March 11th, 2012

Nintendo to “Dreamcast themselves” with Wii U, says Michael Pachter

55 Comments

There are two versions of Michael Pachter. At times he says things you’d expect from an anonymous rant on a forum, but he can take the fairer, well-reasoned approach. The video after the break, surprisingly enough, is in the latter category. Because while he believes the Wii U may be Nintendo’s equivalent of the Dreamcast, he admits it’s impossible to make a judgment without the price and feature list. Only time will tell, of course.

  • PixelKnot93

    It’s not a glorified Dreamcast, you idiot.

    • PixelKnot93

      Never mind my comment. Just watched the video.
      He has some good points.

      It’s good to see that he is at least waiting for more information on the console before judging it as a whole.

      And I agree that the Wii U might not be might be as popular, as per say, the original Wii.

    • PixelKnot93

      Ugh. (typo)

    • D2K

      No, you were right the first time. Your first response usually is the correct one.

      It’s pointless to debate this anyone. If people can’t see how transparent this guy’s agenda is there isn’t anything more to say.

    • Naner

      Nobody thought 3DS would be as successful as DS, and so far we’re all wrong. XD

  • CHW

    I would like to take the time to say thank you for all these excellent updates recently, I remember when I would come to this blog and expect a new article once every few weeks. You’ve been on the ball with these daily updates, and because of you my hype will be sustained until E3.

    • David

      No problemo. I’ve definitely found my rhythm and it’s helped that I’ve moved to the software I use with my other blog. The news is also more frequent these days, so there shouldn’t be any lulls. :D

  • Mamoon Noorestani

    I think people will buy the Nintendo Wii U, only if it comes in the $300 – $400 price range. I think it’s going to become more popular than the Nintendo Wii and the Microsoft Xbox 360 S Console. And it won’t be a Dreamcast with the Wii U, i think the Wii U has tons of features which will attract more gamers which had other consoles from Microsoft and Sony. I will be buying the Wii U this year for sure when it launches. :)

  • JAMIE

    David give me a sign that you notice my existence!!

    • David

      I notice your existence Jamie!

    • Lene

      Favoritism! x)

    • JAMIE

      David = Awesome I appreciate the notice and If you know how it feels to get a reply from a famous person like you thanks DAVID :]

    • Spazzy Cactus

      i honestly dont think of you as famous david ._. youve replied to a youtube comment of mine :3 and the only person i know that knows who you are is a cashier at gamestop >_>

  • http://dknintendo.blogspot.com Dan

    Pachter does make some good points at times, just not all the time. ;)

    • Juju mice

      @Sotendo360: Wait what? I call BS. i’m all for the wiiu and all but it being stronger than the next round of consoles sound like BS to me.

  • Michael

    Anyone who says the Wii U is going to be the same, or less, or just a little more, power as 360/PS3 needs to open their eyes. Do you really think that a current brand new console will have tech in it that is 5-6 YEARS OLD?? Seriously, Nintendo could even try to make it as crappy and cheaply as possible in today’s day and age and it’d still be more powerful than the half a decade old ps3/360.

    Also, game makers have developed better techniques for rendering better graphics without the console having to be a power beast with overheating, etc. For example, just look at some of the graphics a little smart phone can output. They’re near as good as 360/ps3! The Unreal Engine can run on the iphone! Anyway, it’s laughable that this Patcher guy gets paid to sit in his fancy office to say totally ridiculous things about video games like a brand new console having 5 year outdated hardware specs.

    • http://google micheal p.

      WRONG! wiis a perfect example of decade old tech passing on as next gen. wii was more than decade old tech. stop bashing 360/ps3 as there not decades old as wii is with there upgraded 10 plus yr old tech. wii u is wii all over again as its an upgraded wii meaning a better ps3 just like wii a better gamecube. when 720 comes out wii u will be outdated. as for ps3 they say its still got power left but if they use ps3 to fight 360/wii u well sony will die.

    • Sotendo360

      @micheal p. Are you retarded? The Wii U is already stronger than the 720.

    • peteriuss

      correct.wiiU is gona be STRONGER AND AWSOME! PACHER SUCKS AND HE IS WRONG!

