Jimquisition: Who "Won" The Next-Gen Launch?

[Ruzinus]

At present I can name a grand title of one Wii U game that I really want. (3D World)

There should be more at this point in the consoles life.

I can name two PS4 games that I really want that aren't last gen re releases. (Killzone and Resogun)

I feel that's an acceptable amount at this point in a consoles life.

And yes, Killzone is similar-to-something-wot-Ive-already-got-but-prettier. But so is Mario.

 

[nima55]

I love my Wii U and this thread just really stroked my confirmation bias in the right way. With games like the Wonderful 101, Pikmin 3, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, and more- the Wii U just always gives me a really good time.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who feels this way. I love my Wii U, and it's good to see people saying nice things about it for once.

In the paraphrased words of Rodney dangerfield; "Nintendo don't get no respect!"

 

[Atmos Duality]

I'd care more about this if I didn't find the concept of the "Console Wars" to be totally stupid to begin with...but fine.
Here goes:

I thought this was about who "won" the next-gen launch, and the WiiU has had a solid year to build its position.
Based on the WiiU's performance so far, and it's tiny, barely noticeable trick of games SINCE launch, I wouldn't call it a "winner" in any case.

Its library is going to be no less self-derivative than its competition; only instead of bombastic graphics displays, it's Mario, Zelda, Pokemon etc. Virtually nobody of note outside of Nintendo is developing for the WiiU for a reason.

"But Mario 3D Land is awesome!"
Yeah, and I hear kids say the same exact thing about Call of Duty every fucking Christmas.

 

[Arctual]

Is Jim really comparing the Wii U's line-up, which it has had time to build up for a year, to the consoles which have just (or not even, if you live outside of the US) launched?

I do agree that the Wii U is the most exciting console of this generation, and not only because of the upcoming Smash. Bros. The Wii U gamepad and Miiverse are things that I feel are really next-gen, though Twitch/Ustream integration is cool, too.

 

[TheUnbeholden]

Cannot agree with this episode at all. The Wii U *is* just an incremental upgrade to the Wii, and that's why Nintendo has been utterly unable to sell the console, because consumers think it's an add-on to the Wii.

Nintendo did not have a good launch - the system update was bricking systems when you lost internet connection...did we all forget that whole thing?

Nintendo has utterly squandered their one year head start - they have done little except trot out a few ports and rehashes that provide little or no reason to actually get the system. What little third party support the system has is fleeing as fast as it can. There's no RPGs on the platform still, and that will be why I continue not to purchase one.

Their online multiplayer infrastructure is beyond mediocre, and Nintendo STILL does not have a digital distribution system that is competent in any way shape or form. It continues to be amateur hour with no account system for digital purchases. In the 21st Century! My god!

Nintendo is doubling down (again) on hopes that their first party games will be enough. It wasn't enough for the Gamecube, and with no never-seen-before revolutionary motion control gimmicks to attract non-gamers into purchasing the system it won't be enough this time.

It may not be clear who won, but it is very clear the Wii U is losing.

Exactly, not only did it have a terrible system at launch but it still has a terrible digital download system, (It took me fucking forever to download my WindWalker HD.. how unintuitive can this be?? After downloading it wouldn't play) Its almost like they took barely any effort on this crucial aspect of a "console", coupled with terrible battery life
(2 hours? I spend more time than that on my bus ride + coffee breaks than that in a day) due to this it completely fails at making it feel like a console.

It feels like a poorly designed handheld... because it is a poorly designed handheld. Its gimmick hasn't sold me, that and the "established franchises" may attract the Wii fans, it's not to a "normal" person like me.
Game developers realize this as well and are fleeing the sinking ship.

Also Zombi U is very very repetitive, so trying to use that as a selling point isn't going to work. There was no thought put into the level design, they take you on a site seeing tour of famous land marks rather than show us the parts of England we haven't seen before... the enemies are basically just zombies which I'm fine with, if it wasn't for the extremely limited weapon selection and a story that misses so much potential!

I'm afraid I'm going to have quote a excellent Buddhist philosophy. You can answer every question with Yes, No or Bu.
Bu means "You are asking the wrong question". The question is not 'which is the best new generation console', the question is "what is the best console?.." And that is the Wii.

