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

LeoA

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I wonder if Nintendo will wise up and toss the Wii titles up on the Wii U eShop simultaneously so fans of digital distribution have the same deal. Makes too much sense...

While it would be very much like Nintendo to not go past this initial group, I hope to see more waves of rereleases and a few more Wii titles. I still want Wii Sports Club and Pikmin 1, so I hope they get included sometime in this relaunched program (It's about time).

And since there's precedence here, I hope that New Player Control: Chibi Robo finally appears in North America as part of this lineup. The last round of Nintendo Selects releases in 2012 were when the NPC conversions of Mario Power Tennis and Pikmin 2 made their belated North American Wii debuts after appearing in Japan three years earlier.

This is good news. I've been wanting to buy Super Mario 3D World, but I've never seen it drop below $59.

Wal-Mart Canada had it for $20 back in 2014, but they were out of stock when I crossed the border so I paid $60 in the end. So far that's the only real deal I've seen on Super Mario 3D World, discounting generic deals like buy 2 get 1 free sales, until now.

Wind Waker HD though was $15 that day as I recall, so not a wasted trip. :)

I've also wanted Super Mario All Stars for awhile, but it was out of print and people were price gouging.

I luckily got into the 2nd and until now last printing of Super Mario All-Stars during its initial Wii release, but glad to see it reappear here for those that missed out.

It won't include the bonus content, but it was basically worthless anyways. Looked at it once and never again, but perhaps worth mentioning if it matters to someone.

I know I can buy most the original Mario games on the Virtual Console, but they are the 8-bit versions and not the 16-bit versions that are included in Super Mario All Stars.

Super Mario Advance: Super Mario Brothers 2 and Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 on the Wii U Virtual Console though are essentially ports of the Super Mario All-Stars remasterings of those two titles, with a few additions here and there. So half of it was basically already available on the Wii U.

With the SMB3 download you even get the GBA exclusive World E, which utilized e-Reader cards originally, if you download it off the Wii U's Virtual Console.
 
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Morgan Jolley

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Nintendo announced Pokemon Sun and Moon yesterday to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the series.

But the real big news was that some dude on a web forum leaked some info about Nintendo before the announcement that included the news about Sun and Moon (but they were codenamed Niji). He also said that the NX is coming this year, Zelda is hitting the Wii U and NX (whether same day or delayed to NX wasn't clear), and leaked the supposed marketing budgets for all of this. Nintendo just said they expect 3DS sales to be lower than anticipated this year so I'm wondering if that's because it's going to get a new competitor (handheld NX) or if they've just moved so much game development to new platforms that their release calendar is getting emptied out for it.
 

LeoA

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He also lists a 2nd round of Nintendo Selects this Fall. :)

In other Wii U news unrelated to this leak, Star Fox U sounds in jeopardy. A delay and rework appears likely based on what I've read, due to its convoluted control scheme.

I hope they take the time to get it right. Star Fox has had too many disappointments in the 2000's already.

But the real big news was that some dude on a web forum leaked some info about Nintendo before the announcement that included the news about Sun and Moon (but they were codenamed Niji).

You didn't mention that Neogaf supposedly vetted this guy's source.

And while that in itself perhaps doesn't mean much (I know it doesn't to me), it all basically was confirmed when this project went live. Not only did this announcement of course correspond with one of these entries in this list (Which could easily of been a good guess), but the clincher is that the online images Nintendo released even had the alleged codename, Niji, in the filenames.

You don't take a swing in the dark and just happen to get a detail like that correct.

He also said that the NX is coming this year, Zelda is hitting the Wii U and NX (whether same day or delayed to NX wasn't clear), and leaked the supposed marketing budgets for all of this. Nintendo just said they expect 3DS sales to be lower than anticipated this year so I'm wondering if that's because it's going to get a new competitor (handheld NX) or if they've just moved so much game development to new platforms that their release calendar is getting emptied out for it.

3DS has been in a decline for years and Nintendo usually overestimates sales projections, so not too surprising that it will be a down a bit from their earlier hopes. I don't see it as meaning a thing where the NX is concerned since the fiscal year is in its closing weeks and there's been no evidence that they're shifted a major release away from it.

And neither is Zelda U being a cross-gen release a surprise, since that has seemed rather obvious since it was delayed and many thought long ago that this situation stood an excellent chance of happening given the Wii U's situation and what promised to be a late release in its lifespan.

What surprises me here with this guys information is the marketing budgets. The significant differences there between what they're allotting for the 3DS and the Wii U is pretty lopsided and suggests to me that perhaps the New 3DS isn't slated for replacement in 2016. Even if you allocate Zelda's budget entirely to the Wii U side, the 3DS still leads by a fair bit.

Looks like the WIi U will be going first.
 
