FOREST_RANGER

I trust Nintendo knows what they're doing, especially since they're making a gamble. It also confuses me why people in this discussion are jumping to conclusions when we know so little about the successor. But I'll speculate anyway.

If the successor is a hybrid, then here're my best guesses:

1) They could be two devices that have the same hardware where one is much more powerful than the other. They are both connected by a user account and it'd enable consumers to get buy one game to play on both devices. I'd seriously doubt that developers have to develop a game for both platforms. Rather, it'd be optional. The main issue is which hardware setup to use. If they use a mobile-based hardware setup, the console won't be able to rival even the PS4 and X1 (possibly the Wii U). If they use a PC/console based setup, the new handheld would be an ABSOLUTE power hog.

2) They both use streaming video and the actual game will run on a server at some company. Perhaps the devices themselves will also run games. This makes the device require a broadband internet connection. Doubt this approach, but it is possible nonetheless.

3) They have similar hardware setup (just not identical). So that makes the game binaries incompatible and requires developers to port their games. However, the company could heavily invest in cross-platform tools for developers wanting to develop cross-platform games. Think of Nintendo Web Framework and Unity, but with more attention and investment. This would only really work for indie developers (doubt this would attract publishers funding AAA-game projects).

I'm honestly interested in this hybrid platform. But the company has also messed up in the past. We'll see...

Errr. I think there are differences between the French/Spanish pair from Europe and their American equivalents. Listening to these voice would probably sound irksome for people who have a real life and aren't a fanatic of Nintendo :3

@Editorial You made a mistake. The OUYA console actually has an nVidia Tegra 3 SoC.

Anyway, I kinda doubt that no matter how successful this product is, it will necessarily put other consoles at danger.

Wowzers, what a dilemma. I wish NintendoLife wouldn't have to report on this so that there's less risk of dividing the community. But then some will think that it just isn't right for this issue to not be covered. Ah well.

Well, that sucks. But it just seems a bit silly to get a little personal over this.

Sigh. I wish I can go to Russia and see the Olympics. Hope this game sells well too.

I see this as a complicated situation. It's super risky for 3rd parties to release a new game exclusive to the Wii U. And many of them couldn't just tack a Wii U version into their production pipeline for the games released recently. They definitely couldn't treat Nintendo as their reliable partner the second they became Wii U developers, especially when their past experiences with the company were abysmal. So I got nothing D:

Good point, but it's easy for them to say that since they managed to create IPs remembered and loved by many people :3

It may not be good for Nintendo and the Wii U if the game's released on the Wii. On the other hand, it probably wouldn't be good for Disney if there was no Wii version.

Well, EA had been involved in the market for mobile games for a while now. And their relationship with Nintendo was always awkward.

That sucks. There goes another potential to quickly diversify the Wii U demographic and better opportunities for game devs D:

And another interesting thing to note is that the Japanese demographic is becoming increasingly composed of older people. At least, that's what it is believed to be.

Well, I conducted a brief look-up of homosexuality in Japan via YouTube: many people in Japan don't seem to hold a favorable view of same-sex love. There are people over there who identify as gay or other non-hetero normative sexuality, but their way of life doesn't seem hold up as well as people in other countries such as the US, Australia, and Israel.

As for this bug in the Tomodachi game, I do wish Nintendo could incorporate same-sex love. But as an entertainment company engaged in the risky video games business, they are probably not in the authority to socially promote controversial phenomenon like same-sex love (at least in Japan). If I had to blame someone for Nintendo removing the capability of same-sex love, I'd have to mostly blame Japan and its standard environment that the people of Nintendo were raised in. But I don't like to blame anything in general

@Ren Concluding that Nintendo is just stuck in the past for doing this might not be the best approach to this issue. Maybe it's a choice that's keeping them from losing many sales. And many of us are not endorsing what this rumor is implying. But rather, we're just trying to make sense of why the company might be trying to remove the glitch.

It sounds like Nintendo didn't even have the possibility of same-sex marriage in the first place. It shouldn't be that much of a problem since the demographic are the more-liberal teens to young adults..." says me who's fine with less discrimination for the LGTBQ community. But that's just me of course, and not the likely more-conservative, older men running the company.

