Wii and Wii U - The Bear and Badger

Mod74

igorgetmeabrain wrote:

Choke wrote:

It seriously needs the next installments of GTA, COD, Bioshock and Tomb Raider if Nintendo seriously expect to market it as a console for the hardcore.

Who said that they do?Â The Wii managed to be astonishingly successful without ever appealing to the so-called 'hardcore'.Â In fact, the secret of its success was its appeal to a market which was anything but.

The Wii has failed quite fucking hard in the last couple of years because lots of people bought them to play Wii Sports and didn't bother with anything else.

Attreacting non-'hardcore' isn't a particularly successful business model in year 4 and 5 because they don't buy enough games. Hence Nintendo haemorrhaging cash and MS being the best selling console for over a year.

I'd have to assume Nintendo aren't keen to repeat that scenario and will be positioning the Wii U as hardcore capable. As they did from the moment they announced the WiiU.

Choke

Also the Wii was shit.

I_R

They'll make money if they can get the usual Nintendo fans, hardcore desperate for a stop gap and families that want Mario. Anyone expecting third parties to push the boat out is being optimistic, I'd be surprised if even Nintendo themselves expect it or care that much.

WorKid

When did the Wii fail again?

Nintendo may well have failed by not bringing out a successor a year earlier, but Nintendo hardware normally fades away rather at the end of its life. Probably because the first party developers have moved on to the next gen, and there isn't much third party stuff to fill the gap.

JonB

Bar a couple of exceptions the decent games dried up a couple of years ago at least.

WorKid

Yeah, but once 101-in-1 Sports Party Megamix has been released, who needs anything else?

I'm not too bothered because I still have a stack of unplayed games across loads of formats, but yeah, if Wii was my ONLY format, I'd not be too happy.

Blue Swirl

At the moment, all I have is a Wii and 3DS, and I'm still behind on my games.

I agree with the F-Zero rumblings, though. They need to do a new one, stat. Hell, I'd be happy with F-Zero X given the 3DS treatment, at least as an interim.

RedDave2

Blue Swirl wrote:

Hell, I'd be happy with F-Zero X given the 3DS treatment, at least as an interim.

Always preferred the F-zero series to the likes of wipeout. Never got to play the gamecube version but by all accounts it was excellent. A 3DS version would be the kinda game that would make me think about getting one of them (Portable Street Fighter 4 is already an encouraging option)

[Deleted User]

F-Zero is much better than Wipeout.

[Deleted User]

The presentation of the Gamecube version was excellent but it was just a bit too hard and no easier mode.
Wasn't it Sega or Namco that did it?

RedDave2

I think the arcade version is a joint nintendo/sega/ namco release. One of my favorite n64 memories is my eyes bleeding (well, you know what I mean) towards the end of a massive late night session on F-zero.

[Deleted User]

I loved the semi-cheesy, 90s comic book stylings of the n64 one.

Blue Swirl

Liveinadive wrote:

The presentation of the Gamecube version was excellent but it was just a bit too hard and no easier mode. Wasn't it Sega or Namco that did it?

It was balls hard, especially the story mode. Don't think I got much further than a mission or two into that, out of a total of nine, IIRC. A mate of mine asked me how I could play F-Zero GX, back in the day. I replied "Learn how to not blink."

SEGA made the game, supervised by Nintendo. The arcade version ran on hardware that was a joint project between SEGA, Nintendo and Namco.

mannaboy

Mod74 wrote:

The Wii has failed quite fucking hard in the last couple of years because lots of people bought them to play Wii Sports and didn't bother with anything else.

You must have missed all the $$$ they made from Wii Fit, wasn't that selling more than 360 and PS3 combined over a sustained period? Also Mario Kart sold a huge number of units, along with NSMB. The main reason for Nintendo losing serious money in the past year is selling at loss the 3DS.

I'd rather they called the Wii U something else, but I doubt they will as the brand is still strong amongst the masses.

Dark Soldier

I've had two Wiis in my lifetime. I'm not exactly bursting for another.

Erm.

Yeah, sorry, but I really don't see the appeal with this.

JonB

RedDave2 wrote:

I think the arcade version is a joint nintendo/sega/ namco release. One of my favorite n64 memories is my eyes bleeding (well, you know what I mean) towards the end of a massive late night session on F-zero.

The N64 version is definitely the favourite for me. Perfectly executed. Over months I completed every cup with every driver on the hardest setting. On the other hand, the GC version was too much for me to cope with visually and I gave up pretty quickly.

igorgetmeabrain

I'm not sure how there's a perception that the Wii has failed, especially as total worldwide sales of the console are still about 45% (or 30m) greater than its nearest current rival (360).Â Sure, it's at the end of its life, but it's had a good run and has another undoubtedly wildly successful successor waiting in the wings.Â Not only that but it's delivered some of the finest games of this gen and I still have a pile of stuff to get through before the U turns up.

[Deleted User]

Cant speak for everyone else, especially as I dont see the Wii as a failure. The only failure I note is the failure to once again attract a decent set of third party publishers, its better than the GC but no where near perfect.

