Topic: Wii U in Review (News & Rumor Consolidation)

[TJ Spyke]

The 3DS was selling pretty bad.

And the rumored stats I have seen are nowhere near what u claim. I think it's foolish to think Wii U will be a flop like you think. It's a safe bet that you will be wrong.

[Ymeegod]

"like you think."

Did I say that?  Glad you like putting words in my mouth.  No, it can exceed if marketting is done correctly.  With agressive price drop, bundled software, and timely release titles I expect Nintendo will still make a decent profit but it really can't afford anymore delays. 

[Soren]

I fully expect the Wii U to get a price drop by the time Orbis/Durango launch this holiday season. But it will probably be a $50, $75 cut at most.


3ds price cut was 32% and it's stayed that way since.

[alegoicoe]

I think a 50 dollar price cut seems about right given that it should have been like that since launch.

[Adrock]

I can't see Nintendo launching a new console earlier than 2017, but they really should not push it past that. Wii limped through 2012 and Nintendo still seemed unprepared to launch a successor. What I'd really like to see is Nintendo launch comfortably in November 2017 where I take the console out of the box and it only takes 20 minutes to get into an actual game because I'm just taking in the newness of a brand new console.

A price drop at the end of the year if both Orbis and Durango launch is definitely a possibility, maybe a new bundle that includes Wind Waker or something. If there is a price drop, $50 sounds about right.

[Ceric]

I think a 50 dollar price cut seems about right given that it should have been like that since launch.

I just don't understand you people.  The Price of the WiiU is on the cheaper side for what it is.  Next you'll want to only pay a Dollar per Gallon for gas.  Which is where it was at when I was a kid or pay less to own a hotel than a house...

I will berate and laugh at every single person who buys and Orbis/Durango because that will be VASTLY over priced for the tech standard set here.

[Ian Sane]

Jesus Christmas... The only people who care about specs are the people on neogaf pretending to know what the any of it means.

I don't care about specs but I do care about games and last gen the Wii was **** out of luck on third party games because games developed for the PS360 could not be ported to it.  I'm not getting butthurt about bits and gigahertz  here.  I'm concerned about the Wii U hardware being so far behind the competition that it screws up third party support, which happened last gen.

[Adrock]

The specs aren't be problem though. Wii U is powerful enough to handle ports now and 3rd parties are still saying, "Uh, **** you." That doesn't even address how 3DS is getting wonderful support (like DS before it) and Sony's hardware trounces Nintendo's. Yeah, yeah... something something portable market something. The truth is that 3rd parties can and will support whatever they want to and specs are just being used as an excuse and it's not even a very good one. Specs aren't the real reason Nintendo isn't getting better support. The reason is ?!?3716 Shajdhsjanhxjs

Seriously, that's the best I could come up with.

[alegoicoe]

I think a 50 dollar price cut seems about right given that it should have been like that since launch.

I just don't understand you people.  The Price of the WiiU is on the cheaper side for what it is.  Next you'll want to only pay a Dollar per Gallon for gas.  Which is where it was at when I was a kid or pay less to own a hotel than a house...

I will berate and laugh at every single person who buys and Orbis/Durango because that will be VASTLY over priced for the tech standard set here.

Hey man i bought mine first day without hesitation, but trully 350.00 for a console with outdated specs is a bit too much too ask to a mass audience, and exactly part of the success of the Wii.

[Caterkiller]

I think a 50 dollar price cut seems about right given that it should have been like that since launch.

I just don't understand you people.  The Price of the WiiU is on the cheaper side for what it is.  Next you'll want to only pay a Dollar per Gallon for gas.  Which is where it was at when I was a kid or pay less to own a hotel than a house...

I will berate and laugh at every single person who buys and Orbis/Durango because that will be VASTLY over priced for the tech standard set here.

Hey man i bought mine first day without hesitation, but trully 350.00 for a console with outdated specs is a bit too much too ask to a mass audience, and exactly part of the success of the Wii.

It's modern tech. It's not as high end as what is reported from either the PS4 or 720 but you must be seriously brain washed to think that as a whole it is equal to or below that of the PS360.

There is just no way the gap from last gen is going to be as big as the current gen that's started with the U. You look at the UE4 tech demo and then the Zelda tech demo and what comes to mind? On a technical level yes that UE4 demo has a lot going on not found in the Zelda tech demo. But they both look great, there is nothing wrong with the Zelda demo. It is aesthetically pleasing and doesn't really leave much to be desired. When looking at Wii games, many were just downright ugly in comparison. Does anyone look at Toy Story and thinks it looks so much worse than Up?


For colorful cartoony games will the Wii U get Toy Story 2 while the PS420 gets Toy Story 3? I don't know, but if we did what's the problem? For realistic games I can't think of anything but FF Spirits Within and Avatar, don't know how they compare.

