Nintendo needs to get out its Wii U games ASAP - sales dropping fast

[jd_1138]

EA will simply lose business by not diversifying their releases. Honestly if they are that lazy that they don't want to modify their game engines to work on Wii-U, then good riddens.

 

EA has been shoveling out a lot of crap over the past 5 years. Good riddance.

[Osgeld]

whats the incentive?

 

you have a messy machine hardware wise in the tune of saturn, its really multiple machines, multiple displays, multiple inputs and for what? low hardware sales?

[Pixelboy]

whats the incentive?

 

you have a messy machine hardware wise in the tune of saturn, its really multiple machines, multiple displays, multiple inputs and for what? low hardware sales?

 

You've got a point there... The Wii-U offers a lot, but taking advantage of it means a lot of development time (a.k.a. money) spent on integrating the tablet gamepad and possibly Wiimotes/nunckucks into a game. We can bitch at third-parties for dropping the Wii-U, but if the sales numbers don't add up, can we really blame them for making a no-brainer business decision? The Wii-U system and game sales aren't meeting expectations, and the PS4 and Xbox 720 haven't even been released yet. Once the competition actually enters the arena with their next-generation hardware, and third-party devs embrace them, Nintendo will be even more isolated in its own sandbox.

 

And to think that all Nintendo needed to do to get the Wii-U right was to include a Wii-U Pro Controller and a Wii-U Game Pad stand/craddle set (along with the Game Pad itself) as standard in every Wii-U box... Sure, it would have made the system more expensive, but third-party devs would have had an actual choice of controllers to work with, making cross-platform games easy to make. No third-party publisher in his right mind wants to force gamers to buy a Wii-U Pro Controller to play their games, and Nintendo discourages this practice anyway because it stands obnoxiously behind its tablet gamepad and Wiimote.

 

Honestly, if I were a third-party dev/publisher, I would let the Wii-U dev kit gather dust on a shelf too, and wrap my head around Sony's and Microsoft's next systems. Iwata really messed up this time...

[Andromeda Stardust]

If third party devs don't want to utilize the tablet, then that's fine, they can just the screen to duplicate the television display, allowing users the option of gaming with the TV off. Otherwise, the gamepad has essentially identical inputs to the Pro controller, so it is easy to allow the Pro option as well. IMO, the classic controller for Wii was severely under utilized, despite the fact that Nintendo created it specifically to make traditional control schemes possible. A number of games that supported it actually played better than with the "waggle" controls.

[Pixelboy]

If third party devs don't want to utilize the tablet, then that's fine, they can just the screen to duplicate the television display, allowing users the option of gaming with the TV off. Otherwise, the gamepad has essentially identical inputs to the Pro controller, so it is easy to allow the Pro option as well.

 

All this is fine, but it places devs in a catch-22 situation. If they treat the tablet gamepad as a "regular" controller, it may make their lives easier, but online reviewers will blast their games practically every time for being "cheap ports" that don't use the tablet gamepad to its full potential. The logical response to that is to add features to the games which tap into this potential, but then you're spending money to add unecessary stuff to your games which the same games on other consoles don't have (or need) and reviewers will still complain about the tacked-on nature of these tablet-centric or Wiimote-centric extra features.

 

 

IMO, the classic controller for Wii was severely under utilized, despite the fact that Nintendo created it specifically to make traditional control schemes possible. A number of games that supported it actually played better than with the "waggle" controls.

 

Very true. I'd say the bottom line is that many games simply work well it regular controllers, and aren't a good fit for the Wiimote or even the tablet gamepad. Nintendo's failure to recognize this basic fact is probably their greatest mistake, which has only served to alienate them from the rest of the industry.

[Mendon]

thanks for showing the XEGS box! never have seen one before. the condition looks fantastic!

The system is brand new, never been out of the box. Box is in very good shape with only some very minor shelf-wear spots and one spot of discoloring on the bottom flap. Don't know how or why the spot.. almost like something got spilled on it or it sat in something... is there as I really take care of all my gaming items.

[Andromeda Stardust]

All this is fine, but it places devs in a catch-22 situation. If they treat the tablet gamepad as a "regular" controller, it may make their lives easier, but online reviewers will blast their games practically every time for being "cheap ports" that don't use the tablet gamepad to its full potential. The logical response to that is to add features to the games which tap into this potential, but then you're spending money to add unecessary stuff to your games which the same games on other consoles don't have (or need) and reviewers will still complain about the tacked-on nature of these tablet-centric or Wiimote-centric extra features.

I'll take a strait port any day over the tacked on "waggle" controls (when a button would have sufficed) that many Wii games had.

[onlysublime]

The system is brand new, never been out of the box. Box is in very good shape with only some very minor shelf-wear spots and one spot of discoloring on the bottom flap. Don't know how or why the spot.. almost like something got spilled on it or it sat in something... is there as I really take care of all my gaming items.

 

never been opened? how do you know it's not a box of rocks?

[Andromeda Stardust]

never been opened? how do you know it's not a box of rocks?

If you're gonna scam somebody with a bait-and-switch, a plank of wood works better. It's got a similar density to the consoles, and doesn't rattle as much.

[onlysublime]

LOL.

