What, no thread about the official Wii U release date and prices?

[RancidLunchmeat]

Not only that, but the PS3 and 360 have positioned themselves as content and service providers with their various networks.

Nintendo missed that boat completely this generation, and I don't see the WiiU making great strides to catch up in that arena.

The $199 or $149 or $99 PS3/360 are going to offer so much in addition to just being a games platform, I would be shocked if they didn't have the longest legs we've seen thus far in console sales.

 

[wco81]

I think when the Wii was unveiled, people are forums like this one weren't too impressed or bullish on its prospects.

Doesn't mean WiiU will outperform the expectations here. If it struggles, it won't be because of current gen consoles. More like because of the sluggish global economy and mobile devices diverting a lot of discretionary income from people who might have bought consoles in the past.

 

[Megadrive1988]

Wii U Browser Has Tabbed Browsing, Screenshots, HTML5, But No Flash

 

[ERP]

I think when the Wii was unveiled, people are forums like this one weren't too impressed or bullish on its prospects.

Doesn't mean WiiU will outperform the expectations here. If it struggles, it won't be because of current gen consoles. More like because of the sluggish global economy and mobile devices diverting a lot of discretionary income from people who might have bought consoles in the past.

FWIW I read a piece on WiiU, in one the financial papers reporting on the press conference.
I thought the author brought up a good point, while the Wii's "gimmick" i.e. motion control is extremely easy for anybody to "get" and get excited about just be seeing a 10 second demo. WiiU's "gimmick" is the exact opposite, you see it and you just wonder what the value is.

I agree if it fails it won' be because of Hardware specs, but if it's a hardware also ran, there needs to be a reason for people to buy it, either exclusive games, or the "gimmick" has to be compelling.

I personally didn't get Wii and only own one because I swapped a spare monitor for it with a friend. I thought it would fail, and I was wrong.
I don't get WiiU either, I think it will do fine XMas 2012 and then I think it will be lost in the Next Gen hype, having said that I'd still expect it to have a better Xmas 2013 than any other consoles that launch just because of supply, the real test will be Xmas 2014 and the months leading up to it as supply issues for the other consoles become things of the past.

 

[Prophecy2k]

I think when the Wii was unveiled, people are forums like this one weren't too impressed or bullish on its prospects.

Doesn't mean WiiU will outperform the expectations here. If it struggles, it won't be because of current gen consoles. More like because of the sluggish global economy and mobile devices diverting a lot of discretionary income from people who might have bought consoles in the past.

No, if it sturggles it will be because of Nintendo's complete and obvious failure to
a) develop a console that is a convincing enough upgrade from the current HD twins
b) position the new console in a way so as to target a clear demographic with a defining feature that adds obvious value to games

 

[wco81]

But current gen consoles aren't selling that well, are they? Sales have really tailed off as the generation winds down.

 

[AlphaWolf]

But current gen consoles aren't selling that well, are they? Sales have really tailed off as the generation winds down.

Not really. For example year 7 for the Xbox360 will probably have more units sold than any of the first 5 years.

 

[Entropy]

Given that devs like Carmack even complained about the "weakness" of Xenon and the CELL PPU, a console with an alleged 1.5-3 times faster GPU, twice the available RAM, and a worse CPU sounds severely imbalanced to me, especially if you consider PS3 and Xbox 360 as reasonably balanced systems..

Carmack had no issues whatsoever with the theoretical single precision FP rate of the Xenon or BBE. He (and Gabe Newell) complained about the single threaded integer performance being weak, and the need for parallelizing/load balancing/et cetera their code to extract performance. Hence Carmacks famous quote that "it's not "oh just thread your application". Anyone that says that is basically an idiot,"

These days, I don't think you'd find many who would advocate the partition of transistors, cost and power that PS360 had between CPU and GPU in a gaming console.

 

[ERP]

There is a lot of reporting about declining console sales in the press, but those figures usually include Wii and DS both of which just more or less died over night and account for much of the down turn.
The last set of figures I saw had software sales higher than at any point in the PS2/Xbox era and only marginally down overall.

 

[Rangers]

according to IGN the Wii U controller will run for 3-5 hours on a charge, then you must plug it into the wall (not the console) for 2.5 hours to recharge

http://www.ign.com/wikis/wii-u/Wii_U_Trivia

I mean, yuck. Made worse when there is only one controller.

i wonder if you can play while charging the controller? might not be easy with a cord dangling, and depending on charge cord length.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

I'm sure you can't play during charging. Just about every device on the market can be used while charging. Sure the wii u can't though...

 

[liolio]

I'm sure you can't play during charging. Just about every device on the market can be used while charging. Sure the wii u can't though...

Is that a sarcasm, and you expect the wiiu to be able to do so.
Or exasperation in the face of Nintendo's choices (overall)?

I can't tell

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Sarcasm. There is zero reason for it not to be possible.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Ya, but how long is the cord on the charger? As it has a proprietary connector if it doesn't come with a long enough cord you still have a problem.

 

[Brad Grenz]

Extension cord between wall and charge?

 

[Rangers]

Sarcasm. There is zero reason for it not to be possible.

Yeah, but it just seem more difficult with a wire (of unknown length) going somewhere other than to the console.

Methinks it would behoove them to provide more then plenty of cord charging length. Like 15 feet.

I have a fairly small living room and the X360's 10 ft charge cables wont even reach my couch. Of course I buy AA batteries in bulk so it's not an issue, but charging the 360 controller if it runs out during gameplay is a big hassle for me, as it means I have to physically move closer to the 360 while playing.

That's why I say 15 feet as 10 isn't enough. Then again with 20 I'm sure you'd have people tripping, lawsuits and whatever.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Look, we've used controllers with wires for over 30 years. It wasn't a problem then and it isn't going to be a problem now.

 

[Rangers]

Look, we've used controllers with wires for over 30 years. It wasn't a problem then and it isn't going to be a problem now.

...

I hate using wired controllers now as does everybody else. Things move on.

Of course, the Wii U controller isn't wired. This only references charging. But it does seem like it could be a somewhat hefty annoyance.

Best course of action is probably to leave it charging whenever not playing of course. Then the only problem is if you have a single session over "3-5" hours. Or maybe 3 hours, only charge 1, start playing again could be a charging problem, etc.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

So Wuublet's battery life about the same as an (poor?) Android tablet but without the CPU or GPU. That to me makes it even less usable as an interface for games, as if your little sister has been browsing on it for a couple of hours prior to you playing Mario, it'll be low on charge. So you'll have to plug it in and use tilt controls with a cable pulling on the back. But worse yet on the flip side, you're playing a game and the family wants to watch TV, so you want to take the Wuublet upstairs to play. Only you can't as it's low on power. I suppose you'll unplug the PSU and move that around. Very convenient. They've crippled it's portability by making it frequently wired.

It's just another small shortcoming that impairs the experience. With all that space and no need for power hungry chips, Nintendo could have put in a large battery that'd last all day and you return it to the cradle at night. Instead, their choices make a device even less suited for their intentions. I don't see the thinking behind that at all.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

I hope they are conservative with their 3-5h estimate and that the reality would be closer to 5h instead of 3h. 5 hours would be ok imo. Perhaps they can improve this aspect of it in any case. I agree with Shifty and probably almost everybody that with that amount of space and a low res display they should have done better.