Nintendo president: "we have to move away" from Wii and Wii U"

[Harsky]

This makes me wonder. What will the eshop be like on the NX? NES/SNES and other retro VC games will make an appearance but what about Wii and Wii U games? Imagine buying the NX and going to the eshop and you see the Wii U games. Try to buy them and be greeted with, "THIS GAME IS NOT PLAYABLE ON THE NX". If they are moving away from the Wii brand, does this mean Wiimotes can finally be retired or maybe just used as an optional extra like the Gamecube controller for the Smash Bros games?

 

[gamesquest1]

It's something where we have to move away from those platforms

in order to make it something that will appeal to our consumer base.

its one or the other, "your consumers" bought those consoles, by moving away from them you only trying to appeal to a wider consumer base, not "our consumer base".....so we will be getting a console that will be easy to port COD to (so pretty much exactly the same hardware as a PS4/XBOX1).....not that thats a bad thing i guess, but i have always kinda liked that nintendo isn't just another "what do you want the one made by sony or the one made my MS", other than what exclusive titles they have are pretty much the same console in a different box with a pretty much identical gameplay experience

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

Yeah, most people outside the gaming community are convinced the Wii U is just a Wii with a tablet controller, I have to correct people and explain that its an entirely different console altogether all the time. Poor marketing on Nintendo's part.....

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

This makes me wonder. What will the eshop be like on the NX? NES/SNES and other retro VC games will make an appearance but what about Wii and Wii U games? Imagine buying the NX and going to the eshop and you see the Wii U games. Try to buy them and be greeted with, "THIS GAME IS NOT PLAYABLE ON THE NX". If they are moving away from the Wii brand, does this mean Wiimotes can finally be retired or maybe just used as an optional extra like the Gamecube controller for the Smash Bros games?

No specs have been released in regards to the NX yet (not to my knowledge anyways, but I've had a pretty busy semester, so I haven't been following it too much ) but IF they decide to abandon PPC architecture, like Microsoft did with the Xbox One, they're going to need a beast of a machine to properly emulate the PPC architecture AND the Wii U console to play Wii U titles. We all know that original Wii titles won't be an issue if they go with x86 or x64 architecture (Dolphin proves that) but the Wii U is going to be another thing altogether for trying to emulate retail games.

IF Nintendo sticks with PPC (which believe it or not is superior to x86/x64 because it has a lot more registers to work with) then they can pull off an official Nintendon't like translator 'on-the-fly' for Wii U games most likely as the instruction set will be very closely related between the U and the NX.

Now before anyone trashes my comment about PPC architecture, it needs to be compared in the right context. Take an old G4 and compare it to an equivalent Pentium 4, the G4 may run around the same clock speed and have the same cache and they both are single core, however the G4 has more registers in it than the Pentium 4 allowing it to run circles around intel's equivalent CPU.

If you take an equivalent PPC processor and compare it to an equivalent x86/x64 CPU, the PPC will always run circles around the x86/x64. That being said most x86/x64's have crazy amounts of cores (both physical and virtual aka hyperthreading) but if a PPC CPU was developed with the same amount of cores, same cache, same clock speed, it would blow its competitors out of the water. I honestly don't understand why PPC was abandoned in the computing realm, it has the potential to be a lot more efficient. Oh well.....

 

[Black-Ice]

They gave up too fast and let the Wii U bleed out, like I feel Sony did to the Vita.

Good to just move on and hopefully make things right

 

[Saiyan Lusitano]

I think Nintendo's trying to complement their console business with those products, which is fine - people have been bugging them to diversify their market for years, it was about time they started doing it. So far I think what they've been doing is pretty tasteful - labeling their games "Free to start" instead of "Free to play" might seem like a small change of words but it seems more upfront and honest about the fact that you're going to have to pay to progress. They still offer good DLC at decent prizes - like Mario Kart 8, and even for free - like Splatoon. The only exception would be Smash - the DLC prices on that game are ridiculous IMHO, but I guess that's Sora's fault and not Nintendo's.