Well, we know for sure that there was something wrong with this teenager. But I'm still unable to make a solid opinion:

• What was the environment in which the boy was raised upon like? I can't just straight up blame the parents. Maybe his friends aren't well mannered rather then his parents.
• Was there any external force that drove him to attack the victim?

If it isn't being developed by Treyarch, then I'm not too hopeful. More Call of Duty for the Wii U doesn't sound like a bad idea though.

You know, there should be a better distinction between streaming games and synchronized game-saves.

While I sincerely hope they are working on something to address the fundamental issues that account-tied purchases solve (i.e. theft), I can't help but be a bit concerned about whether they are doing something about it.

The closest thing I've heard about account-tied purchases is that they will allow transfers of purchases to other devices. I don't think that's good enough for the important market, and it ends up giving them a bad image.

The pranksters did set up this shenanigan right after the various incidents in Boston.

On the other hand, some people of Arizona aren't the brightest people... or at least the politicians aren't.

...I don't know :/

Wait a minute. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't those first few stages identical to the iOS version?? Maybe set an extra cheap price for it to sell well.

@Ren Perhaps discontinuing these services will free up more staff and money to work on Wii U projects. And judging by this decision, it's possible that the services weren't used that often anymore. If that is the case, it would be a waste of money and man hours to continue maintaining them.

It's nice that the Wii U (and the PS Vita) is doing well this week.

It does seem very strange for Amazon to advertise the competition on the Nintendo products page while the opposite isn't happening. What in sam hills is going on behind the store??

I honestly don't think that graphical snobbery is what he's expressing. It's just that Epic games isn't obligated to work with the Wii U because it's under-powered with respect to the PS4 and the next Xbox.

One of the issues for Epic games is that while the GPU may be acceptable, the CPU isn't to their favor. CPUs handles non-rendering tasks such as physics, sound, artificial-intelligence, particle effects, animation, and post-processing image effects. The biggest importance may just be the physics and the artificial intelligence. And while the Wii U seems capable of GPGPU tasks, they aren't well-suited to tasks like AI.

Another top issue is that as this engine is getting more complex and takes in larger data like higher-resolution textures, it will take up more memory, and 2 gigabytes sounds like a paltry amount for what this engine needs.

And lastly, while it's not wrong to be critical of their attitude towards the Wii U, the fact is simply that this company has performance and cutting-edge in their blood. It's hard for them to work with Nintendo because Nintendo doesn't see much value in high-performance computing. And really, this shouldn't matter because both of them have different values. If the press caring about Nintendo's well-being are still persistent about this issue though, the focus should be on simply their engine rather than the company.

And for the engine itself, the good news is that any developers who license the engine can do whatever they want with it. So, they could port a game using UE4 to the Wii U.

@irken004 Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Microsoft sets the price.

Guess it was wise of him to make the game a multi-platform release.

Happy Anniversary Nintendo Life!

I like horror themes and exploring, so this looks interesting. Although it's likely that this game isn't designed with the Wii U gamepad in mind, it would be nice for the system. But it'd be nice for a PC release.

So I'm guessing they will arrange the development as though they were to "greenlight" the seasons and continuing it on iteration at a time if they sell well? That sounds plausible.

This will be interesting, although I've heard that developing games in HTML 5 isn't too seamless unfortunately.

@AlexSora89 Would discounts really help Nintendo that much? There are probably other reasons why the Wii U took off poorly, such as the lack of essential games, Nintendo's mistake of branding the Wii U too much like the Wii, and the naturally unfavorable ratios of various demographics.

For the company at least, it doesn't seem to be a good idea to simply assume that discounts will put Nintendo in a better condition when there are better alternatives.

How I think of this, the company would use discounts as the last measure. Something to be used only in exceptional cases.

What!? I can't believe Deep Silver misled the press. I should have known since the Wii U is similar to the Xbox 360.

If it makes you guys a bit better, his view of developing for XBLA seems to be grim and not too well

Well, it wasn't developed with stereoscopy in mind, so that isn't surprising. But it'd be nice to put it on the 3DS anyway. Ah well :S

I'd imagine her bentos would taste like a variety of strong flavors complemented by some mellow tasting rice: salty-pickles; sweet-pickles; crunchiness; ginger all over; the fishy, astringent, and mellow nori/veggies; and some fishy taste to it. And of course some sweet, magically tender chicken and beef with a light taste of mirin and the nuttiness(?) of sake.

