Nintendo's E3 2012 Official Thread

[RCM]

If there really is performance parity or something close to it between the WiiU and the next generation 360 and PS, I think you are going to see a repeat of the PS2/Xbox/GC generation where many games are released on all three and the exclusives are few and far between.

From what I've heard and what's expected M$ Durango and PS4 will be far beyond Wii U's chipset. This is just my feeling, but it doesn't seem most third party devs are investing significant resources into Wii U at this point. But I could be wrong, of course. I caught a glimpse of a few Wii U titles a couple weeks ago just revealed at E3 and was under the impression Wii U would only support one tablet controller...

[The 1 2 P]

If there really is performance parity or something close to it between the WiiU and the next generation 360 and PS, I think you are going to see a repeat of the PS2/Xbox/GC generation where many games are released on all three and the exclusives are few and far between.

This is exactly what I was saying before though. Because they could just port the Wii U games over to the PS4 or 720 next year(or the year after depending when they launch) why was Zombie U the only one that got mentioned? I know there are a few other shows before the end of the year and they can use those for announcements as well but E3 is usually the defacto perfect time for all the big game announcements. So either they are holding back or have very few third party games(beyond the ports mentioned at the show) to reveal.

[The 1 2 P]

and was under the impression Wii U would only support one tablet controller...

At first it could only support one tablet controller but I think they took all the industry and fan feedback to heart and upgraded it to support two.

[RCM]

At first it could only support one tablet controller but I think they took all the industry and fan feedback to heart and upgraded it to support two.

Yeah, I get that. I'm just saying the stuff I saw a few weeks ago was designed with one tablet in mind along with WiiMotes for other players.

[Bojay1997]

I agree, but it's likely because of the relatively poor sales of most third party stuff on the Wii. I just don't think you are going to see third parties investing in anything platform exclusive this coming generation as the economics don't make sense. The WiiU will support two pads, although there is a performance hit on the frame rate when two pads are used right now. Nintendo will hopefully come up with a workaround.

From what I've heard and what's expected M$ Durango and PS4 will be far beyond Wii U's chipset. This is just my feeling, but it doesn't seem most third party devs are investing significant resources into Wii U at this point. But I could be wrong, of course. I caught a glimpse of a few Wii U titles a couple weeks ago just revealed at E3 and was under the impression Wii U would only support one tablet controller...

[Bojay1997]

Why would a third party developer take the risk right now? Why not just wait a year and release the game on all three platforms? I just don't see the benefit of supporting the WiiU exclusively right now when it costs so much to develop next generation games and when nobody really knows what's going to happen. Developers have little interest in supporting a platform that has a completely hypothetical user base at this point.

This is exactly what I was saying before though. Because they could just port the Wii U games over to the PS4 or 720 next year(or the year after depending when they launch) why was Zombie U the only one that got mentioned? I know there are a few other shows before the end of the year and they can use those for announcements as well but E3 is usually the defacto perfect time for all the big game announcements. So either they are holding back or have very few third party games(beyond the ports mentioned at the show) to reveal.

[heybtbm]

One of the better bits of E3 Nintendo news...

Wiiware and Virtual Console titles will transfer over to Wii U

[Tupin]

Lego City Undercover doesn't look half bad. That sizzle reel had some interesting 3rd party titles like Tank! Tank! Tank!, which was an arcade game that looks like it has more multiplayer elements. Project P100 looks good, but Nintendo didn't mention it.

Surprised that NintendoLand has Mystery of Murasame Castle but no Mother. Guess they don't want to get peoples' hopes up?

[The 1 2 P]

Why would a third party developer take the risk right now? Why not just wait a year and release the game on all three platforms? I just don't see the benefit of supporting the WiiU exclusively right now when it costs so much to develop next generation games and when nobody really knows what's going to happen. Developers have little interest in supporting a platform that has a completely hypothetical user base at this point.

They could still release it for all three platforms, it would just be releasing on the Wii U first. And similiarly to how Wii versions of 360 and PS3 games often had less features/levels/etc they could also port Wii U games to the 360 and PS3. The graphics on Wii U don't seem overwhelming superior to those systems( from what I've seen so far) so it wouldn't be a stretch for them to use assets from any Wii U game they make and put those toward a port to any of the other systems. So there wouldn't be that much of a risk. If a third party game sells less than, lets say a million units, they can just port it to one of the current two systems(PS3 and 360) or wait to port it to the 720 and PS4. It's no different than games that started this gen being exclusive(Bioshock, Lost Planet, GTA: Episodes, etc) and then getting ported to another system to make even more money.

[BetaWolf47]

One of the better bits of E3 Nintendo news...

