Topic: How many of you ONLY own a Wii-U for next gen gaming?

@RR529 has made some good points. There's no reason to say Xbox is just a "prison" for Microsoft exclusives, when we could say the same about Nintendo and Sony.

@skywake
That's part of what I think. They wanted to expand their business, reached to gaming, etc. The point is that Microsoft still saw reason to release their own hardware, separate from PC, to do so. I don't really buy the media thing. If Microsoft was really keen on pushing media on Xbox, above all else, the OG Xbox would have had more HDD space and DVD out of the box, You had to buy a remote with a plug-in that basically allowed people to play DVD. DVD and CD being playable was basically just taking advantage of licenses they already had on PC. The same goes for bluray. They already have those licenses on PC, for obvious reasons, so it would make absolutely no sense if they left those licenses and hardware out of Xbox. They already paid for it, so it's gonna be there.

It makes absolutely no sense why anyone would think Xbox is ultimately about media, when we have games like Halo, Gears, Banjo, Killer Instinct, Sunset Overdrive, etc. exclusive games on Xbox. They thought games would do better on Xbox, otherwise they'd be on PC.

I think what irks people, is that they want those games on PC, but aren't willing to buy an Xbox. The same logic goes both ways. I wouldn't want to buy a PC for the games Xbox gets. The 3rd party companies don't even optimize games for PC all that much, because Xbox and PS are still higher priority, because of the focus of market. Besides, Windows is going to happen on Xbox One. For anyone who doesn't care about PC, Windows coming to Xbox One gives even less reason for Xbox people to care about PC, because now the OS will be on Xbox.

There is a choice that is really easy to make:
1. Buy Xbox One, which will have Microsoft's games, better Kinect support(for those who care), and eventually Windows
2. Buy PC, have Windows, go to Steam or GoG or wherever you get games from, update your rig or whatever

Microsoft has already made it pretty clear that people have to buy Xbox for games like Halo and such. We've known that since OG Xbox, and their association with PC doesn't automatically mean they should bring those games to PC. If anything, the logic is going the other way, because they made Xbox to have those games in the first place.

@SCAR392
being a HTPC was still the end game. Also, BTW, the licences for Blu-Ray/DVD don't work like that at all. The end user pays for it not the corporation and it's a per-device thing. I remember dropping a DVD-ROM drive in a PC I had way back in the early 2000s and it not working at all. This was on XP if memory serves me correctly. I plugged the drive in and then I had to hunt down software online in order to playback a DVD. So it wasn't at all like that.

Also the HTPC legacy of the original XBox was pretty clear. The "it had no storage" bit? We're talking about a device that came out over ten years ago. Put it this way, 10GB in 2001? In terms of cost and even ignoring inflation entirely that'd be like if the PS4 had 2TB of internal storage. No joke. So of course it didn't "have enough storage", but even with the storage it did have they pushed things like ripping your music to the HDD and so on. It was a HTPC at its core. So much so that XBMC is basically the only real HTPC software left.

Oh and BTW, they are bringing a lot of their games to PC now so. That's something. Ryse is already on PC, there are rumours of Sunset Overdrive going in that direction also. Seems to be happening a lot more with the XBOne than it is on the PS4 and certainly more than it did on the 360.

@skywake
Well, I agree with you that it is a HTPC, but not in the sense that that is main focus. The focus is still video games for your TV, regardless, and of course things have changed since 2000. Microsoft still has to pay to put bluray in there. Microsoft pays them for bluray playback, then the consumer pays Microsoft for Xbox One. They both make money in the process. If consumers were really able to run bluray discs by their own choice, the bluray app would be a paid thing in the Xbox Live marketplace, but it's not. It's a "free" download, which means it got paid for in a chain of transactions. That would also mean that Wii U would have a bluray app, as well, but it doesn't. That means Nintendo hasn't communicated with the bluray association for playback, at all.
It is a per device thing, but Microsoft still has to pay the bluray association to put it in Xbox.

The HDD thing in 2001 was my main argument for it not being a media device. I know CDs and DVDs were THEE thing, but going a bit further for Microsoft to include a DVD remote dongle thing to get playback, isn't really backing up the media point. It would have been included, otherwise. You could at least play CDs out of the box. That's where the media ended, unless you got the attachment, so saying Xbox was a media center attempt doesn't really add up with that separate DVD dongle existing.

I know Ryse, Titanfall, and Dead Rising 3 are on PC, but they are still basically the same on Xbox One. The games are still being prioritized on Xbox One, because otherwise the graphics would be A LOT better on PC, alot more so than than they already are, and I would consider the enhancements they do have to be a pretty small difference. From what I've read, Watch Dogs ran better on consoles, and the reason why is obvious.

From my perspective, it doesn't make much sense to buy a PC for gaming, when Xbox One and PS4(all three) are getting basically the same support. Now add that Windows is going to happen on Xbox One. They'll be able to support Xbox a lot more once that actually happens, because it's all in the OS now.

