Bankai wrote:

Sean_Aaron wrote:

I honestly don't see both Xbox and Playstation surviving through this next generation. Sony seems to be the most vulnerable since its stock is borderline worthless. Unless their next machine is massive sales-wise I think they'll be dropping out of games completely unless they have a profitable development arm. I don't know what to think of Ouya - Steambox makes more sense to me, but I'm not really seeing a meaningful market for either of them. I think this generation is Nintendo's to lose, really.

In its last financial results Sony posted a profit and it's stock is 60 per cent higher than it was last year.

Sony's console division is its most lucrative.

SCAR392 wrote:

Anyone with an attention span at all can recognize Wii U is a different console. I knew the difference between GB, GBC, GBA, etc., and I was 6 years old. I understood differences between SNES, Sega Genesis, N64, PS1, GCN, PS2, XBOX, etc. I guess what I'm trying to get at, is that all those things are kind of similar for what they do, and how they do them, but even a child can look at Wii U, and understand it's not Wii. You can't even buy the Gamepad seperate, so there's no way to make a mistake like that anyway. When they do start selling gamepads seperate, by then, they expect people to know even more about the differences. People can somehow notice the difference between Apples products, so this should be a breeze to get past.

brooks83 wrote:

SCAR392 wrote:

Anyone with an attention span at all can recognize Wii U is a different console. I knew the difference between GB, GBC, GBA, etc., and I was 6 years old. I understood differences between SNES, Sega Genesis, N64, PS1, GCN, PS2, XBOX, etc. I guess what I'm trying to get at, is that all those things are kind of similar for what they do, and how they do them, but even a child can look at Wii U, and understand it's not Wii. You can't even buy the Gamepad seperate, so there's no way to make a mistake like that anyway. When they do start selling gamepads seperate, by then, they expect people to know even more about the differences. People can somehow notice the difference between Apples products, so this should be a breeze to get past.

I think you are giving people, and Nintendo's marketing, too much credit. I occasionally work the electronics department at my store and last week a woman asked me what that "U" symbol was on this Wii game, and another person pointed at the Wii U console in the demo station and asked if you had to buy that too or if the Gamepad was a standalone console itself. These questions occur all the time, and I'd imagine it is still like this across the country.

SCAR392 wrote:

brooks83 wrote:

SCAR392 wrote:

Anyone with an attention span at all can recognize Wii U is a different console. I knew the difference between GB, GBC, GBA, etc., and I was 6 years old. I understood differences between SNES, Sega Genesis, N64, PS1, GCN, PS2, XBOX, etc. I guess what I'm trying to get at, is that all those things are kind of similar for what they do, and how they do them, but even a child can look at Wii U, and understand it's not Wii. You can't even buy the Gamepad seperate, so there's no way to make a mistake like that anyway. When they do start selling gamepads seperate, by then, they expect people to know even more about the differences. People can somehow notice the difference between Apples products, so this should be a breeze to get past.

I think you are giving people, and Nintendo's marketing, too much credit. I occasionally work the electronics department at my store and last week a woman asked me what that "U" symbol was on this Wii game, and another person pointed at the Wii U console in the demo station and asked if you had to buy that too or if the Gamepad was a standalone console itself. These questions occur all the time, and I'd imagine it is still like this across the country.

Maybe. All I know, is that I've never had any problems understanding what things are, and how they work. I instantly knew what DS, Wii, and Wii U were, and how they worked. I think alot of those people asking you questions overthink what the products actually do. Bomb goes boom, see? That's super easy to understand.

Bankai wrote:

SCAR392 wrote:

brooks83 wrote:

SCAR392 wrote:

Anyone with an attention span at all can recognize Wii U is a different console. I knew the difference between GB, GBC, GBA, etc., and I was 6 years old. I understood differences between SNES, Sega Genesis, N64, PS1, GCN, PS2, XBOX, etc. I guess what I'm trying to get at, is that all those things are kind of similar for what they do, and how they do them, but even a child can look at Wii U, and understand it's not Wii. You can't even buy the Gamepad seperate, so there's no way to make a mistake like that anyway. When they do start selling gamepads seperate, by then, they expect people to know even more about the differences. People can somehow notice the difference between Apples products, so this should be a breeze to get past.

I think you are giving people, and Nintendo's marketing, too much credit. I occasionally work the electronics department at my store and last week a woman asked me what that "U" symbol was on this Wii game, and another person pointed at the Wii U console in the demo station and asked if you had to buy that too or if the Gamepad was a standalone console itself. These questions occur all the time, and I'd imagine it is still like this across the country.

Maybe. All I know, is that I've never had any problems understanding what things are, and how they work. I instantly knew what DS, Wii, and Wii U were, and how they worked. I think alot of those people asking you questions overthink what the products actually do. Bomb goes boom, see? That's super easy to understand.

Really? Someone who is so actively involved in the Nintendo games community that he posts on a Nintendo fan site "instantly knew what Nintendo consoles were and how they worked?" Who would have thought.

I agree with Brooks. I was in a game store a couple of weeks ago and there was a father and young (8-10 years old) son there. The son was trying ever so desperately to explain to the father what the Wii U was, but the father clearly didn't really get it.

Nothing about the father suggested he was an idiot. Just a normal guy who's not that keen on games and was in the shop for his son's sake. Thing is though, he was the one with the money, and it looked unlikely the son was going to win him over with his arguments. Not when the son "already had a Wii."

Nintendo has a very steep challenge in building a recognisable brand in the Wii U, as distinct from the Wii. Believe it or not, but the super hardcore Nintendo fans aren't actually Nintendo's concern in this regard.

