The Wii U ( WiiU ) Thread

[Octopod]

People buy consoles for various reasons, but the most successful Nintendo consoles happened to have killer aps. If Wii U this late in the day doesn't need one, I don't know what it needs. What else "moved" NES than SMB? What did "move" Wii if not Wii Sports?
Fanservice will only appeal to the dwindling brand loayllists crowd.

I don't think the Wii U can be turned around. The mind share is already poisoned. If I was a betting man I'd put my money on Ninty riding it out and releasing another console in three or four years.

I suppose you are right about Wii Sports being a killer app but remember the Wii had an attach rate of 8.89(the 7th highest attach rate of all time, higher than either the NES or SNES even) so it's not like most people were buying it just for Wii Sports, as was the common myth.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I think NES and SNES games were more expensive. Videogaming was back in the day. Fewer folks had a second console.

[BryanM]

It does have a lot to do with people growing up with the media. 2600 was only 37 years ago, and god knows how shitty it feels being a kid with no money watching your parents fritter away thousands of dollars on beer (or even worse, food) instead of laying down 20-40 bux that'd entertain you for weeks.

One thing that doesn't get brought up is how the upcoming extinction of the human race has a minor, tiny, infinitesimal hit on Nintendo's bottom line. Making games for people who've never played a game before is less effective when less people are made.

[louisg]

I think NES and SNES games were more expensive. Videogaming was back in the day. Fewer folks had a second console.

SNES for sure. I remember those all being $60 when they were first releases (vs. $50 on the Genesis). An inflation calculator I found online said that this'd be $96.72 and $80.72 respectively if you go from 1992. Going from 1994 gets me $76.27 and $91.52. So, yeah, way more expensive. And don't forget how pricey N64 games were! $70 in 1996 ($101 today).

Fun stuff Dunno exactly how accurate this is, but here's the app http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

[BryanM]

On the other hand absolute median wage increased all of maybe 10%, so you're still working roughly the same hours to buy one of the things.

The SNES's $200 price tag was still softer than today's U's $300 for the people not in the top 20%.

[louisg]

On the other hand absolute median wage increased all of maybe 10%, so you're still working roughly the same hours to buy one of the things.

The SNES's $200 price tag was still softer than today's U's $300 for the people not in the top 20%.

Hmm interesting point. 'course wasn't 1992 a recession year?

[BryanM]

A pretty tiny one overall. Outside the dot com bubble in early 2000's, the demand for labour has been in a fairly steady downward march since the mid 80's.

[Ed Oscuro]

the upcoming extinction of the human race

"...is coming up if anybody's interested."

[BryanM]

I stopped halfway through and put on a Pokerap instead. The one with all 718 of them. 9-minutes long.

We started on a trip to hell.

[Friendly]

So, Nintendo's secret weapon, Wii Fit U bombed in Japan. 21st place last week:

21./00. [WIU] Wii Fit U # <HOB> (Nintendo) {2014.02.01} (¥5.985) - 6.560 / 86.796 <40-60%>

Code: Select all

Hardware Sales Week 5, 2014
------------------------------------------------
|System | This Week  | Last Week  | Last Year  | 
------------------------------------------------
|  3DS  |     39.285 |     39.484 |     82.255 |
|  PSV  |     21.061 |     21.952 |      8.266 |
|  PS3  |     15.016 |     14.268 |     16.346 |
|  WIU  |      8.679 |      9.461 |     11.714 |
|  PSP  |      3.133 |      3.455 |     13.235 |
|  WII  |        349 |        394 |      1.868 |
|  360  |        229 |        378 |        530 |
------------------------------------------------

[RegalSin]

This whole entire thread makes me have bubbles inside. I mean seriously, this is funny.

Nintendo should have stopped with the Wii crap, and just made the GCN add-on for those people who have a regular GCN , with the add-on. That is it.

It makes me hurt so hard, to remember that I wanted, and got DK64 for Christmas, and I was like "oohh expansion pack, let me see, how Quest 64 graphics look". DK64 is so fail, and people actually loves the game.

The days of PC Engine and MSX are long gone.

That is not true, they have a better chance, a better chance that Wii, a PS4, or even an Xbone combined.......ha ha ha ha ha

[steveovig]

I pretty much figured Wii Fit would bomb. The U has a different audience than the Wii did. Wii Fit was a good suit for the millions of people in their userbase. The U only has 4 million people and not nearly as many casuals. Regular gamers don't care about this kind of thing.

[Octopod]

I pretty much figured Wii Fit would bomb. The U has a different audience than the Wii did. Wii Fit was a good suit for the millions of people in their userbase. The U only has 4 million people and not nearly as many casuals. Regular gamers don't care about this kind of thing.

It also probably doesn't help that, in the US at least, they gave the game away for free to everyone that wanted it already.

[moh]

What does GCN mean..?

[ryu]

What does GCN mean..?

gamecube nintendo

[BryanM]

They use three initials for product codes. The uh, if you Magic:The Gathering, every single set has a three digit code like M15 or RAV for example.

This might be why we PSX. I personally PSX because I don't want anyone to get confused that I'm talking about Phantasy Star, which is much more popular.

[Friendly]

What does GCN mean..?

For the sake of your sanity, you should avoid reading any of RegalSin's posts. And perhaps those by BryanM, too.

[moh]

What does GCN mean..?

gamecube nintendo

as opposed to the non-nintendo gamecube? I guessed I'm just not used to saying it in that order.

[Ed Oscuro]

DK64 is so fail, and people actually loves the game.

Mod Edit: Huge image.
WHEN HE BANS YA, IT'S GONNA HURT

[BrianC]

The one thing I like about DK64 are the ports of Jetpac and original DK that come with it.

