Topic: Wii U in Review (News & Rumor Consolidation)

[broodwars]

There's also an interesting situation shaping up this Fall. Supposedly the new Sony and Microsoft consoles will be launching, but the recent GTAV delay is going to suck all the oxygen out of the last quarter of the year. I wonder how this will affect the outlooks of the new consoles and WiiU.

I actually think GTA V coming out in September is going to make it do significantly less damage than it would have releasing in May. At least now, those companies who wisely chose to stay away from the big February/March 2013 cluster**** have a decent chance to have good sales now.  Coming out in September, though, that season's already dominated by 2-3 franchises devouring all the others. I don't think it would change much having a 4th game taking from the Assassin's Creed/Battlefield/Call of Duty pot.

[ShyGuy]

I think this time next year we will be looking towards digital downloads on the eshop for our hot new games. Digital is going to take over, mostly because of price.

[Louieturkey]

I think this time next year we will be looking towards digital downloads on the eshop for our hot new games. Digital is going to take over, mostly because of price.

Nintendo would have to agree to lower prices on digital games compared to retail games for price to be the factor.

[Louieturkey]

Did anyone else read Iwata's speech for the investors?  He was talking about how the Wii U could be used for amazing unique apps like they did with Wii Street U (Google Street) and how they would be showing more information about what they are doing like that at GDC.  Here's hoping we get more than just new stock watching apps.   Will they agree to integrate Facebook or Twitter or Google+ to compete with Miiverse?

[alegoicoe]

There's also an interesting situation shaping up this Fall. Supposedly the new Sony and Microsoft consoles will be launching, but the recent GTAV delay is going to suck all the oxygen out of the last quarter of the year. I wonder how this will affect the outlooks of the new consoles and WiiU.

I actually think GTA V coming out in September is going to make it do significantly less damage than it would have releasing in May. At least now, those companies who wisely chose to stay away from the big February/March 2013 cluster**** have a decent chance to have good sales now.  Coming out in September, though, that season's already dominated by 2-3 franchises devouring all the others. I don't think it would change much having a 4th game taking from the Assassin's Creed/Battlefield/Call of Duty pot.

I really do think that neither Microsoft or Sony will be releasing new systems this year. There are way too many AAA games coming up throughout the remainder of the year for them to kill profits in order to start taking losses yet again with new machines, especially since x360 is doing so well and Sony is starting to see the fruits of ps3 since they are not selling at a loss after about almost the whole generation. I guess that's good for Wii U in terms of hardware competition, but Nintendo will have to strongly back up their systems software wise if they want to take  an advantage.

[Luigi Dude]

There's also an interesting situation shaping up this Fall. Supposedly the new Sony and Microsoft consoles will be launching, but the recent GTAV delay is going to suck all the oxygen out of the last quarter of the year. I wonder how this will affect the outlooks of the new consoles and WiiU.

Shouldn't effect Nintendo since Nintendo's own games appeal to a different audience then GTA.  Mario Kart Wii was released just 2 days before GTA IV and yet Mario Kart Wii would go on to be the bigger seller in the long run.  Plus the same month GTA IV was released the Wii was still the best selling system by far.

April 2008 NPD numbers

Wii - 714.2K
360 - 188.0K
PS3 - 187.1K

So as long as Nintendo releases some big games for the Wii U this Fall, GTA V won't really effect them.

[Shaymin]

For the record, the only three years that Nintendo *hasn't* made 100 billion yen since 2000 are 2001, 2006 and 2012 - read, the three years they launched consoles and the existing console was getting scraps.

[azeke]

I definitely think it's possible.

On 3DS front -- they're golden. They've established stable sales of evergreen titles (NSMB2, MK7, SML3D), they have monster line-up for 2013, they have absolute control over (japanese) 3rd parties. With 3ds safe, bulk of their studios have redirected efforts to Wii U.

On Wii U -- it feels like they're sacrificing this quarter, holding themselves back and priming for second half of the year, feeling that they need to have good games line-up to compete with impending ms/sony avalanche.

I still think X game might come this year and if they'll be able to ship at least one of the announcements from Nintendo Direct (be it 3d Mario, Yoshi or Bayo 2) for holidays and Retro game (whatever that is) this will definitely turn some heads.

