News - Wii U sales forecasts slashed

[HEXUS]

Also does third-party publisher AAA games support show signs of drying up?

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[jnutt]

Can't say I'm surprised. My nephew has one and I have tried it. Unfortunately don't see it as much more than a gimmick.

[Brewster0101]

The Wii U was never going to appeal to the mass market. I think this is Nintendo's last device , which is also unlikely to make them much money. The same outcome as Sega is coming to Nintendo.

[Stringent]

Also with the new XBOX and PlayStation rumours hotting up people may be holding off. I can't remember the last time I picked up the Wii and played on it.

[cheesemp]

I wouldn't mind a Wii U but its way to expensive still for what it is (a wii HD with cheap-o tablet). Could be tempted when the premium gets <£200. Wonder how long that will take...

[martian_aphid]

Did he call console gamers "serious gamers" :S In all seriousness, I think even those that played the Wii didn't consider it on an equal footing to the Xbox360 or PS3 so trying to sidestep back into that market after quite a few years as the "casual games" console is going to be extremely tough, both from a consumer standpoint and a developer standpoint.

Personally I think a HTPC with some wireless gamepads is a far superior option to any console ;P

[crossy]

Can't say I'm surprised. My nephew has one and I have tried it. Unfortunately don't see it as much more than a gimmick.

I expected one of my kids to say they wanted one for Christmas (to replace the Wii we've already got), but both of them said that they weren't much bothered...

... but if I was wanting to splash out then new tablets would be nice to game on.

To be honest I couldn't see a compelling reason to trade up, and I need to save my dosh for the XBox trade up.

[Zetioun]

they should have invested more money in better console specs, than a tablet controller.

[TheAnimus]

Nintendo were always aiming more and more with the 'casual' end.

Low price hardware, low quality graphics. They had great initial sucsess with the DS and DS Lite, I think they didn't realise the impact phones would have on them.

I always thought the U was trying to take on the tablets, by ignoring why people bought a tablet. I just didn't get the point of it.

I mean if it was a brilliant thing, surely smart glass would be the most talked about thing atm.

[Terbinator]

Also does third-party publisher AAA games support show signs of drying up?

If by "show signs" they mean a continuing of the trend since the N64, then they dried up long ago.

As for the Wii U:
*No Blu-Ray.
*Expensive.
*Stiff competition (the 360 is expected to retake the Wii's sales this year in the UK).
* most importantly, 'No gaemz' which is a double-blow for them given only Nintendo games (and Just Dance) sell on Nintendo systems, and their currently aren't any Nintendo games. They've had to spaghetti all their major franchises before E3 (Wind Waker, Pkmn, new Mario) to retain interest in light of the hype train around Durango/Orbis.
Only one of the U's games was in the top 40 after five weeks which was the add-in title Nintendo Land, bumbling around in 38th place IIRC.

[maverik-sg1]

Iv'e not seen anywhere near enough marketing on this product - the launch was really quiet and lacked fan fare and is nowhere to be seen just months after it's launch.

Outside of that - it' s lacking an identity, there's clearly more to it than just games but they've not focused on any of the toher areas of strength (this as a media/entertainment system).

Are major gaming titles steering clear of it? It's not so bad if they are, as the appeal of the wii was the simplistic nature and innocence of the title that really grabbed the attention of house parties and family gathering - New Years Eve just gone, just dance and wii sports came out of retirement - both highly entertaining to the middle aged generation that love a laugh, especially whilst pissitively possed

[maverik-sg1]

Just to add - if anyone is looking to purchase a "next gen" console - please boycott the one that charges £30+ a year to play online and embrace free gaming from the other one - it's bad enough that they want to milk the cash cows further with charging us for substandard downloadable content.

Stop accepting subscription based services, rip off DLC, boycott them and force it all to to go free to air, including sky sports etc.....

[Terbinator]

Just to add - if anyone is looking to purchase a "next gen" console - please boycott the one that charges £30+ a year to play online and embrace free gaming from the other one - it's bad enough that they want to milk the cash cows further with charging us for substandard downloadable content.

Stop accepting subscription based services, rip off DLC, boycott them and force it all to to go free to air, including sky sports etc.....

6 years in and Sony still haven't sorted party chat.

If i still used my consoles enough i'd have no quarrel with paying £3 a month for Live for that feature alone.

[maverik-sg1]

I thought they'd fixed that now? Maybe they got the message for the PS4 though? or make an external chat system suitable for concurrent use during gaming sessions?

[crossy]

Just to add - if anyone is looking to purchase a "next gen" console - please boycott the one that charges £30+ a year to play online and embrace free gaming from the other one - it's bad enough that they want to milk the cash cows further with charging us for substandard downloadable content. Stop accepting subscription based services, rip off DLC, boycott them and force it all to to go free to air, including sky sports etc.....

Mixed opinions on what you're saying here. I definitely DON'T agree with the "boycott XBL" sentiment - since the pack I've got for the family is costing about £70/year, which works out at £1.46 per person per month - a price I regard as entirely reasonable. And to put it into context, the XBL normal subscription is still less than the cost of, for example, the official XBox magazine.

(Speaking of OXM, if you want to see a rip off, try that. And I'm sure that the official Playstation and Nintendo magazines are similarly "premium" (said sarcastically) products.)

Likewise the "free" sky sports etc - presumably you'd not be happy to pay for that as part of a Sky package either? (I used to have it as part of my VM package, but got real p'd off by the poor breadth of coverage so cancelled it) In which case would you like to explain how Sky are supposed to reclaim the money's they spend on acquiring the rights to cover sports.


Where I definitely DO agree with you is that the amount of "premium" (in terms of cost) DLC is getting way out of control. Worse still I'd regard DLC as "add ons", whereas some publishers (yes Ubisoft I AM looking at you), have now set it up as effectively mandatory. Two of the games I got for Christmas need one time use codes to do multiplayer. So if you got the game second user (which IS legal as far as I'm aware) then unless you fork over more money to the greedy publisher then no online play for you. Bas***ds! So I'll happily join you in a boycott of such DLC - which is pretty much what I'm already doing.

[shaithis]

Not surprised in the slightest, I said a while ago it would probably flop due to so many Wii owners using their machines very casually and selling them on quite often.

And this gimmick was a lot more expensive then the last one.