Mister Benoit said:
You do realize Nintendo never cared for power in ANY of their consoles or handhelds, yet have generally either destroyed the competition or at least survived (GC).
That's a very... generous assesment of the situation. Handhelds are a totally different beast, so leave them out of this conversation. The wii "destroyed" the competition in sales, I'll concede that, but its software was atrocious and they abandoned the core audience entirely. The gamecube sucked wind, outside of maybe RE4. They released, what, 8 games PER YEAR for that thing? The N64 barely survived against PS1, and anything earlier than that I won't even count, cuz now we're going back 20 yrs.
400-500$ is a ton of money to invest in a console for a fairly high amount of the market and Nintendo knows this. Just look how the PS3 has fared, it only started selling in decent amounts years after it was released and after price cuts that amount up to 500$(Highest cost launch PS3 bundle in Canada was 799.99)
They should also know coming in for the HD party 6 yrs late for $300 is ALSO a ton of money when you're talking about redundant hardware. They're targeting gamers, and gamers already own a PS360. Which means they are asking us to shell out $300 (maybe more?) for a device that replicates what we can do on a PS360, but with NONE of the multimedia family-friendly functions, like dvd, bluray, etc. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt with their online system, but given that these guys are the ones who came up with friend codes, it will probably be the worst of the 3 at online play.
Nintendo is going to do perfectly fine without you, tons of people will once again enjoy their games for what they are and the unique gaming experience they provide.
I won't say they CAN'T succeed with this freak, but the factors are vastly different this go-round.
- The wii was shiny & new. Motion controls were unavailable anywhere else. They are touting the wiiu's hardware this time around, not a brand new way to play games. Smartphones are capable of replicating the kinds of experiences that little touch screen can give you.
- The wii was DIRT CHEAP. Nintendo has hinted several times this thing will be $300+. Not cheap anymore, especially when the PS360 have gone through several price drops in the last 6 yrs.
- Nintendo wants the core audience this time around. I can pay ~$400(+?) to play the newest Ninja Gaiden or Resident Evil on Wiiu... or $60 on my existing console. They flipped hardcore gamers the big ol' bird when the wii was raking it in, and they have NEVER shown an ability to keep 3rd party support anywhere above the "HIDEOUS" ranking. Now they are crawling back because the casual gamer well dried up. I won't say gamers WON'T come back, but it's going to be an uphill fight, and they need to show that they can actually get 3rd party support. Empty promises won't cut it so easily this time.
- The casual crowd is sitting this one out. The Wii made mad cash off of grandmas, nuns, the smelly old homeless guy down the street from me, and soccer moms. Then it gathered a ton of dust in their closets until their next soiree. These people do not care about improved graphics. They will look at that touchscreen, shrug their shoulders, and go back to their lives.
- Limiting it to one "ipad" per console. The Wii's success thrived off of party situations. If these "ipads" were stackable, so my friends with all their wiiu's could bring their touchscreen to my house and do a 4way "ipad" thing, they'd be on to something. But to have to pass it around, with one person getting the glory while everyone else suffers with sucky wiimotes? That's silly.
At the end of the day, they very well may succeed on their name and a bunch of people who don't care or know any better. But it will not be anywhere as simple as it was with the Wii, and they need to stop shoving their heads up their own butts when it comes to marketing.
And I STILL say this thing reeks more of Virtual Boy than "It prints moneeeeeyyyy!!"
If something goes wrong with my downloaded games I can just back-up the saved files, delete the game then re-download them. Small things like game saves go on the PS3 Back-Up 8GB USB I have. No problems. 
