Gaming Is the Wii U really dead? Or...

[Maxternal]

A fitting game, wouldn't you say?

Call it Doom 4 U


see what I did there?

 

[3bbb7]

We know what he meant.... personally I'd have said Dreamcast rather than Saturn anyway ...too little, too early?

I'd wager Mario Kart 8 to be the game that'll shift the most number of units rather than Smash (a quick look at sales figures of the Wii versions should back up my claim), anyone reckoning it'll completely reverse the consoles fortunes is dead wrong however... Like SM3D World, Wii U owners will likely be all over MK8: 3D World's shifted about 2.5mill copies up to now - not exactly the 26million NSMBWii shifted, but a nice little earner. Similarly, MK8 won't exactly reach the 35mill MKWii has shifted , but will rake a few bob in for Nintendo. Smash will do the same. The console has no chance of competing now though: will pass the 10 million sales mark, but that's hardly earth shattering is it... Will be fondly remembered by some (like the Dreamcast is), but always considered a failure of almost Virtual Boy proportions...

Personally though I see it as a great little second machine to a PS4 or Xbox One, and is worth the price of admission for the easily soft-modded vWii alone, outputting through hdmi is quite a visual update - makes it a quality emulation machine for starters! Handful of classic Nintendo games for it to boot - nah I don't regret buying one at all!

....And which feckwit said he regretted buying a Jaguar?! Gawd man, yeah it was rather ill-conceived, underpowered, and lacking in 3rd party support, but for the novelty value alone, and the handful of truly great games available from that small list it was a great purchase! Ooo, deja vu....

Well yes we knew what he meant, but he was talking about a Nintendo product and compared it to a failed product and called it Nintendo's. Although a typo, it was confusing at first read

 

[tbgtbg]

We know what he meant.... personally I'd have said Dreamcast rather than Saturn anyway ...too little, too early?

Wii was too little too early. Wii U is the sequel 2 little 2 early.

Well yes we knew what he meant, but he was talking about a Nintendo product and compared it to a failed product and called it Nintendo's. Although a typo, it was confusing at first read

It wasn't a typo, it was some people failing at interpretation.

He was saying Wii U is to Nintendo as Saturn was to Sega, thus it is Nintendo's (version of) Saturn.

Not my opinion, btw, just saying that's what he meant. It's a common construction, people say so and so was such and such's Waterloo or Watergate or something else hopefully without water in it, they don't mean literally someone other than Napolean or Nixon was tied to those things, they're just doing a comparison.

 

[duffmmann]

I have always thought the name Wii U is a terrible name. Just adding a single letter to your most family friendly console is not going to make potential customers think its capable of outputting gorgeous visuals and more "hardcore" focused games. Though it certainly can. I said from day one of the name reveal that they should change it and I still think they should.

Wii was too little too early. Wii U is the sequel 2 little 2 early.

Wii was too little, but right on time. Wii U is too early, but honestly I wouldn't say too little, even today I think its visuals do a fine job standing up next to PS4 and XBone graphics. And it certainly is capable of playing fantastic games.

 

[WiiCube_2013]

I have always thought the name Wii U is a terrible name. Just adding a single letter to your most family friendly console is not going to make potential customers think its capable of outputting gorgeous visuals and more "hardcore" focused games. Though it certainly can. I said from day one of the name reveal that they should change it and I still think they should.

Yeah it wasn't a very good name for the console but neither was "Xbox One" considering there's the real Xbox One which was released in 2001.

 

[tbgtbg]

Yeah it wasn't a very good name for the console but neither was "Xbox One" considering there's the real Xbox One which was released in 2001.

Well Sony kinda pulled that too with the PSone, which was the last model of the PSX, not the first.

 

[osirisjem]

The name didn't kill the Wii U.
The Wii U killed the Wii U.

 

[CJL18]

I have always thought the name Wii U is a terrible name. Just adding a single letter to your most family friendly console is not going to make potential customers think its capable of outputting gorgeous visuals and more "hardcore" focused games. Though it certainly can. I said from day one of the name reveal that they should change it and I still think they should.



Wii was too little, but right on time. Wii U is too early, but honestly I wouldn't say too little, even today I think its visuals do a fine job standing up next to PS4 and XBone graphics. And it certainly is capable of playing fantastic games.

you have never played a xone or ps4 game it doenst even compare graphic wise they blow the wii u out the water!

 

[WiiCube_2013]

Well Sony kinda pulled that too with the PSone, which was the last model of the PSX, not the first.

Difference is, Xbox is on their third console already and that is rather a confusing title for the third system.

you have never played a xone or ps4 game it doenst even compare graphic wise they blow the wii u out the water!

The mere fact that you call Xbox One as "xone" tells me you're not ready for it.

 

[Schizoanalysis]

He was saying Wii U is to Nintendo as Saturn was to Sega, thus it is Nintendo's (version of) Saturn.

Not my opinion, btw, just saying that's what he meant.

So he made an unsubstantiated analogy and failed to articulate it in a way that could not be misinterpreted.

Good one.

 

[MarioFanatic64]

The Wii U's not dead. On life support, yes, and all Nintendo's doing to 'help' is give it very mild shots of adrenaline with not-that-significant titles like Mario 3D World and Donkey Kong Country.

They really should have pushed out the heavy-hitters like Zelda, Smash Bros., and Mario Kart first, then the mediocre ones (like all the "old is new again, again" titles) we've been getting later on when the Wii U could support itself to fumble a bit.

