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Pachter Says “Why Would Anybody Buy A Wii U? [Except to play Nintendo games]”

royalan

Member
Support died after the fifth year (2010), not the third. That's the point. royalan is no stranger to hyperbole and exaggeration, though.

Better than grasping at straws. People seem to believe that that I meant "not a single game was released" when I said support dried up. Of course that's not the case, but Nintendo did stop supporting the console with regular high profile releases midway through 2010. 2011 and 2012 were terrible years for the system. Skyward Sword and Xenoblade would be the swan songs. And, even though, gamers had to beg Nintendo to localize Xenoblade.
 

Bombadil

Banned
Better than grasping at straws. People seem to believe that that I meant "not a single game was released" when I said support dried up. Of course that's not the case, but Nintendo did stop supporting the console with regular high profile releases midway through 2010. 2011 and 2012 were terrible years for the system. Skyward Sword and Xenoblade would be the swan songs. And, even though, gamers had to beg Nintendo to localize Xenoblade.

Yes, but have you read recently that Nintendo is hiring 1500 developers and expanding?

You should take that into account because it seems to me like they're trying to pick up the slack by bolstering first party support.

1500 new developers sounds great. And who knows how strong the relationship with Platinum and Sega will get.
 

amr

Banned
People seem to believe that that I meant "not a single game was released" when I said support dried up.
I would agree that Nintendo didn't support the Wii well in its twilight years. Sony is doing a much better job with the PS3. But the description "dried up" just didn't sit right with me.

You also included 2010 as a "dried up" year when it was actually strong.
 

verbatimo

Member
One thing that bothers me, when there are a lack of racing games on Wii U is, why Nintendo didn't show us games like New Excite Trucks, Wave Race or F-Zero.

Instead is the all same Mario and Zelda etc. which are great games I'm sure. But lack of racing titles beside Mario Kart is not very good sign.
 

Danthrax

Batteries the CRISIS!
Nintendo supported the Wii through 2010, which was four total years of support. It always gives just four years of solid support to its consoles. 2011 and 2012 had spotty support at best. Let me outline that:

I wouldn't say that.

2011

Mario Sports Mix — no one cared
Wii Play: Motion — no one cared
Mystery Case Files: The Malgrave Incident — no one cared
Kirby's Return to Dream Land
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Fortune Street — no one cared

2012

Rhythm Heaven Fever
PokéPark 2: Wonders Beyond — no one cared
Mario Party 9 — a little late
Xenoblade Chronicles — limited release, and fans had to beg for it
New Play Control! Pikmin 2 — no one cared
Kirby's Dream Collection — it's a ROM collection

sooooo yeah. I think the argument that Nintendo only supports its consoles for a limited time may have some merit.



One thing that bothers me, when there are a lack of racing games on Wii U is, why Nintendo didn't show us games like New Excite Trucks, Wave Race or F-Zero.

Instead is the all same Mario and Zelda etc. which are great games I'm sure. But lack of racing titles beside Mario Kart is not very good sign.

Don't forget The 90s Arcade Racer!
 

ari

Banned
"FIFA and Battlefield and Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto"

The Wii U would be in the same position with these games on the system. People don't buy Nintendo consoles for these franchises. Nintendo's problem is not having Nintendo franchises that on the system to push sales.
Thread/
 

amr

Banned
Nintendo supported the Wii through 2010, which was four total years of support. It always gives just four years of solid support to its consoles. 2011 and 2012 had spotty support at best. Let me outline that:



sooooo yeah. I think the argument that Nintendo only supports its consoles for a limited time may have some merit.
Mario Sports Mix - 1.54 million units
Wii Play: Motion - 1.26 million units
Mario Party 9 - 3 million units

These are games you labeled as "no one cared."

Again, I don't think the support was great either, but this breakdown is problematic.
 

