Satoru Iwata: Hardware Price Is Not Wii U's Problem

[Negatempest]

Anybody can tell that a lack of games is the Wii U's current problem. Why, were there people saying that the Wii U is too expensive? Its the cheapest of the next-gen consoles!

No, its the most expensive of the last gen consoles. You can' argue that somethings "the cheapest" when its clearly so very inferior to its competitors that its not even in their league.

Besides which, its barely $50 less than the Ps4, which outclasses it hugely.

Of course, cause when you buy your PS4 than buy a game, it's only gonna cost $400usd. It will not cost $460usd+. Fans of the ps4 tend to forget that the console does not come with a game. And if you shop correctly, you can get a Wii-U with ZombiU instead of Nintendo land for $350usd.

 

[Eri]

Wii U really is a perfect storm of everything that could go wrong going wrong. The console itself is fine, but it's about to be outpaced by both the PS4 and the Xbone, it's way too expensive for what it is, it has zero appeal to the Wii's casual audience that made that console successful, it's still lacking a killer app, and third parties won't touch the bloody thing. I don't think the Wii U is Nintendo's Dreamcast, but I do think that it's their Saturn: the beginning of the end for Nintendo as a leading home console manufacturer.

It's funny, I don't recall posting this or changing my username. But here is my post >.>

 

[AuronFtw]

Anybody can tell that a lack of games is the Wii U's current problem. Why, were there people saying that the Wii U is too expensive? Its the cheapest of the next-gen consoles!

No, its the most expensive of the last gen consoles. You can' argue that somethings "the cheapest" when its clearly so very inferior to its competitors that its not even in their league.

Besides which, its barely $50 less than the Ps4, which outclasses it hugely.

Of course, cause when you buy your PS4 than buy a game, it's only gonna cost $400usd. It will not cost $460usd+. Fans of the ps4 tend to forget that the console does not come with a game. And if you shop correctly, you can get a Wii-U with ZombiU instead of Nintendo land for $350usd.

Yes, and buying a Wii U and a real game (of which there are like... 1? 2?) will drive it up over $400. And then you're fucked because in only a few months actual consoles with actual hardware are coming out, and all the AAA devs are going to be focusing on those and only throwing the Wii U a bone when they can get an easy port squeezed out that can be run by the inferior hardware without a massive amount of tweaking/lowering graphics/removing features/etc (all of which cost money, and given third party sales history on nintendo consoles, it's typically not "worth it" to drop that much money and effort on a game that's largely going to flop anyway).

I'm a PC gamer through and through, so I have no fanboi association with any consoles; but I objectively cannot see a point to a Wii U over either of the real consoles coming out shortly. Even the Xbone with its massive pricetag and required microphone/camera marketing nonsense (on top of a company that blatantly hates its consumers and will revoke their rights as soon as they can find a way to make a buck) will eventually be worth it because you know the AAA titles are going to be all over it.

Nintendo failed to kick off their console with any games. They failed to make their console's hardware any good, with specs so weak it firmly qualifies as last gen. They failed to make their console not have stupid pointless gimmicks like a touch pad controller, which was a solution looking for a problem (and will needlessly complicate any ports and development in general). It's really their fault their console is failing. This isn't Wall Street, the government isn't going to bail them out for their bad decisions. They have to live with them, and, hopefully, learn from them. I don't want to see Nintendo disappear, I think they can sometimes be innovative (when they aren't busy remaking the same zelda, pokemon, and mario games for the five thousandth time) but they do need to get with the times. They got away with the Wii being a piece of shit console because they tapped into the casual market, at a time when the casual market was a mysterious thing to most developers. But now that market is saturated by android phones and tablets, so Nintendo has lost their firm grasp on the casual and their console is too pitiful to compete with the true next gen consoles. They either have to figure out a new niche or stop putting out terrible consoles with no games and then wondering what went wrong.

 

[RicoADF]

Anybody can tell that a lack of games is the Wii U's current problem. Why, were there people saying that the Wii U is too expensive? Its the cheapest of the next-gen consoles!

While I agree that it's lack of games is the biggest issue, at around $450 it's $100 less than the PS4 which is a much more powerful machine with games that interest most players, and thus they'd be willing to spend the extra $100 (Australian figures). If it was say another $100-200 less then yes I'd agree prices aren't an issue. As for the 2 versions, well one not selling isn't proof that price isn't an issue, considering I wouldn't buy that version for even half the price they ask for it.

 

[Negatempest]

Anybody can tell that a lack of games is the Wii U's current problem. Why, were there people saying that the Wii U is too expensive? Its the cheapest of the next-gen consoles!

