@IceClimbers To entirely dismiss Microsoft for an entire generation because of a crappy console reveal seems shortsighted. Did you not buy a PS3 last gen? Because that had a horrendous reveal too, but Sony clearly made up for it over time.
Phil Spencer has done an admirable job trying to turn the Xbox's fortunes around. There's more work that needs to be done, but out of MS, Sony, and Nintendo, I have the most faith in MS in terms of consumer-friendliness and a steady mix of games and exclusives this gen.
Sony meanwhile has sold over 20 million consoles almost on hype alone, which is impressive in its own right, but you're right. Smoke and mirrors is a fairly good way to describe the way it's been rolling so far. Most of their great exclusives are far away. But at least they've got solid third party support and the best indies of any of the consoles to fill in the gaps.
But to compare either of these companies to Nintendo is a joke. Nintendo has shown the most disregard for fan feedback, the least initiative to repair their image, the least drive to support their own hardware with games, the most hostility towards other people's work, and there's no indication of them getting better anytime soon.
Sure the Big 3 all have their problems, but if you're really as frustrated with every company as much as you are about Nintendo, maybe you're just leaning away from console gaming in general.
@SuperMalleo Because he's a corporate stiff and has no idea how to communicate to a fanbase.
Say what you will about anyone at MS and Sony, but at least Shuhei Yoshida, Phil Spencer, and their other speakers on staff know how to communicate with their audience. Reggie talks as if he's far removed, out of touch with reality, and completely dismissive of other people's work (see his VR comment). It's blatantly indicative of what the company is like as a whole.
@Haiassai The lack of good news is primarily Nintendo's responsibility - Unseen 64 is just reporting on what they believe to be accurate. Believe me, I wish we could hear some good news from Nintendo too, but that seems like a lot to ask these days.
@gatorboi352 Agreed. It's like watching a train wreck.
I sold my Wii U for an Xbox One after the poor E3 conference. Not solely because of that conference, but because of a long string of stupid decisions and numerous instances of proving they don't give a s**t. The conference was just the last straw for me as a Nintendo fan. They're in last place and are in no position to act prideful and arrogant - yet that's the vibe I got from their entire E3 conference, and their subsequent PR flubs courtesy of Reggie.
At this point I don't really care what the NX launch lineup is. I'm not investing in another console from them until they show they actually care about supporting it.
This is hardly a surprise. Nintendo is notoriously bad at promoting mature rated games. Now it seems they've given up on publishing it altogether.
Nintendo sure knows how to make everyone, even their most devoted fans, mad at them. Reggie's asinine comments about VR, Nintendo's increasingly sketchy DLC/amiibo practices, their pitiful E3 showing, the Wii U's atrocious support, rumors of the NX being yet another gimmicky console, the whole YouTube Creators Program nonsense, this game's cancellation... taken alone, these things might not have been so bad. But when theyre all together like that in quick succession, it seems people (including myself) are finally seeing this company for who they really are.
@lilith "Nintendo no longer has your kind of gamer in mind when they jump-start both new hardware and software initiatives."
Couldn't have said it better myself. The Wii was a "revolution" only in that it changed Nintendo's target audience completely, changed who Nintendo was pandering to with their content.
People single out Nintendo's hardware as being the issue with that company today, but i would argue that their design philosophy has polluted their software too, at least from the Wii era to now. The last truly incredible and innovative game to come out of their doors was, in my opinion, Super Mario Galaxy 1/2. The games they've made since then are either highly derivative and safe, or altogether unimaginative and out of touch. Most of their games are nice and polished. But there's no smart risk-taking or innovation anymore. The Wii U Zelda is the only game on the horizon that might remotely come close, but even that's uncertain at this point. It wouldnt surprise me if it borrows heavily from the already well-established Western RPG.
@Quorthon
The trend you're noticing in the Metroid series can arguably be applied to many of Nintendo's core franchises. Other than gradual aesthetic changes across hardware, what has Pokemon done to innovate the genre in the last decade? Nothing. Its Pokemon with a new coat of paint and some new monsters.
Apart from tacky and unresponsive motion controls that will almost certainly be dropped in future installments, what has Zelda done to innovate in the last decade? Even 3D Mario hasn't done anything drastically imaginative since Galaxy, and 2D Mario has been a shell of its former self since Super Mario World!
The more I follow this company these days, the more it depresses me. This company used to drive the whole industry forward. Now the real innovation and the real industry standards are being created by Sony and MS, and Nintendo is stuck playing it safe, making themselves more irrelevant by the day.
"Nah. I still haven't picked it up. Or Witcher 3. And that comes first."
You won't be sorry. The Witcher 3 is one of my personal favorite games I have on any console I own. I've been playing for 180+ hours, but that's admittedly also because I started over halfway through to play on Death March difficulty instead (to get the trophies). Story is great, world and lore are expansive and immersive, and moment to moment gameplay is satisfying. The only qualm I have is that getting from point A to point B isn't much fun after you've been playing for over 100 hours.
Should you decide to do Death March, the start of the game is literally the hardest part. If you can make it past White Orchard and into Velen, and keep up with all your side quests, Death March starts to get manageable. Im level 24 and Death March hasn't kicked my ass since around level 7.
Anyway, I cant recommend the game enough. I got an Xbox One a couple weeks ago and still can't put down my PS4 because of Witcher 3.
Nintendo is a Kyoto company, so it's unsurprising that they can be exceedingly hostile to outsiders' ideas. That's also clear from how notoriously bad they are at working with third parties and the degree of control they want over their IP.
It's that pride and arrogance that will kill their home console business.
@IceClimbers Yep. With their noticeable lack of AAAs in the rest of the Wii U's lifespan, they can't afford to spend two and a half more years twiddling their thumbs, waiting for the NX to come out. They have to put it out next year.
@IceClimbers And that's the catch-22. Even if third party games DID appear on Nintendo's console, who would abandon their already-established PS4 or Xbox One to get their third party games on Nintendo? And who among Nintendo fans would actually look forward to a Grand Theft Auto or Batman Arkham Knight or Witcher 3 when historically they only gravitate towards first-party games?
The more I think about it, the more I realize how inevitable it is that the NX will fail. Third parties won't sell just like they always haven't. Which means, powerful hardware or not, Nintendo will literally have to support the console by itself.
This is why I'll never understand why people dread the idea of Nintendo going third-party. It obviously makes sense for them, it's less work for them to do, and it isn't of any detriment to us. All that's ever on Nintendo hardware are Nintendo games anyway. Why not make their best-in-class games available on hardware that people actually want to buy?
@FragRed They're developing smartphone games for the casual market now, so now there's literally no reason for Nintendo to try to design their next console for casuals. Unless, of course, they want the NX to flop.
Their only hope for the NX not being a failure is to bring back the disgruntled hardcore gamers that they themselves have alienated. The only way that's going to happen is with a hell of a lot of honesty (a "we f***ed up" every now and then wouldn't hurt, no more of this "we already know you want such and such" or the "we're aware of your concerns" drivel), and most importantly, third party support. And I've already gone into detail about why that's a near-insurmountable hill for Nintendo to climb.
@IceClimbers Maybe, but that's irrelevant to my main point. They can't just get by with one of those things. They have to do all of them reasonably well to get third parties back. And that's asking a lot, especially from a company like Nintendo, who has been either ignoring or making asinine comments about other people's development efforts lately (especially in regards to VR), failing to market mature games like their own Bayonetta 2 post-release, and making gimmicky hardware for generations.
Okay, serious question: Who the hell is the target audience for the NX? Who is going to want to buy this thing? Think about it: if you want power, you buy a PC. If you want third party, you buy an Xbox One or PS4. If you're a casual gamer, you buy an iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy.
Besides the die hard Nintendo fans (whose numbers have been dwindling lower and lower since the Wii U's launch), who will buy the NX? This is a serious problem Nintendo has to face if they have any prayer of selling units. And if they don't make some serious changes in their console strategy, they're poised to sell even less NX's than Wii Us!