RagnarokX

Member
I don't fucking know really. I was there at midnight launch picking mine up. After that It would sit there collecting dust for months until I was fed up with Nintendo and their BS and sold it a week ago. No games until 2014 I was fed up. The 3rd party line up is a frakkin joke too. Sad. I'm glad I sold it though and got my money back. I'm so relieved and don't have to worry about that struggle. When Zelda U comes ill buy it again cause that's what I buy Nintendo consoles for. But the only Zelda U game I got was WW Remake? F that game also where is my MM Remake? WW is overrated an I'm fed up with it. I await the flawless Zelda U tho
These kinds of posts never make sense. What struggle? Why resell when you know you're going to have to rebuy? You already waited 7 months, and when the drought ends you sell? NSLU just came out, Pikmin 3 is almost here, Wonderful 101, Sonic Lost World, Watch Dogs, Rayman Legends, Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Smash, X. If Zelda is the only game you care about why would you expect a new one so soon? SS was 2011.
 

BPoole

Member
Nintendo consoles are only secondary consoles. I don't see how anyone could go an entire gen with only a Nintendo console since there are constant droughts of games and you miss out on all the awesome third party titles.
 

StoopKid

Member
Mario Sports Mix - 1.54 million units
Wii Play: Motion - 1.26 million units
Mario Party 9 - 3 million units

These are games you labeled as "no one cared."

Again, I don't think the support was great either, but this breakdown is problematic.

Honestly I think the crowd that bought those type of games have moved on to iPhone /ipad games.
 

amr

Banned
Honestly I think the crowd that bought those type of games have moved on to iPhone /ipad games.
I only meant to point out that in 2011 and 2012 people did care about those games he insisted no one cared about.

It's obvious that the casual market's migrated away from Nintendo.
 
With cross game chat coming to ps4 the real question is why would people buy call of titanfall or battlefield 4 on any system other than the pc or ps4. Take those three games from the Xbox and you could ask the very same about the xbone. Then put the bones exclusives up against the wii u's and Nintendo is looking pretty good.

I so hate living in a ecosystem driven by tired ass shooters. If only Nintendo could get exclusivity to dayz on the console...
 
Nintendo consoles are only secondary consoles. I don't see how anyone could go an entire gen with only a Nintendo console since there are constant droughts of games and you miss out on all the awesome third party titles.

I get by fine with a 3DS and a Wii U, both are backwards compatible. I also have an iPhone and the entire catalog of VC titles to play. And I also have my own retro consoles in my closet. Between all the new 3DS/Wii U/eShop titles plus any retro gaming, it really isn't that hard to get by.

My biggest problem with Nintendo is that, because I keep my old games, I'm less impressed with their recent doubling down on iteration rather than innovation. I'd rather have more stuff that looked and played new. (and wasn't just titled "new")
 

jblank83

Member
No ****, sherlock. Why would I buy a PS4 when I have a much stronger PC? To play the exclusives.

A better question is, why would anyone listen to Pachter?
 

MercuryLS

Banned
No ****, sherlock. Why would I buy a PS4 when I have a much stronger PC? To play the exclusives.

A better question is, why would anyone listen to Pachter?

There are a lot of people that only play console (me), if PS4 consisted of only Sony exclusives and a small smattering of 3rd party games, I wouldn't buy it.

People will defend Nintendo till the bitter end, but they deserve every bit of the hardships they're going through with the Wii U.

1) Stupid, confusing name.
2) Billions in the bank, yet they don't spend money on strong marketing
3) Didn't listen to 3rd parties wishes when building the machine, severely underpowered for next-gen games
4) Large part of the BOM for the console on a controller with questionable benefits...
5) ...due to a dearth of software that takes innovative advantage of this controller
6) Still no online account system / poor online plan overall

I still have a soft spot for Nintendo as they are undoubtedly the greatest developer of all time (when they actually try), but I don't see what they bring to console hardware that is so special. People will argue that they should continue to make consoles because of their gimmicky controllers, but what is the point if no developers truly take advantage of their unique hardware due to poor sales? Unique controllers are only as good as the compelling software that truly showcases it. Would people really be upset if Nintendo went 3rd party for PS4 and/or Xbox One and periodically released unique controllers for these platforms along with their own games to take advantage of them? Is there any reason for Nintendo to still be in the hardware business when it's their software that is far more desirable to the mass market than their hardware? Why is this option off the table for so many Nintendo fans? And don't say "Look at what happened to Sega", there's a world of difference between Nintendo and Sega.
 

royalan

Member
Yes, but have you read recently that Nintendo is hiring 1500 developers and expanding?

