Wii U sales are still awful

[chalmers]

I still haven't played a Mario since Mario 64. I have a lot of backlog to work on when it comes to Nintendo games. I have always had a blast with my family and friends in a good game of Mario Party though. I hope the next iteration is just as good.

 

[purbeast0]

i didn't like mario sunshine, but mario galaxy was a very good game. never played part 2 but part 1 was great. still wish they would make a mario 64 sequel though. hell if that 3ds zelda game had came out for wii u instead of 3ds (the link to the past "sequel") i would have bought a wii u for it.

 

[tential]

and last I checked the main purpose of 'anandtech.com' is PC hardware discussion. You're right, this is a console subforum of a PC hardware tech site's forum section. But my point is valid. For example.

I brew my own beer. I chat on homebrewtalk.com about it. There are sub sections of that site about cheese making and smoking meat that people chat in too. I would guess that 99-100% of those people also brew their own beer, because the main point of the site and its forums are to attract beer brewers. I probably wouldn't join that site to chat about smoking meat if I had 0 interest in homebrewing.

I just find it funny that people post on a forum meant to attract PC hardware enthusiasts get butthurt when their console love gets flamed on in jest at times. Well.....you're on a PC enthusiast website, what the fuck did you expect? I would imagine most (not as high as my beer example) of the people posting in this subforum are PC enthusiasts first, with a love of PC gaming usually coming with the territory.

Funny, because I use bodybuilding.com a lot as well. I use subsections all the time, but people who come on there who don't lift or care about body image at all will post on their and then be like huh? when people laugh at them for not lifting or caring about lifting.

I still haven't played a Mario since Mario 64. I have a lot of backlog to work on when it comes to Nintendo games. I have always had a blast with my family and friends in a good game of Mario Party though. I hope the next iteration is just as good.

Same, I always enjoy the colors and stuff, but I feel like I should be playing it with a little kid. I don't enjoy single player games though and multiplayer, most of my friends would rather play something else. Mario Party was only ever used as a drinking game lol.

 

[Carmen813]

fanboy much?

Miyamoto is working on a new IP. Probably his last new one before he retires.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Miyamoto is working on a new IP. Probably his last new one before he retires.

Ok...? So? Am I supposed to get all giddy and excited like a 6 year old at christmas? He is more of a figurehead for the design teams rather than a real creator at this point. Most of what he does now is help with ideas and make final decisions on character design etc. It's been over a decade since Pikmin came out and that game turned out to be very limited in appeal with sales being very low in comparison to other games in the market. So a new IP doesn't excite me the same way as if Naughty Dog said they have a new game in the works since their more recent original work has been of impeccable quality by comparison.

 

[Sulaco]

i didn't like mario sunshine, but mario galaxy was a very good game. never played part 2 but part 1 was great. still wish they would make a mario 64 sequel though. hell if that 3ds zelda game had came out for wii u instead of 3ds (the link to the past "sequel") i would have bought a wii u for it.

Play part 2.

Seriously. It is superior to the first game in every single way.
Sadly, they don't have the "pick-up-and-play" wow factor that SM64 had, and that's why I don't put them in the same category as SM64. The control isn't as good, some of the gimmicks are annoying with motion control (of course. It's a Wii game afterall 🙄 ), and the running around all the time upside down on the little 'planetoids' is overdone and can even be nauseating, but anyone who enjoyed SMG1 will adore 2.

 

[Fox5]

Do you think that Nintendo is just letting time go by before they release a overpowered console 4 or 5 years down the road. If the lifecycle repeats itself again (10yr Lifecycle) and current gaming PCs already are superior to the PS4 and Xbone away do you think Nintendo who has tons of money and time on their side will wait for those consoles to mature and start really lagging behind pcs. Then come out with a device twice as powerful as the PS4 for the "hardcore" gamers. Sony and Microsoft could not come up with a new system quick enough to compete. Nintendo would dominate that segment IF they were able to get 3rd party support.

It is all hypothetical just throwing that out there.

This may be Nintendo's Dreamcast moment. They'll release a system halfway through a generation (1998 in Japan for Dreamcast, 4 years into Saturn and PSX, 2 years into n64) and win on performance....

Except performance is really already good enough for most people. Cost is a big driver. They could just do what they did with the 3ds and drop the price of the Wii U. A $200 Wii U wouldn't be too awful.

That said, if Nintendo does want to get back into high end game consoles, the barrier to entry is lower than ever. Both Sony and Microsoft are using essentially off the shelf hardware, and as ARM scales up, the off the shelf hardware will only get cheaper. Pretty much anyone can make an x86 or ARM based console now. That leaves games and software as a differentiator.
Microsoft has an over-engineered OS (virtualization of non game aspects, thorough kinect integration), Sony has games and better hardware specs. Nintendo has...IPTV and virtual console?

 

[StrangerGuy]

Companies make mistakes. It's how they recover from those mistakes. Can Nintendo recover from the Wii U is what we have to wonder? I really don't know. To think though that just because they are a big company they know what they are doing is completely wrong. Business is survival of the fittest, and sometimes, you become unfit and die out. I think Nintendo has had a FANTASTIC run, but if something drastic doesn't change soon (maybe moving away from selling hardware and moving to a developer for PS3 games, Xbox 360 games or both) they'll end up out of business.

