Can the Wii U Survive Against the PS4 and Xbox One? 335
An anonymous reader writes "Now that both Sony and Microsoft have announced their next-gen consoles, and we've gotten solid information about their hardware, technology, and features, Eurogamer asks whether Nintendo's struggling Wii U will be able to hold its own once the new competition arrives. 'Wii U has tanked — there's no other way to put it — with even the release of traditional big-hitters like Dragon Quest 10 failing to make a dent in the Japanese market. If you believe certain analysts, April saw things getting even worse in the U.S. with the Wii U shifting under 40,000 units, easily outsold by the 360 and PS3 — and, even more embarrassingly, the Wii.' If the Wii U doesn't see a miraculous turnaround, Nintendo may be left with the difficult choice of whether to port its software to competing consoles. It'll also serve as a bellwether to see if the big gamer complaint about the new Sony and Microsoft consoles — that they're only partly about games — is honest. 'At a time when the goal of its competitors is to own the living room, the extent of Nintendo's ambition is simply to be in it — a dedicated games console, and no more.'"
More like... (Score:5, Interesting)
... can the game industry survive expensive AAA games?
THQ recently went bankrupt, EA's stock has taken a huge dump from past highs and activision survives mainly by WoW and Call of duty. At this point the next console generation is the least interesting console generation in a long while. Since games have become some multi-headed hydra of trying to be a jack of all trades, master of none in order to sell games to the lowest common denominator. Most modern games are little more then movies /w over simplified gameplay at this point.
A revolution in tools is needed to scale back team sizes and game development costs and that's decades away. If anything the game industry is probably the most out of touch industry looking for fast $ by releasing games too early with little to no changes.
Re:More like... (Score:4, Interesting)
This is why I think we're seeing Indy games thrive more.
Re: (Score:3)
Sony has no fee for developing on the PSN last I checked, and has a large number of fantastic 'indie' titles from fl0w back near launch to the Cave.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
The question is whether the industry can survive AAA priced titles that are really only B games? THQ and EA say they put out AAA titles but that's only in cost to make not quality. The industry can survive the costs. It can't survive overpriced shit.
Re: (Score:3)
They're going for gameplay. Again. (Score:5, Insightful)
All those "classic" 8-bit games -- Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Archon -- became classics not because of the awesome graphics they packed into a ROM space too small for a fucking To Do list for your mother these days but because of the gameplay. Compare and contrast with Clickfest Diablo 3.
Tanking? Nintendo are out there not resting on their laurels and working on the one thing that leads to long-term success. Or do you play Minecraft for the incredible graphics experience only achievable with a €3,000 rack of graphics cards?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, all of those "lo fi" games you mention were, in fact, graphically impressive when they came out.
The Japanese have a wonderful ability to take success and iterate over and over, but Nintendo is having a harder time keeping it fresh.
Oh, and Minecraft does take advantage of high-end hardware quite nicely. I doubt that the Wii U has the chops to do much with that engine before the CPU grinds to a halt and the memory fills up like a sinking ship...
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:They're going for gameplay. Again. (Score:5, Insightful)
2) Terrible gimmicks are Nintendo's fault? I like DDR (because I can beat my wife at it). I like Mario Kart (my kid likes to play with me). I like LfD and the old arcade-style quick games that Sports and similar offer. My wife likes the yoga shit. NfS sucks because it tries to force non-native controls on the Wii controller, just like the shitty port of Bully to the PC did.
3) Again, how is this Nintendo's fault? Fucking FIFA 2013 is nothing but a goddamned rebadge of FIFA2012. How is that you blame anyone but the publisher?
4) Games don't have to implement motion control anymore than PacMan had to find a use for the fire button that all home 8-bit consoles had at the time. Again, whose fault is this?
I live in Germany; we ain't got no Netflix (but we do have USB sticks and a Samsung TV capable of playing damned near anything in an AVI wrapper).
Re:They're going for gameplay. Again. (Score:4, Funny)
Every gamer I know who has a Wii played Wii Sports to death, maybe played a couple other games on there, and then has let it collect dust. Every non-gamer I know who bought one only uses it as a Netflix box. The Wii may have been a financial success for Nintendo, but it was a dud of a console as far as entertainment value goes.
I find it useful, to this day. The blinking blue lights around the DVD slot keep me from tripping over things when I come down here in the middle of the night.
No idea WTF the blue blinking means, or how to make it stop. Haven't turned it on in years, but at least I can avoid stomping down on a cat toy at 2am.
Re: (Score:2)
Same goes for New Super Mario Bros. Wii also. NSMB for the DS is an amazing game and only makes you use the touch screen for calling a power up with a giant button on there. NSMBWii makes you do stupid controller wiggles for all kinds of shit like the spin jump move that would work nicely by pressing UP+A. Instead you gotta wiggle the fucking controller and hoped you wiggled it enough and slow enough for the game to register. It turned a great game into a frustrating mess.
