It can brick if the download fails? If that's the case that is rather crazy indeed.
Wii U retail impressions?
- Thread starter BRiT
- Start date
Agreed, not much to add, MSFT let out a dysfunctional system to meet its planned timeline, you can't go more wrong than that.
Anyway that is another matter, I've strong concerned for the system (WiiU), I don't think that Nintendo has what it takes to keep either their online or the system secured. I've the persistant feeling that the system will be hacked in no time, call that angst if you want, you may be right.
I think the entering price to compete with where Msft put the bar (Sony does a good job at keeping up but sadly the company is getting in a dreadful shape overall).
Sigfried1977
Legend
^I seriously doubt that. I'd assume the only chance to brick your system would be when the download is finished and you lose power during the actual upgrade process. I mean the download and the upgrade process are certainly separate beasts, or aren't they?
Seems like some have had their WIFI or Internet connection go belly up. Remember, the Wii U has no wired ethernet port so it does the updates all via WiFi.
Most people with bricked system have had the update fail at the "download" status screen and it bricked their system.
Nintendo can fix (they better) most of these software issues, they never aimed to beat PS4 or the 720, they just need to keep up, and in the next year bring their platform up to speed.
Btw, in what way do you think that customers having to exchange their 360's over 10 times because of RROD and Microsoft having to write of 1-1.15 billions dollars in repairs,XBOX 360 failure rates of 25-56% within it's first few years, is blown out of proportion?
I consider this to be a failed launch not because of the hardware bricking, but because of the underwhelming system design.
All the initial third party games have serious framerate problems and other graphical glitches and downgrades, the online infrastructure is incomplete, the value is worse than that of 7-year old consoles sold at possibly a small profit, and it also lacks some multimedia capabilities (BR playback mostly).
Unless you absolutely want to play Nintendo games, there really is no reason to purchase this system. You're far better off with a PS3 or X360 because they have a far bigger software library, all the multiplatform games run better, the consoles offer more extra features, aren't any less future proof and cost you less. From the average gamer's perspective the Wii U is nearly stillborn already.
All the initial third party games have serious framerate problems and other graphical glitches and downgrades, the online infrastructure is incomplete, the value is worse than that of 7-year old consoles sold at possibly a small profit, and it also lacks some multimedia capabilities (BR playback mostly).
Unless you absolutely want to play Nintendo games, there really is no reason to purchase this system. You're far better off with a PS3 or X360 because they have a far bigger software library, all the multiplatform games run better, the consoles offer more extra features, aren't any less future proof and cost you less. From the average gamer's perspective the Wii U is nearly stillborn already.
I think you're confusing "enthusiast gamer" with "average gamer". The average gamer won't be aware of any perceived 'underwhelming system design'.
Also, I feel I should address some other points you made:
-All initial 3rd party games don't have "serious" framerate issues. That's a fallacy. There are several which suffer framerate drops (Arkham City is supposedly the worst) but there are several which don't really (AC3) or don't any more than the 360/PS3 version. In BLOPS2 the framerate is higher than ps3 in some places.
-Not sure of any graphical "downgrades" but there are a few upgrades (higher res textures here and there, Trine 2 devs have said the WiiU version is superior
In all I think we have to wait for a the next wave of 3rd party software before making any sweeping judgements. They need to get to grips with this thing. Ubi and Namco Bandai (who incidentally are closest to Nintendo) have faired pretty well. Everyone is forgetting TTT2 which apparently is a very good port, and AC3 has no significant problems.
It's been out a day, has some software problems, we really know nothing new about the hardware (besides RAM speed, which may be insignificant given the apparent eDRAM), we're hearing some of the ports aren't the best performance wise (shock-freakin-horror) and we're writing it off suddenly? I'm not sure what in the last 24hrs is meant to have made me think it's suddenly doomed.
I'm open to suggestions though?