Lets talk about companies that failed to innovate.
Blackberry. MAJOR phone company, until android came along, and the touch screen. They still preferred their hardware keys. By the time they made the switch it was too late.

Palm OS. I still have a palm pilot. Where is Palm now?

Nokia? Number 1 phone company at one time. Look at them now.

Times change, if you don't figure out how to fit in which those times, they leave you.

3DS is doing well enough, even though IMO it's highly unlikely it would be printing as much money as back in the DS days. Stiff competition for casuals with iOS/Android and lack of pirate carts that made people bought the DS by the truckloads.

 

[toughtrasher]

3DS is doing well enough, even though IMO it's highly unlikely it would be printing as much money as back in the DS days. Stiff competition for casuals with iOS/Android and lack of pirate carts that made people bought the DS by the truckloads.

I hear you, man. Those carts were great! (Still have one for my DS lol shhh) but the 3DS is still here for 5 or so more years, it's still a long way to go before it dies.

 

[mmntech]

The Wii U's problems boil down to high price, lack of software, and it being too derivative of its competitors. Hardware wise, it's very similar to the Xbox 360 in performance, except with double the memory. Which gives it a slight edge. Though not enough to give it a noticeable advantage to Nintendo's target market. The 360 has a big competitive advantage as it's cheaper, has a more robust library of inexpensive games, and Kinect is a big attraction for casual gamers.

I think Nintendo did make a big mistake with the tablet, as well as pushing motion to the back burner. The motion controls were the Wii's biggest attraction. Leaving the hardcore Nintendo fans aside, tablet gaming isn't a big lure for casuals. Especially those who already own a tablet. Yes, the Wii U has bigger games but I don't think that matters to this crowd. They want something they can pick up and play. Most of the Wii's top selling games are like that.

Price puts Nintendo is a sticky situation. It's more expensive than competing consoles but Nintendo is still taking a loss on each one sold. That makes a price cut difficult.

However, I do think it can be saved. The 3DS had very similar problems in its first year. Seems Big N didn't learn from that fiasco. Software will be key. They can't keep recycling old games, like they're doing right now. The Wii U will have to have unique, exclusive triple A titles. Exclusive being the key here. This is where the company needs to start sinking its money.

 

[Carmen813]

Been playing Pikmin 3 all day. It's quite excellent - I think the reviews lowballed it a bit. The gamepad use is a lot more intricate than the reviews I read had me believe. It's a handy feature - does take some getting used to swapping around based on situation.

 

[Carmen813]

Ok...? So? Am I supposed to get all giddy and excited like a 6 year old at christmas? He is more of a figurehead for the design teams rather than a real creator at this point. Most of what he does now is help with ideas and make final decisions on character design etc. It's been over a decade since Pikmin came out and that game turned out to be very limited in appeal with sales being very low in comparison to other games in the market. So a new IP doesn't excite me the same way as if Naughty Dog said they have a new game in the works since their more recent original work has been of impeccable quality by comparison.

To each their own. Miyamoto's track record speaks for itself in my opinion. Been playing Pikmin 3 all day, first one I've played, and I'm enjoying the hell out of it.

 

[nextJin]

However, I do think it can be saved. The 3DS had very similar problems in its first year. Seems Big N didn't learn from that fiasco. Software will be key. They can't keep recycling old games, like they're doing right now. The Wii U will have to have unique, exclusive triple A titles. Exclusive being the key here. This is where the company needs to start sinking its money.

Not comparable, Nintendo can shit out a 3DS game in 4 months with a team of 10 people. They can't load the Wii U down in software because they don't understand HD, and the development times are much longer.

You're right they need original titles, and a AAA release schedule every 2-3 months letting third parties fill in the gaps. Unfortunately I can't see that happening before it's too late with Microsoft and Sony curb stomping them.

 

[mizzou]

i will never buy one, no game will convince me. I'm hoping Nintendo locks this ugly imp away and releases a proper next gen console, or focuses only on handheld and software development.

 

[insertcarehere]

That said, if Nintendo does want to get back into high end game consoles, the barrier to entry is lower than ever. Both Sony and Microsoft are using essentially off the shelf hardware, and as ARM scales up, the off the shelf hardware will only get cheaper. Pretty much anyone can make an x86 or ARM based console now. That leaves games and software as a differentiator.
Microsoft has an over-engineered OS (virtualization of non game aspects, thorough kinect integration), Sony has games and better hardware specs. Nintendo has...IPTV and virtual console?

The more I thought about it, the more an ARM-powered "AppleTV-style" Nintendo console made sense. Especially if we consider that Nintendo were likely not willing or able to compete with others in power. A 150-200 gflops Arm SoC would have been perfectly reasonable and likely dirt cheap for a holiday 2012 launch. Considering that Nintendo games in general were not reliant on cutting-edge graphics anyway, this with a Wiimotion+ bundle @ $149 and DD games ala Nintendoland for decently cheap would likely have sold well, at least more than the Wii U is currently moving now. Who knows, such a low-cost, mass-market device for gaming with shared architecture for Smartphones/Tablets might even attract a decent amount of indie developers.

That said, this would likely alienate (even more) of the core Nintendo fanbase and AAA developers, but considering what Nintendo designed with the Wii U, would this alternative be that much worse?