Re: (Score:3)
All those "classic" 8-bit games -- Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Archon -- became classics not because of the awesome graphics they packed into a ROM space too small for a fucking To Do list for your mother these days but because of the gameplay. Compare and contrast with Clickfest Diablo 3.
Actually, for what its worth, we were pretty well blown away when those games were being released -- because the graphics WERE awesome. Pac Man? Holy shit color and music! Donkey Kong? Like ten things moving on the screen at once!
And the games turning into classics has more to do with nostalgia and marketing -- the games you know about from that era are the games that were marketed well, and showed up in every pizza place and bar. There were hundreds of games with the identical gameplay -- many of them bett
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure that generation was the Wii/PS3/XBox 360 generation .
I don't think the Wi belongs on that list there, but other than that I agree. I think that from here on we're looking at diminishing returns on graphics quality. That being said I look forward to have things like larger maps. better physics and things like that which will be allowed by better hardware, but even that probably only has another generation before it peaks. I wouldn't be surprised to find that the PS4/Xbox One generation lasts 10+ years.
Re: (Score:3)
The Gamecube was actually more powerful than the PS2, the market leader. And it had some damn good games and a good controller, too.
The problem that Nintendo has is that publishers like to target the largest audience, and Nintendo's use of non-standard controls make it hard to justify making a game exclusively for the Wii (U) when it won't get as many sales as making it for Sony and Microsoft. What you wind up with is games with tacked-on motion (or tablet) controls. It's a different story in the handheld f
Re: (Score:3)
The Wii cleaned up the last generation; not only did it outsell Xbox 360 and PS3 in all markets, but it was also sold at a profit from day one. And the Gamecube was a hardware powerhouse compared to the PS2 and Dreamcast, with no gimmicks (old-fashioned gamepad and an optical disk drive). And if by "last three" generations, you mean to include the one before that- N64 was another gimmick-free hardware powerhouse (biggest selling point being "64 bit"- a purely technical boast).
Not that I'm disagreeing with t
used games (Score:5, Insightful)
I will buy into the platform that lets me buy and sell used games openly, without paying a tax to the mothership.
I buy maybe 1 or 2 games a year for my xbox 360 and I buy them all used because I play to relax and to me Halo 3, 4, 5, 6 whatever all look pretty much the same, I run, I shoot I am happy. That said, I will ony buy a next gen console that allows me the freedom to do two key things:
1: Loan games to friends, and play games that I am loaned
2: Buy and Sell used games freely without paying a pimp fee to MS/Sony/Nintendo/Activision/EA/whoever
Simple as this: if I cant walk into game stop 30-45 days after a title is released and buy it for ~1/2 new price, and sell my 2-3 year old game back for like $5 to lower that cost a bit more, then I just wont game at all because its too expencive for what it is. Again, I have plenty of disposable income, so it isn't an affordability thing, its a value issue.
Re:used games (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, What about longevity, if the thing has to phone home, what happens in 20 year when my kids want to mess around with an xbox one they got for $10 at the garage sale next door? long after all the servers are shut down, hell, for all we know, ms and sony may not even exist at that point! what then I ask?!?!
I can still fire up the Playstation (the first one had no numbers after the name kids) and play gran tourismo (again, before the numbers :) ) just like I did in grade school, but kids who get xbox one or PS3 or whatever may not have that same right.
Re: (Score:2)
Also, What about longevity, if the thing has to phone home, what happens in 20 year when my kids want to mess around with an xbox one they got for $10 at the garage sale next door? long after all the servers are shut down, hell, for all we know, ms and sony may not even exist at that point! what then I ask?!?!
I can still fire up the Playstation (the first one had no numbers after the name kids) and play gran tourismo (again, before the numbers :) ) just like I did in grade school, but kids who get xbox one or PS3 or whatever may not have that same right.
Well, thankfully for Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft -- all of which don't meet your criteria -- hundreds of millions of people don't care about those things, and as a result, none of the three care in the least about your opinion.
At least in 2013, there are all the Kickstarter consoles you can look to, I suppose.
Re: (Score:2)
Uh, you ever hear of this thing called RoHS?
Re:used games (Score:4, Insightful)
I feel the same way, but what you need to remember in order to leave an intelligent and useful comment is that the game industry does not care about you. You simply don't represent enough additional revenue. How much do you think your participation in the used game market increases the initial retail value of a game? Five dollars? Ten at the outside? There's just no reason for anyone whose motivation is profit to cater to you. That leaves out anything more serious than a hobby effort. I hope that means that you've already reconciled yourself to playing indie and hobbyist games, because that's what's coming for you at this rate, on consoles at least. There has been some successful push-back against DRM on PCs, but there has also been massive acceptance of Steam even though it features DRM which prevents resale of used games, even if you bought them in a brick and mortar store. Once you're not able to resell console games, PC games will surely follow en masse.