You should take that into account because it seems to me like they're trying to pick up the slack by bolstering first party support.

1500 new developers sounds great. And who knows how strong the relationship with Platinum and Sega will get.

No, I agree. I think a lot of Nintendo's recent hiring sprees and expansion have been great.

I just question whether or not Nintendo will be able to get the new hires acclimated and the new infrastructure implemented in time to really help the Wii U. I mean, this type of expansion can take years before we see the benefits from it.

It also doesn't help that Nintendo is still ran by a group of men who are old, out-of-touch, complacent, and completely ignorant of the things a Nintendo system really needs to thrive outside of Japan. Forces you to ask yourself if the size of the fleet really matters if the generals sail to the wrong side of the globe.
 
I just came off playing Kingdom Hearts 3D, Crashmo and NSMB2 on my 3DS, and now Im starting to wonder why I would want a Wii U anymore too right now. I mean, I get my Nintendo fix here, and Japanese publishers are seemingly supporting the 3DS, so why spend the money when the support is here?

I mean Im pretty excited for The Wonderful 101, but not enough to buy a console for it. And X is so far off, who knows when itll be out. The other Nintendo games arent really interesting me that much. I guess I would get a Wii U later in the generation, cause it feels like theres more stuff on the 3DS to play. Still havent picked up Luigi's Mansion, and then SMT4, Zelda, Mario and Luigi, and Pokemon will be out by the end of the year. Theyre not really giving me a good reason to get one when I can just stick with the 3DS right now.
 

onipex

Member
Honestly I think the crowd that bought those type of games have moved on to iPhone /ipad games.

I'm still trying to figure out how those type of games still selling millions on a dead platforms means the audience moved on. Its clear that enough of the audience is still there. That dead platform sold over 50 million games in 2012 . Those casual games like Just Dance still sell best on the Wii if the publisher is smart enough to release it on the console. So there is enough of an audience for those type of games to outsell the other console versions. The same goes skylanders, Lego, and other games aimed at a younger audience that was also supposed to have moved on.

Of course the kicker is most of these are games that are not on smart phones and tablets so that audience that wants to play them are still on consoles. Even similar games on smart devices are not stopping games like brainage from selling millions.
 
I don't even see the point of buying it for Nintendo games. Their 1st party efforts are as unimpressive as never before on any of their home consoles.
If you want a good, current Nintendo machine, 3DS is the only choice. Unless you really wanted that online mode in Monster Hunter and Platinum Games, I guess.
 
I don't even see the point of buying it for Nintendo games. Their 1st party efforts are as unimpressive as never before on any of their home consoles.
If you want a good, current Nintendo machine, 3DS is the only choice. Unless you really wanted that online mode in Monster Hunter and Platinum Games, I guess.

Pikmin 3!

It's a bit samey after that and W101. But everyone should play Pikmin 3.
 
I don't even see the point of buying it for Nintendo games. Their 1st party efforts are as unimpressive as never before on any of their home consoles.
If you want a good, current Nintendo machine, 3DS is the only choice. Unless you really wanted that online mode in Monster Hunter and Platinum Games, I guess.

Nintendo's portable first-party offerings have never matched their console equivalents. That still hasn't happened with the 3DS.
 
