Nintendo Wii U

[SMD]

See, I don't see it as a total Nintendo failure - I see it as retail begging for assistance while the supermarkets tag along because they want someone else to pay for all the marketing that they don't do.

The supermarkets are purely reactive. Their raison d'etre has nothing to do with games, it's just a handy tool to either make a bit of extra cash or get bodes in their shops.

I think the price cut will be in direct response to whatever MS and Sony announce. Christmas launch? Price cut. Starts at £350? Price cut. Large launch line up? Price cut.

The only way there won't be a price cut is if somehow Sony and MS botch the reveal completely.

[gone fishin]

Yeah, I get the different messages- but maybe it who they are coming from

Activision- the Wii u has been a disappointment. Oh yeah, we'll where are the exclusive or even new games for it?

Supermarket- it needs to be cheaper and have a stronger marketing push. I agree with them, but what have supermarkets done to push the Wii U?

Indie retailer- there needs to be a price cut, but we're not doing it.

I do agree with the points, but it sounds like everyone is expecting Nintendo to do it all for them, with individual groups nOt actually taking any resposbility. Maybe that's the state of retail at the moment. Maybe retail has got too used to the likes of Samsung giving heavy discounts and paying for in store advertising, and they expect every electronics company to do the same?

Anyway, here's what I think Nintendo should do from April.

1) have only one option- the basic, they've got the early adopters with the premium. No none gives a shit now about it now

2) reduce the price to 199, get it positioned as the second option console in time for next ps and Xbox.

3) put in Mario bros wii u as the pack in game- plus a couple of eShop titles

4)have massive advertising campaign. Like fucking huge. think back to the 80s huge. Or get Ant and Dec.

5) release the big gun/killer Nintendo titles for summer. Is there one?!?!

6) fuck relying on third parties to provide content- You Can Only Play Nintendo Games On The Wii U. Make that the Mantra. It worked before...

[Uzi]

The supermarkets just have not been coming up with the goods have they? How can ignore the obligations of a supplier that means fuck all for their overall revenue.

Why would the supermarkets have to push the wii u? Or any product. They push what thinks will make them money and if they don't have any backing behind that with their own indications or data, then the supplier needs to provide incentive for that. That's generally the basics of how retail works. If they give shelf space to a third party product product and it isn't selling then you don't spend your own time and money trying to make it work when it is more economic to just give it less shelf space.

Of course Nintendo had to do it all, it is their system and their money and shareholders at risk. It is their responsibility to make sure the system does as well as it can.

Also the wii u basic has been available from some retailers around 199 for a while anyway

http://shopto.net/vi...hite-basic-pack

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

I do agree with the points, but it sounds like everyone is expecting Nintendo to do it all for them, with individual groups nOt actually taking any resposbility.

Of course Nintendo has to do it for them, it's their product and it's them who need to flog it. For retailers it won't matter much in the long run, they won't give a donkey's behind whether they sell a copy of Warmans for the 360 or the Wii U as long as the margins are the same. In fact, by offering shelf space to Nintendo, they block out other potential income from goods that could have been in that place instead. If Nintendo doesn't get its act together, retail may just dump the current stock and put something more profitable in its place.

[SMD]

The supermarkets just have not been coming up with the goods have they? How can ignore the obligations of a supplier that means fuck all for their overall revenue.

Why would the supermarkets have to push the wii u? Or any product. They push what thinks will make them money and if they don't have any backing behind that with their own indications or data, then the supplier needs to provide incentive for that. That's generally the basics of how retail works. If they give shelf space to a third party product product and it isn't selling then you don't spend your own time and money trying to make it work when it is more economic to just give it less shelf space.

Of course Nintendo had to do it all, it is their system and their money and shareholders at risk. It is their responsibility to make sure the system does as well as it can.

Also the wii u basic has been available from some retailers around 199 for a while anyway

http://shopto.net/vi...hite-basic-pack

No, exactly, what's what I mean - supermarkets don't need to, retail do. But retail's on its arse and Nintendo were pushing digital purchases in their last Direct.

Nintendo could easily promote the Wii U by sending out loads of game cards, like the ones you get for Facebook or Angry Birds or whatever, for each of their games on the eShop and with a giant cutout explaining that you can redeem them on the new Wii U. Supermarkets don't give a fuck, it takes up bugger all space and they get their cut regardless. Nintendo get the publicity of advertising the eShop and Wii U in one fell swoop.

