That dude to the left "PROJECT CAFE... ZOMG!" that was not me when Wii U came up, it's competing with too many things at once. At first you have a system catching up with the HD graphics, then you have a controller that's competing with both the 3DS, the PSVita and the iPad, the expense of the console and the controller will be ridiculous and will cost Nintendo a fair bit of money to produce more of those controllers.

To be honest, it has no market, only Nintendo fans will most likely buy it. The problem with it is, it's competing at way too many platforms, including itself. The 3DS has nothing of its own now, the Wii U controller can do it all and 10 times better, the only good thing of the 3DS now is you can carry it around...

The Wii U may still happen, but releasing it next year... is just stupidity. It's way too early to release something that looks barely finished, okay they might have all the core modules down, but what kind of market are they targeting with this thing? The iPad, 3DS, PSVita, PS3 and 360 are all competitives in this very, very broad market.

If they do release it next year, I have a feeling a Virtual Boy will happen, it's amazing but ahead of its time.

Wow Slapshot, your post was a great read. I agree with what you said 100% The best point (and there were many), "3rd party software is also expected to sell very poorly once again, because the majority of 3rd party game sells are by PS3/360 gamers, which will likely still be playing those system; why would anyone buy another system with the same power to play the same games?" I wont be buying a Wii U to play 3rd part games that is for sure. I miss the days when video game companies made exclusive games for systems.

The stock drop didn't surprise me. Wii U could out sell PS3 and maybe even Xbox Kinect, but it won't out sell the original Wii.

More power doesn't=big sales. Don't forget the Dreamcast, the Xbox, the PSP, and the PS3.

I think the iPad is going to cut into laptop sales more than the Wii U's.

Yeah, Mr. Slapshot paints a depressingly realistic possibility. Nintendo might still pull it off but it isn't going to be easy or certain. When I saw that article (somewhere) about iPads using AirPlay to send HD video game output to an AppleTV to be displayed on a TV I saw the handwriting on the wall. Nintendo isn't going to be out in the blue ocean anymore. It's going to be in the crowded harbor with everyone else.

I’m not mad at all and will be adding the WiiU to my group of gaming consoles. But of course I’m a hobby gamer and like all types of games on many different machines. Anyway that being said yes there are some decent games on all current tech, why can’t people just enjoy the fact we have a choice. If you don’t like WiiU don’t buy it if you do than buy it, that simple. Do I feel they are competing with Android and Apple for gaming market? Good question, I feel the media has made this into a stupid war that shouldn’t be. A game on a phone, no matter the company, is just that. I cannot personally play a game for a long period of time on my Android phone or my Ipod touch, no controls. Touch screen controls aren’t the greatest for me. Now are they good for quick 5 minute fix, yes? But anything over 5 minutes I’m pulling my 3DS or PSP out depending on which one I have with me. But Nintendo went after a unstable market with the Wii and they are going to full the affects.

Don't get me wrong guys, I'm not trying to be pessimistic about the Wii U at all. Anyone that knows me personally will tell you, I see things for what they are, and I deal in realism. I want Nintendo to regain their core fan-base, and regain their massive third-party support, but I don't see Wii U pulling this off. I think that the Wii U could very well end up pulling off some very innovative gaming possibilities, and recapture the casual niche market once again - like they did with Wii, but in this day and age of High Definition graphics and gaming pushing the boundaries in technology, Nintendo - the family gaming system - can't compete with that. The systems just cost too much to build.

Nintendo doesn't need it either. I would much rather see this Wii U system drop down to 720 graphics and reduce the screen size and make it more affordable. Then push the innovation further and not worry about third party support. The only games I own for Wii are 1st/2nd party games, and 3rd party games that utilize the Wii in ways that other system can't.

Nobody can create the Nintendo 'magic' that is found seeping through their titles!

I disagree. The Wii U has no chance to getting the casual market. The reason the Wii did was it was the only one after that market. The Wii launched before the iPhone was big, in other words. Casuals are not going to go out an buy this when they've got an iPad or an iPhone already.

And, as I've been saying all along, Nintendo's stuff refuses to move with the market. It's not a multifunction device (which is what the market wants), there's no focus on online services (what the market wants), and both the games and the console will be premium priced (where the market is heading towards cheap and micro transactions).

Nintendo really needs to get acquired to get that broader view of the market it really, really needs.

And you know all of this how?

@WaltzElf Does the Wii U really need to capture the "casual" market? What's stopping the "casual" gamers from staying with the Wii for a while? What's stopping new "casual gamers" from picking up a Wii?

Surely the Wii U is a more appetizing upgrade path for the "casual" Wii gamers who are looking for a HD upgrade path. These people have already been looking at the Kinect but, if the price is good, the Wii U is a much better deal. They already own the controllers and they already own games for it. Are these things not important when upgrading a system?

As for being a multi-function online enabled device. What more does it need to do? It has video chat, it seems to support online video services and it's online friends system, so far, seems like it's equal to the 360 and PS3 systems. Does it need to playback Blu-Ray for us to call it a multi-functional device? Maybe it needs to playback media of a HDD or stream it from my computer........ I don't know about you but I already have a Blu-Ray player. I have a TV, Blu-Ray Player and a dedicated device that plays back media off a HDD. I'm sure soon most people will have all this AND be able to stream media across their network to every device that they own. Why does EVERYTHING need to be multi-function?