Literally the only way Nintendo can survive as a console manufacturer is if they get third parties on board to lure hardcore gamers back from MS and Sony. But that's a near-impossible task at this point, because that means Nintendo would have to do all of the following:
a) Release a console at least on-par power-wise with the Xbox/Playstation.
b) Release a console with no gimmicks.
c) Repair their horrendous relationships with third party developers.
d) Swallow their pride and promote the work of other studios besides their own, and
e) Learn how to promote M-rated games correctly.
If any one of these doesn't work out, then the chances of seeing good third-party support on NX are slim to none.
Personally I think it's almost too late for them. Sony spent 3+ years repairing their reputation after the negative Playstation 3 launch, and Microsoft is still suffering the effects of their horrendous launch. It takes time to repair relationships with developers and fans... time that, quite frankly, Nintendo doesn't have.
Ugh. I'm convinced a good portion of the 3DS's overall sales are from people buying the same console over and over again to get different designs. My brother has bought THREE of them. Nintendo knows they can get away with it too, hence the reason we're getting the most customizable model last.
Nintendo announced an Animal Crossing for Wii U, but it wasn't Animal Crossing.
They announced a new Metroid Prime, but it wasn't Metroid Prime.
They announced a new Paper Mario game, but it isn't really Paper Mario.
They announced a new Zelda game, but it isn't really Zelda.
And suddenly everything is fine with their lineup? Like @Quorthon said, it doesn't do any good to pretend this E3 was anything less than a catastrophe. We need to take this horrendous E3 and learn from it. In particular, we have to come to grips with the fact that this is how Nintendo handles a console with pitiful sales, and we should be cautious about being so quick to adopt a Nintendo console in the future.
I bought a Wii U about a month after launch back in 2012, and almost immediately regretted it after nearly a year of virtually nothing coming out for it. All this, coupled with this pathetic E3, has taught me to not adopt the NX at all until 2-3 years after launch, when Nintendo has proven to me they want to sustain it and care about making a steady stream of games available on their system. And if they can't prove to me those things, they don't get my money. Period.
They've got a tremendous hill to climb with the NX. I think it's more likely that it'll fail than succeed, especially after this alienating E3, and with Iwata saying to TIME that it'll "revolutionize the way people play games" (or something to that effect). The last thing this market needs is more gimmicky consoles. Personally, I'd actually be interested in seeing what happens to Nintendo if the NX fails. A third party Nintendo, at least in my opinion, would be a stronger Nintendo.
Alright, phew... Time for my official rant on this presentation. I apologize in advance for the wall of text and I hope despite my rambling that you might give this a read!
I've been a Nintendo fan ever since I played Super Mario 64 with my younger brothers growing up. I owned an N64, then an SNES, a Gamecube, a Wii, and today a Wii U. So needless to say, I've been around the block with this company and Nintendo has been my absolute favorite brand ever since I was a kid.
But this presentation is the lowest point at which I've ever seen this company.
I thought this presentation was even worse than the Wii Music debacle of 2008. Because at least then, even if they misread the audience that attends E3 and delivered an embarrassing presentation, they had the casual audience to sell that garbage presentation to. But right now their console has pitiful sales and they're in no place to act prideful and exploitative. Yet that's exactly what they looked like during that presentation. Literally every move they made was an arrogant and incorrect one.
Starfox looked average at best. I'm not a graphics-obsessive person, but after seeing a game as beautiful as Mario Kart 8 or Super Smash Bros. running on Wii U, there's literally no excuse for Starfox to look so ugly. The visuals and gameplay are not only nothing new, but to me they looked plastic, sterile, and fake. It was unusually soulless. Ironically I felt it perfectly set the stage for the rest of the presentation.
Then Nintendo made it abundantly clear they have virtually no plans for the Wii U in 2015 and 2016 beyond what we already know about. They practically revealed nothing. This doesn't really come as any surprise to me though - it makes sense that they're shifting their development teams to the next console, and that we won't see anything of consequence until next year's E3. But if that were the case, and they really had barely anything to show, why did they even show up at E3 and do a Digital Event at all? Simply by being at E3, Nintendo created the expectation of giving us something bigger and didn't deliver. It looks especially bad alongside conferences like MS's and Sony's, which revealed a significant number of amazing looking games.
But the worst, the worst part of this conference were the games they did show for Wii U and 3DS, and moreover, what those games communicated about Nintendo in general. Fans have been pleading for a new Metroid, a new Animal Crossing, a new 3D Mario, and so forth. So instead, Nintendo gave people (1) Animal Crossing X Mario Party, (2) a shoehorning of Mario into Skylanders, and (3) a Metroid Prime 4-player shooter that doesn't have anything to do with Metroid beside the name and the fact that it's in space. It came across as exploitative, arrogant, and ignorant, as if Nintendo felt they could slap the name of their "sacred IP" onto anything and it would sell like hotcakes. It's almost as if execs sat in a board room and said, "People want Animal Crossing on the Wii U. I know what they'd love! Let's make a Mario Party game and put 'Animal Crossing' in the title!"
Look, I get the reality of the situation. Nintendo wants all their dev resources on the next platform, and because of that, they have to provide games that serve little purpose besides existing as stopgaps. But from an outsider's perspective looking in, it communicates that while Nintendo may be listening to some feedback out there in terms of what franchises people want to see, they're too out of touch to see that they're not delivering anything people want. They communicated a complete disregard for their fans in this presentation.
Lest anyone think I'm jumping the gun on that claim, compare this to the way Microsoft handled their press conference:
Microsoft fans asked desperately for backward compatibility on Xbox One, and MS worked tirelessly against the odds to give it to them.
Nintendo fans pleaded for a new Metroid/Animal Crossing game and they got Metroid Prime: Not What You Want and Animal Crossing X Mario Party.
It almost seems antagonizing.
And did anyone notice when Reggie was talking to the Skylanders guy and, as if to show off the fact that he's cooperating with a third party studio, he sarcastically said, "So as you go through this collaboration with Nintendo, the company that is very protective of its franchises, that always likes to have total control, what was that like in terms of working with us to bring these fabulous experiences to life?" It was pretentious and it felt like NoA was only cooperating with Skylanders so that they could protect their own ego. They're not cooperating with Activision out of mutual partnership or business flourishing, but rather to patch their own ego and retaliate against criticisms. It looked incredibly insincere and selfish.
Whatever. I'm done with them. This nonsense, the artificial amiibo scarcity, the increasingly sketchy DLC practices, the abysmal Wii U support, the gimmicky consoles, the Youtube Creators Program, the arrogance, the ignorance, the pompous ego. I'm through with it. I went ahead and listed my Wii U for sale on eBay, and I think I'm going to put that money towards an Xbox One instead. And they're going to find it very hard to sell me an NX, or any console in the future.
@MKCustodial You won't be disappointed. Unlike Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony listen to feedback and make their consoles among the best gaming ecosystems out there. I own a PS4 and I flip it on every day. The Wii U I haven't used in months. And that's coming from someone who grew up with and loves Nintendo.
@jjmesa16 Yep, should've done it sooner honestly. I dumped way too much money on this system. Gamecube adapter and controllers, a couple Pro controllers, a bunch of Wii Remotes, Classic Controllers, Ethernet connector, and so on. I'd be lucky to make even a third of what I spent back.
@Steel76 It's infuriating, isn't it? The Wii was a casual console and a misfire, but I personally gave Nintendo the benefit of the doubt and bought the Wii U, hoping they'd make it worthwhile. And man, nothing has made me come so close to losing my love for this company. What a waste of my time and money.
After this last presentation, I've begun seriously considering selling my Wii U. I've got a wedding to save up for anyway.
@Tender_Cutlet I generally agree Nintendo really didn't have a 100% choice with this sh*tty Direct. The Wii U has been burning a tremendous hole in their pockets since it came out and they need to shift their development teams to a platform that has a prayer of selling better. That means no more AAA games, and a handful of crappy games to hold us over until the next platform arrives. Even Starfox looks distinctly bland and stale, like an up-rezzed N64 game with some minor tweaks to the gameplay. And that's what happens with very little development time and a company whose best teams have long since moved on to the next platform.
