Topic: What is Nintendo doing right or wrong with Wii?

[GoldenPhoenix]

Since it doesn’t appear there is a topic like this I thought it would be interesting to see everyone’s perspective on what Nintendo has been doing potentially right with Wii and what may potentially be wrong with their approach with the Wii. I know none of us can predict the future (at least I don’t think anyone can!) but it doesn’t hurt to give your opinion on what may be a positive or detrimental thing to Wii’s success or what could be improved.

Good:
-The controller which has tons of potential
-Affordable price
-DVD disks so games no longer require compression
-Appears to be supporting 480p more so than GC
-Compact system design
-The visual appeal of the name for marketing purposes
-Strong launch window
-Advertising has improved (with DS as a reference)
-Push to be a sole gaming console or a 2nd console
-Some games aimed at casual or non-gamers like DS
-Killer E3 showing

Bad:
-Weaker Hardware than competition
-No HD
-Battery powered remote (could be fixed)
-No Digital Audio
-Sound of the name “Wii”
-Advertising is still suspect even with improvement
-Naked controller may not be suitable for some games that a pad would be
-Waiting so long to reveal launch details which hurts those of us wanting to preorder

Feel free to give your thoughts on what Nintendo is doing right and wrong with Wii!

[couchmonkey]

I'll add "no standard high-volume data storage" to the bad list.  Where are all these WiiConnect downloads going to go?  What about Virtual Console games?  SD has it's advantages, but I think a lot of people are going to spend a lot of money on SD cards, or complain about the lack of space.

For the good list, I think Nintendo has managed to reserve an extra graphical boost for itself this generation.  Sony and Microsoft don't have much room left to upgrade the graphics on PS4 and Xbox 3.  There will be an upgrade, but it will be really minor in the eyes of the average consumer.

- I like the battery powered remote.  Hopefully Nintendo will offer a rechargeable solution as well, but I'd rather use standard batteries than some lithium thing I'll never be able to replace.  I know, this is an old battle, I should just shut up about it.
- Two years from now people will still be talking/complaining about the name "Wii", but mostly we'll be playing awesome games.
- Waiting a long time to reveal launch details is frustrating for us, but I don't think it will change things for Nintendo in the long run.

I agree with the other points more or less.  I tried to argue with some of your good points, but I just couldn't think of anything that important.

[Terranigma Freak]

Quote
Bad

-Battery powered remote

Because we all know pausing the game for 90 minutes while we wait for the rechargable battery to charge is a great idea.

[KDR_11k]

couch: What do you want, a 5TB SAN? It comes with half a gig, that's a lot for ROMS, saves and patches.

[BigJim]

Can advertising be in both? That and a few others I'd put in an "undetermined" category.  I would also disagree that using batteries is bad, but whatever.

Other goods:

- optional DVD playback (for what it's worth. It's sort of a wash since the other platforms have it too.)
- better time-to-market than GCN,
- Free online

Undetermined:
- Will they adopt the 18-26 crowd with more western-style games?
- Broad long-term 3rd party support
- killer apps (their own Halo/GTA)

I mention killer apps because while we've seen a number of solid titles shaping up, there isn't yet an "OMFG" factor for any of them. The OMFG factor seems to reside with the controller rather than content, and that could be problematic. We're not going to see a killer app at launch, apparently. Zelda is maybe the closest thing to that, I guess. Hopefully there is a big idea brewing, and not just "concepts" like orchestra playing or whatever.    

[Strell]

What have they done right?

Well I still want to have sex with the machine.

And I'm going to wangmote it up.

Homeruns hit with my pants?  You bet your ass.

[Ceric]

Quote
Originally posted by: KDR_11k
couch: What do you want, a 5TB SAN? It comes with half a gig, that's a lot for ROMS, saves and patches.

Why yes KDR! I hear Apples Raid devices are going down and they can hold that much.  (Actually that more then likely would be about every game Nintendos made lets see according to there list there is 547 GCN Games Taking the max space of 1.8 gigs each that would be 984.6 Gigs considering how much smaller all the other mediums are then yeah I'm fairly sure that would hold every game ever Released for a Nintendo System.)

[wandering]

Right:
everything.

Wrong:
nothing.

This is one console where there's really nothing I want them to change (There are trade-offs, of course. There's a trade-off between performance and price, for instance....but I wouldn't want Nintendo to actually change this because I think we as consumers would lose more than we'd gain.)

...well, okay, one thing. DTS would be nice.  

[mantidor]

I dont think any of those bad points matter, except the advertisement, thats the big weakness of Nintendo right now, and their track record isnt good.

Another big bad point is having as one of the major launch titles a last generation game with two controls schemes, they must have an awful lot of confidence in the remote because that title is going to make easy to directly compare both methods, and for the remote its going to be an unfair comparison because the basic layout of the game is not made with the controller in mind, like past 3d zeldas were, and it really makes the controller look like a bad gimm!ck, a device which only replaces buttons for gestures and doesn't add anything. The console should made people think "I couldnt have any of these games in any past console", but by doing a wii version of a GC game it completly destroys that notion.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Quote
Originally posted by: Terranigma Freak

Quote
Bad

-Battery powered remote

Because we all know pausing the game for 90 minutes while we wait for the rechargable battery to charge is a great idea.

