Wii U

KNiVES said:
Confirmed: just one controller per console.

There's really nothing at all going for the Wii U that will see a repeat of the runaway sales that its predecessor saw. There's no accessibility, there's no mass market appeal and there's no low price point (this is virtually guaranteed, just look at the hardware), and the games are no longer unique - we are looking at dangerously high levels of ports of existing 360/PS3 games, along with the usual Nintendo reruns of their popular franchises that still don't appeal to the mass-market. The Wii U is a very confused, schizophrenic console - who is it aiming for?

I firmly stand by my opinion that this has a significant chance of looking rather tame compared to the smashing success of the original Wii - even the 3DS has had a lacklustre start, with sales well below what the DS and even the original PSP was.

Nintendo reached the peak with the Wii, but there's only one direction left to go from there and it's definitely not 'up'.
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Looks like this could put Nintendo in a very awkward place, already seeing a dip in shares, now a high price and only 1 controller(its main gimmik) per console.

i know i wont be buying, havent enjoyed a Nintendo since the N64 days.
 
See, it's kinda crazy; but I've been clamouring for the likes of a decent Zelda where the technical aspects are up to the same level as the gameplay...gimme a HD decent Zelda title, with 1080p native, decent graphics and no slowdown, and decent DD or even HD Audio, and I'll be all over it if I can afford the console.

I didn't buy a huge number of games on the Wii, but some of the 1st party exclusives like TP were excellent, some of the best games I've played this gen; and it's usually this sort of reason that oldschool gamers still get Nintendo consoles.

If they can get more multiplatform titles which they're slowly getting better at to keep things going between the all important 1st party; then they'll still sell, as long as the machine is less than £500.
The PS3 cost about that much as I remember; and although sales weren't amazing until prices dropped, they did still sell. I also seem to remember the N64 being what...£350 or so at launch.

It's only really the Wii and GC that have broken this sort of pricing point in recent years; even the Xbox 360 was something like £350 on launch.
 
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Any details on headsets, online systems, private chats, messaging friends (touchscreen keyboard on the massive controller?), adding friends easily with a 'gamer tag'?
 
Oxy said:
Any details on headsets, online systems, private chats, messaging friends (touchscreen keyboard on the massive controller?), adding friends easily with a 'gamer tag'?
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Apparently they're ditching friend codes, read this before though I'm slightly drunk and can't remember my source :|
 
Sinny said:
Apparently they're ditching friend codes, read this before though I'm slightly drunk and can't remember my source :|
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hehe... for me the graphcs aren't so important, it's how they handle online play and the online friends community.

I hope there is more info on this soon, essentialy an xbox is £150 for about the excellent online system and goodish hardware.

The wii U has got to be proper 1080p native, and good online system, including some ace nintendo launch titles to make me even consider one.

What can this do for £300 - £500 that my £150 Xbox can't do?
 
I hope they do stuggle with the Wii U. Might make them work harder on putting out more games that I would want to play instead of all the crap on the Wii.

Theres no way in hell this'll sell as good as the Wii, but it will still sell like gangbusters.
 
Most of Nintendo's own games on the Wii were excellent.

I would have thought, for devs at least, a console with similar/more grunt than the existing two would be a big draw?
 
Nexus said:
Surely if they are going after the hardcore crowd, there also needs to be an overhaul of the online system.

If they want people to replace their Xboxs and PS3s it needs an experience that is comparable, especially that of Xbox Live.
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I don't know about others, but I only saw the Wii and the Wii U (at least at the moment) as a console for children and women in their 30s. It would have to be a big change to alter that.
 
Duke said:
I don't know about others, but I only saw the Wii and the Wii U (at least at the moment) as a console for children and women in their 30s. It would have to be a big change to alter that.
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I'm sorry, I think that's rather a small minded view.

It's clear that there aren't as many 'hard core' gamers on the Wii. It is also clear that as a proportion of Wii owners, 'hard core' gamers are in a minority. This has always been the case.

However, the good games that are on the Wii (a small % in comparison to the other two consoles, as there is so much shovelware) are very very good games. Nintendo know how to make a game that is fun (wich is the reason I play games, entertainment) and this is regardless of console power. It could be said that Nintendos domination of the hand held market has prepared them to make good games on weaker hardware, which translates well into profits on home consoles.

My point is that although there are so many crappy games on the Wii, that in itself should not be a reason to deprive yourself of the good games on the system.

I understand that 'good games' is subjective, and many PS3/Xbox gamers are not interested in games regarded as good on the Wii, but the sales figures and the scores shown on Metacritic are pretty good indicators that there is something being done right.

Slightly OT: Here's a thought: are there any people who consider themselves as hard core gamers but who aren't bothered about FPSes? Is hard core gaming defined by mature content and graphics quality? Hard core gaming used to involve things like achieving the best time by jumping pixel perfect in Super Mario World levels, or collecting stupid items which are in the most difficult places even after the game proper has finished, and other such picky stuff. Would Super Meat Boy be less good if the skies were blue and he was a fluffy cushion instead of a...raw Spam?
 
Sorry if this has been brought up, long thread, but I think the Wii U has positioned itself quite well graphics-wise and controller-wise. They are going after the market the PS3 and 360 miss out on. Younger kids, Girls, families and casual gamers.