But as of now, Wii Party U and Wii Fit U will have to carry our poor Wii U by themselves.

[MagicCow64]

There's also an interesting situation shaping up this Fall. Supposedly the new Sony and Microsoft consoles will be launching, but the recent GTAV delay is going to suck all the oxygen out of the last quarter of the year. I wonder how this will affect the outlooks of the new consoles and WiiU.

I actually think GTA V coming out in September is going to make it do significantly less damage than it would have releasing in May. At least now, those companies who wisely chose to stay away from the big February/March 2013 cluster**** have a decent chance to have good sales now.  Coming out in September, though, that season's already dominated by 2-3 franchises devouring all the others. I don't think it would change much having a 4th game taking from the Assassin's Creed/Battlefield/Call of Duty pot.

I guess it will depend on just what happens with the Sony and Microsoft follow-up consoles. GTA V is getting more buzz than IV, if that's possible; I certainly wouldn't want to launch a new console against that with the usual lame-o launch line-up that seems to be endemic. Even if Sony and Microsoft announce before E3, as has been the rumor, they will have at max 9 months to try to hype up . . . Madden '14 and Perfect Dark Below Zero?

[ShyGuy]

I think this time next year we will be looking towards digital downloads on the eshop for our hot new games. Digital is going to take over, mostly because of price.

Nintendo would have to agree to lower prices on digital games compared to retail games for price to be the factor.

I mean eshop indie games are growing in size and quality. The Cave is an A grade game, with enough polish and content to be a full retail game during the N64/PS1 era.  How long until we get something the size of say, Luigi's Mansion as an eshop download for $25 instead of $60?

[broodwars]

I guess it will depend on just what happens with the Sony and Microsoft follow-up consoles. GTA V is getting more buzz than IV, if that's possible; I certainly wouldn't want to launch a new console against that with the usual lame-o launch line-up that seems to be endemic. Even if Sony and Microsoft announce before E3, as has been the rumor, they will have at max 9 months to try to hype up . . . Madden '14 and Perfect Dark Below Zero?

No, it would be more like 9 months to hype up Killzone 4/Uncharted 4/Infamous 3 and Alan Wake 2/Halo 5.  And that's assuming neither have new franchises to unveil, which particularly in Sony's case is probably unlikely.

[terribledeli]

Wall Street Journal is stating they think the PS4 (Next or whatever it's called) is coming this year.

Which wouldn't surprise me. With the exception of GTA 5, there really isn't any other major titles announced for a post E3 release. And with how quickly news travels/is spoiled, most just avoid the whole "surprise e3 announcement"

I could see both Sony and Microsoft pushing the 360 and PS3 to the more casual market this Christmas, and thumping the new set of consoles for the dedicated fan. Squeezing the final bit of blood from the stone. Then slowly push the market towards the new consoles sales (versus pushing 360/PS3 respectively) around E3 2014.

[Adrock]

I'm sure they'll try, but seeing Wii U stumble a bit has to be reasurring. As long as it doesn't suddenly gain momentum, they can probably afford to delay PSFour until next year which could work in their favor to bolster the launch lineup and ease shortages. PS3 still has games coming out for it and so long as 3rd parties aren't willing to port them to Wii U, that makes Sony's Q4 a lot easier even if Nintendo manages to release Mario and/or Mario Kart.

[Caterkiller]

A low blow form EA. No Madded 25 for Wii U. Only PS3 and 360. That's just harsh man.

http://gamerxchange.net/2013/02/01/celebrate-25-years-this-august-with-madden-nfl-25/

[Stogi]

Shitty. One of the things I wanted to see the most was 2 GP play for EA Sports titles, mainly Madden.


EDIT: Just read the article and there is no word for either Nintendo console or handheld and the Vita. It's very surprising that they'd snuff the 3DS and Vita.

This leads me to believe that they are waiting for another time to announce it to those systems and possibly the Wii U.

