Topic: Nintendo's current state

I just went onto Wikipedia and counted all GameCube games released in November 2003 and all Wii U games released November 2014 in the US Region

Gamecube: 26
Wii U: 20

I say things are going pretty well for Wii U, even being considered the worst console they are attracting lots of software, and this probably wasn't even one of the Wii U's stronger months. Just thought you would like to know

Well I actually bought the Basic version for about 133 USD.
I have 2TB HDD so I don't mind the basic model.

Premium would with game included in mind, probably be $299.

It varies from region to region, but claiming there where over 10 major releases in NA is an overstatement.

Install base makes it worth it, and even than were seeing the industry slowly drop the two.

Trying to claim major releases compared to minor releases is subjective, sone may say The Swapper isn't a major release even though it won many awards and is considered a good game but it is a downloadable only game and some people consider those less than retail games. Times are changing and a "major" release is going to be different for everyone. Some may think the GameCube had less than 10 "major" releases in November 2003

Coming from the perspective of a middle-aged adult who can afford multiple platforms, I kind of like where Nintendo is right now. Yes, more third party support on the Wii U and 3DS would be nice, but that would primarily benefit Nintendo as a company and its investors (or gamers who only have a Wii U). I'm not an investor and I have a PS4, so it's not as important to me that Nintendo gets third party support. I don't care how profitable Nintendo is as long as Nintendo is able to stay in business and keep creating great games that I want to play. And so far, Nintendo seems to be doing fine-- it's not like they're nearing bankruptcy. Why would I care if Iwata or Nintendo investors get more money? If you can only afford (or choose to own only) a Nintendo platform, then sure, I can see where third party support is much more important to you and why you might want some of those "grittier" third party games.

The reason I like what Nintendo is doing is because they are offering a genuine alternative to Sony/Microsoft. I would hate for Nintendo to move in that direction to be more "competitive." I think Nintendo is right to not view Sony/Microsoft as direct competitors; they simply occupy a different space in the industry. Settlers of Catan and Monopoly are both board games and in the same industry, but they're not really "competitors." That's how I like to think of it. I mean, do I really need a 4th platform to play Call of Duty or Madden on?

I love the Nintendo ecosystem. I love that it is playful. I love Miiverse. Would I like some sort of trophy system? Maybe, I guess. What I don't want is Nintendo to be indistinguishable from Sony/Microsoft. I don't want the Wii U to just be the PS4/XBox One with Mario games on it. I love that the Wii U just FEELS different from my PS4, independent of the Nintendo exclusives.

Unfortunately, subjectivity doesn't really matter here though. Indies and download-only titles, however great they may be, are never system sellers.

In your opinion

Best comment on this thread.

If we were going in a discussion what a "major" release is based on quality of the game, we would go nowhere.

@Topperare Don't get me wrong. I love Nintendo for sticking out of the crowd, not every game on the PS4/XB1 needs to be on Wii U by all means. But when there's close to no good 3rd party exclusives, and the way Wii U is build is stopping publishers from creating games for it, it does in fact affect me as a gamer.

It is the 3rd Party software sales that are driving 3rd Parties away from Nintendo, not the hardware. The hardware doesn't help but it isn't the cause.

Gamecube got most every cross platform release mainly because it was very easy to port games over. Maybe it was the lunchbox look and the odd looking controller but it was a powerful system that had the multi platform games and the Nintendo exclusives and it did not dominate the market because of that. It is brand image and weak online and possibly no multimedia capabilities outside of Netflix that keep Nintendo from competing directly.

My point is that having more 3rd party releases and/or multi-platrorm releases would not significantly change the current state of Wii U.

A nintendo console is for Nintendo games has been a thing since N64 and it doesn't even seem to be something that Nintendo cares to change.

It didn't dominate because it didn't have GTA and had no online capabilities. I really believe that if the GameCube had those things, Nintendo would be in a totally different position right now it terms of its userbase and third party support.

I definitely agree. That was dawn of Xbox Live, and boy, when that service really got up and running, it was one of the coolest things ever. It really did make a huge difference. It did for me, at least, and that was the beginning of my hiatus from Nintendo consoles for almost a decade.

Nintendo are ruling the roost. Long may it continue.

I still have two more pages to read before I'm caught up with this thread, so someone may have beaten me to it many times over, but you guys do realize that the only thing that would change if the Wii U had more power is the 3rd party devs would come up with a different excuse to not put games on the system, right?

Look at it this way: Nintendo doesn't have the size or resources to compete toe-to-toe with Sony or Microsoft in the hardware department, and given their reputation for "underpowered hardware" (which really isn't so underpowered if it's running such beautiful games at 1080p/60FPS), no one's going to go Nintendo for the 3rd parties, if they already have a PS4 or PC to get them on. And as for people that only have a Wii U, odds are they only have a Wii U because they're a bit tight on cash, which means they're gonna be limited on how many games they can feasibly buy. Now I don't know about you, but when you put Assassin's Creed III and New Super Mario Bros U on the shelf next to each other, I (and I imagine the majority of Nintendo owners) am far more likely to reach for the Mario title.

What I'm saying is that 3rd parties don't like to publish on Wii U because they can't usually compete with Nintendo directly. One-on-one, a Nintendo exclusive will always win out over a 3rd party multiplat, leaving the remaining scenarios to get said multiplat on a separate system and a very small portion of the install base to marvel over the few 3rd party exclusives on the system.

