Ex-Sony Dev: Wii U Won't Last Another Christmas

[Karadalis]

But dont you people know? The Wii-U has allready won the console war! Our lord and savior jim sterling himselfe said so!

With how poor the Wii U sales go its no surprise that people take potshots at it, however i doubt nintendo will let it die that quickly, they will drag it along for a bit like they did for the gamecube most likely.

 

[Teoes]

But dont you people know? The Wii-U has allready won the console war! Our lord and savior jim sterling himselfe said so!

With how poor the Wii U sales go its no surprise that people take potshots at it, however i doubt nintendo will let it die that quickly, they will drag it along for a bit like they did for the gamecube most likely.

With any facetiousness/snark aside, that's not what he said. He said that in his opinion the Wii-U won the next-gen console launch, then said the rest of the "war" itself could turn out rather differently.

OT: Nintendo aren't going down that easily. It's possible that the Wii-U will, but my guess is it'll stick around.

 

[JayRPG]

I just don't know how Nintendo is going so wrong with the Wii U, yes it's sales aren't what the competition are, but that didn't stop the Gamecube releasing terrific games, most 1st party but that didn't matter.

It just seems like they pushed the Wii U out WAY too early, they had no games ready... not even close to being ready.
Where was/is:
Mario Kart
Mario Party
New Zelda (not a HD remake)
Metroid
Super Smash Bros.
Donkey Kong
Paper Mario
F Zero
3D Mario/luigi game (like luigi's mansion, sunshine or mario 64)

And what happened to the great support by Namco Bandai they used to have back with the Gamecube?
Gives us a Wii U Tales of or another Baten Kaitos

It's not like Nintendo is some small struggling company, I'm sure they can offer incentives to third party devs.

It's like they are thinking "Well, there is no use in releasing games for it because nobody has bought it" but what they don't realize is no-one has bought it because it has no goddamn games, I've thought time and time again about buying one but the only thing I want to play is Wind Waker.

Release some games, and not just 1 'big' one (like the new mario that's selling like crap), release faster and don't expect 1 big release in 8 months to suddenly start moving consoles, while Mario is the face of the company, another Mario platformer is far from a new, exciting game.

 

[piinyouri]

Well...that's rather rude and unprofessional.

It's not even that I necessarily disagree with the base ideas some of these Sony folks are throwing around. I feel Nintendo has a lot of learning and evolving to do if they wish to stay relevant (don't quote me to argue about this, please) but they can say these things in a more respectful and professional manner.

 

[WildFire15]

Well he contradicted his own statement that 'no one gives a shit' by stating the 150k who do.

It is sad though that quality got trumped by shiny mediocrity, I'm holding off on Xbox One and PS4 until something worthwhile comes out, though I don't disagree that Nintendo needs to have another look at their advertising strategies and getting some more games out that aren't part of their big series'.

 

[seditary]

Well now, I can't imagine why this guy is an ex dev.

Why is anyone paying attention to this dude? Simply because its an easy 'Nintendo is DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED' headline?

Yawn.

 

[karloss01]

He is sort of right about three things though:-

1) The Wii U is already being taken off shelves in some non game-specific brick and mortar retailers.
2) In the UK Nintendo are doing almost no marketing at all, adverts in newspapers, magazines and across most TV channels are filled with adverts for the XBox 360, Xbox One, PS4, PS3 and games for them and Nintendo barely have anything.
3) Launching a single new game with zero marketing in the face of the new consoles from Sony and Microsoft was doomed to fail.

Aye I can confirm this where I live. My local GAME store has just had a refit for the new consoles, the PS3/4 and 360/Xbone are take up all the walls whilst the Wii U has a single shelving unit to itself in the middle of the room wide enough for four game with about five shelves; the consoles aren't even on display anymore they have a DVD case with a picture of it telling the customer to ask at the counter. hell even PC games have more shelving and the 3DS has a corn of the shop to itself and the Wii itself is no longer on sale and they aren't taking trade-ins for Wii games.

locally, the Wii U is pretty much non-existent in stores.

