Yantelope V2 Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 This is a rumor that's easy to believe. http://www.destructoid.com/rumor-wii-u-parts-cost-180-will-retail-at-300-or-more-225475.phtml Nintendo likes to make profit off their consoles and this would lend credence to the rumor that the hardware is underpowered. WiiU keeps sounding less and less appetizing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strangelove Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 People went crazy over this on Kotaku yesterday. Not so much the people who were against it, but the people defending it....defending it against no one actually, since no one thought this was the worst thing ever. Nintendo fans have been on the defensive preemptively for years now. Im ok with it. If the system is 300, I think thats fair. People have to get paid and once they account for marketing, assembly and shipping, it adds up. I do wonder how long Nintendo can survive off it's main franchises. Im not trying to spell doom or anything, but I dont think a company can survive off a few good games forever. We can talk all day about the awesome third party games on the Wii, but the truth is that no one bought them. They all bought Wii sports and Smash Bros. Its also weird that throughout the entire Wii and DS lifespan, they didnt once create any new mascots or franchises with a face of any kind. Its just weird. Sony and MS both did. They werent Uncharted and Halo machines. I hope the big third parties are onboard with the Wii U. It seems that they are now, but just like with the Wii, the option to back out if their first couple of games fail is still there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope V2 Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 The whole problem with Nintendo's model is that it keeps them using inferior hardware and as long as there is a large gap in processing power between Nintendo and it's competitors it's going to be at a disadvantage when it comes to third party support (shovelware notwithstanding). Third party publishers like to be able to develop for multiple platforms simultaneously and the WiiU will not be conducive to multiplatform titles if it's far less powerful than the next generation consoles. Additionally, what I think Nintendo is failing to grasp is how the Xbox and PS3 are growing far beyond just games. The social aspects and the media hub aspects have really exploded this generation and I'm not sure if the WiiU correctly addresses those issues but I guess we'll see at E3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 One reason I think they probably need such a high markup is because of the low attach rate with the "casual" market they're targeting. If you can't sell more than 2 or 3 games for each console you're not making that profit and need to make it up in the console itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope V2 Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Supposedly Nintendo doesn't have the cash to float the first two unprofitable years like Sony and MS do, also or at least that was their excuse with the Wii but I find it hard to believe anymore since they have everyone's money now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted April 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Yeah when the Wii came out Nintendo were fucked after two generations of playstation dominance. The Gamecube only sold around 20million units, it tanked. The Wii and DS though should have filled their kitty right up, especially with a profit on hardware. I think it's a case of being a model that works for them. If you can sell underpowered hardware and the same games over and over again and rake in the mega bucks, why make a risk on expensive-to-develop high-power hardware and new franchises? If it turns out that's what folks want they have enough cash spare to weather the storm of 8th gen then come out guns blazing 9th gen with some higher powered consoles again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
excel_excel Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 There are new titles and franchises here and there, like Xenoblade and The Last Story, but they are far and few between and something needs to be done about it, Kid Icarus is a new direction for a game and a rebirth of an old franchise so its unfair to lump that in with the 'same games' arguement. However, they don't just release 'the same games over and over', I'm a little tired of hearing that. They release sequels a lot I suppose but they are often worth it, like Skyward Sword and Mario Galaxy. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strangelove Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 (edited) I wouldnt count Xenoblade and Last Story as franchises. Im pretty sure there wont be any Nintendo exclusive sequels to those games on the Wii U. It could happpen, but theres no guarantee. And I personally don't think their sequels are all the same. I still play every single Mario that comes out because I enjoy them, but I cant imagine doing this for much longer. Someday Im just not going to check it out because its Mario and I know what the basics entail. At this point Mario just gets different powerups, many which seem to be the same as old ones, just with a different aesthetic. Theyre going to run out of interesting powerups and im not going to be interested anymore. God knows im already tired of Zelda. Zelda needs some huge changes. Its fine if people still love Zelda and Skyward Sword might be awesome, but im tired of it. I dont care if its rated a 9.9999999 out of 10 on metacritic. I quit on Zelda for the most part. Just because it's Zelda. The familiarity is working against them slowly but surely. And SMG2 was awesome, but how did it sell against SMG1 or the NEW series? I dont remember people talking about it too much. As for Kid Icarus Uprising, I feel they wasted a perfect opportunity to create a new character. Kid Icarus had one prior game years ago. I cant imagine it had many fans. Had they made something new, it would have been something to look forward to based on it being new. Whenever Nintendo decides to develop a a seriously new game, Ill be there. Til then, I guess ill keep playing Mario. I guess. Edited April 9, 2012 by Strangelove 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UnstableArk Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 I've been reading a lot of those claims where the Wii U doesn't performed as well as the PS3 or 360, which really doesn't make sense according to the confirmed(?) hardware in place. Of course, the hardware is always subject to change, but based on a few confirmations, the Wii U will be using a Power7 architecture CPU and a GPU of the Radeon HD R700 architecture, and both of those overpower anything that the 360 or PS3 has in place. However, I can't exactly speak for the ease of coding, obviously. Still, there are too many unknowns to trust the rumors right now, but the claims of it using inferior hardware of current