No amount of butt-kissery, better hardware, or dumber business models (seriously? Why would backwards compatibility ever be a bad thing?) is going to fix that problem. The only real solution for Nintendo's lack of 3rd party is to legitimately pay 3rd parties to release games for their system, potentially as an exclusive, and just take the hit in the financial department until it catches on that Nintendo can play with the 3rd parties, too.

But that'd be extremely risky. Suppose it never catches or the third parties backstab Nintendo. They waste tons of money and get no return on it. So while that may be the most direct solution, it's got too many "ifs" to be considered "good."

No. They aren't system sellers. This is not a matter of opinion. It's a matter of cold, uncaring sales data.

The Xbox sold almost as poorly as the Gamecube, and online functionality really wasn't a selling point of the PS2. The PS2 dominated that gen because it got all of the multiplats and a staggering amount of exclusives, the sheer quantity (and arguably, quality) of which hasn't been matched before or since.

Plus it managed to sell itself as the center of the living room, being a cheap DVD player and all.

Though I didn't get a Xbox console (360) until 2009, the online situation was one of the main reasons I did get one. I stuck fully with Nintendo until the realisation that there not being downloadable updates for games on Wii meant that when hackers took over online modes of games like Mario Kart Wii, nothing could be done to purge them. That combined with finding out I enjoyed Guitar Hero 3 meant it was time to get a 360 and I did (and still do every now and again) use that console to the fullest.

The Halo, Bioshock, Gears of War, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Trials, Mass Effect series and many others were a load of fun to play on 360. In addition, some of the greatest retro games which were never to be seen on a Wii or Wii U were made available such as the 2 Sonic Adventure games, Crazy Taxi (though the changed soundtrack was a disappointment), Nights and Jet Set Radio. Xbox 360 was clearly the best 7th generation console for experiencing SEGA games (lots of Mega Drive games were also available and Sonic Generations (PC/360/PS3) is easily the best Sonic game since at least Adventure 2).

My interest in Xbox faded though when the Xbox One was announced to not be compatible with Xbox 360 games, Microsoft started being problematic with regards to the release of DLC for music games and Nintendo announced Mario Kart 8 for Wii U at E3. All of these things of course happened in mid 2013 and that's how I ended returning back to solely Nintendo for the 8th generation of consoles. Will I ever get an Xbox One? Maybe though that really depends on Nintendo's 2015+ lineup in addition to whether a new Rock Band game is current gen exclusive.

Well the GameCube had online capabilities, but was limited to very few games like Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II.
I don't know if Nintendo was to blame for the poor online feature or developers not focusing on it because how poorly sales went on the GameCube. Let's be honest, the GameCube was a disaster even though slight superior hardware to the PS2 and great games. That the Wii U is doing worse then GameCube is not good.

The Gamecube's lack of solid online can't have really been a major factor, seeing as the Xbox original didn't really do so hot, either. Gen 6 was absolutely dominated by the PS2, and it didn't even have strong online, either. Yeah, there /was/ online, if you were willing to go through the pain of setting it up. Four years I knew about that and four years, I decided it wasn't worth the hassle.

I think you're really grasping for reasons as to why this, this, and that, which the reasons are actually pretty obvious. The PSone established brand dominance in Gen 5 and soaked up 3rd party support due to the better memory space and the lack of a strong 1st party competitor. The PS2 did that even moreso, and as soon as Microsoft bought Rareware, Nintendo lost their biggest 3rd party advantage, leaving Sony in the limelight, getting something we rarely ever see, these days: 3rd party exclusives.

Why did the Gamecube fail? The PS2 had better functionality, backwards compatibility, and much, much stronger 3rd party support. Why is the Wii U doing so poorly right now? Nintendo tried reaching out to a market that wasn't interested and trusted the 3rd party companies that were most likely to try and screw them (EA, Ubisoft, Activision). People seem to forget this, but when the Wii U launched, Nintendo had massive 3rd party support. It's the consumer's fault the numbers didn't go anywhere, which caused one company after another to lose hope. (Also, Nintendo failed to market the system entirely. That's another massive reason the Wii U is flopping hard.)

Also, in response to an earlier comment comparing Nintendo to SEGA, Nintendo isn't anywhere near being in the same situation SEGA was in when they dropped the console wars. SEGA legitimately failed to make more than one successful system and then FIRED the guy that made the Genesis successful. SEGA screwed themselves out of good business decisions, choosing to move to a new system instead of riding the 32x and SEGA CD out, first. They also dropped the Saturn so early, you have to start imagining they knew it was gonna flop before they launched it. By the time the Dreamcast hit store shelves, it was simply too little, too late. Consumer faith had been shatter, brand recognition was recognizing a broken company, and against the PS2, the poor little Dreamcast was shut out so hard, it forced SEGA out of the console race permanently.

Nintendo isn't in that state of financial distress. People seem to be heavily forgetting how amazingly the Wii, DS, and 3DS did/have been doing. Three perfectly successful systems and one failure to launch (that's still an amazing system) does not make Iwata a bad president, nor does it put Nintendo in any form of financial distress that's anywhere near what forced SEGA out.

I always considered the Gamecube on par with the PS2 back in the day. I had both, although a Gamecube first, and only got a PS2 a few years later for DVDs and more JRPGs.