Nintendo Fusion Rumors (Wii U Successor)

[Lil Frier]

I'm sorry, but if you can't figure out what the Wii U is, then you're too stupid for it to even matter. People can understand that the Xbox 360 followed the Xbox. They can SOMEHOW understand that the Xbox One came AFTER the Xbox 360. If the letter 'U' is too confusing, then you're probably not someone who needs to play video games.

The name isn't the best name, but it's not THAT hard to understand what a new console is, if you've ever owned a console before. Nintendo's obviously failed at marketing the console, but it's also not that hard to look it up on the Internet. I can get not understanding how to use the Game Pad and what there is to play on the console, but to simply not know that it's a new console? That's pretty dumb.

 

[drbrock]

Yeah people are pretty dumb. If anything they are extremely dumb. Think about how hard it is for people to understand cell phone upgrades and that is something they use everyday.

Even the Xbox was confusing this Christmas. You would not believe how many people I had to explain that the Xbox One wasn't the first Xbox. Most Xbox end users are in the hardcore market. I would not see anyone spending 500 bucks on a console with no games to be anything but hardcore. Most Wii U possible buyers would more than likely not be a hard core fan who follows the latest tech news.

Either way Wii U will be a flop even though it my favorite system in a long time. here's to hoping that Nintendo will do it right the next time with marketing and online play.

 

[SaurusX]

Truthfully, I hadn't heard anything about the the Wii U until a year after it had been released. As in I didn't even know it existed. And this is coming from someone who as a kid had the NES, SNES, and N64. Somewhere along the way Nintendo's marketing did a faceplant.

 

[lamedude]

I'm still waiting for SNES CD. WTF already?

After reading this I am too. CD cartridge with NVRAM for saving why didn't Sony use that? And a FPU now you're playing with power.

 

[Fox5]

Easy way for Nintendo to salvage their market share:

Drop the tablet from the Wii U, drop the Wii U price to $150 (or even $100) and make a big push on the virtual console games. "Play all your nostalgia, for cheap!"


In a couple years, they can make a dirt cheap Roku type box that only plays things off the Virtual console and is a shared platform with their new portable.

Good enough hardware is only getting cheaper, Nintendo needs to realize that gaming needs to come down in price or they're done. Cheap system to get people in the door, and then $15-$20 games (and only a couple dollars for back catalog games) and Nintendo can be a house hold name forever and make a play at the Roku market and console market at the same time.

Imagine how successful the Ouya would be if it had new Nintendo games and Nintendo's back catalog.

 

[zerocool84]

Easy way for Nintendo to salvage their market share:

Drop the tablet from the Wii U, drop the Wii U price to $150 (or even $100) and make a big push on the virtual console games. "Play all your nostalgia, for cheap!"


In a couple years, they can make a dirt cheap Roku type box that only plays things off the Virtual console and is a shared platform with their new portable.

Good enough hardware is only getting cheaper, Nintendo needs to realize that gaming needs to come down in price or they're done. Cheap system to get people in the door, and then $15-$20 games (and only a couple dollars for back catalog games) and Nintendo can be a house hold name forever and make a play at the Roku market and console market at the same time.

Imagine how successful the Ouya would be if it had new Nintendo games and Nintendo's back catalog.

How can they drop the tablet from the WiiU? It's part of the system as a whole and games wouldn't work at all without it.

 

[Fox5]

How can they drop the tablet from the WiiU? It's part of the system as a whole and games wouldn't work at all without it.

Microsoft is thinking about dropping the connect, where there's a will, there's a way.

It's not essential for most games. I'd imagine they could do a system update that keeps track of which games require the tablet, and warns the user for those games, and anything else is ready to go. Tablet can be an optional add on.

 

[purbeast0]

Microsoft is thinking about dropping the connect, where there's a will, there's a way.

It's not essential for most games. I'd imagine they could do a system update that keeps track of which games require the tablet, and warns the user for those games, and anything else is ready to go. Tablet can be an optional add on.

quoted for stupidity.

 

[zerocool84]

Microsoft is thinking about dropping the connect, where there's a will, there's a way.

It's not essential for most games. I'd imagine they could do a system update that keeps track of which games require the tablet, and warns the user for those games, and anything else is ready to go. Tablet can be an optional add on.

Kinect is not needed except for those few Kinect games, all the other stuff is optional, WiiU needs the controller for many games. There's a big difference between the two.

 

[Fox5]

quoted for stupidity.

FU.

