The PS4 already sold more units than the Wii U

[TheWill]

To the people comparing Gamecube and Wii U, whilst it's true Gamecube was also a 'failure' in terms of large commercial success, it did still sell a hefty 22 million sales (approximation rounded up). Compared to that, the Wii U hasn't even sold 6 million yet.

And I disagree with people saying Nintendo deserves better finances, I've loved Nintendo as a kid and completely support them! With that said however, they still have to earn the money. They can't expect me to like everything they do and in fact, I've recently been so dissatisfied with some things. the Wii U aside, the games I've come to love such as Paper Mario and Legend of Zelda aren't in the best states right now. The controversy that is Sticker Star, I absolutely hated not because it's a bad game, but because it shoved away everything I liked about the series. Legend of Zelda? A Link Between Worlds, it's doing great, but really where's the next big game like Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword? We've had 2 remakes, a handheld game and the only thing we've seen a trailer for is a spin-off. Which I thought looked great, but that's not really the point. Heck, even Luigi's Mansion, good game, but it got rid of the interesting back stories of the ghosts entirely, which I felt was one of the interesting parts about Luigi's Mansion. Even Awakening has it's controversies, despite being pretty damn popular (although really, which game doesn't?).

Whew, bit long huh? Sorry bout that, just my opinion on Nintendo's current state.

[Djing]

Also I'm pretty convinced that the future of gaming will be on PC.

I'm also pretty convinced that Nintendo will never port their games on PC. So frustrating...

[Redwall]

How are Nintendo games less enjoyable because they sometimes look "kiddie" or have no blood and gore?

As a longtime Nintendo fan, I don't really mind whimsical-looking games at all (I like Pokemon, for example), nor do I generally play a lot of games with blood and gore; the other consoles simply have more titles with gameplay that is more enjoyable to me: Dark Souls, Dark Souls II (in a week), Kingdom Hearts 3 (someday), etc. It's fine that you still enjoy a lot of Nintendo exclusives, but everyone has their own tastes, and many people simply find their preferences better met by games not released on the Wii/Wii U.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Miikaya

[Nobody]

How are Nintendo games less enjoyable because they sometimes look "kiddie" or have no blood and gore? People are stupid and closed-minded and it's not fair to Nintendo. They deserve more love, more attention, more of their money.

You complain about people generalizing nintendo games as "kiddie" yet you generalize the games on other consoles as "full of blood and gore", which isn't true for all (or even most) of them.

Nintendo is my favorite developer, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying other developers' games and realizing that nintendo did mess up with the wii u.

A developer ALONE isn't able to keep a console, even one as competent and big as nintendo. The wii u has many software droughts and that's an issue nintendo themselves admitted existing.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Nobody

[Anacybele]

Yeah, but more gamers these days seem to prefer the blood and gore and such, particularly here in the US.

[Djing]

Blood and gore is mostly restricted to shooters and zombie games. There's certainly a lot of violence, but even games like Grand Theft Auto don't contain a lot of gore.

Nintendo's gimmicks are what I believe to be the cause of the lack of third party games. If I was a developer, I wouldn't want to clumsily incorporate the Wii U's controller into my already finished and polished game.

Sometimes I just want the same but better approach that other consoles go by. I would rather have a fine wine, aged to perfection over a new, unpolished flavor of the month.

[Icon of Sin]

It's pretty sad considering Nintendo is focusing on what most people buy consoles for : gaming. The PSBone are multimedia consoles which now attract bigger demographics, but even then this started when the PS2 was one of the best DVD readers available when it came out.

They'd need a Pokémon MMORPG at this point, but as mentionned before Nintendo seems behind the times in some of its business practices.

[Balcerzak]

I'm honestly 100% confused why people are interested in XBone and PS4. PC can do anything they can do easily. It's a lot harder for PC to replicate the Wiimote, or the Wii U gamepad, which makes for a gaming experience I can't easily get elsewhere. Nintendo offers consoles (and handhelds) that provide experiences I can't get elsewhere, yet people are still flocking to the other consoles. It legitimately puzzles me.