What's the best looking games on a top of the line PC right now? If Ps420 surpass that by leaps and bounds then I think there is slight cause of worry for the Wii U. Only as far as 3rd parties are confirmed, but they would hardly support Nintendo anyway.

Also why do so many people ignore that most games were optimized for the weaker 360? When I look at fighting game tournaments half of them are always on the 360 for various tech reasons, and then the first Baynetta was apparently a different game for the PS3. I don't expect Wii U to get all the good 3rd party games but I certainly expect much more than the Wii got.

Also can someone explain to me why Star Fox has not appeared on any current Nintendo machines? Also why was it so hard for Sega to get Knights ported over to the Ps2 and other machines? Were those games not optimized for their respective systems and simply just dumping them over on new hardware isn't as simple as fitting a small box into a bigger box? I ask in regards to current gen ports that developers had like 7 or 8 years to get used to while using Nintendo's unfinalized development kits for launch.


Here read this down below, I'm sure it is the exact opposite of what I just ranted on. I guess Wii U graphics are as good as they will ever get.


[font=.HelveticaNeueUI]http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/df-hardware-wii-u-graphics-power-finally-revealed[/font]

[Stogi]

There's only one game that really likes to push the envelope and that's Crysis, but those games suck so who cares.

[Ceric]

There's only one game that really likes to push the envelope and that's Crysis, but those games suck so who cares.

Crysis is a Tech demo for the engine.  Much like Serious Sam was a tech demo for the engine.

Caterkiller that should have been a better article they totally glossed over the GPU customization.

[alegoicoe]

I love the wii u as it and am sure nintendo and other developers will make wonders with the tech it has inside, but i cannot critisize those who expected specs closer to the next wave of systems from sony and microsoft who are right around the corner.

[Ian Sane]

The specs aren't be problem though. Wii U is powerful enough to handle ports now and 3rd parties are still saying, "Uh, **** you."

Well why should they bother to learn the in's and out's of a new console that they figure is going to be obsolete and not included in their future multiplatform development?  The Wii U is likely going to be "current gen" for ONE YEAR so why would a third party bother to waste any time on something they will only support for such a short period of time?  The only reason to invest in the Wii U is if you plan on supporting it for the next several years.  The third parties that have released content for it are the ones that supported the Wii and thus are willing to work around having a special Nintendo platform to dump half-assed shovelware to.

In regards to the idea that the "gap won't be as big in this next gen", if that's the case why go up at all?  How does Sony or MS plan on selling new consoles if they're not a noticable step up?  There is no market for a PS3.1, it has to be a PS4.  It just doesn't make sense for them to merely go just a little bit better.  Hell, when Nintendo did that with the Wii they used the controller to justify it.  Sony and MS would have to follow that lead and have some unique feature that justifies the need for a new console in place of better specs.

Personally I think we COULD just sit tight with what we have for a long while.  Nintendo was the only one I felt truly had to release a new system to catch.  But that's not how it's going to go.  The Wii U's best chance is if the general public rejects Sony's and Microsoft's consoles because they're too expensive and the perceived value is just not there.  Or these new consoles raise the cost of development so much that the third parties move to Nintendo.

[Soren]

The folks at Chipworks are starting to weigh in some more.

1.This GPU is custom.
 2. If it was based on ATI/AMD or a Radeon-like design, the chip would carry die marks to reflect that. Everybody has to recognize the licensing. It has none. Only Renesas name which is a former unit of NEC.
 3. This chip is fabricated in a 40 nm advanced CMOS process at TSMC and is not low tech
 4. For reference sake, the Apple A6 is fabricated in a 32 nm CMOS process and is also designed from scratch. It’s manufacturing costs, in volumes of 100k or more, about $26 - $30 a pop. Over 16 months degrade to about $15 each
 a. Wii U only represents like 30M units per annum vs iPhone which is more like 100M units per annum. Put things in perspective.
 5. This Wii U GPU costs more than that by about $20-$40 bucks each making it a very expensive piece of kit. Combine that with the IBM CPU and the Flash chip all on the same package and this whole thing is closer to $100 a piece when you add it all up
 6. The Wii U main processor package is a very impressive piece of hardware when its said and done.
 
 Trust me on this. It may not have water cooling and heat sinks the size of a brownie, but its one slick piece of silicon. eDRAM is not cheap to make. That  is why not everybody does it. Cause its so dam expensive

Wii U is not low tech. It might not get things done the same way Orbis/Durango will, but it's better than PS360.

[Ceric]

I would expect someone who does reverse engineering for a living to know tech.  So its interesting how much they are finding interesting.

