Nintendo Wii U

[Rain Birds]

It's not just the power thing though. Okay, Wii was, to some end, an exception because the difference was an ocean, but PS2 was markedly less powerful than Xbox and GameCube, yet received all the attention it needed. It certainly saw to it that Xbox was seldom properly exploited because there was a fetish for foisting the biggest games onto Sony's platform.

[SMD]

Exactly why Nintendo need to open up the wii u to bedroom coders and indie developers.

And also get minecraft on it

That Emily Rogers person keeps bigging up the eShop, saying she's sending loads of indies there. I've no idea what sort of scene there is in the US but she seems to be some sort of champion of it.

Also Minecraft would be ridiculous, apparently it's made notch a millionare all over again on XBLA.

[SMD]

Further to the Madden thing: http://gomadden.com/content/madden/madden-14-called-madden-25/

So it seems there are doubts EA will even keep the NFL licence? Also the Madden 25 thing is just bizarre.

[Red Alignment]

The main problem with the Wii U is the lack of power. Consumers may not care, but developers do. The developers working on blockbusters want to work on powerful tech, because they want to show off what they can do and be on the bleeding edge of things. Weaker platforms mainly attract the junior teams or shovelware developers with low budgets hoping for decent returns. But if you have a studio of skilled artists up and running for the next generation of consoles, you're not going to put them to work on old hat stuff.

I know what you mean - I'm quite concerned that the Wii U will suffer from 'Wii syndrome' (lack of high power third-party games) sooner than some of us anticipate or acknowledge. The Wii U's weak sales and its ever-eroding, stumbling head start over the next gen opposition makes that a real risk.

[SMD]

I know what you mean - I'm quite concerned that the Wii U will suffer from 'Wii syndrome' (lack of high power third-party games) sooner than some of us anticipate or acknowledge. The Wii U's weak sales and its ever-eroding, stumbling head start over the next gen opposition makes that a real risk.

It's weird that people are choosing to base it on the Wii rather than the 3DS. That had a slow start, needed a massive boost and faced stiff competition from a more powerful competitor yet somehow Nintendo turned it around, even with a quiet Christmas.

But yeah, if you're worried about third party and the stuff that's on the horizon doesn't impress you then you probably ought to consider selling it next Christmas.

[Super Craig]

Has it actually been confirmed that Nintendo won't let EA use Origin? Because they let Ubi use Uplay.

It's not that they can't use Origin. The rumour goes that EA wanted Origin to be the entire network platform. So, PSN, Xbox Live and Origin. Nintendo and third parties would have to use it as well.

It's a pretty fucking stupid idea, but it's not the first time that EA have thrown their weight around apparently. I remember reading that they withdrew GC support to force Nintendo to give them a reduced rate for licensing. And that they wanted Microsoft to get rid of their sports games and the XSN platform before they would add Xbox Live support to their games.

[Bojangle]

The rumour goes that EA wanted Origin to be the entire network platform. So, PSN, Xbox Live and Origin. Nintendo and third parties would have to use it as well.

To be honest that sounds like something some bitter Nintendo fan would roll out. Maybe they just don't have faith in the console long term and in the current climate even huge publishers like EA need to be careful with their decisions. For them it's probably a much safer bet to focus on 'gen4' as they call it whilst at the same time waiting it out and seeing how the Wii U performs.

[Not Thread Owner]

There must be more to it than what we're hearing. Only a few months ago EA were getting throbbing boners for Nintendo's online system.

[scottcr]

Nintendo also handed guaranteed success to EA's rival, UbiSoft, by doing a high profile exclusive bundle

[Not Thread Owner]

Yeah, but they couldn't do the same with EA, even if they wanted to as EA haven't got any Wii U exclusive games.

[scottcr]

UbiSoft have done well out of Nintendo. Must've made a fortune out of Just Dance.

Do EA do any exclusives?

[Not Thread Owner]

Henry Hatsworth. Boom Blox.