It's a disaster for sure. For me, this Direct has made me rethink if I even want to support the NX. Maybe if people don't buy the NX, Nintendo will stop making gimmicky hardware and focus on what makes them special: their games.
@kingofthesofa No doubt Nintendo is stocking up ammo for the NX at this point. Retro Studios are probably being moved to the next platform, same with all Nintendo's other AAA devs. My prediction (and not so much a prediction as it is a near-certainty): there's literally no chance we'll see anything new from their AAA first party studios on Wii U. I hardly even expect Zelda to be exclusive to Wii U at this point.
@Atlantidas The worst part is that many of the games they did talk about might as well be iOS games! That Happy Home Designer nonsense, Amiibo Festival (literally the last thing anyone wants to have a festival about is amiibo), and even that nonsense Metroid Prime game might as well be bite-size mobile games.
@Crimzonlogic Great! Two or three games in the next six or more months that will maybe be good, and then one more great one before the console is dead in the water. In what world is the Wii U's lineup just now "getting real?"
Meanwhile there are literally hundreds of great games coming to other platforms. Nintendo's is dead in the water at this point, but I guess that's not really a surprise.
@TheHumbleFellow That's a matter of opinion. Personally, I thought it looked incredibly bland. The ships look like plastic toys, the world looks uninspired, and the gameplay is pretty much exactly the same, minus a few strange additions (like walking around on two feet). One of the few Nintendo games I was ever bored from just looking at it.
@TheHumbleFellow That's a ridiculous sentiment. Just because you like other games in the franchise doesnt mean you have to buy everything in it. People have been clamoring for a new Metroid too, but does that mean everyone should scoop up those horrendous spinoff shooters they showed? No. If the game looks bad, no one has to buy it.
This Direct was horrendous. What were they thinking?
If anyone doubted whether Nintendo was completely giving up on the Wii U, this Direct should've pretty clearly shown them just that. Even this game, which I expected to wow me, looks incredibly bland.
@Sanicranfast The issue isn't whether you like having voice chat or not. The issue is that the game doesn't even has it as an option in the first place. If they had included voice chat, and you didn't like voice chat, then great! You could just turn it off. But people who did want it are kind of SOL because Nintendo didn't include it as an option at all. I don't see why people claim that having less options are a good thing.
@smashbrolink Dude... chill out. You're raging out over something that's incredibly petty.
It is certainly interesting though how the PS4 sold right out of the gate without a score of great games alongside it. I would argue that it sold so well because Sony learned how to properly communicate with their audience. Sony's announcement of the PS4 was nothing short of perfect. Gamers and developers both knew exactly what they were getting their hands on, specs, features, and so on. Then at E3 2013, Sony blew Microsoft clear out of the water; they made fun of Microsoft's DRM policy, always-online hardware, and high price tag. Microsoft eventually corrected themselves and their image, but the damage still hasn't been totally undone; the console's sales (as opposed to Sony's) are a pretty good indication of that.
Nintendo has shown no such dexterity at communicating with an audience. The Wii U announcement at E3 2011 was such a muddled mess that few people knew what the hell the Wii U even was after the announcement. And with Nintendo's storied history of being difficult for third parties to work with, it's no surprise that some of the third party games that showed up on Wii U were ports with missing features. Nintendo fans like to blame the third parties themselves for not releasing certain features in their games, but fans never consider that maybe Nintendo (or the hardware) made it too difficult to include those features.
Even sadder is that many of the third party games that came out on Wii U weren't missing features and in some cases had additional features, and yet Nintendo fans still didn't buy them.
I doubt Nintendo will be able to recapture what made their 2014 presentation so special. They had a strong video and a real, tangible presence last year, particularly with Smash. But they don't really have any more "heavy-hitter" franchises left. Hopefully we'll get to see what Retro is working on... but I don't have high hopes for that either.
"considering Iwata said their next handheld and next console are absorbing the WiiU architecture I can be confident my Virtual Console games can be transferred to the 9th gen as well."
Where is your source for this statement? I don't recall Iwata saying any such thing. Even if he did say that (which I doubt he did), it's even more of a leap of faith to assume all of your VC games will transfer over to the next platform. Technically they didn't even transfer from Wii to Wii U, because you had to buy them again (at a discounted price) if you wanted to enjoy them on the Wii U OS. If you didn't want to pay the fee, you would have to boot into the ancient Wii OS in order to do anything with Wii games. So technically nothing actually "transferred." You still had to play your old games on the old architecture. Assuming that Nintendo will let you move all your VC games over free of charge to the next platform is an oversimplification and pure speculation.
To your point about "Why buy another 360 if I can't carry the games over to Xbox One," that's a ridiculous sentiment. Why would you still own an N64 if you can't use your cartridges on the GameCube then? Because each console has its own games and its own value, regardless of whether you can move those games to the next platform. The Xbox 360 has a significant amount of high quality games on it. If I want to play games on it, I'll go buy it. Simple as that. No one should buy a console on the merit of whether those games will be playable on the next gen. I doubt you were using that reasoning when you went and bought your Wii U, for example. Because if Nintendo's next console ditches the Gamepad (which is incredibly probable), your Wii U games won't work on the next hardware either.
Nintendo's Virtual Console is an outdated, out of touch mess. It's sort of indicative of the way they've been handling most things the past few years.
1) If I buy Super Mario Bros. on my Wii U, I can't play it on my 3DS without having to buy it again. This is unacceptable in this day and age, where cross platform purchases have been the standard on other platforms for years.
2) If someone steals said Wii U, I would have to jump through a significant number of hoops to get that downloaded game back, if I convince Nintendo to give it back at all. Having an account based system would solve that, another thing Nintendo is way behind the times with. Like, almost a decade behind the times with.
3) With the way Nintendo prices their games, you'd think they're living in a fantasy world. No way in hell is an NES game like Balloon Fight or Donkey Kong worth $5 in 2015. There are iOS games that have more depth than those games do, and those are available for a buck or less! Nintendo has a valuable catalog of games, but they need to have an ounce of humility when it comes to their less awesome ones.
This may be the first Kickstarter I back. I love seeing the talented former Rare devs reunite. And I like the idea of seeing this game on my PS4 or Wii U (probably the PS4 version if it has a platinum trophy... Im a sucker for those)
Unless they've doubled back on their decision to omit voice chat, Nintendo is going to have a hard time selling me this game.
It's a shame too, because I want to love this game. But the fact that this is a competitive team shooter that practically requires team cooperation and communication to win, and you can't even communicate... That's a bit of a problem. It's not like Smash or Mario Kart where you're kind of doing your own thing. This is a team game and to cut off communication between players is like cutting off this game's potential at the knees. But I'll tune into the Direct, I suppose, on the off chance they'll change my mind about it.
PLEASE get Shovel Knight into Smash Bros. That roster could use some indie representation, and there's really no one better than Shovel Knight (my personal GOTY last year)
Call me when they add The Thousand Year Door to Virtual Console and then we'll talk. The first Paper Mario was alright, but its sequel is one of my favorite RPGs of all time.
I don't see the benefit of this at all. It would be one thing if tapping the Amiibo to the Gamepad actually purchased the game in question (since, I don't know, you already did slap down 13+ dollars for an Amiibo). But nope, of course you don't get to own the games. That would make too much sense.
And never mind the fact that most people who own a Wii U already have access to timed VC demos thanks to Super Smash Bros.' Masterpiece Collection. I just don't understand this idea. I think whoever spent the time developing this app could've been assigned to something much more worthwhile.
@Kimite To your point about the lack of advertising, I would argue that there was a lot more wrong with the Wii U's launch than a lack of advertising. Nintendo completely failed to perceive that the majority of the Wii's target audience - casual gamers - had already left them.
So they named the console after the Wii (the casual's favorite console), launched games like Wii Fit U and NSMBU in an attempt to appeal to that audience, and expected it to sell to them again. But mobile gaming had already come along and taken that part of the audience away.