Poor retail though

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

People aren\t spending money on crap they don't need... if you leave the rllmukforum-universe, or even any gaming-forum-universe and it's pretty obvious to see that the general public just aren't that interested in games at the moment. It's something that people just don't need, especially when you can get angry birds for pennies...

On the other hand, the Wii U may have sold less than 60,000 in January, the Xbox 360 did close to 300,000. It's not that people aren't buying consoles, they're just not buying Wii Us.

[noob]

I genuinely dont know what is going on with my Wii U...

It is connected to the internet although i have been trying to dl some demos like the cave and tank! tank! tank! but it fails almost instantly and simply says error. also netflix and youtube, i think i got them to work once.

the Wii U is in the spare room with all the other consoles which work fine on the wifi themselves. Was considering getting a repeater, would that help the issue?

Genuinely stumped. Other than that, I really like the machine and cant wait for upcoming stuff like Pikmin, wonderful 101, rayman etc...

Any advice gladly received.

[El Spatula]

Its also still an image problem to an extent. I know lots of people who are gamers who either don't know about the Wii U,think it's just an expensive Wii peripheral or simply don't care as they've heard that the new PS or Xbox is coming. Amongst none gamers most aren't aware of its existence or its the follow up to that console they bought once for a party and haven't touched since.

[Eoin]

Activision- the Wii u has been a disappointment. Oh yeah, we'll where are the exclusive or even new games for it?

Games follow sales. Activision put Black Ops 2 on the Wii U and it didn't sell very well. What's that going to tell Activision? It's going to tell them that one of the biggest games in all of console history can't sell well on Wii U, so why would they risk throwing an exclusive on it?

Supermarket- it needs to be cheaper and have a stronger marketing push. I agree with them, but what have supermarkets done to push the Wii U?

They've done exactly what they were obliged to do and exactly what Nintendo should have expected them to do - basically nothing.

I do agree with the points, but it sounds like everyone is expecting Nintendo to do it all for them

Yes, people are expecting Nintendo to have the key role in advertising a new Nintendo console. Who else would?

Anyway, here's what I think Nintendo should do from April.

1) have only one option- the basic, they've got the early adopters with the premium. No none gives a shit now about it now

2) reduce the price to 199, get it positioned as the second option console in time for next ps and Xbox.

3) put in Mario bros wii u as the pack in game- plus a couple of eShop titles

4)have massive advertising campaign. Like fucking huge. think back to the 80s huge. Or get Ant and Dec.

5) release the big gun/killer Nintendo titles for summer. Is there one?!?!

6) fuck relying on third parties to provide content- You Can Only Play Nintendo Games On The Wii U. Make that the Mantra. It worked before...

Here's my take:

1. Cut down to 1 model. 32GB of space because let's pretend that's enough, eShop download code (for one of a small selection of games). €250/US$250/UK£200.

2. Shamelessly create a budget line of games and throw the entire launch library onto it.

3. Spam TV and the internet (and shops, with promotional leaflets) with educational material on the Wii U. Just straight up "here's what it can do" stuff. This is a workaround for the fact that they cannot just go back on the branding decision, which is easily the single most stupid branding decision in the history of major consoles.

4. Remove the stupid eShop time restriction for 18-rated games in Europe.

5. Announce everything that's being developed for Wii U at Nintendo and is unlikely to get cancelled. Show as much as reasonably possible. Not all at once, but the idea of drip-feeding Nintendo Direct announcements at people is silly.

6. Announce that Club Nintendo is now a subscription service and make it a blatant, shameless, no-excuses rip-off of PlayStation Plus. Give all existing Wii U owners a year-long free subscription.

[SMD]

Showing off everything in development is a terrible move because gamers are fickle and once the news is over, the mentality is to move onto the next announcement. That's why Nintendo are drip feeding, because it doesn't work when you announce something 2 years away and show it at two E3s.

[Eoin]

Showing off everything in development is a terrible move because gamers are fickle and once the news is over, the mentality is to move onto the next announcement. That's why Nintendo are drip feeding, because it doesn't work when you announce something 2 years away and show it at two E3s.

Yes, once the news is over, the mentality is to move onto the next announcement, which is why I said "not all at once".

As for Nintendo's drip feeding, it has the silly effect of ensuring that nearly every Nintendo Direct gets hyped up and then is a let-down, with occasional exceptions like Wind Waker HD. You saw the reaction to that - pretty much universally positive, even though it was actually really an apology for having to soft-delay the new Zelda game. Nintendo created a hugely positive reaction by showcasing something in development, that people didn't know about, and you're telling me that's a "terrible move"? Imagine they got something like that reaction once every two weeks for a year? That'd be so terrible, would it?