SCAR392 wrote:

Bankai wrote:

SCAR392 wrote:

brooks83 wrote:

SCAR392 wrote:

Anyone with an attention span at all can recognize Wii U is a different console. I knew the difference between GB, GBC, GBA, etc., and I was 6 years old. I understood differences between SNES, Sega Genesis, N64, PS1, GCN, PS2, XBOX, etc. I guess what I'm trying to get at, is that all those things are kind of similar for what they do, and how they do them, but even a child can look at Wii U, and understand it's not Wii. You can't even buy the Gamepad seperate, so there's no way to make a mistake like that anyway. When they do start selling gamepads seperate, by then, they expect people to know even more about the differences. People can somehow notice the difference between Apples products, so this should be a breeze to get past.

I think you are giving people, and Nintendo's marketing, too much credit. I occasionally work the electronics department at my store and last week a woman asked me what that "U" symbol was on this Wii game, and another person pointed at the Wii U console in the demo station and asked if you had to buy that too or if the Gamepad was a standalone console itself. These questions occur all the time, and I'd imagine it is still like this across the country.

Maybe. All I know, is that I've never had any problems understanding what things are, and how they work. I instantly knew what DS, Wii, and Wii U were, and how they worked. I think alot of those people asking you questions overthink what the products actually do. Bomb goes boom, see? That's super easy to understand.

Really? Someone who is so actively involved in the Nintendo games community that he posts on a Nintendo fan site "instantly knew what Nintendo consoles were and how they worked?" Who would have thought.

I agree with Brooks. I was in a game store a couple of weeks ago and there was a father and young (8-10 years old) son there. The son was trying ever so desperately to explain to the father what the Wii U was, but the father clearly didn't really get it.

Nothing about the father suggested he was an idiot. Just a normal guy who's not that keen on games and was in the shop for his son's sake. Thing is though, he was the one with the money, and it looked unlikely the son was going to win him over with his arguments. Not when the son "already had a Wii."

Nintendo has a very steep challenge in building a recognisable brand in the Wii U, as distinct from the Wii. Believe it or not, but the super hardcore Nintendo fans aren't actually Nintendo's concern in this regard.

True. To be fair though, I see people with kids that treat them like crap regardless on whether the kid knows what they're saying or not. Even with good reason.
Nowadays, a kid can say, 'I told you so', to his parents VERY EASILY, and it doesn't matter. It doesn't change the parents attitude towards their children. The kid might as well go through withdrawal. I'm not saying kids should always get what they want, but it's rare to see a parent that can understand, or understand they don't understand, and embrace that. I feel sorry for alot of kids alot of the time.

kereke12 wrote:

I have to agree im a very big fan of nintendo but if nintendo want to see improvement they first need to bring the prices down on wii u games and the consle, they also need to advertise there products more u dont even see there commercial that much also make a better virtual consle for example bring gamecube and nintendo needs to bring youtube and more apps on the 3ds and they also need more hard-core games like example only gta5 skyrim stuff like that..... make the wii u able to fuction the game-pad with 2 or more but more battery life on the game-pad but other then that i would always be a nintendo fan

Sean_Aaron wrote:

The confusion thing is a puzzler. I mean the Wii U is clearly a different-shaped box, but I'm thinking retaining the Wii brand might not have been the best idea in retrospect or at least not just putting "U" after it. 3DS is clearly different from DS.

I dunno. In any event their marketing needs some work. How about the good old giant "All New!" sticker on the box that's worked for detergent companies lo these many years?

JimLad wrote:

Look at it from a new customers point of view:

This console costs £300. You can get a couple of small budget Nintendo games (yes, they are small budget when compared to a real killer app like Mario Galaxy) some third party games, the best of which you can get on other consoles probably cheaper. It has less media functions, less online functions, and has pretty much the same graphical power as the 'last-gen' consoles.
Then there's the controller, which is supposed to be the main hook. Only it doesn't seem to add anything revolutionary enough to make up for the other shortcomings. Sure you get some cool gimmicks and multiplayer functions out of it, but for the most part it's just maps and inventory. Personally I'd rather have a normal sized controller and just press start for those things.
The Wii Remote on the other hand needed no explaining, people just took one look at Wii Sports and wanted it. THAT was a must-have gadget, this is not.

But their main problem right now is games. Nintendo have always been able to survive on first party titles. In all honesty though I haven't seen anything truely impressive from them for a long time. Not since about 2010. Skyward Sword seems to be the only 'big' game they've come out with in recent years, which to me was a let down and felt cheaply made.
Sure there's probably more stuff on the way, but when? By then the damage will have been done, and I don't think they'll recover their market share.

JimLad wrote:

Look at it from a new customers point of view:

This console costs £300. You can get a couple of small budget Nintendo games (yes, they are small budget when compared to a real killer app like Mario Galaxy) some third party games, the best of which you can get on other consoles probably cheaper. It has less media functions, less online functions, and has pretty much the same graphical power as the 'last-gen' consoles.
Then there's the controller, which is supposed to be the main hook. Only it doesn't seem to add anything revolutionary enough to make up for the other shortcomings. Sure you get some cool gimmicks and multiplayer functions out of it, but for the most part it's just maps and inventory. Personally I'd rather have a normal sized controller and just press start for those things.
The Wii Remote on the other hand needed no explaining, people just took one look at Wii Sports and wanted it. THAT was a must-have gadget, this is not.

But their main problem right now is games. Nintendo have always been able to survive on first party titles. In all honesty though I haven't seen anything truely impressive from them for a long time. Not since about 2010. Skyward Sword seems to be the only 'big' game they've come out with in recent years, which to me was a let down and felt cheaply made.
Sure there's probably more stuff on the way, but when? By then the damage will have been done, and I don't think they'll recover their market share.

Mahe wrote:

The Wii U needs more motion-controlled games. Otherwise it will be a disappointment.