How are you feeling about the Wii U future

[y9784]

I think only recently have people realized that yes, apparently you can support your system with only first-party releases if you have the most recognizable names in the industry.

Even though Nintendo reaps the rewards from 1st party games, other publishers are not seeing similar results.

Most of the time, 3rd party pubs can push only 200K sales max, according to this handy VG chartz (http://www.vgchartz.com/platform/47/wii-u/)


When publishers see the lack of viability on a platform, we don't get unique titles, especially those that take advantage of the capabilities of that platform. Publishers will not fund these projects.


Less awesome games == Lack of interest in consumers

This chart shows the Wii U sold 9.29 mil units in the US. That is less than half the current leader in this generation--PS4 is leading at 19.6 mil--making the Wii U third behind the XBONE.
(http://www.vgchartz.com/platforms/)

I mean, do even realize that the Wii U has been competing neck and neck with PS3 sales weekly for most of this past year (a nine year old platform); two months of last year, having half the sales of PS3. (http://www.vgchartz.com/tools/hw_date.php)

My point is that consumers see value in a platform that has major support from 3rd party pubs.

[The 1 2 P]

At this point the Wii U doesn't have a future, though that could have been a similar argument over the last two years. Like all Nintendo consoles over the last few gens it's basically good for a few first party games and nothing else. I honestly had less interest in the Wii U than I had in the Wii and I really didn't think that was possible. But apparently I'm not alone.

[The Adventurer]

Concidering the average output of most 3rd parties these days, it's no real great loss.

[Tupin]

And honestly, even if Nintendo were to gain support from 3rd parties it would only be Japanese developers. Usually when people say "Nintendo has no third party support" they mean "Nintendo has no Western third party support." Most of the good third party games on Nintendo systems, with rare exceptions, are non-Western.

[FUZZY PICKLES!!!]

I think it goes without saying that the Wii U is doomed. I've felt that way since late 2013 and all sales data have only affirmed my stance.

And as someone that has been a lifelong fan of Nintendo, The Wii U has been a big disappointment for me in every aspect. I was a big supporter of the Wii (until it seemingly got dropped off the air after 2010) and I consider it to be my favorite Nintendo system after the N64 so I felt I had good reasons to expect good things with the successor. Seeing the fallout makes the system feel really underwhelming to me. Outside of Rayman Legends and maybe Scram Kitty and his Buddy on Rails I can't think of a single third-party game that interest me on the platform. By the time I am done buying games for the Wii U, I will probably have less than fifteen original games for it. Even the GameCube has around twenty games I have bought/want to get and I wasn't impressed with it either when I had it. Along with Nintendo absolutely mismanaging the Wii U's marketing and being an underpowered system (seriously, less powerful than the PS3 and Xbox 360?), I'm surprised there's anyone that is saying the Wii U is underrated.

Honestly, I don't have much hope that the Wii U's successor will be much better. Nintendo has placed themselves in between a rock and a hard place in regards to third-party developers and while I'm sure Nintendo first-party games will be great like it always has been, increased development cost on working on a more powerful system may limit how much games they can make, unless Nintendo really knows what they are doing. Unless support for Gamecube/Dreamcast/Saturn titles on the Virtual Console gets added on the next system, the Wii U will probably be the last Nintendo home console I ever get (same with the 3DS for handhelds once I get that). Heck if it weren't for SSB Wii U (specifically Mega Man's inclusion), I wouldn't have bothered with the Wii U. Smash is no longer a selling point to me either as I'm already satisfied with the first four installments (technically five but whatever), so there's not really any original game that would realistically get revived that I would buy the Wii U's successor for.

[The Adventurer]

And honestly, even if Nintendo were to gain support from 3rd parties it would only be Japanese developers. Usually when people say "Nintendo has no third party support" they mean "Nintendo has no Western third party support." Most of the good third party games on Nintendo systems, with rare exceptions, are non-Western.

Yuppers. Atlus, Capcom, Konami, Sega, Bamco, etc... etc...

Seriously, who really cares about EA, Activation, and Ubi? All their games come out on PC any way.

[Leo_A]

With the state of Japanese development these days, those guys are mostly irrelevant these days.

[FUZZY PICKLES!!!]

With the state of Japanese development these days, those guys are mostly irrelevant these days.

Not only that, the Japanese game industry in general is a shadow of its former selves. Konami has pretty much nothing left at this point after Metal Gear Solid V that would get anyone to pay attention to them, Capcom only has Monster Hunter, Resident Evil, Phoenix Wright, and Street Fighter left (and Street Fighter V is being funded by Sony), Sega is mostly dead on consoles outside of Sonic, Index Corporation went bankrupt and Atlus got sold to Sega, etc. Atlus and Namco Bandai are still doing pretty good game-wise, but they're exceptions, not the rule. I used to be a big fan of Capcom, now I'm totally done with them in regards to new games.