The problem I see for the WiiU is that it looks expensive to manufacture and develop as a console (rather than develop games for).
The Wii was just a gamecube with a fancy controller so easy and cheap, the WiiU has more to it than that.
We shall see, I imagine Ninty will steal E3 this year and hopefully reveal the price point of the WiiU, if its Â£200 like th wii i will be all over it.

Blue Swirl

Given that the Wii U is essentially about the same power as a PS3, or a tad more grunty than a 360 (at least in terms of raw power, but we all know that doesn't necessarily translate into prettier games) I can't see the Wii U being that hard to manufacture.

A Â£200 price point would be amazing, but I'd be willing to wager it'll be nearer Â£250.

[Deleted User]

Fair point but given the fancy controller im thinking Â£300 bundled with a wii sports type game/ tech demo

Blue Swirl

If it's Â£300 I'm waiting for the price drop.

Unless it comes out with an epic new F-Zero game.

Mod74

igorgetmeabrain wrote:

I'm not sure how there's a perception that the Wii has failed, especially as total worldwide sales of the console are still about 45% (or 30m) greater than its nearest current rival (360).Â

Not failed in sales but you'd have thought with an installed base that size Nintendo would be up to their armpits in licensing cash. Hasn't happpend though has it. Losses and share price drops.

Total success in the console sales department. Utter failure to capitalise on that.

[Deleted User]

Blue Swirl wrote:

Unless it comes out with an epic new F-Zero game.

With you on that

Mouldywarp

Have to make myself unpopular and say I preferred Wipeout to every F-Zero except F-Zero GX, which was mind-boggling. The N64 one just felt kind of boring to me. Sorry!

On topic, Nintendo can bribe me to buy any old piece of crap with high quality 3D Mario platforming. Although to be fair to the Wii, I've owned one since Mario Galaxy was released and only felt the need to invest in another console last year. So despite its negativeÂ reputation, it kept me happy for the majority of this generation (I might just be a bit simple, though).

EvilRedEye

The problem with the Wii was that take-up of HD turned out to be fairly rapid in the end. The tech ended up out of date years before its successor was due and with 'core' games from third parties not selling very well and then not being made, it ended up losing mindshare. In that respect the Wii U shouldn't fare as badly - it might have less power than the other two next-gen home consoles but it won't be a whole television standard behind. It's unclear whether the other two next-gen consoles will be relatively modest upgrades or as major as they can make them given the current economic climate - it'll be interesting to see whether it'll be possible to port multi-format titles to all three.

Mouldywarp

I thought playing PS3 games on the old telly was more of a pain than playing Wii on an HD to be honest. I could never read the writing! But yes, a new Nintendo console isÂ definitelyÂ now required. The Wii-U looks absolutely stupid, but then so did the N64, Wii and DS so I'll reserve judgement till I actually get to play on one.

Spock

What's this fucking 'acid ghost' eminem thing that going around the interwebs? Nintendo and Eminiem?

http://www.gamesradar.com/e3-rumors-nintendos-acid-ghost-hitman-haunting-instead-killing-and-youre-boat/

Blue Swirl

EvilRedEye wrote:

The problem with the Wii was that take-up of HD turned out to be fairly rapid in the end. The tech ended up out of date years before its successor was due and with 'core' games from third parties not selling very well and then not being made, it ended up losing mindshare. In that respect the Wii U shouldn't fare as badly - it might have less power than the other two next-gen home consoles but it won't be a whole television standard behind. It's unclear whether the other two next-gen consoles will be relatively modest upgrades or as major as they can make them given the current economic climate - it'll be interesting to see whether it'll be possible to port multi-format titles to all three.

I was under the impression that HD TVs still made up less than half the number of TVs currently in use in the UK? Might have that wrong, though. I'm pretty sure the number of people using their PS3/Xbox 360 with an SD TV in the US is quite high, too; it came up on a recent episode of 'Weekend Confirmed'.

EvilRedEye

Blue Swirl wrote:

I was under the impression that HD TVs still made up less than half the number of TVs currently in use in the UK? Might have that wrong, though. I'm pretty sure the number of people using their PS3/Xbox 360 with an SD TV in the US is quite high, too; it came up on a recent episode of 'Weekend Confirmed'.

Very dependent on demographic though, even the 360 and PS3 have semi-casual CoD players and the like. We've certainly gone from nothing to there being an expectation that core gamers will be using an HDTV - Minecraft doesn't support splitscreen in SDTV for example, and various games have hard-to-read text in SD. I don't think it's too controversial to suggest that the issue is partly to blame for third-party core titles selling poorly on the Wii.

Blue Swirl

Aye, and the demographic most likely to buy a Wii are the ones least likely to care about having the latest and greatest TV. Having a big-ass shiny HD TV to play games on is the modern equivalent of the graphics cards wars for PC gaming in the mid 90s; outside of the hardcore, no one gives a crap.

That's my two cents, of course. Well aware I'm throwing around some wild generalisations, fully prepared to be proved wrong.

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