To play Nintendo games?
And other exclusives. But yeah, not to play multiplats.
I don't even see the point of buying it for Nintendo games. Their 1st party efforts are as unimpressive as never before on any of their home consoles.
If you want a good, current Nintendo machine, 3DS is the only choice. Unless you really wanted that online mode in Monster Hunter and Platinum Games, I guess.
Nonsense. NSMBU is simply the best platformer you can buy right now on consoles (with huge value DLC).
Mariokart looks like the best ever, there is Pikmin 3.
Then there are the Platinum games coming up, XenobladeU and there is Lego City (played it with my son and had an absolute blast).

The wiiU is a lot of fun. But i can see why people would never want to buy it as their only console.
Too few games.
 

redcrayon

Member
“The publishers are pretty excited to support the Xbox One and the PS4 – they really didn’t say anything about the Wii U. And we know EA has no games in development for Wii U. If Activision pulls support; if you see Ubisoft , you see Take-Two pull support, the Wii U is a Nintendo-only gaming device which is what they were back with the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985.

Seeing as most of those companies didn't exist in 1985, it's a silly analogy. Capcom and Konami were far more important.

I'd imagine people will buy it for Nintendo games. Are Activision pulling Skylanders from WiiU then?

They’re not going to sell a lot of consoles if they don’t have games like FIFA and Battlefield and Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto. Due to that, Pachter asks a simple rhetorical question: “Why would anybody buy a Wii U?”

Since when did any of those titles matter for a Nintendo console? They usually put a half-arsed version of CoD on Ninty consoles,and we got Chinatown Wars for DS, but nobody buys a Nintendo console for those titles.

Of course third party games matter and the lack of Western support is an issue, but lets not pretend anyone who cares about Battlefield, Fifa and CoD has now decided against buying a WiiU because of this news- they were almost certainly going to buy it for the 360, PC, Ps3, PS4 or Xbox One first. Multimillion selling annual franchises that sell 10 times better on other machines aren't a huge loss in and of themselves, the problem is the loss of overall variety to the library when interesting WiiU versions of third-party games become rarer, and the exponential loss of support this breeds over time.

Not only that, but the 3DS also has minuscule Western support and is doing just fine, for the moment.
 
Nintendo's portable first-party offerings have never matched their console equivalents. That still hasn't happened with the 3DS.

MK7 is waaaay better than MKWii.

It's debatable if Fire Emblem Awakening is better than Radiant Dawn.

There's more core gaming experimentation at the moment with Kid Icarus and Luigi's Mansion and the eShop games.

Galaxy was way better than 3D Land, but now we're getting 3D Land 2 for consoles!

I'd say they're equalizing.
 

Aerogamer

Neo Member
I believe that Nintendo has the chance to revive the Wii U, I do know however that in no way will the system come close to Wii success, but I can optimistically see it getting 30-50 miilion in lifetime sales. As stated in this thread, the ultimate result of that happening if is Nintendo can acquaint the Wii U as the perfect secondary console to the other systems and gaming PCs. I have not personally bought the system yet and my reasoning is that I can only name 2 games out that I really want on the system and maybe 5 total of the announced game. I am not too comfortable with paying $349.99, but if it goes in the $249.99-$299.99 range for holiday sales with a pack in game I may deem it an enticing purchase. My ideal solution is to drop the deluxe to $279.99 retail with NSMBU replacing Nintendoland as the pack in and including 1 wiimote. If Nintendo does this they are all of a sudden $100.00+ cheaper than PS4 and $200.00+ cheaper than Xbox One. This I believe, with the availability of games would significantly boost sales. It all depends on whether Nintendo wants to adjust it's financials and sacrifice in order to grow the install base.
 

mujun

Member
Doesn't this apply for any console?

The only reason I have a ps3 and will buy a PS4 eventually is for the games that are only available on it. So it's the same reason as why I have a Wii or Wii U, for the games that are only available on it.
For everything else, I'd rather play on PC.
And Xbox... well I don't like Halo.

For everyone?

If I only had my 360 I'd be okay. I could say the same for my PS3 (even though I sold it).

Between exclusives, mutliplats, XBLA/PSN games, XBLIG, etc I would have had something to play pretty much day in and day out through the entire year from 2005/2006 until now.

