Wii U / Nintendo general news and discussion

jenjenten

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Where?

http://www.toys.ie/Wii-U-Console--Black-Premium-Pack--Nintendoland-!125012-prd.aspx


Cork, Maylor Street.....;)

Kinsalr Road has better stock levels: http://www.toys.ie/Wii-U-Console--Black-Premium-Pack--Nintendoland-!125012-prd.aspx

NTMK

jenjenten wrote: »

The problem i see is that nintendo dont see the point of making the most powerful console!.....all there games dont need the horsepower and run fine on the Wii, let alone the Wii U.

the most popular console has rarely been the most powerful of the gen. the ps4 looks like it will be the first in a long long time to curb that.... if sony dont **** it up

Nollog

NTMK wrote: »

the most popular console has rarely been the most powerful of the gen. the ps4 looks like it will be the first in a long long time to curb that.... if sony dont **** it up

Steam box will make that old pattern hold true.

Varik

NTMK wrote: »

the most popular console has rarely been the most powerful of the gen. the ps4 looks like it will be the first in a long long time to curb that.... if sony dont **** it up

The most powerful are generally the most expensive.

Retr0gamer

jenjenten wrote: »

Many of there games are rehashes of game from the 80's and 90's....are graphically simple compared to next gen titles, they are mostly old skool platformers.

Thats not to say they are bad games, but the perception is they are old games for children.

While I agree there is a preception that Nintendo are for kids I can't agree with it. They make a wide range of games that can be enjoyed by all ages. Also some of their games such as Xenoblade, Chibi robo, mother, zelda (particularly majoras mask) etc. deal in far more mature subject matter than most games that carry an M rating but are in fact utterly childish.

As for their games looking bad, have you played Pokemon 3 and mario 3d world? They are absolutely stunning games and Nintendo along with platinum are the only developers that really care about 60 GPS gameplay unfortunately.

While Nintendo do rehash ip they do so in new and inventive ways, well other than Pokemon. Even zelda seems to be pushing the boundaries with the latest on 3ds.

That negative preception is there unfortunately but it's also unfounded.

Monotype

I think the underwhelming power in the console has a lot to do with developers not releasing their games on it - not the sole issue, of course.

If they wait another 2 or 3 years, they'll be in a good position to launch with more powerful hardware than xbox/PS at an affordable price.

Varik

Monotype wrote: »

If they wait another 2 or 3 years, they'll be in a good position to launch with more powerful hardware than xbox/PS at an affordable price.

The Wii U is not floundering due to lack of power, and this isn't the reason that 3rd party are avoiding it. If they did release a new console in 2 or 3 year they really would be sentencing their home consoles to death, in 2 or 3 years the PS4 and ONE will have gained a large market share and considerable support from devs at which point Nintendo releasing a new console (even a more powerful one) would just be stupid.

Nintendo need to continue to support the Wii U, calling it quits and moving on would just make things worse and even if they can afford a failure or 2 they're a public company and they don't get the luxury of failing without people losing their jobs at the top.

Monotype

Alright, maybe 2 years is a bit ambitious. More like 3-5 years.

I'm not saying they axe their new console now and move on. The customers would feel betrayed. I'm saying that xbox/PS4 is already midrange hardware. Another 2 years, we could double the power behind it for affordable prices (i.e., launch prices of current consoles) and throw on an extra year or so if they want to keep the prices low.

It's not their strategy to sell the most powerful console on the market, but Microsoft and Sony expect these things to last ten years. They could easily snatch back a large share.

The original wii had a run of 6 years, I think 5 is plenty for this; another 4 years, with plans in action before then. That would enough time to balance out not abandoning it vs introducing in the middle of the other console cycles.

Retr0gamer

Axing a console and then bringing a new one out straight away isn't that easy. You have to sort out R&D, find manufacturers, sort out patents and legal issues with licensing, then there is creating the dies for the new components and writing all that software. Nintendo will ride out the WiiU because even if the WiiU flops it would be commercial suicide to jump straight into another console development cycle.

I think Nintendos main problem now is trying to battle that negative preception gamers have of them in the West. In Japan home consoles are pretty much dead so there's not a lot they can do about that but it's battling the image that they have from the Call of Duty/Fifa crowd and even bigger gamers that see Nintendo as not being cool which is their bigger hurdle. Nintendo might have made the best game of last year with Mario 3D World but you can't really tell somebody what they should like even if it's good for them. They want their populist action games and Nintendo just can't deliver them on their platform especially with third parties not on their system.

