snax007

Kotick stating the obvious - now we know why he gets the big bucks!

Anyway, there's is as huge difference between Wii U and PS4/Nextbox though: Wii U is a current gen machine attempted to be sold via a tablet-gimmick which does clearly not work as intended (saleswise). PS4/Nextbox on the other hand, are true next-gen machines and console consumers are hungry for them. Only limitation for the first year are number of devices that Sony/MS are able to produce. Prices are a secondary factor the first year, unless Sony/MS goes crazy, but I doubt it.

@Peach64 Exactly. 10 year lifespan does not mean 10 years between console iterations. Both PS1 and PS2 were on the market for more than 10 years.

@DESS-M-8 You are in denial. Serous denial.

Oh btw, Naughty Dog is 100% owned by Sony, so no non-Playstation titles from them.

I remember rumors about the same when the original Wii launched. Pure fanboy rubbish not worth publishing on a serious game site.

What Nintendo could do while we wait for quality titles, release more VC titles and at a acceptable price (stop being greedy!). And make sure to include a batch of N64 games.

@SteveW Are you in denial? Ok Lego City is a new (and decent game) but MH and NFSMW are both ports. Hardly anything that ended the drought.

@GiftedGimp That's pretty much what I said. Hardware manufacturers can't sue you under the TOS, only the local country's laws. If jailbreaking is legal in a country (like mine), MS/Sony can't touch you legally. But they can block you from using their services like PSN/XBL.

@GiftedGimp True it's in their TOS but a TOS cannot override a Country's laws. All the manufacturers can, is to ban you and/or your hardware from accessing their services. If you live in a country which allows jailbreaking and modding, they cant do a thing. They can make threats etc. though.

Im against piracy and always buys my games - no exceptions. But Im all for homebrew and hope this will lead to some great homebrew stuff on Wii U.
Jailbreaking is not against the law in my country, so there before anyone gets started.

They are clearly getting desperate will poor sales and developers dropping the platform.

The GamePad is a failed gimmick, the poor sales is proof that the consumers are simply not buying is it the same way as Wii's motion controls. Nintendo's only chance now is to attract core gamers with quality Nintendo IP titles, and not try to hype the GamePad or touch-screen features.

Not surprised about the cancelation, called it yesterday

And thank god that no software-hungry Wii U owners will waste money on this turd of a game.

@ThomasBW84 Myamoto is talking about it since he is working on it, but Nintendo are very quiet about it and not releasing any new footage or info. And there is no date for it yet - only a vague "Q2 2013" promise. If it was actually coming soon, they would have announced a date.
I hope I'm wrong though.

I'm convinced it will be quietly canceled this summer.

With no news or Nintendo-hype about Pikmin 3, it looks more and more like it will be delayed to the fall. Sadly.

@Peppy_Hare: Your point?

Hopefully we can invert Y axis when scanning using the analog stick.

@19Robb92 If your iPhone takes 8 seconds to turn on, you should contact Apple support. A cold boot of a iPhone takes longer but you are not supposed to completely turn off a iPhone/iPad since it's always in low-power sleep and can turn on (wake up) withín one second.
Besides it's a flawed comparison anyway - Wii U will now "only" take 8 seconds to leave a game and return to the dashboard. The correct comparison should be a leaving/closing a iPhone App and returning to the home screen. That takes less than one second on iPhone/iPad. People who thinks 8 seconds is anything than slow, are in denial. But better than 30 seconds - sure!

@Bluezealand Nonsense. It does'nt take 8 seconds to exit a PS3/360 game and exit to dashboard.

Seems improved but still slow. I would also like to see the delay difference when navigating different system function (Miiverse, Friends list, eShop, etc) which is far more critical imo.

@Nintenjoe64 The games are not reprogrammed for Wii U. The Wii U VC games are being run under emulation like on Wii. The emulators for Wii U VC are still being developed and tweaked for each release, that's what it actually meant.

I can confirm 50hz.

The emulator also lacks any scaling or display options which means the NES image is just scaled to the screen (incl gamepad) resolution, this causes a slightly blurred image on both TV and gamepad and not crisp as it should be. Hopefully Nintendo will improve on this in the future. I'm looking forward to future VC releases like F-Zero in feb, but refuse to buy them if the scaling quality is not improved.

Classic...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-denial_denial

That was a non-denial denial. He didnt rule out the Vita version, just warned people not to trust rumors.

And I'm amazed how people can claim Wii U had anything that resembles a good or great launch line-up. To me, it was very poor. Nintendo Land and NSMB were ok titles while ZombiU seemed rushed and severely flawed. The rest was either sloppy ports or not worth mentioning. Only 3DS had a worse line-up.
A shame Rayman Legends was held back.

Those numbers and charts doesn't include portable systems. Vita had a larger (30+ titles) and better (in my opinion) launch line-up.

@Dontae24 Agreed. Luigi's Mansion 3DS is long over due.

