Wii U / Nintendo general news and discussion

CiDeRmAn

No, no you're not... sorry to be the one that tells you the truth....

Azza

Retro its time to bring out your Sakura pic again!

CiDeRmAn

Azza wrote: »

Retro its time to bring out your Sakura pic again!

Dear glob no!

o1s1n

First result in google.

Never forget.

CiDeRmAn

So, dare we dream that this E3 is the one that turns it all around for Nintendo?
Or do we sit there miserably playing great first party games that no one else is bothered about?

Would having a big Nintendo presence at the E3, with Retr0 in the Sakura outfit be that thing that changes their fortunes?

C14N

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

So, dare we dream that this E3 is the one that turns it all around for Nintendo?
Or do we sit there miserably playing great first party games that no one else is bothered about?

Would having a big Nintendo presence at the E3, with Retr0 in the Sakura outfit be that thing that changes their fortunes?

Personally, it all comes down to games for me. If Nintendo come out with 2-3 interesting looking new games for the next year, I'll be pretty much sold. I'm not going to say "it's easy" but it is pretty straightforward.

Snake

Mario Kart 8 is thw game I've been waiting for since 2012 I knew I didn't buy the wii u launch day for nothing >.>

Retr0gamer

So Scram Kitty is meant to be great and Nintendo have announced they will continue to support the wiiu. Not a bad week for wiiu owners.

Allyall

Retr0gamer wrote: »

So Scram Kitty is meant to be great and Nintendo have announced they will continue to support the wiiu. Not a bad week for wiiu owners.

It looks addictive. The type of game that sticks in your head..

Snake

They should make a mens with the third party Devs they burned out.. They're entering dreamcast territory where no one will support it and no one will buy it..

Retr0gamer

They didn't burn any third parties. Third parties abandoned the wiiu.

Snake

Retr0gamer wrote: »

They didn't burn any third parties. Third parties abandoned the wiiu.

Because Nintendo wouldn't agree to fair terms... It's not unlike Nintendo either... Back when playstation one was being developed it was originally a CD add on for SNES.. But Nintendo refused to meet fair demands from Sony and removed them from the contract.. They left Sony hanging in the middle of development.. It was meant be the Nintendo playstation and Sony had plans to scrap the project but after it was announced by Sony and Nintendo they carried on anyway.. It was meant to be Nintendo playstation but Sony rebranded it.. Nintendo don't get along with other developers.. They all abandoned wii u because Nintendo made unfair demands with what they'd pay for a dev to make a game for wii u.. So they left and Nintendo are stuck with no reputable third party devs.. It's sad but it's they're own fault... It's not nice to say it about Nintendo but they just don't work well with others..

Snake

That's of course not the only reason wii u isn't selling.. Iwata threatened to leave Nintendo if they didn't meet sale projections for 2013, hoping it would drive up sales because Iwata is literally the man.. But that didn't work and they're suffering for it.. What they should have done is focused on making fair deals with developers not petty threats

Allyall

GrayFox208 wrote: »

But Nintendo refused to meet fair demands from Sony and removed them from the contract..

There's a lot, lot more to that story, but also, Sony wanted the rights to every game/software that was to be published on the console..

Retr0gamer

GrayFox208 wrote: »

Because Nintendo wouldn't agree to fair terms... It's not unlike Nintendo either... Back when playstation one was being developed it was originally a CD add on for SNES.. But Nintendo refused to meet fair demands from Sony and removed them from the contract.. They left Sony hanging in the middle of development.. It was meant be the Nintendo playstation and Sony had plans to scrap the project but after it was announced by Sony and Nintendo they carried on anyway.. It was meant to be Nintendo playstation but Sony rebranded it.. Nintendo don't get along with other developers.. They all abandoned wii u because Nintendo made unfair demands with what they'd pay for a dev to make a game for wii u.. So they left and Nintendo are stuck with no reputable third party devs.. It's sad but it's they're own fault... It's not nice to say it about Nintendo but they just don't work well with others..

Yeah, because the Nintendo of 1993 is exactly the same as the Nintendo of today. Thanks for the history lesson but think you should read into it a bit more because that's not the full picture that happened.

Nintendo burned publishers back in the 80's and 90's up until the N64 which is why they jumped ship Sony which had fairer terms but nintendo changed because of that. Since the gamecube era they've been offering comparable licensing terms to the other first party publishers. With the WiiU their indie games initiative is as open as Sony's according to indie devs working with them.