[scottcr]

Oh aye... Boom Blox was really good as well

And they also did that really good tennis game for MP

[Super Craig]

To be honest that sounds like something some bitter Nintendo fan would roll out. Maybe they just don't have faith in the console long term and in the current climate even huge publishers like EA need to be careful with their decisions. For them it's probably a much safer bet to focus on 'gen4' as they call it whilst at the same time waiting it out and seeing how the Wii U performs.

So why have they bothered with things like Mass Effect 3 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted then? If EA were playing it safe they'd just release FIFA and Madden and not bother porting anything else.

[SMD]

The rumour goes that they sent them out to die to point at low sales being a factor in not supporting the Wii U.

Why a company would do that, I've no idea. I could believe that EA are just doing quick and dirty ports without putting much effort in but yeah.

[Dandy_Sephy]

I could believe that EA are just doing quick and dirty ports without putting much effort in but yeah.

I'm shocked and appal... nope, just can't do it.

EA's business habits have changed a lot over the last 20 odd years, but they've also stayed the same. EA like to throw their weight around, it's what got them their arrangement with Sega on the Mega Drive. EA reverse engineered the console to make their own development hardware and sidestep the licensing, then pretty much threatened Sega with it. Sega wisely conceded and used the new deal to get their foot in the door in the west. It's quite possible that the Mega Drive owes much of it's western success to EA, directly or not. I doubt they would have been so interested in the MD if it did not have the same cpu as the Amiga. They absorbed the failure of the 3D0 and they started being cautious of new hardware that wasn't the top dog.

This process has worked pretty well for them and it may well have doomed Sega's viability as a platform holder when EA decided Sega's choices were causing them problems. EA took a risk with the Mega Drive incident but it's a rare example as they are far happier to sit back and play it safe knowing they have a couple of franchises making them lots of money. They will release a couple of games but not offer any long term plan that goes beyond a few cheap PR words at a keynote.

I looked at Riccitiello's bit of Nintendo's E3 2011 keynote earlier. Pretty much 90% of his praising the console and Nintendo was of stuff that sounded copy/pasted from about 5 years before that with the 360 and ps3. Praising leader boards? It does not surprise me that behind the scenes EA would throw their weight around, their name means pretty much anything they say is meant as a threat. Their 'war' with Activision has only shown them up, pushing several games designed to one-up them but that end up back firing. Their recent comments about resting Medal of Honor only go to show the problems they are having, it's everyone elses fault but theirs.

EA need to realise that this attitude of theirs is only causing them problems, Activision overtaking them as the biggest third party hasn't made them do anything other than engage in some pointless war over a couple of franchises. Unfortunately unless everyone stops buying Fifa and Madden they will never learn.

[Bojangle]

So why have they bothered with things like Mass Effect 3 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted then?

Two of the easiest things to port, and hardly decent ports at that. Hardly bothering. ME3 especially is just mind boggling really considering anybody interested in that series likely already owns the trilogy on another format. That felt like something Nintendo asked them to do really so they can shout out how they have the same titles you can get on 360/PS3.

[mushashi]

So...EA look to have nixed Madden for Wii U. They dropped 3DS last year, and Wii / Vita / Wii U this time around. I don't care for the series, but broadly speaking, what could Nintendo possibly do to make this console even slightly desirable for third parties? As far as I'm aware they don't have the draconian licensing structure of the 80s and 90s, yet there's just a complete unwillingness to put much emphasis on their consoles for the most part.

Wii could have had a pretty decent audience (at relatively low development costs) with a bit of effort. Red Steel and a RE4 port did over a million each, but most publishers derived from that the idea that the console should be snubbed instead of given unique or exclusive software.