  • tre802001

    This is my last comment about Pachter. He is irrelevant.

  • Matt

    Just seeing the opening credits “Pack Attacks” just seems so… suitable, lol. Well, at least for his other comments, haven’t watched this yet.

  • john

    ohh i do love the dreamcast

  • Zuperman

    I’m all for opinions and that, but isn’t it a bit too much of a coincidence that everything Nintendo related out of this guy’s mouth is negative? I mean, you don’t HAVE to support Nintendo in what you say, but sometimes it gets to the point where you look one sided and arrogant. Hmmm, kind of reminds me of a recently passed forum member…

  • http://MacroManJr.blogspot.com/ Brian L.

    Nintendo stands quite a good chance with their next console, especially with Microsoft seeming to nut up so much with the next generation.

    Maybe someone should tell Pachter that Microsoft apparently plans to no feature a disc drive for their next console, which is just about the dumbest thing they could’ve done. Removing a disc drive automatically ditches any backwards-compatibility with Xbox 360. Sure, games may be a bit cheaper, but not everyone wants to download their huge 25+ GB-sized games all the time and not everyone wants to keep buying hard drives to save their games on.

    Or maybe someone should remind Pachter that there is some indication that Microsoft might very well be intending to copy the Wii U controller straight-out, which will put Microsoft immediately in the “poser” light.

    If any of this proves true about Microsoft’s next console, this will give Nintendo a great chance to lead the eighth-generation of consoles. I don’t know why he thinks the Wii U is going to such a failure, because with such weaken competition this time around from both a struggling Sony and a self-sabotaging Microsoft, and with Nintendo’s emphasis on regaining the hardcore gamer again, things may very well be different this time around.

    But no, he’d rather keep spelling doom for Nintendo in particular. He did it when the now-successful Nintendo 3DS, and he’s doing it again with the Wii U. And then he claims he doesn’t want to judge the Wii U too soon, yet he has been doing just that anyways.

    • deathmore

      We’re talking about Nintendo and just Nintendo. Microsoft has not said anything about a new console. All these rumours are rumours, they don’t mean anything. When talking about the WiiU look at it right now, for the general consumers (non Nintendo fans, the people that buy just dance or call of duty(sorry if any one is offended there but I enjoy CoD too but its a game that casuals buy aswell)) will not be able to tell the difference at the moment in time it is a Wii HD. Again ignore the rumours of specs and anyother rumours because the average consumer will not know any of this. Pachter has said this numerous times, he knows that the WiiU will sell to all the core gamers but for the newly expanded audience its tough because the Xbox 360 and PS3 have matured over the years, so when someone is choosing a console they will pick the one that their friends have.

      You can’t must ignore the fact Nintendo is on the edge, it could go either way, Nintendo has done this before but the market changed everytime, and right now to the general consumers it is a WiiHD. This is why you should not follow rumours and wait until E3 to decode if its worth a purchase or not. You can’t just rely on previous examples, that is the business world, old methods do not work in new market, look at how smart phones have been redesigned and look at how Windows 8 is approached(listen to Steven sinofskys points during the build keynote, that when win7 launched it was about note books(ran better than XP on them) and with windows 8 it was about re addressing the core kernel to male it more power efficient for devices to have even longer battery life), changes in the market can break companies. Nintendo isn’t indestructible.

      Again we’ll see how they do at E3 as that is the TRUE unveiling of the console. Before you saying anything I am already going to buy one because like I said the core gamers will buy it on launch no matter what.

      On to the 3DS, so you can’t forget how pachter said Nintendo poorly marketed the 3DS, but yet you forget how Nintendo screwed up big time on the 3DS launch, I had the system at launch (I’ve been following the 3ds blog since summer 2012) and was dissapointed by the game drought, there was nothing great to play on 3DS and i was not going to buy oot for the 5th time.

      You do know that before the 3DS launched he was praising it a lot. After the system released it was a disappointment, now it isn’t but you still bring up this fact from months ago when it was valid. As a 3DS system owner I felt the same that Nintendo screwed up and needed to hurry up and fix their problems.

