Probably already said here, but...

Software won't sell if people aren't buying up the hardware (which Ubisoft is trying to convince people of).

...however...

Hardware won't sell if software isn't available (which Ubisoft would have helped turn around if they didn't delay the game to make way for porting it).

My Wii U does have a companion system. It's called a 3DS.

But seriously, Pachter is only getting this now? Pachter is known for 2 things. Saying something and the exact opposite happens, and stating stuff that people have known for years.

Let's see some past dealings with EA and Wii U here.....

They brought out a poor port of ME3, pitting it against their own trilogy sets on other platforms for the same price.
They brought out a FIFA game that was a copy of the previous one with only a change of roster when other consoles got an actual new FIFA.
They held back Crysis 3, even though the money to port it to run beautifully on Wii U was spent AND it was practically done.
They release a better version of NFS:MW 5+ months after the original release, at full price, and expected high sales of it.
They didn't even try testing FB3 on the Wii U because FB2, an engine designed with high CPU requirements, didn't show results they wanted on Wii U, yet FB3 is coming to PS4 and XB1, both platforms that also have poor CPUs.

And they think Wii U is the problem? Seriously, if EA actually gave a damn, they wouldn't have been taking steps towards making Wii U as non-viable as possible. E3 2011 was a load of crock.

@Sandstorm64 That's what I'm hoping. If this was just a decision for what game to bring to Wii U first, then expect Metroid down the road.

Skipping future games because of low sales on a recently released system with a low install base vs last gen systems is not a logical approach, because that would mean all newly released systems will not get said games.

If you're not helping to make a system improve, then you're helping to make it deteriorate.

The only way I'd see this continue is if Nintendo funded it and called the shots on how it is handled. Past experience with Denis Dyack prevents me from funding it, even if it reached its goal.

@Peach64 Outselling it by 300%, but considering there are 2.1M more Vita units sold than the Wii U, the actual attach rate is not 300% higher. It's less than 2x more. I will admit that Nintendo systems lack the demographic for these sort of games (which is one reason why even the Vita version got a higher attach rate than Wii U), but really, there are many others factors that lead to low sales too, the main one being the smaller install base. Seriously, there's no way the Wii U version, being an altered version of last year's FIFA and not the true version, could compete with the PS3/360, when it's 3M vs 77M x2. Even if every single Wii U owner bought the game, it would still be less than half the sales the PS3 version sold.

Unlike FIFA, NFS:MW on the Wii U had an additional reason for low sales. It came out about 5 months after the other versions. Anyone that was interested in that game was not about to wait that long for it, especially if they understood that EA wasn't giving proper support to the Wii U in the first place, like having only one Mass Effect game on the Wii U vs the Trilogy on other systems.

Just looking at the numbers as of May 11, and basing them on the number of sales of the game vs the number of units sold on the console it was made for, the PS3 version of Fifa 13 (having sold the highest of the group) has a 3.6x larger attach rate than the Wii U version. Considering the PS3 version is NOT a recycled Fifa 12 while the Wii U version is, and the install base of the Wii U is drastically smaller, how exactly did EA expect it to sell a lot?

For all we know, FB2 requires a lot of CPU-processing to handle things like physics and such, whereas FB3 may also allow the advantage of the GPU to handle those same things, relieving the CPU. The PS3 and 360 offer what FB2 needs, but Wii U doesn't, even with a much more powerful GPU than either of those systems offer. Both the PS4 and 720 are being said to have lower frequency, increased-core CPUs, but better GPUs. I wouldn't be surprised if FB2 couldn't run on the PS4 and 720 for the exact same reasons why it doesn't work on the Wii U. It doesn't meet the needs the engine requires. As it is, there are no games running FB2 being set for the PS4/720.

@Ren Priced too high? Maybe, but Nintendo won't change their pricing if people continue to buy them at their set prices.

@Fusion14 I know I don't need to, but that wasn't what I was asking. I'm asking if you can upgrade those that are not currently listed in the Wii U VC launch, but that you own as Wii VC.

Are you only limited to upgrading VC games that are available on the Wii U, or can you upgrade any NES/SNES VC game you have in Wii mode?

@MrWalkieTalkie So true. I'm not against achievements, but it seems like they ruin the game when they throw in ones like "Achievement earned: You booted up the game"

Forgive me for speaking my mind, but companies who say this basically want a free ride. They don't take risks anymore. By their survey, PS3 is the most played system for the Tales games. How long ago was this done? Recently? What about when it the PS3 launched? What's going to happen when the PS4 comes out? All the people aren't going to jump on the bandwagon the moment it launches, so technically, it won't be successful either until -gasp- it gets games too.

By not contributing to its success, you're contributing to its failure.