Wiiware and Virtual Console titles will transfer over to Wii U

I wonder if this means they'll continue to update Virtual Console and WiiWare through the Wii U. We're still missing a ton of great stuff on VC.

[joshnickerson]

I thought Nintendo Land looked interesting, actually, and I think it's going to be deeper than most people assume.

[Leo_A]

One of the better bits of E3 Nintendo news...

Wiiware and Virtual Console titles will transfer over to Wii U

Presents sort of a problem for me. I have a significant library, but that library includes a good half dozen or so N64 downloads that I only find enjoyable to play with a GameCube controller. So I hope they give the button mapping some consideration with this Pro Controller they showed off. I'd love to transfer everything over since I have well over 1000 hours logged on this system according to my Nintendo Channel stats.

And then there's the issue of upscaling. We know it won't upscale Wii content (And presumably, Virtual Console content will be considered Wii content), yet my Wii U will be hooked up to my LCD which does a poor job with anythign else except HD instead of my Trinitron that my Wii is hooked up to.

I guess the best I can hope for is that the transfer ability works with another Wii so I could hopefully locate a brand new BC Wii to transfer my collection to.

[frogofdeath]

Maybe I've missed it, but has there been any mention yet about Nintendo's online plan for the Wii U? Hopefully they have done away with friend codes.

Two other items that might help, but in no way are needed: 1)would be nice to see some sort of trophy/achievement system for games & 2)how about finally updating Miis and giving users more options.

[Tupin]

Based on the roundtable they just had, I think you just send friend requests. Achievements are probably a shoe-in.

[Bojay1997]

Sure, they could do anything. It doesn't change the fact that releasing a next generation game a year or more before all of the platforms are released is not a great business move. If the WiiU version doesn't sell well, that could taint demand on the other two platforms. It also represents a great expenditure of money a year earlier than it needs to be expended. It seems like the better approach would be to wait and see while doing low level pre-production (i.e. the stuff you don't talk about at trade shows or in press releases).

They could still release it for all three platforms, it would just be releasing on the Wii U first. And similiarly to how Wii versions of 360 and PS3 games often had less features/levels/etc they could also port Wii U games to the 360 and PS3. The graphics on Wii U don't seem overwhelming superior to those systems( from what I've seen so far) so it wouldn't be a stretch for them to use assets from any Wii U game they make and put those toward a port to any of the other systems. So there wouldn't be that much of a risk. If a third party game sells less than, lets say a million units, they can just port it to one of the current two systems(PS3 and 360) or wait to port it to the 720 and PS4. It's no different than games that started this gen being exclusive(Bioshock, Lost Planet, GTA: Episodes, etc) and then getting ported to another system to make even more money.

[heybtbm]

I have well over 1000 hours logged on this system according to my Nintendo Channel stats.

Call it OCD if you want, but I love the Nintendo Channel's "hours played" stats on the Wii and 3DS. I wish all consoles kept track of such things.

[joshnickerson]

Call it OCD if you want, but I love the Nintendo Channel's "hours played" stats on the Wii and 3DS. I wish all consoles kept track of such things.

I'm also amused that the 3DS even keeps stats on the time you use the stats app.

[Pikkon]

I just hope that the Wii U will offer some NDS games as part of the virtual console,that would be nice.

[Leo_A]

Sure, they could do anything. It doesn't change the fact that releasing a next generation game a year or more before all of the platforms are released is not a great business move. If the WiiU version doesn't sell well, that could taint demand on the other two platforms. It also represents a great expenditure of money a year earlier than it needs to be expended. It seems like the better approach would be to wait and see while doing low level pre-production (i.e. the stuff you don't talk about at trade shows or in press releases).

Considering that all the rumors have indicated for quite sometime that we're getting something approximately equal in terms of power to two consoles that have already been around for half a decade now, this doesn't strike me as a concern in the slightest.

Any Wii U release for the most part should have no issues coming to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 if a publisher wants it to be multiplatform. They're not going to have to wait on a Xbox 720 and a Playstation 4 to roll around if they want to take advantage of their work by making it be a multiplatform release.

[Bojay1997]

Considering that all the rumors have indicated for quite sometime that we're getting something approximately equal in terms of power to two consoles that have already been around for half a decade now, this doesn't strike me as a concern in the slightest.

Any Wii U release for the most part should have no issues coming to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 if a publisher wants it to be multiplatform. They're not going to have to wait on a Xbox 720 and a Playstation 4 to roll around if they want to take advantage of their work by making it be a multiplatform release.

They're already doing that with games like Ninja Gaiden 3 and Batman Arkham City. The discussion was about why developers didn't suddenly have a pile of new games to announce that were WiiU exclusives. My point was that nobody aside from Nintendo is going to dump substantial resources into the WiiU until the other two platforms drop and they have a good handle on the new market landscape.