Launch Post Mortem: PS4 ,XB1, Wii U (now includes poll)*

[Nesh]

The Gamepad can do everything that the Controller Pro can, there are no limitations. There is no controller limitations, that's my point. This is not the Wii remote, the Gamepad can do everything the 360/PS3 controllers can, and more.

But your point is irrelevant to the paragraph you quoted initially.
Besides the Pro cant do whatever the Wiiblet can and its as if it doesnt exist. Nintendo's choices for the hardware factored the Wiiblet and the whole premise revolves around it. The WiiU is the Wiiblet. A controller with many problems and with questionable appeal.

That was the gamble Nintendo made, they thought by bringing their hardware spec up to 360/PS3 standards, and have the Gamepad be the differentiator. Nintendo lost on this gamble.

They lost a lot more. They lost the Wii audience too

We have a winner ladies and gentlemen. Seriously dude, your arguing things for the sake of arguing. Nintendo wanted to create a platform that had wide appeal, assuming that if COD and AC were there alongside Mario and company, then many of those interested in the Xbox or Playstation may consider a Wii U instead. They failed to execute this, and they fell on their face. We both agree that that Nintendo failed in that respect, but they did indeed have the intention of having widespread appeal.

What you say doesnt make sense. I dont believe Nintendo is that stupid.

Nintendo knows that the PS360 generation has reached the end of their life circle. These games are available on a 160 million install base. The Wii U's hardware performance doesnt give reason to convert to play those games on it. Typically third party games are and will be multiplatform. So whats left is mostly the Nintendo games and the Wiiblet at the end.

Now if you mean potential PS360 buyers these are extremely few. Not to mention that the PS360 would appear as a far better choice considering their price and more mature library. As I mentioned earlier the PS360 are at the end of their life. Nintendo knows how small that market is

If you mean people interested in Playstation 4 or XB1: do you honestly believe that Nintendo expected that the mature PS/XB audience would opt for WiiU ports of their favorite franchises when everyone knew they will see their true next gen versions and sequels on PS4/XB1?

In all cases the only major selling point would still be Nintendo games and Wiiblet

There is only one clear market where Nintendo saw clear potential and is pretty evident to everyone with common sense. The Wii and tablet gaming market.

The rest where "why not. It has buttons bring them over"

If Nintendo truly created a platform with wider appeal in mind they would have designed a console ready to accommodate, not ports, not outdated third party games, but next gen games and the controller might have also been different. They didnt. And neither has Nintendo put an effort to develop new IPs with such potential to cover the void.

 

[Goodtwin]

But isn't that only true if you're defining "widespread appeal" to mean a games library that is rounded out by sloppy ports of last generation titles?

Im of the opinion that Nintendo didn't ask for "sloppy" ports, but that's what they got. Nintendo made some decisions that didn't exactly make third parties life easy, so Nintendo does deserve some blame for the quality. Between sketchy documentation and poor SDK's, developers were definitely at a disadvantage early on. Later on, it was strictly a business decision to not invest resources into the Wii U ports. Sales were very low for some of the best selling IP's in the world. But yes, Nintendo was banking on those very popular IP's to round out its library.

 

[Goodtwin]

@Nesh

Can you explain what your point is clearly please? I have no idea where you are going with this. I was pretty clear that my opinion is that Nintendo was shooting for widespread appeal and that they failed. Wii U will be niche because of this. Simple as that.

 

[Nesh]

That they werent truly shooting for what you are suggesting and commonalities between DC and WiiU are scarce (except not selling well).

 

[Goodtwin]

That they werent truly shooting for what you are suggesting and commonalities between DC and WiiU are scarce (except not selling well).

What were they shooting for?

 

[Nesh]

Casuals, Wii market (including the Nintendo fan club) and the tablet gaming audience. Do you honestly want to go through this again?

 

[Goodtwin]

Casuals, Wii market (including the Nintendo fan club) and the tablet gaming audience. Do you honestly want to go through this again?

Nope, I really really don't. That's cool, at least I can see where your coming from. I disagree, but that's ok. We can put it to rest. Good discussion.

 

[temesgen]

speaking of the Wii, apparently the PS4 is close to Wii sales territory:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/11...2-challenging-wii-for-fastest-selling-console

Sony really needs to show more with first parties in 2015 to keep the momentum though, I really hope they don't get distracted with potential money sinks like VR and Playstation Now, they need to focus on what sells hardware. The TV service looks interesting and perhaps with Vita TV its a worthy gamble but hopefully they get first parties pumping out titles soon.