You're kidding, right?

It takes a failure of epic proportions to go from such sheer market dominance in the USA and UK to losing those markets to the PS4 almost every month since launch, often by a very wide margin. Think about all the people who decided to abandon their friends list and gamertags just so that they didn't have to deal with the Xbox One. For a console with appeal beginning and ending with superior online infrastructure and community, that's very significant. The Xbox One was an inferior product sold at a higher price by a company that the market didn't (and still doesn't) trust.

Don't know if you remember, but the PS2 dominated the USA and UK markets. Why did the Xbox 360 take those markets? Did they "prefer" the 360 anyway? Of course not. Sony was drunk on their own power after that gen and thought they could get away with murder for their next console. Hence, they launched a poorly designed PS3 a year later than the Xbox 360 at almost double the price. E3 2006 was one of the most embarrassing moments in history for Sony. Microsoft should have learned from that that you can't just assume and take for granted that everyone who bought your last product will buy the new one. They thought they were in a powerful position where they could stop selling games to consumers and start selling consumers to publishers. Fail.

Yes the wiiu is my only current gen console, I do not care for either PS4 or XBOX ONE, new systems such as these always take at least two years before they really get in their stride anyways.

@SpookyMeths
Ya, so people who prefer PS4 jumped on board alot sooner. That IS what is happening. It is possible that they were convinced to go from PS to Xbox at ANYTIME, even before Xbox One and PS4 were announced, but the real factor is how soon these people have jumped on board to PS4. The only people buying a console this early into the generation, are gaming enthusiasts that have enough money and are paying attention to what these companies have to say. Most of the people paying attention like PS4 more. There's nothing wrong with that. It still hardly gives any insight.

The way Xbox One is now, is about as different as PS3 was back in 6th gen, sales wise, and PS3 eventually caught up. Taking money out of the equation, they were neck and neck. Money wise in 8th gen, they are STILL probably neck and neck Things could go any which way, and we already KNOW why people who have bought PS4 this early, have done so.

There is no denying that the gaming enthusiasts that want graphics went to PS4. It's the entire reason why people bought Xbox 360, as well. It was night and day between PS2 and Xbox 360. It still hasn't really been night and day between PS4 and last gen, though, because they are still getting primarily the same games. The only games really pushing graphics on PS4 right now, are Sony exclusives, and it will almost definitely continue to be that way. So what we have here, are people convinced by Sony that their games will have amazing graphics and VR, otherwise it is literally offering nothing more than Xbox One. Bring back the fact that gaming enthusiasts are the ones snapping up consoles right now, and it's impossible to deny that the Xbox One policies are nonexistent, which means that literally has nothing to do with those peoples' decision anymore.

Not trying to show off or trying to be smug, if you only own a Wii U this gen you are going to miss out. The same applies to people who only own a PS4/Xbone.

To me the best combination is Wii U + PS4 for the 8th gen (which is what I have now). These two consoles complement each other extremely well.

To be fair, you're always missing out on something though. If you don't want to miss out on anything, good luck living.

The thing is, it's all choice. I'm sure I'm missing out on some music that is probably really nice. Though my brain can only handle a certain amount for a certain amount of time. Am I really missing out on music though? I don't think in the slightest. I probably listen to more genres than most of you combined.
So am I missing out on certain games? sure. Am I missing out on gaming? Not even close. I know what is there, and I know what i've got and what is coming. I'm satisfied.

Maybe not. Lack of 3rd party developers is certainly a loss for Nintendo, but not necessarily for the end user. Activision doesn't publish any product that I care about. Ubisoft and EA both put their products that I cared about on PS3, and I see no product from either of them in the future that will interest me.

I kinda of got tired of murder sims some time in the PS2/GC/XB era, so all the lucrative franchises that everyone else seems to go bonkers over, pre-order, buy the season pass, and then get outraged that the game is broken and incomplete on launch, have really just passed me by. Nintendo and midsized Japanese 3rd parties seems to be the only ones still making retail games that I care about, and I can play those on the Wii U, 3DS, and Vita.

For the odds and ends that I do still enjoy, like Bioware games, I can just get those on PC. I'm in the minority here I know, but yeah, I have no reason to buy a PS4/XB1 and am not missing anything.

And vice versa, if you don't care about Nintendo games, you're not missing anything by not buying a Wii U. Maybe Bayonetta.

from my understanding, non-Nintendo fans (or at least people who don't care too much about their franchises on average) also seem to be interested in the new Xenoblade from my experience. Probably because it looks like a Japanese Skyrim (w/ hints of MMO) to them. (I'm amused that Skyrim is now just a common noun to describe open world RPGs). Maybe Splatoon too because online shooter.