That is without having to play anything and only playing stuff that actually appeals to me.

Can't say the same for the Wii U. So far I've only played Zombi U. If it was the only console I had had for the last half year+ then I would have had some serious droughts even pushing myself to try stuff out of the range of my personal taste due to desperation.
 

redcrayon

Member
MK7 is waaaay better than MKWii.

It's debatable if Fire Emblem Awakening is better than Radiant Dawn.

There's more core gaming experimentation at the moment with Kid Icarus and Luigi's Mansion and the eShop games.

Galaxy was way better than 3D Land, but now we're getting 3D Land 2 for consoles!

I'd say they're equalizing.

With Fire Emblem, I think Awakening is a better all-round game, as Radiant Dawn has far too much focus on the useless Laguz that pretty much ignore the weapon and magic systems. It could also have done with a trim of the main cast, as far too many powerful characters (like the Laguz kings) are available that just suck up xp if you use them, and are so high-level they can't even develop any more. Someone needed to be brave enough to say 'this is getting silly'.

I also preferred Galaxy to 3D Land, and MK7 to MKWii. Also, as you say, there is a wider variety of Nintendo games on the 3DS as faster development lets them experiment and release more games.

My favourite Zelda games are pretty much split- there are ones I love and ones I won't play again on both console and handheld.

The idea that handheld games only exist as cut-down iterations of their bigger cousins is just wrong, and seems to be the result of being a console gamer first and only noticing the handheld versions that look similar to their bigger cousins without actually looking at how each version uses the hardware it is based on. There is so much 3DS software where there is no Wii/WiiU equivalent at all, and it works both ways- Battlefield Wars was a poorer game than Advance Wars, for another example. Which version of a game is best usually comes down to the actual game development itself, not any inherent property with the hardware.
 
MK7 is waaaay better than MKWii.

It's debatable if Fire Emblem Awakening is better than Radiant Dawn.

There's more core gaming experimentation at the moment with Kid Icarus and Luigi's Mansion and the eShop games.

Galaxy was way better than 3D Land, but now we're getting 3D Land 2 for consoles!

I'd say they're equalizing.

Kid Icarus and Luigi's Mansion are probably my favorite 3DS games. But they have no equivalents. Though in response to unique titles you can point to Pikmin 3. MK7 is not the equivalent MK Wii its MK8. Both 3D World and MK8 (especially MK8p look better than their equivalents. My point was if you compare the portable version of a game in the series with similar gameplay, Nintendo most of the time does a clearly better job on consoles. Take away third-party games from the equation and compare only the first party lineup and the Wii U's future lineup looks more varied. Nintendo also funds intresting games outside of its usual wheelhouse as seen in titles like Bayonetta 2, X and Wonderful 101. You saw the same on Wii with the project rainfall games. Nintendo (partly out of necessity) always brings it stronger on its home consoles.
 

VanWinkle

Member
I just wish Nintendo would get with the times with online stuff and make the Wii U a better console. I love the Wii U. I just want it to be so much better! And not hardware-wise. I think it's fine there. I think there will be much less of a degradation in quality between PS4/One and Wii U compared to PS3/360 and Wii.

I mean having a real account system, having an achievements system (PS3 added it a couple of years in. No reason Nintendo couldn't do the same. Make it "Stickers" or something), cloud saves, party chat cross-game - 360 did it with a lot less RAM than Wii U, have Club Nintendo integrated into the system. Don't make me go on a web browser and do things for that. Integrate Club Nintendo into the eShop. Let me redeem my rewards there, do my surveys there, everything. IT JUST MAKES SENSE. There's so much Nintendo can do to make the system more appealing to everybody, and online functionality is the way to do that. Miiverse is a good start, but it's just that: a start. You did something unique; now bring it up to parity in the features we expect from a next-gen console.
 