The biggest game on the system and the Wii U's game of the year, Super Mario 3D World, barely uses the tablet.
The new Donkey Kong Country game doesn't use it either.

A lot of the big name Nintendo games on the Wii U only have at best token use of the tablet. It's shoehorned into the system and Nintendo doesn't even know what to do with it. It also has considerably less potential than the Kinect anyway, and yet people seem convinced Microsoft will release an Xbox One without a kinect.

There's quite a few people who only want Nintendo for classic style Nintendo games. These don't require hardware much more advanced than the Wii; the Wii U is probably about perfect for that style of game. For a large portion of Nintendo's fanbase, the tablet offers nothing but more cost.

 

[swilli89]

I really want a Wii U for their 1st party games and especially Wii Sports Golf HD. The problem is I also want a PS4 and I have roommates. Additional controllers invested into each is beyond my income.

Its important to look at historical trends but its also important to realize that the generation that was eating up Mario 64 and Pokemon Red are now in their mid 20's or older.

FORGET about alienating Wii U buyers. I hate that argument. They can continue to support it like Sony does PS3. I'd rather save the company and risk that.

Here are three key things that I think Nintendo should make as their next console:

1. I would name it simply "Nintendo" "Hey I got the new Nintendo!" Nothing as absurd as Wii U 2 or whatever.

2. Give it the hardware. Wait for 20nm and simply source the same Jaguar/GCN system from AMD that the other guys did. Except on 20nm design for around 1400 graphics cores. AMD will gladly do this. This could be done Holiday '15.

There are 2 huge benefits to this.
A. STANDARDIZATION. The Devs that develop for PS4/Xbox1 can EASILY port their offerings over, and just tick a few boxes such as higher AA/AF and draw distance which will allow nintendo to differentiate for cheap.

B. Like I mentioned, we as a generation are getting older, getting higher salaries. A lot of us have 50+" TVs and want hardware to push it.

3. Finally, this may seem novel but develop a GREAT, INCLUDED controller. A pro-esque control with two analog sticks - whole 9 yards. Good feel and weight. Retain the Wii motes for some games but it ALL STARTS with the controller. I know Wii U has a pro controller, notice I said "included"

Combine this grown up console that is easy to develop for, has a graphical edge, the same great nintendo content, and a great competitive caliber controller; and you have an absolute knockout at even $400.

 

[007ELmO]

i played wii sports golf demo, it wasn't as good as I had hoped, but probably because I'm bad at golf in real life - lol.

I always thought the original wii sports golf could have had a chance if it was full fledged and more like mario golf from N64, they never did it.

 

[batmang]

Mario 3D World is great, and then you beat it and the nostalgia feeling is gone.

Mario Kart 8 will be great, and then you beat it and the nostalgia feeling is gone.
- Then you play multiplayer, get bored of it, and the nostalgia feeling is gone.

Super Smash bros U will be great, and then you beat it and the nostalgia feeling is gone.
- Then you play multiplayer, get bored of it, and the nostalgia feeling is gone.

DK is great and then you beat it, same old same old.

Where are the new games Nintendo? 🙁

 

[Lil Frier]

I still think that they should abandon the tablet and make the 3DS the Wii U companion device. Make it an optional portion of the console, but make is powerful enough to where you could straight-up take your games with you on the go. Have software harmony across the platforms. Stop depriving the Wii fans of Pokemon.

 

[artemicion]

FU.

The biggest game on the system and the Wii U's game of the year, Super Mario 3D World, barely uses the tablet.
The new Donkey Kong Country game doesn't use it either.

A lot of the big name Nintendo games on the Wii U only have at best token use of the tablet. It's shoehorned into the system and Nintendo doesn't even know what to do with it. It also has considerably less potential than the Kinect anyway, and yet people seem convinced Microsoft will release an Xbox One without a kinect.

There's quite a few people who only want Nintendo for classic style Nintendo games. These don't require hardware much more advanced than the Wii; the Wii U is probably about perfect for that style of game. For a large portion of Nintendo's fanbase, the tablet offers nothing but more cost.

Disagree. The Wii U gamepad lets me play pretty much any game in 1080p (edit: oops, not 1080p) anywhere in the house, which has been pretty handy in my experience and frees up the TV for someone else to use. Ditching it would be pretty stupid since you'd be pissing off everyone who bought one and you'd be ditching the #1 feature that differentiates the Wii U from the competition.

