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[SmokedMeat]

Yeah, I'm increasingly coming around to the notion that the current state of the platform reflects serious problems with Nintendo's internal development.

Nintendo puts their top teams on 3DS development, which means resources taken away from console development. Wii U launching with a paltry two Nintendo games is a joke, and shows very poor planning on their part. But hey, 3DS is the favorite son.

 

[Nirolak]

At any rate, buy the games that are already out before those projects get canned and have FUN .

Well that's somewhat ominous.

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

Nintendo puts their top teams on 3DS development, which means resources taken away from console development. Wii U launching with a paltry two Nintendo games is a joke, and shows very poor planning on their part. But hey, 3DS is the favorite son.

I don't think 1st party is the biggest issue with Wii U.

 

[electroplankton]

Nintendo puts their top teams on 3DS development, which means resources taken away from console development. Wii U launching with a paltry two Nintendo games is a joke, and shows very poor planning on their part. But hey, 3DS is the favorite son.

3DS launched with one Nintendo game in Japan, and it was Nintendogs.

 

[metalslimer]

Well that's somewhat ominous.

Yeah I didn't like the tone of that at all.

I don't think 1st party is the biggest issue with Wii U.

Agreed. If they actually had 3rd party support, Nintendo Land and NSMBU would be great launch day titles. Game and Wario, Wii Fit U, and Pikmin 3 would be great launch window titles. The problem comes when it seems that Wii U's 3rd party support is increasingly looking like it doesn't exist, especially from Japan which is worrying because I assumed Japan would be the one region where it would be the greatest.

 

[Nekki]

Why do you think Miyamoto is shifting from his current position to man a small team of young developers?

Wii Music, Paper Mario, constant delays, ad general opinion of Miyamoto's development practices points to him being a major reason for Nintendo's lackluster output

Something tells me if the Wii U was a resounding success, your opinion would differ

Miyamoto has nothing to do with it. Nintendo has many development teams, and he doesn't oversee ALL of them. Wii Music was a small project, that probably didn't take that much money to make, or time for that matter. It was wrong to herald it as the new genius idea for the system, but it had little impact on Nintendo's reputation.

Paper Mario can be a bit more controversial, I guess it just speaks about their "not getting stale and innovate" way of viewing things. Sometimes it can be a detrimental mindset though, like for F-Zero, where they feel there's no "evolving" the franchise.

And the reason why he's moving to another team? You know, it could be that the man is quite old and wants to relax a bit more, while still pursuing what he devoted most of his life to. Or it could be that Nintendo (and Miyamoto himself) want to cultivate creativity and forward-thinking amongst the young ones of the company.

Or it can be as you say, because he is now perceived as a threat to Nintendo's output, which I very much doubt.

Fake Edit: Okay, 60 is not really "quite old" but the point still stands.

 

[Lord_Byron28]

Nintendo puts their top teams on 3DS development, which means resources taken away from console development. Wii U launching with a paltry two Nintendo games is a joke, and shows very poor planning on their part. But hey, 3DS is the favorite son.

I think the problem that happens a lot with Nintendo is delays. They tend to rely heavily on certain titles coming out at a certain time but once the title gets delayed Nintendo is screwed. I mean at e3 they had nsmbu and nintendoland as launch day titles with pikmin 3, wii fit u, wonderful 101, and game & wario all launch window titles. If they had game & wario in january, wii fit u in february, pikmin 3 in march and wonderful 101 in april the lineup wouldnt look so bad and would be able to sustain some momentum. However, it now looks like 101 has been delayed, pikmin 3 has been pushed back, and we have no idea of when wii fit or game and wario will launch. Nintendo really needs a wii u direct with firm release dates and possibly sneak peak of a future unanounced title. It doesn't need to be a megaton but at least something to encourage future owners. I mean they just anounced pokemon for 3DS for October which is huge and I bet they may have zelda 3DS or something up their sleeves for the holidays.

 

[Father_Brain]

let's wait and see.
next holiday we'll have something upon which rate Nintendo output in the HD field.
unless it's a vita all over again.

Well, we'll see. I'm not in the TOTALLY DOOMED camp yet by any means, but I do feel they ought to have both (a) come on much stronger with first-party output, and (b) done a much better job of courting third parties, before the next Sony/MS consoles launch.

