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

[Solkia]

Nintendo has done this since the Gamecube, they generally use custom parts that perform well enough but, they don't break the bank. They're the only manufacturer that tends to make a profit off their consoles at launch. Now, I don't think we'll see the pricing of something like the PS3 ever again, that was due to blu ray mostly.

Am I missing something?

[Conando]

It outputs in HD by general standards, today, that's "well enough". They didn't even go all out with the SNES. Though it was generally more powerful than the Genesis, its CPU was slow, hence why SEGA ran wild with that "BLAST PROCESSING" thing.

Edited September 1, 2012 by Crow T. Robot

[Dobkeratops]

I think he means their choices of parts for consoles 'since the Gamecube' (read: Wii) aren't performing 'well enough' (read: be in the same generation as their competitors to get decent support).

[Conando]

It's something they've always done, they just seem to do it hardcore now, due to the whole putting effort into N64 and Gamcube and getting no return. And like hell the next generation will be anything like the difference between 2 Gamecubes taped together and a PS3. It just hasn't gotten that demonstrably better.

Edited September 1, 2012 by Crow T. Robot

[Shade Vortex]

Back from the first day of PAX. I have bad news and good news. I'll say the bad first:

1-Pikmin 3's demo did not use the Wii-U tablet gamepad for gameplay (it was used for the minimap and also a replay function). Only Wiimote+ and nunchuck.

2-Wii U gamepad can be awkward to get used to at first, and is rather bulky.

3-The Wii U Pro controller was not used for any demos there from what I saw. They WERE at the ZombiU booth but were not used during the demo. When asked about it, they said Nintendo gave them the controllers thinking they'd show off the multiplayer, but they only showed off the singleplayer since they wanted to showcase the tablet-specific gameplay like scanning for stuff, lock-picking and managing your inventory. So I can't tell you whether or not there is input delay with the controller.

4-Nintendoland is dumb in my opinion. Just minigame shovelware really, and the Animal Crossing attraction seemed unfair- person with the Wii U pad every time I saw people playing. If it's not a pack-in I wold not buy it, plain as that.

5-NSMBU is just dumb. The Gamepad specific gameplay gimmick is bad and it should feel bad for existing.

The good:

1-Pikmin 3 was fun and easy to use with the Wiimote. Rock Pikmin are cool to use and the graphics are neat.

2-ZombiU is fun, but can be challenging, so if you like that kinda thing, the game is for you.

3-The Wii U gamepad is lighter and more comfortable to hold/use than it looks.

4-Nintendoland is good for showcasing the WIi U's asymmetric gameplay, no matter how dumb I think it is I cannot argue against this.

5-NSMBU will sell no matter how dumb it is, so people will be buying Wii U at launch. I guess that's a good thing!

Edited September 1, 2012 by Shade Vortex

[Wraith]

I figured New Super Mario Bros U would be kinda lame. It feels samey. Again.

But Pikmin 3 sounds great. I hope I can use the tablet though. I like the idea of having a map on the controller.

[Shade Vortex]

I was told that the final game would allow you to play with the WIi U gamepad, but for the purposes of the demo, it wasn't implemented. On that note, the button that was conspicously added to the controller was missing from the PAX consoles. I think that button is supposed to be used for swapping between playing on the TV and playing a game solely on the gamepad.

Also, I forgot to mention- Project P-100 is pretty fun. It's kind of similar to Pikmin, but different enough for it to be interesting. it's hard to explain and had kind of unique controls, but it was indeed a good experience from what I played.

Edited September 1, 2012 by Shade Vortex

[Eternal EX]

@Shade Vortex. Uh graphically how good did all of the games you saw look? Is it better than the best looking games like Gears of wars, 2 and 3, Crysis 2 (PC version) and Uncharted series? Or is it just on par with the majority of this generations games....like the annual COD, Battlfield 3 (console version) and Sonic Unleashed/generations? (not saying SU and SG were average looking but..you get what I'm saying)

Edited September 1, 2012 by Eternal X

[Shade Vortex]

ZombiU looked about as good as Resident Evil 6 and Gears of War, or whatever similar games there were. Pikmin 3 is harder to compare to those because it's more stylistic than realistic, but to put it up against something more fair, it looked better than the likes of Kinectimals or Little Big Planet. I guess you could say it's on par with Generations.

Basically, they looked great, and if there's any differences, good or bad, it's negligible enough to be unnoticeable. It will vary greatly on a game-to-game basis as well, and as usual with launch window software, it won't even showcase most of the system's potential anyways.

Edited September 1, 2012 by Shade Vortex

[Eternal EX]

So in other words....no real difference? Thanks Shade.

[Candescence]

And like hell the next generation will be anything like the difference between 2 Gamecubes taped together and a PS3. It just hasn't gotten that demonstrably better.

My thoughts exactly. And I know I keep mentioning Unlimited Detail when it comes to subjects like this, but if it did prove to be a viable technology, it would basically put the Wii U mostly on par with the other consoles visuals-wise anyway.

