Topic: Wii U Wont Collect Dust

[Caterkiller]

This is a nice interview with Reggie trying to tell us the Wii U won't fall into the same situation as Wii.

http://kotaku.com/5943529/nintendo-doesnt-think-your-wii-u-will-collect-dust?tag=wii-u

Kotaku: "Well is the Wii U going to be able to run the newest Call of Duty in four or five years? Is it going to be able to run Call of Duty on the same level as the Xbox or PlayStation?"

Fils-Aime: "Well, so unless you've got details that you wanna share on the next Xbox or PlayStation. (laughter) You know, it's a rhetorical question—who knows?

"But the fact is that in the Wii U we've built a lot of capability. And during the Nintendo Direct that happened last night or two nights ago, overnight Wednesday to Thursday, we showed a lot of specs information for the Wii U: the fact that it has an extremely large RAM built into the system, the fact that the discs are high-capacity [25gb] discs. And so we've got a system that, based on our review of the world and our architecture, it absolutely's gonna hold up and bring the best content from third-party for a long, long time.

It's a good read. I like the questions this interviewer asks, he asks what we are all thinking. 

[Louieturkey]

Interesting article.  Reggie still spun it as if the last two years weren't barren.  He acts as if the first party titles are enough.  They were enough when other third party efforts were being put on the system.  They were not enough when the third parties stopped putting "good" games on the system.  It was proved during many generations that Nintendo can't keep a system running on their own unless they only want a small niche of the market who are dedicated to Nintendo games.  They need the third parties and I'm hoping his words about the future are true.  I'm afraid the 720 and PS4 will each have 3-4 GBs of memory and it'll again be an excuse that developers use to not make games for Nintendo.

[broodwars]

Riiiiiiiiiiight.  Suuuuuuuuuuuuure it won't.  After assuring us of pretty much the same thing at the launch of the GameCube AND Wii, I'm sure they'll ensure a steady flow of releases THIS time, right? Talk is cheap, Reggie, and yours is the cheapest of them all. I think it's telling that he decided to go to Skyward Sword rather than Xenoblade when the Wii's pathetic last 2 years of software came up (and Mario Party 9 after THAT).

[ShyGuy]

I think the Wii U has enough RAM and disc size to be able to run Call of Duty 2016.

[Caterkiller]

Riiiiiiiiiiight.  Suuuuuuuuuuuuure it won't.  After assuring us of pretty much the same thing at the launch of the GameCube AND Wii, I'm sure they'll ensure a steady flow of releases THIS time, right? Talk is cheap, Reggie, and yours is the cheapest of them all. I think it's telling that he decided to go to Skyward Sword rather than Xenoblade when the Wii's pathetic last 2 years of software came up (and Mario Party 9 after THAT).

I don't disagree. We'll see.

[Mop it up]

The Wii U will collect dust whether you use it or not.

[rlse9]

Here's what the interview should have read like:

Kotaku: Be real Reggie, the WiiU is going to be a barren wasteland of nothingness by the end of this console cycle, isn't it?

Reggie:  You know it!  N64, Gamecube, Wii, it's what we do and we're not going to stop that now.  We might tell you know that there will be solid support until the end because you'll buy it now but wait a few years and BAM!, barren wasteland of Nintendo awesomeness, with a year highlighted by the release of Mario Party 12!

Seriously, Reggie could learn something from AA.  The first step is admitting you have a problem.  Continuing to claim that the last couple years of Wii were fine and grand gives no one confidence that they're actually going to put any effort into making sure things are any better in the future.  Just say that they've learned from past mistakes, worked hard to make a console that will be competitive for many years, and that the company will work with 3rd parties to make sure that the console has a full schedule throughout its life cycle.  Repeatedly bringing up Mario Party and how well Wii Sports and Wii Fit sold over the years does nothing to give gamers confidence in the console not being a dust collector a few years down the road.

[Chozo Ghost]

Even the Wii is able to run current iterations of COD... albeit watered down. I'm sure the Wii U will run any/all versions of COD that come out during its lifespan. That said, the Wii U version will probably be inferior to some extent. As long as the differences are only minor its no big deal, but we shall see.