That's not to say they're a perfect company - they need to fix a lot of shit, such as their localization policies (STOP CENSORING THINGS AND SHOVING 5 YEAR OLD MEMES INTO YOUR GAMES.), online infrastructure, etcetera, but I feel they're doing okay.

Diversifying would be good if they had 3rd party support which they do not.

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

Diversifying would be good if they had 3rd party support which they do not.

This /\ lol, they desperately need more 3rd party support!

 

[ric.]

Diversifying would be good if they had 3rd party support which they do not.

What does one thing have to do with the other? If your argument is that they should be making more games for their consoles instead of making Amiibos or whatever - they've been doing exactly that. Nintendo so far has done a pretty good job making up for their lack of 3rd party support, either by putting their strongest IPs on it - Mario, Smash, the upcoming Zelda and Star Fox, developing new IPs (like Splatoon) or by hiring other studios to make games for them - like Bayonetta 2 and Wonderful 101.

 

[Deleted User]

Nintendo are making the right choice here.

Abandon = No more focusing on system updates for Wii U = Less pressure on Hax.

I'm really hoping that they'll make the NX a bit more open-source as well. Game-designing for PS Vita, Android, and PC is just not enough for me!

 

[Taleweaver]

In a way, it's interesting how they're attempting (and to a degree: achieving) to raise hype by doing interviews about the NX that don't talk about the NX. I mean, seriously: what is the entire article even about? The NX could be a sort of pie for all one could say, just going by the article.


And to be honest, I don't like where the amiibo-thing is going. First they publish them in a carbon copy way as one would release a collectible card game, and now he's saying we're using it wrong? It better not be that the NX uses cartridges in the form of figurines.

they won't support it
it's happened to every nintendo console, as soon as the new one comes out old one is abandoned and forgotten about

I strongly disagree on this!!!

...

Nintendo abandoned the wii pretty much a year before the wiiu came out.

 

[Saiyan Lusitano]

Nintendo are making the right choice here.

Abandon = No more focusing on system updates for Wii U = Less pressure on Hax.

I'm really hoping that they'll make the NX a bit more open-source as well. Game-designing for PS Vita, Android, and PC is just not enough for me!

Vita is still used nowadays for other than hacks?

 

[ElYubiYubi]

Possibly, there were a few patents filled by Nintendo recently that showed this theory.

Heres the patent for Game Console with Detachable “Computing Device”

 

[Deleted User]

Vita is still used nowadays for other than hacks?

There isn't a great line-up of games for the Vita, but the closest thing to game-designing on the Vita is PSM Dev for Unity. But I won't go into details since this isn't the right thread to be discussing in.

 

[Saiyan Lusitano]

What does one thing have to do with the other? If your argument is that they should be making more games for their consoles instead of making Amiibos or whatever - they've been doing exactly that. Nintendo so far has done a pretty good job making up for their lack of 3rd party support, either by putting their strongest IPs on it - Mario, Smash, the upcoming Zelda and Star Fox, developing new IPs (like Splatoon) or by hiring other studios to make games for them - like Bayonetta 2 and Wonderful 101.

The mere fact that the Wii U has lack of 3rd party support it really makes it hard on the console's library because there's worth so very little to purchase, so this definitely needs to change. Also, Nintendo did not do enough this year for the Wii U customers to be satisfied.

Kirby Paintbrush - A touchscreen game on a home console, really? (-)
Mario Party 10 - Mostly automated and with the need of amiibos. (-)
Mario Tennis Ultra Smash - Huge lack of content. (-)
Devil's Third - Press heavily criticised and in top of it NoA only released it recently in US, complains aside, it seems like the multiplayer is fun (but single player is pants). (-)
Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival - More or less MP10 reskinned. (-)
Yoshi's Woolly World - Lovely 2D platformer. (+)
Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water - My favourite 2015 Wii U game but sadly NoE made a very limited print in EU and US is digital only. (+)
Splatoon - at launch it was barebones but then with time it became filled with content and it's worth buying. (+)
Rodea the Sky Soldier - The Wii U version is horrible, only got it for the Wii version. (-)
Super Mario Maker - A game where you make Mario stages. (+)
Xenoblade X - It's Xenoblade. (+)