No, its the most expensive of the last gen consoles. You can' argue that somethings "the cheapest" when its clearly so very inferior to its competitors that its not even in their league.

Besides which, its barely $50 less than the Ps4, which outclasses it hugely.

Of course, cause when you buy your PS4 than buy a game, it's only gonna cost $400usd. It will not cost $460usd+. Fans of the ps4 tend to forget that the console does not come with a game. And if you shop correctly, you can get a Wii-U with ZombiU instead of Nintendo land for $350usd.

Yes, and buying a Wii U and a real game (of which there are like... 1? 2?) will drive it up over $400. And then you're fucked because in only a few months actual consoles with actual hardware are coming out, and all the AAA devs are going to be focusing on those and only throwing the Wii U a bone when they can get an easy port squeezed out that can be run by the inferior hardware without a massive amount of tweaking/lowering graphics/removing features/etc (all of which cost money, and given third party sales history on nintendo consoles, it's typically not "worth it" to drop that much money and effort on a game that's largely going to flop anyway).

I'm a PC gamer through and through, so I have no fanboi association with any consoles; but I objectively cannot see a point to a Wii U over either of the real consoles coming out shortly. Even the Xbone with its massive pricetag and required microphone/camera marketing nonsense (on top of a company that blatantly hates its consumers and will revoke their rights as soon as they can find a way to make a buck) will eventually be worth it because you know the AAA titles are going to be all over it.

Nintendo failed to kick off their console with any games. They failed to make their console's hardware any good, with specs so weak it firmly qualifies as last gen. They failed to make their console not have stupid pointless gimmicks like a touch pad controller, which was a solution looking for a problem (and will needlessly complicate any ports and development in general). It's really their fault their console is failing. This isn't Wall Street, the government isn't going to bail them out for their bad decisions. They have to live with them, and, hopefully, learn from them. I don't want to see Nintendo disappear, I think they can sometimes be innovative (when they aren't busy remaking the same zelda, pokemon, and mario games for the five thousandth time) but they do need to get with the times. They got away with the Wii being a piece of shit console because they tapped into the casual market, at a time when the casual market was a mysterious thing to most developers. But now that market is saturated by android phones and tablets, so Nintendo has lost their firm grasp on the casual and their console is too pitiful to compete with the true next gen consoles. They either have to figure out a new niche or stop putting out terrible consoles with no games and then wondering what went wrong.

Your view of the 3rd party titles is too narrow and rose colored. If the last generation is a great indication of what to expect from 3rd parties, I would have to get used to: Day 1 DLC, Micro-transactions, Online requirements, DLC on the disk, day 1 patches, buggy games, over-priced DLC, and the ever so lovely online passes. The reason the xbox one and ps4 have not caught my interest was because they lack a game library I am interested at the moment. Just more safe bet shooters. No real adventure games, no platform games, few action games that lack guns, and no good rpg. Just safe bet shooters that everyone knows will sell.

I also have a PC and you know what games I have on my library? Terraria, Killing Floor, Minecraft, L4D, and other games that hardly push the graphics of a card. Why? Cause they are fun and comparing graphics is such a silly thing to do, especially if half a persons library consists of Indie games or low graphic intensive games.

Edit: Also I kind of got sick and tired of getting shafted by 3rd party publisher/developers the past generation. I really do not want to go through that again, thus I bought a Wii-U. The worst they have done is have region lock. Oh no, region lock it will totally not affect my legitimate copy of a game..... Annoying, but has no affect on the game I have.

 

[The White Hunter]

Makes you wonder why they even released the damn thing when they did, instead of just waiting for the holidays. All it's doing now is getting bogged down by its own games lacking image.

Because a lot of third party devs "backed them" and then at the last minute they all didn't really keep their end of the deal. Leaving them high and dry for the most part. Oh well. At least this year looks promising.

I thought that was only Ubisoft with delaying Rayman Legends though.

I just think Nintendo jumped the gun trying to get a headstart. They didn't really have any game in the past 9 months to launch the system into the public's eye. Had they waited they would've had The Wonderful 101, Bayonetta 2, and Wind Waker HD as a launch line-up. Not too shabby.

Nintendo could just as well have waited for the Holidays, in order to ride the wave of the next gen hype.

No EA pulled support for the thing severely, because of reasons not really explained and cancelled Crysis 3, even though several people from Crytek confirmed they had it running well on the system.

The Metro dev pulled Last Light shortly after the system launch.

There's a few others that were promised that never came to be and were axed too.

I think they'd have been better off making a slightly stronger machine and waiting a while longer to have their own software ready, it's why the 3DS struggled early on too.