I mean at e3 they had nsmbu and nintendoland as launch day titles with pikmin 3, wii fit u, wonderful 101, and game & wario all launch window titles. If they had game & wario in january, wii fit u in february, pikmin 3 in march and wonderful 101 in april the lineup wouldnt look so bad and would be able to sustain some momentum. However, it now looks like 101 has been delayed, pikmin 3 has been pushed back, and we have no idea of when wii fit or game and wario will launch. Nintendo really needs a wii u direct with firm release dates and possibly sneak peak of a future unanounced title. It doesn't need to be a megaton but at least something to encourage future owners.

Agreed on all counts.

At any rate, buy the games that are already out before those projects get canned and have FUN .

Well, that's cheery.

 

[Nirolak]

Well, we'll see. I'm not in the TOTALLY DOOMED camp yet by any means, but I do feel they ought to have both (a) come on much stronger with first-party output, and (b) done a much better job of courting third parties, before the next Sony/MS consoles launch.

Out of curiosity, on point B, do you feel Nintendo didn't try enough, or that Microsoft and/or Sony simply offered more attractive deals/propositions?

 

[AzaK]

I'm just surprised that Nintendo hasn't established and presented WiiU-ware or created a more robust Wii-U eshop for retro games to supplement this drought.

It was hard enough for them to get the console out let alone games. The firmware needed a massive patch day 1, no Nintendo TVii (Yeah I know Japan is different), slow OS and other problems. Seems like it's been a struggle possibly due to lots of focussing on 3DS.

I can kind of understand why.

They probably looked at the line-up of "2D Mario, Monster Hunter, Dragon Quest, Wii Sports Successor" and were like "Well this looks fine."

I don't think they expected that to not be enough, but I also feel they didn't consider how much competition their own handheld could conceptually be to their platform.

And how little of an upgrade Wii U is in the scheme of things. People have DQ on Wii, a Mario on Wii and 3DS and PS3 is cheap there now right?

Well, we'll see. I'm not in the TOTALLY DOOMED camp yet by any means, but I do feel they ought to have both (a) come on much stronger with first-party output, and (b) done a much better job of courting third parties, before the next Sony/MS consoles launch.

Yeah, a title or two that really showed off the Wii U would have been a good thing to have. I mean it's a new generation for god sake, people need a reason to see why your console is better for the higher price they're paying. The GamePad is just not an obvious sell so it's up to the games.

Unfortunately, to my point above, outside of Japan, NoA is having a difficult time with their current marketing endevaours. Even I agree with this, their campaign is confusing. It's too soon to go lifestyle, in my humble opinion.

By "lifestyle" do you mean marketting wise? If so, I agree. They needed to wow the core; the early buyer. They needed software to sell the system to those people and not a lot does. A 2D Mario at a time where we've had a few of those in the recent year or so, old ports which are mostly inferior to other machines and which have established homes on other consoles. I think they needed a really big title at or very soon after launch that showed what the system can do in the "new generation". They also need to stop marketting it like it's a hipster machine for the ADD crowd. Just tell people what it can do and what's coming down the pipeline.

 

[Nirolak]

And how little of an upgrade Wii U is in the scheme of things. People have DQ on Wii, a Mario on Wii and 3DS and PS3 is cheap there now right?

Right, I mean, I know some people don't like the comparison, but the thing with Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest is arguably the whole Vita Q1 issue, right?

The games are also on platforms people already own. How much could they conceivably sell?

Also, we've repeatedly seen that Japan often doesn't actually utilize hardware power notably past the PlayStation 2, even on high profile local releases, so I'm not sure the hardware boost over the Wii is an inherent strong selling point in the region.

Yeah, a title or two that really showed off the Wii U would have been a good thing to have. I mean it's a new generation for god sake, people need a reason to see why your console is better for the higher price they're paying. The GamePad is just not an obvious sell so it's up to the games.

I feel my biggest recommendation would have been something that seemed really new to go with Mario. If NSMB U is "the Nintendo you already love", their other game should have been "the Nintendo you will love in the future".

 

[metalslimer]

Out of curiosity, on point B, do you feel Nintendo didn't try enough, or that Microsoft and/or Sony simply offered more attractive deals/propositions?

