The Wii U's Broad Audience Means Star Fox Zero's Delay Won't Matter, Says Nintendo UK

I can't imagine this being a big seller for Nintendo but I strongly believe delaying the game was a smart decision. I want this game to be something special, because if it is potentially going to be as short as some other Star Fox games, I want it to be addictingly good fun every time I turn it on. I also don't think this game would have boosted the Wii U's sales very much at all, but it would of been nice to have it out this year.

@Tsurii Maybe that's the majority but I for one became hooked on Star Fox 64 many years before I got into Smash.

Still a high point in my gaming memories and looking forward to having a successor of some type. Maybe it's one of those things that has an avid fanbase - even if it's a smaller one.

Give us an effing Nintendo Direct already!

@Tsurii Usually I answer each of the questions individually, but in this case, my opinion has pretty much been stated within the first comment.

Star Fox is not nearly as big of a title as people seem to think, and I do not think that it's inclusion within the holiday season would make a whole lot of difference for Wii U sales (particularly given quite a few people's reaction to Star Fox Zero's E3 showing). It might make a difference in sales for the game itself, though I think Star Fox Zero will benefit more in sales from receiving improvements from a delay than being released in the lead up to Christmas.

All that he has said seems fair enough, but there is always an enormous gaping hole at Christmas time for Nintendo with the lack of Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, Fallout 4, FIFA, Minecraft, Star Wars Battlefront and so and on.

Outside of Mario Tennis and Xenoblades, the latter of which is a pretty niche game here in the UK, there is nothing appealing about the Wii U this Christmas.

One might argue that Splatoon and Super Mario Maker is 'good enough' however, in reality, it doesn't much of a different at all.

The Wii U is £249 over here; a standalone Xbox One can be purchased for £279 and you can buy the Uncharted Collection PlayStation 4 bundle for £299.

TL;DR - what does Nintendo have to stand out of the crowd against those two this Christmas?

Yeah I'm not fussed about the delay, arguably there has not been a decent star fox game since star fox 64, if the delay means we end up with a game as good if not better than 64 then it's all good.
I've got plenty to play until then including splatoon, lego city, nsmbu, bayonetta 2 and Mario maker

On one hand, you have Nintendo being confident in their business. On the other, you have NoA who really do little to no effort in marketing whatsoever. Seriously, besides the DS, Wii, GBA and GCN era, what awesome adds have they attempted to put in US? You see Japan do really well in marketing so why not NoA?

UK is atleast doing great because they are working hard on promoting games.

@Splatburst I know right!

Chandra's lost a bit of his charm from when he was ONM's editor in chief, hasn't he? Not entirely sure telling customers what they should think is a good idea, especially so bluntly. 'Exciting time' isn't how I'd describe Christmas with the Wii U.

What the delays have done (not just Star Fox, but Zelda too) for me is where I haven't owned and played a PlayStation for 12 years, I decided to buy a PS4 to pick up the slack. I've now got 8 games for it and will be looking at a few more for Christmas instead of making do with the few bits the Wii U has coming out. I will most likely buy Star Fox (as I guess the core Wii U community will), but now Nintendo no longer has my undivided attention. I'm also guessing a lot of new customers will see the Wii U's paltry Christmas lineup and come to the conclusion it's not a good present for little Jimmy and buy him an iPad instead.

I can see his points and I do agree in part. This obsession with cramming all this big budget AAA releases with Q4 releases, regardless of if they are ready, has had a negative impact on the games industry in general.

On the other hand, it is no secret that sales do go up during the Christmas period and exclusive titles can help shift units. Although I don't think Stat Fox is one of those titles that will shift much outside of the Nintendo Faithful.

@Peek-a-boo Well, I do agree with you that there is a large gap in the Wii U line-up for the holidays, though a lack of appealing games does generally come under a matter of opinion.

For instance, I do think the Wii U has plenty of potential to capture family interests this holiday. It has exclusive figures for Skylanders, the previously released Splatoon and Super Mario Maker, as well as Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash and Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival (much to some fans dismay, I think this is quite likely to sell well). I wonder if Guitar Hero Live also could count, I'm unsure of it's age rating, but I imagine that still draws a party gaming interest.

