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

[Pikminister]

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.

Sony and Nintendo did go at it during the N64 & PSX years. But what really made Nintendo change gears, was when Microsoft entered the scene.

Once Nintendo saw how MS "invested" billions into the first Xbox ('invested' as in losing 4 billion+ dlls with that console) and when MS still kept going into the current generation like nothing had happened, Nintendo realized that trying to beat them at their game just wasn't going to work. They just didn't have the deep pockets that MS had. I mean, Nintendo had like 4 billion in the bank. The same amount MS threw away just like it was nothing. How can you compete against that? You can't.

Anyway, Nintendo prob foresaw that Sony and MS would once again fight over the core gamer between them. The fact that the GameCube was more powerful than the PS2 didn't work for them in the previous generation. So that's why they went with the Wii and that's why they went for an audience that both MS and Sony were ignoring initially: mainstream gamers.

They're using a similar strategy with the Wii U (thus why its still called a Wii and not something else). And why would they change their strategy? Who here seriously believes Nintendo is going to win over the 360's core gamer base? With the PS3, Sony is basically at the moment having to pick up their table scraps and depend on their loyal fanbase. That's why they're finishing the race in last place (2nd or 3rd, who cares. Def not in 1st place). And if Sony is having a hard time, why would Nintendo even go there?

They're doing alright. They have lost respect among cores. But then cores support CoD like crazy... or are those really non-gamers (casuals)?

[Code_R]

Well I don't have any financial figures of that kind available, but the straight out design of the thing is a clean white box with a TV remote - the idea of getting this into homes rather than selling software was pretty obvious. They side stepped the competition and starting moving the opposite direction. Good marketing, almost unheard of for them historically. Then you have all this garbage like Wii-fit or that finger Vitality sensor... the audience for that is what I see as non gamers. I mean they let development of motion plus addons which are directly related to more serious games sit on a shelf until almost the last year of it's life span. Personally as a fan the only real hook besides 3 or 4 games since it's release was the Virtual Console stuff since my N64 is long gone. I want to like them and their WiiU but they are not letting me.

[Pikminister]

Can't blame Nintendo for ignoring cores. Considering that cores pretty much told Nintendo to go screw themselves during two whole generations (N64/GCN).

With the Cube Nintendo did pretty much everything they could do to win them over. They gave them a powerful console, relative strong 3rd party support, secured cool exclusives (Resident Evil remake and Zero), revived dead franchises - Metroid Prime and made several Star Fox games. And made 2 Legend of Zelda games for that console. Plus all the Mario games.

And what did they get in return? A big FUCK YOU. Nintendo finished last in the race.

So I can't blame them for trying to find an audience that gives them a chance.

Anyway.... this is cool.

Look Ma! No TV!





SOURCE: http://kotaku.com/5963181/yes-the-wi...-bullet-trains

[Dracarys]

Can't blame Nintendo for ignoring cores. Considering that cores pretty much told Nintendo to go screw themselves during two whole generations (N64/GCN).

With the Cube Nintendo did pretty much everything they could do to win them over. They gave them a powerful console, relative strong 3rd party support, secured cool exclusives (Resident Evil remake and Zero), revived dead franchises - Metroid Prime and made several Star Fox games. And made 2 Legend of Zelda games for that console. Plus all the Mario games.

And what did they get in return? A big FUCK YOU. Nintendo finished last in the race.

So I can't blame them for trying to find an audience that gives them a chance.

Come off it, the GC lacked loads of third party games and it was the start of when they decided challenge should be removed from their big hitters, Wind Waker is by far the easiest Zelda game there is, and Zelda was never really hard anyway, and don't tell me going from the first demo Zelda video with more real looking characters to the saturday morning kids show visuals was 'for the core'. That game was made for children through and through. Mario Sunshine was the same, wtf were those goon looking townsfolk. Oh and turning Donkey Kong Country into a drum beat game..totally for the core. The Starfox games were shit, people want Starwing/Lylat Wars style, sod running about on foot. They made decent efforts with Metroid Prime and Eternal Darkness (neither of which were actually Nintendo teams who made them) but a handful of games do not compare to dozens on other platforms.

The console itself looking like a fisherprice kids toy complete with a carry handle probably didn't help.

[News Bot]

Fuck that food looks delicious.

[Joey3264]

Can't blame Nintendo for ignoring cores. Considering that cores pretty much told Nintendo to go screw themselves during two whole generations (N64/GCN).

