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« on: May 18, 2014, 12:02:03 AM »
Let's be honest with ourselves here, there's currently no console-saving killer app on the plate for the Wii U.
"BOO!!! BOO AND HISS!!!" you say, "There's Smash Bros! Hyrule Warriors! and Bayonetta 2!"
Smash Bros is Smash Bros. Yes, it will definitely get a few million units moving. But enough to "save" the Wii U? I wouldn't put any money on it. It's a massive gap between what the Wii U should have been selling at this point and what it actually is selling at this point. Let's also take into account the people who bought a Wii U just for eventual Smash Bros, like me. For the most part, Smash 4 is just preaching to the choir.
Bayonetta 2? Let's take this into perspective. The first Bayonetta was one of those core games that were very elusive on the Wii, published on both the 360 and PS3, and the hype train behind it was on full steam. Pretty much since it's announcement it was hyped by EVERYONE as the hottest **** to ever be shat. And it only did 2 mil across both platforms. And even after all the gushing glowing reviews it still struggled to sell. I don't have high hopes for Bayonetta 2 being the Wii U's shining savior.
Hyrule Warriors, hm. It's Zelda, we've already seen this before. If we could have a near-unanimous praise for Mario 3D World from every professional review site (and GameSpot) and have it make minimal impact on sales, I don't think Warriors is going to be the miracle pill either.
Outside of those three, what else is there? Well I guess there's X, but as good as it looks it doesn't scream system seller to me. For the most part, JRPGs don't exactly appeal to the unwashed North American masses.
So what could save the Wii U? If big guns like Smash and Mario don't do the trick, I don't think anything will. And let's face it, the U is NEVER getting something on the scale of Titanfall or Last of Us. It's almost all in Nintendo's hands at this point. They had a whole year to wow people before the PS4 and Xbone showed up, and they just cruised along like nothing could possibly go wrong. "Big developers thumbing their noses at underpowered hardware? Pfffft, no problem! We've got Mario Party! The casuals will eat that **** up without hesitation! What're these new "smartphone" things, anyway?"
I'm a huge mark for 90s pro wrasslin, and to me, the whole Wii U situation just SCREAMS "nWo" to me. WCW struggled for years to compete with the WWF. Even after bringing in big WWF stars like Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, they barely made a dent in McMahon's pocketbook. Then all of a sudden, Bischoff came out with the nWo stable, and for the next year and a half, they absolutely slaughtered the WWF. They were pulling in money like nobody's business- Starrcade 1997 made a 1.7 million gate. The profits were pouring in, completely blinding the growing problem underneath: the undercard matches were fantastic, but the main draws, the promotion's heavy hitters, put on horrible, horrible matches, and they got worse with each passing PPV. The big problem was, WCW looked the same in 1999 as it did in 1996. And once the WWF lucked out on Austin and Rock, WCW took a freefall. The nWo was pushed and bloated, splintered and reformed, ended and reborn, hundreds of times, and people just stopped giving a ****. The real talent had already jumped ship for the WWF, and WCW was left with nothing but a slow, painful death.
TL;DR- One trick ponies like the Wii and the nWo are just that- one trick ponies. Money has a tendency to cause blindness.