In the same sense that I don't think it took much for Nintendo to convince Capcom the 3DS was the right home for Monster Hunter, I don't think Sony and Microsoft had to do too much work with 3rd parties to get them aboard. From what we know about the Wii U Nintendo is offering some good digital incentives for developers, but there overall position seems to have been with 3rd parties that the Wii U was a good platform to port from PS3/360. At first I thought it may have been PR talk, but I'm starting to believe Nintendo honestly didn't care what Sony and MS were doing with their new systems and just wanted to get into the current porting scheme with the PS3/360. Honestly, that doesn't seem like a terrible strategy, but looking at the multiplatform 3rd party support for Wii U right now it's not looking great. And every week we seem to get more and more announcements of a PS3/360 game that is not coming.

 

[Nirolak]

In the same sense that I don't think it took much for Nintendo to convince Capcom the 3DS was the right home for Monster Hunter, I don't think Sony and Microsoft had to do too much work with 3rd parties to get them aboard. From what we know about the Wii U Nintendo is offering some good digital incentives for developers, but there overall position seems to have been with 3rd parties that the Wii U was a good platform to port from PS3/360. At first I thought it may have been PR talk, but I'm starting to believe Nintendo honestly didn't care what Sony and MS were doing with their new systems and just wanted to get into the current porting scheme with the PS3/360.

Right, I mean while there is often the argument of "a platform like this helps keep development costs down", when we find out who is actually demanding large increases in hardware power, it's basically always developers.

For many of them, this is the path they seem to want, while those who don't might already be very well served by the 3DS, since the base hardware power isn't really a problem for them, and thus having the largest dedicated gaming device audience is very attractive.

 

[The Horror the horror]

Yeah, a title or two that really showed off the Wii U would have been a good thing to have. I mean it's a new generation for god sake, people need a reason to see why your console is better for the higher price they're paying. The GamePad is just not an obvious sell so it's up to the games.

It's always up to the games. Actually, I believe Nintendo had a solid launch, software wise. For those with more diverse or ravenous appetites, I can see why they might have viewed it as lacking, but some of us are acting as if Nintedo has set a new precedent with the Wii U relevant to post-launch droughts.

 

[metalslimer]

Right, I mean while there is often the argument of "a platform like this helps keep development costs down", when we find out who is actually demanding large increases in hardware power, it's basically always developers.

For many of them, this is the path they seem to want, while those who don't might already be very well served by the 3DS, since the base hardware power isn't really a problem for them, and thus having the largest dedicated gaming device audience is very attractive.

I believe the Wii U's worst enemy right now is the 3DS. As it starts to take even more dominance in Japan it's going to suck a lot resources that could go to Wii U.

It's always up to the games. Actually, I believe Nintendo had a solid launch, software wise. For those with more diverse or ravenous appetites, I can see why they might have viewed it as lacking, but some of us are acting as if Nintedo has set a new precedent with the Wii U relevant to post-launch droughts.

Well....

http://www.gamefaqs.com/wii-u

It certainly isn't far away from one of the worst looking post launch droughts we've seen, but on the other hand Nintendo still has dates to set.

 

[Sleepy]

15./00. [3DS] Professor Layton Vs. Ace Attorney <ADV> (Level 5) {2012.11.29} (¥5.980) - 30.235 / 249.689

It's back? Any guesses as to why?

 

[AzaK]

I feel my biggest recommendation would have been something that seemed really new to go with Mario. If NSMB U is "the Nintendo you already love", their other game should have been "the Nintendo you will love in the future".

That could have been a great way for them to approach it. As you said elsewhere, in Japan it seems that graphical prowess isn't the be all and end all, so an approach that said to people "You want Nintendo style? Here's Nintendo style!" but not necessarily the AAA PhotoRealistic Shooter some want could have worked. What the title could have been I really don't know, especially seeing as I don't know the Japanese market, but what if there was something like a Pokemon or Nintendo MMO? Maybe that's too big in scale for Nintendo but something new for them but rooted in their library. Dunno but it needed something, for each region and especially in the UK it seems.

It's always up to the games. Actually, I believe Nintendo had a solid launch, software wise. For those with more diverse or ravenous appetites, I can see why they might have viewed it as lacking, but some of us are acting as if Nintedo has set a new precedent with the Wii U relevant to post-launch droughts.

