Hacking Nintendo financials equals no better time for hacking the Wii U

[Foxi4]

Piracy or Homebrew wouldn't help Nintendo in any way whatsoever. Users utilizing homebrew or pirating games are in the minority, it's an almost irrelevant percentage of the overall userbase. Even if it would lead to an increase of hardware sales, however irrelevant and small it might be, the system is still selling at a loss, at least according to Nintendo. Hacking the system wide open to the public wouldn't change the situation.

 

[Jayro]

Piracy or Homebrew wouldn't help Nintendo in any way whatsoever. Users utilizing homebrew or pirating games are in the minority, it's an almost irrelevant percentage of the overall userbase. Even if it would lead to an increase of hardware sales, however irrelevant and small it might be, the system is still selling at a loss, at least according to Nintendo. Hacking the system wide open to the public wouldn't change the situation.

...Yet everyone I know in person who owns a Wii has it soft-modded, and running usb loaders and emulators. Once I told my brother's father-in-law about the Wii being fully exploited, he went out and bought one!!! PROOF, that homebrew and piracy helps sell units. Same thing happened with the PSP. Once ISO loaders became the norm, hardware saw a surge in sales.

 

[Foxi4]

...Yet everyone I know in person who owns a Wii has it soft-modded, and running usb loaders and emulators. Once I told my brother's father-in-law about the Wii being fully exploited, he went out and bought one!!! PROOF, that homebrew and piracy helps sell units. Same thing happened with the PSP. Once ISO loaders became the norm, hardware saw a surge in sales.

Which part of "irrelevant percentage of the overall userbase" requires explaining?

As of February 28 2012, the HackMii Online Installer was used in 3.1 million unique installations, which back then accounted for 3.4% of the total Wii userbase. Even if we'll assume that Offline installations accounted for another 3.4% which in this day and age is a gross overestimation, that's only 6.8%. Homebrew Channel users are the vast minority, that's a fact - most users don't modify their consoles, be it with softmods or hardmods. Users who do modify their systems are irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

Moreover, again, Nintendo loses money each system sold. Even if we assume that we'll move to Wonderland for a bit and the virtually impossible scenario of the sales increasing significantly comes true, Nintendo will lose even more money because users will buy consoles, generate losses, modify them and never buy a single game.

 

[Jayro]

Which part of "irrelevant percentage of the overall userbase" requires explaining?

As of February 28 2012, the HackMii Online Installer was used 3.1 million times, which back then accounted for 3.4% of the total Wii userbase. Even if we'll assume that Offline installations accounted for another 3.4% which in this day and age is a gross overestimation, that's only 6.8%. Homebrew Channel users are the vast minority, that's a fact - most users don't modify their consoles, be it with softmods or hardmods, they're irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

Moreover, again, Nintendo loses money each system sold. Even if we assume that we'll move to Wonderland and the sales will increase two-fold, Nintendo will lose even more money because users will buy consoles, generate losses, modify them and never buy a single game.

I'm not seeing any "insignificant minorities", except the tools who still buy legit Wii discs.

 

[Gahars]

...Yet everyone I know in person who owns a Wii has it soft-modded, and running usb loaders and emulators. Once I told my brother's father-in-law about the Wii being fully exploited, he went out and bought one!!! PROOF, that homebrew and piracy helps sell units. Same thing happened with the PSP. Once ISO loaders became the norm, hardware saw a surge in sales.

Ah, I forgot, market trends are determined by personal anecdotes.

Look, there's two problems here. First, the average person has no idea what terms like "soft-modded," "usb loaders," and "running" mean. Hacking is only really viable for a very small niche with a very particular set of skills and interests (aka NERDS!). You're seriously overestimating the "surge" of purchases for the PSP and Wii. Second, Nintendo sells every Wii U at a loss, so if everyone just out and bought a Wii U and just pirated games on the thing, that would be a terrible disaster for Nintendo.

I mean, it'd be kinda funny, too, in an ironic sort of way, but unless you're me or Alanis Morissette, you probably won't be chortling.

 

[Foxi4]

I'm not seeing any "insignificant minorities", except the tools who still buy legit Wii discs.

Y'know, some people just like to buy their software. They like to play games in a legit fashion and reap all the benefits that come with it. They don't want to bother with modding, they don't want to worry about the distinct possibilities of bricking or bans, they don't feel like wasting their time troubleshooting - they just want to shove the disc in and play the game they bought.

 

[Jayro]

Y'know, some people just like to buy their software. They like to play games in a legit fashion and reap all the benefits that come with it. They don't want to bother with modding, they don't want to worry about the distinct possibilities of bricking or bans, they don't feel like wasting their time troubleshooting - they just want to shove the disc in and play the game they bought.

I have no room in my life for those "casual" types of people. I'm sick of them crawling to me with all their technical problems, when they don't understand a damn thing about the system they bought and use. If you buy something, do your research, learn how shit works and fix it yourselves... Sorry... mini rant. >~>

 

[Foxi4]

I have no room in my life for those "casual" types of people. I'm sick of them crawling to me with all their technical problems, when they don't understand a damn thing about the system they bought and use. If you buy something, do your research, learn how shit works and fix it yourselves... Sorry... mini rant. >~>

So practically you're complaining about the millions of moms and pops who bought their young kids a Wii for Christmas/Hanuka/Birthday/Insert Holiday, all of the fitness ladies and gents who bought it for Wii Fit (22+ million users, mind you) and all of the non-tech-savvy people who just want to have some fun, meaning all of the users who made the Wii as successful as it was despite all odds on the hardware and software fronts. Without those people, we wouldn't even have consoles anymore because such ventures wouldn't be profitable.