 

[Battenberg]

Oh look another story erroneously implying Sony is bashing Nintendo. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.835686-Naughty-Dog-Co-Founder-Nintendo-Irrelevant-as-a-Hardware-Manufacturer#20467428]

Sony's name has no place in this article, it's just being included to make the story seem more exciting than it is and imply a more bitter relationship between Sony and Nintendo than really exists. Kenny Linder was one dev for Bigbig, a studio that made a total of four games for Sony and has been closed for nearly 2 years, he was not some high level Sony executive making his present day connection to Sony minimal at best.

That aside I suspect, given how few people (myself included) had heard of Kenny Linder, that this is essentially a little stunt to get his name noticed and maybe boost his career a little however his basic point may well be valid; even if he did make it in an exceptionally unprofessional way. Now that the PS4 and XBone are out sales for the Wii U probably aren't going to get any better and there's every chance retailers will start ordering fewer and making less of an effort to sell them. I doubt the Wii U will be 'extinct' by next christmas and saying nobody gives a crap isn't certainly an overstatement but the underlying reasons for saying those things are still valid.

 

[J Tyran]

He is sort of right about three things though:-

1) The Wii U is already being taken off shelves in some non game-specific brick and mortar retailers.
2) In the UK Nintendo are doing almost no marketing at all, adverts in newspapers, magazines and across most TV channels are filled with adverts for the XBox 360, Xbox One, PS4, PS3 and games for them and Nintendo barely have anything.
3) Launching a single new game with zero marketing in the face of the new consoles from Sony and Microsoft was doomed to fail.

Aye I can confirm this where I live. My local GAME store has just had a refit for the new consoles, the PS3/4 and 360/Xbone are take up all the walls whilst the Wii U has a single shelving unit to itself in the middle of the room wide enough for four game with about five shelves; the consoles aren't even on display anymore they have a DVD case with a picture of it telling the customer to ask at the counter. hell even PC games have more shelving and the 3DS has a corn of the shop to itself and the Wii itself is no longer on sale and they aren't taking trade-ins for Wii games.

locally, the Wii U is pretty much non-existent in stores.

Its worse than I thought then, I never go to those stores so I didn't know they where sidelining them too. They have pretty much disappeared in ASDA and Tescos, there where rumours that they where even going to stop stocking the games as well.

 

[Little Duck]

I think this is going to be an interesting year for gaming, what with the steam box in the works and the new consoles. Lets see what happens in december. All 4 consoles will probably still be there but how they'll be is more interesting. Most likely the wii u will be the weakest though, it has great games coming and I'll probably pick one up but I'm not sure many others will without more incentive not from gaming but from os.

 

[Karadalis]

But dont you people know? The Wii-U has allready won the console war! Our lord and savior jim sterling himselfe said so!

With how poor the Wii U sales go its no surprise that people take potshots at it, however i doubt nintendo will let it die that quickly, they will drag it along for a bit like they did for the gamecube most likely.

With any facetiousness/snark aside, that's not what he said. He said that in his opinion the Wii-U won the next-gen console launch, then said the rest of the "war" itself could turn out rather differently.

OT: Nintendo aren't going down that easily. It's possible that the Wii-U will, but my guess is it'll stick around.

Whoops.. you are correct with that.. and i apologize for that. Thought the question rather should be if the wii u is actualy "next gen" because of its limited power compared to both the ps4 and xbox.

Right now it looks more like it only has the power of the ps3/xbox 360

Also nitnendo is still the king of handhelds, no one argues that. But the Wii u does look like it might follow the virtual boy and gamecube route of existance...