      On another not peoeple have been quoting that pachtet said the 3DS would fail at launch, that is not true, he said that about the vita and the reasoning makes sense, a little kid or a non gamer will not buy another $200+ device when they have a smart phone or a smart media player (iPod touch, galaxy player).

      I just don’t get the pachter hate, he makes sense most of time. Just fanboy range probably.

  • Pepe

    I will buy a WiiU console and let michael patcher suck my balls while I play with my new console!

    • peteriuss

      fuck yea! he is just a microsoft troller.microsoft pays him as far as i know

  • Hylian17

    I’ve heard about ranting but this guys an idiot!

  • swiftjustice

    Remember this is just a prediction based on the current state of the gaming market and old data and rumoured spec of the system. I would only believe this guy if he had proof of access to nintendos financials. However im willing to bet the wiiu wiill do well but it will solely depend on teh price point if its in the £250-300 range it would sell extreemly well expecially if it can run sub-unreal engine 4 graphics.

  • antiform47

    I cant seem to get myself to hate him since he has that keyblade in the back :/

    • http://www.gamesradar.com GameManiac

      Neither can I.

      He probably bought it off of eBay.

    • http://www.gamesradar.com GameManiac

      God, if I had it my way, I’d buy the Ultima Weapon keyblade from the first Kingdom Hearts game. That keyblade is just absolutely gorgeous.

      Of course, it’d run me $500, but I can wait.

  • Jonathan

    The main problem with the Dreamcast was the fact that it had a premature concept with its design. The Wii U, on the other hand, is perfect and revolutionary for this day n’ age due to the increase in popular demand for tablet devices and motion controls.

    On top of this fact, if Nintendo has updated the system’s specs further than what we saw from last E3 and the console can now run UE4, then we can look forward to some really stunning software pushing this system to the limit before the next generation consoles even come out. This gives the Wii U an ample amount of time (more than one year, actually) to get its footing like the Nintendo 3DS did.

    However, trying to predict the failure of Nintendo with the Wii U is Pachter’s own folly, and fanboys to Sony and Microsoft as well.

    We don’t know everything about the Wii U yet. How could we even say it’s going to fail if we won’t hear about pricing until we get closer to (or even see) the E3 2012 Nintendo Conference?

    All I need to say is this: Mario, Pokemon, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Metroid, F-Zero, Kirby, Kid Icarus, Animal Crossing, Pikmin, Star Fox, Super Smash Bros., etc.

    All of those games have two things in common. 1) They’re all first-party Nintendo titles that would look absolutely gorgeous with the Wii U’s visuals. And, 2) Each of the franchises named tend to be system sellers, with Mario and Pokemon pushing systems more than anything else.

    • http://google micheal p.

      never get tired of the mario and such. i mean really how many times can ppl. play rehased franchises before they get bored i mean really. any new mario is now just a 64/sunshine galaxy clone w/2d thrown into the ‘mix’. zelda is a link to past ocarina clone with cartoon graphics. metriod a cod clone and pokemon a copypaste adventure.

    • bhill

      @ Michael p. I don’t know how can people not get tired of playing first person shooter games that are basically clones of every shooter before it just updated graphics or characters it’s the same concept …

    • adam

      @Michael p. Metroid a COD clone?! Have you even played Metroid? the only thing even similar is the perspective, everything else are polar opposites. They aren’t even the same genre, Metroid is a (largely) single-player adventure series, and COD is a (largely) multiplayer competitive battle series!

    • Spazzy Cactus

      metroids also a sidescroller if you ask me…. back before prime it was NOTHING like cod >_> but still. prime isnt either… only thing alike is its an fps :3 thats like comparing halo and cod… dont say metroids like halo either >_<

    • Aanx

      @michael p
      Metroid a COD clone? WTF
      COD didnt even exist when Metroid was released, in fact, CoD didn’t even exist when Metroid Prime was released.

      Yes, all new Mario’s are similiar to their predecessors, but they all bring new things to the franchise and saying that they are just the same thing is dumb.