[Adrock]

Well why should they bother to learn the in's and out's of a new console that they figure is going to be obsolete and not included in their future multiplatform development? The Wii U is likely going to be "current gen" for ONE YEAR so why would a third party bother to waste any time on something they will only support for such a short period of time?  The only reason to invest in the Wii U is if you plan on supporting it for the next several years.

Infinite facepalm.

1. They should bother because the games are already being made for the other platforms. It's clearly not the specs because Wii U can handle anything you can throw at PS3/360. 3rd parties would simply be porting prexisting assets. I believe Vigil Games said they ported Darksiders 2 assets in like 3 weeks on non-final dev kits. That said, I highly doubt porting is really that difficult so "learning the ins and outs" sounds like shenanigans. How many 3rd parties have given good reasons for not porting titles? It's always nonsense like, "The GamePad is soooooo unique." Okay, don't use it (or stick a map on there, Wii U owners aren't fussy) or make a game that does. This isn't complicated. If Nintendo had higher specs in Wii U, some 3rd parties would say, "Oh d-d-d-dear, the specs are too high. We have to make a game that makes use of extra power, not port existing games," then they don't. It's a rigged game. Nintendo loses no matter what they do.

2. One year? What the? So 3rd parties are going to stop supporting millions of users on other platforms the instant new consoles launch? Right now, the excuse fountain is overflowing. Support the platform while it's easy to do so, quit when it isn't if that's the issue. Really, though, it's not.

[NWR_insanolord]

The 360 and PS3 are going to continue to see significant software support at least through most of 2014, and there's no reason those games shouldn't also be on Wii U.

[Ymeegod]

You forgot about sales?  Number 1 reason why the WII U isn't getting support is because 3rd party sales for the initial patch of games were poor to say the least.  Hense why nintendo needs a price reduction--boost user base for the the WII U so some software will actually sell and maybe you'll get to see the ports evey other system is getting, Vita's in the same boat.

Why waste company resources (in this case people) on porting a project that will only generate a small % of profit when they can be working on another project that's going have a much larger profit margin.  You can outsource the project to other company but then you might scarcifice quality of the game.   

 

[TJ Spyke]

Um, Wii U already has a attach rate of 4:1. Software sales for Wii U software (first and third party) are doing pretty good.

Give it up, you have to be insane to think a 57% pricecute will happen. They don't need a pricecut, they just need to get out more software.

[Adrock]

The 360 and PS3 are going to continue to see significant software support at least through most of 2014, and there's no reason those games shouldn't also be on Wii U.

At least. Then, there's the whole scalability dealie and 3rd parties really don't have reasons not to support Wii U.

3rd parties: We don't believe there's an audience on Wii U.
Wii U owners: We'll buy your games if they're good.
3rd parties: No audience...
Wii U owners: Seriously, if you treat us like we matter and put some effort in your releases, we'll gladly give you money. We only ask for same day releases, not months old ports.
3rd parties: The GamePad is too unique for our games.
Wii U owners: You're not even fucking trying anymore.
3rd parties: Lol.

[alegoicoe]

You forgot about sales?  Number 1 reason why the WII U isn't getting support is because 3rd party sales for the initial patch of games were poor to say the least.  Hense why nintendo needs a price reduction--boost user base for the the WII U so some software will actually sell and maybe you'll get to see the ports evey other system is getting, Vita's in the same boat.

Why waste company resources (in this case people) on porting a project that will only generate a small % of profit when they can be working on another project that's going have a much larger profit margin.  You can outsource the project to other company but then you might scarcifice quality of the game.

Is not Nintendo's fault that the idea of supporting WiiU at launch from third parties was to bring old games and repackage it like new and worse of all sell for 60 bucks.

[Ymeegod]

Darksiders 2 was the highest ranked WII U game at launch and it didn't even break the 20K mark.  Tekken Tag Tournament 2 bombed even though it had Nintendo exclusive mode and skins.    Hell even same day release titles didn't sell all that well, CoD BO 2 and ACIII both undersold.

Even the exclusive Zombiu isn't selling all that hot, Red Steel sold more during the same time frame during the last launch. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hopefully Rayman Legends does alright but considering how bad Orgins bombed I wouldn't be surprised to see this one undersell. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[TJ Spyke]

Do you have any actual sales numbers to back up your claims? Because I highly doubt the Wii U has sold 8 million games as of the end of 2012 if the top selling third party game was only at 20K.

[Soren]

Hell even same day release titles didn't sell all that well, CoD BO 2 and ACIII both undersold.

Release dates.
AC3
PS360 - October 30, 2012
WiiU - November 18, 2012

Blops2
PS360 - November 13, 2012
WiiU - November 18, 2012

Most third party games didn't sell well because people who wanted to play them already had a way to do so on other platforms. ZombiU was the best selling third party game, way better than the rest IIRC.