Game Theory: Wii U is the New Virtual Boy

[Navvan]

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to be fair, when the video was originally made and posted on youtube, there was definitely more of a comparison there.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 =/

Its true that the recent influx of games has seemingly saved the Wii U's death spiral, but several of the things mentioned in the video are arguably wrong or misleading.

Batterylife: There are alternative controllers that can be purchased (and most people will anyway because of couch co-op) that have have long battery life or can even be left plugged in while playing. Additionally the Wii mote and nun-chuck set up from the Wii can be used which most Wii U owners would already own from the Wii.

Expensive Tech: While expensive the Wii U's price point is still significantly cheaper than the other consoles. Throwing in controller cost, and extra peripherals is a flawed argument, because last I checked you need to buy the same things for the other consoles too. Even if you say you "need" to buy a pro controller and/or Gamepad High Capacity Battery for battery life the cost is significantly less for the base model and about the same for the premium model. Additionally since many people already owned Wii's most people already have the Wii mote + nunchuck set up which, if anything, lowers the effective cost of the console. The Virtual Boy was something like triple the cost of other mobile consoles and about equivalent in cost to stationary consoles. While at the same time offering none of the benefits of either type of console.

Rushed Tech: The Virtual Boy's tech was clearly lacking. Features (such as more than one color) were cut in order to release it faster so they could refocus R&D into N64. In contrast the Wii U was designed from the start to have the graphics it did, and no features were really cut for the sake of getting it to market quicker. While it has a lower graphics than it would if it was released later you can say that for any system. If XBONE and PS4 were released today rather than a year ago they'd likely have greater graphics as well. The price point for given tech drops as time goes on, but its nonsense to say that a consoles should wait just for the price point to drop because the price point is always dropping. The previous gen (Wii) also had a significantly lower graphics than its competitors, but still ran laps around them in terms of sales. TL;DR: Lower graphics was a design choice that has worked for Nintendo in the past and not a mandate to rush it to market.

The other points I agree with, and are why I think the console's launch did so poorly (and consequentially why its starting to do better now that those things have improved). The first three though, which the majority of the video was spent on, just don't seem to add up to me. Whether or not the Wii U ultimately is deemed a success is beyond my abilities, but if it fails it's because of abysmal third party support and the resulting lack of titles.

 

[Nazulu]

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

Basically, we like repetition. The next video brings up hasty and inaccurate examples of how it's the repetitive franchises sell the best.

Well maybe you like repetition

Why are they loading up old videos from Game Theory? Feel like such a fool

 

[Slegiar Dryke]

-snip-

my original point was the video is outdated and no longer applies. and even if he doesn't always get everything right, it is after all, Jussssstt a theory.....


a GAME THEORY.....thanks for arguing XD

 

[EyeReaper]

I think this episode is when I started losing my interest in GT, way back when it actually first came out. Well, either this one or that "Mario is totes evil or sumthing guise)=" dual videos. Hell, I still haven't even watched this one, because it'll just say the same bullshit all those Nintendoomed threads say.

Oh, but I can't wait until the "Games are anti-gay because there's gay villains" video to hit here. I'm sure that will go over well in these forums. That sort of thing usually does.

 

[Rad Party God]

Yeah, this video is awfully outdated, even though it was originally posted on march this year [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS1p7W5dmBE], Ninty has already seen quite a LOT of profit thanks to a healthy and steady stream of great releases, like Mario Kart 8, Hyrule Warriors, Bayonetta 2 and the current elephant in the room, Smash Bros.

I'm sure as hell I want a friggin' Wii U this holiday.

[small]PS. I don't want to argue and please don't quote me with stuff like "oh, I don't like any of those games, Nintendo is doomed, my PS4 is better, blah, blah, blah", I don't give a rat's ass about what you do and don't like. Thank you for understanding.[/small]

 

[Naraku578]

The wii u is going through the same cycle as the Nintendo 3ds, realeased too early without a multitude of good game. I personally do not think the wii u will ever be a smash success, but it will get better.

 

[Something Amyss]

Well maybe you like repetition

To an extent, I do. If it's fun enough, I can basically play the same game/franchise/formula over and over.

Why are they loading up old videos from Game Theory? Feel like such a fool

It still seems profitable to do so. I guess when new eps do come, they will come here, so it's sort of a stopgap? I don't know. I thought we had come to that point last week (? two weeks ago?) because I hadn't seen the sonic head explosion video before. I kind of thought maybe this one would be revisiting the question, but I guess not.