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

The problem with the Nintendo Direct stuff is that everybody is waiting for the announcement of a killer title. So far they mainly used them to talk about Wii U stuff we already knew and then saying it was delayed.

[Uzi]

I think for lapsing systems you need to show your hand earlier than you might usually do. If the current perception of your struggling system is "it has no games" and there are some great games you don't intend to show off until six months before release, then show them off earlier. At least people will know there is stuff on the horizon. A low selling system is one thing, a low selling system with no current indication of future confirmed software is another.

Look at the vita, currently I have no idea bar soul sacrifice if anything of note is coming out (Sony were also dolts and showed nothing on it at E3 last year).

[pulsemyne]

It will be funny when the next gen consoles release and the first few months see poor software sales because they wll have supply issues with units. Wonder if third partys will shit the bed then as well. That's the problem with the industry, it has become very short term oriented. It's all 'Now! now! Now! money money money'.

[Uzi]

It will be funny when the next gen consoles release and the first few months see poor software sales because they wll have supply issues with units. Wonder if third partys will shit the bed then as well. That's the problem with the industry, it has become very short term oriented. It's all 'Now! now! Now! money money money'.

They won't- because they have a combined pool of three systems. The next gen PS/XBOX/PC all share the same third party market. The industry can stop supporting the PS3/360 (just like the tv industry even though people might be happy with a standard like HD ready)- release the new call of duty, halo, fifa, GTA, elder scrolls etc on the next gen systems and they'll do ok like in previous generations. Maybe not as well, but it works. Those franchises are big enough to not be affected by the 69p ios system. people don't stop buying call of duty to play angry birds. It is still a billion dollar franchise.

The Wii U was a break from the mould. Nintendo can break from the mould. They did it with the Wii and it worked. They did it again with the Wii U. It isn't working so far.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

The Wii U was a break from the mould. Nintendo can break from the mould. They did it with the Wii and it worked. They did it again with the Wii U. It isn't working so far.

That's what I was thinking about too. When the previous gen ended, all parties took a step forward but in different ways. Sony and Microsoft reckoned the step forward was in more power, HD graphics and online. Nintendo decided instead that the way forward wasn't shinier graphics or online, but a more accessible control method to make new forms of gameplay possible and draw in more people. Both were right; Sony and Microsoft pretty much split up the 'core' market amongst them. The Wii was a disruptive success drawing in Nintendo fans and loads of party-gaming and fitness wary casuals.

The Wii U however does neither; it plays catch up with the current gen Sony and Microsoft consoles - and failing in many areas like online or third party support - while adding little of its own that has the potential to shake things up like motion controls did. Will we ever see a killer title to justify the expensive gamepad?

[Keyboard Koala]

1) have only one option- the basic, they've got the early adopters with the premium. No none gives a shit now about it now

Wut?

When I buy I WiiU I want a gamepad cradle, I want a gamepad stand, I want a console stand and I want a new sensor bar.

I think I'd never buy a Wii U if the basic pack was the only option. Make the permium pack the only option, and lower its price to €250 or £200 max; is what I suggest.

I agree with the rest though.

[scottcr]

The mentality is that they announce something ace - and people go woop and then demand something else. So short term. It's like the whole industry and consumers have ADHD

[scottcr]

Cod or Sonic two player with your own screen each is a killer app for me...

[scottcr]

Actually - using the browser on the pad and the using the X button to do a big drum roll and spectacular reveal of a massive pair of tits is pretty much the definition of a killer app

[SweatyTravolta]

The web browser is fantastic, I actually use it quite a lot as it's great for playing youtube content on the big screen when you've got people round. Netflix too is easily the best version there is.

Can we take the stories of how doomed the Wii U is to the sales thread and talk about the games and the system here.

LOL LOL IT HAS NO GAMES

Yes, yes I know it has no game but could I please flick through the discussion of the games that don't exist without the comedy doom mongers? Flicking through I saw brief snippets of talk of an indie developer initiative and free to play Tank! Tank! Tank! but it was drowned out in a sea of the same old shit. It's fucking boring and I don't know why the so called NDF posse put up with it or even bother posting.

Anyway, what is this free to play Tank! Tank! Tank!? I love me some Tank! Tank! Tank! Great arcade game

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

If you want to talk about the games, why not make a thread for those games? This thread is about the console itself so stuff like sales etc also belongs here.

