Wii U Won't Sell as Well as Wii, Says God of War Creator

[Hobohodo]

I kinda agree with this guy, I mean, I don't think it'll do as well. With the release of the Nintendo Wii, I think they alienated allot of their fans(Including me, because I loved the Gamecube, and was majorly let down by the Wii), I got it on release day, and what really let me down, was how there was hardly any core games, but was dominated by a third party market, I felt that most games that were released were glitchy and boring, I just really disliked it. I guess that's why my expectations are so low, I felt like the Wii was gimmicky, the majority of the games were third party, and had hardly any of the classic Nintendo games, and I have a feeling the Wii U will succumb to the same fate.

 

[Mark Davison]

The perfect storm?

One that lasted for at least 20 years?

No...One that lasted 5 year.

Nintendo has had it fair share of missteps and even the odd failure (DSI xl and the N64 would count as misteaps - the Gamecube is a borderline failure, and everyone remembers the virtual boy fiasco). Hes not saying that Nintedos entire success was a perfect storm - but the Wii's success was. and im not sure he's wrong on that point. The wii tapped a vareity of angles, most of which will not be as available to the wiis successor.
For a start - it will now be the most expensive console on the shelves (unless they can bring it in under $200... unlikely).
Secondly - their big selling point, the "easy for non gamers to pick up", is history. Remember when nintendo pointed to the regular Dual shock-type pad and said it has too many buttons, its putting gamers off - everyone knows how to point at things and use a remote? Now look at the Wii-U controller. Actually more complicated that your average Dual shock (not that i think its too complicated to anyone to pick up, im just saying that the simplicity of the Wii era is gone).
third - Everyone and their dog now has motion controls (i.e. the Wiis USP is gone) - and the touch screen is unlikely to replicate that stand out.
Forth - the mini gmes that really sold the Wii (wii sports et al), are now available on every platform, where back in 2006, they were unique.

So once again, nintendos heading into a generation with its hardware reputation, and its stable of IPs. Worked for the Snes and DS, to a less extent the N64, failed the Gamecube by and large.

TLDR : The Wii-U isnt game changing. And as the DS and Wii proved, (and, by medocre reception, the Gamecube and 3DS prove) Nintendos biggest advantage have been when they introduce a game changer, and lead the way.
They arent good competitors (megadrive vs snes, N64 vs PS, Gamecube vs Xbox/Ps2) - but they are very good at changing the rules and reaping the rewards.

 

[Baresark]

So few people get it. They were successful this generation because of their business. They sold a product that was cheap enough that people bought it. And as a base economics lesson for everyone: They didn't sell it because it was worth $250, they sold it because everyone thought it was worth more than $250. It was by no means a perfect storm. It was the fact that they successfully made a product that people wanted. That is a lot more than can be said about the competition. So few people thought the PS3 was worth $600 it almost goes without mention. In their first 4 years they sold 23 million units, while Nintendo moved 75 million units.

I would imagine that this console will come out at a price point of $250-$300, and is better than the current generation. They will still sell products that equate to "games for 3 year olds and shovelware", but then you can bet some pretty fantastic titles will come out. And it's not the multiplatform stuff you should be worrying about, it's the exclusives that will start rolling on a Nintendo system.

I am not saying that they will repeat the Wii, but I am saying that when the next round of consoles comes out from the others, they will repeat the PS3 and 360.

Nintendo is better at this business. The PS3 and 360 only worked out because they have more secondary and tertiary income than Nintendo.

more OT: This guy needs to stop his predictions. He is so obnoxious. I can't say whether he is right or wrong, but he is by no means an authority on matters such as this. He has worked on two successful franchises, God of War (only the first two) and Twisted Metal (a franchise I love, but the world overall seems done with them). Why don't you try to predict yourself another hit game, good sir?

 

[uguito-93]

Jaffe felt that a significant portion of the Wii's install base had purchased it as something other than a gamer device.

But playing games is pretty much the only thing that you can do on the wii. The only reason anybody even purchased a wii was to play games.

Its true but think about the types of games these people played on it, wii sports resort, wii fit and wii fit plus were probably the consoles best selling games and they barely register as games. Seriously a crap load of idiots only ever bought the wii because they thought of it as some fitness system that could substitute actual exercise.

I still cringe whenever i remember all the people I've met who only bought it for wii sports and haven't bought anything else for it.

 

[Jumplion]

more OT: This guy needs to stop his predictions. He is so obnoxious. I can't say whether he is right or wrong, but he is by no means an authority on matters such as this. He has worked on two successful franchises, God of War (only the first two) and Twisted Metal (a franchise I love, but the world overall seems done with them). Why don't you try to predict yourself another hit game, good sir?

