• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

IGN Editorial: Why Wii U Must Succeed

I think the article would've been much better if it focused on how a successful Wii U could slow down development costs to a more sustainable rate of growth, resulting in a healthier industry overall.
 
Only reason I believe Nintendo should keep being sucessful is cause they are the only ones that truely try to innovate when it comes to how we play our games. Everyone else just copies afterwards. MS doesnt even care about gaming anymore and Sony is too aggroant.
 
It's not a bad article, especially for IGN, but people here are just using this for petty console warz shit. Definitely should've hit up on the fact that the Wii was the only growth for the industry for the first four years and without it the industry would've really suffered.
 
Sony and Microsoft do innovate, they contribute new ideas. But they do so at a slower pace and without the sharp daring of Nintendo. They are the trundling tank corps in gaming’s victories over other forms of entertainment, but Nintendo is the screaming dive-bomber.

So, Sony and Microsoft, being the slow tankers they are, manage to beat Nintendo during the HD race, even though they were running at a slower pace.

My questions lies in the fact that if Microsoft and Sony were slow tankers during that race, where was Nintendo? Was Nintendo dragging its ass on the ground like a paraplegic using only its arms to get anywhere?

Hopefully the Wii-U can be Nintendo's wheelchair so that it 'innovate' better than its competition at faster pace.

The article is kissing ass so much no matter how you look at it; the author is walking on eggshells and compromises to make both the pessimists and optimists feel at home.

It's truly sad Nintendo will no longer make those Christmas evenings where you crack open the box and uncover a Zelda title, only to have your eldest brother and other siblings make snarky remarks about how it isn't a true RPG, then telling you he wants to try it. lol Love the old days, man it was so fun even though Link was on the receiving end of those jokes.
 
Gaming site wants new gaming consoles to succeed, gamers are mad.
 
So, Sony and Microsoft, being the slow tankers they are, manage to beat Nintendo during the HD race, even though they were running at a slower pace.

My questions lies in the fact that if Microsoft and Sony were slow tankers during that race, where was Nintendo? Was Nintendo dragging its ass on the ground like a paraplegic using only its arms to get anywhere?

Hopefully the Wii-U can be Nintendo's wheelchair so that it 'innovate' better than its competition at faster pace.

The article is kissing ass so much no matter how you look at it; the author is walking on eggshells and compromises to make both the pessimists and optimists feel at home.

It's truly sad Nintendo will no longer make those Christmas evenings where you crack open the box and uncover a Zelda title, only to have your eldest brother and other siblings make snarky remarks about how it isn't a true RPG, then telling you he wants to try it. lol Love the old days, man it was so fun even though Link was on the receiving end of those jokes.

Whoa! You are a true console warrior.

I'm really not sure why people are getting emotional over this article.
 
IGN:

IVODO_zpsea72da5d.gif

Hahahaha, this gif is amazing!
 
I don't know about you guys, but I think I need a cold shower!

Miyamoto is waiting for you inside.


I'm expecting 60-70 million Wii Us, so it'll be closer to the Wii than the Gamecube me thinks.

I'm not even going to try and guess. Of course, there's going to be comparisions of Wii U vs. Wii sales performance. Nintendo won't be able to dodge that bullet. Naturally, any new platform would have a hard time beating Wii's sales. Not even Xbox 360 has been able to do it despite having a launch year all to itself, boosted hardware sales with Kinect, multiple SKUs, redesigned hardware, superior third-party multiplatform support, and 2 years (2011-2012) of better software and hardware sales.
 
It's important for all 3 to do well so we don't have to fucking hear how Apple is destroying them for the next 5 years even if they're not doing anything.
 
Whoa! You are a true console warrior.

I'm really not sure why people are getting emotional over this article.

Indeed. It's basically an editorial any Nintendo fan could have written on a blog or on GAF. It's nice that he cares about the system succeeding but in the long run it's only going to depend on how many Wii U exclusives there are and how good the multiplatform games are in comparison to the competition.

The hardcore gamers have already bought the Wii U along with a lot of people who got into gaming with the Wii (just look at the pre-orders). So as long as Nintendo makes sure the Wii U has a steady flow of games after launch, it seems the system will be quite successful.
 
I'll be really surprised if the Wii U succeeds long-term. Sure, it will sell well at first because of Nintendo fanboys and clueless parents, but once the next-gen systems get announced (probably six months from now) I expect the numbers to drop off fairly quickly. Nintendo clearly has massive margins on the hardware so it will be a financial success no matter what, but I think the the Wii U will be a 12-month flash-in-the-pan even if they drop the price to $199 in the spring.
 
In a way I think the Wii U's biggest threat is how the media will declare it a failure if sales don't match the Wii's pacing. Would selling 50 million Wii U be a failure? No, but you know websites or Pacther will say it failed compared to Wii.

I also think every console manufacturer should expect decreases over current generation sales. Sony, MS, and Nintendo will not each have machines sell in the 70 million range.

