Topic: Nintendo consoles too focused on physical attributes?

I am all for innovation. Much more than most people are. As far as the Gamepad is concerned, I like it, but friends of mine that have played my Wii U were not as enthusiastic. It is certainly not without its flaws.

For one, it's too large. I would have loved the Gamepad to have a 4.5 inch screen. The 6" screen makes it bulky and heavy and almost forces you to play with the controller resting on your lap. Secondly , the battery life isn't very good. I keep mine on low brightness to extend the battery life, despite the fact that I would prefer to have the brightness cranked up. The pro controller is rated for 80 hours vs about 4 for the Gamepad. That's a huge difference. Next, it's an expensive controller. I'm a longtime Nintendo fan, an early adopter of consumer electronics, and have a little extra discretionary income. Because of that, I always would have splurged for a Wii U with a Gamepad, vs. say a basic set that only included a pro controller. But I would imagine that a Wii U without a Gamepad for an extra $50 off would be attractive to a lot of people as well.

The concept is great and when it's used well it makes a huge difference in Gameplay - but ultimately it's not for everyone.

(And based on all of my friends that have a PS4, no one has ever thought that the Vita integration is cool... or the Vita in general for that matter)

@Howard24U
On all of the alleged horrible experience others have claimed like the controller being too large and so on, I could say the same of the XBox One. I don't think they are as big as claimed. There is much, much more complaining and extra cost associated with the Kinect and XBOne controller than there should be for the GamePad. As for the cost specifically that's definitely overstated. You can get 7" tablets for under $100AU and they charge between $65AU and $100AU for the various first party controllers. So there can't be that much of a premium. Plus when people are picking the PS4 or XBOne they're more than happy to pay $100AU or more extra anyways.

After doing a little research, if anything I think I've significantly underestimated the cost difference between the Gamepad and pro controller. Nintendo sells the pro controller for $50 USD, they sell replacement Gamepads for $150. If they sold a Gamepad-less bundle and just passed on some of that savings ($75 or so) that would make for an appealing package for the budget-minded consumer. A $175 basic Wii U, that's a license to print money right there.

But I don't think it's fair to compare the Wii U Gamepad to a budget android tablet. You can get cheap tablets in the US for $75-$100 as well, but they're junk. About the Xbox One comment, I know nothing about that console so I can't comment.

Yeah, I agree. I miss the days when Nintendo just made games. No hardware 'gimmicks', no integrated hardware and software, just games like in the NES and SNES eras.

@Howard24U
The junk Android tablets are junk and I wasn't saying that wasn't the case. In terms of hardware though they have more in them than the GamePad does. The GamePad is basically a Pro Controller with a non-capacitive touch screen, NFC and a WiFi module. That's it. So if companies can get money out of selling tablets with more gear in them than is in the GamePad for $100 then the GamePad does not cost more than $100 to make.

A quick google confirms this, I found a teardown of the thing. It had the cost estimated at $25 for the screen, $30 for the electronic components of which the Gamepad mostly shares and $25 for casing, battery and the WiFi module. So if they're selling it for $150 they're definitely making a margin which is reasonable if it's not a standard thing. Note that of that $80 in raw components the Pro Controller shares a good $40-50. So it's not a huge cost gap by any stretch especially given the massive advantage if gives the end-user.

As I said, the XBOne has more cost bundled in to the experience. Extra cost for accessories that mean less to a gamer than the GamePad does.

Nintendo has always tried to do innovative things with Hardware (examples: Game & Watch and GameBoy) I can't think of a time when Nintendo wasn't willing to trg something new and different

@skywake
Not to mention that Nintendo dropped the price by $50 on the console. You're basically paying as much as a regular controller for the GamePad at that $300 price point.

Power is not everything - it's like getting 3 titans in SLI and 16GB of RAM - it is useless and unused power for games. Nintendo has their own plan and I see they know what they are doing - Mario looks awesome, same for Windwaker HD, Pikmin and TW101. Power only matters when you know how to use it. Cell is still a horse power, but it doesn't matter when there are still companies that don't know how to use it. The only thing that matters are games - there could be a console 10 times more powerful than PS4, but without games it would be just a piece of plastic.

When Steam machines fail, this point shall be proven.