With the Cube Nintendo did pretty much everything they could do to win them over. They gave them a powerful console, relative strong 3rd party support, secured cool exclusives (Resident Evil remake and Zero), revived dead franchises - Metroid Prime and made several Star Fox games. And made 2 Legend of Zelda games for that console. Plus all the Mario games.

And what did they get in return? A big FUCK YOU. Nintendo finished last in the race.

So I can't blame them for trying to find an audience that gives them a chance.

even though Dracarys has a point i totally agree with you pikminister. there were a lot of good games for the GC, it seem like they didn't give it a chance simply because it looked too kidish or something. i never looked at the wii argument from that angle before, now it kinda makes sense.

(and you forgot to mention Super smash bros melee and the birth of the awesome Pikmin franchise. i spent countless hours on melee and pikmin 1&2 combined)

[Pikminister]

Come off it, the GC lacked loads of third party games and it was the start of when they decided challenge should be removed from their big hitters, Wind Waker is by far the easiest Zelda game there is, and Zelda was never really hard anyway, and don't tell me going from the first demo Zelda video with more real looking characters to the saturday morning kids show visuals was 'for the core'. That game was made for children through and through. Mario Sunshine was the same, wtf were those goon looking townsfolk. Oh and turning Donkey Kong Country into a drum beat game..totally for the core. The Starfox games were shit, people want Starwing/Lylat Wars style, sod running about on foot. They made decent efforts with Metroid Prime and Eternal Darkness (neither of which were actually Nintendo teams who made them) but a handful of games do not compare to dozens on other platforms.

The console itself looking like a fisherprice kids toy complete with a carry handle probably didn't help.

Yeah, the cube was called a Teletubbie handbag. I also remember something else: Nintendo was always kiddy. That was the whole point of people going with SEGA instead of Nintendo. Sonic was cool, while Mario was for toddlers that were used to Mickey Mouse. Yeah, that's how it always was. But it seems that whole kiddy image is new to you, for some reason. Maybe because you were a kid then and you didn't notice you were Nintendo's target demographic?

And having played most of their games and also lots of 3rd party games on their consoles as a kid, I have to say that Nintendo games have always been easy. Even Zelda II was easy - which I'm now reading people are saying was really hard or something. I beat it in 3 days, after coming from school. There was never a game from Nintendo that I ever played that was hard for me to beat. And that wasn't the point either. The point of them was to provide FUN.

The more challenging games came from Rare LTD. but even those were relatively easy compare to something like Ninja Gaiden. As a teenager I spent a Summer playing the two DKC first games with a friend who had an 8 year old brother who finished those 2 games with a near 100% percentage.

Fuck that food looks delicious.

Heh! Yeah... fine food they have over there.

even though Dracarys has a point i totally agree with you pikminister. there were a lot of good games for the GC, it seem like they didn't give it a chance simply because it looked too kidish or something. i never looked at the wii argument from that angle before, now it kinda makes sense.

(and you forgot to mention Super smash bros melee and the birth of the awesome Pikmin franchise. i spent countless hours on melee and pikmin 1&2 combined)

I didn't forget about that. I just didn't think it was necessary to write a complete article on the life and times of the GameCube. It happened fairly recent and people remember how it was.

Point is, Nintendo (kiddy image and all) did what a company (that always target kids) could do at the time to reach core gamers.

Let's see: They revived their core dead franchises (Metroid and Star Fox), continued making Mario and Zelda games (if anyone has trouble with the cell-shaded look of Wind Waker, they can go fuck themselves, honestly - its beautiful and the graphics still hold up today) and they got rid of the old Tyrant (the Ex-President of Nintendo, Yamauchi) who was not liked by most 3rd party devs. And once they did that, they got good 3rd party support (compare to the N64 days, it was a lot). And "You're not cool enough for us, brah" "If I wanna play Sesame Street games, I'll give you a call Nintendo" was the response they got.

So therefore, why they went with mainstream gamers, wasn't really a surprise.

[Dracarys]

Yeah, the cube was called a Teletubbie handbag. I also remember something else: Nintendo was always kiddy. That was the whole point of people going with SEGA instead of Nintendo. Sonic was cool, while Mario was for toddlers that were used to Mickey Mouse. Yeah, that's how it always was. But it seems that whole kiddy image is new to you, for some reason. Maybe because you were a kid then and you didn't notice you were Nintendo's target demographic?

Nintendo was never kiddy in the 80s/90s. They released a lot of 'family' games but they balanced it with games targeted at older players also, Killer Instinct perhaps being to top end of it, or maybe Conker.