Nintendo didn't pitch the Wii U as just a casual machine though - they wanted to have success with the hardcore audience too, which is why we saw a brief stream of third party games on the system early on. But those games were overpriced versions of games we had already seen, and missing key features of what made those games special.
Why would I pay $60 on a version of Mass Effect 3 where I can't import my character, can't download any of the DLC, and can't own either of the other 2 games on the same platform? Especially when I could've bought the entire trilogy for $50 with all the DLC on either of the other consoles? Why pay 60 bucks for a version of Arkham Origins or Splinter Cell with no multiplayer when I could get either of those games with the multiplayer for the same price on other consoles? It just didn't make sense.
So not only did they lose all of their casual audience, they also lost most of their hardcore audience because third party games were lacking in quality and eventually just stopped coming to Wii U. So it was now impossible for me to get a Wii U and still play Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, Batman, GTA, Star Wars Battlefront, The Witcher, and so on. The only audience that even owns Wii U consoles today are fans of Nintendo games. Which is a passionate audience, but a very small one these days.
It didn't help that what little advertising the Wii had was actually just bad advertising. Look at any trailers/promotional materials for the Wii U in 2011-2012, or even the picture of the Wii U on the console's box art. The controller is out in front, and the console is shoved away behind the controller like an afterthought. How is the average consumer supposed to distinguish between Wii and Wii U, or understand that the controller is not the Wii U, but the console it comes with is? When I have my friends over to play Smash Bros (and these are college students, not exactly behind with the times), they always call the controller a "Wii U," not the console itself.
Nintendo arguably made a complete and total mess of the console and their messaging. Had they done a little more audience research, they might have made a piece of hardware that, I don't know, sold units? I don't think they had any idea who they were pitching a console to, so they just made a tablet controller - (because people these days like tablets, right?) - and threw a console onto shelves hoping it would sell.
@Quorthon I was initially shocked Mario Party 10 charted, because it's one of the most average and throwaway first party games on the console so far. Other than the shiny HD graphics and occasionally amusing Gamepad integration, everything is unbelievably tired and soulless. Even the menus are sterile and uninteresting.
But then I remembered much of the Nintendo fanbase probably doesn't care about how good the game actually is - as long as it's a first party game by Nintendo, that's enough to warrant a purchase. I love Nintendo and I want to see them succeed more than any other company, but I'm not blind. Mario Party 10 is about as mediocre as Nintendo games get. You're right, on a console that has no other retail games to choose from, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that something like Mario Party 10 sold as well as it did.
@electrolite77 Totally with you there. If EA had announced a graphical downgrade for a Wii U game, or launched a game with locked-on-disc DLC, or microtransactions, or F2P, etc. Etc., everyone on here would've ripped them to shreds.
But nah, it's okay if Nintendo does it! Why? Because Nintendo.
@Quorthon Thanks for the Xenoblade info! I knew I picked up on a little bit of WRPG in Xenoblade. I think it's the sheer scale and complexity of certain WRPGs and JRPGs that scares me away most.
I'm a completionist and I like exhausting every little thing a game has to offer. Which is why, in huge games like these with hundreds of nuances and side quests, I question whether or not a game that big will reward me the way I want it to. I had very much the same experience with Dragon Age Inquisition as I did with Xenoblade. I liked the world and thought the story was very interesting, but if I'm going to be playing a game for 100-200 hours, its gameplay has to captivate me enough to convince me to stick with it for that long. Neither of those games did that for me, but somehow Skyrim did. I guess I'm picky with my open world RPGs.
@rennandovale You conveniently left out the fact that I said "In my opinion" before that quote. And then, instead of addressing any of my points, you made an ad hominem attack on me and dismissed me as a Playstation fanboy, despite the fact that I'm here commenting on a Nintendo fan site, I'm thoroughly enjoying a Wii U game (Affordable Space Adventures), and clearly said "I love Nintendo and desperately want them to succeed" just a few comments ago. That doesn't do much to sell your credibility. Believe it or not, people can get enjoyment out of more than one console.
There were two retail releases on Wii U this year. Kirby and the Rainbow Curse and Mario Party 10. We can even go back and include Captain Toad if you want. Now let me preface this by saying that again, this is my opinion: These three were decidedly average games at best. Even Nintendo knew there wasn't enough content in each of them to justify a full $60 price tag. Hence the fact that they were priced at $40, $50, and $40 respectively. A couple of these games were at least decent, but were bite-sized and didn't do many new things (graphics aside) to truly set them apart from preexisting formulas.
Affordable Space Adventures is at the very least an interesting and fresh concept, and I'm having more fun playing it than I did any of the other games I listed. I'm not sure how claiming I like an indie game on the Wii U more than the most recent first-party games makes me a Playstation fanboy. I like both of my consoles. I just find myself with less reasons to turn on my Wii U this year than I would like.
@mitchtendo I feel your pain, my friend. The Xenoblade X graphics downgrade doesn't bother me too much personally (still on the fence about getting it, since I couldn't get into Xenoblade on Wii and I'm truthfully a noob when it comes to JRPGs), but I do agree that the delays, disappointments, and downgrades hurt more on Wii U because there's not nearly as many other great games to pad those disappointments. Uncharted got delayed on PS4, but I was completely indifferent about it. That's because I know there's tons of great PS4 games coming out from now until Uncharted - multiplatform and indie - that will keep me plenty busy. The Wii U, however, doesn't have much of consequence by comparison. IMO the most notable Wii U release so far this year has been Affordable Space Adventures. And that's not even a Nintendo game!
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Re: Rumour: Nintendo Isn't Bringing Devil's Third To North America
@IceClimbers To entirely dismiss Microsoft for an entire generation because of a crappy console reveal seems shortsighted. Did you not buy a PS3 last gen? Because that had a horrendous reveal too, but Sony clearly made up for it over time.
Phil Spencer has done an admirable job trying to turn the Xbox's fortunes around. There's more work that needs to be done, but out of MS, Sony, and Nintendo, I have the most faith in MS in terms of consumer-friendliness and a steady mix of games and exclusives this gen.
Sony meanwhile has sold over 20 million consoles almost on hype alone, which is impressive in its own right, but you're right. Smoke and mirrors is a fairly good way to describe the way it's been rolling so far. Most of their great exclusives are far away. But at least they've got solid third party support and the best indies of any of the consoles to fill in the gaps.
But to compare either of these companies to Nintendo is a joke. Nintendo has shown the most disregard for fan feedback, the least initiative to repair their image, the least drive to support their own hardware with games, the most hostility towards other people's work, and there's no indication of them getting better anytime soon.
Sure the Big 3 all have their problems, but if you're really as frustrated with every company as much as you are about Nintendo, maybe you're just leaning away from console gaming in general.
Re: Rumour: Nintendo Isn't Bringing Devil's Third To North America
@SuperMalleo Because he's a corporate stiff and has no idea how to communicate to a fanbase.
Say what you will about anyone at MS and Sony, but at least Shuhei Yoshida, Phil Spencer, and their other speakers on staff know how to communicate with their audience. Reggie talks as if he's far removed, out of touch with reality, and completely dismissive of other people's work (see his VR comment). It's blatantly indicative of what the company is like as a whole.
Re: Rumour: Nintendo Isn't Bringing Devil's Third To North America
@Haiassai The lack of good news is primarily Nintendo's responsibility - Unseen 64 is just reporting on what they believe to be accurate. Believe me, I wish we could hear some good news from Nintendo too, but that seems like a lot to ask these days.
Re: Rumour: Nintendo Isn't Bringing Devil's Third To North America
@Aromaiden A backwards, out-of-touch company that's a shell of the greatness it used to be.
Re: Rumour: Nintendo Isn't Bringing Devil's Third To North America
@gatorboi352 Agreed. It's like watching a train wreck.
I sold my Wii U for an Xbox One after the poor E3 conference. Not solely because of that conference, but because of a long string of stupid decisions and numerous instances of proving they don't give a s**t. The conference was just the last straw for me as a Nintendo fan. They're in last place and are in no position to act prideful and arrogant - yet that's the vibe I got from their entire E3 conference, and their subsequent PR flubs courtesy of Reggie.