[Shade Vortex]

Okay, today I managed for find a demo that ACTUALLY used the Wii U Pro Controller. It was the Ninja Gaiden Port. Technically, Rayman legends also used it, but people were not allowed to play with them because it apparently was consistently causing that demo to crash when you used it.

Anyways, with Ninja Gaiden, the controller had no input delay. I felt that when I pressed the buttons that's when my actions caused a reaction in the game, which is of course how it's supposed to be. It's especially important to note that this is the kind of game that NEEDS good reaction time due to its difficulty (lol this series is practically maade to be hard).

For what it's worth, the Wii U port of that Ninja Gaiden game had tons of blood in it, which the lack of blood was apparently one of the complaints against the original game.They also added more skills/powers and stuff.

I also tried out Trine 2, which was pretty cool. Also I might just be going crazy but it seems like all the Wii U stations swapped out from more early prototype Wii U gamepads to more up to date ones on the second day, cause the first day ones seemed bigger/bulkier and were kind of awkward to use, but the ones I used today seemed much better and smaller.

Oh yeah, the controller itself was very comfortable. It felt pretty much like a 360 controller but with a upside-down PS3 layout (analog sticks on top and dpad/buttons on bottom, like the Wii U Gamepad itself, of course). Also felt kinda similar to a Genesis controller. The button placement takes getting used to if you're used to either a PS3 or 360 controller.

Edited September 2, 2012 by Shade Vortex

[Blue Blood]

For the record, input lag is most usually caused by the monitor being played on and the game itself. My friend used to complain about how laggy the 360 controller was, and then I told him one day to try the same controller on the same game on my 360 setup. It all worked fine. If the Wii U Pro Controller seems to be lagging on a number of games right now, that could be a sign of them still being WIP.

[Gregzilla]

Rumor: Wii U to launch November 18th at $200

http://www.zeldainformer.com/news/comments/rumor-wii-u-set-at-200-releasing-november-18th

Call us Rumor Informer all you want, but according to an inside source who attended the recent GameStop product conference, that’s the details that were clearly discussed. A November 18th launch with the Wii U launching at $200. Nintendo has told us repeatedly we would be surprised by the launch price of the Wii U and certainly $200 counts as a surprise. It’s not really known if GameStop was speculating as a company or basing things on information they were given at the corporate level to prepare their stores for launch.

That price seems WAY too good to be true, but I suppose it's not impossible. If it does turn out true, that would definitely leave customers with more cash to drop on the games. Fingers crossed.

[Marcello]

Rumor: Wii U to launch November 18th at $200

http://www.zeldainfo...g-november-18th

That price seems WAY too good to be true, but I suppose it's not impossible. If it does turn out true, that would definitely leave customers with more cash to drop on the games. Fingers crossed.

Yeah, not gonna happen. No way it'll launch cheaper than the Wii and 3DS and at the same price as the XL at the moment.

Edited September 2, 2012 by MarcelloF

[Gregzilla]

I think the cheapest we'll see it is $250, but it'll probably still be around the $300-350 mark. Anything around there seems alright by me. Anything lower is unrealistic, and anything higher is unreasonable.

[Chili Dawg]

Yeah, $200 would be way, way, way too generous. I'd expect $250 at the absolute lowest, $400 at the absolute highest, though I like to think Nintendo isn't stupid enough to think they can afford to go above $350.

[Tornado]

No way in hell. $250 minimum. $300 far more likely. Nintendo requires initial profit to keep their finances in order; and regardless of how many corners Nintendo has cut so they don't have to pay any licencing fees, that controller isn't going to be cheap and Nintendo is going to price the system accordingly. They also know that Sony and Microsoft can very easily (and most likely will) chop $50 of the PS360 to steal some of the system's momentum, so they can't get very close to $350 either.

Edited September 2, 2012 by Tornado

[ProfessorZolo]

Hey, quick question to anyone who's played the Wii U- what's the touchscreen like?

Is it solid, like an iPhone, or soft, like the 3DS?

[Autosaver]

Hey, quick question to anyone who's played the Wii U- what's the touchscreen like?

Is it solid, like an iPhone, or soft, like the 3DS?

[Remy]

Hey, quick question to anyone who's played the Wii U- what's the touchscreen like?

Is it solid, like an iPhone, or soft, like the 3DS?

Similar texture to caressing a beautiful woman

[PSI Wind]

That little image above might be the proof that Namco Bandai is going to show off Wii U titles at TGS. Someone went snooping through the publisher's TGS portal and found that image. It's not currently being used on the site, but we can see that it exists. Why create that image if there's not going to be any Wii U titles on display?

Remember, Namco Bandai has both Tank! Tank! Tank! and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 coming to Wii U.

http://gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=184685

pleasebetalesofrelated

[Marcello]

I'd rather it be Klonoa.

[Chili Dawg]

I'd rather it be Pac-Man World 4.

[Marcello]

I'd actually like that, too. I never owned or finished World 2, but when I played it at my uncle's I thought it was really fun. Always wanted to buy it myself..