Since GC the games targeting at older players have mostly vanished and the family games turned into kids games. The industry as whole has matured a lot with a huge boost in the PS1/N64 era, mostly due to Sony. Nintendo went backwards mostly ignoring a large demographic that had lots of money to spend (adults), and they suffered for it. With the Wii they did target adults and not mainly kids, just not adult gamers, instead adults who never played a video game so happy with fitness stuff and graphics that would be called shovelware even in N64 days.

Though this is probably lost on you because you seem to think Sonic was for adults...

[alexdz]

Though this is probably lost on you because you seem to think Sonic was for adults...

I think what he was trying to say is that Sonic was marketed as an "mature and cool" character during the 90's because the games were fast and action packed.

[Canas Renvall]

^ That's what I got from it too. You don't remember the ad campaigns? Sonic was "way cooler" than Mario, and "Sega does what Nintendon't". They tried to market to the "cool" kids.

[Pikminister]

^ That's what I got from it too. You don't remember the ad campaigns? Sonic was "way cooler" than Mario, and "Sega does what Nintendon't". They tried to market to the "cool" kids.

Yep. What these guys said.

And the whole "They released a lot of 'family' games" argument is just bullshit. I guess you're talking about those 2 or 3 Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune games? C'mon, those games sold like crap compared to what sold to kids. And did Nintendo make them? NOPE.

And BTW, Killer Instinct and Conker (both Rare LTD games) didn't happen but AFTER Nintendo realized that its kiddy image was hurting them. It was their way to fight that image. Because they already had it for a long time. Like from the start when Nintendo tried to sell the NES as a toy.

Anyways, SEGA saw all that and tried to distance itself from that kiddy image and instead create for itself an image of being cool and targeting cores and stuff. Making the Genesis/Megadrive black and not look like a toy.

That doesn't mean SEGA wasn't going after kids, though, They were (at the time, what other option did they have? Not much. Most of the gamer user base was made up of kids), but kids didn't like being told they were playing on a kid console.

[Dracarys]

Family game = Game that appeals to all ages in different ways, like the Simpsons is a family show, good for kids despite often putting in jokes only adults would understand or find funny. You're thinking party game with those games you're naming.

[MeganGrass]

With the Cube Nintendo did pretty much everything they could do to win them over. They gave them a powerful console, relative strong 3rd party support, secured cool exclusives (Resident Evil remake and Zero), revived dead franchises - Metroid Prime and made several Star Fox games. And made 2 Legend of Zelda games for that console. Plus all the Mario games.

And what did they get in return? A big FUCK YOU. Nintendo finished last in the race.

Resident Evil secured my purchase, whereas Metroid Prime justified it. Zelda collections and new Mario games were great, too. The GameCube was definitely worth the purchase, and it's sad that others didn't see it that way.

they got rid of the old Tyrant (the Ex-President of Nintendo, Yamauchi) who was not liked by most 3rd party devs.

...but a lot of copyright and development issues remained, thus, keeping third-party support away. It's a damned shame, too, because the GCN had the power to reign supreme.

Nintendo also fucked up by excluding DVD support, and continues this tradition by excluding both DVD and Blu-ray support for the Wii U. They probably can't afford to pay the proper forums, initially, but the investment would likely be worth it, in the end.

[yurieu]

Can't blame Nintendo for ignoring cores. Considering that cores pretty much told Nintendo to go screw themselves during two whole generations (N64/GCN).

With the Cube Nintendo did pretty much everything they could do to win them over. They gave them a powerful console, relative strong 3rd party support, secured cool exclusives (Resident Evil remake and Zero), revived dead franchises - Metroid Prime and made several Star Fox games. And made 2 Legend of Zelda games for that console. Plus all the Mario games.

And what did they get in return? A big FUCK YOU. Nintendo finished last in the race.

So I can't blame them for trying to find an audience that gives them a chance.

this is the best post i read regarding nintendo. and exactly what i think. this can be applied to N64 too.

GC: very strong hardware, user-friendly, good acessories(i.e. GBA controller and the GBA player), good support to developers, RE exclusives, awesome nintendo exclusives, price, zero piracy... and FAILED, by a very weak console.

nintendo goes to low-hardware and casual gaming and now it sux a lot.

who takes the blame? nintendo? no. developers? maybe, low support on games. Gamers? yes.

[Mr. Spencer]

Resident Evil secured my purchase, whereas Metroid Prime justified it. Zelda collections and new Mario games were great, too. The GameCube was definitely worth the purchase, and it's sad that others didn't see it that way.

Good man! Metroid is my favourite Nintendo franchise, loved the Prime games.