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Morgan Jolley

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The Wii U has already kind of gone. It has some pretty great games on it so there's definitely value for people who buy it, but it's a dead platform at this point.

I'm guessing the NX will be backward compatible and this will be one way to try and support sales of Wii U software, similar to GameCube on Wii and Wii on Wii U. I'm a bit disappointed by Zelda being on both, as it is now starting to look like a "thing" (every console generation will have a Zelda release to close one and start another) and it shows a real lack of confidence in the Wii U. I honestly wasn't convinced the NX would see November 2016 and I honestly thought Zelda would be out before then, so it would be kind of stupid to release a huge Wii U game around the same time as the NX.

I'm kind of hoping the NX turns out to be the ultimate Nintendo machine. I'm thinking a handheld and console (two separate units) that can play the same games and both have extensive emulators for old Nintendo consoles. It's weird to me that the 3DS doesn't have SNES games on it or that the Wii U just got GB/GBA/DS games in the last year or two, so having one console that can play just about anything Nintendo has ever made (disc support going back to the GameCube would be great) would be amazing.
 

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Nintendo confirmed those leaked Nintendo Selects rereleases this morning. :)

No DS downloads on the 3DS is another thing that puzzles me. And while I'd love to see it be backwards compatible, I bet it isn't. :(

The latest rumors I saw tend to imply that it's a handheld first and foremost. This bit that's making the rounds says that it will have a wireless HDMI dongle, which strikes me as completely unnecessary and rather pointless if it has a console form factor.

http://dualpixels.com/2016/02/27/rumor-new-information-on-next-gen-nintendo-nx-console/

Not sure if this source carries the weight that they want you to believe that they do, since I've never even heard of this particular site.

Looking forward to getting some real news direct from the horses mouth, hopefully at E3.
 
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Morgan Jolley

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I had previously heard of the NX handheld being released first this fall (console next spring) but the 3DS/New 3DS is doing well enough that they don't need to do that. Also, if Zelda Wii U is going to be on NX as well, I'm not sure if it's a good idea to push that onto a handheld.

A wireless HDMI dongle would be interesting. What if the new way it "interacts with other consoles" is through a sort of HDMI pass-through? I doubt it would really mean much more than saving people an input on their TVs, but it could be interesting. If the concept is that it's basically a 3DS form factor with the power of a console that wirelessly streams to a TV (reverse of the Wii U tablet, where the console streamed to the tablet) then that actually sounds kind of cool. My only concern would be storage and battery power.

It also kind of sounds like using an iPad on an Apple TV, which makes it less impressive and interesting. Oh well, we'll see in June. Or sooner.
 

LeoA

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Nintendo Direct announced for tomorrow. The plan is to showcase their spring/summer lineup for the 3DS and Wii U.

Hopefully a surprise or two sneaks into it, although I expect it to be dominated by topics like Star Fox Zero and their Amiibo figurines. One easy thing I'd love to see is the introduction of a Virtual Console Arcade category on the Wii U's eShop, just like the Wii Virtual Console had.

But actually supported by Nintendo themselves this time around with their own back catalog of coinop classics like Mario Bros. NES ports are great and sometimes even were improved over their source material (although just as often they were cut down a bit), but it's still a gaping hole for a company that struck it big in this industry in arcades before ever entering the home market.

Would love to see that part of their history actually be represented on the Virtual Console.
 
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LeoA

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Decent Nintendo Direct today.

Some highlights off the top of my head are SuperNes games coming to the New 3DS Virtual Console, a new Paper Mario title for the Wii U, Pinball Arcade for the Wii U has finally been shown off, and a new Kirby title for the 3DS.
 

Morgan Jolley

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I'm surprised it took this long for SNES games to end up on the 3DS, but I understand that emulation is kind of hard. The SNES games are also limited to the New 3DS only because it needs the extra power to run them. I just hope they start allowing you to link your handhelds and consoles together so I can buy Super Mario World once and run it on everything, like on PS3/4/Vita.

Also, a bunch of the stuff they announced was in the previous leak so this adds legitimacy to the NX stuff. Now I'm really excited for June.
 

LeoA

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Cross-buy would've been nice.

At one time, I'd be pretty disappointed right now after taking advantage of a 3DS XL sale last year, since I was counting on there never being a New 3DS exclusive game/feature that I couldn't easily do without.

I can't see in 3D so those enhancements are meaningless to me, the Xenoblade port was of zero interest, and while I'd love to have the 2nd stick for camera control in Majora's Mask, throttle control in 3D Afterburner, and for rudder controls in Ace Combat, the $70 or so I saved buying this new in lieu of the latest model was too much to pass on.