I have a strong feeling the GPU in the Wii U will be a 4770. It fits the bill - very low power, around 50-60W on load in 40nm form, and low temps due to only have 640 shaders rather than 800 as on the 4850.

It was designed and released to the public in very small numbers around the time the Wii U was being designed, 2009. If it was shrunk to 32nm, its power usage and temps would be even lower.

A 4770 will finally give consoles true 1080p resolution games. Interesting to see if Nintendo will get anything out of the tesselation unit never used on the PC version of the 4 series.

I think the PS4 and next Xbox will be able to do tesselation very well indeed however, leaving the Wii U behind, but it looks like the Wii could lead in graphics for the next couple of years.
 
Bossk128 said:
Slightly OT: Here's a thought: are there any people who consider themselves as hard core gamers but who aren't bothered about FPSes? Is hard core gaming defined by mature content and graphics quality? Hard core gaming used to involve things like achieving the best time by jumping pixel perfect in Super Mario World levels, or collecting stupid items which are in the most difficult places even after the game proper has finished, and other such picky stuff. Would Super Meat Boy be less good if the skies were blue and he was a fluffy cushion instead of a...raw Spam?
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Yeah, me :P My games are strategy games and RPGs, I also prefer a good platformer over a good FPS.
That said, still play some FPSs, logged a good few days into COD4 for example. But that was mainly due to the community aspect around the game.


If nintendo can release this at around the £300 mark, and get a good few launch titles, and have ports available to show its not just a shovel ware platform, I see this doing well.
Big if though.
 
I actually quite like the look of this. I hope it does well and I'll pick one up. I've bought every home console from Nintendo since the SNES and don't see myself stopping that trend. Their games are just too good.
 
I doubt I will get one of these as I mentioned earlier I will probably wait for the next xbox/PS but am curious as to how developers see this console. As far as I was aware (and it has been a while since I have been interested in this sort of thing but E3 got me a bit more interested) the amount of Wii's to games comparison was much lower than the 360/PS3 mainly due to the lack of decent 3rd party and the main games being from 1st parties.

I have a feeling if the console is easy to code for it could actually give Nintendo a very big boost as the amount of market space they have acquired from their 'casual' console without 90% of the mutliplatform big sellers is huge and now their missing market share seems to be completely covered with the Wii U, the main thing I think that will hold it back is the upcoming MS and Sony consoles as well as people's general opinion that a new console is coming out far too quickly. I imagine a lot of disgruntled Wii owners.
 
I'm a little surprised Nintendo aren't waiting for the next Sony and MS and consoles and releasing a similarly specced machine. Being out of sync isn't good for the 3rd party titles. Let's face it, neither Sony or MS come anywhere near Nintendo for quality first party releases. A Nintendo console with a decent online service and 3rd party support would rule all :confused:
 
The thing is though, I really don't see sony's and ms's next consoles making a huge leap in graphics for their next console. I think what the wii u can do is fine. Its HD and thats all that matters. If they can make games like kirby and mario look better than games on the 360 and ps3 then surely they can something special with the wii u.

I'm actually really looking forward to playing games on the wii u. Todays graphics are good enough IMO, its just the frame rate I think needs to be better, every game locked at 60 would be perfect. Maybe the wii u can manage this? who knows.

I just wonder what sony and ms will do now. They can't exactly come out with a controller with a screen on it.
 
Bossk128 said:
I'm sorry, I think that's rather a small minded view.

It's clear that there aren't as many 'hard core' gamers on the Wii. It is also clear that as a proportion of Wii owners, 'hard core' gamers are in a minority. This has always been the case.

However, the good games that are on the Wii (a small % in comparison to the other two consoles, as there is so much shovelware) are very very good games. Nintendo know how to make a game that is fun (wich is the reason I play games, entertainment) and this is regardless of console power. It could be said that Nintendos domination of the hand held market has prepared them to make good games on weaker hardware, which translates well into profits on home consoles.

My point is that although there are so many crappy games on the Wii, that in itself should not be a reason to deprive yourself of the good games on the system.

I understand that 'good games' is subjective, and many PS3/Xbox gamers are not interested in games regarded as good on the Wii, but the sales figures and the scores shown on Metacritic are pretty good indicators that there is something being done right.

Slightly OT: Here's a thought: are there any people who consider themselves as hard core gamers but who aren't bothered about FPSes? Is hard core gaming defined by mature content and graphics quality? Hard core gaming used to involve things like achieving the best time by jumping pixel perfect in Super Mario World levels, or collecting stupid items which are in the most difficult places even after the game proper has finished, and other such picky stuff. Would Super Meat Boy be less good if the skies were blue and he was a fluffy cushion instead of a...raw Spam?
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It probably is quite small minded; I've only played on a Wii once or twice and it was some novelty tennis game. Good fun for all of a few minutes. I certainly don't only enjoy games that have the best graphics (play a lot of Worms Reloaded and other old games for example), but you can hardly play a big blockbuster game like Battlefield, Half-Life 2, GT5/Forza etc on the Wii, which was my point really.

I guess its fine if you enjoy the usual Mario stuff they keep reproducing, or the sport games etc, but it will take a lot to try and keep those gamers happy as well as those who only tend to play on PC, 360 and PS3. I expect a lot of the Wii owners were heavily into the Mastersystem, Dreamcast and N64, which again I wasn't as they were both childish to me.
 
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