They could create a battery pack that lets you recharge it in a cradle that is plugged in an outlet. The reason why I put that in the list is because a non-rechargeable battery solution is the only one officially announced. It isn't a huge deal though, but that is why I said the bads can be minor (I think most of them are minor and the good far outweighs them).

[stevey]

Quote
Bad:
-Weaker Hardware than competition
-No HD

those are pro unless you like pay for $$$600!!! system and $70! games....

[GoldenPhoenix]

I tried to make my list based upon what could potentially hurt the Wii, they do not necessarily mean what is going to be a problem for myself. Probaly out of that list I would have to go with no Digital sound (which is ridiculous to NOT include) and the sound of the name (very minor problem though).

[Dasmos]

Quote
Originally posted by: VGrevolution
Bad:
-Battery powered remote

You're right you know, the Wii-mote should wind powered or better yet solar powered.

I don't actually think I'd change too much from what Nintendo has done so far. Maybe quit with this whole TP:Wii stuff, it should have been released on GC a year ago.

[wandering]

Quote
I tried to make my list based upon what could potentially hurt the Wii, they do not necessarily mean what is going to be a problem for myself.

Oh, okay.

List of what Nintendo is potentially doing wrong (revised):
-making fun games
-taking risks
-losing too much money by providing excellent customer support

if they could just stop doing those 3 things, they'd be on their way to success for sure...

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Oh yay, the worst topics following E3 all wrapped up into one thread!

[GoldenPhoenix]

Quote
Originally posted by: wandering

Quote
I tried to make my list based upon what could potentially hurt the Wii, they do not necessarily mean what is going to be a problem for myself.

Oh, okay.

List of what Nintendo is potentially doing wrong (revised):
-making fun games
-taking risks
-losing too much money by providing excellent customer support

if they could just stop doing those 3 things, they'd be on their way to success for sure...

So do you actually believe that Nintendo is doing EVERYTHING right in the eyes of perspective buyers of the Wii? Like I said it isn't what you or myself think is right/wrong for ourselves but for perspective buyers.  BTW Matador, nice to see you get in your Zelda Wii bash .

[nemo_83]

This is all kind of late considering the rumors that the console is already in production but...

The Good:  

The motion tech for the remote
Sleak casing
Neutral colors
Virtual Console
No multicore threading
Low development costs

The Bad:

$150 SD cards
No hard drive
No ethernet
No headset mic
No rechargeable battery and thus no charger cord to hook into the console to keep playing while you charge
Mario Galaxy isn't a Mario Bros game
There are already too many shells (the nunchuck and pistol shell need to be combined)

The Ugly:

A fifth the bandwidth as the system that came out last year
The chips are beefed up GCN chips rather than new chips
The name sucks
More money is spent on being small than being powerful
No online games at launch
No solid online plan shown thus far
No buddy list
The classic pad; seriously, it's ugly  

[Infernal Monkey]

Good:

- Getting me interested in console gaming after a huge current gen slump
- EXCITE TRUCK
- Being able to download Bonk's Adventure for a system I've never played
- Extremely strong third party support right out of the gate

Bad:

- Raping Zelda: TP  

[GoldenPhoenix]

Wow Nemo that is quite a list, I didn't know about the 150$ SD Cards. If that is true, that is indeed ridiculous! Also in response to your point about the topic being late, the focus of this is what descisions Nintendo has made (or is making) and whether it they end up hurting or helping Nintendo this time around.

[KDR_11k]

150$ for an SD card gives you a few gigabytes. Not sure how much, my favourite retailer doesn't offer any that cost more than 75€ (4 GB). 512MB go for a tenner, a gig for twenty, two gig for 40 and 4 gig for 75.

[Dirk Temporo]

Quote
Originally posted by: nemo_83
$150 SD cards

What the hell size cards are YOU buying? Whatever size they are, I don't think they're commercially available yet, nor would you need that much space.

[Strell]

Man, you people need to learn how to shop.

www.batteryspace.com
www.newegg.com
www.dealnews.com

There.  I just solved all your storage and battery issues.

[Requiem]

Quote
Originally posted by: Infernal Monkey
Good:

- Getting me interested in console gaming after a huge current gen slump
- EXCITE TRUCK
- Being able to download Bonk's Adventure for a system I've never played
- Extremely strong third party support right out of the gate

Bad:

- Raping Zelda: TP

God. I am sick and tired of everyone hating on TP. You guys SUCK! Do you honestly believe that Nintendo would botch what could be the greatest game of all time? Your acting like adding controls will somehow make the gameplay suck, yet you've never played it yourself. Just because Nintendo wanted to actually make some money on TP and NOT release it for a dieing system doesn't mean that in the process they "Raped" the series...

Seriously, f*** off until you've played it and actually have something to bitch about.

There I said it.


And oh ya.... this thread blows! Props to PRO for being the only mother***er to realize it.

[Infernal Monkey]

Quote
Do you honestly believe that Nintendo would botch what could be the greatest game of all time?

Nintendo doesn't own the license to Terranigma, so I dunno.

And a big laugh out loud to Nemo's SD card price. Jesus mate, a $150 (AMERICAN) card could probably store every game on the bloody Virtual Console service.

[Deguello]

LOL Terranigma is a heaping helping of hype and MEH, Take THAT Infernal Monkey.

Oh and Requiem's right, this thread smells a bit.  We'll be open tomorrow, but it's 2 AM, so I'm turning off the deep fryers and closing this joint.