[Ian Sane]

Eh, same bullshit from Reggie.  The second he acts like we're out of line in telling him the Wii was a barren wasteland in it's last few years just kills any credibility in the rest of what he says.  Oh you don't think the Wii's last few years were a problem?  Well, Reggie, you are full of **** and your assurances about third party support and Wii U longevity aren't worth squat.  If you won't even acknowledge the problem then why would I ever think you're working to solve it?  At least Iwata has kind of suggested that there were mistakes with the Wii and that they're working to solve it.  Reggie is acting like we're wrong for having a problem.

This is a rare situation where I think a company outright admitting they fucked up would be positive PR.  That's really the only way Nintendo is ever going to win me back.  Now they can do it with actions instead of words and not directly state "we fucked up" but change in a way that shows me they clearly felt they had to shape up.  But until that happens I'm sure not going to take "well I think you're out of line in being mad that the Wii had like three games released in two years" and buy a Wii U based on that.

Seriously if you have to stop and list individual games released in a two year span your system has jack balls for games being released.  That's like Johnny Turbo ad stuff right there.

[Adrock]

I'm not willing to throw a party just yet, but I look at some of the things Nintendo is doing with the Wii U and the fact that some of it exists points to Nintendo admitting that they've made mistakes and are working on solutions.

I don't need Reggie to grovel and beg for forgiveness. He has a job to do and playing the PR game is par for the course, but he still ultimately answers to NCL, despite NOA having a great deal of autonomy. He can't do his job unless NCL does theirs first. I don't blame him for not throwing his boss under the bus just to save face. These interviews mean far less than people make them out to be. The PR stuff is just bells and whistles to me now. Occasionally, they throw a bit of actual news in there and that's the only part I pay attention to.

[Chozo Ghost]

I think the fact that Nintendo has secured Bayonetta 2 as a Wii U exclusive and the fact they've gone with a more traditonal non-waggle controller and the buying of the Fatal Frame franchise are all little things which kinda suggests they acknowledged the problem and are addressing it. Hell, one could also argue the fact they made the Wii U console and are bringing it out a year or two ahead of the competition shows they've acknowledged a problem and this is their solution.

But with that being said, I think we all know Reggie is just a corporate shill and its probably best to just ignore anything he says, or take it with a huge grain of salt. Don't let anything Reggie says factor into your decision to buy or not buy a Wii U. If you decide to get it, do it because you've done your own homework. Whatever he says is bullshit and shouldn't factor into your decision at all. But on the same token, I don't think one should outright reject Nintendo just because of Reggie. I think as a whole Nintendo still has some great minds behind it (Miyamoto, for example), but Reggie is not one of them. He's just a mouthpiece who spouts off propaganda. He won't accept or acknowledge any criticism. We should never forget his "gamers are insatiable" remark.

[Adrock]

I agree for the most part though I think Reggie does a lot more behind the scenes than he's given credit for (namely the miracle of convincing Rockstar/Take Two to support Wii/DS). His interviewing skills just need an EXP boost to gain a level (probably 2).

[Luigi Dude]

Yeah people have to remember Reggie's job is to mostly advertise Nintendo products in North America.  Behind the scenes he does have some more power, but whenever he appears in public he's just suppose to be a Nintendo salesman.  He's being paid to constantly say good things about Nintendo so of course he'll never say anything bad about them.  Yeah Iwata will apologize at times but that's because he's the actual president of Nintendo who runs the whole show and is the guy who has to deal with all the angry shareholders.  Reggie on the other hand is just a salesman who has to always be selling Nintendo products so he's not in a position to apologize for any mistakes.

[MrPhishfood]

But with that being said, I think we all know Reggie is just a corporate shill

Who are ya, Bill Hicks? The guy works for Nintendo, no need for name calling. He's not Jay Leno advertising Doritos. What would anyone say if presented with critism for the company they work for, what are they going to say knowing full well their boss is watching?

Reggie is the voice for Nintendo of America and NoA is not autonomous, its a branch of Nintendo Japan. Part of his job is to reiterate Japan's message to the west.

[Caterkiller]

I think the fact that Nintendo has secured Bayonetta 2 as a Wii U exclusive and the fact they've gone with a more traditonal non-waggle controller and the buying of the Fatal Frame franchise are all little things which kinda suggests they acknowledged the problem and are addressing it. Hell, one could also argue the fact they made the Wii U console and are bringing it out a year or two ahead of the competition shows they've acknowledged a problem and this is their solution.

