Nintendo drops Wii U $50 due to poor sales (1 Viewer)

[LeoA]

They haven't said (Although the producer back at E3 said that they were considering it), but it would seem a natural.

Unfortunately though, Nintendo's online integration even today sometimes leaves a bit to be desired. So while I'm not expecting this feature to be absent, it still wouldn't surprise me if levels can't be uploaded and downloaded from a central server.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

They allowed downloading of levels in games before, like Smash Bros. Brawl on Wii (I believe) and currently with Smash Wii U. I would imagine they would do so with Mario Maker.

The issue, as always, is in how Nintendo makes sure people don't recreate entire Mario games in it and upload them for anyone to get for "free."

 

[LeoA]

I suspect that the capabilities will be too limited here to recreate much. So that likely won't be much of an issue.

Assuming that sharing is possible, I look forward to checking out people's attempts at Super Mario Bros. in the various graphical styles and its arcade cousin, Vs. Super Mario Bros (Which remains exclusive to arcades three decades after its release).

The level layouts of both would appear to be within reach of recreating with this editor, where as even just something like the wind effect and poison mushrooms in The Lost Levels has no equivalent here that we've seen.

 

[DaveF]

They haven't said (Although the producer back at E3 said that they were considering it), but it would seem a natural.

That would be pretty neat. As a middle- or high-schooler, this would have been awesome. Back in my day, all we had were pirated copies of EA's Monster Construction Kit, which usually wouldn't load! And we liked it!

 

[laser]

Zelda gameplay analysis:

 

[LeoA]

Interesting article about Nintendo's possible future hardware direction.


http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-in-theory-nintendos-next-gen-hardware-and-the-strategy-behind-it

 

[mattCR]

Some of the best games of last year were WiiU, though. Seriously. Bayonetta 2 is fantastic. Mario Kart is a blast, Smash Brothers? There are titles on other systems that were fantastic (I'm a huge LoU fan, and I've really been enjoying Dragon Age Inquisition) but fore replay value it's hard to beat those.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

There was a recent rumor that Nintendo is going for a donut-shaped round flexible screen for their next handheld.


The biggest weakness of Nintendo this gen has been their lack of experience developing games in HD. They already stated that the learning curve, which didn't exist for them during the Wii, has delayed just about everything they're making. That said, when they wrap their heads around it, the results have been pretty awesome.

 

[LeoA]

For anyone that doesn't know, Club Nintendo was recently confirmed as closing. Time is running out to redeem your codes and your coins.


The last and by far largest round yet of rewards is now up. Lots of stuff there to select from, including several new to Club Nintendo downloads. And there's some physical items there as well, for those into that stuff.


Folks shouldn't have any trouble emptying out their balance.

 

[LeoA]

Not sure if we have any Virtual Console fans here, but Mappy Land was released today. It's terribly underrated and largely went under the radar back in the day, but it's a fine sequel to one of my favorite Namco arcade games from the golden age of arcade gaming.


I don't usually download 3rd party NES games (Original hardware and my cartridges and my Everdrive usually suffice for all but my very favorites like Super Mario Bros. 3), but this one is good enough where I'll have to support them.

If anyone's interested (I know we had a flurry of sales performance talk in this thread a while back), I just saw Nintendo's 2014 projections for the Wii U. Looks like Nintendo is keeping it modest this year after being over optimistic the past couple of years.


Would be nice if somehow the Wii U surprises everyone and handily beats it this year, but at least we shouldn't be talking about it only selling 1/3 of what Nintendo projected and such when next spring rolls around and the current fiscal year concludes.

Wii U
Hardware Sales (Q1) — 510,000 units
Hardware Sales Projection (2014 to 2015) — 3.6 million units
Sales Required (Q2 - Q4) — 3.09 million units
Target Reached To Date — 14.16%

As an update to this (Quarter 3's results just were announced), Wii U sold 610,000 units in quarter 2 and moved 1.91 million over Christmas. That means that Nintendo must sell 570,000 Wii U's in quarter 4 to satisfy their projections.


So they should end up almost right on the dot this time around, unlike their famous projection of 9 million units sold in the 2013 fiscal year (Which they they just reached for lifetime sales as the Wii U's 3rd fiscal year reaches the final stretch).


Wii U console sales now stand at 9.2 million.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Luckily for Nintendo, they have a lot of investments in foreign currencies. They made ok sales numbers and didn't sell as much hardware or software as they wanted, but still turned a nice profit simply from exchange rates.