I agree it is ALWAYS the games, however with the Wii the controller and the games melded so intimately that when you saw Wii sports you saw it as both a controller and a game experience. Wii U (And almost every other console for that matter) is not like that. So you look at the games and the controller is sort of in the background apart from when you market the other features like browser, Nintendo TVii etc.

I feel the launch list (especially in PAL regions) was OK but I do still think that Nintendo needed to come out of the gate fighting but they just walked out in a bit of a daze. What we've seen of the machine's power is similar to what's out now. It's more expensive than those machines and the library is obviously weaker. They give us a number of games that have been out already on those other platforms. In the end we (NZ) got Zombi U and NSMBU as the "bigger" or more interesting titles of the launch. I don't think that was a good idea. Even if they held off for a month to let initial sales for third parties do their thing, they needed a pre Christmas or new year megaton to boost things.

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

I believe the Wii U's worst enemy right now is the 3DS. As it starts to take even more dominance in Japan it's going to suck a lot resources that could go to Wii U.

This largely happened with Wii too, when PS3 floundered 3rd parties largely moved to DS and PSP rather than Wii.

I think the only real advantage Wii U has in that sort of comparision is Vita seeming to be a total disaster, but that doesn't mean it's assumed support would go to Wii U anyway (it'll go to 3DS and maybe PS3 for awhile).

 

[Father_Brain]

Out of curiosity, on point B, do you feel Nintendo didn't try enough, or that Microsoft and/or Sony simply offered more attractive deals/propositions?

More of column B, but definitely some of column A (unnecessarily low TDP for the system creating porting issues, niche title ZombiU being the only exclusive core game at launch that shows off the system in any way, online SDK not being available until late, no DLC at launch, seemingly no DLC bundling, lack of OS-level voice chat...).

They were always going to be at a disadvantage in securing most third-party support coming off Wii, and they were never going to go full-on bleeding-edge with specs like PS4/Durango, but even assuming those two caveats, I'm a long way from convinced that Nintendo did everything they could have done.

 

[jeremy1456]

I still don't think they are completely disastrous. But they aren't good.

They really are not as disasterous as people make them out to be.

Not good either, but people are going crazy here trying to paint it to be as bad a failure as the Vita is. It's more akin to the 3DS when it launched, and it has New Super Mario Bros. U which will continue selling for months to come. I don't expect it to leave the top 20 for like six months at least.

I also fully expect it to surpass the Vita's LTD in six months.

 

[BriBri]

Could we please stop this?

I don't quite understand the hostility. While I don't necessarily agree with the poster that there is an overreaction and everything will be okay after a Nintendo Direct (everything is actually 'okay' at the moment), it's still a perfectly valid viewpoint, especially if we look at things empirically and the quick turnaround in 3DS's fortunes. Of-course there were different factors at play with the 3DS, but it's not out of the realm of possibility for Nintendo to improve a situation that's not at the moment all that of a negative anyways.

 

[EdgeXL]

Hi, GAF. Long time lurker, first time posting in a Japanese sales thread.

The 3DS has had an amazing run over the last few months. I would not have anticipated this kind of turnaround back in 2011. If only Nintendo could boost consumer interest in the US...

But what does Nintendo do to keep the Wii U's head above water? They can't just pull games out of their nether regions for the next couple of months and they have bent over backwards to attract indie devs. How do they get those third parties on board without compromising their hopes of profitability?

I used to be in the camp that the Vita would be fine but I am becoming more and more pessimistic about it's future. I mean, going from >4k sales to 33k sales is a nice bump but come on, that was during a holiday season while the 3DS is selling in the hundreds of thousands. Does the Vita just become a niche device with notable releases here and there? That wouldn't be a bad thing. I think Sony will keep it alive until the PS4 launch at the very least.

 

[donny2112]

Wii U just hitting its stride

Give it 5-10 years before determining if it was a success or not.

:lol

Calling an occasional twitch from a corpse a pulse is stretching it.

Need a Lord of the Rings .gif with Gimli sitting on the dead uruk-hai. "He was twitching." "He was twitching because he's got my axe in his nervous system!"

Edit:
Here's a quickie.

 

[hiska-kun]

It's back? Any guesses as to why?

Retailers dropped the price. More than 50k copies are still waiting on the stores.