As someone who bought a Wii U at launch, I have been telling people if they want one to wait for the price cut that SHOULD happen later this year. Or Black Friday sales but I can't imagine Nintendo keeping this price when the new consoles launch. Even with a solid lineup of games finally coming out, $350 is still too much money. Needs to be at maximum $300 for deluxe with NintendoLand or something like that.
 
As someone who bought a Wii U at launch, I have been telling people if they want one to wait for the price cut that SHOULD happen later this year. Or Black Friday sales but I can't imagine Nintendo keeping this price when the new consoles launch. Even with a solid lineup of games finally coming out, $350 is still too much money. Needs to be at maximum $300 for deluxe with NintendoLand or something like that.

Agreed, $280-$300 is the right price. I feel Nintendo originally priced it so they would be able to price drop if need be 3DS-style and not suffer a huge loss on each unit. I also recommend people wait but I love my day 1 unit and get plenty of use out of it.
 

stolin

Member
They’re not going to sell a lot of consoles if they don’t have games like FIFA and Battlefield and Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto.

Besides GTA which is on a 5 year release schedule.. I would never play any of the other games he listed.. which is maybe the exact reason why I will play on Wii U/3DS. For all the games that do not find the mass market audience of generic Sports/FPS games.

Bring on Wonderful 101, Bayonetta, Phoenix Wright, SMT, etc, + list wars. Japanese 3rd parties who are not pretending/wanting to be an EA, Activision, Ubi.. crafted games by creators.
 
Nintendo's portable first-party offerings have never matched their console equivalents. That still hasn't happened with the 3DS.

3DS easily has the best 1st party output they ever had on a handheld (while the DS shined through 3rd parties), probably because of poor resource management when it didn't take off as expected. They got all of their main teams into 3DS projects and now they are overwhelmed by HD development, which leaves the WiiU with such a shitty lineup of games that (for a big chunk) look almost exactly like their Wii/3DS equivalents, while the thing is miles away from the variety and uniqueness the 3DS offers.
 

Grimhammer

Neo Member
I do believe that kids these days are far more interested in GTA's and COD than platformers turned action adventure like Mario. Kart racing is trumped by the Forzas. Tablets and Phones with cheap games are the rage. Or f2p games.

Ninny refuses set up a online infrastructure comparable to LIVE or PSN.

There's no interest in the dev community for WiiU....the tablet controller; it's a one touch low res, poor battery controller with a screen.

My biggest problem? I love Nintendo of old. I want them to succeed. They just refuse to do this.

Of course it's entirely possible that Ninny no longer is a company looking to make profit. Maybe they just wanna support their loyal fans and watch their system become irrelevant?
 

Knox

Member
I get by fine with a 3DS and a Wii U, both are backwards compatible. I also have an iPhone and the entire catalog of VC titles to play. And I also have my own retro consoles in my closet. Between all the new 3DS/Wii U/eShop titles plus any retro gaming, it really isn't that hard to get by.

My biggest problem with Nintendo is that, because I keep my old games, I'm less impressed with their recent doubling down on iteration rather than innovation. I'd rather have more stuff that looked and played new. (and wasn't just titled "new")

Maybe you should try... any other console, or a PC. You might be surprised at where gaming has gone in the last decade.
 

crozier

Member
Nintendo titles alone always make Nintendo systems worth the price of admission, IMO. A big reason third-parties struggle is because they face impossibly stiff first-party competition.

Note that I do not (sadly) own a Wii-U yet, though.
 
Shit, the 3DS has Bayonetta 2 and X?

Awesome, selling my Wii U.
Thanks for the heads up.
The point is most people don't buy a console for two games. Pachter has a very solid point, there's no reason to buy a wii u unless you want to play nintendo games. I'll get one for sure, but the general population who enjoy games like call of duty and grand theft auto won't.

The face that so many people don't seem to get this is beyond me. Don't get me wrong,
Nintendo makes great games (some
of my favorites) but if a lot of the interesting 3rd party stuff is elsewhere then there are plenty of people who aren't like me who won't buy a wii just to play Zelda and Mario. They might want a little more variety.
 
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