 

[LeoA]

Mobile games, and perhaps a merged future for Nintendo hardware.


http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/03/17/nx-is-nintendos-new-next-generation-hardware-system?read

 

[Morgan Jolley]

The hardware thing is looking more like what Microsoft is doing with a unified OS on all of their platforms rather than a mobile console sort of concept. Nintendo announced that they were working on that a year or so ago. Sony has crossbuy games on PS3/4/Vita and MS is going to try their hand at XB1/Win10 games, so Nintendo doing the same with their mobile hardware and consoles isn't a huge surprise.


The mobile game thing will probably be a lot of crappy free-to-play stuff. They just released a game called Pokemon Shuffle on 3DS that is a free-to-play puzzle game with microtransactions. From what I've read, it's not as exploitative and blatant about its attempts to get money from you, but its still fitting pretty well into what DeNA already does. Frankly, this isn't anything that I personally care about, but they will make tons of money.

 

[LeoA]

Nintendo announced that they were working on what a year or so ago?


Why the 180? You now seem welcome to the idea and sound like you think that's their direction. Yet a few months ago, you were adamant that it was nonsense that there would ever be a great degree of commonality between their handheld and console hardware.


I share your opinions on their mobile sideline. Nothing that interests me in the slightest, although hopefully it will be a cash cow of sorts, shut up some analysts, and buy the management team some time from their shareholders to allow them to continue their turnaround strategy (Has had a strong effect already on their stock price, the all important metric for shareholders).


Whatever brings money into Nintendo is good from my perspective, since they hopefully will put it to good use in developing products that do interest me. That's why I welcomed their figurines with open arms, although I hold zero interests in the concept myself.


It's easy money.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

They announced a year or so ago that they were working on a common code architecture for their next handheld and home console.


I think its a good idea for them to have common code running all of their devices because it makes porting software or making software work together a lot easier. They released Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U, but needed to effectively make 2 games from scratch for each platform because the hardware and software on each is completely different. Making that process easier is a good thing.


Making a handheld console that plugs into a base station to become your home console is stupid. THAT is what I don't like and they are definitely NOT doing that. This is the difference between the PS Vita/PS4 relationship (cross buy) and making the PS Vita into a console that is also portable and that being the only hardware Sony releases.

 

[LeoA]

They announced a year or so ago that they were working on a common code architecture for their next handheld and home console.

You're mistaken since we're still in the speculation stage here.


I believe that you're misremembering their announcement a year or two ago about their internal reorganization to a single team, instead of separate handheld and console divisions inside of Nintendo.


One of the earlier hints that this very well may be the course Nintendo is taking for their next generation of dedicated gaming hardware, but not confirmation of it.

Making a handheld console that plugs into a base station to become your home console is stupid. THAT is what I don't like and they are definitely NOT doing that.

I don't agree that it's a bad idea or that they're definitely not pursuing such a thing.


That said, I'm more inclined to believe what you're apparently thinking. Two different systems with a lot of commonality with their basic architecture, allowing for code to easily be exchanged between the two platforms with only fairly minor tinkering necessary to go between the HD console and the detuned handheld (that I imagine will display around 480p like the Wii U gamepad).


The most important element to this concept that so many people are championing (and the evidence points towards Nintendo implementing), is allowing the fruits of their development teams to be sold to everyone instead of just half their market like the setup today is.


For a platform holder that's so dependent on their own development teams, spreading those resources across two completely different platforms is only weakening their efforts thanks to the droughts between releases on each platform.


Working with a common goal in mind should allow for a steadier stream of 1st party offerings.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Where are you getting your information? I have not seen a single piece of credible information that the next Nintendo hardware will be a single console/mobile hybrid of any sort. Instead, it looks like Nintendo is going to try and leverage how powerful mobile graphics chips have become to make a very powerful handheld that runs the same code as their next console. Honestly, the simple logistics of having to coordinate a mobile/console hybrid in a family with more than 1 gamer shows why that would be a terrible idea. Timmy wants to play Smash Bros. with his friends but Johnny brought the NX to his room so he could play alone? Yeah right. It's easier to sell a family one console and multiple 3DSes.


http://bgr.com/2014/02/04/nintendo-wii-u-3ds-common-architecture/


http://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-s-next-console-and-mobile-will-be-like-brothers/1100-6417496/


Clearly, not the same hardware, just similar code.

 

[LeoA]

Where are you getting your information?

I don't know what you're talking about, sorry.


I never said anything about that being their strategy. It's simply one of several possible courses of action as they seek to increase commonality between these two traditionally separate product lines from Nintendo.


It's commonality, not the exact form that it will take, that has a lot of anecdotal evidence along with a few concrete statements to now support it as being Nintendo's stance with their next generation hardware. Anything else like specifics on just what they're doing, that it will be this rather than that, and so on is merely speculation by their fans.