But with that being said, I think we all know Reggie is just a corporate shill and its probably best to just ignore anything he says, or take it with a huge grain of salt. Don't let anything Reggie says factor into your decision to buy or not buy a Wii U. If you decide to get it, do it because you've done your own homework. Whatever he says is bullshit and shouldn't factor into your decision at all. But on the same token, I don't think one should outright reject Nintendo just because of Reggie. I think as a whole Nintendo still has some great minds behind it (Miyamoto, for example), but Reggie is not one of them. He's just a mouthpiece who spouts off propaganda. He won't accept or acknowledge any criticism. We should never forget his "gamers are insatiable" remark.

Your tone about this subject has changed significantly in the last month.

I like Reggie, I like how he speaks, he's a nice guy and I sure he does his best when dealing with western developers. Him basically saying there were no droubts means nothing to me because as others have said that's his job. Though I do feel like there was a time that he acknowledged the droubts.

Man 2010 was great year wasn't it? 8, 9 and 10 were great for me!

[Fatty The Hutt]

Kotaku: "Well is the Wii U going to be able to run the newest Call of Duty in four or five years? Is it going to be able to run Call of Duty on the same level as the Xbox or PlayStation?"
Fils-Aime: "Well, so unless you've got details that you wanna share on the next Xbox or PlayStation. (laughter) You know, it's a rhetorical question—who knows?

I applaud Reggie for politely but firmly letting the interviewer know what a fuckin' stupid question he asked. The guy is President of NoA and has to put up with idiot gamer questions like "can you please predict the future". I hope he gets danger pay or something.

[Ian Sane]

If it's all NCL then NCL needs to not tell Reggie to tell us what we should think.  That's really the message I got.  We're wrong about the droughts and Reggie is to put us in our place.

There is even a decent spin.  Reggie could point out that the third party support wasn't up to snuff and Nintendo still released great games towards the end of the Wii's life but "we can't do by ourselves".  So it's really the third parties' fault but THIS time Nintendo is working hard to attract healthy third party support that will endure until the end of the Wii U's life.  It diverts blame from Nintendo but it also acknowledges that the game droughts do exist and are a problem and that Nintendo is going to fix it.

At my workplace I've had to tell clients we've screwed up but then we addressed the issue quickly and they're THRILLED.  We **** up and yet end up looking good because of how well we react to it.  No one expects a company to be perfect.  Mistakes get made.  But you gain trust if you handle the mistakes properly.  Despite what all sorts of dumb corporate types think, acting like your infallible in all situations hurts trust with your customers because you do make mistakes, and they do get noticed, and you come across as shysters when you act like those mistakes didn't really happen.

My diminished Nintendo fandom is largely a result of Nintendo acting like they never **** anything up ever.  So it comes across like they never FIX anything ever because, well, there's nothing broke.  Only there is and it just piles and piles up and I've lost all faith in them because they never admit they do anything wrong so they never fix anything.  They don't come across a company I can trust, they come across as a greedy company trying to take advantage of me.

[Louieturkey]

I think the fact that Nintendo has secured Bayonetta 2 as a Wii U exclusive and the fact they've gone with a more traditonal non-waggle controller and the buying of the Fatal Frame franchise are all little things which kinda suggests they acknowledged the problem and are addressing it. Hell, one could also argue the fact they made the Wii U console and are bringing it out a year or two ahead of the competition shows they've acknowledged a problem and this is their solution.

But with that being said, I think we all know Reggie is just a corporate shill and its probably best to just ignore anything he says, or take it with a huge grain of salt. Don't let anything Reggie says factor into your decision to buy or not buy a Wii U. If you decide to get it, do it because you've done your own homework. Whatever he says is bullshit and shouldn't factor into your decision at all. But on the same token, I don't think one should outright reject Nintendo just because of Reggie. I think as a whole Nintendo still has some great minds behind it (Miyamoto, for example), but Reggie is not one of them. He's just a mouthpiece who spouts off propaganda. He won't accept or acknowledge any criticism. We should never forget his "gamers are insatiable" remark.

Your tone about this subject has changed significantly in the last month.

This was my thought as well.  I think we convinced him that Reggie is not as powerful as he was thinking.  He's first and foremost a salesman selling a product.  He's of the mindset it seems that you always paint your company and product in good light rather than admit faults.  Talk about the positives and ignore the negatives.  It's a philosophy I've seen in many places.  While it can infuriate some who have done their homework, many don't do their homework and hear the positives and think everything is good.