At this point I don't really care what the NX launch lineup is. I'm not investing in another console from them until they show they actually care about supporting it.
Re: Rumour: Nintendo Isn't Bringing Devil's Third To North America
This is hardly a surprise. Nintendo is notoriously bad at promoting mature rated games. Now it seems they've given up on publishing it altogether.
Nintendo sure knows how to make everyone, even their most devoted fans, mad at them. Reggie's asinine comments about VR, Nintendo's increasingly sketchy DLC/amiibo practices, their pitiful E3 showing, the Wii U's atrocious support, rumors of the NX being yet another gimmicky console, the whole YouTube Creators Program nonsense, this game's cancellation... taken alone, these things might not have been so bad. But when theyre all together like that in quick succession, it seems people (including myself) are finally seeing this company for who they really are.
Re: Unseen64 Digs Up Development Insights Into Metroid Prime: Hunters, Dread and Federation Force
@lilith "Nintendo no longer has your kind of gamer in mind when they jump-start both new hardware and software initiatives."
Couldn't have said it better myself. The Wii was a "revolution" only in that it changed Nintendo's target audience completely, changed who Nintendo was pandering to with their content.
People single out Nintendo's hardware as being the issue with that company today, but i would argue that their design philosophy has polluted their software too, at least from the Wii era to now. The last truly incredible and innovative game to come out of their doors was, in my opinion, Super Mario Galaxy 1/2. The games they've made since then are either highly derivative and safe, or altogether unimaginative and out of touch. Most of their games are nice and polished. But there's no smart risk-taking or innovation anymore. The Wii U Zelda is the only game on the horizon that might remotely come close, but even that's uncertain at this point. It wouldnt surprise me if it borrows heavily from the already well-established Western RPG.
@Quorthon
The trend you're noticing in the Metroid series can arguably be applied to many of Nintendo's core franchises. Other than gradual aesthetic changes across hardware, what has Pokemon done to innovate the genre in the last decade? Nothing. Its Pokemon with a new coat of paint and some new monsters.
Apart from tacky and unresponsive motion controls that will almost certainly be dropped in future installments, what has Zelda done to innovate in the last decade? Even 3D Mario hasn't done anything drastically imaginative since Galaxy, and 2D Mario has been a shell of its former self since Super Mario World!
The more I follow this company these days, the more it depresses me. This company used to drive the whole industry forward. Now the real innovation and the real industry standards are being created by Sony and MS, and Nintendo is stuck playing it safe, making themselves more irrelevant by the day.
Re: Hands On: Blast Ball Brings Crude Button Mashing and is a Poor Advert for Metroid Prime: Federation Force
Not surprising that this game isn't leaving anyone with a lasting impression.
Re: Talking Point: The Pros, Cons and Questionable Likelihood of a Nintendo NX Release in Summer 2016
@Quorthon
"Nah. I still haven't picked it up. Or Witcher 3. And that comes first."
You won't be sorry. The Witcher 3 is one of my personal favorite games I have on any console I own. I've been playing for 180+ hours, but that's admittedly also because I started over halfway through to play on Death March difficulty instead (to get the trophies). Story is great, world and lore are expansive and immersive, and moment to moment gameplay is satisfying. The only qualm I have is that getting from point A to point B isn't much fun after you've been playing for over 100 hours.
Should you decide to do Death March, the start of the game is literally the hardest part. If you can make it past White Orchard and into Velen, and keep up with all your side quests, Death March starts to get manageable. Im level 24 and Death March hasn't kicked my ass since around level 7.
Anyway, I cant recommend the game enough. I got an Xbox One a couple weeks ago and still can't put down my PS4 because of Witcher 3.
Re: Project H.A.M.M.E.R. Exposé Reveals Torrid State Of Affairs At Nintendo Software Technology
Nintendo is a Kyoto company, so it's unsurprising that they can be exceedingly hostile to outsiders' ideas. That's also clear from how notoriously bad they are at working with third parties and the degree of control they want over their IP.
It's that pride and arrogance that will kill their home console business.
Re: Talking Point: E3 Highlighted Nintendo's Development Shift Towards NX, and Away from Wii U
@IceClimbers Yep. With their noticeable lack of AAAs in the rest of the Wii U's lifespan, they can't afford to spend two and a half more years twiddling their thumbs, waiting for the NX to come out. They have to put it out next year.
Re: Talking Point: E3 Highlighted Nintendo's Development Shift Towards NX, and Away from Wii U
@IceClimbers Good point, and I agree with you. It'll be near-impossible. Not impossible per se, but certainly close to it!
Re: Talking Point: E3 Highlighted Nintendo's Development Shift Towards NX, and Away from Wii U
@IceClimbers And that's the catch-22. Even if third party games DID appear on Nintendo's console, who would abandon their already-established PS4 or Xbox One to get their third party games on Nintendo? And who among Nintendo fans would actually look forward to a Grand Theft Auto or Batman Arkham Knight or Witcher 3 when historically they only gravitate towards first-party games?
The more I think about it, the more I realize how inevitable it is that the NX will fail. Third parties won't sell just like they always haven't. Which means, powerful hardware or not, Nintendo will literally have to support the console by itself.
This is why I'll never understand why people dread the idea of Nintendo going third-party. It obviously makes sense for them, it's less work for them to do, and it isn't of any detriment to us. All that's ever on Nintendo hardware are Nintendo games anyway. Why not make their best-in-class games available on hardware that people actually want to buy?
Re: Talking Point: E3 Highlighted Nintendo's Development Shift Towards NX, and Away from Wii U
@FragRed They're developing smartphone games for the casual market now, so now there's literally no reason for Nintendo to try to design their next console for casuals. Unless, of course, they want the NX to flop.
Their only hope for the NX not being a failure is to bring back the disgruntled hardcore gamers that they themselves have alienated. The only way that's going to happen is with a hell of a lot of honesty (a "we f***ed up" every now and then wouldn't hurt, no more of this "we already know you want such and such" or the "we're aware of your concerns" drivel), and most importantly, third party support. And I've already gone into detail about why that's a near-insurmountable hill for Nintendo to climb.
Re: Talking Point: E3 Highlighted Nintendo's Development Shift Towards NX, and Away from Wii U
@IceClimbers Maybe, but that's irrelevant to my main point. They can't just get by with one of those things. They have to do all of them reasonably well to get third parties back. And that's asking a lot, especially from a company like Nintendo, who has been either ignoring or making asinine comments about other people's development efforts lately (especially in regards to VR), failing to market mature games like their own Bayonetta 2 post-release, and making gimmicky hardware for generations.
Re: Talking Point: E3 Highlighted Nintendo's Development Shift Towards NX, and Away from Wii U
Okay, serious question: Who the hell is the target audience for the NX? Who is going to want to buy this thing? Think about it: if you want power, you buy a PC. If you want third party, you buy an Xbox One or PS4. If you're a casual gamer, you buy an iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy.
Besides the die hard Nintendo fans (whose numbers have been dwindling lower and lower since the Wii U's launch), who will buy the NX? This is a serious problem Nintendo has to face if they have any prayer of selling units. And if they don't make some serious changes in their console strategy, they're poised to sell even less NX's than Wii Us!
Literally the only way Nintendo can survive as a console manufacturer is if they get third parties on board to lure hardcore gamers back from MS and Sony. But that's a near-impossible task at this point, because that means Nintendo would have to do all of the following:
a) Release a console at least on-par power-wise with the Xbox/Playstation.
b) Release a console with no gimmicks.
c) Repair their horrendous relationships with third party developers.
d) Swallow their pride and promote the work of other studios besides their own, and
e) Learn how to promote M-rated games correctly.
If any one of these doesn't work out, then the chances of seeing good third-party support on NX are slim to none.
Personally I think it's almost too late for them. Sony spent 3+ years repairing their reputation after the negative Playstation 3 launch, and Microsoft is still suffering the effects of their horrendous launch. It takes time to repair relationships with developers and fans... time that, quite frankly, Nintendo doesn't have.