This is rather revisionist, developers put unique software on the Wii *cue NeoGAF-style list of Wii exclusives which are teh awesome*, unfortunately people didn't buy any of it up in droves and you get the usual complaints about lack of effort (basically money then, but that goes against the whole lowered development costs and risk allowing creativity mantra)

If Nintendo actually wanted to fix the long standing licensee problem they have and prove to potential licensees that there is a large enough viable market for their products, then they should be more pro-active in courting licensees. A couple of easy ideas:

• Free or heavily subsidised dev kits
  
• Slash license fees
  
• Free marketing support
  
• Actually make first party titles in the genres licensees excel at to build those markets (but they don't have that skillset, much in the same way nobody can make Nintendo-like games of the same quality, unlike the genres Sony or Microsoft make big selling games in)
  

But they did have to resort to some of the above with the GameCube to stop the likes of EA from calling it a day, they went as far as loaning Mario to EA for a game, so not necessarily 100% possibility of success, but if they just want to keep their cash pile and expect other publishers to just support them for no good reason when they have multiple other opportunities to make better money elsewhere, then I hope you like droughts and an anemic software lineup which forces you to consider lower-tier software which you'd otherwise avoid/not even consider if you were deluged with quality choices.

Is there no Madden becuase of Nintendo not allowing them to use Origin?

I would love to see some evidence for this as I've only noticed this particular meme recently, seems something to be filed under the persecution complex/conspiracy theory bucket.

[SMD]

When the Wii U was first announced, the rumours were that Nintendo went to EA and Valve to have a look at them sorting out Nintendo's online offerings. The rumours went as far as suggesting Nintendo were looking at incoroporating Origin or Steam but in the end they went with their own network. Ever since then, there've been strong suggestions that EA were lead to believe that Nintendo would use Origin and were furious that they didn't.

Since the launch, there've been lots of little things coming out of EA to suggest they're just not interested in the Wii U, either to force Nintendo to come back to them or for whatever reason. It's certainly not new though.

[Bojangle]

When the Wii U was first announced, the rumours were that Nintendo went to EA and Valve to have a look at them sorting out Nintendo's online offerings.

I stopped there. Remember those rumours about the Gamepad screen being OLED and having haptic feedback too? Yeah.

[SMD]

I stopped there. Remember those rumours about the Gamepad screen being OLED and having haptic feedback too? Yeah.

No? No one said that. There were loads of people who said it'd be great if it had it but I certainly don't remember that.

[Bojangle]

No? No one said that.

Really?

(You're right about the OLED thing though, I think that was just people hoping for it rather than rumours).

[SMD]

I guess I must've dismissed it mentally because I didn't think it was credible

Quick Google suggests the source of those haptic feedback rumours was that a company called ViviTouch were supposed to be supporting Nintendo at an exhibition.

[squirtle]

What's haptic feedback? Is it different from rumble?

[mushashi]

Haptics in this case refers to the touch screen physically responding to touch, like the rumoured rumble stylus which never happened for 3DS.

http://www.siliconera.com/2010/03/23/nikkei-nintendo-3ds-has-force-feedback-faster-wireless-and-maybe-an-accelerometer/

[kensei]

If I was Nintendo, I'd ignore third parties entirely and run a HBO model. Buy or create a load of studios to the point where you can turn out a high profile game you can't get anywhere else every month. Third party access restricted except for exclusives that meet the standard.

About as much chance if success as aping the other two.

[Dandy_Sephy]

and lose all that licensing money? no chance

[Super Craig]

Two of the easiest things to port, and hardly decent ports at that. Hardly bothering. ME3 especially is just mind boggling really considering anybody interested in that series likely already owns the trilogy on another format. That felt like something Nintendo asked them to do really so they can shout out how they have the same titles you can get on 360/PS3.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted isn't even out on the Wii U yet, so I I'd love to know how you know what the port is like. And it hardly seems like something that's easy to port either, but then I've never coded on a project of that scale.

[scottcr]

I really quite fancy getting Most Wanted... Hope it's a good effort

From what I've read, the Mass Effect port is actually really good. It's just that you can't really expect people to but the last part of a trilogy for full price when it's available for buttons on other consoles.

[Smitty]