[LuxSpes]

I'm honestly 100% confused why people are interested in XBone and PS4. PC can do anything they can do easily. It's a lot harder for PC to replicate the Wiimote, or the Wii U gamepad, which makes for a gaming experience I can't easily get elsewhere. Nintendo offers consoles (and handhelds) that provide experiences I can't get elsewhere, yet people are still flocking to the other consoles. It legitimately puzzles me.

I think the kiddy image is to blame for a part of the problem.

A lot of young kids(read around 10) want to look mature. As thus, they reject nintendo's game and prefer to play Call of Duty or GTA since it allows them to look mature thanks to the rated-m label on the box.

[The Envoy of the Beginning]

I'm honestly 100% confused why people are interested in XBone and PS4. PC can do anything they can do easily. It's a lot harder for PC to replicate the Wiimote, or the Wii U gamepad, which makes for a gaming experience I can't easily get elsewhere. Nintendo offers consoles (and handhelds) that provide experiences I can't get elsewhere, yet people are still flocking to the other consoles. It legitimately puzzles me.

I think the kiddy image is to blame for a part of the problem.

A lot of young kids(read around 10) want to look mature. As thus, they reject nintendo's game and prefer to play Call of Duty or GTA since it allows them to look mature thanks to the rated-m label on the box.

This, and that there may be games that may come only to the PS4 and/or Xbox One that people will care about. Edited March 5, 2014 by BLS

[Nobody]

I'm honestly 100% confused why people are interested in XBone and PS4. PC can do anything they can do easily. It's a lot harder for PC to replicate the Wiimote, or the Wii U gamepad, which makes for a gaming experience I can't easily get elsewhere. Nintendo offers consoles (and handhelds) that provide experiences I can't get elsewhere, yet people are still flocking to the other consoles. It legitimately puzzles me.

I think i can give you a explanation.

Gaming PCs are more expensive than consoles and many people(myself included) prefer to play games in front of a TV rather than a computer. There's also the fact that not every developer put their games in the PC. Basically the same reason that makes people buy nintendo consoles: They can't get those games anywhere else. Which is ironically the reason many people don't buy nintendo consoles either: lack of third party support.

About the gamepad/wii mote, while I liked the wii mote, there are many games in which it was mandatory, which bothered many people who liked the traditional control schemes better (just look at what people think of Skyward Sword, a game that I love and IMO has amazing controls but that many people seem to dislike). About the gamepad, I sincerely think it doesn't bring anything new or innovative to the games, feeling gimmicky, and IMO the only good thing about it is that it allows better menu management, which doesn't justifies its price (half the Wii U's production coast comes from the gamepad IIRC). Had nintendo released a wii u version without the game pad coasting half the price, I think they'd be in a much better position. I myself would probably have bought one.

Edited March 11, 2014 by Nobody

[Djing]

The main way to buy games for PC appears to be Steam. It is very difficult to refund a game through that system. That could be deal breaker for many people.

Also what Nobody said.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Spaceman Craig

[The Envoy of the Beginning]

Nobody, people can play PC games on TVs while sitting on a couch. And even if they still want to use keyboard and mouse, there are accessories that allow them to use those two on the couch.

Edited March 5, 2014 by BLS

[RJWalker]

Nintendo really dropped the ball with marketing. Many people don't even seem to realize that the Wii U is a separate console and not an add-on for the Wii and their own marketing is to blame.

The fans keep saying the next big game will turn things around. I remember seeing a picture of all the games that many said would save the Wii U. It was 'X will save the Wii U' with X becoming an increasingly long list of games with the previous ones scratched off when they failed to save the Wii U.

[Tangerine]

I think some people are idiots and fail to see how great Nintendo really is because of all the innovation and such that they've done. Each of their systems has been totally different from the previous one for the most part. The N64 was nothing like the NES and SNES. The GC was nothing like the N64. And the Wii is TOTALLY different from the GC.