Re: Don't Hold Your Breath, But Axiom Verge Is "Probably" Coming To Wii U Next Year
Hopefully. Tom Happ has given Metroid more love with this game than Nintendo has in almost a decade.
Re: Reggie Fils-Aime Hints at Smaller New Nintendo 3DS for North America
Ugh. I'm convinced a good portion of the 3DS's overall sales are from people buying the same console over and over again to get different designs. My brother has bought THREE of them. Nintendo knows they can get away with it too, hence the reason we're getting the most customizable model last.
Re: Editorial: Cheer Up, There Are Some Exciting Games on the Way
So let me get this straight:
Nintendo announced an Animal Crossing for Wii U, but it wasn't Animal Crossing.
They announced a new Metroid Prime, but it wasn't Metroid Prime.
They announced a new Paper Mario game, but it isn't really Paper Mario.
They announced a new Zelda game, but it isn't really Zelda.
And suddenly everything is fine with their lineup? Like @Quorthon said, it doesn't do any good to pretend this E3 was anything less than a catastrophe. We need to take this horrendous E3 and learn from it. In particular, we have to come to grips with the fact that this is how Nintendo handles a console with pitiful sales, and we should be cautious about being so quick to adopt a Nintendo console in the future.
I bought a Wii U about a month after launch back in 2012, and almost immediately regretted it after nearly a year of virtually nothing coming out for it. All this, coupled with this pathetic E3, has taught me to not adopt the NX at all until 2-3 years after launch, when Nintendo has proven to me they want to sustain it and care about making a steady stream of games available on their system. And if they can't prove to me those things, they don't get my money. Period.
They've got a tremendous hill to climb with the NX. I think it's more likely that it'll fail than succeed, especially after this alienating E3, and with Iwata saying to TIME that it'll "revolutionize the way people play games" (or something to that effect). The last thing this market needs is more gimmicky consoles. Personally, I'd actually be interested in seeing what happens to Nintendo if the NX fails. A third party Nintendo, at least in my opinion, would be a stronger Nintendo.
Re: Poll: What Did You Think of Nintendo's E3 Digital Event?
Alright, phew... Time for my official rant on this presentation. I apologize in advance for the wall of text and I hope despite my rambling that you might give this a read!
I've been a Nintendo fan ever since I played Super Mario 64 with my younger brothers growing up. I owned an N64, then an SNES, a Gamecube, a Wii, and today a Wii U. So needless to say, I've been around the block with this company and Nintendo has been my absolute favorite brand ever since I was a kid.
But this presentation is the lowest point at which I've ever seen this company.
I thought this presentation was even worse than the Wii Music debacle of 2008. Because at least then, even if they misread the audience that attends E3 and delivered an embarrassing presentation, they had the casual audience to sell that garbage presentation to. But right now their console has pitiful sales and they're in no place to act prideful and exploitative. Yet that's exactly what they looked like during that presentation. Literally every move they made was an arrogant and incorrect one.
Starfox looked average at best. I'm not a graphics-obsessive person, but after seeing a game as beautiful as Mario Kart 8 or Super Smash Bros. running on Wii U, there's literally no excuse for Starfox to look so ugly. The visuals and gameplay are not only nothing new, but to me they looked plastic, sterile, and fake. It was unusually soulless. Ironically I felt it perfectly set the stage for the rest of the presentation.
Then Nintendo made it abundantly clear they have virtually no plans for the Wii U in 2015 and 2016 beyond what we already know about. They practically revealed nothing. This doesn't really come as any surprise to me though - it makes sense that they're shifting their development teams to the next console, and that we won't see anything of consequence until next year's E3. But if that were the case, and they really had barely anything to show, why did they even show up at E3 and do a Digital Event at all? Simply by being at E3, Nintendo created the expectation of giving us something bigger and didn't deliver. It looks especially bad alongside conferences like MS's and Sony's, which revealed a significant number of amazing looking games.
But the worst, the worst part of this conference were the games they did show for Wii U and 3DS, and moreover, what those games communicated about Nintendo in general. Fans have been pleading for a new Metroid, a new Animal Crossing, a new 3D Mario, and so forth. So instead, Nintendo gave people (1) Animal Crossing X Mario Party, (2) a shoehorning of Mario into Skylanders, and (3) a Metroid Prime 4-player shooter that doesn't have anything to do with Metroid beside the name and the fact that it's in space. It came across as exploitative, arrogant, and ignorant, as if Nintendo felt they could slap the name of their "sacred IP" onto anything and it would sell like hotcakes. It's almost as if execs sat in a board room and said, "People want Animal Crossing on the Wii U. I know what they'd love! Let's make a Mario Party game and put 'Animal Crossing' in the title!"
Look, I get the reality of the situation. Nintendo wants all their dev resources on the next platform, and because of that, they have to provide games that serve little purpose besides existing as stopgaps. But from an outsider's perspective looking in, it communicates that while Nintendo may be listening to some feedback out there in terms of what franchises people want to see, they're too out of touch to see that they're not delivering anything people want. They communicated a complete disregard for their fans in this presentation.
Lest anyone think I'm jumping the gun on that claim, compare this to the way Microsoft handled their press conference:
It almost seems antagonizing.
And did anyone notice when Reggie was talking to the Skylanders guy and, as if to show off the fact that he's cooperating with a third party studio, he sarcastically said, "So as you go through this collaboration with Nintendo, the company that is very protective of its franchises, that always likes to have total control, what was that like in terms of working with us to bring these fabulous experiences to life?" It was pretentious and it felt like NoA was only cooperating with Skylanders so that they could protect their own ego. They're not cooperating with Activision out of mutual partnership or business flourishing, but rather to patch their own ego and retaliate against criticisms. It looked incredibly insincere and selfish.
Whatever. I'm done with them. This nonsense, the artificial amiibo scarcity, the increasingly sketchy DLC practices, the abysmal Wii U support, the gimmicky consoles, the Youtube Creators Program, the arrogance, the ignorance, the pompous ego. I'm through with it. I went ahead and listed my Wii U for sale on eBay, and I think I'm going to put that money towards an Xbox One instead. And they're going to find it very hard to sell me an NX, or any console in the future.
Re: Poll: What Did You Think of Nintendo's E3 Digital Event?
@MKCustodial You won't be disappointed. Unlike Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony listen to feedback and make their consoles among the best gaming ecosystems out there. I own a PS4 and I flip it on every day. The Wii U I haven't used in months. And that's coming from someone who grew up with and loves Nintendo.
Re: Poll: What Did You Think of Nintendo's E3 Digital Event?
@jjmesa16 Yep, should've done it sooner honestly. I dumped way too much money on this system. Gamecube adapter and controllers, a couple Pro controllers, a bunch of Wii Remotes, Classic Controllers, Ethernet connector, and so on. I'd be lucky to make even a third of what I spent back.
Re: Poll: What Did You Think of Nintendo's E3 Digital Event?
@Steel76 It's infuriating, isn't it? The Wii was a casual console and a misfire, but I personally gave Nintendo the benefit of the doubt and bought the Wii U, hoping they'd make it worthwhile. And man, nothing has made me come so close to losing my love for this company. What a waste of my time and money.
After this last presentation, I've begun seriously considering selling my Wii U. I've got a wedding to save up for anyway.
Re: Poll: What Did You Think of Nintendo's E3 Digital Event?
@Tender_Cutlet I generally agree Nintendo really didn't have a 100% choice with this sh*tty Direct. The Wii U has been burning a tremendous hole in their pockets since it came out and they need to shift their development teams to a platform that has a prayer of selling better. That means no more AAA games, and a handful of crappy games to hold us over until the next platform arrives. Even Starfox looks distinctly bland and stale, like an up-rezzed N64 game with some minor tweaks to the gameplay. And that's what happens with very little development time and a company whose best teams have long since moved on to the next platform.
