General Nintendo sales/business discussion topic (previously: The Wii U Thread)

[Conando]

The thing about the Wii U is that it's sort of a reverse PS3. It focuses on its unique GPU that can handle CPU processes, and that type of thing probably throws devs for a loop. It would have no bearing on engines that don't rely on the CPU over the GPU, though (see: Just about every game engine that isn't Frostbite).

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Actualy, with this sonic news, I have a feeling a lot more parents may be getting their kids wii-Us for christmas, because he still has a decent amount of popularity in the younger demographic, and if Nintendo manages to follow up with several dozen additional releases by christmas sales will likely explode

Then EA may revise their view, or they not, or they might for another reason, we just dont know for sure

[Badnik Mechanic]

Bullshit. Unless you're strictly speaking on the sales charts for a weekly basis which are not revealed to the public, even though the most sales a game does there is around +20k a week, this is factually impossible.

 

The fuck it is bullshit.

It's been reported several times and you've even quoted the report at one point!

[Patticus]

The thing about the Wii U is that it's sort of a reverse PS3. It focuses on its unique GPU that can handle CPU processes, and that type of thing probably throws devs for a loop. It would have no bearing on engines that don't rely on the CPU over the GPU, though (see: Just about every game engine that isn't Frostbite).

 

Frostbite being designed to put CPU over GPU strikes me as poor engine design.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

 

Frostbite being designed to put CPU over GPU strikes me as poor engine design.

It strikes me as a PC engine, not a gaming engine, and shouldnt be used on consoles in the first place

[SuperLink]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but..

 

Isn't there a consensus that newer PCs and consoles will be GPU-heavy rather than CPU heavy anyway? Makes Frostbite seem even more awkward.

 

I dunno, sometimes it feels like EA sees a different games industry to the rest of the world.

[Conando]

It's a decidedly PC engine. So in that sense it's great for PC versions, but it's not the greatest thing for anything but the PS3 in this generation.

[Patticus]

It strikes me as a PC engine, not a gaming engine, and shouldnt be used on consoles in the first place

Are EA's developers having an easy time putting it on consoles? Seems like they'd find it really awkward.

[Conando]

If the 360 version of Battlefield 3 is anything to go by? No.

Edited May 18, 2013 by Wreck-It Ralph

[Tornado]

All PC developers have had problems porting their shit to consoles for the last few years now. And a GPU-centric engine vs. a CPU-centric engine is determined by what the engine is supposed to be focused on. Sim titles always have hugely CPU-centric engines, for example.

[Carbo]

The fuck it is bullshit.

It's been reported several times and you've even quoted the report at one point!

I've quoted no such all-time numbers.

[Dobkeratops]

Since you've ignored it the first two times, what about non-Frostbite games makes them impractical to port that EA would drop them as well? Madden isn't Battlefield 3 or Metro. FIFA isn't Battlefield 3 or Metro.

 

Sorry, I tend to skim through posts while loading a match.

 

Frostbite or no Frostbite, games have to run on something and that something has to be tooled in varying degrees for each platform. Since the WiiU version would be on its own due to architectural differences and it has little sales prospectives I guess they ran the numbers and decided against.

 

 

The GPU is several tiers above what's in the 360/PS3.

The RAM is quadrupled (2GB vs 512MB - Devs have constantly asked for RAM)

The CPU while lower clock speed seems to be able to push a lot of computing power, which will help once developers start optimizing for it.

 

CPU is outright worse than 360's and would get nuked by the Cell harder than Krillin.

Useable RAM is only 1Gb because the OS is a huge piece of shit. Isn't it slower, too?

Only the GPU can be considered an improvement, tho it's not enough to class with the other next gen systems.

 

So, if you're a huge company that has to pay a lot of employees every month and still somehow make money... do you spend R&D on the odd one out with no current viability? Or do you rather cut costs and cultivate the extremely similar, cross-port friendly PS4/720/PC environment?

[Patticus]

What'll happen if MS and Sony's next systems under-perform in their first years?

[Remy]

What'll happen if MS and Sony's next systems under-perform in their first years?

Videogame market crash, everyone plays 3DS and smartphone games. :|

 

and vita(lol)

[Patticus]

EA's not going to do well if sales of all next gen platforms are sluggish to begin with, especially if Wii U sales start picking up later on in the year and EA can't capitalize on them.

 

It probably won't be that bad, though. There are always early adopters willing to part with large sums for the latest gadget. Question is, are they going to be sufficiently numerous?

 

Edit: Nintendo should really take advantage of this global partnership with Sega; Mario & Sonic Party, some sort of Mario Kart vs. Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing game, perhaps get an F-Zero game in the works, put more Sega characters in the 3DS & Wii U Smash Bros. games, bring out an exclusive Sonic Blue Wii U, get a slew of MegaDrive games fast-tracked to the 3DS/Wii U VCs (c'mon Taxman versions of dem Sonic greats!), even give Sonic & Tails a cameo role in the next big 3D Mario, and cameo Mario & Luigi in Lost World.

 

It'd be an unprecedented period of awesome. A new golden age.

 

[Autosaver]

 

Kids these days have it so easy.

 

But really guys, please tell me how to enhance the graphics?!

Edited May 18, 2013 by Autosaver

[Sonic the Hedgehog in 3D]

Autosaver, please stop, one more of these and I think I'll die completely.

[Chaos Warp]

And this is why gaming has a lot of stupid shit in it these days. 

[Celestia]

I really don't get why people are so upset by stuff like this. They're just kids, I'm pretty sure if something like Miiverse existed back in the day you'd be posting on it too, asking questions and stuff. What's the big deal?

Edited May 18, 2013 by elementofchaos

[Sonic the Hedgehog in 3D]

When I played through Mario World for the first time and got to the circle I didn't go search on the internet or ask for help, I kept playing until I could proceed.
In Super Metroid when they're getting to a bit which is obviously intended for the morph ball, they're not using it because they haven't been spoon fed the information on what to do.
They're not using their own wit and giving up too easily

[Autosaver]

I really don't get why people are so upset by stuff like this. They're just kids, I'm pretty sure if something like Miiverse existed back in the day you'd be posting on it too, asking questions and stuff. What's the big deal?

y cant metroid crawl?

[Badnik Mechanic]

 

But really guys, please tell me how to enhance the graphics?!

 

Say "Yes, buy Super Mario 64."

[SilentDoom]

y cant metroid crawl?

 

 

I absolutely cracked up the first time I read that.  Reminded me of the early days of "I think halo is a pretty cool guy.  eh shoots aliens and doesnt afraid of anything"

Edited May 18, 2013 by SiLeNtDo0m

[Autosaver]

Amazon lists Deadpool for Wii U. Possibly going to be shown at E3?

[Dummy Bear]

 

Kids these days have it so easy.

 

But really guys, please tell me how to enhance the graphics?!

 

I'm not going to judge or act like I'm holier than thou because in all honesty when I first played the Forest of Illusion map, I was pretty stumped as well.

 

Unless of course that's not what everyone is acting all elitist about. The other stuff is understandable. Except maybe the ending part since most other games even in that time period reset afterwards.