As for myself, the Wii U has me hooked for this holiday thanks to Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water, Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, and Rodea The Sky Soldier. My Xbox One interests are looking a little slim this holiday, with Fable Legends still lacking a release date. Of course, it is a matter of opinion, and it is true that the Wii U certainly doesn't have as many games available on it due to a lesser amount of 3rd party support.

@Nomad
This has become very frustrating for me.

@arronishere pretty sure that's wrong, assault didnt sell a million

@MrGawain Wow! How do you have the time to play that many games?
I am already scared of receiving my copy of Xenoblade Chronicles X for I know I will never have enough time to play this game.
I hardly finished any Wii U title so far. Or to be honest I seriously only finished Little Inferno and didn't even do all the combinations. So maybe I am kind of on the opposite site of the user base.
I mainly play Wii U with friends, so it's basically the multiplayer games that get my attention.

"Nair believes that the Wii U's library - both past and new - is so broad and so packed with appealing titles that there's something for everyone"

That's fine if Wii U owners have a broad range in taste, or play games in-frequently. If they don't then they are screwed and suffer these long gaming droughts.

I for one am glad SF was delayed, but for others who didn't have anything else to look forward to this winter it must be hugely disappointing.

@Peek-a-boo But i dont play the games you talk about, it depends on what games you love, not all play COD, Assassins creed, Fifa and Battlefront you know. I play (and my kids) Skylanders, Disney infinity, Mario, Kirby, Yoshi and so on, i (we) give a poopitypoopoop about Fifa, Battlefront and the rest of the PS4/Xone teenage kind of games.

@fungusar You just so happen to be in a very, very tiny minority then, which is no bad thing to be fair.

The million selling games I listed are big gaps in the Wii U line-up this Christmas, whether you 'give a poopitypoopoop' about them or not.

Also, if you openly think those are 'teenage kind of games', then what are the kind of games you're playing? Kids ones?

It is all too easy to label things you don't particularly like, you know?

Oh, Nintendo.

Poor Nintendo.

I really like what was said. I honestly think I've finally made my peace with Nintendo, and it's allowed me to love them for what they are, not what everyone wants them to be.

Nintendo is a company, but it is a company comprised of driven and creative artists. They would rather make a great game that will be enjoyed for decades than make a quick buck one holiday season. While the other two companies are selling more, I can fire up my NES and have just as much fun today as I did when I played the game as a child. Even if that ideal doesn't always pay off, at least they have ideals. They want to create things that touch people, that give us good memories, that stand the test of time.

That's just my outlook, but I stand by it. I won't turn my back on Nintendo and jump ship for anyone else again. Because when the dust settles, I always turn on my Nintendo systems more than any other system from any other company. Guaranteed.

The fall gaming season is too busy anyway. Star Fox Zero would have been lost in the shuffle and not given as much exposure as it will if they release it in spring or summer.

@MarvinTheMartian
True! I am not very picky, when it comes to games. I didn't even glimpse at the other consoles for I have a 3DS and am very open minded towards genres. Even if you like a genre that Nintendo caters a lot to, like platformers, there are HUGE droughts.
I think those that like shooters and action games do have a psone or pc anyway instead or additionally to their Wii U.

@MrGawain I made a similar decision and built a gaming PC. I have not owned or felt the need to own a non Nintendo system since before the NES. Delays combined with the exodus of major 3rd parties were making my WiiU collect dust. The PC allows me to play the 3rd party titles WiiU is missing. I'm hopeful that Nintendo can get major 3rd party multi platform and exclusives back with NX. The indie games on the eshop don't fill that void. Man cannot live on first party games alone.

Fair enough on not releasing games until they're ready, but that philosophy needs to extend to the consoles themselves. It's the games that matter, and a console without games isn't ready. And, dare I say it, can be seen to be bad forever.