It's a disaster for sure. For me, this Direct has made me rethink if I even want to support the NX. Maybe if people don't buy the NX, Nintendo will stop making gimmicky hardware and focus on what makes them special: their games.
Re: Poll: What Did You Think of Nintendo's E3 Digital Event?
@kingofthesofa No doubt Nintendo is stocking up ammo for the NX at this point. Retro Studios are probably being moved to the next platform, same with all Nintendo's other AAA devs. My prediction (and not so much a prediction as it is a near-certainty): there's literally no chance we'll see anything new from their AAA first party studios on Wii U. I hardly even expect Zelda to be exclusive to Wii U at this point.
Re: Poll: What Did You Think of Nintendo's E3 Digital Event?
@Atlantidas The worst part is that many of the games they did talk about might as well be iOS games! That Happy Home Designer nonsense, Amiibo Festival (literally the last thing anyone wants to have a festival about is amiibo), and even that nonsense Metroid Prime game might as well be bite-size mobile games.
Re: Poll: What Did You Think of Nintendo's E3 Digital Event?
@Crimzonlogic Great! Two or three games in the next six or more months that will maybe be good, and then one more great one before the console is dead in the water. In what world is the Wii U's lineup just now "getting real?"
Meanwhile there are literally hundreds of great games coming to other platforms. Nintendo's is dead in the water at this point, but I guess that's not really a surprise.
Re: Poll: What Did You Think of Nintendo's E3 Digital Event?
@TheHumbleFellow That's a matter of opinion. Personally, I thought it looked incredibly bland. The ships look like plastic toys, the world looks uninspired, and the gameplay is pretty much exactly the same, minus a few strange additions (like walking around on two feet). One of the few Nintendo games I was ever bored from just looking at it.
Re: Poll: What Did You Think of Nintendo's E3 Digital Event?
@TheHumbleFellow That's a ridiculous sentiment. Just because you like other games in the franchise doesnt mean you have to buy everything in it. People have been clamoring for a new Metroid too, but does that mean everyone should scoop up those horrendous spinoff shooters they showed? No. If the game looks bad, no one has to buy it.
Re: Star Fox Zero Marks An Explosive Return To Form On Wii U
This Direct was horrendous. What were they thinking?
If anyone doubted whether Nintendo was completely giving up on the Wii U, this Direct should've pretty clearly shown them just that. Even this game, which I expected to wow me, looks incredibly bland.
Re: Gallery: Sometimes a Silly Dino 3DS Case Can Brighten Your Day
Stupid
Re: Interview: Splatoon Producer Hisashi Nogami on Claiming New Territory for Wii U
@Sanicranfast The issue isn't whether you like having voice chat or not. The issue is that the game doesn't even has it as an option in the first place. If they had included voice chat, and you didn't like voice chat, then great! You could just turn it off. But people who did want it are kind of SOL because Nintendo didn't include it as an option at all. I don't see why people claim that having less options are a good thing.
Re: Exclusive: Slightly Mad Studio Head Ian Bell Sets The Record Straight On Project CARS Wii U
@smashbrolink Dude... chill out. You're raging out over something that's incredibly petty.
It is certainly interesting though how the PS4 sold right out of the gate without a score of great games alongside it. I would argue that it sold so well because Sony learned how to properly communicate with their audience. Sony's announcement of the PS4 was nothing short of perfect. Gamers and developers both knew exactly what they were getting their hands on, specs, features, and so on. Then at E3 2013, Sony blew Microsoft clear out of the water; they made fun of Microsoft's DRM policy, always-online hardware, and high price tag. Microsoft eventually corrected themselves and their image, but the damage still hasn't been totally undone; the console's sales (as opposed to Sony's) are a pretty good indication of that.
Nintendo has shown no such dexterity at communicating with an audience. The Wii U announcement at E3 2011 was such a muddled mess that few people knew what the hell the Wii U even was after the announcement. And with Nintendo's storied history of being difficult for third parties to work with, it's no surprise that some of the third party games that showed up on Wii U were ports with missing features. Nintendo fans like to blame the third parties themselves for not releasing certain features in their games, but fans never consider that maybe Nintendo (or the hardware) made it too difficult to include those features.
Even sadder is that many of the third party games that came out on Wii U weren't missing features and in some cases had additional features, and yet Nintendo fans still didn't buy them.
Re: Exclusive: Slightly Mad Studio Head Ian Bell Sets The Record Straight On Project CARS Wii U
@JustinH This isn't an opinion piece - NintendoLife is just reporting on what they heard.
Re: Nintendo's E3 Focus to Reportedly be on Wii U and 3DS, not Smart Devices or NX
I doubt Nintendo will be able to recapture what made their 2014 presentation so special. They had a strong video and a real, tangible presence last year, particularly with Smash. But they don't really have any more "heavy-hitter" franchises left. Hopefully we'll get to see what Retro is working on... but I don't have high hopes for that either.
Re: Sega Won't Have A Booth At This Year's E3
Oh no! You mean we won't get to see the world reveal of Sonic Boom 2? What ever will I play this year?
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's Legacy Makes The Virtual Console Essential, But It Must Modernise
@Dr_Lugae
"considering Iwata said their next handheld and next console are absorbing the WiiU architecture I can be confident my Virtual Console games can be transferred to the 9th gen as well."
Where is your source for this statement? I don't recall Iwata saying any such thing. Even if he did say that (which I doubt he did), it's even more of a leap of faith to assume all of your VC games will transfer over to the next platform. Technically they didn't even transfer from Wii to Wii U, because you had to buy them again (at a discounted price) if you wanted to enjoy them on the Wii U OS. If you didn't want to pay the fee, you would have to boot into the ancient Wii OS in order to do anything with Wii games. So technically nothing actually "transferred." You still had to play your old games on the old architecture. Assuming that Nintendo will let you move all your VC games over free of charge to the next platform is an oversimplification and pure speculation.
To your point about "Why buy another 360 if I can't carry the games over to Xbox One," that's a ridiculous sentiment. Why would you still own an N64 if you can't use your cartridges on the GameCube then? Because each console has its own games and its own value, regardless of whether you can move those games to the next platform. The Xbox 360 has a significant amount of high quality games on it. If I want to play games on it, I'll go buy it. Simple as that. No one should buy a console on the merit of whether those games will be playable on the next gen. I doubt you were using that reasoning when you went and bought your Wii U, for example. Because if Nintendo's next console ditches the Gamepad (which is incredibly probable), your Wii U games won't work on the next hardware either.
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's Legacy Makes The Virtual Console Essential, But It Must Modernise
Nintendo's Virtual Console is an outdated, out of touch mess. It's sort of indicative of the way they've been handling most things the past few years.
1) If I buy Super Mario Bros. on my Wii U, I can't play it on my 3DS without having to buy it again. This is unacceptable in this day and age, where cross platform purchases have been the standard on other platforms for years.
2) If someone steals said Wii U, I would have to jump through a significant number of hoops to get that downloaded game back, if I convince Nintendo to give it back at all. Having an account based system would solve that, another thing Nintendo is way behind the times with. Like, almost a decade behind the times with.
3) With the way Nintendo prices their games, you'd think they're living in a fantasy world. No way in hell is an NES game like Balloon Fight or Donkey Kong worth $5 in 2015. There are iOS games that have more depth than those games do, and those are available for a buck or less! Nintendo has a valuable catalog of games, but they need to have an ounce of humility when it comes to their less awesome ones.
Re: Playtonic's Project Ukulele Becomes Yooka-Laylee, Wii U Release Confirmed
This may be the first Kickstarter I back. I love seeing the talented former Rare devs reunite. And I like the idea of seeing this game on my PS4 or Wii U (probably the PS4 version if it has a platinum trophy... Im a sucker for those)
Re: Nintendo Direct: A Special Splatoon Direct is Inked In for 7th May
Unless they've doubled back on their decision to omit voice chat, Nintendo is going to have a hard time selling me this game.
