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Is the Wii U really winding down after 2015? [roundtable]
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I've heard rumblings that some think the writing's on the wall for the Wii U after StarFox Zero. Should we take Nintendo's "close to the chest" approach for this year's E3 as them just being secretive as usual, or do you think they really don't have much more Wii U stuff after this year? I'm hoping they were just being overly cautious, because the Wii U still feels like a pretty young system. It's only been out for 2 years and 8 months--it should be hitting its stride by this point! By comparison, here's where other Nintendo consoles were after about 2.5 years post-release... NES: It was 1987. Super Mario Bros. TWO hadn't come out yet, much less Mario 3. Contra 1 wasn't out yet. Zelda 2, Lolo 1, Ninja Turtles 1 were pretty far away. Dr. Mario, Kirby's Adventure, Dragon Warrior 2 and Castlevania 3 weren't even close! Mega Man ONE had just come out.
SNES: It was 1993/early 1994. Super Metroid, Final Fantasy VI, the first DKC, Chrono Trigger, EarthBound, Kirby Super Star were all in the future.
N64: 1999. No Majora's Mask, Perfect Dark, Banjo-Tooie, Paper Mario, Conker, Harvest Moon 64.
GCN: 2004. Hadn't yet gotten...uh, Prime 2 and Resident Evil 4? Okay, GCN's last couple years were pretty lame.
Wii: 2009. A good year that included stuff like Little King's Story and Rune Factory Frontier. On the horizon was Galaxy 2, Red Steel 2, Monster Hunter Tri, GoldenEye, DKC Returns, and Kirby's Epic Yarn. And Other M!The point is, it's too early for this system to keel over and whimper out! I don't want to see NX in 2016--a four-year cycle is painfully short for new hardware, and I like my Wii U. Do you think the end is approaching for Nintendo's all-too-young system? I'm still not sure what a roundtable is. URL to share (right click and copy)
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07/09/15, 19:28 Edited: 07/09/15, 19:28
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My worry, pretty much from the day the Game Pad was revealed, was that the Wii U would become Nintendo's version of the Sega Saturn. By which I mean, it'll be such a misstep that it doesn't really matter that the console that comes after it will fix all its problems.
The quickest way to make that worry a reality is to shorten the life of the console. I'm a huge Nintendo fan and even I would give pause to the idea of buying a new console if there's no guarantee the damn thing is going to ever build a reasonable library. If we're looking at Wii U 2, I might simply stick to my classic library of games until the prices start coming down.
That said, the Wii U has had more to recommend it than the Saturn, right now. I sense its reputation has gotten a bit of a boost, recently, with games like Tropical Freeze, MK8, SSBWU and Splatoon. I hear people talk about wanting to get one, eventually. So that's good. But new consoles sell on a combination of potential and piggy-backing on the reputation the console-maker forged during the last generation. The NX is going to have to have a hell of a lot of potential if this is all we're getting out of the Wii U.
I never felt the Wii U was Nintendo's Dreamcast. But the NX sure could be. |
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@kriswrightDreamcast makes me sad, because Sega really did do everything right with that system. In its short life, it actually sold more units than the Wii U has even yet to reach, and third parties were supporting it and making a profit. If Sega wasn't in such a financial pit, it's possible that the system could have had a full life and reached an installed base close to what Xbox and Gamecube reached, but they just couldn't risk the entire future of their company on it... I kind of wish they did, because they would be better off dead than in their current state if you ask me. Did you guys see the other day when the man single-handedly responsible for killing the quality of Sega games promised to start making quality games? Yeah, I'll believe that when I see it. @JargonI guess Saturn was really difficult to develop for and favored 2D games in an era when 3D was clearly the fad, and it was also $100 more than PlayStation... I think once Sony wooed over the likes of Squaresoft and Enix, it was over for Sega. It didn't help that two years after launch, somebody high in the company announced that "Saturn is not our future" and they were, indeed, already developing the Dreamcast. The system was actually doing a lot better in Japan, so those consumers no doubt felt burnt by this... The president of Sega of America, who is the guy responsible for making the Genesis a success and keeping Sega alive in general, saw the disaster of the Saturn coming and tried very hard to steer their company in the right direction by either working as partners with Sony (who wanted a strong software partner rather than releasing a console alone) or developing a better next-gen system with Silicon Graphics (the tech that ultimately became the N64). The arrogant Japanese executives weren't having any of either of those plans and went ahead with Saturn. |
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Yeah, I always watched those Michael Pachter episodes with my mouth practically agape when he used to suggest that Nintendo abandon the Wii U right away... has this guy paid any attention to the history of this industry at all?
Do you guys think that four years is really too short though? The original Xbox was only around for four years before it was replaced by the 360, and Microsoft somehow got a complete pass for their opportunistic behavior there. I don't recall anybody really complaining about that. It seems like another one of those situations where people are extra critical and abusive towards Nintendo. I guess social media wasn't quite as big back then and it would have been isolated to us geeks on gaming forums anyway though... I can definitely already see all of the stupid angry comments on Facebook, Youtube, and Reddit stirring up a rabble, so Nintendo does have to be pretty careful here.
Maybe the NX will be different enough that it can have a third pillar sort of feel and some continued minor support of the Wii U can keep some of that negativity at bay. If NX is an exciting enough product and it isn't super expensive, I can see people being a lot more forgiving in general.
I think Nintendo might kind of be shooting themselves in the foot here if the NX is a 2017 product by not just saying so, because the rumors of a 2016 successor have already started to spread, and it is going to increasingly hurt potential Wii U sales. Of course, announcing that it is a 2016 product without a proper reveal would be even more harmful, and maybe that is the actual case. |
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