I think they should be honest and say ...."the game has moved over to the NX launch, which will be november 2016"

He's got a point while no one would wait to get CoD: Black Ops 3 for next year because the next one will be out amongst a slew of other FPS vying for peoples attention. It will be a strong christmas seller and probably will move a couple hundred thousand PS4s and X1s. But in the end it will be yet another yearly CoD game, not made because they had a new idea for CoD but because they need to pump one out every year for maximum profit.

Games like Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros WiiU would still be strong christmas sellers and more recent Splatoon and Mario Maker they're unique games that don't have any replacements on the system or any other one. Much like their predecessors even after the WiiU is kaput people will probably still be wanting to play Mario Kart 8.

If anyone is interested in Star Fox Zero it shouldnt matter whether it comes out in November 2015 or the middle of august 2016. It would be better as a game that was delayed and still worth playing 10 years down the line than a bad game rushed to strategically target the holiday season(cough Assassin's Creed Unity cough.

I'll be getting Mario Tennis and Xenoblade day one but for Xmas I think I'll treat myself to Wind Waker and Pikmin 3.Not forgetting FAST Racing will hopefully be out by then too.Once I'm done with those,I've still got Hyrule Warriors and Wonderful 101 to purchase.With all of that,Splatoon and a fair backlog to get through,I will still be an extremely happy Wii U gamer by the time Starfox eventually lands and hopefully long after.

While Star Fox is great, and may sell well, I know no person who would bought a console just to play Star Fox. So it won't matter in the sales.

Glad that Starfox got delayed. I was a little dissapointed, but if it needs more time to get done, then so be it. Also, while the Holiday lineup isn't all that exciting, I at least have Xenoblade.
@617Sqn When will you people realize that just because a game on the Wii U got delayed doesn't mean it'll be on NX!?

Star Fox has always been niche and its height of popularity was during the n64 era...I just find it funny that Nintendo is darned if they do darned if they don't. When the game was coming out this year folks complained...when they delay it to make it better...folks complained. Ah well I'm buying it either way...I liked what I saw at E3.

I feel like them saying this is them saving the fans of the series don't matter. lol

It's not so much about having a good game to play during the Holidays, but that you won't get anyone's attention, outside of the already dedicated, without a fresh release.

But I mean, yeah, of course delaying for quality is the better option over releasing an unfinished product.

And besides, I'll be playing Xenoblade, so I'm fine, either way.

The delay may cost Nintendo overall since they're losing a big holiday release. However, I'll always prefer them to wait until they're completely satisfied with the game before releasing and not rush anything

"Broad audience"? What, the couple of dozen people still actively using their Wii U consoles?

Broad audience? On Wii U?

God even Nintendo's own employees can't seem to separate the original Wii from the Wii U.

The only people that own a Wii U are core Nintendo fans and console collectors.

@LaVelle Same here. I own 3 different versions of the game and still play it today.

@gatorboi352 @Protocol_Penguin
What purpose do you visit this page for anyway? Just trolling?
I think they mean that the Wii U audience is broad regarding to the genres they like. There is no game they could release that would cater to the whole audience.
Anyway, I think both of you are aware that there are quite a lot of people who own and love their Wii U and don't fit in the two categories you mentioned.

I think Miyamoto's thoughts on bad games being bad forever is a little outdated, unless the core of the game is bad, most games released these days are "bad" meaning broken or unfinished, releasing huge patches to fix/finish the game after launch. Don't get me wrong I don't want Nintendo to start doing this, but the notion that once a game is released, that's it, is an old pre-digital games era ideology. So take your time by all means, but realize how the industry is changing, but in this specific shift DO NOT CHANGE. thanks

"There's this old-school expectation that a company has to launch their most high profile software title in November, otherwise it doesn't have a system seller for Q4..."

Well no sh**. That's the logic of it, and that won't change anytime soon. What a bunch of bull. This coming from the company that originally had both Star Fox and Zelda pegged for Holiday releases.

"...This definitely isn't the case especially since the Nintendo audience is so broad."

Lol, what?! Broad? How? 10 million hardcore Nintendo-fans who buy anything, is not the kind of 'broad' you're looking for with a console.

"On top of this, many of our customers can only afford to buy so many titles a year, so we're in an enviable position whereby many of our Wii U owners have yet to play all the classics. There's plenty to enjoy for Wii U owners and an array of reasons for newcomers to buy a Wii U now."