 

[Casual Shinji]

I fear that he might be on to something, it will go on for more than a year, but I think this might be a short lived console based on the sales we're seeing now. I keep saying that the problem is that there aren't any games for it, but even with the launch of a new Mario the sales still aren't there. It's important to remember that both the Nintendo 64 and the GameCube were outsold by a massive landslide compared to Sony's sales and the Wii is the first console to go head to head with Sony. We should also consider the fact that the PS3 had a really rocky start too, but eventually managed to overtake Microsoft towards the end (not sure which has sold the most currently). Still, third party support is not there and there are some retailers who have already stopped taking in new consoles.

I'm afraid the Wii-U has the perfect mix of strikes against it.

It has the lower grade tech and skewing hardware of the Wii, the rocky start of the PS3, and the confussion of whether or not it's just a peripheral. And it's the former that I think is really killing it. Because today's industry wants consoles that are quite close together interms of technical performance, so that porting titles like CoD, GTA, and Battlefield across each system will be easy. You might say this is an issue with the gaming industry overall, and you'd be right, but it still leaves the Wii-U shit out of luck.

The PS3 was stumbling like crazy in its first few years, but it atleast had that promise of being a powerful machine with untapped potential, which kept developer interest.

I've been eyeing the Wii-U myself, if only for the fact that Wind Waker HD looks very appetizing, but beyond that there's nothing I'm too interested in. Even their first-party games, which are always of superb quality, leave me kinda apathetic since it's just the same visual palette we've seen for years now. That new Mario game looks virtually identical to every Mario game that came out in the last 5 years.

 

[Arawn]

Nintendo treats their customers with respect, a lot more than what I can say with the other guys.

I'll admit the man's statements are rather harsh. I seriously hope that Nintendo doesn't step out of the console arena. Several systems have had rocky starts, but the Wii U isn't out for the count. People have shown interest. And I am quite tempted to pick up Bayonetta 2. I'd almost be pulled over with X (Xeno I've been told) and afew others.

That being said I'm not sure what constitutes as "treating customers with respect". As far as I can see Nintendo, like "the other guys" want your money. They want to sell you something for a profit. They're not giving their systems or games away. They are not investing money into development from the goodness of their hearts. It's a business. How they go about it may differ, but their goal is the same. If you're referring to the lack of a subscription fee or paywall, I'm not sure if that's considered respect or not. No micro transactions or ridiculous priced DLC? I don't think that's disrespectful just tacky. It's okay to like our systems, but let's not paint a smiley face on the people that sell us the product and call them friend. You are customer #323820, and chances are you won't hear from them personally unless you file a complaint or need repairs on your game system. It's kinda like facebook,myspace,etc; people that have millions of likes/friends, but don't know even half of who they are. Being loyal to a company that sees only a $ isn't something I'd promote. Nor the opposite; hating a company for the same reason. A friend of mine refused to buy a PS3 because his Sony TV broke some years back. Yet another gave up on his 360 because of windows 8. Seriously some people take these things far too personally.

 

[iniudan]

What's with all these guys who used to work for Sony coming out of the woodwork to say negative things about Nintendo and the Wii-U? I really want to know. Did they have a traumatic experience with Nintendo and their consoles?

No idea and with one of Sony director saying that Sony needs Nintendo, it just seem odd.

 

[cerebus23]

treating the wii like a dumping ground for crap games did them no favors for your average consumers. at this point all they have are the real die hard nintendo fans, many of us (former nintendo fans) got sick of their whole vibe backs in the n64 days and we had sony making games like metal gear, persona, final fantasy x, we wanted our games to grow up and evolve, nintendo did not.

so while the new super mario may be the best super mario ever it is just however another super mario game, mario will run, jump, and do stuff. the same thing mario has been doing forever going all the way back to 2d games. the level designs will probably be brilliant, the stuff mario games do well it will do well.

but outside of real die hard mario fans who cares? is another mario game a seller for anyone? is it a system seller? apparently not. when they cannot even get good sales in japan nintendo is in trouble period, that is their home field, their backyard, a mario ghame doing badly in japan? a nintendo system doing badly in japan?