Thats right, fuck Wii U, fuck the new consoles, go with the Wii. People have already discovered its huge variety of titles (about 3x better larger library of games than the other consoles), people have finally accepted the Wii as not only intuitive in terms of games utilizing the motion controller effectively, but the Wii MotionPlus controllers have vastly improved tracking accuracy and reaction time, so that it feels less like a gimmick, and more like a half decent idea!

Mario 3D world is (finally) out.

The WiiU is officially the ONLY system worth buying now.


Sense of wonder? Fuck that. It is a machine that I play games on. THAT'S IT. It can be a fine machine, but if there are no games to play on it, it serves no purpose whatsoever. That was the case when the WiiU launched and it only just now rectified it. So get a WiiU, and the six or seven games worth playing for it, and don't even acknowledge the Xbone/PS4's existences until they present something that's actually worth your time or investment.

NO! I'm not going to do what Jim says just because I've agreed with him on just about everything in the past... and I'm not going to go with the the hipster crowd and shell out hard earned cash on 2 new systems that have a shit launch library of rehashed sequels and probably going to have hardware failure.

I'm going to go with the sensible route and buy a system that has established itself as not only revolutionary, but far better than it was to begin with and far better than the other consoles out at the moment for sheer library size and variety of games... the Wii.

Mario 3D world is (finally) out.

Sure it took the WiiU a FUCKING YEAR to get a decent game library, but now that we have Wind Waker HD, Wonderful 101, Super Mario World 3D, Sonic Lost World, along with Monster hunter and ZombiU and of course mother fucking Earthbound, there's actually a decent collection of games to fill up your time with the system. The WiiU is the one worth buying because Nintendo was smart enough to push it out the door before the competition did so that by the time the other two guys were struggling with these issues, they'd already resolved them all.

Decent Library my ass.

FUCK Zelda, FUCK Sonic, FUCK Zombi U and FUCK Mario.. oh and FUCK monster hunter that repetitive shit.

The Wii has way way better titles than the Wii U.

 

[DibsOnPyro]

I'm probably going to try and save up for the wii u just for the new wind waker thats come out, but I probably wont fo and pick up any of the other consoles until they announce fallout 4

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Quote of the week: "Thank god for mgaargaarg!"

 

[nima55]

Is Jim really comparing the Wii U's line-up, which it has had time to build up for a year, to the consoles which have just (or not even, if you live outside of the US) launched?

I do agree that the Wii U is the most exciting console of this generation, and not only because of the upcoming Smash. Bros. The Wii U gamepad and Miiverse are things that I feel are really next-gen, though Twitch/Ustream integration is cool, too.

It's as if there's some sort of advantage to releasing ahead of everyone.

 

[New Frontiersman]

I love my Wii U and this thread just really stroked my confirmation bias in the right way. With games like the Wonderful 101, Pikmin 3, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, and more- the Wii U just always gives me a really good time.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who feels this way. I love my Wii U, and it's good to see people saying nice things about it for once.

In the paraphrased words of Rodney dangerfield; "Nintendo don't get no respect!"

So very sad, yet so very true. At least it's not everyone, Jim shows Nintendo some respect at least.

 

[Raesvelg]

So the Sony and Microsoft moved more consoles each in a day than Nintendo managed in over a month... But the WiiU is the winner of this "next-gen" launch?

Huh.

Maybe I just never got into the whole rosy-glasses nostalgia thing with Nintendo. Could be because I started out gaming on the Atari, maybe because I ventured into PC gaming fairly early, and there's always that possibility that I just got bored with Nintendo endlessly rehashing the same basic concept over and over again with minor changes and people declaring it to be the second coming of Video Game Jesus. Either way, I jumped ship from Nintendo after the Super Nintendo and have never felt the lack.

The only reason I purchased a 7th gen console at all was because I wanted a Blu-ray player, and I got a good deal on a PS3 Slim. I picked up a few games for it, but 90%+ of my gaming is on PC these days anyway.

So from the perspective of someone who is pretty much done with console gaming for the immediate future... Yeah.

Stop licking random electronics Jim. The plastics have apparently begun to rot your brain.

The WiiU's launch was disastrous. It picked up interest as some decent games came out for it, but it's looking increasingly likely that the WiiU will be relegated to an "also-ran" status in this generation. For crying out loud, it sold less than half the numbers that the Playstation 3 moved in 2013.

