Game Theory: Wii U is the New Virtual Boy

MatthewPatrick13

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Wii U is the New Virtual Boy

The Virtual Boy has gone down in video game history as one of the worst systems of all time. This tremendous flop has been a dark mark in Nintendo's history, and yet, history has just repeated itself. The Wii U has made all the mistakes of the Virtual Boy. Had Nintendo remembered its own history, its current financial troubles could have been avoided.

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Nazulu

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Jun 5, 2008
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He left out how the fucking stupid Wii-motes also absorbed battery's and still was a super popular gimmick. Probably the reason Nintendo weren't too worried about having us charge up shit constantly.

I am more interested to know how it's the consumers fault.
 

Baresark

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Dec 19, 2010
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I'm still looking forward to picking this up. There are enough good games on it now that it's worth buying at least a refurbished model from Nintendo. Consumers on average end up spending way way way more on their smartphone by the time it's paid off. A small investment at this point seeing as how there are a bunch of good games on it now.
 

Slegiar Dryke

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shoeletariat said:
I'm sorry, but that is just a stupid opinion. Obvious click-bait is obvious.
to be fair, when the video was originally made and posted on youtube, there was definitely more of a comparison there. but with Nintendo playing the long game and pulling game after awesome game outta their hats lately, it is kinda late in its context now =/
 

144_v1legacy

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I've heard the Nintendo-is-Sega comparison, the Wii U is the GC comparison, and now a virtual boy comparison.
It's not the same scenario. And his statistics are outdated.
 

plutoburns

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Whoever is chosing what gametheories to put on the site should choose more carefully. This one was made a while ago and is clearly dated.
 

Dreadman75

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plutoburns said:
Whoever is chosing what gametheories to put on the site should choose more carefully. This one was made a while ago and is clearly dated.
144 said:
I've heard the Nintendo-is-Sega comparison, the Wii U is the GC comparison, and now a virtual boy comparison.
It's not the same scenario. And his statistics are outdated.
The main problem here is that the Escapist is re-uploading the videos more or less in the order they were originally released in on Youtube. Unfortunately, the once a week release schedule is still pretty far behind the Game Theorists own Youtube channel and thus most of the videos that deal with more topical theories like this are going to be at least somewhat out-of-date. Nintendo has done a pretty good job on the games front lately, but when this video first aired the outlook was quite a bit more bleak. Just something to keep in mind...
 

Cpt. Slow

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Dec 9, 2012
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What I don't understand, how this video is pseudo replacement content for Jimquisiton. I have tried to watch 2 other Game Theory episodes but my ears started to hurt after being bombarded with the constant background noise that is synthesized 8/16 bit music. It's distracting and annoying. Even 8/16 bit games back in the day had a rotation of music but this is just looped over and over again.

Furthermore, the title of this episode is clearly click-bait and is so wrong on so many levels. I do not own the Wii U, but this console is far from dead. The virtual boy however is indeed the greatest failure of Nintendo. But making a connection between a console that was rushed to make more money for another future project and the Wii U is just despicable.

Let's hope that Matthew Patrick takes this footnote of mine and put it to good use. Change the background music, no more click-bait titles and you will have a lot more people watching this.

By the way, I know that this is a Youtube channel copy and paste but I was expecting more from the Escapist.
 

LaochEire

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It's a terrible console, I hate it. However, I love the library and game on it quite regularly. There's so many problems with it though.

1. The controller feels and looks horrible. Because your hands and fingers are so spread out they cramp up after prolonged periods of play. They don't on XB1/360 or PS3/PS4. On Bayonetta 2 they can cramp after 20 mins if you button mash, which is something any people new to the game do. The screen does nothing and is only used in a handful of game. Streaming to it is decent, but limited reasons to do so. Only time I did was farming lives on New Super Mario Bros U so I could turn on some sports or something. Its battery life is also pathetic. It also feels horrible and anyone who wanted to use it in FPS knows it's the worse controller they've ever designed.