      I suppose you are referrin to WW and SS when you say all zeldas are ocarina of time clones with cartoon graphics.
      Well guess what they all have aspects of their own that greatly differntiate them from their predecessors. Yes, the core Zelda gameplay is still there, but, again, saying they are all just the same thing is dumb.

      If you are wondering, i do am very mad at what you said about Metroid.

    • XZAceNintendo

      Ignore Michael. He´s obviously just a troll/ cod fanboy. I mean he´s on a level of hate that he´s juest on the blog for trolling. and besides, Who the hell is moderating comments here? ¬¬

  • cm93

    Wii U :D

  • mariozeldaawesomeness

    No, the Wii U has to be something different. I hate the people who say this stuff.

  • SEGAGIGA

    The 3DS has already proven this idiot is wrong about his predictions. This guy has already lost his credibility.

    He’s referencing to history but his analysis is inaccurate.
    He’s only basing it on his assumption that the Wii U will fail because it is the weakest machine.

    The Dreamcast failed not just because it is weaker but because it’s so easy to play pirated games on it.
    The GD Rom holds less data compared to a DVD, and the PS2 can play DVD movies.
    During those times the PS2 is a very reasonable option to jump in to DVD and a lot of people bought it for watching movies.

    Yes the Wii U will be weaker, but it will not be far behind like the original Wii.
    The Wii U uses a high capacity disc comparable to the Blu Ray and there won’t be anything greater than that for years to come.
    There won’t be a new media format coming from SONY, the Blu Ray hasn’t even reached the same level as DVD in terms of market acceptance.
    You can easily get a better Blu Ray Player for so much less with more features. Nintendo can keep the system’s cost down by not using Blu Ray.

    Nintendo is not SEGA, they have better marketing skills and have a lot more profitable assets to make them sustainable.
    Nintendo’s games have better market penetration and a broader audience, unlike SEGA who targets primarily teens to adults.

    • Jonathan

      I agree with most of your post.

      However, I don’t agree that the Wii U will be the weakest machine at all.

      The Wii U will be on equal terms (or extremely near) to the power of Sony and Microsoft’s next-generation consoles more than any previous generation before. Add to that the capability to run UE4, a diverse (and exclusive) lineup of third-party software, and the triple-A first-party titles we’ve all come to know and love from Nintendo, and they basically have nothing but marketing to worry about at this point.

      It is highly important that Nintendo focuses on getting EXCLUSIVE third-party software for the Wii U that would warrant most “hardcore” gamers to get the system. While they do that, they can request the help of outside companies that they can trust with their own franchises (much like they have already with the Metroid Prime series, F-Zero GX, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, and Luigi’s Mansion 2). This allows them to focus more of their resources on establishing newer franchises and continuing a steady stream of development on new Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon games for both the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.

      Next, comes the launch window, what we can expect to get from the Wii U at launch (hopefully the eShop will be available), and, most importantly, the price of the console itself. The price is the make-or-break factor. If Nintendo is smart, they will bite the bullet and sell the console at a loss in order to boost holiday sales and ensure the console has a healthy (and very optimistic) life like the Nintendo 3DS does now.

      In fact, the Nintendo 3DS may become the next best-selling portable gaming system by Nintendo if it continually pushes units and has a better hardware family than the Nintendo DS did.

    • D2K

      I don’t it’ll match the PS4 in total horsepower because by the Sony will be able to get that thing on the shelves it’ll tech that has come out in the past year or so will be a lot cheaper and thus more cost efficient to place in the PS4.

      However, the Wii U doesn’t need to be the most powerful machine on the market and probably wouldn’t want to be. As I have stated MANY times in the past the the console the traditionally wins the war is either THE weakest one or weaker that others in the competition.

      Nintendo comes up with ideas and then builds technology around those ideas. So I’m afraid of what the first-party Wii U games are gonna look like. I have a feeling Nintendo is going to show us HD graphics in a way we have not seen before.

      If Wii games looks as good as they do in 1080p resolution, with the horsepower the Wii U is packing those games are gonna be out of control.

  • moviequest14

    To be quite honest…I’ll start respecting and valuing Pachter’s opinion and (Excessive some would say) feedback as soon as someone tells me 5 predictions (that weren’t already painfully obvious) that he actually got right…because from what I’ve seen he hasn’t even had one.