But I see little difference in Sony's and Microsoft's consoles other than size, power, and graphical quality. How can people say these are better when Nintendo keeps going fresh every time? How can Wii gamers not be okay with making a transition to the Wii U, but find moving on to an Xbox One or PS4 to be just fine?

How are Nintendo games less enjoyable because they sometimes look "kiddie" or have no blood and gore? People are stupid and closed-minded and it's not fair to Nintendo. They deserve more love, more attention, more of their money.

Wait, what? People who aren't buying a Wii U are idiots and don't see how great Nintendo is? How can you say the N64 and GameCube were different from their predecessors if the PS2/3/4 and 360/One are no different from theirs? They're all standard home console fare with different features. There is so much wrong in these posts that I don't even really care to reply to it all.

Honestly this post reads like some kind of brainwashing experiment gone horribly, horribly right.

I'm honestly 100% confused why people are interested in XBone and PS4. PC can do anything they can do easily. It's a lot harder for PC to replicate the Wiimote, or the Wii U gamepad, which makes for a gaming experience I can't easily get elsewhere. Nintendo offers consoles (and handhelds) that provide experiences I can't get elsewhere, yet people are still flocking to the other consoles. It legitimately puzzles me.

Sony and Microsoft have some of the best first party and second party developers in the business. It's hard to go without at least one if you like their games.

---

Anyway, the Wii U's sales aren't a disaster. The doomsaying is mainly from people who didn't play games before the Wii; the GameCube and N64 were both "flops" by these standards, but in reality Nintendo didn't lose money from either and both had great games. PlayStation is likely the most popular brand in gaming, acting like it is an unworthy competitor that Nintendo should be beating easily is only downplaying the history of both of them.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Tangerine

[Nobody]

Nobody, people can play PC games on TVs while sitting on a couch. And even if they still want to use keyboard and mouse, there are accessories that allow them to use those two on the couch.

Oh, my bad, I'll take that out of my post. Still, the other points are valid.

Nintendo really dropped the ball with marketing. Many people don't even seem to realize that the Wii U is a separate console and not an add-on for the Wii and their own marketing is to blame.

The fans keep saying the next big game will turn things around. I remember seeing a picture of all the games that many said would save the Wii U. It was 'X will save the Wii U' with X becoming an increasingly long list of games with the previous ones scratched off when they failed to save the Wii U.

This one?

3d mario and wonderful 101 need to be scratched, though

But yeah, it sums things up, a single game isn't going to save the system.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Nobody

[RJWalker]

Yeah, that one.

[LuxSpes]

To the people comparing Gamecube and Wii U, whilst it's true Gamecube was also a 'failure' in terms of large commercial success, it did still sell a hefty 22 million sales (approximation rounded up). Compared to that, the Wii U hasn't even sold 6 million yet.

And I disagree with people saying Nintendo deserves better finances, I've loved Nintendo as a kid and completely support them! With that said however, they still have to earn the money. They can't expect me to like everything they do and in fact, I've recently been so dissatisfied with some things. the Wii U aside, the games I've come to love such as Paper Mario and Legend of Zelda aren't in the best states right now. The controversy that is Sticker Star, I absolutely hated not because it's a bad game, but because it shoved away everything I liked about the series. Legend of Zelda? A Link Between Worlds, it's doing great, but really where's the next big game like Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword? We've had 2 remakes, a handheld game and the only thing we've seen a trailer for is a spin-off. Which I thought looked great, but that's not really the point. Heck, even Luigi's Mansion, good game, but it got rid of the interesting back stories of the ghosts entirely, which I felt was one of the interesting parts about Luigi's Mansion. Even Awakening has it's controversies, despite being pretty damn popular (although really, which game doesn't?).

Whew, bit long huh? Sorry bout that, just my opinion on Nintendo's current state.

Well, the total sales of the gamecube after 2 years were of 5.76 millions. In the same time, Wii U sold 5.86 millions(still it's really not a lot).

