Topic: The Christmas battle Nintendo can win.

The dead time thing in my opinion though is also that the older systems are gonna receive mostly the same games for a long, long time. Which means that for many people, there won't be a great incentive to shell out the cash for a next gen system since they can get mostly the same experience on one they already own (and the games won't get better until this ends, since I suspect they won't make super complex fancy next gen games until the old systems are unprofitable to support). Especially for online games, where the fun is in playing with lots of people including those you actually know.

I'm gonna be that guy and just say it: preorders mean nothing. When it comes to new consoles, I think it's safe to say quite a few preorders are just prospectors looking to resell them on Ebay - Wii and Wii U owners know this quite keenly. Preorders for new consoles mean absolutely nothing whatsoever. They always sell out and things always look awesome from the preorder numbers, whether you're selling a PS4, Xbone, Wii U, or an Atari Jaguar.

Preorders for games are much the same, just with a bit of a different angle. Some games have awesome preorder bonuses that collectors buy just for the "stuff" and not even the game, necessarily. Preorders for some games on Steam are also "stacked" because they provide numerous other HUGE benefits (I got XCOM for free when I preordered Bioshock Infinite or something). In other words, preorder numbers for games, again, don't even accurately gauge "enthusiasm" as our friend @uptownsoul says, because many, many preorders are placed not for the game, but for the perks or collectibles that come with it.

All three consoles will be perceived as struggling due to not reaching Wii/360/PS3 numbers out the gate, but will do fine and all three have decent size install bases by next year. I forget how the 360/PS3 did at launch but one of the reasons why Wii U did bad was Nintendo admittly dropped the ball and the Wii U sales out the gate were never going to hit that critical mass that the Wii did. PS4/Xbone have the advantage that they could out sell the launch units of the previous Playboxes.

But who cares about sales when we should be talking games.

Agreed, games are what makes a console successful. So we should really be talking about games

I'm not wanting to derail this thread and I'm not intending to be sappy.... but I'm from Perth Australia and another dude from this little isolated city made a song that explained how I feel about this better than I could....

As for the console wars and "winning" I'm going to happily back MadAussieBloke on this one. That's not what it's about and it's not something we should really care about. If we're not shareholders then it's really not going to impact us at all unless the console ends up being discontinued or something. That seems unlikely. The real question should be whether or not the Wii U has content people like or not. Personally I think it has and/or will have content that I like. So really why should I care anymore than that?

Interested enough to keep upto date with software and such? definitely. Care enough to have fun on a forum discussing it? Sure. Care enough to panic about the future of a company that sold me their bit of plastic and steel? Not really.

Yeah, what @skywake said... Also I hope that MicroSony internet analytic job is paying those bills properly

yup

The incentive is even less for Sony because 1) you have to buy a more expensive game than the PS3, 2) you have to buy a new system to play it in, 3) you have to pay extra for online (and what "hardcore" game can get by without an online community these days??). The PS4 and its games pretty much HAVE TO blow the PS3 versions out of the water. And that is another big "IF" come Christmas.

If the launch game reviews say the PS4 versions are only marginally better than the PS3, then.......

Preorders are NOT sales. Period.

They may be an indicator of popularity, of potential perhaps. The accountants and gaming media treat them like presidential polls, and retailers exploit it for their own consumer traffic (i.e. Amazon rankings). But just like polls vs elections, I doubt the "turnout" will come anywhere close to the pre-hype.
Heck, is Microsoft doing a launch party out in the desert again this time?

who said they were?

Solo that Mario 3D World looks pretty cool right.......

But Mario itself is pretty generic. Knack looks fun but a bit uninspired.

Really the only games that interest me visually are donkey Kong, Killer Instinct, and Crimson Dragon. Sonic Lost world as well.

You expect Sony to let the game just be sent to she like 101 was. Its a new IP at the start of a new console playing on Nostalgia. Plus word of mouth on the game seems fairly good.

That's like saying Microsoft is pushing KI to be the next street fighter.

look nintendo handles things uniquely nintendo come up with original ideas
wii remote
years later
playstation move
kinect
so nintendo is the father of consoles while his 2 sons microsoft and sony steal ideas so nintendo game wise stick to making child friendly games a.k.a 1st party titles xbox &sony never make games and they certainly wouldnt make them friendly as mario so nintendo make child games and leave the violence to ubisoft
treyarch
sega
infinity ward
a.k.a 3rd party titles
so 1st party titles (nintendo) child friendly
3rd party child proof

wii u gamepad
years later xbox smartglass
and whateverplaystation has

You say Microsot and Sony don't make don't make child friendly games but let's look at some the output from each this year.

While its true Nintendo has a much wider of kid friendly games (Depends on what you qualify as child friendly).but Sony and Microsoft have a more varied variety of genre's and games for every age group. (despite them not always enter sectoring) not a bad thing either way.

On the other note Smartglass and Remote Play both predate the Wii U.