The Official Wii U Thread (Nintendo Network IDs here!)

[Pikminister]

Sneaky Nintendo... branding those games as 'launch games' because they're coming out in the same 'launch period'.

Here at home we're interested in buying one. So we'll probably get it soon. I just want to wait things out until Nintendo gets its act together... and because I got burned a bit with the 3DS.

[alexdz]

- Platinum Games both with Nintendo buying up Bayonetta (which is now a Nintendo IP, they did indeed buy it)

I thought Nintendo was just going to publish Bayonetta 2.

[Canas Renvall]

I stand corrected. Sega still owns the IP, the article I saw made an edit. XD

[alexdz]

I stand corrected. Sega still owns the IP, the article I saw made an edit. XD

For a second I thought Nintendo was pulling a Disney and sneakily buying franchises.

[Dracarys]

Turok Dinosaur Hunter was an N64 launch game, was great for its time.

[News Bot]

So is there a reason to buy this yet? Looks like another Dreamcast at this rate.

[Canas Renvall]

It's been out 8 days, there is no way to tell that it's like the Dreamcast... unless you're talking about how awesome the DC was ;P

But you're gonna get your first party titles which alone is worth it, and like I said, they're getting some awesome third party support. While no confirmation, Capcom did say they could make a unique RE game on the Wii U if they made one for it.

One issue is the NDAs that right now are barring people from mentioning their non-launch window games. I just think it's time for Nintendo to do away with all the NDAs. Let the devs announce their damn games already, the console is out! @_@

[Code_R]

Well despite having a range of decent titles the Dreamcast died as everyone waited for a PS2 from what I remember... so when are the next PS/XBox consoles out?

[Pikminister]

Well despite having a range of decent titles the Dreamcast died as everyone waited for a PS2 from what I remember... so when are the next PS/XBox consoles out?

And from what I remember, the DC went down because SEGA created a lot of money pits before said console came to the scene (with the Saturn and before that, during the last days of the SNES/Genesis/Megadrive wars when SEGA went crazy with peripherals and useless add-ons).

So SEGA wasn't in any position to eat the new console's production cost loses (all consoles are sold at a loss initially).

If anything, SONY is in a similar situation with the upcoming PS4 as SEGA was back then. The PS3 was a financial disaster for Sony and only since 2010 did they start to register profits from the console.

I don't think we'll really see another Dreamcast situation, though.

Even the ever pessimistic Michael Pachter thinks the Wii U will be a success now.

[Canas Renvall]

Yeah, the Dreamcast actually sold fairly well for when it came out (not amazingly, like the PS2 or Wii, but still decent), it was just Sega's dicking around with their consoles (including the now infamous Saturn launch) that caused the DC to tank. And then the PS2 being announced was the final blow. I agree, it's very unlikely that this will ever happen again. People have learned basic common sense, like "don't hide a console launch from developers and move up the date before they can finish making games for it." That was a killer back in the 90s, and it would be even worse financially for companies today what with the record high costs of console development.

[Dracarys]

One issue is the NDAs that right now are barring people from mentioning their non-launch window games. I just think it's time for Nintendo to do away with all the NDAs. Let the devs announce their damn games already, the console is out! @_@

WHere did you read this? Sounds like nonsense, is no good reason to not announce forthcoming games, it is exactly what they should want to be doing. Unless Nintendo just bullshiting about having games coming, like they did with 3DS.

[Pikminister]

Yeah, the Dreamcast actually sold fairly well for when it came out (not amazingly, like the PS2 or Wii, but still decent), it was just Sega's dicking around with their consoles (including the now infamous Saturn launch) that caused the DC to tank. And then the PS2 being announced was the final blow. I agree, it's very unlikely that this will ever happen again. People have learned basic common sense, like "don't hide a console launch from developers and move up the date before they can finish making games for it." That was a killer back in the 90s, and it would be even worse financially for companies today what with the record high costs of console development.

