Topic: The real advantages of the Wii U.

These aren't really advantages as they are gameplay ideas. Were they advantages I'm pretty sure the Wii U would be selling way more by now wouldn't it?

I use it when i'm playing Ascend and Forza Horizon. The app has over 1 million downloads on both the play store and app store, so someone is using it.

To be honest I really don't care for any of them unless its for off-screen play or remote control functions.

I was just reading this interview: http://www.notenoughshaders.com/2013/08/15/the-struggles-of-m...
... so maybe if we want to know what it's "advantages" and "disadvantages" are we should look back at the Gamecube. Some of the "lessons to be learned" from the Gamecube.

Sales of GameCube software fell short in North America and Europe last year, and I believe that’s due to the popularity of violent games on other consoles
I don't think Nintendo has resolved this issue if it's an issue

We have the same stuff everyone else does, but because of the [kiddy] perception, people don’t go looking
Still a thing

PlayStation 2′s sales prove that the most powerful system doesn’t always sell the best
Iwata says GameCube’s poor sales is because gamers are bored of console makers focusing only on pretty graphics.
So the Wii U's lack of power probably isn't as big an issue as some make it out to be

launching a purple GameCube hurt the console’s image
Image of the console. I think they've all learnt that lesson although maybe the Wii U is in a better spot given it doesn't look like a BetaMax player

Nintendo didn’t make a really good link between their products in their marketing campaigns
Nintendo probably do this better than anyone now. They currently have their "Year of Luigi" thing, they've done ones previously that targeted specific types of gamers.

If there’s a shortcoming for us on GameCube, it’s not delivering enough consistent breadth and variety of software
Variety, still a problem with the Wii U. I think they've worked this one out though. If you look at the next six months there's a whole range of different sorts of first party titles. On the other platforms I think there's a risk of it being just about gritty military shooters at launch. I think all of them are at a risk of falling into this trap again.

software sales were lower than expected because games like “Super Mario Sunshine” are too difficult for today’s gamers
No risk of that while New SMB is still a thing.....

Satoru Iwata and Perrin Kaplan blame software droughts after launch period for GameCube’s sales slowing down
Wii U all over but.........
Satoru Iwata says launching GameCube late hurt GameCube’s sales
They probably balanced it out a bit by launching early anyways. They actually listed this as the #1 problem for the Gamecube's poor sales

Satoru Iwata says games being too complex hurt GameCube’s sales.
And thus the rise of the casual game. I think Nintendo still has an advantage here. They have a lot of content that's easy to pick up and easy for people to understand. I don't think the PS4 or XBOne will become the "party consoles" that the Wii was and the Wii U is trying to be.

Satoru Iwata says GameCube’s price being too expensive hurt GameCube’s Japanese sales
Satoru Iwata says 3DS price cut was due to lessons learned from GameCube.
To quote further "the Gamecube suffered because Nintendo did not take certain opportunities when they were available". The Wii U is at risk of not taking full advantage of the window they have. Well maybe not even just "at risk" but actually already past the majority of that window. If they don't push hard in the next year they're in serious trouble

GameCube not being backwards compatible with N64 games gave them a disadvantage.
So that's one clear advantage the Wii U has over its competition.

GameCube missing out on certain types of games hurt the GameCube’s popularity
Oh, not just that but "we really didn’t have the Grand Turismos or the Grand Theft Autos". GTAV is launching in November, not on the Wii U. This hurts the Wii U a lot. Lack of third party content is their biggest disadvantage this time around by far.

Satoru Iwata believes PlayStation 2′s sales success over GameCube was partially due to DVD playback
If still true the Wii U hasn't solved this problem. However I don't think it's a thing anymore. Personally I think Sony and MS are wrong in thinking that a media hub is what the 2013-201X consumer really wants from a console. Time will tell I guess.