What a bunch nonsense. This is a corporate spin if I've ever seen one. They are basically saying, "There's nothing to buy this year, so just buy old games! There's tons of them!"

This whole statement is cringe worthy. Star Fox wasn't a big hitter, but it was at least a recognizable brand, more so than Xenoblade. This just magnifies how much of nothing they have for the Holidays to sway people away from the competition.

being a huge StarFox fan since SNES it matters to me...but i agree that i would rather wait for a game Nintendo is ready to release instead of meeting some holiday release and then them adding modes later...i want my game complete and fully realized so i will wait patiently. i wonder if 2016 will have any surprises in store for us?

Uh

It says a lot that the only games I'm really interested in that I'm looking forward to picking up this holiday season are Rodea and Xenoblade X.
Not that I'm complaining, Super Mario Maker and the NSMBU double pack beckons, while I have a hefty 3DS backlog to catch up on...

I think at this point into the game, nintendo's main focus this holiday season will be on the 3DS. Playstation 4 and Xone will still continue to sell well into the holiday season (and neither really have a AAA game for the holidays). Wii U will be the same as it was the last year. It has it's games, but over here in the US, it's ignored...even with some fantastic games for it...it's just ignored. If nintendo just makes a good bundle and a small discounted price, they'll sell some over the holidays...NOA just needs to advertise the system more...show that Zelda U is coming and a new Star Fox, but nintendo themselves also needs to show off what is to come into 2016 for the system, and with the rumors about the NX, it's going to be harder to sell the Wii U if people know that this system is coming out in either 2016 or later.

@RoomB31 I think that is sort of the point. Star Fox Zero did not demo well, and the general impression was that it was bad. So it has gone back to the workshop to be retooled to hopefully become a better game.

I do not think that the release calendar for the Wii U is all that bleak, it just doesn't have a major release on it (which for Nintendo is Mario or Zelda). I mean we have

Oct 22 - Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water
Nov 3 - Shovel Knight on Disc
Nov 13 - Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival
Nov 20 - Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash
Dec 4 - Xenoblade Chronicles X
Dec 11 - Devil's Third

Everyone does realize how long it has been since that many Wii U games have released at this rate? Plus there is Rock Band Live, continued Disney Infinity 3.0 Support (which the Wii/Wii U has one of the biggest audiences), the current Skylanders, Lego Dimensions, Ubisoft's Just Dance that seems to be still popular. It might not be the software you want, but the Wii U will not be without Holiday releases.

Nintendo should release a ton of games on the Virtual Console to carry us through to next year!
How about Star Fox SNES on the Wii U VC as a consolation prize?

@JLPick "Playstation 4 and Xone will still continue to sell well into the holiday season (and neither really have a AAA game for the holidays)."

What? I'm looking at Halo 5 and Rise of the Tomb Raider on the Xbox and both are getting Fallout 4 and Battlefront.

@Darknyht

my only point was to share my thoughts on an outdated ideology, not a complaint on the lack of releases. To your point tho, Fatal Frame is digital only, and locks out a good portion of Wii U owners who may not have the ability to download 13gigs/ or want to pay retail price for a digital game, (I only mention this, because it's the only digital only game you mention in your release list).

Project Zero: Maiden of Black will lead the way in ghost horror genre? I hope he's only talking about just the WiiU otherwise a big NO! There are lots of better horror games out there.

@RoomB31 Only my first paragraph was directed at you. I apologize if there was confusion. In the case of Star Fox Zero the philosophy isn't outdated because the core of the game appeared to be either bad or poorly implemented. There is no way to patch that.