It's his personal blog, the only reason why it's really news is because the Escapist decided to post some opinions of the guy for whatever reason. And I think he only worked on the first God of War, another guy was director or GoW2 wasn't it?

But on topic, Jaffe does have somewhat of a point. The Wii's success was due to a lot of factors that were aligned just right. Will lightning strike twice again? I dunno, though I doubt I will be getting the WiiU as I have never really been a Nintendo kind of guy and my Wii has ended up gathering dust.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

Why does everyone suddenly think they're experts on this sort of thing?


The guy who made a lowest-common-denominator series of titles of no redeeming value about a preposterously designed angry man slaying mythological creatures for childish revenge suddenly feels he has the intellect to predict the future of a console that, barring Nintendo, nobody knows that much about. Seriously Jaffe, just shut the hell up until you know what you're talking about.

If it was just him, I could maybe tolerate it. But all of a sudden because of Nintendo's announcement everybody seems to think one of two things:

1) They know exactly what's going to happen when it's released
or
2) Hardcore gamers share some kind of hive mind, and they all know it's going to do terribly.

Seriously, I'm not trying to come off like a Nintendo fanboy here (though I have the sneaking suspicion I inadvertently am) but people need to shut up with their 'cut-rate clairvoyant' bullshit about this.

Nobody knows how well it's going to do until it actually goes on sale, so please stop using this console as a mystical seer-stone to predict the fucking end times.

 

[icame]

A lot of people thought the Wii wouldn't do all that well, so I will keep an open mind of whether the WII U will be extremely successful for them or not.

 

[The-Epicly-Named-Man]

Jaffe felt that a significant portion of the Wii's install base had purchased it as something other than a gamer device.

Ok, this is the part that doesn't make any sense to me. The only thing the Wii does is play games. I doubt people bought it because they think it makes a nice piece of modern art.

I think they mean a gamer's device, a device made for core gamers. I could be wrong but it's the only thing that makes sense in the context.

OT: I actually think he makes a valid point, Nintendo does seem to be conflicted on whether they want to keep the casual Wii market or their old N64/ Gamecube fanbase. And, anyway he does say that he has been wrong in the past, they could pull off a miracle and convert the thousands who bought the Wii as an exercise tool into hardcore Zelda/ Mario fans.

 

[RaikuFA]

if it has a strong launch and a good library then he will be wrong

 

[Luthir Fontaine]

As a pc/xbox fan I would put money down it sells just as well. Mario, Zelda, SSB, or whatever have a almost rabid fanbase that would buy anything nintendo came out with.

 

[Saltyk]

It just reminds me of a bunch of jocks standing around calling the quirk artist a gaywad because he got lucky last year.

Somehow, everyone thinks Nintendo is gonna bomb. Nintendo, the oldest dog in the game system industry, that managed to survive all sorts of upheavals, is not gonna fail. It's pretty obvious that they know what they're doing.

If the WiiU can successfully market itself as bridging the gap between core and casual, it'll probably sell pretty good. Especially since it's already marketed a pretty decent list of games that'll make core gamers happy.

Reminds me of all of the naysayers for pretty much every other Nintendo system. Love 'em or hate 'em, they know what they're doing.

They do know what they are doing, but a lot of people I know-core gamers all-hated the Wii, because beyond a dozen or so games (most of which were the usual generic Mario/Zelda/Smash Bros titles) the Wii was glutted with casual games or shovelware shite. Nothing wrong with that, of course; no console has a perfect game library. But the balance-which was good in the GameCube- shifted a lot, and let a lot of core gamers feeling shafted.

So whilst they know what they are doing from a business perspective, they made a lot of mistakes with the core gamers on the Wii. If they have a balanced repetoire for the WiiU, then I'll happily go and buy it. But after the disappointment I got off the Wii, I ain't holding my breath.

You know, I hear this a lot. It seems that everyone that has a Wii will play it when a new first party game comes out and then let it sit there collecting dust. For periods as long as a year. It seems that no third party developer could make a game that was good, or at least well received, on the Wii. Yes, they sold more consoles than God, but if the Hardcore ignored it half the time and the rest of your audience was never into games to begin with, what does that really matter?

But the 360 and PS3 never really suffered from this. Most people played whichever console they had (sometimes both) fairly regularly.

With the Wii U, we're hearing that it is roughly as powerful as the 360 and PS3, but I don't think there has been any confirmed information on that, yet. But how will it compare to the next console generation, which is probably right around the bend? The Wii always seemed half lucky to get a PS2 port, and I can't help but feel they're getting the same with the Wii U. Especially considering it was revealed that they used footage from other consoles to show what the Wii U could do at E3. I also can't help but feel like the controller is an unwieldy giant (no matter what anyone says) and the touch screen will fall by the wayside. How many games beyond certain sports titles and Zelda can really take full advantage of a touchscreen? And since each console will only support one touchscreen equipped controller, that just seems even more limiting. The Wii was supposed to revolutionize gaming with motion controls, but even Nintendo seemed to ignore them as time went on.