2. No 3rd Party Support. The only reason to own a Wii U is as a secondary device. Having it as your only means on gaming wipes away so many titles. The indie support is ok, but nothing anywhere near Sony or even MS.

3. It's the weakest console and for what 3rd party games do arrive, they're inferior versions. The limited hardware leaves Nintendo with little wiggle room for their IP's. I know Nintendo IP never relied on graphics or scope, but still. It's pretty poor for this day and age.

4. Rehashing and rehashing of old IP. I'm sick of new version of Nintendo IP U. The only exception is Super Mario 3D World, which is excellent. New Super Mario Bros U, Wii Fit U, etc are not great and show a decline in quality. Not because they're bad games it's just they hardly offer anything new.

5. Region locking. Even MS removed it c'mon Nintendo.

6. Hidden costs. Wii U Pro controller which many will need to avoid the awful Gamepad. You need a Wii Remote if you haven't got your old Wii one anymore. Gamepad battery extender which is well worth the investment and if you want a wired connection you need an extension to allow an ethernet cable into the Wii U. Wireless only without it.

I take no pleasure in saying this, but that console is doomed. It offers nothing to the casual market now that next gen is here. No 3rd Party support and lackluster public interest in its IP. There's nothing they can do.

Edit: Point 6.
 

Covarr

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May 29, 2009
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Let's look at things in terms of March 2014, when this video was made. The Wii U had already long outsold the Virtual Boy, and in fact had done so with relative ease; in its first month alone, the Wii U sold roughly quadruple the number of units the VB did in its entire life. What's more, the single biggest reason the VB failed is because it was, for many, physically painful and sickening to use. The Wii U never had that problem. Sure, it's got a whole host of things it could do better, but I don't know anyone who need to take a break every fifteen minutes to prevent nausea that doesn't have problems with video games in general.

The Wii U's biggest failing points, especially by March 2014, were a lackluster library (their two biggest draws, MK8 and SSB were not out yet), and piss-poor marketing. People weren't avoiding the Wii U because of batteries, or because the touchscreen wasn't good enough. They simply didn't see a good reason to buy it. At launch, it was too expensive for an impulse buy, and when people aren't seeing ads, and the library is predominantly stuff they already played on 360 and PS3, not many people are going to get hyped up for a planned purchase either. It's not that it was actively a bad system like the VB, it simply couldn't justify itself.

P.S. Thanks
 

Jacked Assassin

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According to VG Chartz (If you believe them & if you don't do you have a better source?) so far

NA 5.91 + EU 6.19 + Japan 0.80 + RoW 2.19 = 15.09 (PS4's 2nd Year So Far)
NA 4.81 + EU 2.23 + Japan 0.04 + RoW 0.98 = 8.06 (Xbox One's 2nd Year So Far)
NA 3.37 + EU 1.78 + Japan 1.98 + RoW 0.50 = 7.63 (Wii U's 3rd Year So Far)
 

Karadalis

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Covarr said:
Let's look at things in terms of March 2014, when this video was made. The Wii U had already long outsold the Virtual Boy, and in fact had done so with relative ease; in its first month alone, the Wii U sold roughly quadruple the number of units the VB did in its entire life. What's more, the single biggest reason the VB failed is because it was, for many, physically painful and sickening to use. The Wii U never had that problem. Sure, it's got a whole host of things it could do better, but I don't know anyone who need to take a break every fifteen minutes to prevent nausea that doesn't have problems with video games in general.

The Wii U's biggest failing points, especially by March 2014, were a lackluster library (their two biggest draws, MK8 and SSB were not out yet), and piss-poor marketing. People weren't avoiding the Wii U because of batteries, or because the touchscreen wasn't good enough. They simply didn't see a good reason to buy it. At launch, it was too expensive for an impulse buy, and when people aren't seeing ads, and the library is predominantly stuff they already played on 360 and PS3, not many people are going to get hyped up for a planned purchase either. It's not that it was actively a bad system like the VB, it simply couldn't justify itself.