But thanks to the Wii U Virtual Console, off-screen play, and the fact that my 3DS is always played within range of my consoles anyways, I'm happily not missing anything. I could already lay back and relax to some Pilotwings or Super Mario World before this announcement, thanks to the Wii U's novel controller setup. :)

Still have my fingers crossed that there's never a New 3DS exclusive that I can't do without, that will leave me kicking myself.
 
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LeoA

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Unconfirmed reports out of Japan say that the Wii U is in the process of being discontinued. Hardware manufacturing is slated to end soon and some accessories are already out of production.

The goal is to have the stock be depleted by the end of the year (With enough presumably on hand to at least satisfy the Christmas shopping season, since like I believe Morgan said a while back, NX rumors point towards a 2016 handheld release but no console until 2017).

Time to get one last Wiimote I suppose. I bought a refurbished black Wiimote off Nintendo's online store a couple of years ago for $10 that's tied to my Wii U. But despite looking brand new, it just feels a bit wore out and nothing like my original Wii's Wiimote from 2007 (I was a year late to the Wii party).

Hopefully the feel of it is due to being used, rather than a change in design that lent it a bit of a different feel. If not, I guess it won't hurt to have a backup.
 
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Morgan Jolley

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Nintendo issued a response saying that they are not stopping Wii U production. I'm guessing there's something to the report but the message got scrambled. It's probably something like they're ramping down Wii U production or they're stopping manufacture of certain accessories, but not stopping the consoles themselves.

Maybe a part of the NX is that it can replace the Wii U tablet controller, so they're going to try and push both products together?
 

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With this being perceived as a discontinuance, another possible spin on it if production is indeed being phased out, could be that they're just denying that the system's death warrant has been signed.

They could easily have ample stock for the projected remaining commercial lifespan of the console and thus don't believe that it's accurate that ending production equates to discontinuance like this report is being perceived as saying.

Either way, this one should enjoy a more robust phaseout from the looks of things, with several interesting titles in the pipeline for what almost certainly will be the Wii U's final year as Nintendo's flagship console.

Edit: Eurogamer says that production at least into autumn was confirmed.
 
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Morgan Jolley

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Yeah, Nikkei has a good track record and Nintendo does have a habit of saying one thing then admitting a changed course later on.

The rumors with NX are that the handheld unit will come out this fall with the console coming next year. So they may still want Wii U to be for sale and not let NX eat into it.

There are some pictures of NX controllers supposedly out in the wild. They look pretty much exactly like what was in the patent that leaked late last year. Oblong football-ish shape, two joysticks, not physical buttons on the face, just one giant screen and virtual buttons. I'm wondering if the NX is going to be more or less a media device. Maybe the HDMI dongle is actually a passthrough dongle and the image can be sent back to the handheld? It's a bluetooth controller, so maybe the "works with PS4" thing means you can sync it to a PS4, use it as a controller, and send the video from the TV to the NX's screen? Or just the video, no control sync, and use a PS4 controller.

I don't want to believe the pictures (the patent drawing is a generic one, they always are and never represent final products) but two sources have two units in two colors (one black, one white) that look pretty much identical otherwise, so I'm left wondering a bit. The controller also looks WAY too tiny to be as powerful as a PS4, so (if the pic is genuine) those rumors must have been referencing the console NX they're releasing later. That's why I'm wondering if its more of a remote screen than a super-powerful handheld. The early rumors also had it at $200, which I doubt would include the guts of a PS4.
 

LeoA

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Saw those and they look horrible. Virtual buttons would be a disaster and they both look terribly uncomfortable to hold.

And what's with the depressed analog sticks on the first supposed leak (A feature not seen on the latest image)? And having screen display that is hidden under your hands seems pointless and an unnecessary extra expense and decrease in battery life.

I'm hoping that they're both fake, although I do like the idea in that patent last year for scrollable shoulder buttons, a feature which supposedly is present in this latest leaked image of an alleged NX prototype.

I don't think a portable NX needs to PS4 style power to deliver similar games. For one example, the Wii U gamepad has convinced me that 480p on even a large screen like that one can easily pass for high definition, unlike on a much larger television screen.

1080p on a handheld display is getting well into overkill territory and is something that largely only holds value from a marketing standpoint.

And I'd argue that a rock solid 30 fps is perfectly fine on handhelds, although that one is likely to garner a lot of disagreement.
 
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Morgan Jolley

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The fact that the controller is EXACTLY like the patent is suspicious to me. It doesn't look comfortable and it doesn't look like something I'd want to really bring around with me. So I'm incredibly skeptical.

Before the 3DS was announced, there were some really interesting working fakes that popped up in videos on the internet. So very elaborate fakes have happened before.

The analog sticks look like a cross between 3DS and Wii U. This makes sense if this is the portable NX and not the console portion. I think the screen where you hands cover it is more for context (like the little arrows near the joystick and the B button) rather than game imagery. I agree, covering the screen with your hands is a bit unnecessary but if its used for extra things like that then I get it.