Given Nintendo's history for sticking to fairly conservative business strategies, I doubt they are going to do much to try to "save" the Wii U. They'll probably stick to more modest (read: cheap) fixes that will maximize their profits.

I do think they should move toward unifying the Wii/Wii U/3DS platform. Cross-platform games would go a long way. Purchases, particularly virtual console, could also be cross platform so people don't need to buy three versions of Zelda to play on Wii, Wii U and 3DS. Unifying the Wii and Wii U menus on the Wii U would also be helpful, as the current setup is inefficient and frankly astonishingly unprofessional looking. Anyone with an ounce of programming experience looks at the separate Wii and Wii U menus and thinks that Nintendo was just too stupid and too inexperienced to program a cleaner interface, which is a destroyer of consumer confidence.

If its feasible to add 3DS emulation to the Wii U, that could go a long way as well. The hardware is there: the gamepad screen can serve as the 3DS's lower touch screen with the TV serving as the upper screen. I believe the gamepad's 1080p screen also has enough pixels to accommodate both 3DS screens. Releasing 3DS games on Wii U would be a huge bump to the software library. Making the digital versions of the game cross-play compatible would be a huge feature (i.e., buy the digital Pokemon X and play it on either the Wii U or the 3DS, with game saves synced).

 

[Exophase]

Disagree. The Wii U gamepad lets me play pretty much any game in 1080p anywhere in the house, which has been pretty handy in my experience and frees up the TV for someone else to use. Ditching it would be pretty stupid since you'd be pissing off everyone who bought one and you'd be ditching the #1 feature that differentiates the Wii U from the competition.

You can play 1080p on a 480p tablet..?

Making a version lacking an almost entirely optional feature, like the ability to play games away from your TV, could be viable. Or at least it is with 2DS. But I don't think releasing a version of Wii U without the pad is going to work, there's too much core functionality tied up in existing games.

If its feasible to add 3DS emulation to the Wii U, that could go a long way as well.

I doubt this will happen. F it's practical at all (and I'm skeptical) I doubt Nintendo has the expertise. I'm surprised they're even managing DS emulation, remains to be seen how many games they support there.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Disagree. The Wii U gamepad lets me play pretty much any game in 1080p anywhere in the house, which has been pretty handy in my experience and frees up the TV for someone else to use. Ditching it would be pretty stupid since you'd be pissing off everyone who bought one and you'd be ditching the #1 feature that differentiates the Wii U from the competition.

No it doesn't the gamepad has a resolution of 854x480. It's not even close to HD.

If a game uses the gamepad as it should (putting overworld maps, status information, weapon selection etc on the screen), you can't bring it anywhere and keep playing in second screen mode since that game would not support "off Tv play". The problem with the gamepad is it is being used mostly as a mirror of what's on the TV instead of using it in ways that make the games more unique to differentiate it. Also the range is not much greater than 30 feet from the console depending on the environment.
http://kotaku.com/5958862/my-wii-u-is-in-the-living-room-but-i-can-play-its-games-in-my-bedroom

 

[artemicion]

No it doesn't the gamepad has a resolution of 854x480. It's not even close to HD.

If a game uses the gamepad as it should (putting overworld maps, status information, weapon selection etc on the screen), you can't bring it anywhere and keep playing in second screen mode since that game would not support "off Tv play". The problem with the gamepad is it is being used mostly as a mirror of what's on the TV instead of using it in ways that make the games more unique to differentiate it. Also the range is not much greater than 30 feet from the console depending on the environment.
http://kotaku.com/5958862/my-wii-u-is-in-the-living-room-but-i-can-play-its-games-in-my-bedroom

My bad, I thought it was 1080p. Oh well.

Several games support off TV play while using the gamepad for map, status, weapon selection, etc. features. Pikmin for one. I believe in off-tv mode, you press a button to toggle the gamepad display between what would be shown on tv and what would be shown on the gamepad if you were playing on the tv.

 

[cmdrdredd]

My bad, I thought it was 1080p. Oh well.

Several games support off TV play while using the gamepad for map, status, weapon selection, etc. features. Pikmin for one. I believe in off-tv mode, you press a button to toggle the gamepad display between what would be shown on tv and what would be shown on the gamepad if you were playing on the tv.

It's only one game out of many that function this way. I remember the Wii, most of the games even Nintendo first party games only used waggle controls (no true 1:1 motion). It took until Skyward Sword for me to find a game that required more than waggle in order to progress through the game. I didn't play everything, but I know that in Mario Galaxy for example it only made very minor use of the motion control and that Wii Sports Resort used it better as a tech demo than most of the major releases. Nintendo builds this hardware but doesn't really make much use out of it. It's strange to me.