@Zyph No, I'm saying just the opposite. PS4/NextBox will have the same problem as the Wii U because the install base is so low compared to the PS3/360. Developers want to be where the money is, and with rising costs and such, many will not take the risk in developing for a platform that has a low install base, no matter the hardware under the hood. Like Deep Silver said, they won't be there for the PS4/NextBox on the first day. My guess is if the install base increases nicely, they'll jump in. As for the Wii U, we see it at weekly lows, but if they began picking up sales to noticeable amounts, I'm sure Deep Silver would not be the only developer to change their mind.

It seems like their definition of "audience" doesn't mean the type of people that own a Wii U, but more of the number of people that have one, as shown by this snippet but also their comment about their participation with the PS4 and NextBox, and I quote,...

"I would safely say that you'll see us there, but not on the first day. It's the same reason, the pioneer versus the settler...being there on the first day, that's for the big boys."

More and more 3rd party developers are hesitant in supporting new consoles because the cost of development is rising, and they can't afford the time and effort to port their games to other platforms that currently don't have a large enough audience to profit from, as one can see from the continued support for the PS3 and 360 with their 70+ million owners vs the 3+ million Wii U owners. Then there's the 3DS scenario, which was literally given to 3rd parties to start because Nintendo didn't want to steal the spotlight, but that didn't go well because it didn't have any real Nintendo software to create interest in 3DS purchases. It wasn't until Nintendo rolled out the red carpet with their own games that sales of the 3DS really picked up, and now 3rd parties are trying to get their foot in the door.

Reminds me of the Russian story "The Little Red Hen". A hen wants to make bread, and asks for help from everyone around. No one wanted to help, but as soon as the hen makes the bread, everyone wants some, but the hen told them no because no one helped in making it.

Nintendo is simply making sure their characters aren't introduced differently than what Nintendo envisions them to be. For the movie, Bowser was originally smaller, and Nintendo made sure to get that fixed.

@FOREST_RANGER

That is what's great about the engine. It is highly scalable to fit the capabilities of the hardware.

Can't handle the high amount of physics? "Turn it down".
3D models too complex? "Turn it down".
Textures too large and detailed? "Turn it down".

They touted how the engine could run on phones of all things.

On a positive note, while Epic won't port their engine to the Wii U, it doesn't stop developers from porting it themselves, as mentioned by Epic. In fact, what if Nintendo got their license to use UE4, and they ported the engine, allowing other licensed developers to use that modified version to port their UE4 games to the Wii U without having to port it themselves?

It's like people have completely forgotten what a console launch is like during the early months of the first year when all sales are down the tubes.

@Neram lol, FFVII remake. The cries of Sony purists would be heard from Mars if it was that and was Wii U exclusive.

Anger against the Meat Team is justified. I mean, it's a group that isn't supporting Nintendo currently, but here they come out with a demand that if Meat Boy isn't in the next Smash, then they won't develop on Nintendo platforms. Sorry, but that makes me hate them, no matter their popularity.

If you want something to happen, then at least meet half-way.

So, the "inventor" is going after Nintendo when Sharp is the one that makes the screens? That's why the whole "former Sony employee" sounds peculiar. To me this sounds like someone trying to earn an easy buck, considering it is easy to put a price on something like the 3DS that has 30+ million units sold rather than going after Sharp.

I'd be lying if I said the visuals didn't look good for the PS4, but honestly, nothing in the conference had me screaming "wow", and I fear the price is going to be high for the tech and fluff they put into it.

@SpaceApe I wouldn't necessarily say that, simply because if they did launch earlier, it would be "other" games that wouldn't make it for similar reasons like what we have now.

This is going to be an on-going problem for next-gen systems in general, not just Wii U, if the problem is needing more time and resources.

While the problem is being worked on for Wii U downloads, I doubt they'll be able to integrate Wii downloads into the eShop as easily. As it is with upcoming VC, you're getting a completely new copy for a small fee that is in the Wii U format and retaining the Wii version, rather than upgrading from Wii to Wii U.

If you read more of the thread, you'll find out the same person who talks about this is also talking about how the other consoles will likely fail too because of a number of factors. We're only hearing about Wii U problems because Wii U is the newest platform.

While I don't think downloads should be tied to a single piece of hardware, it was Jon's fault for not understanding the circumstances ahead of time, especially 6 years to understand it, that Wii downloads are tied because that is how it was designed. There was no "user account" with those, so they had to be device-based.

Ubisoft is only hurting themselves by delaying a completed game. We have E3 coming up, and it is very likely that other hard-hitters are going to be coming around in September as well alongside GTA V.

I'm not upset in the slightest about the game not being Wii U exclusive anymore. What I'm upset about is that the game is likely completed for the Wii U, but Ubisoft is holding back on releasing it because they want a simultaneous release. It was meant as a launch title in November 2012, then got pushed to February 2013, and now September 2013.

If it was likely that it would not have been completed with either of the initial release dates, then why announce it so early in the first place? That's why I think it is complete, and Ubisoft is making a terrible mistake in delaying a completed game.

For those that don't know yet, DF is being blasted by GAFers because of the false information they're cherry-picking. Don't know why people take DF seriously nowadays.

Even with all this information, there is still one thing people don't get.

It is 100% customized. Because of this, they really cant "compare" it to other GPUs. It was thought of being similar to the RV770 or RV730, except those are manufactured using a 55nm process when it was confirmed the Wii U GPU is made with a 40nm process.

Simply put, the scans show stuff, but they really don't show what the Wii U is capable of, because they are still "guessing".

To infinite....AND BEYOND!!!

Considering this time of the year is slow for all game companies, it's not a big surprise that they over-predicted (which all companies do as well).

@Dauntless Because a compatibility layer would have resulted in the high backwards compatibility rate we see now? 360 had poor BC, and PS3 had to supply full PS2 hardware for that (once they began removing some PS2 components, compatibility dropped).

Had Nintendo tried to program a Wii layer within the Wii U OS, rather than having the system reset into Wii mode, they would have had more problems than they do now, and people would be complaining more.

@LordLzGlad Oh, it has access to the Wii memory (importing Miis from Wii mode to Wii U mode is proof of that), but I honestly think there is more to it than simply "copy/paste" the saves. Technically, they can do it. Logically is a different story.

Nintendo isn't doing what Sony has done with emulation in general. Sony made an all-in-one emulator, while Nintendo went with the emulator-pack-in for each game, utilizing only those capabilities those games need. One emulator in a VC game is not necessarily the same as another in a different game (ex. Super Mario World doesn't need SFX chip emulation). By my understanding, the saves are also embedded in with the emulator and game within each VC channel, meaning any method to get the saves would require not only accessing the channel (which isn't what is being done in the first place when confirming a VC purchase for fee upgrade), but it would have to know the exact location of the save, which only the emulator knows. This leads not only into having to make a process unique to each game, but also to exploitation by those who have hacked the Wii mode already. Logically, it would not be wise to try and extract the saves under these circumstances, as the base design for Wii VC was made years ago before the conception of Wii U VC existed.

All in all, it is just an inconvenience to the consumer, but not necessarily a sign to signify Nintendo being a horrible company

@JogurtTheYogurt - It could be possible for Nintendo to update the OS to allow such a thing. The Wii U mode is capable of reading information of the Wii mode (the Miis, for example). It would be nice if a separate folder on the Wii U menu held all your WiiWare/WiiVC titles, and could be launched from there.

I loved Wind Waker, but to be honest, I looked at all the screenshots, and with the exception of maybe the characters, the game looks like it is an HD port with improved textures and added effects like HDR lighting and shadows. Just looking at the screenshot with the ship suggests that. If this is priced at $60, then I'm definitely not getting it. This should be priced at half that imo.

Seriously, if they kept the price the same for 3DS and Wii U VC games, but had the option of paying $1 per game to make a purchased VC game on one platform accessible on the other as well, then I'd gladly pay that for each game in my collection.

I still have my Wii, so if I wanted some more WiiWare games on my Wii U, I'll purchase them through my Wii, then do a system transfer. It's unfortunate for those that don't have a Wii.

@ecco6t9 Even if it wasn't free, I'd still probably get it.

They're gonna base their future of Mega Man on a fan-made game? If it is incredible or fails hard, it won't matter, because it wasn't Capcom that made it. The only way this would have any relevance is if the people who made the game were to become part of Capcom to help in those future games.

Initially, I assumed it was going to be just another Street Fighter game with Megaman, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was the other way around. A Megaman game with Street Fighters in it.

Remember that rumor of the 720 having a 2Ghz multi-core CPU? Doesn't seem so farfetched now, does it?

@LordJumpMad Well, at least this way, we won't have to deal with Sony and Microsoft crap, eh?

About the actual MP4 playback, I've tried multiple programs that remux from MKV to MP4, and they all play fine, except for one detail, which I don't know if it is a limitation of the Wii U, or a problem with the video. It won't allow skipping to other parts of the video. When I try, it restarts to the beginning. Anyone know how to deal with this?

VLC can allow you to do http streaming of any video format, but it will do it in broadcast mode (think of it like watching a single TV channel), and it doesn't just stream but also transcodes, so it will convert on-the-fly (requiring processing power on your computer). I haven't figured out VoD (Video on Demand) with it, and I don't know if it is possible with http streaming, but if someone knows how, perhaps they could set up a media server that uses VLC for deploying the streams, and will only transcode those video files that aren't the right format (which is h264 video + AAC audio).

But honestly, Nintendo should go and make a media app that plays all sorts of formats, and allows such streaming. The Wii U is more than capable of decoding those formats that aren't the right format. They could even go and make it a commercial eShop app to cover the fees associated with it, and I bet people would be willing to pay for it. I know I would. Throw in DVD/BR playback, and you've got a one-in-all media center.

@krunchykhaos The reason why people are trusting Marcan's words is because Marcan is responsible for the Homebrew channel on the Wii, so he's got some insight to how to get this information. He may be off, but he's a lot closer to getting the true numbers than most people are.

@Molotov "Human-Networks". The Borg are here! Run for your lives!