The worst part is that the shape of the screen would SUCK. People already know and love rectangular screens, why use that oval thing? Sure, you can go lower res on a smaller screen, but I wouldn't want to use an oval shaped one.

I actually don't know if I like the scrolling buttons idea. I'd need to try it and see a good use for it first. I do kind of miss the double click shoulder buttons of the GameCube, though.
 

LeoA

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Not exactly a 1:1 copy.

The patent design for instance had grips and looked much more comfortable, although it also was lacking any face buttons which was my major issue with it (And the patent drawing showed the right analog placed in such a manner where virtual buttons likely wouldn't work, with reliance presumably placed entirely on the triggers and various other shoulder buttons).
 
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Morgan Jolley

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Luckily, it's a fake. The guy who made it put up pictures and videos detailing how he made it. Well, the original white controller at least. I doubt he just happened to make a fake that was very close to the real deal, so I assume both are fake.
 

Morgan Jolley

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Latest rumors I've seen sound pretty good. The NX will probably be announced and shown in a video later this month and release in November or December. It will be a traditional home console, slightly more powerful than PS4, probably $350-400. The dev kits have 1 TB HDDs and 12 GB of RAM (with 6 for OS and 6 for games) but that's not necessarily the final consumer hardware. Media used in dev kits are 25 GB proprietary discs made by Nintendo, though one rumor said games would be on cards (like 3DS) that can be used on the console.

The handheld will release next year, probably the spring, and looks like something about the size of the bottom of a 3DS XL. It's going to be a slightly less powerful version of the home console. The cards for games will be color-branded for the console or the handheld (red for one, blue for the other) so that consumers can tell which is which, but games will probably be released for both at the same time. I think this will be like Sony and the PS3/Vita cross-buy where you buy the Vita version for $40 or the PS3 version for $60 and it includes the Vita version.

The controller kind of looks like a Wii U Pro controller with a rectangular touchscreen added in the middle. The face buttons are similar to what we've seen before and it includes digital triggers, but the shoulder bumpers are replaced with the scrolling buttons. The leaker (this was on reddit) said the scrolling buttons also click (like a mouse scroll button) and are awesome to use in practice. There are also controllers being made that are basically just regular Wii U Pro-style controllers. The console can handle 8 controllers at once, which the Wii U did for Smash Bros. Controllers can be wireless or wired, though no details on what that means (wired to charge, cheaper wired controllers vs. more expensive wireless, etc.). The controller with the touchscreen is mostly for extra info, like map or inventory, but Nintendo has their eyes on remote play, too, just hasn't given developers the info on that yet.

No backward compatibility with Wii or Wii U (at least, not in the dev kits) but there will be a large virtual console and eShop presence. Rumor has it, from somewhere else, that the console would launch with 5 VC games included.

There were rumors from another source that the NX controller was as powerful as a mid-tier phone and that games would be able to have portable mini-games installed on it that you could play on the go, like the Dreamcast VMU. But that controller was also a full-face touchscreen with buttons (according to that leaker) so the whole thing sounds odd. The newer leak I described above sounds more convincing to me.
 

LeoA

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Haven't seen this latest rumor, but it mostly sounds plausible and interesting, so hopefully it's basically real. I don't like the idea though that if it's cartridge based with the same format used for both iterations of the hardware, that all software won't be cross-compatible by default.

That will just annoy and confuse consumers where as I think they'd accept that if it meant 50 GB dual layered optical media on the console with 1080p textures and a capacity all but mandatory for today's bloated console game sizes if they want to be 3rd party friendly. And then a downgraded 480p or so handheld version that fits on a 25 GB cartridge that better fits mobile needs for various reasons like battery efficiency, durability, and read times.

And no way will it be December which is so late into the Christmas shopping season. September through early November at the latest is what a hardware manufacturer aims for in order for their new product to have a presence during the Christmas season. Nintendo won't want to be releasing something big like a new platform just days before Christmas.

One thing that doesn't make sense to me is the handheld form factor. If the NX console maintains the Wii U style setup with the tv serving as your main display with a supplemental touch screen integrated with the controller, why not have the NX handheld retain the traditional dual screen system of the past 10+ years of Nintendo handheld gaming in order to match that and maintain a similar level of capability?

I personally think going to a single screen setup for the handheld is ideal since I never much liked this dual screen jazz of the DS/3DS and feel that it has added very little, but if the NX console's primary controller resembles what the Wii U has and thus maintains the dual screen setup there, I'd personally expect the NX handheld to retain dual screens as well with a dedicated main display and a supplementary touch display below it.

Otherwise, developers have two very different schemes to worry about that will be counterproductive to the goal of commonality between the two lines.

Looking forward to hopefully hearing some concrete news in the coming months.
 
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