gen consoles seems a bit illogical to me. 16 threads of simultaneous code, yo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted April 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Where are these "confirmations" on hardware? Even now with these rumours Nintnedo are very much in "we don't give out hardware specs, it's all about the games" (which as noted before is pretty much "yeah it's pretty shitty, so we won't confirm stuff until we good news in place to balance out the specs reveal". (Also the Power7 is the chip inside IBM Watson) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UnstableArk Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 (edited) http://www.nintendow....com/news/26618 http://www.engadget....nintendo-wii-u/ http://www.engadget....ful-than-ps3-a/ Yeah, it has Watson's mind. Prepare to lose at Jeopardy. Still vague overall, but it's something. **Edit() comin' at ya** A bit more research hasn't yielded anything additional besides some very, VERY technical details and comparisons. But instead of me explaining, I'll have this guy do it for me. I managed to find this video while digging up some data. Seems to have come to similar conclusions, but he goes into further detail, as stated, comparing it to the 360's and PS3's current hardware. Be advised that things get technical here. Edited April 9, 2012 by UnstableArk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted April 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Ohhh. Yeah that's a pretty broad sweep there, nothing specific on it being the same Power7 chips as seen in Watson. Cell is Power based too, as is the Xenon in the 360 and the Broadway chip in the Wii. tbh it's pretty expected, much more so than the rumours that PS4 will be X86-64 based. Still need to get some stats on the clock speed n such first though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UnstableArk Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 I only have rumors to work with, but most are agreeing that it uses a Power7 architecture. Still no word on specifics, obviously, but even the lowest range of that architecture seems to be able to match or outperform the PS3's and 360's current clock rate and is able to supply more memory per core than either the PS3 or 360, both of which have to share its memory between cores. Plus, having an L3 cache certainly is nifty. And dat multi-threading... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope V2 Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 Keep in mind that some of the power may be diverted to that screen as it mostly acts as a remote so I wonder if that hurts the performance of the system almost like trying to run a dual monitor setup at home would degrade performance so even if the hardware is more powerful than current systems it's possible that you couldn't output something better on the main screen. Just a thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted April 16, 2012 Report Share Posted April 16, 2012 http://www.joystiq.com/2012/04/16/nintendo-showing-wii-u-mario-game-at-e3/ Apparently Miyamoto let slip the existence of a new Mario game for Wii U that they're going to be showing at E3. I'm intrigued. The funny thing is, even though Nintendo consoles are just Mario and Zelda boxes to me (I wish I could throw Pokemon in there ) I want them to convince me to buy it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP Posted April 16, 2012 Report Share Posted April 16, 2012 A Mario game on a Nintendo console is a no-brainer, but if they were smart (which, often they aren't), they'd release it at launch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted April 16, 2012 Report Share Posted April 16, 2012 Well yeah, everyone knew it was coming eventually. Honestly to me the more surprising part is the fact that Miyamoto let it slip before the official announcement, usually Nintendo has that shit locked down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFlyingGerbil Posted April 16, 2012 Report Share Posted April 16, 2012 The thing about Nintendo is, they won't rush a game for launch. If it's not ready in time, they simply won't release it until it is. It's good in some respects, but obviously from a driving sales point it is not ideal. I do wonder if they have a more next gen online infrastructure they may change their habits to the more common release-then-patch method. I personally hope not, but I'm sure it must be tempting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP Posted April 17, 2012 Report Share Posted April 17, 2012 Apparently it's that "New Super Mario Bros Mii" we saw at E3. A little disappointing, I was hoping they'd do something different with the art style. But if that's true, the game should be close to being done, since a lot of the frame work would be done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope V2 Posted April 17, 2012 Report Share Posted April 17, 2012 nintendo Used to always have great mario games for launch. virtual boy and gamecube suffered for the lack of a great mario game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP Posted April 17, 2012 Report Share Posted April 17, 2012 (edited) Nintendo does not learn from their mistakes, (and definitely doesn't learn from their competitors mistakes) which doesn't make me entirely sure they'll have a Mario game at launch. They'll probably have Face Raiders Wii U as built in software again, and expect that to hold us for 6 months. Edited April 17, 2012 by TheCowboyPoet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope V2 Posted May 7, 2012 Report Share Posted May 7, 2012 (edited) I do enjoy Digital Foundry. http://www.eurogamer...t-gen-challenge "If the overall spec seems conservative for a new console shipping seven years after the launch of the Xbox 360, it's worth factoring in that the world outside of games has changed enormously since the credit-fuelled era of 2005/2006. The economic landscape favours austerity. None of the platform holders will be looking at designs as advanced as the PS3 and Xbox 360 were back in the day; they simply can't afford the burn rate, and neither can their customers stomach steep launch prices." Estimates of 1GB of RAM still seem shockingly low to me. Edited May 7, 2012 by Yantelope V2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted May 7, 2012 Report Share Posted May 7, 2012 Not just that, but we're definitely running in to severely diminishing returns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope V2 Posted May 7, 2012 Report Share Posted May 7, 2012 Austerity must be the word of the day because I've seen it at least 10 times today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted May 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2012 http://www.gamesradar.com/revised-wii-u-controller-image-leaks-twitter-actual-analog-sticks-other-minor-changes-shown/ So a bit of a look at the redesigned controller. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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