Those of us who only buy one or two new games per year, if that, are simply not able to influence corporate direction in the gaming market. We are going to have to look elsewhere if we want to continue gaming. I've funded one game on kickstarter and I pay (very little, but something) for indie games through humble bundles, but sadly only one of the humble bundle for android games (contre jour) actually runs on my phone without crashing. In spite of most of them being tinkertoy games by comparison to A-list titles, they use as much disk space or even more.
I guess I'll spend more and more of my gaming hours in emulation in the future, being more or less completely unwilling to pay for games... Grand Theft Auto V may be the last A-list title I ever buy new, which I probably will do. I don't have a Wii U (asymmetric controllers THPPPPT) and I'm not planning on buying an Xbox One or a PS4 no matter what. I'm getting an Ouya but I'm buying it on the strength of XBMC (which runs but so far without hardware decoding) and running emulators and I may never buy a game from them. If it even runs games properly that's a side benefit to me. So in short, what reason do corporate publishers have to care about either of us?
Re: (Score:3)
> How much do you think your participation in the used game market increases the initial retail value of a game? Five dollars? Ten at the outside?
The entire initial retail value of the game.
Without a market, you have no place to sell your stuff. Used games increase the overall market for games in general. So do games that are just cheap. They all contribute to an overall experience that entices the console buyer.
It's all interconnected.
Not everything has to be a blockbuster. Not everything has to be a ba
Re: (Score:3)
How much do you think your participation in the used game market increases the initial retail value of a game? Five dollars? Ten at the outside?
The entire initial retail value of the game.
No one but you believes that.
Without a market, you have no place to sell your stuff. Used games increase the overall market for games in general
Yes, and the question is how much. The idea that there would be no new market whatsoever if there were no used market is ridiculous, and you deserve ridicule for expressing it. Maybe 80% of the perceived value is based on the ability to resell, maybe it's 8%, but it's definitely not 100%.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not looking for a place to sell my stuff. I want to keep my stuff. I don't sell my games, because I enjoy having my rather large collection of them.
Re: (Score:3)
While many people on Slashdot keep claiming that the used game market is significant when compared to the new game market, they are all completely wrong. That is not my subjective opinion, it is a fact taken from the actual evidence: The size of the used game market.
The new car market is 14.5 billion, vs a 40.5 billion used car market. That is a healthy used market.
The new games market is about 22 billion vs a 2.5 billion used game market. While Gamestop may make most of its money on used games, the used ga
Re: (Score:2)
Not sure where you're getting your numbers from but they're WAY off:
If you were to take your "new car market" number of $14.5 billion and http://www.gbm.scotiabank.com/English/bns_econ/bns_auto.pdf [scotiabank.com] Scotiabank's 2012 # of units produced: 62.45 million you'd have an average price of $232 per vehicle globally.
The US market alone the used car estimate is over 350 billion and while estimates are that twice as many used cars are sold as new - the prices are obviously radically different though. US new car sales
Re: (Score:3)
Not sure where you're getting your numbers from but they're WAY off:
Wow, I really did mistake the numbers I was gathering for my post. Those were not sales, they were total cars sold. And the numbers were in the millions, not billions.
14.5 million new cars were sold in the US in 2012 (source [nytimes.com]), and 40.5 million used cars sold (source [msn.com]). Considering the average price of a new car is now about $30k (source [forbes.com]) and the price of a used car sale is about $10k (source [msn.com]), that puts the actual size of the market at the values listed below.
$435 billion new car market vs $405 billion use
Re: (Score:2)
These are all based on a lot of estimates which vary slightly between sources, however, I would take serious issue with your source for game data - the source and the citations are interesting to say the least. NPD group on the other hand is a long standing market research group with experience estimating these types of things.
Re: (Score:3)
Conservative estimating though would suggest that the used market is at least as large, unit wise, as the new market and that's why Microsoft and publishers want control of it.
Oops, forgot to refute this as well. Unit wise, the used game market is one fourth of the new game market. Considering that unit wise the used car market is 3 times the size of the new car market, it still holds that the used game market is much less of an influence on total game sales than the used car market is on total auto sales.
I only have anecdotal evidence on how much the resale value of cars impacts someone's new car purchase. But the type of person I know who buys a new car isn't thinking too muc
Re:used games (Score:4, Informative)
If you dig a little deeper - you'll find a sizable chunk of people do care/don't purchase that way. From a 2006 report from OTX:
http://gamasutra.com/images/OTXresale/OTXResaleStudy_howotheybuy.png [gamasutra.com]
59% buy new before the game drops in price, 41% find a cheaper alternative (gift, used, bundle, after price drop). Gamestop's numbers are fairly close to this with a 68.5% to 31.5% split, but then again budget conscious gamers like myself don't buy used games at Gamestop because they're usually double the price of the local competition/online/etc
The major thing which is not accounted for in either set of data is the pass around value. Games which leave my collection generally end up in 3-5 hands before being sold/lost track of/damaged/etc.
Re: (Score:3)
59% buy new before the game drops in price, 41% find a cheaper alternative (gift, used, bundle, after price drop).