Seems like Nintendo is focussing on winning over families this year. That might be sensible since it does seem that could be the area to afford the greatest increase in system sales. That Splatoon and MK8 bundle with a price cut could help. Amiibo Festival will do well because of the amiibo and because families might get a bit of fun out of it, though my personal opinion is that it will get boring very quickly and the sales figures will be impossible to judge since it supposedly can be claimed as a free download and will otherwise be packaged with desirable amiibo. Even I am thinking of getting the KK Slider amiibo and yet I think the game will offer me only an experience comparable to having my teeth pulled. Can't see it as a system seller, but might be a nice extra for kiddies and also an introduction to the lucrative world of amiibo. If Nintendo thinks they can get more sales by really pushing the Wii U for families, then that's okay, I suppose, given the current situation. Doesn't help anyone wanting those delayed games or hoping for something epic, though. The Wii U library might be broad, but it isn't as broad as some would like because it has been skipped by many popular franchises and must have lost some appeal because of that.

Just some more PR bs but this time the bs is somewhat right. I don't think Star Fox would have made that big of a difference in pushing consoles. That being said the game will sell less units when it releases because it won't be there for the holidays.

I get it, you're PR doing your thing; all coins are one sided and polished to a mirror shine. But will Star Fox's delay matter? In a word; Yes. In more; You bet your arse it'll matter.

This was supposed to be The Game this season. Maybe, MAYBE huge success with other titles will offset that demand, some might even be big, but all of them? They were never meant to fill that void. That's the problem with setting up a The Game, you don't really have a back up.

Star Fox Zero have as much power in pushing consoles as Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, Yoshi Wooly World and maybe Xenoblade Chronicles X. There would still be Wii Us getting sold this holiday, I just don't think this will be the game to lead the force.

Besides current Wii U have quite a number of current 1st party games to play that you can sink a lot of hours into. Even the ones you can end in a few hour is at least doubled to complete. Hopefully people don't play games for a few hours then move on to the next one, that would be a waste.

Now listen carefully Nintendo, I don't care what you're saying, but at least you have the DECENCY to delay Star Fox Zero to improve it. So that game is the last chance I give you. If that game fails as well, I swear to god that I'll close forever with you and the videogames in general FOREVER........ but you know what? For many months after the E3 I blamed Nintendo fro having become bad as much as the 95% of developer have (indie included) but I actually shouldn't blame Nintendo for this. Activision and Electronic Arts.... to me THEY are the real responsable of the degrade of the videogame world. With their stupid COD and FIFA they earned so much money and they realized that they should stop making quality games when using the same game every year give them a lot more money..... in the end many other software houses did this (see for example Sony with PS4, that is doing so many remastereds and just a few quality games) and in the end Nintendo didn't resist to this, and fallen into this category as well.... (see the DISASTERS of the new Chibi Robo and the new Zelda games on the 3ds......). So yeah, many people are mad to Nintendo because it became bad, and I was one of those as well... but in the end, were Activision and EA with their commercial s**** that put an end to the videogame world we knew..... now only a garbage world full of commercial c*** exists..... I'll buy the few new indie games, and the few Nintendo games I missed in those years in the next year, afterward..... I'll quit with modern videogames, and I'll replay that 150 and more good games I got in 16 years over and over again, for the rest of my life. It might sound like an extremist decision, but I prefer replaying old good games, than playing new forgettable games..... I don't need lectures for this...

I've got no problems with the delay I would rather have a polished game than a rushed one with Xenoblade, Fatal Frame/Project Zero, Devils Third (NA) got some very good games too play over the festive period and Mario tennis is looking better plus Animal crossing amiibo festival n Yoshi Woolley world (NA) for family fun, on top of that still playing Splatoon, Mario Maker, Mario Kart, Smash but I do think one more big was needed tho.

I don't mind the delay, but... broad audience?

Is

Is he being sarcastic

I'm sorry, but Nintendo's audience is really, really limited to pretty much just the people who grew up with it nowadays. I've never seen even a single Wii U owner under 18.

@Peek-a-boo no, the 10 most selling game in the world are all nintendo, wii sports (not that i like it) sold 85 mil copies.

Again, I want them to delay it even further. So far it looks like they just slapped together a rough demo and hoped that fans would like it. The game is visually hideous from both a technical standpoint and an artistic one, controls look gimmicky and need tightening, and the game looks so incredibly unfinished that even a few months after E3 wouldn't give it enough time to be polished. Again, it looks like Miyamoto slapped together whatever he could in his old age since it's likely the majority of Platinum is working on more major projects like Scalebound. Should delay it until he can get more team members to work on it.

