Nintendo vows to not repeat the mistakes of the past.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/30962
Iwata commented recently on the lack of momentum for Wii, citing poor third-party support and no social networking functionality.
During the 72nd annual shareholders meeting at Nintendo HQ in Tokyo, Iwata was grilled on the poor showing of multiplatform titles for Wii, and asked how he intended to solve the problem on Wii U. Iwata replied, "We have not successfully kept the momentum of the Wii for about the last two years because third-party publishers have released a smaller number of game titles and Nintendo has also decreased new games for the platform in preparation for the launch of the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U. As the Wii has no such system as the “Miiverse” in the Nintendo Network mentioned earlier today, in which consumers have a chance to encounter new games in communication with others, the momentum temporarily provoked by a new game has easily been diminished."
Although Iwata was careful not to promise that every desirable multiplatform title would make it to Wii U, he declared that the technology gap between Wii U and future consoles released by competitors would not be nearly the size of the gap between Wii and it's current competitors.
Regarding price of the Wii U, Iwata said "As the structure of the product called the Wii U is as if we are including both a video game console and a handheld device, if we were not careful about how luxurious both of them were, we could end up having to offer the price of the two hardware systems combined, which would not be an acceptable price for the consumers. We had to design it by balancing the performance and the costs."
The average development cost for PS2/Gamecube/Xbox games was between 3-7 million. The average 360/PS3 game is between 15-30 million. This is why I doubt the 720/PS4 will be that much more powerful then the Wii U because the industry can't afford it. Current HD development cost is still way too high for most studio's and if the 720/PS4 were to be well above them like the 360/PS3 were over the Wii so the Wii U can't get any multiplatform ports, those systems would be unaffordable for most studio's since the average cost would be at least 50 million meaning the average game would need to sell around 2 million copies just to break even.
Of course if Microsoft and Sony do make their new systems this powerful, then it won't matter if the Wii U doesn't get multi-platform games because the 720/PS4 won't either. Most companies that support the 720/PS4 will go bankrupt and close leaving those systems with a lack of games as well.
So Nintendo is in a good position with the Wii U. They'll either get multi-platform support, or Microsoft and Sony will kill the rest of the industry with insane dev cost which will leave Nintendo the last man standing by default.
I remember in the first few years of the Wii cost was used to predict better support for the Wii. "PS360 games cost too much. They'll all move to the Wii to stay in business." Only it never happened. Yes making even more expensive games might be a stupid move but that doesn't mean that third parties won't do it. And companies like EA and Activision probably can make games like that because they're big and expect their games to sell a lot of copies.
Don't assume third parties won't make dumb business decisions. That's not enough to give me confidence in the Wii U's longterm third party support.
I want to star by saying that more power doesn't actually mean more costly to develop for.
I want to star by saying that more power doesn't actually mean more costly to develop for.
If you're going to use the extra power it's going to require more development resources, whether that's people to program better AI or artists to do the models and textures of more things to go on screen. If you're not going to use the extra power, there's no point in making it for the new hardware that has a lower install base.
Iwata states that "the technology gap between Wii U and future consoles released by competitors would not be nearly the size of the gap between Wii and it's current competitors." I would take that statement with a bucket of salt. Until Nintendo's competitors show off their new hardware there is no way for us to know what advancements will be seen in the next generation.
Iwata states that "the technology gap between Wii U and future consoles released by competitors would not be nearly the size of the gap between Wii and it's current competitors." I would take that statement with a bucket of salt. Until Nintendo's competitors show off their new hardware there is no way for us to know what advancements will be seen in the next generation.
Remember when Iwata said that you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the Wii and the other systems when played on SD screens? Yeah, lots of salt necessary when they talk about comparisons like this.
That paragraph....is quite possibly the silliest thing I've ever read.
So your saying because of its market saturation and low software output during the final year of its existence, i.e. the Wii momentum drop, that the brand was a failure?
I'm not saying its a failure anymore than the Dinosaurs were a failure. The Dinosaurs ruled the Earth for hundreds of millions of years so no one can deny they were successful, but things change and the Dinosaurs are extinct now just like the Wii is extinct. **** happens, and when it does its time to move on to the next big thing instead of drilling into amber looking for fossilized DNA to try to clone back the past. Remember in Jurassic park how some of the dinosaurs became sick because they couldn't handle eating the modern vegetation or cope with modern diseases? Something that thrived in 2007 isn't necessarily going to thrive in 2012 because everything is different now.