Chozo is right that everyone needs to do their own homework and figure out for themselves what they think the truth will be.  Nintendo has a track record with home consoles of them deflating long before the new system is released (N64, GC, and now Wii, even SNES wasn't nearly as robust the last year like the PS1 and PS2 were).  Will they fix it this time?  It all really depends on if they can keep that 3rd party support going into 2017 and 2018.

[Louieturkey]

If it's all NCL then NCL needs to not tell Reggie to tell us what we should think.  That's really the message I got.  We're wrong about the droughts and Reggie is to put us in our place.

There is even a decent spin.  Reggie could point out that the third party support wasn't up to snuff and Nintendo still released great games towards the end of the Wii's life but "we can't do by ourselves". 

But that doesn't work because wasn't it Reggie who said in 2007 or 2008 that Nintendo could support the system by themselves.  They certainly did it pretty well this generation.  What they've proven is they can't sustain a 5 or 6 year console cycle by themselves, but they should can do it for 304 years without any real problem.

[Kairon]

One of the comforts of being a Nintendo fan is looking at the N64 or GC as worst case scenarios and realizing that you still had fun.

[Spak-Spang]

You know...usually I would side with Nintendo...because honestly the droughts in games is not on Nintendo's fault but because 3rd parties dry up.  And as much as Nintendo tries to fix 3rd party relations and create gaming hardware that 3rd parties want to support...in the end it is up to the 3rd parties themselves whether or not they support the system...and yes I know you can argue that Nintendo did not do itself any favors by under powering the Wii...and I would agree with you...but that is in the past.  The Wii U looks to be plenty powerful for gaming for the next 3-6 years...and it is creating unique play experiences that will definitely be copied by the competition. 

However, this generation NOA purposely screwed Nintendo fans for a long period of time outta 3-4 games that were ready to be released with English translation and everything...and when they did finally release them, it was not a widespread releases.  Nintendo shame on you.  You saw there was a drought...and you sat on games.  You know what you do as a company....when you see a 3rd party drought? 

You break your typical release schedules and release more games...you look for games that weren't published in your region and seek to release them as quickly as possible.  Imagine if the Project Rainfall games were actually released when they were ready at key parts of the year...it would have been a completely different story for Nintendo's shortages.

Sure Nintendo would have had the 3rd party support still...but gamers would have been happy playing other games.

[Fatty The Hutt]

My diminished Nintendo fandom is largely a result of Nintendo acting like they never **** anything up ever.  So it comes across like they never FIX anything ever because, well, there's nothing broke.  Only there is and it just piles and piles up and I've lost all faith in them because they never admit they do anything wrong so they never fix anything.  They don't come across a company I can trust, they come across as a greedy company trying to take advantage of me.

Riiiiight. So that's why they lowered the 3DS price significantly and gave early adopters 20 free games and have since constantly referred to the lessons they have learned from the 3DS launch. And Iwata took a 50% salary cut. Because Nintendo is, what was that again, "a greedy company trying to take advantage of me" and "they never admit they do anything wrong so they never fix anything".
 
Your rhetoric is tiresome, as usual. Can we please get back to how awesome ZombiiU, Assassins Creed 3 and Darksiders 2 are looking?

[Adrock]

Your rhetoric is tiresome, as usual. Can we please get back to how awesome ZombiiU, Assassins Creed 3 and Darksiders 2 are looking?

It's fairly well-documented on NWR that I struggle with most 1st person games due to the POV causing me headaches, but ZombiU does look pretty fun. I actually want to try it out, but I may have to wait until the price drops because I don't want to spend $60 on a game I may not be able to play. And no, I won't sign up for Gamefly for a number of reasons.

[shingi_70]

I like nintendo but at this point even if its possible the Wii U wouldn't be my only next gen console.

Kind of surprised Ninja Gaiden Z wasn't announced at nintendo direct or any mention of DOA5.

[Adrock]

I feel the exact opposite way. Wii U is probably going to be my only next generation console (for a while anyway) because I don't play enough video games to justify another console and I'm not going to not play the next Mario, Zelda, Metroid etc. I may end up getting a PSFour down the line. Maybe, but Sony is going to have to do better than God of War and Uncharted because I think I'm over those series. I certainly won't buy a console just for those games or buy them at full price.