[Ganelon]

What does GCN mean..?

gamecube nintendo

as opposed to the non-nintendo gamecube? I guessed I'm just not used to saying it in that order.

Nintendo has always used "GCN" as its official acronym for the GameCube. Conversely, Sony has never used "PSX" as an official production acronym for the PlayStation 1.

[BryanM]

Jeeburs, 800 zenny. Good lord. "Multimedia", what were we thinking.

The Wonderful 101 hasn't been doing so fantastical it seems. If it were a niche Atlus-esque kind of a release, it's done solid. For something that they were hoping would move some boxes and be a small blockbuster and have a new evergreen franchise, it's not.

One guy mentioned he'd have rather seen the theme used as an Advance Wars style of a game, and that would have been pretty neat.

Especially.. for a 3DS title. Hurm.

Oh, another topic Nintendo brought up was the issue of porting between the 3DS and WiiU, which is nontrivial. Which would explain the irrationally isolated Mario Golf and what-not. For their upcoming generation thats become a goal of theirs; if they don't have one unified system and still support two markets, then making it as easy as feasibly possible to release a game in both of them is (finally) seen as essential.

What's kind of both comforting and depressing is the big franchises* are all identical to the ones we had back on the Nintendo 64 (though they never gave us that port of Animal Crossing, those fiends.).

You know what. Wonderful Sentai x Animal Crossing Tactics. Million seller franchise. You know you need it.



* It's easy to criticize when you're not the one putting yourself out there, but remember they expected Pokemon to perform tepidly and just be a one-off. Like most original games end up being. There's really no perfect way of telling what'll gain traction and what'll go die in corner.

[BAD]

The Nintendo Entertainment System was similar to Nintendo Wii in its overwhelming commercial success, but the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was deadlocked with the Sega Genesis, Sony's PlayStation outsold the Nintendo 64, and Sony's PlayStation 2 outsold the Nintendo GameCube.

Just to note: I do believe the Super Nintendo outsold the Mega Drive by a fair margin in the end.

There's been some recent speculation in this blogspot that claims the MD shifted 40 million units worldwide rather than the original 29. They've gone so far as to modify the wikipedia entries to reflect this.

If you look at the sources used, such as random Spanish fan sites and New York Times articles (journalists pullfigureout of thin air) there's a lot f hopeful wanting going on here. They even included Nomad sales figures, which are i
The only people who can officially tell you MD sales are Sega, who haven't officially released the figures.

This is why you can't always trust the internet/Wikipedia for reliable information.

Anyway, sorry, back on topic.

Yeah, good point; I saw that people go nuts fighting over it online! Notice my careful use of "deadlocked" because the world can't seem to agree on what the numbers actually are. Shit, when I was young I really only knew a few cats who haa SG and even fewer who had SCD! Damn...I really miss the "good 'ol daze" before shit got so complicated...
Oh, and as a last minute edit, that bogus figures part is right; back before the "inturwebz" was mainstream, I saw very little of the numbers those sites use ever published in print. And I still have those old mags...

[RegalSin]

Everything outsold the Sega CD. The Wii in no way is an NES. The Wii is a wanna be Dreamcast. The only difference is the marketing.

[neorocker]

Incredible.

[trap15]

[`Throwdown]

Wii U first impressions:

Been toying around with the Wii U I got yesterday, and am seriously pleased with the hardware's little features. First and foremost is remote play (I only have the two Marios at the moment). I've had a long-standing boner for handheld gaming for some time now, and being able to stream Wii U games, w/o any TV involvement, is pretty nifty. It's like a handheld X360 that plays Mario games over a short distance.

Had trouble sleeping last night, so I just played NSMBU on the gamepad in bed, all chill-like, and that did the trick. The gamepad screen has pretty damn good resolution, objectively, and compared to the alternatives, although I haven't yet grasped a Vita.

Also really like that you can use the gamepad as a TV remote - this is the feature that got my non-gaming family all googly eyed. Yeah the tech is simple and old, but kudos to Ninty for incorporating it.

Looking forward to playing Wii/WW/VC games on the new setup (once the servers get going.. bleh), although I wish you could remote play WiiWare on the gamepad w/o any other peripherals. As it stands, you still need a wiimote to play anything from your Wii, even on gamepad display. So my dream of a handheld Megaman 9/10 is a dream deferred, at least for now.

And for those who were wondering, the gamepad is super light, ergonomic and comfy, by the way.

Finally someone else positive. I am really excited about DK, MK8 abd hopefully a new Zelda and Metroid. Those alone would justify my purchase. Love the free network, the gamepad is slick, the pro controller is suffice, and I got 2 games with my console for a good price. Can't beat it, only gripe is no support for hardwire cable internet (had to purchase the wii lan adapter, Nintendo brand that you have to order from their website) lack of good launch games, and what? A couple old shmups? Heres hopin for more support!

[BrianC]

I'm liking the Wii U so far. Super Mario 3D World is good stuff.

[Snake]

I picked up a Wii U over the holidays to play with younger relatives, and its been a real hit. Reliable hardware, both the Mario games are great, Rayman Legends was especially good, and I've got a new Mario Kart to look forward to. If I could only own one console this wouldn't be it, but that's because of the demographic I'm in, not any shortcomings with the product itself.

I don't care if it sold one million units instead of ten million.

[brentsg]

I picked up a Wii U over the holidays to play with younger relatives, and its been a real hit. Reliable hardware, both the Mario games are great, Rayman Legends was especially good, and I've got a new Mario Kart to look forward to. If I could only own one console this wouldn't be it, but that's because of the demographic I'm in, not any shortcomings with the product itself.

I don't care if it sold one million units instead of ten million.

Agreed.

I find it funny that people are swinging dicks about sales numbers on a shmup forum of all places.