Lol, 3DS was declared a failure even after outpacing the DS. There's no winning
 
So, Sony and Microsoft, being the slow tankers they are, manage to beat Nintendo during the HD race, even though they were running at a slower pace.

My questions lies in the fact that if Microsoft and Sony were slow tankers during that race, where was Nintendo? Was Nintendo dragging its ass on the ground like a paraplegic using only its arms to get anywhere?

Hopefully the Wii-U can be Nintendo's wheelchair so that it 'innovate' better than its competition at faster pace.

The article is kissing ass so much no matter how you look at it; the author is walking on eggshells and compromises to make both the pessimists and optimists feel at home.

It's truly sad Nintendo will no longer make those Christmas evenings where you crack open the box and uncover a Zelda title, only to have your eldest brother and other siblings make snarky remarks about how it isn't a true RPG, then telling you he wants to try it. lol Love the old days, man it was so fun even though Link was on the receiving end of those jokes.


U mad, bro?
 
I'll be really surprised if the Wii U succeeds long-term. Sure, it will sell well at first because of Nintendo fanboys and clueless parents, but once the next-gen systems get announced (probably six months from now) I expect the numbers to drop off fairly quickly. Nintendo clearly has massive margins on the hardware so it will be a financial success no matter what, but I think the the Wii U will be a 12-month flash-in-the-pan even if they drop the price to $199 in the spring.

sigh. because that's the ONLY people who are going to buy a Wii U. there's no sign at all that there's a pent up demand for a new console. nope. it's just stupid parents who buy it by accident and Nintendo fan boys who buy anything Nintendo put their name on.

give us a break.
 
I'm expecting 35-40million, closer to Gamecube and one step closer for Nintendo to irrelevance.
 
I'm expecting 35-40million, closer to Gamecube and one step closer for Nintendo to irrelevance.

Sounds more like wishful thinking on your part than actually what you're expecting to happen...This thread and the Famitsu one are filled with nothing but saltiness
 
Lots of the casual crowd already moved on to facebook and mobiles.

The rest will probably see no reason to upgrade from their Wii



There's no such thing as '(hard)core' and 'casual' games and gamers. Also, this idea that Wii owners 'moved on to Facebook' is a lie - Facebook was already a beast in its own right, as was the mobile industry. The Wii U doesn't have Facebook integration, yet plenty of people have pre-ordered, and even more are planning to buy one - you know, this 'imaginary Facebook crowd' which had 'moved on and weren't coming back'. Of course, dare to say this and you get called a 'Nintendo fanboy', or the likes of NeoGAF will shout you down, throwing about terms such as 'persecution complex' and dismiss your calling people out on their BS as some 'silly anti-Nintendo conspiracy', even when extremely valid points are made. Nobody ever said that most of the 150 million + people who bought a PS2 'moved on' to the Wii or XBox 360 - In this respect, Sony got off very lightly in the gaming/tech communities and press because they were behind the Wii and XBox 360, and that's before anybody even mentions the Vita. They like to pretend that nobody bought a PS2 for the novelty of having a DVD player, or to play SingStar or play with their Dance Mats, or to play the type of party games which exist on it as well as they do in the Wii's library.

As for the second part of that quoted post, it's an asinine comment. It's the kind of thing that's thrown around by anti-Nintendo extremists, people who felt 'burned' by the Wii and failed parasitical politicians with an agenda masquerading as 'Industry Analysts' when it doesn't mean anything and holds no weight **Glares at Michael Pachter...**. The fact that pre-orders sold out all over North America should tell those people that the demand is high, and the signs are encouraging. It's not so unbelievable that those who owned a Wii also owned one of the PS360 consoles - I don't see anybody suggesting that they (and Nintendo fans) no longer have a reason to buy both. Then there's the fact that people do buy new technology whether it's a car, console, television or phone - those 'upgrading' from the Wii can always enjoy the advantage of backwards compatibility with both software and hardware (controllers) - So, nothing is going to waste there. Such a statement is the same as saying that people don't upgrade their phones because they can already call somebody. Or their smartphones because they can already use Twitter and Facebook. Again, the same reasoning could be applied to PS3 owners (they already have a Blu-Ray player) or XBox 360 owners (they already have their Gamertags and Kinect), but we hardly ever see this.
 
Hey, it's not a bad article. This part in particular:

Now we have arrived at a time when the games console as a concept is being threatened by new technologies and new behaviors. Does this mean that Nintendo is about to become obsolete? It means exactly the opposite. Whatever the future looks like, it needs Nintendo to be there, innovating, gambling, making mistakes, understanding the fundamentals of human play, being a leader.

It isn’t enough for Nintendo to become merely another provider of software, feeding games-IP and cute characters into the roaring mill of some console-less future. It is impossible to disconnect Nintendo games with Nintendo consoles, impossible to imagine the NES separate from Super Mario Bros or the Wii divorced from Wii Sports. In the future, Nintendo needs to be doing more than merely making games.