 

[A Twisty Fluken]

More of column B, but definitely some of column A (unnecessarily low TDP for the system creating porting issues, niche title ZombiU being the only exclusive core game at launch that shows off the system in any way, online SDK not being available until late, no DLC at launch, seemingly no DLC bundling, lack of OS-level voice chat...).

They were always going to be at a disadvantage in securing most third-party support coming off Wii, and they were never going to go full-on bleeding-edge with specs like PS4/Durango, but even assuming those two caveats, I'm a long way from convinced that Nintendo did everything they could have done.

I basically agree with this, and at this point I sort of feel that either there is a strategy at work that we haven't seen yet, or that there is no further strategy, which would just leave me befuddled. Essentially, that right now there's either a perception problem, or a problem problem. The software forecast leads me toward the latter, and I wonder how urgently they'll try to act.

 

[Nekki]

Need a Lord of the Rings .gif with Gimli sitting on the dead uruk-hai. "He was twitching." "He was twitching because he's got my axe in his nervous system!"

Edit:
Here's a quickie.

I realized only now that it is a 3DS LOL

 

[ohlawd]

I realized only now that it is a 3DS LOL

Thanks for that. I thought it was just some weird looking hammer.

It's the Animal Crossing 3DS >_>

 

[Black Republican]

Vita - 33,309

slow claps

 

[donny2112]

It's the Animal Crossing 3DS >_>

Exactly.

 

[The Horror the horror]

Hi, GAF. Long time lurker, first time posting in a Japanese sales thread.

The 3DS has had an amazing run over the last few months. I would not have anticipated this kind of turnaround back in 2011. If only Nintendo could boost consumer interest in the US...

But what does Nintendo do to keep the Wii U's head above water? They can't just pull games out of their nether regions for the next couple of months and they have bent over backwards to attract indie devs. How do they get those third parties on board without compromising their hopes of profitability?

First and foremost, welcome to sales-gaf. I agree with your assessment of the 3DS situation.

I honestly believe that publishers cannot justify the cost of putting games on Nintendo platforms when there are two, more healthy consoles on which to showcase their products. I also believe that, being a copycat industry, publishers are competing against one another for the top crown of the major top-selling genres, and usually the dominant genres are incompatible with the interest and taste of Nintendo's traditional fanbase, be it sandbox games, sports titles, or first-person shooters.

 

[Scum]

Is it possible that something along the lines of this happened :-

Iwata & Co. set aside 2010 - 2011 for transition from Wii to WiiU, launch in 2012 but hit a snag when the 3DS shows good sales but not the sales NCL obviously expected. So resources are diverted to steady the 3DS ship in order to reach a point where they can leave it on auto pilot this year and then move back to the WiiU, which hampers WiiU shenanigans.

I mean, Pokemon X/Y announcement could have waited but it'd no doubt do wonders for the "auto pilot" way of things, even though it's not expected until Oct.

You can all laugh at me now.

 

[Anth0ny]

woah, shit just goes up during week 1 I guess. dat vita jump.

Spoiler

except wii u ololololol

 

[Nirolak]

Is it possible that something along the lines of this happened :-

Iwata & Co. set aside 2010 - 2011 for transition from Wii to WiiU, launch in 2012 but hit a snag when the 3DS shows good sales but not the sales NCL obviously expected. So resources are diverted to steady the 3DS ship in order to reach a point where they can leave it on auto pilot this year and then move back to the WiiU, which hampers WiiU shenanigans.

I mean, Pokemon X/Y announcement could have waited but it'd no doubt do wonders for the "auto pilot" way of things, even though it's not expected until Oct.

You can all laugh at me now.

Well, if the core of your argument is they don't have enough development resources to adequately support two systems, I agree.

However, I sincerely doubt they can autopilot the 3DS in the West until Fall without sales being notably disappointing, which is presumably a concern for them when allocating resources, unless they're intending to jettison the West as a concern for portable gaming anymore.