 

[Foxi4]

The name didn't kill the Wii U.
The Wii U killed the Wii U.

QFT.

Sony went door to door and pandered to developers because they needed support, then they created an affordable console with contemporary specs that is both easy to develop for and quick to bring profits. Microsoft did the exact same thing, plus they added the Kinect 2.0 which nobody wanted which negatively impacted the affordability aspect, but hey - it's still a pretty capable system.

Nintendo on the other hand did what they do best as of late - they followed their own gut feeling, pandered to their own development houses, continued to wallow in their resuscitated PPC7xx revision, didn't follow industry standards and created a console which is expensive to manufacture, underpowered and incompatible with anything else on the market. Their customized PPC 7xx processor was very impressive in the Gamecube, but that was 13 years ago - everybody else moved on. This is the exact same situation as with the Wii - another system that was made with Nintendo developers in mind, ignoring everybody else... except the Wii had the charm of the WiiMote, the Wii U has the charm of a tablet that you can't take further than 26 feet away from your console. They made this bed and they'll have to sleep on it now.

 

[calmwaters]

If it's dead, then I shouldn't be planning on getting one. But I hate to see it suffer so; pretty sure any Nintendo fan would say the same.

Insert standard "25% of 0 is still 0" crack here.

Insert "25% of stupid is still stupid" (but not as much as full on stupidity) crack here.

 

[RodrigoDavy]

Wii U is certainly not dead. If we discuss sales, the Wii U hasn't been selling as well as it was expected, but to be frank it's the only next-gen system with games worth playing right now. Nintendo will continue to support it even if it's not to burn their image as a hardware manufacturer like Sega did. And, about people mocking the Wii U, just let them be. 20 years from now people won't remember how many units their console sold, they will remember how much fun they had with it

 

[Gahars]

Insert "25% of stupid is still stupid" (but not as much as full on stupidity) crack here.

There is no need to be upset.

 

[Foxi4]

If it's dead, then I shouldn't be planning on getting one. But I hate to see it suffer so; pretty sure any Nintendo fan would say the same.

Insert "25% of stupid is still stupid" (but not as much as full on stupidity) crack here.

There's still good reasons to get the system for a Nintendo fan - it's getting Nintendo games. It's unlikely that Nintendo will pull off a Virtual Boy and withdraw the system from the market - they've invested too much into the customized architecture to back out of it now. That said, third party support is spotty and it's likely to remain spotty from here on out.

As for the percentage increase, Gahars is unfortunately right - the PSVita enjoyed a periodical 500% sales increase in Japan when Project Diva came out, which is very impressive on paper until you realize that the sales weren't all that great to begin with.

Wii U is certainly not dead. If we discuss sales, the Wii U hasn't been selling as well as it was expected, but to be frank it's the only next-gen system with games worth playing right now.

What games? Super Mario Totally Not an Upscaled 3DS Game, Donkey Kong We Need To Slap Something Together Real Quick Tropical Freeze, Bayo-Niche-Game-But-We're-Still-Happy-With-It-Netta or the upcoming Mario Still Worse Than All-Stars Racing Transformed Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. Again?

Nintendo will continue to support it even if it's not to burn their image as a hardware manufacturer like Sega did. And, about people mocking the Wii U, just let them be. 20 years from now people won't remember how many units their console sold, they will remember how much fun they had with it

20 years from now people will point and laugh, just like they did with the Virtual Boy. That said, Nintendo will indeed support the Wii U to the best of their abilities.

 

[frogboy]

In the words of a wise man... "It's only mostly dead."

 

[Bladexdsl]

if nintendo don't change their ways, get off their fucking high horse and realize they aren't the center of the gaming business anymore they won't be around 2 gens later. they can start by getting rid of iwata his holding the company back with his archaic ways! everyone laughs says your trolling etc when you say nintendo is doomed....well trust me it's more closer to the truth than you think if they stay on this path!

 

[hksrb25s14]

Man a some people have given up on the Wii u and alot are in denial, what happen to the Wii U being 10x stronger. it's GPU being made from Chuck Norris toe nails, my Wii u is collecting dust right now. I was wishing to play homebrew on my wiipad or even Wii games. I have a feeling when we crack this system, then we will see how really useful and fun it really is. right now it's a paper weight.

 

[Sefi]

I own a WiiU, and although it has it's fair share of good games it's just not going to ever come near PS4 or XBone in popularity. Even if Nintendo suddenly changed up everything that has been mentioned (better online, way more 3rd party support, gamepad not being needed, improved marketing, etc), let's be honest. Most people have already pushed the WiiU aside for good. Once somebody's mind is made up on something it is very difficult to change it. Dead? Nah, but it isn't exactly thriving either. My own reason for buying it was to replace the Wii and at the same time be able to play the small handful of new games a year on the WiiU that I am interested in playing. If you don't like Mario or Zelda, there is very little reason to buy one right now.

Nintendo isn't going under any time soon though, and I have to wonder if they will more directly compete with Sony and Microsoft at some point to attract those 3rd party developers again. Similar specs, similar online experience, "normal" controllers, no additional gimmicks needed to play most of the console's game library. Nintendo can also just simply go the route of continuing to put a console out there for a small profit, with those Mario and Zelda games people can't live without (myself guilty). They still rule the handheld market so that might one day become their main focus, with a console being an afterthought.