 

[Nazulu]

Well maybe you like repetition

To an extent, I do. If it's fun enough, I can basically play the same game/franchise/formula over and over.

Shhhhh. You'll be blamed for harming Nintendo. They're watching

Why are they loading up old videos from Game Theory? Feel like such a fool

It still seems profitable to do so. I guess when new eps do come, they will come here, so it's sort of a stopgap? I don't know. I thought we had come to that point last week (? two weeks ago?) because I hadn't seen the sonic head explosion video before. I kind of thought maybe this one would be revisiting the question, but I guess not.

I haven't gone through his video's at all so I don't have a clue. Probably should. I liked his communist Mario theory. Thanks for answering

 

[Jacked Assassin]

Yeah, this video is awfully outdated, even though it was originally posted on march this year [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS1p7W5dmBE], Ninty has already seen quite a LOT of profit thanks to a healthy and steady stream of great releases, like Mario Kart 8, Hyrule Warriors, Bayonetta 2 and the current elephant in the room, Smash Bros.

I'm sure as hell I want a friggin' Wii U this holiday.

[small]PS. I don't want to argue and please don't quote me with stuff like "oh, I don't like any of those games, Nintendo is doomed, my PS4 is better, blah, blah, blah", I don't give a rat's ass about what you do and don't like. Thank you for understanding.[/small]

Now I demand to argue with you! Not because we have different views on Wii U but I think you might've stolen my ass! Give it back please!

 

[CrystalShadow]

heh. No.

I already found this video's reasoning stupid the first time I saw it...

The main thing to remember when comparing the two:

The Wii U is still around several years later, sold millions of consoles, you can still get games for it just about anywhere.

Whe Virtual boy on the other hand, no more than 750,000 were ever made, and if you hadn't bought one in the first month or two they were out, you would not be able to find one.
The games for it dissapeared almost as quickly.

Seriously, the virtual boy vanished from shops everywhere in the space of a few months.

The Wii U had a rocky start, but it's done amazingly well by comparison, and it's still around... Likely not going anywhere.

Wii U is more like the gamecube in terms of success... The gamecube really wasn't very successful compared to it's competition, but it still did well enough to survive an entire console cycle...

 

[daxterx2005]

Nintendo can lose billions of dollars for over a decade and still have money to spare.
They're fine.

 

[Rad Party God]

Yeah, this video is awfully outdated, even though it was originally posted on march this year [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS1p7W5dmBE], Ninty has already seen quite a LOT of profit thanks to a healthy and steady stream of great releases, like Mario Kart 8, Hyrule Warriors, Bayonetta 2 and the current elephant in the room, Smash Bros.

I'm sure as hell I want a friggin' Wii U this holiday.

[small]PS. I don't want to argue and please don't quote me with stuff like "oh, I don't like any of those games, Nintendo is doomed, my PS4 is better, blah, blah, blah", I don't give a rat's ass about what you do and don't like. Thank you for understanding.[/small]

Now I demand to argue with you! Not because we have different views on Wii U but I think you might've stolen my ass! Give it back please!

NEVER!, its mine and mine only!

[small]PS. you made my day! xD[/small]

 

[Something Amyss]

Shhhhh. You'll be blamed for harming Nintendo. They're watching

I'm probably already part of the problem. I bought Pokémon Diamond, White, Black 2, X, and OR.

 

[RJ 17]

It still seems profitable to do so. I guess when new eps do come, they will come here, so it's sort of a stopgap? I don't know. I thought we had come to that point last week (? two weeks ago?) because I hadn't seen the sonic head explosion video before. I kind of thought maybe this one would be revisiting the question, but I guess not.

Nah, it's nothing but older videos as he's been pumping out Game Theories on a regular basis and none of the new ones have been showing up here. They did the same thing for the four or five weeks that Screw Attack's Death Battle was being posted here: show nothing but much older episodes. Don't know why, though, as many have pointed out that this one in particular really dates itself. If they're going to keep pulling older episodes, they should at least stick to the ones that are more "time neutral"...that is theories that don't rely on dateable statistics.

Hey MatPat, since we're drudging up the super-old episodes anyways, how about posting the one that shows how Robotnik is actually faster than Sonic?

