.

I think nintendo are in a difficult position timing wise. If the release a powerful, expensive console in 2-3 years time, will all the xbox one and ps4 owners go out and get a new system based on a few release titles, when their current systems are likely to be peaking in terms of titles released? Nintendo's reputation is already in the toilet from them selling so many kiddy games, and marketing magic wands to grannies and fat girls, I'm not sure they'll ever regain the glory of the SNES days when they had powerful hardware and some of the most appealing games.

[parallaxscroll]

In an interview with Nikkei, Iwata briefly mentioned the hardware, saying he wouldn't go into particulars about the NX. "However, if you only expand upon existing hardware, it's dull," Iwata said. "In some shape or form, we're always thinking about how we want to surprise players as well as our desire to change each person's video gaming life."

http://kotaku.com/what-to-expect-nin...rob-1693052456

[j_factor]

Sounds to me like they're relatively undeterred by the Wii U's lack of success and feel that their best shot is still the novelty approach. That makes sense, to a point.

[EclecticGroove]

I always thought the Wii U was a final attempt to rebuild the home console market in Japan. The gamepad was there to make it feel like a handheld.

I think nintendo are in a difficult position timing wise. If the release a powerful, expensive console in 2-3 years time, will all the xbox one and ps4 owners go out and get a new system based on a few release titles, when their current systems are likely to be peaking in terms of titles released? Nintendo's reputation is already in the toilet from them selling so many kiddy games, and marketing magic wands to grannies and fat girls, I'm not sure they'll ever regain the glory of the SNES days when they had powerful hardware and some of the most appealing games.

Which is valid, possibly for Japan. But why not make the system a real contender? And then make the Gamepad an optional accessory that was marketed heavily and packed in with some bundles?
The Wii-u with close to the power of the other two systems and a similar price point is pretty much all most could ask for.
That way it would get the multi plats with good enough quality to enjoy them + Nintendo's exclusives.

Would it have taken over the console market and beat Sony and MS? Who knows, but at the least, from a consumer perspective, you wouldn't be forced to have another platform (XB1, PS4, PC) to enjoy the larger chunk of games released this generation.

Sounds to me like they're relatively undeterred by the Wii U's lack of success and feel that their best shot is still the novelty approach. That makes sense, to a point.

That only makes Nintendo sense. To me it screams that they haven't learned anything and have basically chalked the Wii's success and Wii U's lack of success up to voodoo magic or something.

[Loggo]

Has anyone thought that maybe Nintendo do constant gimmicks because their shitty games aren't actually good enough to sell without one?

That might be it.

Bingo.

Software drives hardware adoption. Nintendo's problem is that their software doesn't excite people anymore. It isn't anything special and it hasn't been anything special for a very long time now.

[Folco]

Bingo.

Software drives hardware adoption. Nintendo's problem is that their software doesn't excite people anymore. It isn't anything special and it hasn't been anything special for a very long time now.

Nintendo franchises are usually decades old, they still sell million of units even on the low WiiU install base but it's true that's hard to excite with them since they are so old.
Software drives hardware adoption but the opposite is also true and that's why Mario Kart Wii sold several times more than any other MK games (except MKDS).
The gimmick (which isn't a bad word) is there to excite to mass market but just because your system has a novelty doesn't mean automatically the mass market is interested in it if said "innovation" isn't perceived immediately as exciting and if you don't have software that show at first glance its potential.
That's WiiU main problem.

My observations indicate that EA is putting sports games on the 3DS.

lol, if by sport games you mean Fifa 2012 and 2013 and then "legacy version" of said games for 2014 and 2015 then yeah.
My observation is that EA support for 3DS was in general low (not just talking about sport games) at the beginning and then dropped the following years.

[Gogogadget]

The problem with the gimmick and innovation on the Wii U is that it's cumbersome, a determent to the hardware and playablity of many games, and it's not really that innovative.

[Loggo]

Nintendo franchises are usually decades old, they still sell million of units even on the low WiiU install base but it's true that's hard to excite with them since they are so old.
Software drives hardware adoption but the opposite is also true and that's why Mario Kart Wii sold several times more than any other MK games (except MKDS).
The gimmick (which isn't a bad word) is there to excite to mass market but just because your system has a novelty doesn't mean automatically the mass market is interested in it if said "innovation" isn't perceived immediately as exciting and if you don't have software that show at first glance its potential.
That's WiiU main problem.

The gimmick is there because Nintendo's offerings aren't good enough to do their job anymore.

It's there because modern Nintendo is an incompetent, mismanaged, company that wants to avoid the actual hard work that needs to be done, in key areas, like hardware and software. So, instead, they try to invent "shortcuts" for success.

When the "shortcut" doesn't work -and the only thing left to carry the console is the software itself- they have Wii U.

[Folco]

The gimmick is there because Nintendo's offerings aren't good enough to do their job anymore.

It's there because modern Nintendo is an incompetent, mismanaged, company that wants to avoid the actual hard work that needs to be done, in key areas, like hardware and software. So, instead, they try to invent "shortcuts" for success.

When the "shortcut" doesn't work -and the only thing left to carry the console is the software itself- they have Wii U.

Nintendo software is as good as ever.
The context though is radically changed from decades ago.

[EclecticGroove]

The problem with the gimmick and innovation on the Wii U is that it's cumbersome, a determent to the hardware and playablity of many games, and it's not really that innovative.

You forgot expensive.

And on an underpowered system that one is the worst offender. The tablet is clunky, but usable. It adds nothing to most games that is of any real value, but aside from being clunky doesn't detract from the game much either.

But it's automatically pricing the system out of it's league is something that hurts it in a very real way.

[gamevet]

The software may be as good as ever, but there comes a point where you get franchise fatigue. I'm pretty much at that point with Mario, as well as his character schtick.

I don't mind Star Fox, since it's a franchise they haven't beaten to death, and a new Pilot Wings, or Wave Race would certainly be welcomed by me.

The controller itself defeats the purpose of owning a console, in that the controller becomes a segregated experience from the other people you may want to play with. It's nothing more than an glorified streaming device for video from the base station, that does nothing to enhance gameplay, like it was advertised to do.

[Moirai]

Nintendo should make a third Sin & Punishment on the Wii U with Treasure. The first two were great games..