Nintendo has no choice but to appeal to western third-parties as they're the ones relevant today. Obviously many people care about the likes of Ubisoft, EA, and Activision (or at least the franchise they put out) else they wouldn't be some of the biggest third-parties today. If Nintendo can't do that, the Wii U's successor will fail and Nintendo will probably exit the console market afterwards. I dislike EA and Activision and even I realize how important it is that Nintendo gets them on board.

[celerystalker]

My tastes are so far from what modern games put out there anymore that I just don't care. When something comes out that I'm into, I make sure and support it, like the physical release of Terraria, Dragon's Crown, and the physical releases of the new Strider and Duck Tales remastered. However, for the most part I get that western development is the present, and it's just mostly not for me, and at least there is an astounding back catalog from the last 4 decades to enjoy. Nintendo every now and then shows flashes of what it once was, but their once catchy take on games has been slowly unraveling as games continue to push into increasingly larger scale.

[Tupin]

I'm sorry, but you can't say the Western industry is free from problems either. Microtransactions, DRM, DLC, buggy games, terrible PR...Western developers have just as many problems as Japanese ones. The thing is that while you can have a Nintendo system without Western support, without Japanese support you're screwed.

Besides, it's not like Sony/Microsoft are exactly courting the best of the best in terms of exclusives or unique ideas. Sony's systems have the unfortunate negative moniker "Indiestation" in some circles, reflecting their dependence on indies to produce content of extremely varying quality but not genre.

[Cornelius]

Speculation on my part, but it seems to me like Nintendo has just settled into what it needs to do for its target audience: 'old' gamers and younger kids. For a lot of us (or maybe just me) with kids and jobs and houses and etc, the Wii U really has enough going on. I just don't have the time to play a ton of stuff, so honestly just the first party releases are more than I'll probably ever get to since I also play on PC and older consoles. But the likes of Pikmin and Mario Kart are enough to get me to buy in on a WiiU. Plus I can play them with my kids.

And for younger kids, either it is people in my situation, or parents that don't know or care about games and the kids aren't necessarily very discerning. So they get the Marios and some crappy 3rd party games and have no complaints. I know I played the crap out of some really lousy games as a kid and didn't know any better.

Maybe Nintendo has done the calculation and decided on exactly what they need to do to target these groups and don't feel the need to make the investment/risk required to woo the teenage (for lack of a better category) market. That is, the market that really has the time to play a lot of games and has higher standards.

[FUZZY PICKLES!!!]

I'm sorry, but you can't say the Western industry is free from problems either. Microtransactions, DRM, DLC, buggy games, terrible PR...Western developers have just as many problems as Japanese ones. The thing is that while you can have a Nintendo system without Western support, without Japanese support you're screwed.

Besides, it's not like Sony/Microsoft are exactly courting the best of the best in terms of exclusives or unique ideas. Sony's systems have the unfortunate negative moniker "Indiestation" in some circles, reflecting their dependence on indies to produce content of extremely varying quality but not genre.

I'm not sure if this was referring to me, but if it was, I never said anything about the Western gaming industry being better than the Japanese gaming industry. As a matter of fact, I see the Western gaming industry (along with Sony) as the primary reason behind the majority of the problems that happen in the video game industry today and I much prefer Japanese third-parties. But I can't see Nintendo's hardware surviving without the support of Western third-parties. EA didn't support the Dreamcast at all and it failed. They dropped the Wii U early on and look at how terribly the Wii U is doing. I don't think Nintendo can remain in the console market with the biggest third-party companies ignoring them.

[Leo_A]

Does anyone know when the final round of gold/platinum rewards will be posted?

[Tanooki]

Coins are deleted July 1st, so that definitely would be a 6/30 cut off to use what you have, so they'll likely post the rewards after that, then take their usual 3-6months to bother sending them out.

[Leo_A]

I was hoping it would be earlier than that. [Edit: My hunch was right. Rewards go up April 1st].

As for the wait, I'd be grabbing something like a Virtual Console download, so that never bothered me.

I have enough junk without collecting stuff like Mario themed playing cards and so on.

[Tanooki]

Sounds good, due to their dickery of removing codes early in the year I didn't make the platinum I should have with the new3ds+xenoblade among a few other 3DS games so I have gold. I expect nothing but a crappy digital download after last years shenanigans so I'm really not holding any anticipation of what is to come and I'll take whatever I get.

[BetaWolf47]

I'm with Tanooki on this one. I'm not holding my breath for a physical reward this time around either. Too many people (myself included) started redeeming unused codes like crazy as soon as they announced Club Nintendo was closing. Too many elite members to give a physical reward this year.

Regardless, I choose to remain optimistic about the Wii U future.

[ZeroCool]

The cancellation of the Zelda has really pissed me off and I'm not even a huge Zelda fan. I hope they have had a huge slice of humble pie and realize how idiotic they have been this gen. Get your head out of your asses already.

[Leo_A]

Zelda wasn't cancelled, they merely prepared us for a very likely delay.

[ZeroCool]

Yes. Thats what I meant.