 

[Something Amyss]

Nah, it's nothing but older videos as he's been pumping out Game Theories on a regular basis and none of the new ones have been showing up here.

He's been putting out new ones? I don't really follow GameTheory. It's just something that shows up in my YouTube recs occasionally.

They did the same thing for the four or five weeks that Screw Attack's Death Battle was being posted here: show nothing but much older episodes.

My info was based on a response from Greg Tito [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/6.849348-Game-Theory-Polybius-MK-Ultra-and-the-CIAs-Brainwashing-Arcade-Game#20975977] that I guess I misread. I thought Greg said they'd get around to putting new content on here, but what he actually says is that they'll eventually catch up and start showing GT's latest content.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

And yet, it's the only console currently worth owning.

Ooooo! Burn!

In all seriousness, I think I agree.

I've been disillusioned with Nintendo for quite some time, but the fact that the PS4/Xbone have been out for a year and the only 8th-gen game I'm interested in is Shadow of Mordor (yes, I know it's on the PS3/360 as well, but the nemesis system is parred down on those, and the nemesis system is the reason to play the game, I so, in my mind, SoM is an 8th-gen exclusive) has me wondering if I should invest in a WiiU. Between Mario Kart 8, Smash, Hyrule Warriors...plus a new open-world Zelda and Splatoon on the horizon...it just sounds so...pure fun.

 

[RJ 17]

Nah, it's nothing but older videos as he's been pumping out Game Theories on a regular basis and none of the new ones have been showing up here.

He's been putting out new ones? I don't really follow GameTheory. It's just something that shows up in my YouTube recs occasionally.

He's not the most regular poster, but yeah he's got new material coming out on (generally) a bi-weekly basis.

They did the same thing for the four or five weeks that Screw Attack's Death Battle was being posted here: show nothing but much older episodes.

My info was based on a response from Greg Tito [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/6.849348-Game-Theory-Polybius-MK-Ultra-and-the-CIAs-Brainwashing-Arcade-Game#20975977] that I guess I misread. I thought Greg said they'd get around to putting new content on here, but what he actually says is that they'll eventually catch up and start showing GT's latest content.

Yeeeeeeah...they've got a long way to go and would probably have to bump it up to 3 episodes here on the Escapist a week before they catch up to the channel on youtube.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

The wii u is going through the same cycle as the Nintendo 3ds, realeased too early without a multitude of good game. I personally do not think the wii u will ever be a smash success, but it will get better.

It's not so much "released too early" as it was "released...and then 3rd parties stabbed in the back." In all honesty, the lesson that Nintendo should learn from this is "never trust 3rd parties because they will abandon you at the drop of a hat and find every excuse to not support you despite their excuses being easy to dismantle." And it's STILL funny how some 3rd parties (like EA, 2K, Ubi, Konami, etc) still refuse to support the 3DS despite it selling fine and having a big install base just waiting for product. And it's the same thing with the Wii U; it'll do fine, Nintendo will still continue to curb this notion that they need to go 3rd party and people will continue to pay the Nintendo Tax in order to play their games which are known for their quality.

As for the episode, really guys? This made sense somewhat nine months ago (and even then it still came off as soap opera-level drama-milking), but ever since E3 this video has become irrelevant. And even nine months ago the comparison did not work. The Virtual Boy had very different circumstances and with the Wii U STILL BEING AROUND AFTER TWO YEARS, the comparison is dead. This is as bad as when people compared the Wii U to the Dreamcast (again, a terrible comparison due to both companies being in very different financial circumstances). But then again, it's always more preferable for people to be dramatic about these kind of things despite it being illogical for some reason.

 

[Nixou]

It's not so much "released too early" as it was "released...and then 3rd parties stabbed in the back."

It's neither.
The WiiU and 3DS launch problems came from Nintendo being so short on staff that the first party games which should have been used to display the machine's potential and attract early buyers were not finished in time. (That and the WiiU running on a half-finished OS which got completed only after half a dozen of updates didn't help either).

 

[SomebodyNowhere]

Part of the console not doing as well as it probably could have was the poor marketing decision to call it the WiiU instead of just the Wii2. Many average consumers were totally unaware that it was a completely new console and giving it the number would have helped at least a bit to solve that problem. I'm not saying it would have improved sales by a lot but still their marketing team should have known better.