 

[Sonic]

One thing is for sure, Nintendo was entirely incompetent in the design for Wii U. The company should have known that an upgrade in power compared to PS360 would have a positive impact on sales versus just having parity. And the company was clearly asking for lazy ports from 3rd parties by having crap SDK and poor documentation. I swear these companies all follow a similar pattern in how big they fuck up one generation to the next. They get arrogant and cocky and think they are God's gift to gaming and it shows from statements by company officials. They think they can launch a console and will instantly have millions in sales like the predecessors. And then the fall from grace happens. But hey, Nintendo's been falling from grace since the original NES. Let's not forget the company has been selling less and less consoles each generation except the anomaly that is the Wii. The company makes great games but they have crappy management.

I hope the Nintendo Thwii has some balls to back up whatever new gimmick Nintendo has in store for us or they go software only so I can experience their great games on more powerful hardware.

I really don't see how the claim that Nintendo intended the Wii U for the core market has any merit. Company officials may have claimed that but I don't see it. Their lack of 1st party development into core genres shows they don't really care about the core market. They continue to develop core Nintendo titles and do not expand upon that. Bayonetta 2 is clearly an exception, but it appears Nintendo itself absolutely refuses to develop core games on their own. It's becoming increasingly difficult to justify purchasing their lesser hardware when there's plenty of gaming to do on other systems that is just as good. I do wonder if Nintendo games would sell dramatically better if they went 3rd party.

 

[temesgen]

One thing is for sure, Nintendo was entirely incompetent in the design for Wii U. The company should have known that an upgrade in power compared to PS360 would have a positive impact on sales versus just having parity. And the company was clearly asking for lazy ports from 3rd parties by having crap SDK and poor documentation. I swear these companies all follow a similar pattern in how big they fuck up one generation to the next. They get arrogant and cocky and think they are God's gift to gaming and it shows from statements by company officials. They think they can launch a console and will instantly have millions in sales like the predecessors. And then the fall from grace happens. But hey, Nintendo's been falling from grace since the original NES. Let's not forget the company has been selling less and less consoles each generation except the anomaly that is the Wii. The company makes great games but they have crappy management.

I hope the Nintendo Thwii has some balls to back up whatever new gimmick Nintendo has in store for us or they go software only so I can experience their great games on more powerful hardware.

I really don't see how the claim that Nintendo intended the Wii U for the core market has any merit. Company officials may have claimed that but I don't see it. Their lack of 1st party development into core genres shows they don't really care about the core market. They continue to develop core Nintendo titles and do not expand upon that. Bayonetta 2 is clearly an exception, but it appears Nintendo itself absolutely refuses to develop core games on their own. It's becoming increasingly difficult to justify purchasing their lesser hardware when there's plenty of gaming to do on other systems that is just as good. I do wonder if Nintendo games would sell dramatically better if they went 3rd party.

It maybe that Nintendo views the whole concept of third parties as cannabalizing first party sales. This is a little tongue in cheek but perhaps they see their ecosystem working best (more profitable) when they focus on exclusives and publish third party titles that they can use to round out the library.

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

Im of the opinion that Nintendo didn't ask for "sloppy" ports, but that's what they got. But yes, Nintendo was banking on those very popular IP's to round out its library.

I didn't say that Nintendo "asked" for sloppy ports, but they had to realize that is what they were going to get. They also knew they were launching the WiiU at a time when the PS360 were EOL and the next gen was going to launch in the middle, if not the beginning, of the WiiU life cycle.

As Nesh has stated, Nintendo could not have believed that PS360 users would give up their PS360 to migrate to the WiiU for a handful of years for games that would just be PS360 ports anyway.

Nintendo must have believed that their first party games along with their unique controller interface would offer a revolutionary experience along the lines of the wiimote and for those people who did want to play CoD, BF, etc.. they could still play last generation ports of those games.

There just wasn't a big enough market of potential PS360 users when the WiiU launched at the price the WiiU launched for compared to the PS360, and they knew they wouldn't be competing with or getting ports of Xb0x or PS4 games.

That necessarily means that Nintendo was going after a very small segment of consumers that hadn't yet bought a PS360 (but not because of price - because the WiiU costs more), and their own core audience. I think that's the very definition of a niche console.

 

[Newguy]

I do wonder if Nintendo games would sell dramatically better if they went 3rd party.

It might do. Straight away you're opening up your software to potentially 100m+ more customers. Personally I'm sort of interested in their titles but never enough to buy their hardware. If they made it available on all other platforms (PS/Xbox/PC) then I'd probably pick some of them up at least. One thing though, what would they aim for in terms of hardware use? We know they're generally good but with machines that have a lot more resources, I wonder what they'd aim for. Maybe just the lowest denominator? Even then would they push it that hard? If they did stop with home console hardware they'd save a lot so they could shift resources around, but didn't they also say they underestimated the jump to HD? Maybe they've learned from that, I don't know.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

There's a whole thread on Nintendo's future. Let's not discuss it here.