Sure, right now that the situation but after 2015 the situation will be different. Devil's Third looks like the kind of game that would be huge on XB1/PS4 and possibly Splatoon, that's not even including the likely huge E3 2015 reveals for Wii U. Both those games take the generic shooter genre occupied by games like CoD and Battlefield and alter it to make the experience new and exciting (I'm personally not very interested in Devil's Third but it looks more interesting than most FPS games nowadays). It's likely not enough to drive Wii U sales but I honestly think if Devil's Third was instead an XB1 exclusive, it would do very well in terms of sales.

IMO, with all platforms having their own merits and there being no such thing as "one best" platform
Wii U + PC > Wii U + PS4/XBOne > XBOne + PS4 > PC + PS4/XBOne

Wii U (and 3DS) only here.

Giving my available time and money, I only want to have one system. The Wii U has the most original and polished games (like Super Mario 3D World). It is lacking in some genres however, so maybe I might get a gaming PC some day as well.

I only had a Wii last gen (it was my first home console), and I intend to stick with the Wii U this generation. I'm not interested in an "entertainment hub" as most "smart TVs" nowadays offer that kind of functionality anyway. And even if the Wii U did have a built-in Blu-ray player (which oddly, is a point of criticism among some circles), that would have rendered the off-TV play feature useless. I would have been tempted to buy a PS4 (and get rid of our standalone Blu-ray player), but the absence of backwards compatibility is a deal-breaker for me, and I hate the idea of cloud gaming for large scale games as a substitute for PS3 compatibility. It is particularly inexcusable considering that both the PS3 and PS4 read Blu-ray discs and not separate propriety discs, so what gives?

Most Playstation games that I am interested in are currently available only for the PS3 and I'm not going to buy both consoles or otherwise settle for "last gen" versions of current releases (such as GTA V, Dead or Alive 5 Last Round and Resident Evil Revelations 2). It's ridiculous that they have opted to do this while PS3 games are still being released at a steady pace, perhaps even more so than PS4 titles. There is literally nothing on PS3/PS4 that I am interested in that aren't multi platform titles anyway, but these multi-plats are not being released on PC, otherwise I would have preferred a gaming PC. Preferably, I would gladly buy all of these games in a heartbeat if they ever come to Wii U (which sadly, will probably never happen).

The other consoles seem to offer the same kinds of experiences and there are very few games that I'm interested in on Sony's consoles (Microsoft's awful, power-hungry, anti-consumer, poor quality hardware is not even worth considering). The fact that we now need a subscription to use Sony's online services (I'm not much of an online gamer due to the general incivility of their gaming communities) makes it even less appealing. While I will be missing out on a few great titles, Nintendo's library offers a much wider variety of games that interest me, and their games are a hell of a lot more fun at parties (everybody else only ever seems to play Fifa or CoD yawn).

I'm certain I'll have only a Wii U as a next-gen system, unless you count PC upgrades!

Xbox 360 and PS3 still receiving new games means alot of people aren't missing out on anything, even without an 8th generation system; at least in terms of 3rd parties. The only games that literally worth the most on 8th generation, are the exclusive games.

I kind of agree (Uncharted is awesome ... Final Fantasy re-releases are cool), but I think Wii U + PC is ultimately the better option. PC ends up getting lots of stuff down the road no matter what (except for Uncharted ... darn you, Sony!!!)

Personally, I'm also very happy with my Wii U + Xbox One combo. I'm more of a "twitch" gamer, though, so the Halo+Gears+CoD stuff appeals to me more at the end of the day.

Yeah same here. I also have a Wii u and Xbox one mainly for the games you named.

But it's not the same. If every game were available for every platform, there would still be a valid reason to buy a Wii U or a PS4. The PS4 is the most powerful console on the market, and the Wii U has the gamepad. Yes, some games are exclusive when there is not necessarily an advantage to it being as such, but I'm more okay with it, because the products are already differentiated. Not to say that it's a perfect practice, it's not, especially in an age when the consoles are similar enough to make porting rather cheap, but I am more able to accept it. There is literally NOTHING to differentiate the XB1. Not price, not power, not the controller, nothing. When you buy an XB1, the only thing you are purchasing is Microsoft's permission.

One of the reasons I loved the Wii is because I really felt like most of the exclusives had a reason for being that way, such that they took advantage of motion controls. There aren't may games in my library that I felt would have been able to do what they do as multiplats.

NOTE: Condensed above comment for space.

To be fair, they tried to make unique use of their hardware, at least in some cases.

Dance Central Spotlight, Kinect Sports Rivals, & Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved probably wouldn't work as well with the other companies' motion control options. D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die & Crimson Dragon have option for full Kinect control, and if I'm not mistaken, even Rise allows you to issue commands via Kinect (there may be more, but I too am not a big Xbox guy, so I'm not sure).

The consumer base simply wasn't too keen on Kinect though, so they made the move to lessen it's role. I think it's a bit disingenuous to say that they never tried to differentiate their exclusives from their competitors, and thus are simply being "anti-consumer" by holding exclusives "hostage", simply because they could easily be run on PS4 or PC without any extra effort.