It's a shame too, because I want to love this game. But the fact that this is a competitive team shooter that practically requires team cooperation and communication to win, and you can't even communicate... That's a bit of a problem. It's not like Smash or Mario Kart where you're kind of doing your own thing. This is a team game and to cut off communication between players is like cutting off this game's potential at the knees. But I'll tune into the Direct, I suppose, on the off chance they'll change my mind about it.
Re: The Legend of Zelda’s Tingle Would Be An Amazing Boss In Shovel Knight According To Yacht Club Games Programmer
PLEASE get Shovel Knight into Smash Bros. That roster could use some indie representation, and there's really no one better than Shovel Knight (my personal GOTY last year)
Re: Nintendo Download: 30th April (North America)
Call me when they add The Thousand Year Door to Virtual Console and then we'll talk. The first Paper Mario was alright, but its sequel is one of my favorite RPGs of all time.
Re: amiibo tap: Nintendo's Greatest Bits Bringing Retro Freebie Fun to North America on 30th April
I don't see the benefit of this at all. It would be one thing if tapping the Amiibo to the Gamepad actually purchased the game in question (since, I don't know, you already did slap down 13+ dollars for an Amiibo). But nope, of course you don't get to own the games. That would make too much sense.
And never mind the fact that most people who own a Wii U already have access to timed VC demos thanks to Super Smash Bros.' Masterpiece Collection. I just don't understand this idea. I think whoever spent the time developing this app could've been assigned to something much more worthwhile.
Re: Digital Foundry Assesses The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD and More GameCube HD Remake Possibilities
Here's an idea! Let's not do any more remakes. They're plaguing the entire industry. Let's see some new stuff from Nintendo instead.
Re: Nintendo Highlights Increased US Hardware Sales for Wii U and 3DS in 2015
@Kimite To your point about the lack of advertising, I would argue that there was a lot more wrong with the Wii U's launch than a lack of advertising. Nintendo completely failed to perceive that the majority of the Wii's target audience - casual gamers - had already left them.
So they named the console after the Wii (the casual's favorite console), launched games like Wii Fit U and NSMBU in an attempt to appeal to that audience, and expected it to sell to them again. But mobile gaming had already come along and taken that part of the audience away.
Nintendo didn't pitch the Wii U as just a casual machine though - they wanted to have success with the hardcore audience too, which is why we saw a brief stream of third party games on the system early on. But those games were overpriced versions of games we had already seen, and missing key features of what made those games special.
Why would I pay $60 on a version of Mass Effect 3 where I can't import my character, can't download any of the DLC, and can't own either of the other 2 games on the same platform? Especially when I could've bought the entire trilogy for $50 with all the DLC on either of the other consoles? Why pay 60 bucks for a version of Arkham Origins or Splinter Cell with no multiplayer when I could get either of those games with the multiplayer for the same price on other consoles? It just didn't make sense.
So not only did they lose all of their casual audience, they also lost most of their hardcore audience because third party games were lacking in quality and eventually just stopped coming to Wii U. So it was now impossible for me to get a Wii U and still play Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, Batman, GTA, Star Wars Battlefront, The Witcher, and so on. The only audience that even owns Wii U consoles today are fans of Nintendo games. Which is a passionate audience, but a very small one these days.
It didn't help that what little advertising the Wii had was actually just bad advertising. Look at any trailers/promotional materials for the Wii U in 2011-2012, or even the picture of the Wii U on the console's box art. The controller is out in front, and the console is shoved away behind the controller like an afterthought. How is the average consumer supposed to distinguish between Wii and Wii U, or understand that the controller is not the Wii U, but the console it comes with is? When I have my friends over to play Smash Bros (and these are college students, not exactly behind with the times), they always call the controller a "Wii U," not the console itself.
Nintendo arguably made a complete and total mess of the console and their messaging. Had they done a little more audience research, they might have made a piece of hardware that, I don't know, sold units? I don't think they had any idea who they were pitching a console to, so they just made a tablet controller - (because people these days like tablets, right?) - and threw a console onto shelves hoping it would sell.
Re: Nintendo Highlights Increased US Hardware Sales for Wii U and 3DS in 2015
@Quorthon I was initially shocked Mario Party 10 charted, because it's one of the most average and throwaway first party games on the console so far. Other than the shiny HD graphics and occasionally amusing Gamepad integration, everything is unbelievably tired and soulless. Even the menus are sterile and uninteresting.
But then I remembered much of the Nintendo fanbase probably doesn't care about how good the game actually is - as long as it's a first party game by Nintendo, that's enough to warrant a purchase. I love Nintendo and I want to see them succeed more than any other company, but I'm not blind. Mario Party 10 is about as mediocre as Nintendo games get. You're right, on a console that has no other retail games to choose from, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that something like Mario Party 10 sold as well as it did.
Re: Video: Xenoblade Chronicles X May Have Been Subject to a Slight Graphics Downgrade
@electrolite77 Totally with you there. If EA had announced a graphical downgrade for a Wii U game, or launched a game with locked-on-disc DLC, or microtransactions, or F2P, etc. Etc., everyone on here would've ripped them to shreds.
But nah, it's okay if Nintendo does it! Why? Because Nintendo.
Re: Video: Xenoblade Chronicles X May Have Been Subject to a Slight Graphics Downgrade
@Quorthon Thanks for the Xenoblade info! I knew I picked up on a little bit of WRPG in Xenoblade. I think it's the sheer scale and complexity of certain WRPGs and JRPGs that scares me away most.
I'm a completionist and I like exhausting every little thing a game has to offer. Which is why, in huge games like these with hundreds of nuances and side quests, I question whether or not a game that big will reward me the way I want it to. I had very much the same experience with Dragon Age Inquisition as I did with Xenoblade. I liked the world and thought the story was very interesting, but if I'm going to be playing a game for 100-200 hours, its gameplay has to captivate me enough to convince me to stick with it for that long. Neither of those games did that for me, but somehow Skyrim did. I guess I'm picky with my open world RPGs.
Re: Video: Xenoblade Chronicles X May Have Been Subject to a Slight Graphics Downgrade
@rennandovale You conveniently left out the fact that I said "In my opinion" before that quote. And then, instead of addressing any of my points, you made an ad hominem attack on me and dismissed me as a Playstation fanboy, despite the fact that I'm here commenting on a Nintendo fan site, I'm thoroughly enjoying a Wii U game (Affordable Space Adventures), and clearly said "I love Nintendo and desperately want them to succeed" just a few comments ago. That doesn't do much to sell your credibility. Believe it or not, people can get enjoyment out of more than one console.
There were two retail releases on Wii U this year. Kirby and the Rainbow Curse and Mario Party 10. We can even go back and include Captain Toad if you want. Now let me preface this by saying that again, this is my opinion: These three were decidedly average games at best. Even Nintendo knew there wasn't enough content in each of them to justify a full $60 price tag. Hence the fact that they were priced at $40, $50, and $40 respectively. A couple of these games were at least decent, but were bite-sized and didn't do many new things (graphics aside) to truly set them apart from preexisting formulas.
Affordable Space Adventures is at the very least an interesting and fresh concept, and I'm having more fun playing it than I did any of the other games I listed. I'm not sure how claiming I like an indie game on the Wii U more than the most recent first-party games makes me a Playstation fanboy. I like both of my consoles. I just find myself with less reasons to turn on my Wii U this year than I would like.
Re: Video: Xenoblade Chronicles X May Have Been Subject to a Slight Graphics Downgrade
@mitchtendo I feel your pain, my friend. The Xenoblade X graphics downgrade doesn't bother me too much personally (still on the fence about getting it, since I couldn't get into Xenoblade on Wii and I'm truthfully a noob when it comes to JRPGs), but I do agree that the delays, disappointments, and downgrades hurt more on Wii U because there's not nearly as many other great games to pad those disappointments. Uncharted got delayed on PS4, but I was completely indifferent about it. That's because I know there's tons of great PS4 games coming out from now until Uncharted - multiplatform and indie - that will keep me plenty busy. The Wii U, however, doesn't have much of consequence by comparison. IMO the most notable Wii U release so far this year has been Affordable Space Adventures. And that's not even a Nintendo game!