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Seems to me this is the worst console launch in history, at least in internet history. And by that I mean what the current buzz is. I've never known anything more pessimistic. Plenty of consoles have had positive or negative buzz leading up to their release, or maybe general disinterest, but the ambient negative surrounding Wii U strikes me as extraordinary. Rather than riding a wave of positive hype, Nintendo's wave has broken already on poor initial execution. It's a case of rebuilding image now, rather than basking in glow of an enthusiastic market. Maybe that's only true for HD console owning forum goers, but that's a significant part of Nintendo's potential consumers who are surely sitting back on a wait-and-see approach now.
The closest parallel that comes to mind is iOS 6. I don't have any Apple devices and don't particularly care, but the mess of that including the maps especially was common knowledge and made the platform something of a joke. You never want to launch off the back foot, and this is the most back footed I've seen a console release at.
The closest parallel that comes to mind is iOS 6. I don't have any Apple devices and don't particularly care, but the mess of that including the maps especially was common knowledge and made the platform something of a joke. You never want to launch off the back foot, and this is the most back footed I've seen a console release at.
Bashing a platform over the looks of launch games is in of itself a fallacy. Launch games are ALWAYS barrel-dredge as far as looks are concerned. Every single console's launch games (talking reasonably modern hardware, of course, not counting Atari VCS and such) have looked crap compared to second-gen games and onwards.
One reason the Wuu might be sold at a loss is it really is a solid piece of hardware, engineering-wise. Look at iFixit's teardown for example. The wuublet may just be a hunk of plastic, but it's a really well-put-together hunk of plastic that's more like a 3D jigsaw really with pieces fitting within other pieces. It all looks really rigid, I must say.
One reason the Wuu might be sold at a loss is it really is a solid piece of hardware, engineering-wise. Look at iFixit's teardown for example. The wuublet may just be a hunk of plastic, but it's a really well-put-together hunk of plastic that's more like a 3D jigsaw really with pieces fitting within other pieces. It all looks really rigid, I must say.
Media responses are typically exaggerated. The reasoning behind the platform being 'doomed' probably goes something along the lines of, Wii U is offering little over the other consoles beyond tablet controller, at a greater price, with some missing functionality. For anyone looking for HD gaming, PS3 and XB360 offer very competitive options with extensive libraries and more trusted systems. Incentive to buy a Wii U now is probably greatly diminished among a significant portion of potential early adopters (or pioneers, or whatever they're really called. If London-boy was around he'd put me straight!), and as console sales are typically a function of snowballing sales, the slower the start, the exponentially slower the growth overall. What's the lifespan of Wii U really? If it's not going to last 3 years, say, because the new consoles will draw much away from it on the high end and PS360 can be priced cheaply on the low end, will developers bother to invest in creating Wii U games? If the devs aren't going to support it, is it worth investing in the hardware? If consumers aren't willing to invest in the hardware, can it be trusted to sell en masse and be a viable platform for software? Consumer confidence is key, and this start has eroded plenty of that, although without any real measures it's only what we perceive.
I don't know that that reasoning is right, but it is logical. The things that'll really denote the platform's likely future is Christmas sales. Install base after 3 months will tell us if the platform took off are fizzled. If it fizzled, it's unlikely IMO that Nintendo can do anything to reinvigorate it other than massive discounts or some amazing killer app.
That's absolutely true except that, compared to last-gen, they still look better. Wii U is being compared to its contemporaries. Its relative poor launch software compared to what it's capable of overall potentially isn't offering a wonderful new world unlike how Gears or HD Tennis or whatever prompted awe and wonder from gamers.
But AC3, ME3, Batman 2 and BLOPS aren't launch games, they're ports of multiplatform software that had plenty of development time on well defined and well known platforms, and in some cases has been released 6+ months ago.
It's also not like developers are unfamiliar with the rendering and content creation technologies. We've had years of titles with normal mapping, HDR rendering; or on the hw end there's 7-8 years' worth of multithreaded algorithm development, and it's not like the Wii U has Cell-level complexity.
Sure, you can blame it on the tool chain - but that'd only make it an even bigger disappointment, wouldn't it? Nintendo could have asked for dev opinions for years, heck, just reading B3D should have helped a lot. There's no excuse for these problems, really.
I dunno, I fail to see the cleverness when compared to an Apple product...