So out of 11 Wii U games I listed only 5 are really worth getting, imo. Only 5 games.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

You should link to the original Time article. Also the title of this article is incredibly misleading and not what he said. He said that the NX would be a departure from the Wii and Wii U, most likely in the sense that it would be unique and that it will drop the "Wii" branding. "We have to move away from Wii and Wii U" makes it sound as though Nintendo is dropping support for the Wii U, which the Times article made explicitly certain to state that it wasn't

 

[Bowl0l]

imagine WiiU in 2017, abandoned by Nintendo, ends up selling more than NX because it becomes the perfect $99 machine to play pirated Wii/WiiU, NDS/3DS games.
Is this a possible scenario?

 

[Saiyan Lusitano]

imagine WiiU in 2017, abandoned by Nintendo, ends up selling more than NX because it becomes the perfect $99 machine to play pirated Wii/WiiU, NDS/3DS games.
Is this a possible scenario?

DS, yes, 3DS, no.

 

[tiduscrying]

I think some people are taking this is taken out of context. In the original interview posted by the New York Times, he only stated that they were moving away from the Wii and Wii U as a branding/idea for the NX. He said the same about the 3DS as well. That doesn't mean that Nintendo is abandoning the Wii U or 3DS. Nintendo has explicitly stated that the NX will exist alongside the devices. So I don't think that the Wii U is going to be leaving us any time soon. It is still a relatively new console with tons of untapped potential imho.

 

[heartgold]

You should link to the original Time article. Also the title of this article is incredibly misleading and not what he said. He said that the NX would be a departure from the Wii and Wii U, most likely in the sense that it would be unique and that it will drop the "Wii" branding. "We have to move away from Wii and Wii U" makes it sound as though Nintendo is dropping support for the Wii U, which the Times article made explicitly certain to state that it wasn't

There's nothing that original article can do to change people's perceptions. It's clearly mentioned in the quotation he's doing away from the Wii branding in the opening post.

Everyone knows Nintendo by now, they abandon their old consoles really quickly. They have trouble supporting 3ds and the Wii U at once. There's no chance they will support the Wii U along side NX. What you are getting now is filler titles until the NX release.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

There's nothing that original article can do to change people's perceptions. It's clearly mentioned in the quotation he's doing away from the Wii branding in the opening post.

Everyone knows Nintendo by now, they abandon their old consoles really quickly. They have trouble supporting 3ds and the Wii U at once. There's no chance they will support the Wii U along side NX. What you are getting now is filler titles until the NX release.

This is the full quotation

And he says NX is definitely a departure from the Wii and Wii U

“As far as NX goes, I’ve said it’s different and obviously a new experience,” he tells me. “If you look back to the beginning of our conversation today, we talked about the transition from Wii hardware to the Wii U hardware and how difficult it is to explain to the consumer base what is different and new about the new hardware. It’s difficult to convince them to switch from their current platform to the next platform.”

“That being said, I can assure you we’re not building the next version of Wii or Wii U. It’s something unique and different. It’s something where we have to move away from those platforms in order to make it something that will appeal to our consumer base.”

He also said:

“What I want to do, I think our first job right now is to make sure that the customers, those 10 million customers who have a Wii U at home have software to play. And we need to make sure that they are satisfied with their purchase and continue to enjoy playing on this platform. So we can’t just abandon them and say ‘Hey, it’s time to move on to the next thing.’ Of course we are working on NX and looking at the experiences we can bring to that platform. But first our job at this point is to support the consumers who have purchased Wii U and make sure that they have software experiences available to them.”

 

[tbb043]

I have a feeling this will be like the Dreamcast all over again.

Couldn't the same be said for Wii U?

Not even a little. Sega was in deep financial trouble and really pretty much nothing could have saved them (and DC actually did start out with good sales). Nintendo could have 3-4 WiiU's levels of sales in a row and still be doing okay, and that even before accounting for other things they have going like Amiibos, handhelds, etc..