Topic: Wii Sports Club Coming to Wii U, Features Online Multiplayer

[bluelander]

Wii Sports finally goes online.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/35453

Wii Sports Club is hitting Wii U beginning November 7. The enhanced HD version of Wii Sports will be sold piecemeal, beginning with Bowling and Tennis. Each game will be sold for $9.99 each.

In addition to HD graphics, the sports will feature online multiplayer, which will take the form of Clubs. This allows players to register in state or regional clubs as well as chat during matches over Miiverse. Clubs will be ranked, and the system will allow clubs to compete with fellow members or face off against rival clubs.

The game itself will be a free download and comes with trial versions of each game. Players will be able to purchase a Day Pass for $1.99, which allows them to play any available games for 24 hours, or purchase the full version of each game for $9.99.

The first two games, Tennis and Bowling, will release on November 7. Baseball, Golf, and Boxing will release "in the months ahead."

[Spak-Spang]

The price is a little too high, but I like this idea. 


Hopefully we will see Wiimote + enhancements in all older games, and hopefully boxing will require 2 wiimote + and not use the nunchuk at all.

[Oblivion]

How is it too high? 10 bucks for HD, Motion Plus, and online play for the sports that you like? That's such a great idea. Instead of paying 50 bucks for all five (especially when I don't like all of them) I can pay 20 bucks for Tennis and Bowling/Boxing instead.


Nintendo has never been this good with digital anything, so this is a great surprise.

[azeke]

I will probably get this, but i'd prefer games from Resort, specifically archery and airplane battles. Not sure how if archery will be all that improved with online, but i'd be ALL OVER online dogfights over Wuhu island.

[Spak-Spang]

I would think $7.99 would be a better price.  But I will take $9.99.


I hope this means Nintendo will do more than just the original Wii Sports line up...I would like to see select Wii Play titles.  Tank, Laser Hockey, ect.  Also I hope the better Wii Sports Resort games get ported for HD as well.


What amazes me...is Nintendo usually does cool things, but does them too late to fully capitalize on them.  This should have been available at launch.  It would have been a killer downloadable App for fans...and would have gotten quite a few people to purchase a Wii U. 

[Spak-Spang]

Actually Archery could be easily improved.  Allow people to run around on Wuhu island and then they have to stop and aim and shoot at opponents.  All the while taking wind and movement and everything into consideration.  Talk about amazing metagame multiplayer action.

[azeke]

Actually Archery could be easily improved.  Allow people to run around on Wuhu island and then they have to stop and aim and shoot at opponents.  All the while taking wind and movement and everything into consideration.  Talk about amazing metagame multiplayer action.

That sounds more like World of Archercraft, i just want some regular ### wii sports stuff.

[Leo13]

They could include Resort if you watched the Nintendo Direct the promised all the games from Wii Sports, but at first there will only be 2 available and they'll add the rest as they get them done. So maybe after they do all the wii sports games they'll do the resort games next. I hope so I played a ton of the sword fighting especially the 2-player duels.


Does anyone else find it odd that the nintendo direct did Wii fit u (a mii game) and Wii Sports Club (a mii game), but NOT Wii Party U (a mii game) even though Wii Party U comes out first?

[xcwarrior]

I think this is a great idea, though I want baseball more than any other game.

So they have no plans on adding anything more to the titles? I would love more than just vs for them. Like even a short 20 game season for baseball, or a road to the tittle in boxing, or just add the wii sports resort courses to golf, etc.

Price is kind of high, but at the same time, with ONLINE MULTIPLAYER, I'll easily get 10 hours of play out of these titles.

Great move by Nintendo!

[Adrock]

The price is high considering Nintendo gave all the games away for free for years. I understand there are improvements like online play and MotionPlus support, but are they $50 worth of improvements? Ehh, not so sure. If Club was coupled with the entirety of Resort for $50 or low enough individually to cost $50 if you pirchased all the games, maybe.

Also, I feel like this would have been really helpful at launch.

[Leo13]

Some people are considering this Friday the "Real Launch" of Wii U. $299 for the Deluxe System which will include Nintendo Land OR Zelda Wind Waker with titles on the shelf including Mario U, Luigi U, Wonderful 101, Pikmin 3, Rayman Legends, Lego City Undercover, with Mario 3D World, Donkey Kong Wii Party U Wii Fit U and more on the way.

[ShyGuy]

First rule of Wii Sports Club is you don't talk about Wii Sports Club!

[Ian Sane]

This seems very F2Pish which is not a direction I want Nintendo, or frankly the entire videogame industry, to go down.

$50 for Wii Sports seems steep.  Would you have paid that for Wii Sports on the Wii if it wasn't a pack-in?  It seems like a $30 game at best.  Online multiplayer sounds great in theory but my friend broke tennis a few days after I got a Wii so that if he served first I could NEVER return it because my auto-running Mii couldn't get to the ball in time (and since you can't actually move your character I couldn't position him ahead of time either).  With the original version if one of your friends didn't discover that then didn't have to worry about it but if such an exploit is still in the online version of the game it will take like a day before it catches on and every "club" is infested with a glorified cheater that ruins the game.

I don't know if online Wii Sports with HD graphics (yeah there's some real eye candy in that game) is going to help the Wii U or not.  A new Wii Sports game could perhaps help but this is really a fad that's over.  You might as well port Guitar Hero 2 while you're at it.  Who out there isn't already bored of Wii Sports and feels that online play and improved graphics is worth buying a whole new console over?  If you're still interested in the original Wii Sports wouldn't you be content continuing to play it on the Wii?  I suppose it might sell to the converted, like someone buys a Wii U on the strength of a different game, but even then it's $50 for a port of a game that used to be FREE.  Seems too expensive for an impulse buy.