And I agree with what you and Spacecraig say about their IPs. The sidescroller Marios are getting seriously repetitive, Star Fox/F-Zero are nowhere in sight, they butchered Metroid with Other M and they progressively distanced Paper Mario from it's roots, which made for less entertaining games IMO. Now they're stuck on relying on an increasingly shallower pool of first party games. They need to be more careful about what they do with their IPs and use the money they have in the bank to diversify their first party choice and acquire more interesting exclusives(Bayonetta 2 and W101 are a start, but they're still a lot of work to do).

And my first post here was long, your's pretty short in comparison.

(the source for the numbers I used about the nintendo console sales is this if anybody is interested)

Blood and gore is mostly restricted to shooters and zombie games. There's certainly a lot of violence, but even games like Grand Theft Auto don't contain a lot of gore.

Nintendo's gimmicks are what I believe to be the cause of the lack of third party games. If I was a developer, I wouldn't want to clumsily incorporate the Wii U's controller into my already finished and polished game.

Sometimes I just want the same but better approach that other consoles go by. I would rather have a fine wine, aged to perfection over a new, unpolished flavor of the month.

I personally believe that them adding novelties to their consoles is a good thing. They may not always strike the pot O' gold, but at least it opens up new possibilities. And DKC:TF showed that not every game needs to use the gamepad or wiimote if they don't add anything to their games. And I don't think PC will replace consoles entirely, mainly because of the price of an high-end gaming PC.

It's pretty sad considering Nintendo is focusing on what most people buy consoles for : gaming. The PSBone are multimedia consoles which now attract bigger demographics, but even then this started when the PS2 was one of the best DVD readers available when it came out.

They'd need a Pokémon MMORPG at this point, but as mentionned before Nintendo seems behind the times in some of its business practices.

What I find sad too is that the Wii U is not that underpowered compared to the other two consoles, has a unique feature that is quite useful when you actually try it and is the cheapest console out there: it's 100$ cheaper than the closest competitor, doesn't require to pay to use online feature, it's backward compatible in both software and hardware(i.e. you can use the wii accessories with it) and IIRC, it's extremely energy efficient(which means less money spent on electricity, I guess?). They also have the Virtual Console that allows you to play even older games(though they're pretty slow at updating it). I think the Wii U is a great gaming machine and I admire Nintendo for sticking to that. But they really dropped the ball when marketing the console.

Assuming that mos of the people that bought a Wii would upgrade to the Wii U was also pretty unrealistic.

Edited March 5, 2014 by LuxSpes

[Tangerine]

What I find sad too is that the Wii U is not that underpowered compared to the other two consoles, has a unique feature that is quite useful when you actually try it and is the cheapest console out there: it's 100$ cheaper than the closest competitor, doesn't require to pay to use online feature, it's backward compatible in both software and hardware(i.e. you can use the wii accessories with it) and IIRC, it's extremely energy efficient(which means less money spent on electricity, I guess?). They also have the Virtual Console that allows you to play even older games(though they're pretty slow at updating it). I think the Wii U is a great gaming machine and I admire Nintendo for sticking to that. But they really dropped the ball when marketing the console.

Assuming that mos of the people that bought a Wii would upgrade to the Wii U was also pretty unrealistic.

The Wii U is quite underpowered compared to the PS4 and even the One, it's just not as bad as when they were HD and the Wii wasn't. It also has less online features, less games with online support already, less multimedia features, less developer attention, the ports it has gotten have largely been shoddy and it's barely getting any big multiplatform games coming out for the other two consoles. There are a lot of reasons not to own a Wii U, and the more info that gets released the less attractive it looks as a future investment.

Wii U is the only current generation console I own right now and the only game I can really say was worth my purchase was 3D World. It's not that tough to believe that people don't want it yet.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Tangerine

[RJWalker]

Well, the total sales of the gamecube after 2 years were of 5.76 millions. In the same time, Wii U sold 5.86 millions(still it's really not a lot).