@fungusar Not even close to all being Nintendo. Tetris is #1 (not counting the Game Boy version, incidentally), Minecraft is up there, along with GTAV and Diablo III. 6 out of 10 is great, but they certainly aren't all 10.

Nintendo has 8 out of 10 on single platform titles, but Minecraft and Kinect Adventures are still up there.

Isn't the expectation that you release your more profilic games near the Holiday season to increase console sales? Consumers are more apt to buy consoles in november and december.

@Vineleaf We must be looking at different lists then because the list I'm looking at (which admittedly only shows console sales only, which IS what we're talking about) has Wii Sports at #1 and Nintendo not only has the top 10 slots, they have the top 15.

Ok if you looking at wiki you are right (it must be the most reliable) i was looking at http://www.vgchartz.com/

@TheLobster It wasn't specified that we were just talking consoles. And if it's console-only, that does tilt the scales in favour of Nintendo simply because that's all Nintendo develops for—and tilts the scales even more if we start picking single-platform.

That's not to take anything away from them, mind you, as they've been incredibly successful over the years. The video game market we have owes a great deal to Nintendo. Just not so much recently.

I still show Kinect Adventures at 24 million in 10th place. I'm using Wikipedia. Happy to stand corrected if you have a better source.

@RoomB31 That isn't exactly, true the notoriously bad Batman: Arkham Origins had gamebreaking bugs that Warnerbros would only "try to fix" but never did because they wanted to focus on DLC instead.

http://kotaku.com/batman-arkham-origins-prioritizing-dlc-over-patching-g-1519505970

I think if a game can be patched from bad to a good game it probably didn't have many big issues to begin with or it was simply a balance or performance issue harming what would already be a great game. But if a game is a fundamentally bad mess its likely going to be unsalvageable.

A good example is Final Fantasy XIV which launched as a horrible mess, they replaced the director, producer and combat system designer and were still unable to even fix it because it was fundamentally flawed that they ended having to rebuild it from the ground up and re-released it as A Realm Reborn.

I think what Miyamoto said is still true as developers might not have incentive to fix problems instead looking for extra money through DLC(and as a result the game stays bad), the game may actually already be good and just needs a few adjustments(never truly bad in the first place). or the game could be irreparably bad that they'd be better off starting from scratch.

I'm surprised Nintendo didn't withhold Mario Maker for the big holiday release... a November release may have led to even more xmas WiiU sales...

Also, Mario Maker solidifies my theory that NX will absolutely play WiiU software... would Nintendo really attach a game that was three decades in the making to a "dead" console?

I just want online

On the one hand, this is not a bad message to be pushing, given that nowadays there are high-profile failures to launch a good game (see: Assassin's Creed Unity and Batman: Arkham Knight).

On the other hand, they really should work on making localisation a priority. Just look at the Witcher 3 as an example of a game that launched with multiple language support. We would have Xenoblade Chronicle X by now if they didn't need to wait months before launching in the west.

Reads a bit disingenuous as he bulldozes established metrics for positive spin.

Who is he kidding about the holiday sales period being suddenly no a big deal to their business? Perhaps if the Wii U was bigger than Apple products it could do whatever it wanted with the timing of product launches, otherwise I'm pretty sure NCL isn't ever going to release a Zelda in say February.

"On top of this, many of our customers can only afford to buy so many titles a year" He can say this, yes, but it horribly ignores the troubles of a commercially failed console, and again, who is he kidding with that spin?

It's all along the same lines as Reggie's unabashed contradictions during E3: "We never talk about games coming out after the next 6-9 months".

Of course what else can they say? They only got PR spin this home console generation. At least Iwata and Miyamoto enjoyed positions where they didnt have to be thick at all with the PR speak about the Wii U

So...basically there is a gap for a savvy third party developer to release a AAA killer app and clean up! Erm...anyone? Anyone at all.....no..not you Tantalus...

People who think Star Fox isn't a triple AAA series...smh. Screw you.