Also what are you talking about Nintendo resorting to petty threats and Iwata leaving (as if third parties would even care). Do you even have any evidence of this because it's the first I've heard.

Snake

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Yeah, because the Nintendo of 1993 is exactly the same as the Nintendo of today. Thanks for the history lesson but think you should read into it a bit more because that's not the full picture that happened.

Nintendo burned publishers back in the 80's and 90's up until the N64 which is why they jumped ship Sony which had fairer terms but nintendo changed because of that. Since the gamecube era they've been offering comparable licensing terms to the other first party publishers. With the WiiU their indie games initiative is as open as Sony's according to indie devs working with them.

Also what are you talking about Nintendo resorting to petty threats and Iwata leaving (as if third parties would even care). Do you even have any evidence of this because it's the first I've heard.

I didn't say third parties would care, I said he was using it in my opinion in the hope to boost sales

Snake

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/01/iwata_implies_that_he_could_step_down_over_sluggish_sales_performance

Retr0gamer

GrayFox208 wrote: »

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/01/iwata_implies_that_he_could_step_down_over_sluggish_sales_performance

I fail to see how this has anything to do with treating third parties poorly or how it would boost sales?

Snake

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I fail to see how this has anything to do with treating third parties poorly or how it would boost sales?

Again, I didn't say he was leaving based on third parties, however it's the lack of support from third parties, because Nintendo won't cooperate with them that's causing failure of sales, it would be a sales boost for anyone who didn't want iwata to leave, it again imo would make Nintendo fans buy wii u again my opinion, so I can't prove that's the case

Obviously there's more reasons to lack of support, sales is the main one.. Some say it's joy powerful enough, which I think is ridiculous... Maybe I'm wrong but that's what I've been told

C14N

GrayFox208 wrote: »

I didn't say third parties would care, I said he was using it in my opinion in the hope to boost sales

I think you're overestimating Iwata's star power. Anyone who loves him that much probably already owns a Wii U. Also, I saw no quotes in that article from Iwata that indicated he was actually planning on leaving, it sounds like that part was made up by whoever wrote the article. And on top of that, there were zero implications that it was done to boost sales.

CiDeRmAn

I have to say, as a fan of Nintendo and their games and consoles, I couldn't give a fig of Iwata was in charge of not.
I don't know where you drew that conclusion from.
He probably threatened to resign as a part of the effort to acknowledge the flaws of the WiiU in terms of sales and this included pay cuts for executives as well.
For the consumer is been good news as we've had a big push for AAA titles from Nintendo and the likelihood of a price drop soon to boot.

Retr0gamer

I very much doubt Iwata saying he might leave was to try and boost sales. He was just doing the typical japanese thing, taking responsibility for the poor sales when the company answers to the shareholders. Happens all the time in Japanese business, guy at the top takes responsibility and leaves (or is forced out). Nothing new or weird then and I very much doubt any Nintendo fan would buy a WiiU to save Iwata's job, that's a ridiculous reason even for the most rabbid fanboy.

As for Nintendo not cooperating with third parties, nothing could be further from the truth. They are cooperating and supporting them with excellent development tools and have reasonable licensing deals. The problem is third parties won't develop for the WiiU because the user base isn't there meaning the sales they will get back don't justify the cost investment. If the third parties just won't develop for the WiiU there's nothing more support from Nintendo will do to help. It got ignored by third parties due to low sales not the other way around.

_Redzer_

Retr0gamer wrote: »

They didn't burn any third parties. Third parties abandoned the wiiu.

They should make a GameCube 2.

As powerful or nearly as powerful as next gen, so there's no pain or excuse in releasing big releases like BF and Assassins Creed between the 3 consoles.

No money wasted on stupid gimmicks, so it's more bang for your buck and they can bring out a powerful console at a reasonable price. As well as bring the online features way up to speed.

Many people just buy one console and they've completely alienated the large majority that are into 3rd party stuff on playstation and xbox. If they upped the power to an equal level as them, they could have their 1st party exclusives and all the 3rd party stuff the others have, as well as all the casual games they love to have too.

Then they could have a far more competitive console that you'd actually consider as your primary console.

That's a win, win and bloody simple strategy that'd pay off.