I really do not think mr someone no one ever heard of is wrong the wii u is probably going to have a abbreviated shelf life, unless sony really fumbles its games lineup after the good out of the gate start they got, it is really looking like sony could not only outdo the nintendo systems but the microsoft system as well?

man how the worm turns last gen, ps3 trails, wii explodes, xbox wins the war. this gen could be a total reversal.

 

[Saidan]

"Nobody gives a s***" about Mario", eh... that sounds very professional mate.

 

[Saelune]

The key word is Ex. He failed as a developer. How would he know crap about how successful or not the Wii U will be? He just sounds like a loser who is taking his failure out on others.

Also Super Smash Bros comes out next year. If anything, next year will be Wii U's best.

 

[tokae]

What's with all these guys who used to work for Sony coming out of the woodwork to say negative things about Nintendo and the Wii-U? I really want to know. Did they have a traumatic experience with Nintendo and their consoles?

Well, in Kenny Linder's case I can only assume it would be coming from his time at BigBig Studios (under Sony UK), they developed a couple of games for the PSP before Sony shut them down.
The PSP wasn't selling, and it's games were really not selling. Perhaps he blames the competition?

Nah, seriously though, if Nintendo doesn't get it's marketing sorted out he may very well end up being right but.. I doubt it.

 

[Hunter Grant]

Its a bummer, but he's probably right. I have the system and enjoy it a lot. I use the Gamepad to get more play time than I used to so I get to play more games like Batman and Deus Ex which are big long games that would take me forever to finish on a system exclusive to the TV. Also I do really like first party Nintendo stuff. I guess it could be said its just another Mario game, but quality is quality. Mario will always be a platform game and so the design of the levels is what matters and its brilliant. Thing is its not just that Mario game and WWHD that people could take a look at.

ZombiU is actually great if you like survival horror
Pikmin 3 is great and given that, that series never really reached a big audience it can't be at saturation like Mario seems to be. (although the fact that it hasn't could dispel the myth that Nintendo introducing new IP would be the secret to new success)
Wonderful 101 was a fun filled romp for me
Rayman Legends asymmetrical multiplayer is superior in my opinion
Nintendo Land and Wii U party are great party games (though the visitors of most game sites I find tend to look down their nose at party games)
Monster Hunter 3 U is great co-op multiplayer fun
Lego City is good.

But I guess I'm the exception I still enjoy that same Mario experience more than something like CoD, or Knack. I still get people together to play party games, and I like quirky genre bending stuff like Wonderful 101 and Pikmin. Maybe games are my no country for old men moment. Drag.

If they do drop it early, and I can understand why. I personally feel a system identical to the other two would be a huge flop. It would be met with, why get that when its the same type shrugs.

I think they should make the follow up to the 3DS leverage the Wii U local streaming tech, but in reverse. Make a portable that can stream out to the TV when its available, and when it's doing that it can sych up Wii Remotes or pro controllers for couch multiplayer games. One piece of hardware, console and portable. This would also allow them to have all their first party dev on one platform. The 3DS already had a great year imagine if its year was:

Fire Emblem
Luigi's Mansion
Lego City
Game and Wario
Mario and Luigi Dream Team
Animal Crossing
Wonderful 101
Wind Waker Remake
A Link Between Worlds
Mario 3D World
Pokemon
Wii Party U
Steam World Dig
Pikmin 3

Plus a smattering of quirky 3rd party stuff like the Atlus RPGs, Virtual Console, Some ports like Deus EX directors cut.

That would be hard to compete with. Still bummed and like I say maybe if they make the follow up to the 3DS like I said above they could port over the good Wii U games for launch and have its super strong. Then take the Wii U games currently in dev and roll them out across its first year to keep momentum.

 

[tehroc]

Nintendo should just give up and go the Sega route. No more consoles just games. Imagine how much money Nintendo would make if Zelda was released on all systems.