 

[Chris1964]

New releases {2013.01.17}

[PSP] Digimon Adventure <RPG> (Bandai Namco Games) (¥6.280)
[PSP] Otometeki Koi Kakumei Love Revo!! 100kg Karahajimaru-Koimonogatari # <SLG> (Idea Factory) (¥6.090)
[PSP] Otometeki Koi Kakumei Love Revo!! 100kg Karahajimaru-Koimonogatari [Limited Edition] <SLG> (Idea Factory) (¥8.190)
[PSP] Tasogare no Sinsemillas Portable # <ADV> (CyberFront) (¥6.090)
[PSP] Tasogare no Sinsemillas Portable [Limited Edition] <ADV> (CyberFront) (¥8.190)

[PS3] DmC: Devil May Cry <ACT> (Capcom) (¥6.990)
[PS3] LittleBigPlanet Karting <RCE> (Sony Computer Entertainment) (¥5.980)
[PS3] Dream C Club Zero: Special Edipyon <SLG> (D3 Publisher) (¥7.140)
[PS3] Dynasty Warriors 7 (PlayStation 3 the Best) <ACT> (Koei Tecmo) (¥3.990)
[PS3] Samurai Warriors 3: Empires (PlayStation 3 the Best) <ACT> (Koei Tecmo) (¥2.940)
[PS3] Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War (PlayStation 3 the Best Reprint) <ACT> (Koei Tecmo) (¥1.890)

[360] DmC: Devil May Cry <ACT> (Capcom) (¥6.990)

 

[liger05]

Is it possible that something along the lines of this happened :-

Iwata & Co. set aside 2010 - 2011 for transition from Wii to WiiU, launch in 2012 but hit a snag when the 3DS shows good sales but not the sales NCL obviously expected. So resources are diverted to steady the 3DS ship in order to reach a point where they can leave it on auto pilot this year and then move back to the WiiU, which hampers WiiU shenanigans.

I mean, Pokemon X/Y announcement could have waited but it'd no doubt do wonders for the "auto pilot" way of things, even though it's not expected until Oct.

You can all laugh at me now.

I can def see how once the 3DS hit problems everything else was put on hold. The handheld business of the company always has to be #1 priority.

 

[Mpl90]

Well, if the core of your argument is they don't have enough development resources to adequately support two systems, I agree.

However, I sincerely doubt they can autopilot the 3DS in the West until Fall without sales being notably disappointing, which is presumably a concern for them when allocating resources, unless they're intending to jettison the West as a concern for portable gaming anymore.

Well, the good thing about Pokèmon announced right now for October is that some people will already start looking at the platform now, and from all the things we've seen so far, they're stepping up in promotion for this entry. But yes, Pokèmon alone till Fall isn't enough. Fortunately, the first half is already filled with good titles saleswise (Luigi, Pokèmon Mistery Dungeon) and a very big one (Animal Crossing) plus many third party releases, most of them niche but still. And still, Pokémon will be huge, very huge this Holiday but it can't be the only big title released by Nintendo at the end of the year...I'm actually expecting a brand new Zelda for November, at least. Who knows what good titles saleswise will be released this Summer.

 

[Metallix87]

Vita - 33,309

One Life to Live?

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

Nintendo puts their top teams on 3DS development, which means resources taken away from console development. Wii U launching with a paltry two Nintendo games is a joke, and shows very poor planning on their part. But hey, 3DS is the favorite son.

Launching with two games was completely intentional, not a lack of planning.
They showed up with two key pieces of software needed to sell the system through at least march and left a ton of room and visibility for third parties, which showed up decently for day 1.

 

[AniHawk]

wii u down while every other relevant or new system is up? wow.

and man, the vita. that's pretty incredible. were they discounting them? psp owners finally making a switch?

 

[MikeE21286]

Lol.

First gif. Sooo good.

 

[electroplankton]

Well, the good thing about Pokèmon announced right now for October is that some people will already start looking at the platform now, and from all the things we've seen so far, they're stepping up in promotion for this entry. But yes, Pokèmon alone till Fall isn't enough. Fortunately, the first half is already filled with good titles saleswise (Luigi, Pokèmon Mistery Dungeon) and a very big one (Animal Crossing) plus many third party releases, most of them niche but still. And still, Pokémon will be huge, very huge this Holiday but it can't be the only big title released by Nintendo at the end of the year...I'm actually expecting a brand new Zelda for November, at least. Who knows what good titles saleswise will be released this Summer.

Zelda, Kirby, and a new Mario sport game are my bets.

 

[AniHawk]

holy shit i did not see that there were just three games for the wii u in as many months. that's gotta be worse than the saturn.

talks between nintendo and everyone must have broken down fantastically for this shit to have happened.