This is the main reason why "Nintendo should go third party" makes zero sense to me.
 
IGN said:
[...] Nintendo’s characteristic understanding of human behavior - we all touch small screens, even when confronted by a large screen [...]
I've read this line at least a dozen times, and I'm absolutely convinced that it is utterly meaningless.
 
I'll be really surprised if the Wii U succeeds long-term. Sure, it will sell well at first because of Nintendo fanboys and clueless parents, but once the next-gen systems get announced (probably six months from now) I expect the numbers to drop off fairly quickly. Nintendo clearly has massive margins on the hardware so it will be a financial success no matter what, but I think the the Wii U will be a 12-month flash-in-the-pan even if they drop the price to $199 in the spring.

I'm curious of what you think kept the Wii afloat for more than one year?
 
Nintendo's livelihood is pretty closely tied to the industry at large. They're the only hardware manufacturer who's put all its chips on the table.

If the next Xbox or Playstation came out and flopped, MS and Sony would be able to absorb the losses and focus on their other divisions.

I don't think the Wii U needs to light the world on fire to be a success for Nintendo, but the console warriors pining for Nintendo's demise amuses me. They really have no idea how vital they are to the industry. Imagine if Disney stopped making movies.
 
I thought this was going to be about how smaller developers might need a system like the Wii U to keep their heads above the water once the next big step in game budgets arrives with the PS4 and Xbox next.
Emphasised by how many have disappeared already during this generation.

But no. It's just some more IGN drivel that goes nowhere. Should have known.
 
I wouldn't mind seeing WiiU fail.

I'd love to play great Nintendo IP on Sony & MS consoles. I think having 3 consoles out there is a bit much, the industry is too fractured. And I just don't see Nintendo advancing the hardware much. Waggle was fun for a while but it did grow stale.

Then again, a lot of people probably want a lower-cost console option. New MS & Sony consoles will probably be released with higher prices than the WiiU (but not $599 high).


*Puts asbestos suit on*
 
I'll be really surprised if the Wii U succeeds long-term. Sure, it will sell well at first because of Nintendo fanboys and clueless parents, but once the next-gen systems get announced (probably six months from now) I expect the numbers to drop off fairly quickly. Nintendo clearly has massive margins on the hardware so it will be a financial success no matter what, but I think the the Wii U will be a 12-month flash-in-the-pan even if they drop the price to $199 in the spring.

I'm stunned idiots like you still spout this nonsense after the DS, 3DS, and Wii.
 
Your wish is my command.

"Why colored keycards must succeed"

YES.

I'll be really surprised if the Wii U succeeds long-term. Sure, it will sell well at first because of Nintendo fanboys and clueless parents, but once the next-gen systems get announced (probably six months from now) I expect the numbers to drop off fairly quickly. Nintendo clearly has massive margins on the hardware so it will be a financial success no matter what, but I think the the Wii U will be a 12-month flash-in-the-pan even if they drop the price to $199 in the spring.

What?

Forget spring, if they were to cut the price to $199 any time next year (which is not going to happen) they would utterly DESTROY the competition.
 
I wouldn't mind seeing WiiU fail.

I'd love to play great Nintendo IP on Sony & MS consoles. I think having 3 consoles out there is a bit much, the industry is too fractured. And I just don't see Nintendo advancing the hardware much. Waggle was fun for a while but it did grow stale.

Then again, a lot of people probably want a lower-cost console option. New MS & Sony consoles will probably be released with higher prices than the WiiU (but not $599 high).


*Puts asbestos suit on*

My thing is, Nintendo makes the most durable consoles around. They also design them around unique ideas. I like Nintendo consoles in this regard.

I would rather Sony go third party. Their idea of a good console design is to just bloat the hardware to the point where developers can barely even port games to it. But hey, overly complicated hardware gives them more bullet points, right?
 
I'm predicting 50-70 million. A great success when compared to GameCube. A disappointment when compared to Wii. Personally, I would lean more towards calling it a success, because I assume it will be extremely profitable for Nintendo in both hardware profitability and for their own software.
 
I wouldn't mind seeing WiiU fail.

I'd love to play great Nintendo IP on Sony & MS consoles. I think having 3 consoles out there is a bit much, the industry is too fractured. And I just don't see Nintendo advancing the hardware much. Waggle was fun for a while but it did grow stale.

Then again, a lot of people probably want a lower-cost console option. New MS & Sony consoles will probably be released with higher prices than the WiiU (but not $599 high).


*Puts asbestos suit on*

I'd rather see MS exit the industry, even though I know it's unlikely. To me, philosophically MS represents everything I don't want to see the industry move toward. Also, I'm not into their first party games at all.

Not really sure what this article is reaching at. As others have said, "Game companies need to be successful to be successful." I do agree with the writer in that a video game industry without a strong Nintendo is a video game industry that's a lot less interesting.
 
whether it's an editorial or not it's an opinion piece obviously, everyone it's not the end of the world because someone wants to see Nintendo thrive calm down...
 
Top Bottom