Still, this is all speculation. Only time will tell. I doubt they'll find Wii level success as that would be nearly impossible, but Nintendo will probably carve out their own niche and make truckloads of money.

Full Disclosure: I never bought a Wii, because I didn't want to play with motion controls, and all I saw coming out that was worth anything was basically Mario and Zelda and it takes more than two or three games to convince me to invest in something like that.

 

[Zorpheus]

They arent good competitors (megadrive vs snes [...])

.... wait, what? I understand all the other comparisons you made, but this one? The only reason the hardware-inferior Sega Genesis survived at all in that generation was Nintendo's unwillingness at the time to create games that weren't suitable for children, a niche that Sega exploited. Indeed, that was the last generation in which Nintendo had good muscle in a competitive market that wasn't born from innovation.

 

[Jezzascmezza]

I don't think it's ever going to be possible to topple something as successful as the Wii.
Still, the Wii-U is going to sell a ton.

 

[Sparrow]

Everyone's an expert on Nintendo's future success/failure. It's gone beyond tedious to me seeing every industry person or forum poster declaring the future of Nintendo's latest whatever.

Oh my god can you please shut this guy up? I am so tired of hearing from this nut job.

God, this. So much. David Jaffe made two popular series, big fucking whoop. It doesn't make him the authority on whether the Wii U will tank or not. Honestly, what's with everyone talking about the Wii U as if they can see it's future set out before them?

 

[lionday]

Wii-U's gonna do fine. No its not gonna sell more than the wii but few things ever will. Right now I'm saving up for a 3DS (Animal crossing *Drool*). And tech wise this thing is still a year off and they still want to push the 3DS so don't expect to much talk.

 

[Epona]

I think the Wii burned too many bridges for the Wii-U to be as successful as the Wii. Many people who bought the Wii were Nintendo loyalists but no more.

Also, in the power department, Wii-U really isn't any different than the Wii. Only a little more powerful than the XBOX 1 is the Wii, likewise only a little more powerful than the PS3 and 360 is the Wii-U, they will still be behind.

Further, the Wii biggest strength was in it's controller and it's local party games. The Wii-U's biggest strength is also in it's controller but that is significantly weaker given that only one will be supported per game. That strength of getting 4 people together in the same room for a party game is gone because the other 3 people will have to use old controllers and because the new controller functions will be disabled in the name of fairness.

The 3DS isn't doing so well either. It seems the gimmicks have been worn out.

 

[Rhedd]

People are so damn negative. I really hope the Wii U does well, if only so we can read all the excuses people will make about how Nintendo "got lucky" for a 3rd time in a row. And that it had nothing to do with their business model/games and more to do with a combination of gimmickry, kiddy gamers and a host of other combined factors that no one could have foreseen.

Everyone and their talking dog predicts Nintendo's demise at every console:

NES - "Did Nintendo not see the game's industry collapse 2 years ago? Let it stay dead!"
SNES - "2 years after the Genesis? And with no more processing power? Madness!"
Gameboy - "Less powerful than the Gamegear, and black and white? Crazy!"
N64 - "No CD drive, 3D as standard? Analogue stick as standard? Gimmicks the lot of it!"
Gamecube - "Looks like a tellytubby's lunchbox!"
DS - "WTF is up with the redundant second screen? The PSP is far more powerful."
Wii - "Gimmicks and tomfoolery once again! No one will understand it, let alone buy it."

On that note, why do people laud the Gamecube and N64 over Nintendo's head as failures? The Gamecube sold as well as the original Xbox and the N64 outsold the Genesis; Sega's most successful console. Nintendo made money on both consoles, and both had games that are still held up as some of the greatest of all time (N64 much more so than the Cube). By most measures they were successful, if not on the level of the Wii or SNES.

Just think that everyone should sit back and wait and see rather than jumping to these conclusions every time, and that goes for all consoles. This E3 was about the 3DS for Nintendo and they deliberately didn't show much of the Wii U beyond concepts. Everything else is conjecture; including anything David ?Wii and DS will fail? Jaffe says. Do love the guy though! (And the Twisted Metal series is a guilty pleasure.)

 

[Epona]

The N64 was not in competition against the Genesis, it was competing against the PS1, and it lost. When you say 3 in a row, would that be the Wii, the 3DS and the Wii-U? The 3DS hasn't really sold all that well. If you mean the DS, Wii and Wii-U then why are leaving out the 3DS. The "in a row" part is important here.