If you're gonna scam somebody with a bait-and-switch, a plank of wood works better. It's got a similar density to the consoles, and doesn't rattle as much.

 

LOL. flashback to those news reports of people saying they bought something at Walmart and it turned out to be a box of rocks.

 

I think the scam got so heavy, it changed Walmart's policy. I ordered something recently and used the ship-to-store option. worst retail experience ever.

 

I was fourth in line and was receiving a single game. They only had 1 register for the walmart.com purchases. Now the policy (at least at this store) is to open every single ship-to-store package and check that its contents is correct. So one person in front of me got her packaged but according to the computer it didn't arrive yet. That had to be fixed before she could take it out of the store. The next person ordered a whole house worth of items. About 30 packages! And each package had to be opened and inspected. The girl with the box cutter was taking her sweet time too. And a couple of his items showed as present at the store but were actually not while another item showed as not at store yet but was actually in store. So that also had to be fixed. So I didn't get out of the store until 45 minutes later. 45 minutes!

[Mendon]

never been opened? how do you know it's not a box of rocks?

 

No, no, no, no..... I wrote its never been out of the box, not that I never opened the box.

[Mendon]

Sniper Elite 2, Lego Batman 2, Fast & Furious Showdown, and Resident Evil Revelations all released today, so that increases the Wii U library from "no software is available" to "some games are available".

 

I think by this holiday season there will be a lot of games available on shelves for the Wii U.... Nintendo titles such as Windwaker, 3D Mario, Mario Kart (and I'm sure some unannounced titles we'll hear about soon), along with announced 3rd party titles like Watch Dogs, Batman Arkham Origins, Splinter Cell Blacklist, Assassins Creed IV, Lego Marvel Super Heros, Rayman Legends, and Disney Infinity.

 

Maybe the Wii U hasn't had the strongest launch but I'm pretty damn happy owning a Wii U.

Edited May 21, 2013 by Mendon

[Pixelboy]

I think by this holiday season there will be a lot of games available on shelves for the Wii U.... Nintendo titles such as Windwaker, 3D Mario, Mario Kart (and I'm sure some unannounced titles we'll hear about soon), along with announced 3rd party titles like Watch Dogs, Batman Arkham Origins, Splinter Cell Blacklist, Assassins Creed IV, Lego Marvel Super Heros, Rayman Legends, and Disney Infinity.

 

It's always nice to see new Lego games released. I wish Lego and Traveller's Tales could get the license to Star Trek. I think they could do an awesome Lego spoof video game with it, in the same vein as the Star Wars Lego games. They could include a ton of characters, from Harry Mudd to Khan. Just imagine walking a Kirk minifig through a minifig-scaled Enterprise, from the bridge to engineering, to sickbay, to the transporter room. And then visiting many planets and reenacting some classic TOS episodes. Lots of potential there, and if it turns out to be as popular as the Star Wars Lego games, they could do sequels set in the Next Generation/Deep Space Nine/Voyager eras. I'd buy that just to see minifigs of Quark and Odo.

[Mendon]

It's always nice to see new Lego games released. I wish Lego and Traveller's Tales could get the license to Star Trek. I think they could do an awesome Lego spoof video game with it, in the same vein as the Star Wars Lego games. They could include a ton of characters, from Harry Mudd to Khan. Just imagine walking a Kirk minifig through a minifig-scaled Enterprise, from the bridge to engineering, to sickbay, to the transporter room. And then visiting many planets and reenacting some classic TOS episodes. Lots of potential there, and if it turns out to be as popular as the Star Wars Lego games, they could do sequels set in the Next Generation/Deep Space Nine/Voyager eras. I'd buy that just to see minifigs of Quark and Odo.

 

GREAT idea! A Star Trek Lego would be awesome, especially Lego Tribbles!!!

[Pixelboy]

GREAT idea! A Star Trek Lego would be awesome, especially Lego Tribbles!!!

 

Oh yeah, you could have a "game episode" where you'd need to find and pick up all the tribbles "infesting" the Enterprise and use the transporter to send them to a nearby Klingon ship before it goes to warp, just like in the actual episode "The Trouble with Tribbles".

 

Really, tons of potential right there.

[+Cafeman]

It seems so obvious, its a wonder they didn't think of Lego Star Trek. I'd buy it regardless of system!

[Pixelboy]

It seems so obvious, its a wonder they didn't think of Lego Star Trek.

 

Probably the result of a history of licence sidetracking. I think Mega Bloks had the Star Trek TNG license at some point, but they didn't do much with it aside from the Pro Builder Enterprise D. I like to believe Lego at least tried (unsuccessfully) to get the license from Paramount, and Lego should really step up their lobbying and try again. Star Trek and Lego are a natural combination just waiting to happen.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Speaking of licensing, now that the Star Wars license has gone exclusively to Disney and EA, and EA is not releasing content on Wii-U, does that mean that Lego Star Wars will get discontinued since they were released by a different company (TT Games and LucasArts)? There was a similar issue a year or so ago when The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles license got sold, and all "Turtles" related games got immediately pulled without warning from the Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft download platforms, including both VC titles and remakes. That's why you gotta love physical copies of games: once they've been released, they will always be out there in some form for future gamers to enjoy, no matter if IP changes hands or not.