Wii U $1-5 downloadable apps (games) ala ipod/ipad: What are the chances?

[treismac]

Alright, we've all seen (read) the would-be video game doomsday prophets wearing their sandwich board signs, crying about the death of console gaming with the rise of affordable touch screen gaming, right? Well, after playing the Wii U and its touchpad controller, a faint light bulb almost turned on in my head. Is Nintendo hedging their bets against the possible second "crash" [a "dip" is probably a considerably more accurate term] of console gaming with a system that is able to dip its feet into both pools of gaming? If so, I have to say, "Well played, Nintendo. Well played."

So what do ya'll think the chances are of Nintendo releasing $1 apps in the foreseeable future?

[Leo_A]

While I don't think that they have many products on the low end of that spectrum, they're pretty much already going after this category with WiiWare which has a lineup far more reminiscent of mobile devices than the more traditional gaming fare that seems to dominate PSN and XBLA. And that's been around for something like 4 or 5 years on their existing platform at this point.

As to pricing itself, I don't see them going down to the $1 range. WiiWare games seemed to range from $5-$15 and even "3DSWare" releases seem to start out around the $5 range. So I don't see why they'd suddenly be changing their strategy on the Wii U when it's not even happening on the 3DS itself.

[Bojay1997]

Alright, we've all seen (read) the would-be video game doomsday prophets wearing their sandwich board signs, crying about the death of console gaming with the rise of affordable touch screen gaming, right? Well, after playing the Wii U and its touchpad controller, a faint light bulb almost turned on in my head. Is Nintendo hedging their bets against the possible second "crash" [a "dip" is probably a considerably more accurate term] of console gaming with a system that is able to dip its feet into both pools of gaming? If so, I have to say, "Well played, Nintendo. Well played."

So what do ya'll think the chances are of Nintendo releasing $1 apps in the foreseeable future?

I think they will actively encourage low cost and touch screen only apps on the WiiU, but I hardly think it's a hedge against a crash. If the console market collapses, Nintendo will collapse too. You can't sell enough cheap downloads to offset the investment Nintendo has made in the hardware and software side of the business and frankly, even if they sell as many WiiUs as they sold Wiis, that's a fraction of the number of tablets and smartphones out there that most people already own.

[IHatedSega]

A second video game crash is totally possible, but I think the apps bubble will burst sooner. I wrote a thread about a second crash on another forum. Got a ton of great ideas from people on the subject.

Video games I believe will be around forever, somehow, maybe not on home consoles in the future, but on computers (since the PS3 and 360 are basically low end computers), Nintendo would in that case would become a software developer and just not make consoles.