I doubt they even had the Wii U in mind while developing this game. They have a good point when they say they's have to rework their game engine to run smoothly on the Wii U...and their release date is next month.

Look, if more game companies were to be obligated to support the Wii U platform, there would need to be a big install base (not there yet) and there would have to be demand from lots of Wii U owners.

What a refreshing article to read. It's kinda hard to maintain a bento if you don't cook often D:

I'm not surprised the game isn't coming to the Wii U since they don't have any real connection with Nintendo's platform.

Maybe they'll change their mind when the Wii U sells a lot more.

@Windy Thank you.

@odd69 And so as someone who's fond of Nintendo, it irks you that the company seems so...behind with the times I'm guessing. That's okay, since it is kinda true. I guess it's the downside of having a company in the soft spot of our heart ^_^

@odd69 If you mean launch games: other than Twilight Princess, I don't see much of a difference tbh. But your unhappiness would be understandable if you bought a Wii, Xbox 360, or PS3 at launch. But alas, I'll move on.

To each their own.

@odd69 You're comparing a relatively new console with only some games to a 6-year old console with a grown library of games >.>

Anyway, pretty decent lineup of games this week. Too bad I don't have a Wii U or 3DS.

If the supporters are really confident in Nintendo, they shouldn't be afraid of the PS VITA selling more units than it did before. Nintendo will do what they can to ensure that the 3DS will consistently sell well, regardless of how well the VITA sells

The next generation competition's console price will be too similar to the Wii U's? That just reminds me: how will Sony monetize the new online features?

Anyway, I'm actually starting to be a bit skeptical about Mr. Patcher to be honest.

@Ren I do think they tried their best to polish the Wii U software. Even if they did scrounge up more testers and identified the bugs, it could have taken lots of time for them to correct it. And I can only assume they didn't want to miss their deadline. And do keep in mind that this is a big change in both direction and technical scope for the company.

Whether it was a good idea to release the system in November is a tricky question. But in my opinion, I don't think the Wii could help sustain their revenue since it was neglected by developers at this point. And thus the Wii U was released in November

@JRC72 Well, then the Wii VC games from Nintendo can already be played on the Wii U, though it isn't convenient of having to use the Wii mode to do that. Why exactly this happened? I don't know. But since the company has been running for over 30 years by experienced people, I can only trust that they have some sort of decent reason.

@JRC72 Legality issues is what probably keeps Nintendo from releasing many of the older games on Virtual Console. I believe that many of the companies who owned those old game IP's had faded away, and so there isn't any real company to secure those IP's. It doesn't sound ethical for the company to simply release those games on VC if they don't belong to any qualified legal entities.

I wonder if he means the Playstation 4?

@AlexSora89 Mr. Bleszinski is relying on the context to draw his opinion, with that opinion being that he wouldn't be too surprised if the company left the console business. That DOESN'T equate to the guy placing a bet that it will happen. Nintendo can save themselves, but with the console going through some tough times, it's possible for the company to take desperate measures after the Wii U.

In all honesty though, if multiple experts and industry veterans like Michael Patcher, Mr. Bleszinski, and some other people are not too optimistic about Nintendo's future, then the company taking desperate measures shouldn't be completely dismissed. They're not guaranteeing that the company will change, but they won't deny the possibility.

As an average Joe, I can see where Mr. Bleszinski's coming from for the following reasons:

• Nintendo pretty much missed their March sales goal (3.06 million units sold so far according to Nintendo IR site), which may make investors nervous (a.k.a. it can be a bad thing) and discourage 3rd parties to support the platform
• Nintendo's hardware is limited compared to the other game platforms available, making the console seem less attractive to consumers
• Nintendo might've made a mistake of making the Wii U too similar to the Wii, confusing customers who may mistake it for a Wii (meaning loss of potential sales)

While I have to admit that the company may have to go through some drastic changes (like leaving the console business and become a game-making company that develops for existing platforms), Nintendo always seemed to get themselves out of the deep red. So it's kinda silly for me to firmly believe that Nintendo will drop out of the console business soon.

EDIT: Let me be clear that I'm not saying that the company will go through such changes. It's just imperative to be aware that in this state of industry, it's definitely possible for the company to do it.