[NEG]

Sonic 2 multiplayer online would indeed be the best thing ever and would save the Wii U.

[mushashi]

Yeah, maybe they'll also be the first machines ever to not have ports of games available on the previous generation of hardware.

Didn't the jump to 32bit actually result in that?, Mario 64 didn't look much like any previous Mario game for example, don't think anybody did tarted up 16bit games, there might have been remakes, but if people are going to count them, we really are clutching at straws with the port defense.

If it's another Gamecube, I don't have a problem with that. As you said, it'll be supported by Nintendo games and perhaps the eShop might flourish as indie devs keep flocking to it.

It's looking more like another N64 in terms of licensee support, envoking the GameCube is probably wrong, a bit like using the term Dreamcast is wrong The GC started with solid licensee support, was in the middle of the pack from a technology standpoint and was cheap, the Wii U is none of the above.

N64 - Number of Software titles:

Japan - 196

US - 297

GameCube - Number of Software titles:

Japan - 275

US - 552

But that is a big problem. There is quite obviously a slump in the games market at the moment, and as the only company with all their eggs in that basket, it will obviously be a bigger risk to Nintendo than anybody else.

Billions in the bank mean nothing, and I would argue they would be better to invest in development teams and new technologies. The smartest thing for Nintendo would be to really push on the 3DS and just let the WiiU coast along. I honestly think that even 3 months in, it's already a bit of a lost cause. They really needed to make the 12 months count, and they've already wasted a quarter of them.

Guess what?, that is pretty much the gameplan:

Q: You have committed to the operating profit of 100 billion yen; however, the hardware market has shrunk drastically this fiscal year. What are the assumed conditions of the market to achieve 100 billion yen? I would like to know if the assumed market size is similar to the current fiscal year, larger to some degree or shrink continuously.

Iwata: It is obvious that if we are able to sell only about the same number of units of Nintendo 3DS next fiscal year as this fiscal year, the sales growth of software will be limited. In such a case, we will probably not be able to reach the level of operating profit we are aiming for. Therefore, the current sales levels of Nintendo 3DS in the overseas markets are not at all satisfactory in regard to the hardware’s potential. This is not happening due to external factors. In our understanding, this is because we could not fully convey the appeal of the Nintendo 3DS platform and as a result, fewer consumers purchased it than we had expected. So, obviously, our aim is to increase our hardware sales more than in this fiscal year.

[SMD]

In fairness, the 3DS has had a year on the Wii U and developers would be more adept at developing for it (and at lower cost) than the home console.

I think people refer to the Gamecube rather than the N64 because the latter was the most powerful machine on the market at the time whereas the Gamecube was the little console that could. Keeping up with the Xbox was a combination of tricks and good development, which is what the Wii U will need to keep apace with the other consoles.

[Stejay]

I haven't used my Wii U since before Christmas, fired it up this morning to grab Wii U Street, and found that the Home button on the gamepad is broken. Totally unresponsive and it looks a little sunk in. It hasn't taken a knock as it's been kept on the charging dock. Fingers crossed shopto.net can do something about it.

[scottcr]

Actually - using the browser on the pad and the using the X button to do a big drum roll and spectacular reveal of a massive pair of tits is pretty much the definition of a killer app

What kind of a humourless fun sucker would neg this?

[Rain Birds]

I haven't used my Wii U since before Christmas, fired it up this morning to grab Wii U Street, and found that the Home button on the gamepad is broken. Totally unresponsive and it looks a little sunk in. It hasn't taken a knock as it's been kept on the charging dock. Fingers crossed shopto.net can do something about it.

That'll have to go back to Nintendo unless you're not fussed at losing saves / your NN account + purchases.

[Stejay]

FFS, I was afraid of that. I was just hoping to send the gamepad off and not the whole machine. Looks like I'll have to contact Nintendo directly instead and probably pay the extortionate price for a repair or replacement. Awesome.

[Rain Birds]

FFS, I was afraid of that. I was just hoping to send the gamepad off and not the whole machine. Looks like I'll have to contact Nintendo directly instead and probably pay the extortionate price for a repair or replacement. Awesome.

Pretty sure you can send the pad by itself (I only sent the console for my repair) but it'll have to be to Nintendo. If the home button is as you've described, I'm sure you can talk them around for a repair...say the button always felt that way but worked previously; after all, how would you know what it's 'supposed' to feel like? The fact that there's no noticeable cosmetic damage can only help your cause.