 

[ShineStar]

"There are no games on WiiU so my daughter has nothing to play. We need a USB loader to play the nonexistent games for free"
What is this logic?
Also, if we had a USB loader devs would cry piracy and have even less of a reason to make games for the thing.

 

[the_randomizer]

I'm not seeing any "insignificant minorities", except the tools who still buy legit Wii discs.

"Oh no, people still want to buy physical discs. Such blasphemy cannot be had, we have to label them as lesser beings since we're so much better for not buying them!" Gimme a break. Go preach your BS somewhere else.

 

[GamerzHell9137]

*claps* Nintendo, next gen lets make a low specs system again !

 

[the_randomizer]

*claps* Nintendo, next gen lets make a low specs system again !

*Sigh* Here we go once again..... Power didn't make the Xbox 360 outsell the Wii, the original Xbox didn't outsell the PS2, the N64 didn't outsell the PS1, what makes you think the more powerful consoles outsell the others? The Gamecube was on par with the Xbox, why didn't it sell more? I'm sorry, but I'm sick of the "more powerful consoles equate to more sales" bullshit logic.

 

[GamerzHell9137]

*Sigh* Here we go once again.....

Hey! Nintendo still has Zelda and Mario! They still can make a Gamecube out of the Wii U

 

[the_randomizer]

Hey! Nintendo still has Zelda and Mario! They still can make a Gamecube out of the Wii U

With all due respect, I have to disagree. If power equates more sales, why didn't the Xbox outsell the PS2, or why didn't the PS3 outsell the Wii. The same could be said of the N64, that was more powerful than the PS1. Raw power != selling like hotcakes. I wish people would stop using such logic about consoles and having raw power makes them sell better. History has proven otherwise.

 

[Jayro]

*claps* Nintendo, next gen lets make a low specs system again !

They use old hardware to keep cost low, and give us affordable consoles.

 

[SirByte]

About the Vita, don't be so fast to draw any conclusions yet. It will be used in conjunction with the PS4, it's just a matter of using it in a meaningful way. I'm thinking about an FPS where the Vita's screen will show you what is happening *behind* you. Showing the same as on the TV (a la New Super Mario Bros. U) is not very helpful.

As to iso loaders, sure it will generate some sales just like a homebrew channel would generate some sales, but I don't think the Wii U would suddenly go to the top of the charts. People that like the Wii U-type games will buy one anyway since they are not on Xb360/one or PS3/4. What I would LOVE to have is a type of iso loader/eMMC emulator where it would take a disc, create an encrypted version on an external HD using your unique key, and you can play from that. This would reduce damage to your laser; using external storage for save games etc. will also prevent too many bad blocks occuring (read/write cycles are in the 1000s) so in 15-20 years your Wii U will become unusable, no matter how much care you take (other than not using it).

 

[Gahars]

They use old hardware to keep cost low, and give us affordable consoles.

Keeping your console affordable doesn't mean much if nobody wants to buy it.

People should keep in mind that it's not an all-or-nothing affair when it comes to consoles ("Only the weakest consoles win!" "Strongest console is best console!" etc.). I mean, take the assertion that the weakest console always wins; that's laughably wrong. If that was the case, then the SNES would have lost to the Genesis and the Dreamcast would've creamed the Playstation 2.

It's not about who has the strongest or weakest machine. It's about who has the console that people want to buy. Graphics are important, but they're not the only factor in consideration. Games, affordability, other features, simple appeal, etc. - all of these are at play when it comes to determining which console comes out on top.

In this case, I'd argue the Wii U's lack of power is to its detriment. When your console is so much weaker than the competition, it's going to limit the amount of games your console receives, since porting anything over to your console is going to take a significant amount of work. Nintendo would've been better off not wasting its money on the gimmicky tablet, which is the biggest expense, and instead investing it in the machine itself. If you want to be unique and quirky, Nintendo, that's fine, great even. Just save that for the games.

So, yeah. The more you know and all that jazz.

 

[GamerzHell9137]

They use old hardware to keep cost low, and give us affordable consoles.

*cough*140$Gamepad*cough*

 

[GamerzHell9137]

With all due respect, I have to disagree. If power equates more sales, why didn't the Xbox outsell the PS2, or why didn't the PS3 outsell the Wii. The same could be said of the N64, that was more powerful than the PS1. Raw power != selling like hotcakes. I wish people would stop using such logic about consoles and having raw power makes them sell better. History has proven otherwise.

Yeah but even without the power Wii U doesn't outsell the Xbone and PS4... or does it
And what did devs say? They said cause the Wii U doesn't have enough juice they won't support it and cause of bad Nintendo managment with them.

 

[the_randomizer]

Yeah but even without the power Wii U doesn't outsell the Xbone and PS4... or does it
And what did devs say? They said cause the Wii U doesn't have enough juice they won't support it and cause of bad Nintendo managment with them.

Then explain how the PS2 or Wii did so well, they were weak too. By your logic, they should have failed against the more powerful consoles. And how did the PS2 rally so much third party support?Power has little to do with a console's success. The console isn't getting support because people aren't buying enough, most of the devs who said it didn't have enough power retracted their statements, it's all about marketing. If the console sells more, then they'll get more support. Please stop spreading such lies and assume power is the only reason why Wii U isn't getting support, because it's not.

Power didn't help the N64, Xbox, Gamecube, PS3 or Xbox 360, did it?