 

[prpshrt]

Nobody won. There were only losers. The entire consumer base lost with the retard online policies on both sides. Actually PC gamers might have won but the entry into that market is so steep it might as well also be considered a loss.

 

[Panzer Camper]

Is no one seriously going to bring up the Kinect 2.0? People are praising the innovation of the big N but not MS for the super camera? Is it perfect? Noooooo! Is the gimmicky kinect sports games kind of cute in their own way... yeah a little bit. I for one am more intrigued about the potential of the voice commands, it's shaky at the moment but if it is perfected you basically add your voice as a controller which adds so much potential to the console.

The PS4 seems to be following the move with their camera and good for them but MS got to beta test the damn thing on the 360 for a couple years.

I love some of the big N games but let's not pretend their complete lack of third party support isn't crippling. Cod may be overrated at this point but Wii U owners aren't touching that or any other goodness once the last developers leave for greener pastures on the Pc/X1/PS4 crowd. How did Wii owners like Skyrim? GTA IV? Cod? AC games? Witcher? Mass Effect?

X1 and PS4 will fight each other over the 5% of good games that are exclusives while the rest of the great games everyone is playing are on both systems while the Wii U just has the old Zelda/Mario games... Yeah sorry PS3 would have been a terrible system if all they had was Killzone, Infamous, and Uncharted. Thankfully third party gave them a nice backup like the 360 so both systems were amazing.

 

[Atmos Duality]

'cause I'm pretty sure the 3DS has the best library out of the current gen systems right now.

Actually, I'm inclined to agree with that.
...And it makes me sad. Because I barely use my 3DS at all.
Outside of Nintendo's perennial-regurgitation catalog, there's very little worth playing.

 

[Spud of Doom]

Delicious WiiU. It is pretty nice, and I'm glad I got one earlier this year when a local retailer was liquidating their stock for $149. I agree that right now it is easily the best purchase option of the 3 new consoles.

 

[SidheKnight]

The WiiU didn't win. No matter how you look at it.

Units sold? The PS4 and Xbox One sold more on their first day each one than the WiiU on it's first month.

Quality of hardware? PS4/X1 have undeniably better hardware than the WiiU, which will give them an edge once more graphically demanding games start coming out. And the WiiU isn't that much cheaper either.

Game library? (what most Nintendo fans call "the only thing that matters") WiiU has almost no third party support. Like most Nintendo consoles since the N64 onwards, Nintendo systems sell exlusively on their ability to play first-party Nintendo exclusive games that could easily be ported to other systems (try porting an X1/PS4 exclusive to the WiiU, you would have to downgrade the entire graphics engine).

Besides, it's unfair to compare the game library of a year old console to one that has just come out a few days ago. How many titles did the WiiU have on it's own launch day, huh?

 

[doomed89]

snip

I think Jim was referring to the quality of games on the system and the fact that it has fresh new possibilities and not just the same old shit as the ps2,3,xbox,360 that just seem to be doing the same thing games wise and bring nothing new or inspiring to the table, I think they deserve the win on account of their stance on dlc achievements pre-owned games online the fact they seem to want to make amazing games not just a profit. I could go on the list is endless but you keep on if graphics are what make you happy fair enough but why you would bother with a console to try and scratch that itch i have no idea.

Um Nintendo is the one doing the same thing over and over again, for 20 years...

 

[Lightknight]

Interesting. Where you (Jim) experienced wonder I experienced an even marginally less innovative machine that's ever more the same as the 7th generation (due in a large part to being so technologically close to it) but with an unnecessary gamepad that ads little to nothing to my enjoyment of it.

I quite agree that at the moment the WiiU has the most enjoyment factor but that's almost entirely due to it's year advance existence over the other current gen systems. But with dropping third party support and minimal first party support at best that fun may be incredibly short lived. So I'm not sure why you'd say it won the launch when the other systems only just launched and haven't had any time to build up a decent library. By this kind of logic, couldn't I just as easily say that the PS3/360 won this launch since they have 7 years of games already lined up? I'd say we won't know until about a year from now, but you already indicated that so I have no qualms with you in that area.

I will also point out that while I thought the ps2 looked cool, I can't say it necessarily felt that different from the ps1. Yet it remains one of my favorite consoles of all time. So I'm not sure this child wonderment factor is so key.