@MadAussieBloke Nah. Forget it. You will not see announcement of new huge franchise games like Mario or Zelda. Just dates for some of the already announced titles (Pikmin 3, Lego City, Rayman Legends, etc) and maybe new Wii U apps/services (Panorama View, Maps, etc).
Mario/Zelda HD announcements are for E3 2013.

I can confirm the update fixes some internet connection isses. I no longer need to have my IP and DSN set manually to be able to connect.
Menus are also loading faster now. Wiiverse still take to long to load (12-14 seconds). Friends list and web browser are both loading much much faster, and returning to main menu/dash is almost instantaneous now.

What about USB ports?

There is only 3 axis for any object in a in a 3D world. Talking about 9 axis is nonsense.

@mudjo Of course it matters. If the console doesn't sell well, 3rd party publishers will not make games for it in the long run. And if the console flops completely, Nintendo will abandon it faster for the next console leaving you with a overpriced console which does not get new games.

@Mike1 "Who cares what he thinks. His Atari 7800 was a complete failure."

You do realize the Atari 7800 came out in 1984, long after Bushnell left the company in 1978, right?
You guys badmouthing Bushnell, should do a bit of research first!

It's pretty clear that Wii U will never be the success that Wii was, but the question is if will be a enough success to live more than 2-3 years before Nintendo realize they need to join the real next-gen consoles (the next PS and Xbox consoles).
I'm getting a Wii U but only because I'm a fan of Nintendo's own games, not because it think the tablet gimmick is interesting or innovative (at all!) or think it's a powerful machine. I can't see the console having any mainstream appeal beyond the first 6 months. in 12-18 months Wii U sales will die off and most 3rd party publishers will abandon the platform.

Nice tip, but unfortunately a SD card in a USB card reader is still only USB 2.0 speed and slower than a SD card in Wii U's SD port. At least in theory.

@ueI "As someone who doesn't play many HD games, I can't pretend to understand what all the gigabytes are for. I'll probably end up getting the 32 GB WiiU because 32 (25) is more than 8 (3). The Wii has nowhere near 32 GB, however, and I was able to make do."

HD has nothing to do with it. It's about downloadable content (games, demoes, DLC, patches, movies, etc). 8/32 GB is simply not enough if you planing on buying a few titles from Nintendo's eShop. Look at Xbox and PS3 - most units are sold with 250+ GB because today downloadable games, demos, DLC, etc. is a huge part modern gaming. It's mind boggling that Nintendo choose not to include an internal HDD in the premium version instead of 32GB flash. it would not have made the hardware much more expensive to produce.

@A-Hungry-Banker
"I laugh at the people who buy the basic pack."

Well maybe not. I had an preorder for the ZombiU bundle (now cancelled because ZombiU does not appeal to me) since I thought premium was the best Wii U. It still is but since both versions are severely lacking internal storage, a external HDD is a must either way. So the basic version may just be the best deal for many.

Another retarded Nintendo decision. Wii U, at that inflated price, should have a internal HDD with at least 250GB. Requiring users to buy an external USB HDD is idiotic and a HDD via USB 2 is a much slower compared to a internal SATA HDD.

@Shining-Void Not true. In-game voice chat was standard for all 360 games from day one... 7 years ago!

@19Robb92 I ment internal HDD. Besides, you can't play games directly from external HDD.

People defending the lo-res screen with "can't see any difference" should wake up. it's only 480p (=standard def). This is 2012, not 2007

Thanks but no thanks. Only 32GB storage. No HDD option. No wired LAN. No in-game voice chat as standard. No Gamecube compatibility. Lo-res pad screen. No multi-touch.

@JayMiller1988 No, it's a current-gen console. Next-gen will arrive with PS4 and Xbox 720 (or whatever they are called) in late 2013/early 2014.

@Xilef True but not even Nintendo's own games are able to run natively at 1080p. Not a good sign. If Wii U is more powerful, we should see a small step up over PS3/360 already.

I'm looking forward to the games using all this so called power. From all the shown titles, they are hiding the "power" very well.

@iphys You have a time machine to travel back in time and include a Wii U firmware update on all old Wii disks?

@mystman12 The sensor bar is included in the premium pack in Europe. Don't know about USA. The sensor bar can be purchased separately.

EDIT: ...and since the sensor bar is not really a sensor (just two IR leds), it's also compatible with unofficial 3rd party bars.

@BenAV I agree - if it's the same charger and compatible both ways

@gingerbeardman Not true - I can use my iPhone, iPad, Vita, etc. while it's charging over USB.

Why the hell does the pad requre a seperate non-standard charger?

Who not charge over USB?

I'll take this with a huge grain of salt considering...

1) Kotaku is #1 Xbox fan site bought and payed for by MS
2) Brian Ashcraft is #1 Xbox fanboy on Kotaku.
3) Controller preferences are subjective and there is no "best controller".