Allyall

This is a good article, written in March, so many may have seen it before.
http://www.ign.com/blogs/battlestriker123/2014/03/04/nintendo-third-parties-how-nintendo-is-changing-in-light-of-the-wii-uas-struggles

...Even though the Wii U is a premier example of how Nintendo is struggling to attract third parties, it also shows just how Nintendo is changing. Look at games like The Wonderful 101, Bayonetta 2, and Lego City: Undercover. These titles were all created by non-in-house developers and published by Nintendo, suggesting that the Big N is willing to invest in other developers to create exclusive content for their platform. Collaborations such as Fire Emblem X Shin Megami Tensei, Hyrule Warriors, and the next Super Smash Bros. (co-developed with Bandai Namco) show that they are even willing to work directly with other companies...

....Another big thing – and this one may seem less obvious – is how Nintendo platforms have suddenly become a massive haven for indie developers. Nintendo may not be as vocal about it as Sony or Microsoft, but with over 120+ indie games confirmed for the Wii U (not including the dozens that already exist) and new ones being announced practically every other day, the Big N has come quite far in terms of their online marketplace. Many may remember how big of a mess WiiWare was thanks to its size restrictions and controversial developer payment structure; to see things turn around so quickly for Nintendo with both the Wii U and the 3DS gives me faith that they can turn around their big third-party problem as well.

Retr0gamer

_Redzer_ wrote: »

They should make a GameCube 2.

The failure of the Gamecube is what prompted Nintendo to take a new approach in the first place.

_Redzer_

Retr0gamer wrote: »

The failure of the Gamecube is what prompted Nintendo to take a new approach in the first place.

The wii was a fluke, the success of which prompted them to take the same sort of approach, which is causing the wii u to be a bigger failure than the GameCube.

Look at Sony, they didn't do anything special with the PS4. It was just a simple high performing console with no gimmicks, and it really paid off. Nintendo should do the same.

Get it realised at the same time as the next consoles with similar power and price and a focus on their exclusives. They'd do well then, well, they'd have to seriously get 3rd parties on board for a start.

Retr0gamer

The wii wasn't a fluke. It was disruptive and designed to be so and deserved it's success. The WiiU on the other hand was reactive. Nintendo saw tablets as being a threat and decided to try and compromise their product to react to the market which usually results in bad things. It was a poor move by nintendo.

Nintendo don't have the brand power Sony has in the home console space anymore, they found that out the hard way with the Gamecube. They'd really need something special and disruptive again to compete.

Snake

"Gimmicks" are what Nintendo are good at though... Simplicity won't sell on its own.. A console on par with Xbox one and PS4 but with something else, would sell

C14N

_Redzer_ wrote: »

The wii was a fluke, the success of which prompted them to take the same sort of approach, which is causing the wii u to be a bigger failure than the GameCube.

Look at Sony, they didn't do anything special with the PS4. It was just a simple high performing console with no gimmicks, and it really paid off. Nintendo should do the same.

Get it realised at the same time as the next consoles with similar power and price and a focus on their exclusives. They'd do well then, well, they'd have to seriously get 3rd parties on board for a start.

I'd say the Wii U seems to be doing similarly to the Gamecube. The GC only sold around 20 million, the Wii U is nearly 1/3 of the way there already.

The simple fact is that the Gamecube underperformed for them, while the Wii sold nearly twice any other console they've ever made. From that position, of course they're going to take more cues from the Wii than the GC. If you look at their handhelds too, the hugely successful DS and 3DS were also "gimmicky" yet they did far better than their more straightforward Sony rivals.

Maybe if they had known that MS were going to shoot themselves in the foot before they even left the starting gate they might have tried to compete for the "normal" console race but I'm sure they wanted to retain their large casual audience from last time. That clearly hasn't worked though, the Wii U came out too long after the Wii's fall from grace and too quietly. The casuals, for the most part, don't know it exists or what it is and aren't that interested in a video game console when they have tablet, phone and social games for free or nearly nothing.

With that in mind it would seem smart to start following the GC at this point. Just hunker down and focus on making some good games for the gamers still paying attention. It's an easier audience to predict and much easier to market to, even if it is smaller and won't get them the same level of sales.

gaynorvader

Allyall wrote: »

There's a lot, lot more to that story, but also, Sony wanted the rights to every game/software that was to be published on the console..

It wasn't a console, it was an add-on for the SNES. And those are the terms that Nintendo initially agreed to. The issue wasn't even really that they dissolved the partnership, it's that they went behind Sony's back and signed a secret deal with their main competitor, Philips, and only revealed it after Sony announced the CD add-on and had made ~200 prototypes. This more or less forced Sony into the console game as they decided to recoup their losses by developing the PlayStation into a standalone console.