And let's not forget that NSMB Wii was a big hit and NSMB U failed to sell the Wii U so why would Wii Sports, which isn't even a new game, sell the Wii U?  I think the Wii U needs distinct gameplay experiences that are only possible on the Wii U to sell.  After all, that is EXACTLY what sold the Wii.  Wii Sports was a gameplay experience literally no other videogame system was capable of.  On the Wii it was one-of-a-kind and on the Wii U it's an inessential rehash.  Wii Sports the brand didn't sell Wii's but rather what it represented.

They should have made Wii U Sports that specifically used the Gamepad, you know the expensive controller that is the whole hook of the console in the first place that for some reason Nintendo has already forgotten about.  Though since this is just a remake of a game that was never too advanced to begin with and is being released in a episodic way I wonder if it's something Nintendo just banged out very recently in a panic to try to get more content on the Wii U.

[Soren]

So...NWR Wii Sports Bowling Club anyone?

[Leo13]

Nice idea!!!
Or how about NWR Boxing tournament?

[lolmonade]

I was going to gripe about the $9.99 price point per sport, but upon reflection, I'm ok with it given that it allows me to avoid getting the sports I don't particularly care for (Baseball, Tennis).
 
Not saying I wouldn't prefer maybe a $5.99 price point, but I bet enough people will bite at $9.99 to justify the price from Nintendo's standpoint.

[ejamer]

I also feel like this is Nintendo scrambling to get more content onto Wii U... but don't see that (or the pricing experiment) as a bad thing.


They are taking a known property that is fun, adding online play - something that relatively few Wii U games offer - plus some other upgrades and then breaking the whole thing into small chunks so you can pick and choose how much you want to buy.


People who don't care don't lose anything. People who are excited have options and should be able to get a good return on their $10 (per sport) investment.  Would I have wanted to pay $50 for Wii Sports on Wii?  Not really... but when I consider how much play that game got it wouldn't have been such a bad deal.  In this case it sounds like people can try before buying and then drop as much or as little money as they want on the product.




Where is the downside to this announcement? Maybe concern that this effort could've been put into a different product... but I'd wager that the lessons learned here (online infrastructure, coding, and pricing decisions) will be used with other games in the future. Seems like a worthwhile experiment to me... even if I'm probably not going to buy any of the Wii Sports Club games.

[Adrock]

$50 for Wii Sports seems steep.  Would you have paid that for Wii Sports on the Wii if it wasn't a pack-in?

In 2006, as the first game of its kind? Yeah, probably. In 2013, as an HD upgrade of a seven year old game I got for free with upgrades I'm barely interested in, **** no.

And let's not forget that NSMB Wii was a big hit and NSMB U failed to sell the Wii U so why would Wii Sports, which isn't even a new game, sell the Wii U?

For the love of... Not every game is meant to be a system seller. And as far as I know, Club is a download only title therefore many people may not even know about this until they enter the eshop or when it shows up in the Plaza.

Not sure Nintendo will be in a panic for content when the first two games land on the eshop. They'll have plenty of decent games available by then. Maybe a few months ago when Wii U owners had next to nothing. In November, these just seems like something to buy.

[Adrock]

They should have made Wii U Sports that specifically used the Gamepad, you know the expensive controller that is the whole hook of the console in the first place that for some reason Nintendo has already forgotten about.

They did. It was called Nintendo Land and it was a launch title. If Nintendo made literal Wii U Sports, you'd just complain that they were retreading ground instead of launching a completely new title. Nice try, Negative Nancy.

[Leo13]

They should have made Wii U Sports that specifically used the Gamepad, you know the expensive controller that is the whole hook of the console in the first place that for some reason Nintendo has already forgotten about.

They did. It was called Nintendo Land and it was a launch title. If Nintendo made literal Wii U Sports, you'd just complain that they were retreading ground instead of launching a completely new title. Nice try, Negative Nancy.

Thank-you Adrock

Nintendo Land is a very fun game. I really don't understand why people don't like it. My family had a lot of fun with it and we still pull it out when people come over to visit.

[Oblivion]

10 bucks for an online Tennis? Come on, guys.

[Caterkiller]

YES!!! I really really want this!!!


If people start exploiting the game then patches will come in eventually. I'm not worried about that.

[ShyGuy]

I hope boxing improves with Motion + support.

[Miyamoto]

$9.99? For a digital copy? Of a 5th of a game? Of a Wii title? That's 7 years old? That was originally bundled for free?


Nintendo, you need to raise your game. You're not making it easy on yourself. Maybe it's time to look over the fence at what the other guys are doing. You could learn a thing or two about value for money and what consumers have come to expect... or you could continue to make bad decision after bad decision and slide in to obscurity. Whatevs.

[Razorkid]

People complaining about this sound like bitter, bitter old men. $10 each for one of the most fun multiplayer games of last gen with online functionality and Miiverse sounds great.

Try before you buy? Awesome!

Want to rent games at a rediculously low price for only when family and friends are over for things like holidays and parties?
We got you covered.

Think this whole thing is a scam/too expensive, but you still want to experience WiiSports? Pull out your old copy and play the game in Wii mode on your WiiU for free.

I see nothing but good options for all.