Nintendo Shoots Itself In the Right Foot To Save The Left Foot

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pooflinger1

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If this is the route that Nintendo wants to take, then they are going to have to really get serious. Hardcore gamers will not settle for 480p. They will not settle for cartoony characters with floating balls for hands/feet. The Wii abandoned them when it was originally launched. They have alot of ground to cover before they can start taking chunks out of Sony/Microsoft. At those pricepoints, unless they have a HUGE plethora of games, Sony/Microsoft are still much more attractive platforms.
 

buzznut

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I do think the wii U moniker is very telling. They're basically saying to their fan base, "Look we don't care about social gaming anymore. We don't care if you've had parties at your house with everyone joining in. We just want a tablet to put you back on your couch."
 
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Amen. That thing is fugly. There is no way it can compete with a console that sits in it's place to be played. It looks like a portable gaming unit that has to have a mother unit to be played. I mean where are we looking here? At the fancy huge display in my hands or at my tv or both? And I'm not sure how many people are actually buying into this tablet craze. I believe it is a fad that will soon die off because who really wants another device to carry around which finds its place somewhere between a smart phone and a laptop. I use my phone to make calls, I use my laptop to do work. I would use an iPad as a... I wouldn't use an iPad.
 
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Nintendo made sure to get a couple of things right.

1) Making sure that the console wouldn't be left out of the 3rd party mix

2) Securing support from the biggest of the big boy software developers ie; EA, Ubisoft, THQ and Activision. You get them, you get it all. They'll be fine.
 
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Actually they are not alienating the wii controller user base at all. The new console will still utilize the wiimote and nunchuk and will be backwards compatible. I assume the extent to which the previous controllers and accessories (Zapper, Classic Controller) will be on a game to game basis. Overall, I'm looking forward to the Wii U. My only complaint is that they did not include the lastest hardware, just hardware newer than that of the 360 and PS3.
 

kingnoobe

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Even if this flops doesn't mean nintendo is gonna bite the dust.. He wouldn't be the first time they had something flop, just to come back with something even better then the rest.

Though I personally think if they were going for the hardcore crowd, and trying to get more devs on board.. They should've kept it simple, and just went with better hardware then their competitors have. They also might've got a lot more dev's on board with that.
 

cknobman

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Actually I thought you were quite nice in the way you chose your words.

Personally I feel the Wii U is a POS. With no online ecosystem to back up their console there is very little they can do to win too many PS3 or Xbox 360 users anyways.

Also if your going to go after "hardcore" gamers and try and get some PS3 and Xbox 360 users its a pretty stupid move to use a 4 year old graphics chip (yes when the Wii U is release in 2012 the r700 architecture will be approximately 4 years old) that does not even support the latest version of direct x.

Sorry Nintendo unless some major changes take place the Wii U will be even a bigger failure than the 3DS is shaping up to be.
 

Humans think

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I am not sure that it will end up in failure, but most probably it will. Personal screen + big screen designs have no apparent benefit except board and magic card games or strategy planners. That's the only scenario i would prefer to use it. Otherwise the sheer volume of that controller plus the possible damages u can inflict on them is not a good idea. Another possible design would be to use this tablet/controller as a hub or universal remote for many devices and services, but Nintendo doesn't have a good track in interoperability either.

On the other hand Nintendo had failed before (not very recently though), and usually the comebacks have been strong. Let's hope it survives this bump and comes up with a groundbreaking idea once more.
 
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You should keep in mind that the new Wii U still supports the old controllers. For me, the only thing that would maybe get me to buy a Wii U is the graphics update. (I actually love some of the old casual Wii games...) The new controller isn't really the main reason why i would buy it.
What i don't really understand about Nintendos E3 announcements is why they are holding back info on the hardware specs. If you want to get developpers on board now (so you have something to show when the release day comes), why not put the word out there that you have a console that is up there with PS3 and XBox360, maybe even slightly better and still mostly compatible hardware wise with at least one of them.
As a developper, that would be the news i'd expect to hear, to see that it does not need a lot of work to release games that are developped for PS3 and 360 now on the new platform and that you just need to invest some extra time to use the possibilities of that new tablet controller somehow.
 