Not only that but game development costs continues to rise. Things are different at present than a generation or two ago. You got devs going kaput (Eurocom was one of the most recent) because they can't possibly keep up with Activision, EA and some of the other few big companies.

That's something that probably got Sony and MS thinking. And why initially Sony wanted to produce an affordable console (apparently, they changed their minds when the specs for the 720 leaked and now they want to dive into another pissing match with MS).

I dunno, what's the point of producing a console that is too expensive to sell and also to have devs make games for it? This when RIGHT NOW you got games costing 13 million dollars up to 30 million dlls. And these costs will only go up. Regardless if the cost of the tech that's inside of the consoles goes down (some argue it won't for many years).

Now, the qualified workforce needed to make these new games will prob increase. As well as the development time. So there will be more paychecks to pay out. And all that will affect how much we as consumers pay for games.

[Canas Renvall]

WHere did you read this? Sounds like nonsense, is no good reason to not announce forthcoming games, it is exactly what they should want to be doing. Unless Nintendo just bullshiting about having games coming, like they did with 3DS.

I know that people were under NDA for a while with Nintendo, and many of the devs said that they weren't at liberty to discuss any Wii U projects at length during the "launch window", which Reggie Fils-Aime stated to be from launch to around February or early March. I don't know if the NDAs state that they have to wait until after launch or after the launch window. If it's the latter, then I agree, it's absolutely retarded. There's really no reason to hold back like that. It doesn't get people interested in your system.

However, I've enjoyed every Nintendo system I've owned thus far (NES through Wii), so I know I'll enjoy this one too. It just seems strange to keep such a tight lid on everything, even after launch.

As for the 3DS, yeah... it was pretty starved for games during its launch, but that's usually the case for any system (like we said, the N64 is a classic case of this, with two launch titles). But look at how much it's flourished after six or seven months, let alone a year and a half. I imagine the Wii U is gonna have that same lull period like most launches.

Although, here's a theory... What if Nintendo is holding back their big hitters on purpose to derail Sony and Microsoft's possible hardware announcements at E3 2013? Sure, they're gonna have some announcements and great games between now and then... but can you imagine a big SSB4 update, a 3D Mario game, a new Zelda announcement, maybe even another Starfox or Metroid announcement all in one go alongside some other exclusives and third party announcements? I think honestly Nintendo has the only arsenal capable of stealing the show from a hardware reveal... but that's only if they do it right. And if this isn't the case, then there is no reason to be so secretive.

[Pikminister]

Although, here's a theory... What if Nintendo is holding back their big hitters on purpose to derail Sony and Microsoft's possible hardware announcements at E3 2013? Sure, they're gonna have some announcements and great games between now and then... but can you imagine a big SSB4 update, a 3D Mario game, a new Zelda announcement, maybe even another Starfox or Metroid announcement all in one go alongside some other exclusives and third party announcements? I think honestly Nintendo has the only arsenal capable of stealing the show from a hardware reveal... but that's only if they do it right. And if this isn't the case, then there is no reason to be so secretive.

Nintendo gave up on E3 like 2 years ago. They don't care for it and that's the main reason they are making those Nintendo Direct shows at present.

Sure, they'll show something big at next years E3. But they really don't care for "winning" the event like in the past. If they did, they would've make public at E3 2012 a lot of the good stuff they only made public later by way on the Nintendo Directs.

In regards to the competition, I think the big fight coming will be between Sony and MS. And Nintendo knows it. So it makes little sense trying to steal their thunder.

[Code_R]

They are not trying to compete at all, that's the whole idea of the Wii and WiiU as far as I can tell. They tried to compete for so long with Sony over the years, and will never go back and try again after realising now the better tactic is to sell consoles to the non gamers. By design the Wii was a system which avoided comparison to PS3. They are not going to start trying to out do anybody with new software releases or big E3 shows with their long term brands. A new line of Starfox, Metroid and 3D Mario games would be great but I doubt it's a priority any more to them.