Nothing more, nothing less. I'm not the one talking in specifics here, which is very much premature to do so with what evidence we have publicly available today to discuss.

Instead, it looks like Nintendo is going to try and leverage how powerful mobile graphics chips have become to make a very powerful handheld that runs the same code as their next console.

A concept you did nothing but ridicule when I said it a few months ago.


lol

Honestly, the simple logistics of having to coordinate a mobile/console hybrid in a family with more than 1 gamer shows why that would be a terrible idea.

Regardless of what they do, surely it will remain as always, able to only play one game at a time.


I don't see this as problematic in the slightest, or the reason why we should dismiss that concept from our speculation. Gaming hardware has never been able to provide different experiences to multiple users, simultaneously.


It's hardly a special problem that will serve as a roadblock to this possibility.

Clearly, not the same hardware, just similar code.

Sorry, but with the high degree of commonality that they appear to be aiming for, I for one am not going to be hasty in dismissing the option of an all-in-one device as being part of their offerings.


I'll wait for more details to be revealed.


And again, before you misrepresent my post again, I already agreed with you the last time. I too believe that we will have separate console and handheld hardware from Nintendo.


Not sure how that slipped by you...

That said, I'm more inclined to believe what you're apparently thinking. Two different systems with a lot of commonality with their basic architecture, allowing for code to easily be exchanged between the two platforms with only fairly minor tinkering necessary to go between the HD console and the detuned handheld.

I'm merely open to the possibility that it may be taken a step even further than this.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

You are either misremembering things or misinterpreting things. Having a console/portable hybrid that is just a single piece of hardware, versus the current strategy of a console (Wii U) and a portable (3DS/New 3DS) is a stupid idea. I have never changed my opinion on that. Having a common programming code base that allows them to offer quick and easy ports of games to either platform, similar to what Sony has with PS Vita/PS3/PS4 cross-buy and what MS is trying to do with XBox One/Windows 10, is a very good idea and I have never said that I thought this was a bad idea.


I totally understand that you're saying "it's a possibility" but I'm saying it's stupid and they won't do it because its stupid. You agree that it's not a great idea and they won't do it, so what point are you trying to make?


It should be noted that the initial rumors of a hybrid console came from a fake news leak. It did not originate from Nintendo at all.

 

[LeoA]

You are either misremembering things or misinterpreting things.

Sorry, but go back a few pages [Edit: Late May and early June, of last year]. You thought it was nonsense that there will be any overlap there and completely dismissed the power that mobile chipsets are able to develop these days as being anywhere close to being suitable enough to also be applicable as the basis for their next home console.


And back then well under a year ago, you were extremely dismissive of the entire idea of there being any sort of integration between the handheld and console halves of Nintendo, and in denial despite the evidence that was already starting to mount like Nintendo publicly stating that they wanted to make it easy for software to move between both lines in the future.

I totally understand that you're saying "it's a possibility" but I'm saying it's stupid and they won't do it because its stupid. You agree that it's not a great idea and they won't do it, so what point are you trying to make?

No, I don't believe it's a stupid idea.

I think it's a valid option that stands a decent chance. I simply don't think it's a necessary one for Nintendo, so I suspect it probably won't happen. It will increase the unit cost over either standalone option, while eliminating potential sales from folks that traditionally buy both hardware options from Nintendo each generation.



I'm not sure if the allure of having a device that doubles for both, is quite enough to counteract that since many seemingly are contented to either enjoy one or the other style of Nintendo gaming.


What's most important here is the software side of things. At this point in time, I don't believe that Nintendo can succeed with the health of 3rd party development on their platforms, by splitting their own development resources in half. The gaps between major releases on both the 3DS and Wii U has been too long.


Games must be able to be solid to every Nintendo hardware owner with the minimum degree of fuss from a programming stand point if they hope to provide a steady stream of games. That much, I'm sure of.


Anything else like just how they're going to accomplish this, I'm leaving the door open.


I'll let time provide the answers.

It should be noted that the initial rumors of a hybrid console came from a fake news leak. It did not originate from Nintendo at all.

I never saw anything that was portrayed as confirmation from Nintendo on their exact intentions. Speculation has been based on short statements from Nintendo here and there in interviews and such, actions like eliminating the internal divide between their handheld and console teams, their business situation, and the logic of it all.


I haven't seen anyone act like there has been any sort of confirmation on just what Nintendo's exact intentions are. I wouldn't of passed on such nonsense in the first place, nor discussed it.


Such rubbish is easily weeded out.