Anyway, I'm very happy it got delayed. Star Fox Zero doesn't need a holiday release to sell well, it'll do just fine with the love and care that's being put into this game. ^-^

Why are they delaying the AAA titles? First Zelda, now this? Are they just going to release the games on NX or what? I am out of the loop someone fill me in..

xenoblade chronicals x is on the way it don't matter. delays are not a bad thing it means they are making sure they release a finished product unlike the piss poor third party attitude of release now and patch later that is rife on xbox one and wii u

@Tsurii Star fox 64 was a huge blockbuster and the snes game made great use of the FX chip. I think the reason Fox was included in Smash bros is because of how popular the series is.
I think delaying the new entry is the right choice to delivery a better quality result.

Xenoblade Chronicles X will be the big release for Christmas. It's an open world RPG and those generally make for great games with epic single player stories. I think this will be rated highly alongside other first party releases.

@617Sqn That is the most idiotic claim in human literature. The game is getting RELEASED before the Nx's REVEAL.

@DoctorOverbuild Me too, something like a 4 on 4 dogfight would be good - especially with the vehicle options available, or 2 player co-op. I'm expecting too much aren't I?

Peppy and Fox really do look terrible there. >.> Fox looks nothing like a fox anymore.

Despite this purely being corporate rhetoric, what else can they really say? I've got to say I wasn't impressed with Nintendo's E3 and how much they relied on us being wowed by Starfox. They need more.

Having said that, looking forward to Xenoblade Chronicles X. At least this game looked great from the beginning.

@TobiasAmaranth What? How is a fox supposed to look?

@RoomB31 I disagree. Miyamoto's quote is just as true today as it was back then. No amount of patches can disguise an inherently poor game - not to mention the fact that the disc-based versions still exist in their original shoddy glory. I was playing the first Witcher recently, and despite it receiving massive fixes, to me, I can still see the mediocre game design that pales in comparison to something like Twilight Princess (which was released a year earlier).

>Wii U
>Broad audience
Since when was the Wii U and Wii considered the same console?

@Souldin Star Fox may not be a big franchise, but I genuinely feel that it can appeal a greater audience than Xenoblade Chronicles or Fatal Frame. While those franchises are well respected, including by me personally, I feel they have more of a niche appeal than the Star Fox games.

@Vineleaf I was using VGChartz. Wikipedia is probably equally reliable in a totally different way - which is to say neither source is the greatest.

@wazlon nahh you're good! I guess maybe not co-op as they'll probably want to keep the single especially with the gamepad! But online 4vs4 would be perfect!

Do you hear that, 90% of the gaming industry? Releasing unfinished / unpolished games sucks!

EA and Ubisoft can learn a lot from Nintendo.

@the101 I'm not suggesting that Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water or Xenoblade Chronicles X fill in the role of the big holiday title; rather that Star Fox Zero does not fill in this role all too well either. It's not a niché series, but I wouldn't claim it to be of an A tier of recognisability.

Whilst Fox is a recognisable character, his series doesn't have quite the same recognisable draw as with a new Mario or SSB entry; as has been the case with the Wii U's two previous years. I'd even go so far as to suggest that due to it's genre, it might find itself with a less of an ability to draw people to it than that of the more niché Xenoblade Chronicles X.

Then there is of course people's reaction to it at E3, which certainly was mixed (though I myself loved what I saw). I just feel I've heard more talk of people wanting to buy a Wii U to play Xenoblade Chronicles X than that of wanting to do so to play Star Fox Zero. Likewise, when it comes to a family crowd, I feel games such as Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival will be more of a reason that they pick up a Wii U than the likes of Star Fox Zero. I do think Star Fox Zero itself could do very well; but I don't see it as the sort of holiday system selling game.

I don't have a problem with them delaying a game. It just gets frustrating how Nintendo makes promises and then goes back on it. Just set a tentative date, and then when you know for sure when it will be released, say so. It feels like so many games are getting delayed on this system. I honestly am disappointed with the limited amount of Catalog the Wii U has, and feel like Nintendo should have more games to offer for how long the system has been out. Sure there are some great games, but there isn't a lot of variety or options.