P.S. Thanks
To be fair:

a) There werent as many gamers worldwide in 1996 as there where in 2012

b) People had less money, ESPECIALY gamers since usually your typical gamer back then was still in his teens or tweens.

Even thought the grade of "failure" doesnt quite measure up, but they did infact do the same mistakes they did back then.

Even the Wii that "printed money" most often ended up as a paperweight in peoples livingrooms collecting dust once the initial wii sports hype settled down. Or people bought it for their children because compared to the price of a ps3 or xbox 360 at the time it was decently cheap... and had a great cataloge of cheap "kid friendly games" aka shovelware.

When people tried to sell their wiis thought at places like gamestop they where often not able to because the shops wouldnt buy the wiis anymore... they allready had more then enough used wiis to sell. (atleast the gamestops around where i lived had that problem)

But what shot nintendo right in the foot is their arrogance towards other non japanese game developers, nowadays it seems the only companies they want to work with is sega and capcom. Myamotos latest hilarious interview statements about how their competition is "boring" was just the cherry ontop seing that their own IPs are more or less the same bloody game kept for another unnecesary and clumsy gimmick slapped on.

No one is going to want to work with you if they get the feeling you are looking down on them, and nintendo looks down on the western market with the stereotypical japanese xenophile mindset thats allmost a carricature by now.

So yeah while smashbrothers might have rekindled the sales a bit they will drop soon enough if they dont follow up with anything else, not to mention that most people allready have either a PS4 or Xbone at this point and just grabbed the Wii U that has gotten so cheap by now, nintendo isnt earning anything with console sales alone... wich means more oneshot gimmicks that cost a fuckton and you will never use them again... donkey kong konga anyone?
 

PH3NOmenon

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Oct 23, 2009
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This feels like a video that's about a year late. This wasn't created recently, was it?
 

TiberiusEsuriens

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Say what you want, RED ALARM was my jam. Of all things about the broken console, it was the least broke. I actually had fun with that game sometimes!
 

Brian Tams

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PH3NOmenon said:
This feels like a video that's about a year late. This wasn't created recently, was it?
No, no it wasn't.

*checks youtube*

It was originally posted by The Game Theorists 9 months ago.
 

Blaze the Dragon

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Jan 8, 2010
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And this is the issue with posting all the old videos months after they were originally posted on Youtube. Although most of his other videos have been pretty fine up till now, this one is a tad dated. For those that don't know, he made this video about 9 months ago, before games like Mario Kart and Smash came out.

This year has made a complete 180 on my opinion of the PS4 and WiiU. When the WiiU launched, it had no real games other than NintendoLand, and was pretty stagnant for a long time. And when the PS4 launched I almost bought one immediately from the hype alone. Now, Virtually every good PS4 game I've considered getting the console over has either already, or will come out on PC; while Nintendo has suddenly been pumping out awesome game after game like Pikmin, Mario Kart, 3D World, Bayonetta 2, and of course Smash. And while I never wanted an Xbox One in the first place, it too is suffering from the same issues as the PS4 right now since most of the good games on that console are also on PC as well, like TitanFall.

The WiiU ended up just like the 3DS, starting out very stagnant and barely selling anything, until a price drop and a big game came out, and suddenly it's been getting way better. I mean, it's still lagging behind in sales, and will likely continue to do so since the PS4 and Xbox managed to drive up so much hype to sell on that alone for months.

Imo, PC + WiiU is the best combo so far this gen. I don't feel like I've missed out on anything the other consoles have had to offer so far since they're so close to PCs they end up putting most their games there. Although the PS4 does seem to have some pretty good exclusives, so eventually I might get one as well, maybe for Kingdom Hearts and FFXV, but until then the exclusives on the WiiU are far more valuable to me.