I'm not sure how you come to your conclusions. The figures show that games come from 67% new, 13% used, 12% gift, 7% bundle. Only 13% are used, although perhaps a small number of the 12% from gifts are used. So they are showing that somewhere around 80-85% of game sales are new games. And it also shows that even when people are trying to save a little money, they still prefer new games.
While gamasutra does show that a larger percentage of gamers do sell their games than I would have guessed, it still sho
Re: (Score:3)
While I own a lot of used games myself, I've always been partial to Sony's mandatory price cut on games that have sold well.
The Greatest Hits program means any PS3 game that's been out for at least 10 months and sold a half million copies will sell at no more than $29.99. The 10 month wait is a bit long but its a great idea and I hope they keep it up on the PS4.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_Hits_(video_games) [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Another thing to keep in mind is inflation. That $60 that you're paying now is worth less th
Will the Wii U let you play used games? (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes. Yes it will.
Consoles in general are going the way of the dodo. This all-in-one media center thing is pretty stupid, you can get a nettop/boxee/android based player for 50-100 bucks that can do all the advanced interactive media features Microsoft and Sony are so excited about (play netflix and youtube).
I don't know if people are stupid enough to pay 5-6 hundred to Microsoft or Sony for the same functionality.
I don't expect to see record breaking sales from any of the big three consoles. But Nintendo is smart to keep the cost down (oh noes hardcore gamerz, it doesnt have 32 core mega gigablips), and trade off their in house titles.
Nintendo consoles end up in kids bedrooms, not living rooms. Things will pick up for them after a price drop. Nintendo doesn't need to outsell Sony or MS, they play their own game. They just need to sell enough to keep pushing out the Mario and Zelda titles.
Re: (Score:2)
Nintendo is also the most profitable company per employee. With only ~5000 employees they can afford a poor selling console easily.
I predict PS4 "wins" this round but no one wins overall (esp the consumer) and Steambox and/or PC will make a resurgence... just not enough to really put it on the map.
Re:Will the Wii U let you play used games? (Score:5, Interesting)
Nintendo is also the most profitable company per employee. With only ~5000 employees they can afford a poor selling console easily.
I predict PS4 "wins" this round but no one wins overall (esp the consumer) and Steambox and/or PC will make a resurgence... just not enough to really put it on the map.
I bought the Wii when it came out. I liked the ability to play with up to four other players in certain games. Plus, I used the Wii Fit from time to time to switch up my exercise routine. Beyond the occasional use, it sits there gathering dust. I'm certainly not going to upgrade to the Wii U.
I used to be an avid PC gamer but switched over to the XBox 360 when it came out. I then switched to the PS3 a few years later as my brother-in-law had the PS3 and I wanted to be able to exchange games with him. I've used it for gaming until recently. Skyrim, and the problems with the PS3 DLCs, forced me to switch back to the PC Now, I tend to use the PS3 mostly for Netflix. However, my new Blu-ray player supports Netflix as well, so the PS3 is largely also going unused.
Today, I'm back to PC gaming and loving it. I had forgotten just how great the graphics are, how fast the games load, and how much user generated content is available. I've since purchased the XBox connector and enjoy playing games on my HD TV using my XBox controller.
Personally, I'm not interested in the new consoles....
Re: (Score:2)
I'm about the same - I've got a more ideological take on it but PS3, Wii, Kinect are all dust collectors for me. 360 gets played constantly but almost never used for anything but games. Bluray was never important for me since the video rental industry collapsed at the time DVD was still popular and prices hadn't come down on purchasing Bluray (did they ever? no idea).
I'm not a huge fan of Steam's DRM but with the recent EU decision I'm hoping reselling will be possible across the board. Either way I don
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
See, that's what I've been saying, Consoles are going bye-bye. People have come to the conclusion that the previous Gen is just as good and not worth upgrading. And didn't devs already say the next generation of Video Games will be $100+?.
I really haven't heard any young people talking much about the Next Gen. Frankly I think they are more concerned with their Phones than sitting at home in front of a Television. I predict this new Gen of Consoles will pan out to be in-line with what happened to Wii U.
I'll
Re: (Score:3)
The dedicated players are often fanless, and thus much quieter too...
Some of the consoles can make quite a noise which can become a significant annoyance when trying to watch a movie.
Uh, yes? (Score:4, Interesting)
Considering that sales of the Wii U have *spiked* since the Xbox One announcement, I think it's pretty clear that Nintendo can survive.
What's different about this generation? That most third-party games are ignoring the Wii U? Guess what - that happened with the Wii and Gamecube (to a lesser extent) as well. No good launch titles? Look at the 3DS - dead on arrival, but it's picking up, and while it's not the runaway success of the DS, it's no failure.
Hell, the only "different" thing about this generation is how badly Nintendo botched the naming (a lot of consumer confusion because "Wii U" sounds more like a new hardware iteration of the Wii than a new console). But fortunately, Microsoft came out with an even worse name for their console.
And Nintendo also has the advantage of having a strong focus on games. Sure, they don't actually have too many actual games right now, but even when talking about the hardware, their message is always "how it makes better games". Compare to Sony's distractions with Youtube uploading or "social gaming", or to Microsoft's "it's a set-top Windows 8 box that also plays Call of Duty" abomination of a conference.
But there's one fundamental reason why Nintendo can survive Sony and Microsoft - they don't care. Most Nintendo console owners buy them to play Nintendo games, which isn't the case for Sony or Microsoft consoles. First-party games might boost the other consoles up, but they always exist as much to play third-party games as first-party.
So the only threat to Nintendo is... Nintendo. Which, admittedly, it a pretty big threat right now - a lot of their recent games have been going downhill (Skyward Sword, Other M), and they haven't yet come up with a good killer app for the Wii U.
Re: (Score:2)
What's hard to figure out is just what Nintendo's 1st party studios have been doing all this time, since support for the Wii effectively ended a long time ago. It seems like the transition to HD has hit them with the same difficulties a lot of other Japanese studios faced. So crucial software is in short supply and titles original slated for the launch window are still months away from actual release.
But as you say, it is possible for Nintendo's 1st party output to carry a system to profitability. The Ga
Re: (Score:3)
I liked the story, and I felt it tied in well to the gameplay, but it is something of a romance so if that's not your thing then obviously you won't like it. Sometimes the dialogs were slow, and that's annoying, but I think it was improved over Twilight Princess (I can't remember why I think
Sega did it (Score:5, Informative)
I would be extremely happy of being able to play the next Mario on something else than a Nintendo console. I bought the Wii just for Super Mario Wii, I loved the game, but now I have a white piece of plastic doing nothing underneath my TV.
It's not going to happen, but it would be very nice.
Re: (Score:2)
Game consoles need to standardize like DVD players. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo should focus on being software vendors and let JVC, APEX, Mitsubishi, etc... develop the consoles along a standardized spec
isn't that what valve are trying to get going with the steam box? istr that as well as producing their own hardware the idea is for the specs to be common across other oem produced boxes?
snake
Re: (Score:2)
every time they try that, by the time they start to agree the technology is a pathetic mess that does nothing and cost a shit-ton of money (thats directed at you 3DO)
Re: (Score:2)
Game consoles need to standardize like DVD players.
We are getting pretty close to that with this new generation. The XBox One and PS4 have very similar hardware, and it will probably be much easier to create multiplatform games for them. The memory bandwidth and need for more caching on the xbox one is just about the only major difference.
Re: (Score:2)
This is why, despite my incredible love for The Elder Scrolls series, I may never play Skyrim, which has DLC that's not available on PC.
I played Oblivion and got bored by level 14, having become master of all the guilds and completing all the plots except the main one. I play cRPGs for the story, and it simply ran out. If I merely want to run around and kill shit, I'll bust out the Quake 2 CD.
Those two suffered severely comp
Re: (Score:2)
Which skrim dlc isn't on PC? Ithought it was us PS3 owners that got the short stick until recently
And Morrowind was on the first xbox
Re: (Score:2)
"their only truly great game in my opinion was the original Phantasy Star."
Hell no, Phantasy Star IV was the best by far.
They need to let people know what they have (Score:5, Informative)
My wife and I played the shit out of this level over the weekend trying for hours to get the best score we could and claim a gold trophy. For me it’s a classic platformer with incredibly tight controls and beautiful graphics. For her it’s a touch based game similar to something you might play on the iPad.......
I have been married to my wife for 13 years and I cannot remember a time before this weekend that we un-ironically high fived. When we finally got the gold trophy we leapt up and slapped hands like two dudes at a flag football game. I will say that it took us hours of trying the same level over and over again before we got there though. There was a lot of communication that had to happen. “is it better for you if I leave this platform up or down?” “Should I run through this part or slow down before I jump?” There was were mistakes made by both of us. “Sorry, that was my fault I missed that wall jump.” “Crap I didn’t lower that spike wall in time, my bad.” and there were a couple (joking?) threats of divorce. At the end when we had the gold trophy I tweeted that it was the greatest thing we had ever accomplished as a couple. Someone asked about our kids and I said I was including the kids.
No compelling games. (Score:3)
There's simply been no compelling games for the system - and I'm saying that as a fan of most big-hitter Nintendo games, who has purchased all the previous major systems to play those big games, and a large number of the more quirky third party titles and RPGs too.
No Metroid Prime games (haunting and epic), no Mario Galaxy games (wonderful and diverse exploration), no Zelda games (charming and intricate systems to explore), no compelling RPGs over here at least (Dragon Quest, etc.), and nothing interesting like a Kirby game. Even the one captivating game I played at PAX - Pikmin 3 - hasn't even been released yet.
All I've noticed has been lame party games, shameless re-releases, cross-ports, and a freakin' zombie game. Even more for the download titles.
That is precisely a system that should not sell well.
If they wanted to sell this system, there's a risky thing they could do though - open up a downloadable game section devoted to indies, and release a quality free SDK. Only let them be free downloads, but allow an optional (based on developer intention) greenlight-style voting mechanism for them to become sold in the marketplace, with multiple voting questions like "is this game bug-free enough to be a professional product?" THEN, you can charge the indie developer for an in-house testing cycle and you can end up having something more than re-releases to remind people about. This likely wouldn't be acceptable to staunch managers from a software 'piracy' perspective, but if the system is selling so poorly - really, lure the potential pirates in, and let a community of indie developers convert them into paying customers.
Ryan Fenton
Re: (Score:2)
The "compelling games" problem seems to be impacting all the new consoles equally. The release of the Xbox One seemed to be conspicous in how little attention was given to it as a gaming platform. Whatever console manages to capture the attention of various types of gamer will do well. I am not convinced that ANY of the new consoles have managed to do that yet.
They're all MEH, the whole lot of them.
Re: (Score:2)
I concur with your analysis. I loved the wii and still play it frequently. I was naturally interested in the wii U. The Rayman demo sold me to it. So I thought I'd buy them both at the same time in february. Except the game was delayed to september. I checked out other games on the system and honestly, there are maybe 3 games currently released I'd like to play. Meanwhile, I'll keep on playing the wii...
Perhaps, but... (Score:3)
As I understand it, the U makes it possible to continue playing if somebody wants to use the TV... Eh. But if we're playing together, why would one of us suddenly demand to sit down and watch TV? (also, the only "TV" we watch nowadays is Netflix, on the Wii or the PS3).
Re: (Score:2)
The main reason to switch is the HD graphics in my opinion. That was the biggest problem with the original Wii in my opinion. I didn't care about underpowered graphics or any stuff like that, because Nintendo is kind of like World of Warcraft: they make cartoony graphics that make having a good graphics card a moot point.
Re: (Score:2)
The main reason to switch is the HD graphics in my opinion. That was the biggest problem with the original Wii in my opinion. I didn't care about underpowered graphics or any stuff like that, because Nintendo is kind of like World of Warcraft: they make cartoony graphics that make having a good graphics card a moot point.
Shoulda got a better TV. A good scaler makes the Wii graphics look pretty decent. I am using a 52" AQUOS (old enough to have CCFL backlighting) and the Wii looks fine. For the kind of games they do, which are as you say cartoony, you really don't need HD graphics.
I would have considered a Wii U if they'd had decent launch games and supported four symmetric controllers. Some games don't need four people to have screens, and some games would benefit from it massively. I think many of us would like a four-play
I'm tired of these articles (Score:5, Interesting)
A few years ago, Nintendo adopted a really bizarre politic of not announcing their own games until a short time before they are ready to launch, so the landscape of the Wii U is completely empty.
The situation will likely change after E3 (or not).
They need games (Score:2)
I'm getting around to it (Score:2)
My kids are too young to play the Wii-U and they can barely play anything but Mario Kart. I hope the big N can hang on for a few more years.
I'm getting a Wii-U (Score:3)
Won't buy one until their online sales is fixed (Score:2)
Look, it's not about graphics. It's not about some shooter some other console has. It's about the fact that you can spend money on their console, have it break, and be out all the money you spent, or beg Nintendo for help. It's about the fact that if you transfer your games from a Wii (Assuming it works, which apparently it frequently doesn't) then it bricks your Wii. That's like saying once you buy a ps4 your ps3 will refuse to turn on again. It's ridiculous.
I won't touch their consoles again until th
Re: (Score:2)
If you do transfer your software from the Wii (which rarely fails except in cases of power loss or user error), it does not "brick" the Wii. The software is simply moved over and the Wii is no longer attached to those titles for redownload purposes.
And the fact is, lack of backwards compatibility makes the PS3 and 360 accounts systems meaningless. There is no way to transfer purchased titles to the next generations of those systems at all. So once the PS3 and 360 are no longer made, those games are effec
Mobile and Tablets are killing the console market (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, the games are less exciting and on a smaller screen, but the devices are nearly ubiquitous right now, and the games are a fraction of the price of a console game. People get used to paying $0.99 for Plants vs. Zombies, then wonder why it costs $20 for the same game on the Xbox? Add the possibility of similar bargains and freedom with the upcoming Ouya (but on a larger screen), and suddenly, these consoles and their respective games seem massively overpriced for what you get. Yes, they offer a richer experience. Is it worth 10 times of the cost of a similar iPad version? That's what consumers are grappling with right now. Add in the fact that the console makers treat their customers like garbage, and many people are saying, forget it. I'll just play games on my phone.
Re: (Score:2)
Small Correction:
Mobile and Tablets COMPLETELY kill the casual gaming market that was Nintendos way of success with the Wii. They managed to outsell PS3 and XBox 360 because they did target people who normally would not by a game console.
That ship has sailed.