[Luigi Dude]

I'm sure they'll try, but seeing Wii U stumble a bit has to be reasurring. As long as it doesn't suddenly gain momentum, they can probably afford to delay PSFour until next year which could work in their favor to bolster the launch lineup and ease shortages. PS3 still has games coming out for it and so long as 3rd parties aren't willing to port them to Wii U, that makes Sony's Q4 a lot easier even if Nintendo manages to release Mario and/or Mario Kart.

Not really since Sony has Microsoft to worry about as well.  Delaying the PS4 to 2014 would be a disaster since even if Nintendo doesn't start getting ports, we know Microsoft will.  The PS3 already gets outsold by the 360 every month in North America and was just clobbered by it last holiday.  Even against the Wii U, the PS3 only outsold it by around 200k in December.

If the PS3 was already struggling this last holiday, it'll be slaughtered next holiday when competing against the 720, Wii U, and a cheaper 360 that already sells twice as much as the PS3 despite both sharing 95% of the same games.  Not having the PS4 out this holiday will basically give the 720 and Wii U all the momentum going into next year making any PS4 launch a much harder sell in early 2014.

[Adrock]

That's assuming Microsoft launches this holiday season. I should have probably clarified.

[MagicCow64]

More and more seems to be hinging on the timing of the new consoles. Sony appears ready to pull the trigger on an announcement, which would presumably force Microsoft's hand. I do feel like this winter is too soon though; is it possible that either company will break tradition and launch next spring?

[Caterkiller]

http://mynintendonews.com/2013/02/01/metal-gear-rising-could-come-to-wii-u-if-theres-the-demand/

If there is demand for Metal Gear rising on the Wii U then Konami may consider it.


]http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/rumor-new-fps-ip-coming-to-wii-u.452863971/

RUMOR: Gear Box Software developing a new IP FPS that is coming to Wii U and the 2 unannounced systems. It's said to run on the Unreal Engine 4.

[alegoicoe]

http://mynintendonews.com/2013/02/01/metal-gear-rising-could-come-to-wii-u-if-theres-the-demand/

If there is demand for Metal Gear rising on the Wii U then Konami may consider it.


]http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/rumor-new-fps-ip-coming-to-wii-u.452863971/

RUMOR: Gear Box Software developing a new IP FPS that is coming to Wii U and the 2 unannounced systems. It's said to run on the Unreal Engine 4.

If there is even a percentage of getting MGR on Wii U that at least gives hope.

[azeke]

Do we have to pray to Kojima on our knees to get possibility to give him our money? Get lost, Konami.

RUMOR: Gear Box Software developing a new IP FPS that is coming to Wii U and the 2 unannounced systems. It's said to run on the Unreal Engine 4.

But.. but... Wii U is too weak.. for UE4!
Is PC usually included as "system" or it's always implied to be there? Unless Gearbox will add wiimote controls, i'd rather have my shooters on PC.

[TJ Spyke]

But.. but... Wii U is too weak.. for UE4!

I know you are joking, but not true. The president of Epic Games said last June that Wii U was powerful enough to run Unreal Engine 4, but they themselves would not do it (so third parties would have to do it themselves if they want to release a game running Unreal Engine 4 on Wii U).

[NWR_insanolord]

If Nintendo were smart they'd port UE4 to Wii U themselves and offer it to anyone who wanted to use it.

[Jabs]

But.. but... Wii U is too weak.. for UE4!

I know you are joking, but not true. The president of Epic Games said last June that Wii U was powerful enough to run Unreal Engine 4, but they themselves would not do it (so third parties would have to do it themselves if they want to release a game running Unreal Engine 4 on Wii U).

Just because it is possible doesn't mean it is a good idea, the technology that UE4 is packing is a very heavy handed bit of kit. It could be run and have all the effects required but the performance would be a huge drag on the system.


It's probably better to stick to the current more hardened technology than jump to the latest and greatest. Any way personally the jump to UE4 isn't that great from everything I've seen, the technology is great but the overall effect is a little underwhelming.

[azeke]

It's probably better to stick to the current more hardened technology than jump to the latest and greatest. Any way personally the jump to UE4 isn't that great from everything I've seen, the technology is great but the overall effect is a little underwhelming.

I'm in general very sceptical that new graphical jump will bring anything new. Okay we will double polygon count and texture resolution, but for how long can you do it until player stops noticing the difference?