I thought the GCN was awesome. The only games I wanted 6th gen on the GCN that weren't on there were GTA Vice City/San Andreas, Star Wars Battlefront 2(I don't even like StarWars that much, but I liked that game) and a couple of the Xbox exclusives that died, like Blinx and ToeJam and Earl(which I heard was horrible, but I still want to play it).

I didn't care much for Halo, Jak & Dexter, etc. other games. I was completely satisfied only having the GCN, believe it or not.

I think that bit @skywake said about more complex software on the GCN in comparison to other platforms was completely true, and that's why I opted for the system.

As for the other "problems" Nintendo has, I think many of them have inherently worked themselves out. Nintendo now has better graphics, better online(basically actually having online), the pro controller, ext. HDD support.

There's really no reason that the Wii U shouldn't do well, IMO. Maybe there should be more colors of the console available, though. I think Nintendo offering different colors for almost every one of their consoles ever has always been nice.

So far.. HD visuals. And that's good enough for me.

@SCAR392
Look at the link, all of the comments were from Nintendo execs in NoJ and NoA talking about the Gamecube. Stuff in bold is from the article, stuff under it is me commenting on how it relates to the current generation of consoles and the Wii U specifically. Also your point about being faithful to the Gamecube during that era is also there. To quote the article

“Pride turned to arrogance. Ugly arrogance. Nintendo started to develop contempt for the gaming community. They felt as if they were being betrayed by the gamers they created. The marketing teams started to look at gamer focused strategies with ire and spite.” says Mercury. “The “hardcore” Nintendo audience was equally cast aside. “Why bother? They’re going to buy anything we put out anyway.”

Their strategy with the Wii and DS changed all that. Instead of relying on the loyal fans they instead marketed their games for everyone. The writer of the article cynically says "anyone more than everyone" but either way that's what happened. Very different with the Wii U, the Nintendo of now is more of a fanservice machine.

That's truly an interesting point, the Gamecube era really was one of pride and that really didn't help Nintendo.

I'll look into the article.

Everyone should just get off the internet, quit whining, buy some games and just play them... That's how we enjoyed our systems back in the good old days

@skywake
I knew that the bold was from the article and underneath were your comments. I just read the article, anyway.
It sounds like they were acting like Sega for a bit. I guess that kind of makes sense. At least they didn't keep going on the same track for Wii.
I liked DS alot back when it came out, but Wii overall kind of disappointed. I was expecting GCN quality titles. GCN games aren't as fresh and new as titles today, but I was expecting that sort graphical/advanced jump from Nintendo like the N64 to GCN.

I didn't buy GCN games, because I "was going to anyway". I really thought GCN was the best at the time. I do know that plenty of kids at the time had PS2 at the time, because they weren't really gamers, but it had DVD and their parents bought it for them and nothing else.

The whole situation is honestly pretty confusing for me. PS was a more powerful brand back then, though.
Everyone I see now adays plays Xbox 360, and everybody knows what Wii is or has one.

PS3 has basically suffered the same fate as Nintendo at a later time. The market grew since 6th gen, so that's why I determine that PS3 entering a bigger number is the only reason it did better than the GCN.

I think Wii U has the advantage compared to PS4. I still have a generally good outlook for Xbox One, but it will have its work cut out for it.

I think Sony's game machine is turning niche. PS Vita is expensive with hardly any games in comparison to 3DS, and PS4 doesn't include everything straight out of the box.

that's how my 3DS broke the R button and made me get stuck between my N64 and the internet.
viedogames nowadays break too easily my gameboy color still works fine.(but the games were mostly lost and one of them broke)

I know I'm gonna be leaving soon from the forums and sticking back to Miiverse because time is just about to get scarce so I better spend it playing, rather than arguing about how un-awesome are the actually awesome games that I play on my Wii U. (Which, btw, won't be found anywhere else.)

Edit: Wait. I think I just inadvertently said an advantage.

Yeah if we look back over the NL forums from the past year or two I don't see any discussions that you could say were quality time well spent... Alot of the naysayers that left this site were just depressed individuals that obviously didn't want to devote any time towards their PS360's