 

[artemicion]

It's only one game out of many that function this way. I remember the Wii, most of the games even Nintendo first party games only used waggle controls (no true 1:1 motion). It took until Skyward Sword for me to find a game that required more than waggle in order to progress through the game. I didn't play everything, but I know that in Mario Galaxy for example it only made very minor use of the motion control and that Wii Sports Resort used it better as a tech demo than most of the major releases. Nintendo builds this hardware but doesn't really make much use out of it. It's strange to me.

I agree that the motion controls on the Wii are atrocious (I thought even Skyward Sword's motion controls were a nuisance). But I think the gamepad's second screen has potential. It's not a must-be-implemented-in-every-future-console feature like the analog control stick, but IMO brings more to the table than motion control does. Off-TV play was one. Dedicated screens for multiplayer is another, which is currently untapped. IMO, Nintendo should find a studio to develop a Borderlands/Gears of War/Halo type cooperative FPS game that can use the gamepad as a separate screen for a second player.

Edit: I do agree, as a general proposition, that Nintendo has a poor track record with hardware "features." Motion control sucked. The DS's dual screens were stupid in that I think the hardware would have been better overall if it had a single, bigger, screen. 3D in the 3DS was stupid. Single-analog stick design on the 3DS was stupid.

 

[007ELmO]

You guys didn't play boom blox apparently.

 

[cmdrdredd]

You guys didn't play boom blox apparently.

uh...what? lol Nope...never heard of it.

 

[007ELmO]

xD. It's really old now, but steven spielberg made it for the Wii. It's definitely a lot more than just waggle, think multiplayer jenga but on super steroids.

 

[Fox5]

Disagree. The Wii U gamepad lets me play pretty much any game in 1080p (edit: oops, not 1080p) anywhere in the house, which has been pretty handy in my experience and frees up the TV for someone else to use. Ditching it would be pretty stupid since you'd be pissing off everyone who bought one and you'd be ditching the #1 feature that differentiates the Wii U from the competition.

Given Nintendo's history for sticking to fairly conservative business strategies, I doubt they are going to do much to try to "save" the Wii U. They'll probably stick to more modest (read: cheap) fixes that will maximize their profits.

I do think they should move toward unifying the Wii/Wii U/3DS platform. Cross-platform games would go a long way. Purchases, particularly virtual console, could also be cross platform so people don't need to buy three versions of Zelda to play on Wii, Wii U and 3DS. Unifying the Wii and Wii U menus on the Wii U would also be helpful, as the current setup is inefficient and frankly astonishingly unprofessional looking. Anyone with an ounce of programming experience looks at the separate Wii and Wii U menus and thinks that Nintendo was just too stupid and too inexperienced to program a cleaner interface, which is a destroyer of consumer confidence.

If its feasible to add 3DS emulation to the Wii U, that could go a long way as well. The hardware is there: the gamepad screen can serve as the 3DS's lower touch screen with the TV serving as the upper screen. I believe the gamepad's 1080p screen also has enough pixels to accommodate both 3DS screens. Releasing 3DS games on Wii U would be a huge bump to the software library. Making the digital versions of the game cross-play compatible would be a huge feature (i.e., buy the digital Pokemon X and play it on either the Wii U or the 3DS, with game saves synced).

I'm not saying remove tablet support from games. I'm saying remove the tablet from the system to sell it cheaper. Most games already work without it, and it only adds minor features (other than being able to play your games anywhere within 20ft of your Wii U, a feature which sony duplicated with the PS Vita).

Also, Nintendo made a 2ds. They took a system that was named for a feature, and removed that feature. They can totally remove the tablet from the Wii U.

As far as maps and extra info...
Sega did it on the Dreamcast. It certainly added to the experience then, but it wasn't mandatory and that only added $30 to the system cost.
Nintendo also did it on the Gamecube with the GBA. It was most effective in multiplayer games to hide information from other players. I don't think the Wii U really has any games like that right now. Honestly though, the Dreamcast idea actually has merit now, embed a small, cheap LCD screen into the controller. It doesn't need to be high res, just enough to display a little extra info like a mini map or fighting game moves.

 

[007ELmO]

yeah but the 2ds is made for like 5 year olds mate. then you referenced sega dreamcast, a console that suffered a quick death, xD. rampant pirating killed it