    • http://google micheal p.

      except nintendo said not all games wii be hd. yeah out of control cartoon graphics. just because weak tech sells your proud smh i guess apple is better than nintendo and angry bird sells more than any ninty ip. oh but its cheap…yep ppl. buy garbage w/o thinking of true value like xbox god engine but buy rehase old mario trash. i dont trust ninty yeah wii might sell but they’ll turn there back on hardcore as they done before. either pc gaming is 100 x more powerful than wii u and there making an andriod tablet but ill just buy a wii u control and mod it to my pc thus no console thus ninty=fail. also why havent they said price 4 controller hmm… yeah they not gunna b cheap 200 buck control=fail

  • Dae

    No offense, but how the hell does this moron still have a job? I’ve never seen him even close to accurate on his predictions.

    Anyways, I guess he’s just a yellow analyst? (Reference to Yellow Journalism)
    ugh.

  • bhill

    Pachter is right about 1% of the time. I can’t take anything he says seriously. I take the dreamcast comment as a positive. Dreamcast as a system was great and ahead of its time. Dreamcast main problem was no great games or 3rd party support. Nintendo will have no problems in that area. in fact I think this is the first system nintendo is doing that is getting third party support right

    • Revolution5268

      there 5 things that cause the dreamcast to die
      1.Sega Saturn (reputation)
      2.ps2 (DVD + reputation)
      3.third party (EA)
      4.piracy (easy to burn and steal)
      5th is how much money Sega very low
      same thing happen to Xbox but the difference is Microsoft has ton of money left so it survive Sega did not.

    • D2K

      The Dreamcast had no great games? Erm…

      Sonic Adventure
      Soul Calibur
      Virtua Fighter 3TB
      Crazy Taxi
      Power Stone 1 & 2
      Ready 2 Rumble
      Sega Bass Fishing
      Shenmue
      2K series
      House Of The Dead series
      Resident Evil: Code Veronica
      Marvel VS. Capcom 2

      and many, many other games that I can’t think f at the moment. The Dreamcast definitely lacked third-party support as at that time Sony held the lion’s share. That I agree with, but lack of quality content was even close to being an issue for the Dreamcast.

      I also agree that third-party support for the Wii U will be fine. Seemingly the only people that have a problem with the system are people whom never even seen it in person.

    • D2K

      Rev5268 is correct. Piracy played probably the biggest role in the demise of the Dreamcast because once people got a boot disc there was no reason to buy a Dreamcast game every again. You didn’t even need to have your system modded.

      Companies don’t make money off of hardware sales, they make it off of software sales and with something like that going on you have countless hundreds of millions of dollars going down the toilet.

      Add to that the fact that 12 years ago DVD players were still expensive and a lot of the 154 million PS2s that were sold were sold for that reason. Might as well kill two birds with one stone. Sony thought they could do the same thing again with BLU-RAY in the PS3, but with so many other forms of media formats available BLU-RAY is not an end-all, be-all. If I can instantly stream HD movies on HULU, Netflix, Vudu, Zune, etc, why do I need a BLU-RAY player? Less clutter and not change of misplacing a disc, breaking it, or having ti stolen when it is saved in cyberspace.

      I can’t wait for the Wii U to come out.

  • http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/bf4a253cbac14357506ed1e34ef2230c.png Roxas

    The day that microsoft sellou…err I mean patcher is right,it will be the day that Sega releases a new console

  • Snake

    Oh stop to believe only on promises cos Nintendo only give promises i don’t believe cos they have prove nothing yet they still presenting the things from E3 11 some Zelda hd and Mario hd and their blind fans are happy even i have read one very funny comment here in one article for Unreal Engine 4 Zelda with Ubreal Engine 4 this was most funny thnig i ever had read

  • ZimmerRemmiz

    I honestly couldn’t care less about anything that Patcher will ever say…

  • Dreamcast Loyalist

    Dreamcast should not be disrespected like that. It was an awesome system and Wii U has the looks that it will be complete crap.