Topic: Nintendo Direct @E3 - Tune In Now

[Razorkid]

I gotta say, after watching the direct, everyone that bemoaned Nintendo not having a press conference today should finally see the wisdom in Nintendo's decision. I don't like the cheering and such in press conferences because it seems unprofessional, but that's the way e3 has gone.  But thinking of that reality, there would have been no way that this direct in a live press conference form would have drummed up any excitement.  During a pre-E3 dominated by new 3rd party ip, Nintendo did little to stand out if you weren't already a fan of its franchises. 

Wasn't that the initial concern?  That Nintendo "ducking" E3 suggested that Nintendo didn't have anything truly exciting to show?  I don't criticize Nintendo for not having a E3 press conference, I criticize them for being in a situation where avoiding the live conference seemed like the way to go in the first place.  This isn't about E3, it's really about the Wii U.  It's not the lack of games being shown at E3 that truly matters, but that that means a lack of games PERIOD for the near future.

Nintendo needed to hit a home run but they effectively decided if they had the ability to do so at least a year ago.  They couldn't hit a home run because they went to the plate with a balsa wood bat.  They can't "fix" the Wii U anytime soon and that is scary because it doesn't have the luxury of time.  If you look at past consoles the writing was typically on the wall by the second Christmas.  You have an idea of where things are going at that point and I cannot see the Wii U doing much better then than it is now.

I'm thinking the WiiU will perform similar to how the 3DS did during the same time frame and I think Nintendo is counting on that happening as well. There are several parallels to be drawn between the 2 systems:


-Both sought (and failed) to capitalize on the brand name of its predecessor which was the leader in the previous gen.
-Both were hard to convey their uniqueness and why you should own the system through advertising.
-Both launched with a large amount of good games, but none were system sellers.
-Both launched at a higher price points than was wise and has(will in WiiU's case) drop the price in the face of competing, more advanced hardware releasing within a year of the system's launch who have uncomfortably close price ranges ( Vita @$249.99, PS4 @ $399.99)
-Both saw a dearth of 1st and 3rd party output for the first 6 months of release.
-Both received/will be receiving a suite of strong franchise 1st party games during the holiday season.


I hope that the system will take off after this holiday.  The potential for it and the Gamepad have yet to be tapped as well the community aspects.  The next 12 months will be incredibly crucial for WiiU.

[Oblivion]

You were right on all counts except for the 3DS having a strong launch lineup. As a guy that had one at launch, the only game I got was Pilotwings Resort, and it was a shitty game. I didn't get another game until Mario Kart 7.

[TJ Spyke]

Pilotwings was not bad, and Street Fighter was very good too. LEGO Star Wars got some decent reviews as well.

[Razorkid]

You were right on all counts except for the 3DS having a strong launch lineup. As a guy that had one at launch, the only game I got was Pilotwings Resort, and it was a shitty game. I didn't get another game until Mario 3D Kart.

I didn't say they had a strong lineup, just that it was good. They had a representative for almost all the major genres and the titles overall were solid, but nothing mind blowing. Think quantity over quality with a lot of good B-tier titles instead of 1 or 2 must haves.  The WiiU's launch line up was similar with a good, solid representative of the major genres present.  You couldn't say many of the games were bad at all, just none were truly exciting or system seller worthy (though ZombiU was for me).


( Pilotwings Resort was awesome btw.)