They now have an image of their consoles not having those big populist games and that image isn't unfounded. Even if they bring out a new console that will match their competitors in the next gen they still have that image associated with them.

Fnz

Varik wrote: »

The Wii U is not floundering due to lack of power

It's probably a factor. Say what you will about their games, I don't see value in the hardware. It's pretty much a generation behind but not priced accordingly.

Just because the original Wii was successful despite its lack of grunt, doesn't mean people don't care about power.

crybaby

Retr0gamer wrote: »

. In Japan home consoles are pretty much dead so there's not a lot they can do about that but it's battling the image that they have from the Call of Duty/Fifa crowd and even bigger gamers that see Nintendo as not being cool which is their bigger hurdle.

Just out of interest what are the Japanese playing these days instead of consoles?

cherryghost

crybaby wrote: »

Just out of interest what are the Japanese playing these days instead of consoles?

3DS, Vita, PSP, Smartphones, the big 4 right now over there.

CiDeRmAn

I'd say a lot of critics making judgements on the WiiU have little experience with both the hardware and software.
Commenting that the OS is too slow was only true for the first while, a firmware update months ago sorted that out
That their games are graphically simple and platformers for kids are also just wrong.
Sitting on their IPs and delivering lazy rehashes is also, itself, lazy as Nintendo are the one company that takes the time to be wire precious with their characters and, in the main, deliver with each new title.
The machine as floundered partially due to the Gamepad, an earlier release in 2011 of a non gamepad reliant console would have been both cheaper and would have slotted into the game development of the similarly powered 360 and PS3.

For a long time people were simply looking for a HD Wii, Nintendo listened and have it to them, with a bit extra too but people still don't want it.

I have one and am glad I own it.
I have no complaints about it save that I wish more people had made the jump with me.

Hank Scorpio

I own a Wii U and was disappointed playing batman on it recently, very laggy gameplay. They need to get their AAA titles out this year. A new zelda, metroid etc. Mario kart 8 will boost sales this spring massively

CiDeRmAn

Is that the new Batman Origins game?
Because I have Batman Arkham City and I find it just fine.
I know Origins reviews haven't been as glowing, but if the gameplay is laggy then it is a disappointment alright.

gugleguy

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the then great Atari company was asked specially by Nintendo to help Nintendo with sales/marketing. Look at Atari now. With regard to the Wii U, Nintendo needs to think differently than in an 'Atari' mindset. Personally, I don't know what alternatively mindset that may be, I don't have any solution. Other posters are waxing on in this thread about what Nintendo should do to make it right, but sure, the customer is always right - these posters need to see from Nintendo corporate point of view - a crowded console market and intense competition.

Mitch Connor

Nintendo need to use some of the billions they have in reserve to buy up some studios, and create a new line of in house games, new IPs, new exclusives. If they can't get 3rd party support, go buy it.

Myrddin

CiDeRmAn

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Nintendo need to use some of the billions they have in reserve to buy up some studios, and create a new line of in house games, new IPs, new exclusives. If they can't get 3rd party support, go buy it.

Probably one of the best and constructive suggestions I've seen here.
Isn't that what MS did for the original Xbox, gave us Halo, PGR and Amped, all best in class at the time.

richymcdermott

I agree with the statement above and I think nintendo could use of some more westren studios to cater to western audiences. Iwata as said himself he does not know anything about western studios so it may be good to bring in whether new studios or second party studios that can bring in more people to the wii u

Hank Scorpio

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Is that the new Batman Origins game?
Because I have Batman Arkham City and I find it just fine.
I know Origins reviews haven't been as glowing, but if the gameplay is laggy then it is a disappointment alright.

Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition. Feels like it runs at 15fps when outside gliding around

CiDeRmAn

I didn't notice that tbh, seems to play just fine.
Got it for feck all on Amazon and, so far, plays like the 360 version I had for a while.
But then, it was an early title and may not have been optimised for the hardware, seems to be a common feature, see the PS3 version of Bioshock and some of the multiplatform titles on the Xbox One for the same sort of thing.

jenjenten

^ if the Wii U was reduced to 200...would you buy it then?.....how about at 150 euro?

jenjenten

so the only solution then to encourage hardware sales that will stimulate software sales is a major price reduction....at least another 50 quid off...even at 200 its dear!

180....ninty need to take a dive and absorb the hardware losses.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Axing a console and then bringing a new one out straight away isn't that easy. You have to sort out R&D, find manufacturers, sort out patents and legal issues with licensing, then there is creating the dies for the new components and writing all that software. Nintendo will ride out the WiiU because even if the WiiU flops it would be commercial suicide to jump straight into another console development cycle.