Re: (Score:2)
I agree to a point. However, the new shared-memory architecture of new consoles and high end computing devices opens the floodgates for new types of gamelpay that haven't yet been possible. There are several kinds of game mechanics. The two basic types are designed and emergent. The lower power devices are fine for tightly honed designs of jumping on blocks, logic puzzles, or a even First Person Looking Game (seriously, in a FPS its' just hide and seek with scoring for looking at people more precisely)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, the games are less exciting and on a smaller screen, but the devices are nearly ubiquitous right now, and the games are a fraction of the price of a console game. People get used to paying $0.99 for Plants vs. Zombies, then wonder why it costs $20 for the same game on the Xbox? Add the possibility of similar bargains and freedom with the upcoming Ouya (but on a larger screen), and suddenly, these consoles and their respective games seem massively overpriced for what you get. Yes, they offer a richer experience. Is it worth 10 times of the cost of a similar iPad version? That's what consumers are grappling with right now. Add in the fact that the console makers treat their customers like garbage, and many people are saying, forget it. I'll just play games on my phone.
Or they're different markets entirely with very little overlap.
Re: (Score:3)
Thanks for the usual puppeting insight Lord Mike. Crazy how most people who buy consoles aren't in fact interested in playing casual time wasters like the mobile crowd.
Except, of course, the usage statistics on them show the exact opposite. The "hardcore" gamer market isn't big enough for any of the three big console makers to give them much attention. When you've got 10 or 50 casual players for every "hardcore", the investment just isn't warranted. What you do is try to making something good enough for everyone. You'll lose the low end to the tablets and the high end, perhaps, to PC gaming. But you'll make an order of magnitude more revenue.
3DS Tanked Too But It's Doing Fine Now (Score:2)
Which... (Score:3, Insightful)
Which one is the one of the three that allows used game sales? (To the point of EA refusing to work with them when they refused to let EA block used game sales on their own?)
Wii U? ... Yeah, ok. Good luck with your XBox One ("Now with less games"(tm) ) and Playstation 4 ("Oh god we forgot the games.") purchases.
Oh Look (Score:2)
The market is speaking ... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
When playing Wii games, the Wii U isn't emulating anything. It switches to a hardware compatibility mode and essentially becomes a Wii. And since the Wii doesn't know how to talk to the pad, the pad shuts down. This is exactly how the Wii handled Gamecube compatibility - which is one way to guarantee games will work.
Also, Wiimotes show up just fine for games that support them. There's even an option to pair them in the Wii U's home menu. It's actually rather nice to not have to buy a whole new set of c
It has to beat the xbox (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
oh wow a mario, reboot would be awesome, they havent done that in what ... almost a year
Re: (Score:2)
Expect another video game crash. (Score:2)
Dunno about industry-wide, but... (Score:2)
I have a Wii U. I use it at least some. I have no intention of getting either the PS4 or the Xbox One. This is not unique among gamers I know.
False choice (Score:3)
It'll also serve as a bellwether to see if the big gamer complaint about the new Sony and Microsoft consoles — that they're only partly about games — is honest. 'At a time when the goal of its competitors is to own the living room, the extent of Nintendo's ambition is simply to be in it — a dedicated games console, and no more.'"
This implies (or assumes?) that people who want a gaming-specific system will outright reject anything that does have extra things they don't need, instead buying whatever the latest gaming-focused system is, regardless of quality... And that if they don't, their complaints were false.
That doesn't fit at all. People don't just decide on a choice based on one factor, they find the best fit between several... And, imo, will probably be more inclined to budge on "isn't weighed down with useless functionality" than "doesn't have a cripplingly limited range of mostly gimmicky games". That doesn't make a complaint about the lack of gaming focus valid, it just means its the best of a bad situation. Personally, I've already decided not to bother with any of the next gen systems.
Re: (Score:2)
in about 2-4 years the next console will hit the market, and all the fanboys will be over the new thing once again.
consume, dont think.
Except it was 7 years between consoles this last round. No wonder you posted as a coward.
Re: (Score:2)
If by "nearly the same" you mean the PS4 is 50% more powerful, then yes.
Re: (Score:3)
Even in terms of MIPS, these new console CPUs are a fraction slower than the previous generation, even though their GPUs are order
Re: (Score:2)
Really? I've been looking and what I was able to find over the past 15 minutes is that both have what is likely the same AMD x86 8 core 1.6GHz processor, same generation AMD GPU, the same amount of memory (XBoxOne DDR3, PS4 DDR5), same 500GB disk space, same BluRay optical disk format, same 802.11n WiFi, similar cloud-based execution off-loading strategies (Azure vs Gaikai)...
Even in terms of MIPS, these new console CPUs are a fraction slower than the previous generation, even though their GPUs are orders of magnitude better than the previous generation.
Specs wise, they appear identical to each other aside from the Xbox being Windows 8 at it's core and Sony *likely* continuing down their Linux-ish roots.
The only differences appear to be in the form of the User Interface and Peripherals.