Yes, and unlike the first Wii there really isn't anything in sight. The Wiimote was at least a clear advantage from day one and interest had been obvious after that E3.
And even the first Wii has lost almost all of its momentum by now, I wouldn't be surprised if the other two catch up to it in sales before X3 and PS4 are released...
That doesn't really matter though; it's still a new piece of hardware, new architecture and so on even though it's not a step up in power compared to the competition. You still need to learn the ropes on a new piece of kit before you can make it sing, ya know?
There IS a microcontroller in there. How else would you expect to get all that hardware to work; by magic?! If you're still not convinced, ask yourself what the flash memory in there is for. It stores firmware for the microcontroller of course, in order to initialize and manage all of the disparate hardware devices in the wuublet.
You don't get an LCD panel to show graphics automagically just by hooking it up straight to a wireless transciever (if that was even possible, which it isn't), you need a display controller for that sort of thing. Which means there's a graphics processor in the tablet. You need a graphics controller for the TV remote functionality as well, which works independently of the wuu when the console is in standby mode. Same thing goes for GPIO for buttons, ADCs for the analog sticks, audio codec for speakers and mic, NFC transciever, camera, etc etc. They all need something orchestrating and parenting them; these things are low-cost devices, they don't function 100% independently. Many are undoubtedly secretly USB bus devices, which inherently need supervision.
Of course it's 5GHz. You'd never get the wuublet to work reliably in the 2.4GHz band.
Thanks again for the thorough response.
It's not that I disagree, it's just that I'm still left wandering though: what has changed? All of the above may turn out to be true but I still can't see what, out of the problems in the last day (75% of which are normal launch problems judging from recent hardware launches) have suddenly made this a disaster. No one was expecting this to offer anything above the core concept (which is ok imo, as the core concept is pretty cool). The majority of people seem to be enjoying their new consoles...
Reading through gaf and other gamin message boards, the majority of the bad news is people simply saying "this is the worst launch ever, lol" style posts, which causes more people to join in without actually considering the news they are commenting on. This makes threads grow exponentially and suddenly it seems like much bigger news than it is and the cycle continues. It's like Tabloid news: self perpetuating and not always indicative of actual merit.
As I said before, most of the negative comments are from people who don't have the console. And the vast majority of the hands on commentary I've read is positive. This is reflected in mainstream.media, who aren't really picking up on it other than saying "there's been a few teething troubles".
I'm not saying it's not a bad launch, it is. But I think it's seeming much worse in internet-land than it actually is.
Nintendo's response to the issues will decide the fate of the console: if they balls that up then expect to see the media have a field day....
Optical Matrix
Newcomer
Kind of late to the thread here? Is the Wii U's launch a victim of internet hyperbole, or has Nintendo really overlooked so much of what we've come to feel as standard for nearly 7 years now on PSN/XBL?
I've never actually seen such much negativity within the first 2 days of a system launch. Even the press reception is luke warm. I sit tight for my system next Friday (European launch), but christ.....
I've never actually seen such much negativity within the first 2 days of a system launch. Even the press reception is luke warm. I sit tight for my system next Friday (European launch), but christ.....
That doesn't really matter though; it's still a new piece of hardware, new architecture and so on even though it's not a step up in power compared to the competition. You still need to learn the ropes on a new piece of kit before you can make it sing, ya know?
But it does. And you know it does. It's a disgrace that hardware, which was announced 1.5 years ago, has launch games of this poor caliber. It gives some consumers less incentive to buy the machine. What they see visually to them is not an upgrade so is the machine worth the purchase. I won't call the launch failed after I see some sales numbers for hardware and software, and see how this bricking of the console situation goes.
But yeah it will take some time for devs to come to grips with the hardware in general, but I doubt it will take them as long as it has for PS33 and 360. If next year the 3rd party games blow the pants off PS360 games I'll be surprised and impressed. But it's sad even having to discuss this, considering for the price tag they could have capitalized on going next gen in both console and handheld markets.
Now it's up to the games. Nintendo had best deliver if they wish to stand a chance in the future, especially if they sell WiiU at a loss for a while.
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