I think Nintendos main problem now is trying to battle that negative preception gamers have of them in the West. In Japan home consoles are pretty much dead so there's not a lot they can do about that but it's battling the image that they have from the Call of Duty/Fifa crowd and even bigger gamers that see Nintendo as not being cool which is their bigger hurdle. Nintendo might have made the best game of last year with Mario 3D World but you can't really tell somebody what they should like even if it's good for them. They want their populist action games and Nintendo just can't deliver them on their platform especially with third parties not on their system.

They now have an image of their consoles not having those big populist games and that image isn't unfounded. Even if they bring out a new console that will match their competitors in the next gen they still have that image associated with them.

cherryghost

198 in Harvey Normans at the mo. And yes, yes I would buy it for that price. There's plenty of AAA games out that put even previous gen consoles to shame.

johnny_ultimate

It's not as easy as just lopping 50% off the cost and taking a further hit - that makes pretty much no commercial sense. It's very possible to dangerously undervalue a product. Just look at the 2DS to see the compromises that have to be made to get a product to market at a significantly reduced price. A huge price cut would probably see a significant increase in Wii Us under TVs, but would also come with massive, massive drawbacks. Nintendo can just about absorb the losses their making at the moment on Wii Us sold, but selling millions more at an even lower price would put a strain on any successful company. Look at the massive financial repercussions their earlier price cut had on their annual books.

And even the Wii itself proved that outside a few big hitters most consumers buy quite a small amount of software anyway, so a price cut wouldn't be a magic fix all solution that would lead to massively increased software sales.

There's no easy, immediate fix for the Wii Us commercial woes: if there was, Nintendo would have implemented it already. You can rest assured there's many people in Nintendo HQ in Kyoto, the States and elsewhere formulating plans. Only time will tell if they'll work.

jenjenten

cherryghost wrote: »

198 in Harvey Normans at the mo. And yes, yes I would buy it for that price. There's plenty of AAA games out that put even previous gen consoles to shame.

is that the 32GB Premium version though?....Smyths have Premium + Nintendoland for 250.

Josey Wales

cherryghost wrote: »

198 in Harvey Normans at the mo. And yes, yes I would buy it for that price. There's plenty of AAA games out that put even previous gen consoles to shame.

That's only the basic model though.

CiDeRmAn

That's the discontinued model, and it only has 8gb of memory, however this is expandable with SD Cards.
At €200 the WiiU is an absolute steal, even without EA support it's set to receive all the new titles from the various Nintendo IPs and they are well worth owning, as Super Mario 3D World, Zelda WW HD and Pikmin 3 are testament to. With Mario Kart 8 and Bayonetta 2 on the way it's a must have machine.
Personally I can't wait for the E3 this year, Nintendo will have to pull out all the stops to show to the undecided how they must own a WiiU and that can only be great news for those who already own one, I'm looking forward to a new Zelda title as well as a HD Metroid title, I'd say a standalone, physical release of WiiU Sports is a cert as well, and that could be a big deal indeed, especially if they can get people to see it and play it.
I remember when the Wii was being shown off at a temporary booth at the Toys for Big Boys event in the RDS as well as later in Blanch, it drew so many people and was delighting them as well, and that was just Wii Sports, perhaps a physical release of the WiiU equivalent could bring the casual buyer back, along with their lovely money!

jenjenten

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

That's the discontinued model, and it only has 8gb of memory, however this is expandable with SD Cards.
At €200 the WiiU is an absolute steal, even without EA support it's set to receive all the new titles from the various Nintendo IPs and they are well worth owning, as Super Mario 3D World, Zelda WW HD and Pikmin 3 are testament to. With Mario Kart 8 and Bayonetta 2 on the way it's a must have machine.
Personally I can't wait for the E3 this year, Nintendo will have to pull out all the stops to show to the undecided how they must own a WiiU and that can only be great news for those who already own one, I'm looking forward to a new Zelda title as well as a HD Metroid title, I'd say a standalone, physical release of WiiU Sports is a cert as well, and that could be a big deal indeed, especially if they can get people to see it and play it.
I remember when the Wii was being shown off at a temporary booth at the Toys for Big Boys event in the RDS as well as later in Blanch, it drew so many people and was delighting them as well, and that was just Wii Sports, perhaps a physical release of the WiiU equivalent could bring the casual buyer back, along with their lovely money!

^ but according to yer man in that YT video Ninty will only have 4 (Four) new games in the first 6 months of 2014, i mean..........:eek: