Topic: The Wii U vs. current interests of the console market

This is something that has been perplexing me for a while. I think many of us recognize the Wii U's faults such as a lack of 3rd party games, underutilization of the gamepad, relative difficulty of programming, etc.

But despite all the Wii U's faults, when I try to look at which 8th gen system makes the most sense to purchase (at least by my logic), it's the Wii U. Why? Because even I have a Wii and 360 or Wii and PS3, I need to purchase a Wii U to play the Wii U's best games. That is strangely not the case for the PS4 or XB1, both of whose best games are available on last gen systems. But oddly, sales suggest purchasing that is opposite of that logic

That leads me into questioning if the interests of the console market have shifted. Shifted to even further focusing on visual quality over anything else. If it has indeed shifted, does Nintendo need to shift too (I sure hope not)?

Also, because I know someone is going to bring it up. I'm talking about sales and broad market interests because it interests me. I'm fine enjoying Nintendo's games, but I like to talk about this stuff too.

The industry cannot sustain itself with "pretty graphics" the more powerful and complex the system, the longer the development cycles for those systems. Instead of focusing on unique, innovative gameplay, they have fooled themselves into thinking that the more polygons you can fit into the handle of a gun you won't notice anyways, the more the realistic and "better" the game will play. Anything challenging the status quo gets rejected,beaten and buried. The markets have changed and unfortunately taken a bad turn. That is not implying that things will never change. Unforeseen market shifts like smartphones have eaten a sizeable chunk of the market nintendo captured with the casual Wii crowd.Give it time. People generally realize what they are missing and things will shift again. Everything really does have an ebb n flow to it.

In a world where AC Unity sells millions of units, I have a hard time believing that performance is a major factor in the decisions of the mass market.

I thought the general consensus with AC Unity was that it was a Classic Bait and switch. showed an "awesome" concept during videos and E3 etc etc and sell them a broken game

Hype and advertising are truly the two biggest things pushing the PS4 to sell so well. Yeah, Nintendo screwed up with the Wii U and Microsoft shot themselves in the foot with the Xbox One but... Still... PS4 has hype and advertising.

I agree, but only to a date. And I think that date is somewhere towards the end of this year. The PS4 is finally getting some exclusives this year which are making me want to buy one. I also refuse to buy last gen ports of current gen/PC games. A lot of these games are a lot weaker than the current gen version and I have no problem with waiting to play them later at better performance and price on a current gen console.

I just found an interesting tidbit of information from Golin Harris "Nintendo's North American PR agency" Apparently Nintendo has shifted over 1 million Wii U units in the region this quarter. So hopefully this means that the upward trend is still continuing for the Wii U sales numbers.

On-Topic: Nobody actually knows how many Xbones have actually been sold because Microsoft has been fraudulently counting shipped consoles as sold consoles "just google it". The PS4 on the other hand is definitely selling like hot-cakes which is perplexing given how few exclusives "not including indie titles" are currently available on the console.

How would that even be realistically possible? If it was the quarter that ended at the new year, I could understand it. But since Nintendo world-wide (still) has 3.6M units projected for the whole fiscal year, I can't see where that million comes during a season where the lowest sales figures usually are found.

Oh good, another unsourced "tidbit" that I can't find after a Google search...

Most manufacturers use shipped numbers, simply because they're far more verifiable than sold through. Nintendo does too. All of their financial statements give out numbers in terms of shipped units + digital. The real misleading numbers that Microsoft likes to give out is combining Xbox 360 and Xbox One numbers in their statements, such as "the Xbox brand shipped X consoles this quarter," not saying that most of those were in fact 360s.

On topic: Marketing and hype is a major thing, especially when it revolves around telling people that the PS4 is the most powerful machine in the history of mankind times infinity. The western video game landscape is dominated by whatever AAA, western-developed game has the coolest looking CGI trailer out with the coolest looking morally ambiguous anti-hero. It doesn't really matter that Nintendo won Publisher of the Year in 2014 for having the most consistent output of polished, completed, high-quality games because, well, they were Nintendo games, and your bros would probably call you "gay" if you bought one.

This, this, this!

Console manufacturers have always reported shipped to retail (as to them, it's sold, they got the money for it). This includes Nintendo. Sony and the PS4 have been the exception because for the last 12 months the two figures have been the same. May as well give the number sold through to customers when it's no lower than your shipped number. That won't last though. At some point this year they'll start using the shipped figure.

I think if a console isn't a justifiable purchase until 2 years after it's launch, it should be considered a failure.

I understand a slow rollout of exclusives, but I see no reason why there shouldn't me more multiplats that are 8th gen exclusive. I get that the last gen ports have poorer performance, but I don't think better performance justifies a 400 dollar purchase.

Oh for pete sake. You can't play hype or adverts, ludicrous reasoning. These platforms are selling because they have an overload of popular games, their existence isn't nullified simply because games are also available on last gen.

Games. Of first and third parfy.
Dwindling active user base of last gen platforms > upgrades.
Hype.
Advertising.
Improvements on console/games.
Variety.
Mass appeal.

Exclusives simply don't matter as much as the Internet thinks it does, and the Wii U vs X1/PS4 proves that beyond doubt.

How did Sony and Microsoft convince 30 million people to buy a product weaker than the 5 year old PC they already have? If all that mattered were specs and multiplats, PC gaming would reign supreme in sales, but that's not what we're seeing at all. Sony and Microsoft pour hundreds of millions of dollars into not only adverts but exclusive deals, conferences like E3, and conventions like GDC and PAX.

^And price drops/profit eating. Don't forget those!

Because that console will run all games for the next 6 years and their PC won't run current games anymore. A new PC won't last that 6 years, and not everyone wants/can keep upgrading their PC's. A new console is the easiest option to play the most popular games for the next 5 or more years.

Shouldn't you ask that for every single console in existence? Every console has been outdated from day one, with that line of thinking. PS4 & X1 are no different. The bolded, contrary to whats constantly being uttered, the games exist. People are buying them in the millions thanks to the ads and hype. A platform can't be hyped and advertised with nothing.

The games being on last gen platforms doesn't nullify the existence of the PS4/XB1 but it sure does devalue it. If a new product doesn't do enough that couldn't be done on old products, it doesn't have much value. The dwindling active base is more an effect of the adoption of new systems that a cause of it. People didn't just stop playing on 7th consoles without a replacement.

The tide pretty much has shifted against Nintendo now. Not enough people really want innovative but underpowered hardware full of family friendly cartoon games nowadays.

Really, it makes sense that the general market would like pretty graphics, grit and realism, gun toting anti heroes, and everything else that characterizes dudebro games, I don't see the demand for that going down anytime soon. What could change though is if the push for graphics becomes unsustainable, they'd have to drop their budgets which means that they can survive on fewer sales. And that would definitely help Nintendo because then the 20 million-ish console sales that the Wii U is projected to have is less devastating. They'll still be niche, that's not going to change unless they change their entire business philosophy, but they'll survive.

The only trend in the modern game industry that doesn't make sense is the endless rehashing, that's what people need to wake up and stop fooling themselves over.

Because people are lazy. They're constantly waiting for other people to tell them what to do. Not to say they won't enjoy PS4 and Xbox One (anyone could really), but if you look at the big picture, Xbox One and PS4 are actually the weakest combination available for those williing to put in the extra effort. But people aren't willing to put in the extra effort, they just want what the Joneses have. I mean, think of the reasons behind buying either.

-Price: Nope. Paying for online has virtually eliminated the price gap between PC and consoles. Combine that with Steam sales, shopping around for CD Keys, and the fact that a PC is just that; a Personal Computer: it can do anything, so you just combined all your needs into one instead of having to buy a console, a computer, etc.

-Controller: Nope. With adapters you can use just about any controller with your computer, and you're never stuck with one.

-Exclusives: Nope. Nintendo currently has the most original and high-ranking exclusives and no one cares. Xbox and PS have good ones...that are all remakes/ports...how's Order:1883 working out for you? Can we say PS4 and Xbox One "haz no gamez" yet? Even Punished_Boss's precious MGS is on Steam...and will probably have better graphical options (LOL, I HIGHLY doubt MGS: V will be running 1080p 60FPS on PS4, and even if it does, legions of other games won't).

Multiplats: ...Do I even need to say anything for this? Well, how about this. Tomb Raider PS4/Xbox: $60 with mediocre performance. Tomb Raider PC: $4 on Steam sales (it goes on sales often), with phenomenal performance compared to consoles.

Power: LOL. Even a budget PC smokes a PS4. Can we move on now?

I'm totally fine with people preferring PS4/Xbox, but I'm sick of people acting like they're superior. They're not. They're easier...that's it. And people acting that a bigger fanbase makes something better, let me leave you with this: Justin Bieber.