I am being completely honest here and would like to hear what would make the PS4 significantly more powerful than the XBoxOne as to help impact my purchasing decisions.
Whenever you want to talk about hardware, go to Anandtech. It turns out the GP was exactly correct. The PS4 GPU is 50% faster than the One: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6972/xbox-one-hardware-compared-to-playstation-4 [anandtech.com]
I wonder whether that will translate to 50% higher framerates or more eye candy/resolution.
Re: (Score:2)
Why the knock on the One not being dedicated to games?
Because it's a game console. Isn't it? If it's not a game console first, they probably spent too much on the other crap, why would I want to pay for that? I mean, as a gamer. The family can't watch TV while the kids play games if both functions are built into one system, so why would they want to concentrate that functionality into one box? They don't think they're going to sell a family an Xbox One for every TV, do they? That would be ha-ha-ha-hilarious on the same order as believing the PS3 was "probably
Re: (Score:2)
well, ms cheaped on the memory it seems. ddr3 vs. gddr5 on the ps4..
and personally at least I don't need a tv box. it's a nice as cost-nothing extra, but not something to pay extra for.
Re: (Score:3)
He's saying the Wii U couldn't compete against the 360/PS3 - not the Wii.
Sales for those 2 7th generation systems have outsold Nintendo's 8th generation offering, despite it being first to market.
Re: (Score:2)
Try again? If you looked at the link you referenced, it talks about the Wii. This article is about the Wii U. Two different consoles.
you said:
It didn't survive against the XBox 360 and PS3 .. there's no way it'll survive consoles 2 generations ahead of it.
The Wii U is 1 generation ahead of the 360 & PS3, so why are you comparing the Wii U to consoles 2 generations ahead of it? We don't even have it's generation of consoles out yet, besides it.
So I thought you were talking about the Wii (even considered you meant the gamecube) even though it's only 1 generation behind the 360 & PS3.
Unless you are thinking that the Wii, Xbox 360 & PS3 aren't the same generation? Then you don't know what you are talking about. They are the same gener
Re: (Score:2)
damn it, hit submit too soon, meant to correct where i say the Wii is 1 generation behind the next gen, not that it's behind the 360 & PS3.
Re: (Score:2)
The problem with Android is limited controls. No keyboard/mouse, no dpad, no buttons, not a convenient form factor. It greatly limits the type of games it can play. It can soak up a good amount of the casual market, but there's a market for something more. You can make a phone with those controls built in, but Sony tried that with the Experia Play and didn't do too well.
Re: (Score:2)
The problem with Android is limited controls. No keyboard/mouse, no dpad, no buttons, not a convenient form factor.
Who told you that shit? You can use gamepads, several work fine. You can use keyboard/mouse, even on many phones! Lots of them have usb host mode and you can plug a powered hub into them and start adding devices if you like. Android has support for USB ethernet devices, fer chrissake. You have no idea what you're talking about. See also: Ouya, Gamestick
You can make a phone with those controls built in, but Sony tried that with the Experia Play and didn't do too well.
Sony shit on the Xperia Play so as not to compete with the PSP. They promised an ICS update for the entire Xperia line, then withdrew it citing problems with
Re: (Score:2)
And none of those things are built in. If you need to carry around a keyboard/mouse or gamepad you lose the main advantage of a phone- that you already have it in your pocket. If you're carrying around special equipment you may as well just buy a handheld device.
Re: (Score:2)
Wii showed its not about the polygons, its about the fun. DS showed fun can be portable, and Android tablets show it can be delivered on a tablet. Worse the current generation churn out last console standard graphics or better.
So will we even have a console this round?
More likely it will end up as a function of the tablets.
Wii's incredibly low software attach rate and low sales after the initial explosion showed it's not about fun, it's about hype. The data paint a pretty clear picture that people liked to buy the Wii but they never liked to play with it as much as on the other consoles. That's a great sign for business but a bad one for fun.
Re: (Score:2)
To be honest, not having EA is a good thing. Nintendo focus a lot on quality games and it is precisely because of that they still haven't released games like Pikmin 3.
After having experienced companies like EA, which are the exact opposite, I honestly feel like I need to support companies like Nintendo. Just play Battlefield 3 and see how many expansions/DLCs they offer you. After the whole SimCity fiasco and having had a bad experience with Origin on the PC, I'm actively boycotting whatever they want to se
Re: (Score:2)
Well that's what every big company is doing these days. replace Mario, Zelda and Smash Bros with Battlefield, Need for Speed, Call of Duty, Halo, God of War, etc.
But the big advantage that Nintendo has is that the games are great. Mario Sunshine was awesome, and then we got Mario Galaxy. I'm not much of a fan of Zelda or Smash Bros. but Mario alone makes the system totally worth it for me, and I'm totally looking forward to the 2-player mode of the New super mario bros with my gf once I get my Wii U.
Re: (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Spoiler alert: no. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
The Steambox will have an operating system + Steam, and as far as I know the operating system won't be locked down. So you can install any third party software you want on it.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)