 

[GameCenterXDS]

Launching with two games was completely intentional, not a lack of planning.
They showed up with two key pieces of software needed to sell the system through at least march and left a ton of room and visibility for third parties, which showed up decently for day 1.

Yeah Nintendo clearly has a master-plan at work here, I can see it. Just like the 3DS they are pricing it big at first and selling off the hype and early adopters. Having left themselves so much room to drop the price, they can now ride out the Wii U and wait for their best games and have room to drop the price. I imagine it will have the same kind of slow first year and big turn-around like the 3DS. Also Monster Hunter 5 Wii U exclusive could be happening in a couple years.

 

[vctor182]

Vita - 33,309

It will be hilarious to see this gif backwards next week when vita sales go back under 10k

 

[AzaK]

They were always going to be at a disadvantage in securing most third-party support coming off Wii, and they were never going to go full-on bleeding-edge with specs like PS4/Durango, but even assuming those two caveats, I'm a long way from convinced that Nintendo did everything they could have done.

I tend to agree with you. They needed everything solid, hardware specs included given the competition.

Now, it's all about the games and if the games on Wii U are amazing, people will buy the system and won't care if it's not Durango/Orbis level......However

1) The games aren't amazing
2) The OS wasn't finalised
3) Nintendo aren't marketting it well
4) There's bugger all on the 2013 6 month horizon
5) It's getting almost no third party western ports it seems
6) The hardware, while likely more powerful than current gen, is not obviously so

I do believe if they had have put a smidgeon more grunt in the box it could have still stayed low power usage, quite and been easier to market and accept ports from current and almost more importantly next gen.

It's almost as if they looked at the Wii issues wrt ports/power/etc and did the minimum they thought they'd have to do to not quite have the problem on that scale. But they're riding such a fine line that it could tip either way. If all western pubs look at it as a 360/ps3 generation machine then when those machines stop getting titles (2-3 years) then Wii U might dry up to. And given they don't seem to be getting them in this first 6 months-1year, Wii U might be luck to get a couple of years of ports from 360/PS3.

Time will tell in that regard but yes I agree that Nintendo really didn't do all they needed to.

I can def see how once the 3DS hit problems everything else was put on hold. The handheld business of the company always has to be #1 priority.

Yeah Nintendo themselves have stated that quite a few times. 3DS was the focus.


Oh and I'll add that yet again we see Nintendo's bullshit. "We don't want to announce games too early"......"BTW: Here's Pokemon X & Y announced 10 months ahead of release".

 

[Mpl90]

Zelda, Kirby, and a new Mario sport game are my bets.

Kirby is a given IMHO, especially considering the only Kirby title released last year has been the Collection. It's a million seller in Japan, and they should be good sellers in US too, IIRC (i.e. 750k-around 1 million in the territory). I don't know about Mario, we already got Mario Tennis Open in 2012, certainly in 2014 I think we'll see another Mario sport title for 3DS.

Since Layton 6 is being released in February, there's even a possibility it comes this year in the West too. Still, I dream about seeing Donkey Kong Country Returns 2 coming this Holiday for 3DS.

 

[Chris1964]

Now that Nintendo announced a game that comes out 10 months later are we finally done with the stupidity that they hold secret many major Wii U announcements (just because)?

 

[Graphics Horse]

Now that Nintendo announced a game that comes out 10 months later are we finally done with the stupidity that they hold secret many major Wii U announcements (just because)?

Wait for secret Wii U direct. But really, they must announce something around the investor report right? :/ The idea that they have nothing more to release in 10 months is scary.

It will be hilarious to see this gif backwards next week when vita sales go back under 10k

lol

 

[AOC83]

Now that Nintendo announced a game that comes out 10 months later are we finally done with the stupidity that they hold secret many major Wii U announcements (just because)?

It´s going to be hilarious to see how Nintendo gets to the next holdiay with basically just Pikmin, Wonderful 101 and Rayman.

 

[grimshawish]

Now that Nintendo announced a game that comes out 10 months later are we finally done with the stupidity that they hold secret many major Wii U announcements (just because)?

No one expects a game to come out in 3 months.
But no one expects Nintendo not to have games in late 2013 for the Wii U.

Anyway Pokemon is hardly something to hide.


Unless you really think this is it for WiiU and 3DS?