That was a long time ago. Back then, a game selling 2 million copies would be considered a big hit. Today, it's considered a failure because of bloated budgets. Same with consoles.

[LuxSpes]

The Wii U is quite underpowered compared to the PS4 and even the One, it's just not as bad as when they were HD and the Wii wasn't. It also has less online features, less games with online support already, less multimedia features, less developer attention, the ports it has gotten have largely been shoddy and it's barely getting any big multiplatform games coming out for the other two consoles. There are a lot of reasons not to own a Wii U, and the more info that gets released the less attractive it looks as a future investment.

Wii U is the only current generation console I own right now and the only game I can really say was worth my purchase was 3D World. It's not that tough to believe that people don't want it yet.

Went back to look at where I found the info about the consoles power and effectively, while there was articles saying the Wii U wasn't that far behind, it was before the PS4 actually came out. The more up to date info I found claim that Wii U is indeed the less powerful one, it's pretty close to the X1 and opinion seems to be split as whether there will be a true difference in graphics(some says that the Wii U would have less pretty ports, but that he difference wouldn't scream 'last gen' like the Wii did, which supports your point). Though I guess we'll have to wait until Nintendo release a first party games since they seem to be the only one to know how to make good use of their consoles(which is definitely a bad thing).

And my post was talking more about the Wii U's value as a piece of hardware, independently from other aspects. Realistically, people will consider other factors when purchasing, but I wanted to say that its by itself not the completely horrible piece of hardware some people make it out to be. I personally think that if Nintendo had been more involved in making things work with third parties and marketing their hardware better, the launch could have been different(maybe not to the level the PS4 currently experience though). However, their complete mess of a launch(no 1st party game outside of a mario title that looked almost identical to its Wii predecessor, most 3rd party games are ports of already released games, not identifying it clearly as a next gen console and not as an add-on to the Wii) and the following poor marketing ensured 3rd parties would stay away from it for the moment(the fact that the consoles architecture is more difficult to program for than the PC like ones of the PS4/X1 doesn't help).

That was a long time ago. Back then, a game selling 2 million copies would be considered a big hit. Today, it's considered a failure because of bloated budgets. Same with consoles.

You are completely right. Heck, I went back to check the numbers and the Wii U actually sell LESS than the GC. I misread the data the first time around. GC sold 9.56 million units in 2 years compared to the pitiful 5.86 millions of the Wii U. This console is in even worse shape than I thought.

[Knight]

Cool, still love my Wii U.

[Esau of Isaac]

I'm honestly 100% confused why people are interested in XBone and PS4. PC can do anything they can do easily. It's a lot harder for PC to replicate the Wiimote, or the Wii U gamepad, which makes for a gaming experience I can't easily get elsewhere. Nintendo offers consoles (and handhelds) that provide experiences I can't get elsewhere, yet people are still flocking to the other consoles. It legitimately puzzles me.

The Wii U gamepad would make for a gaming experience you can't get elsewhere, if developers would bother to make much use of it. It's consistently failed to offer any catch to the vast majority of consumers, myself included, while still alienating third-party developers with its radical departure in control style. Say what you will about XBOne and PS4, but they stick to a safer industry model as a multi-faceted videeogaming device. The Wii took a gamble and benefited, but the wave it rode died years ago and won't carry the Wii U to shore.

Edit: Also holy shit Anacybelle craziest Nintendo fangirl 2014

Edited March 5, 2014 by Esau of Isaac

[Knight]

I've been wasting 10 minutes trying to come up with a good point, but I can't think of anything. Nevertheless, I don't really care too much. As long as Nintendo has its 3DS line it won't hit rock bottom, and a few good games should plug up some leaks with the U to at least make it to port and wait for the next big ship to launch. If all else fails, Nintendo can decide to sell the original Super Mario Bros. and Pokemon Red/Blue on the iPhone for $5 a piece and literally watch as all financial troubles they have float down a river. (last resort option)

[Raven]

They really need to get SSB4 out, as soon as possible. It might just save the Wii U.