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"You need two hands to hold it."

Oh god no! Please, spare me! Anything but that!
 
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Ummmm you are all aware that the console still utilizes all of the Wii paraphernalia right? I mean you can still use Wii controllers and junk. And honestly I fail to see how anybody can be coming to the conclusion this author has based on the very small amount of information we have been given. I'm not saying the Wii U is going to be great. I'm not saying the Wii U is going to be some big failure. My outlook is wait and see. I don't think anybody can really claim to know what Nintendo's plan for this console, and I think articles like this are wholly irresponsible.
 

xelliz

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At this point not interested...and I don't think there is anything they can add that will make me interested. I have my time and money invested in the Xbox and unless MS blows chunks on the next one thats where I will progress too. I'm sure PS3 owners intend to move to the next PS for the same reasons...time and money.
 

erinc

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You're fully entitled to your opinion. Just as long as everyone understands it is only that, an opinion. It's far too early to make judgements on this console.

I for one think it's quite innovative and it will be interesting to see where it goes. I'm suspending judgement for now.
 
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"Quite frankly, this early announcement of the Wii U and the revelation that Nintendo will abandon the Wii controller model"

Except they aren't abandoning the Wii controller. The Wii U still used the original Wiimote, as well. Considering the reports that the Wii U can only use one New Controller at a time, it's looking like local multiplayer will depend on the old Wiimote. So, yeah, it's not being abandoned.

"and move to higher-resolution games has left Wii sales as well as Wii game sales in limbo."
I don't know where you have been for the past 18 months or so, but Wii sales have been in limbo for quite some time.

"There is little value in buying a Wii right now - no one right in there mind will invest money into a Wii, if they are planning on buying more video games in the future"
A lot of the Wii's market never did plan on buying many more games in the future. They wanted Wii Sports, and maybe MarioKart. There is plenty of Value in the Wii. They're $150, and they have a great catalog of games available for most audiences. The PS2 wasn't automatically made redundant by the PS3, even with it's backwards-compatibility (same goes for the PS1 and the PS2).

"they will either switch to a competing platform or wait for the Wii U. You can look at the Wii U from several different angles, but the announcement wasn't an especially smart move and the market strategy is questionable at best."
So, what should the have done? How much different is this from any time that a new console has been announced? This situation has happened many times before.
 

internetlad

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It's been stated that you can still use the wiimote and nunchuk on it too. Probably on a good portion of the games.

This is Nintendo's Kinect or Move, it's just an update of the console itself other than a peripheral.

Mind blowing, I know.
 
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So announcing a new product at E3 is going to spell doom for a gaming company. Wow, this is shocking news, considering this is exactly how things have been done at E3 since time immemorial. Playstation 2, PS Vita, Xbox 360, Gamecube, Wii, DS, 3DS - all were announced about a year (or more!) before they launched, and all had previous incarnations they were replacing. I guess companies just shouldn't announce their products at all; the Wii U should just show up on shelves one day. Did it occur to you that Nintendo could use this announcement to discourage gamers from buying, say, a PS3 or Xbox 360 within the next quarter? Or that that might be more valuable to Nintendo than lowering its already flagging Wii sales?

The one point your aricles makes on which we both agree is that Nintendo has realized it doesn't want grandmas or three year olds playing their games this generation. And rightly so - not only do they give Nintendo a kiddie reputation, but they don't buy games, and this industry is about buying games. So good for Nintendo. Those Wii users who wants to come along for the ride are more than welcome, but Nintendo is about to return to its roots. If things go as planned, this machine will become the ultimate game device for at least the next few years. I wouldn't be so quick to underestimate Nintendo - they invented and grew this industry into what it is today. You might just be very surprised by this time next year.
 
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I remember the same article when the DS was announced, and another when the Wiimote was announced! Those were right on the money right? Oh wait, it was the opposite of that. Even if this isn't the raging success that the Wii/DS were it's not like it's going to kill Nintendo.

And as to the point of the controller is too expensive. I think Rock Band/Guitar Hero proved that people are willing to shill 80-100 bucks for a controller and those things only worked on very few games, not every game on the system.
 
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