Eh, I don't think the WiiU will be on par with 360 because it contridicts the facts we (kinda) know about it. Nintendo's smart enough to not do what they did last time with Wii in terms of power- though, the reason they did it was because HD was at it's infancy in terms of being in domestic homes. It's been confirmed that WiiU is indeed stronger than 360/PS3 and the garden demo, even with it being made with early dev kits, shows that this system is strong from the get go and back in 2005, the tech demos shown for those two systems weren't as good as that garden demo. Remember 360 games? The early ones? How the difference between Xbox and 360 titles weren't all that much different? Or at least, the jump didn't look THAT huge.

Things can change from now until the console releases next year. Even the developers behind Alien vs Predator aren't sure of the final system specs because Nintendo has yet to have everything set in stone. I honestly don't think the system will just be on par with 360- but will be significantly stronger. It's far too early to judge since, again, nothing's set in stone. In regard to what you were talking about in terms of Wii U competing with the pads and possibly Vita- that's fairly interesting. But again, it's really too early to tell.

I disagree. Yes, lets not buy the Wii U, cause they don't want us casual gamers and pay $700+ on a tablet that has about 10 appealing applications!

Then I can just walk around on the street, flashing my iPad to show that I'm a casual gamer, and I don't care for Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo's attempts to make me one.

@komicturtle92 was that at me? No, I was talking about the online features. Friends lists and so on not the power of the console. The Wii U is definitely more powerful than the 360 and it's online features, from what we know so far, seem to equal it.

@skywake

Haha, no, it was at Slapshot and his interesting theories.

I think people are really jumping the gun too quickly. If Nintendo in general keeps their mind in "We don't really care what others are doing- we are worried about how we're doing" approach, then they may not have to worry too much about anything. It's not to say there are raising concerns and they should indeed mind that.

People are already saying "Forget Wii U, I'll get a Vita and it'll do the same thing", which is incorrect (or at least partially, in a sense), because developers making games for WiiU will fully take advantage of the controller. Unless, they don't want to for some reason.

I look at it this way:

Folks who buy WiiU will have 100% access to the concept of the WiiU tablet and the TV/Console where games utilize both screens

Folks who buy a PS3- won't have that same 100% access to a Vita unless they spend the $250-300 on it.

Developers won't be focused on making games that use both the PS3 and Vita at the same time- where with WiiU, they will. Yeah, we may see fun Vita to PS3 games but the amount of games won't be as much as Wii U titles- reason being because people who have WiiU have 100% access to the TV-Tablet combo.

In terms of pricing of Wii U, I'm going to guess and say $350-450.

As for the 720 and PS4, the WiiU will obviously be less powerful than those systems, but we can compare this with the PS2 to Xbox situation. Of course, it's a simple prediction on what little we know about the system. But AMD and IBM sharing and hinting some specs show that the WiiU is far more capable of 360/PS3.

a real concern i have is the fact that nintendo has never done online well.

@Waltz I meant that in reference to if Nintendo downgraded it to a cheaper version of what it is now, and used the Pad, touchscreen,TV and Wiimotes all in tandem. There could potentially be some creative thing come from that.

@Izbirdboy Because Waltz actually works in the electronics industry and know more about it than most anyone here.

@komicturtle92 According to the Market Analysts that deal with the actual Nintendo investors, the rumours about the WiiU having more power than the 360/PS3 are untrue. The bird demo was indeed impressive, but nothing that the PS3/360 couldn't handle. What one guy said at E3 isn't confirmation, because we are learning that most everything we saw at E3 with gameplay footage on this system was rubbish.

Keep in mind, Slapshot, Reggie has said before the demo that it was made with early development kits. And gameplay footage on this system? You do know that Reggie confirmed that the footage shown was from 360/PS3?

The only legitimate footage would have to be Ghost Recon Online, really. The other software were demonstrations.

I guess we'll have to wait a little longer for solid details.

Either way, Smash Bros. on this console (and 3DS) is enough to get me to run out and get it day one. I care more about that than anything else since Smash Bros. is important to me.

I agree with this. The new console won't launch for another year, and so many complaints and reasons it won't sell are popping up on this topic. Most of you are probably gonna buy the thing and enjoy it anyway.

@Slapshot I don't care who Waltz is, he's an idiot if he thinks people buying iPads, the Wii U not being a multifunction device (who cares?), that it's online features are sub-par (despite us being told the opposite from Ubisoft) mean that the Wii U will be a failure.

Indeed, and this is the selling point of the system.

Yes they will. Most gamers who will buy a Vita already own a PS3. This is a feature that you will see explode with Vita. Don't make the mistake and disregard Vita, the handheld is extremely powerful,and the online integration between handheld and console is already gaining massive momentum, and were 6 months from its release.

My thought exactly, and it's too high of a price!

I expect these systems to cost in the range of $600-$1999 USD.

Haha, 3DS is the bomb!!! I can live with my 3DS as my Nintendo console for the next 5 years happily!

I'm off to bed guys, Later. Do remember, I'm just making conversation and speculations. I really hope the Wii U takes off like the Wii did, but investors are really nervous. I found out tonight - while reserving my Vita - that Nintendo stock has now fallen to 11% down.