April 7th, 2012

“The experience of playing will always be more important than raw numbers”, says Nintendo

33 Comments

The rumours and speculation regarding the specs of the Wii U span the entire spectrum, from doom and gloom to the impossibly optimistic. In response to this, Nintendo has said:

We do not focus on technology specs. We understand that people like to dissect graphics and processing power, but the experience of playing will always be more important than raw numbers.

This sentiment is regularly shared via Nintendo, but people have been quick to say that “oh noes, that means the Wii U is really weak!” To be honest though, I think this is just Nintendo being as vague as they usually are. They have a protocol for how they respond to things, and this core belief is part of that protocol.

That said, I do think folks who believe the system will be some insanely technical powerhouse will be let down. But I wouldn’t expect to be spending another six years or so with the equivalent of a Wii.

  • Grapefruit Assassin

    I would have rather had them say that we aren’t making the same mistakes as have in the past with the Wii’s lack of power.

    The Wii is probably my least favorite Nintendo system because of the lack of 3rd party support and the lack of precision on the controls and quality for the majority of those 3rd party games that did eventually make it to the Wii.

    They should emulate to a point the successes of the 360 and move ahead from there as far as graphics and all around social entertainment devices go. The days when everyone plays in the same room are gone.

    • D2K

      I would rather they didn’t say anything at all. Nothing needed to be said.

      Nintendo doesn’t need to emulate anybody. They have always been the trendsetters, innovators, and raise the bar in terms of the total game-play experience since the 1980s. If this weren’t true, there would be no Kinect or PS Move. If this weren’t true the Wii would not be leading in sales 94 million sold to the 360′s 65 million sold.

      The Wii didn’t lack any power at all. It was made the previous gen hardware. In terms of power, the WIi runs circles around the Gamecube, XBOX, and PS2. Saying the Wii lacks power is just as stupid as saying the the N64 lacked power compared to the Dreamcast. They were in two different generations. If anything Nintendo showed how dominate they are by taking last-gen hardware and beating the hell out of the PS3 and 360 when they are substantially more powerful. Were would Sony and Microsoft be Nintendo had of released the Wii in HD?

      Think about that………..

    • Grapefruit Assassin

      I don’t want to be rude but you aren’t thinking objectively. I have owned every Nintendo system and the generation with the most and best games was the SNES. Now compared to the SNES the Wii has barely any quality games outside their own. Take this from another fanboy, it’s time for them to take the gloves off and quit holding back.

      Sales doesn’t equate to quality. Quit lying to yourself when you think that the X-Box 360 isn’t all around better than the Wii. You make yourself sound like a stupid fanboy when you say the Wii wasn’t lacking power. The Wii barely has better graphics than the gamecube. Where are the awesome 3rd party games after 4 or 5 years D2K?

      I implore you to play the X-Box 360 and will see that there are things to be learned from your competitors. Especially since this is an age of streaming content and online gaming.

      Also learning from defeat is something they are learning first hand with 3DS lack of a strong launch library and appropriate pricing. Also their system sales for the Wii are significantly down and there hasn’t been any blockbuster games for the Wii since last year and the only blockbuster that came out was Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword… That was in November and its now April.

      Think about that…. But above all else look at what the competitors are doing you will learn something.

    • D2K

      I honestly don’t think I’ve read a more ridiculous post in my life. I’m dead serious.

      If I actually said that the Wii was better than the XBOX 360 maybe you would have a point. However I did NOT say so you just wasted a bunch a bandwidth basically. I point out the FACT that the Wii has destroyed the XBOX 360 and PS3. Numbers don’t lie.

      Since you can’t argue with the facts the only recourse you have it to gives us your opinion that the XBOX was “all around better” as you say and make childish insults of calling me a fanboy. It’s called the “red-herring fallacy”. I could say that the N64 was “better” than the PlayStation. It doesn’t matter though because the PlayStation is the 4th best-selling system of all time with 118 million until sold where at the N64 only sold about 34 million. These companies are in this to make money and at the end of the day that is all that matters in the business world.

      Nintendo however is the one company that cares about artistic expression and QUALITY over quantity.

      I would venture to say that the vast majority of the people that bought Wii did so for Wii Sports. It doesn’t matter that outside the the Nintendo made games the Wii library was saturated with shovelware. Why would Nintendo companies made the only games they could with the Wii, yet it still destroyed the competition. It’s even close. The ground that Microsoft gained from the Kinect boost since it’s launch 2 years ago (about 10 million or so 360s sold) Nintendo was able to cut in HALF with the really of just ONE GAME this past holiday season. Zelda: Skyward Sword. But since the sales of the Wii have gone down after 6 years of being on the market I guess it’s a failure then. Perhaps that means the PS2 is a failure to.. I mean, sales were down for it as well. I guess we can just through out the 152 million consoles sold making it the number one best-selling console ever. I guess the 3DS is a fail too. Yes, it did have a horrendous start because it was an idiotic idea to make the 3DS $249.99, however it rebound so well that it not only sold more units in a shorter span of time than the original DS did, but it is on pace to become the best selling console of all time. BUT, because sales are down right now, that means it’s a failure right?

      Of course, DS sales are down. What a pathetic entry that was to the game market huh? I mean after selling 152 million consoles in a shorter time frame than the PS2 did and after being on the market since 2004, surely it should be doing better right now right?

      I really don’t know what the purpose of your post was meant to be other than a parade of lunacy and immaturity. I own a XBOX 360 and have for 5 years so you are wrong about that. I’m 34 years old so I’ve been playing video games since the early 1980′s. I know my stuff. Judging by your comments you cannot be older than 25 because if you are that your post is REALLY embarrassing, You should know better than this.

      Let’s take a look at what competitors DID before we take a look at what they are doing. Multiplayer, light guns, four-controller ports, 3D, motion control, first-person shooters, memory expansion, arcade sticks, 3D platform games, and RPGs where all either introduced into the gaming world by Nintendo, or perfected and made popular by Nintendo and these are the this the both Sony and Microsoft could not function without. I’ll give Microsoft credit for XBOX LIVE. They took technology that was already there and perfected that. Good for them.

      You still didn’t answer the question. It Nintendo was able to beat the PS3 and 360 with graphics a decade old, what would have happened if the Wii was HD? Remember, you have to take into account the whole ‘Red Ring Of Death’ fiasco, all of the system malfunctions of the PS3 and then the Hackgate of last year as well. Where would those companies have been had Nintendo made the Wii HD in addition to introducing motion-controls to the gaming scene. If you cannot answer this question don’t bother responding.

    • Trulaw

      @D2K Actually in some ways the original XBOX has the advantage over the Wii so he is correct to say that the Wii lacks power. Also the Wii having good sale statistics although good for us in the sense that we still have Nintendo has been more of a good thing for Nintendo than us guys when you consider the lack of good quality 3rd party software, so I do hope that the Wii U has at least a reasonable power jump over the previous generation unlike the Wii.

    • D2K

      He doesn’t have a point because his argument is based on his saying the 360 is a “better all around” system than the Wii. I never once said any portion of the Wii was or was not better than the 360. Arguments have been made in the past the the GameCube was as powerful or had a better processor than the original XBOX. So with the Wii being more powerful than the GameCube it is not a stretch to say that the Wii was more powerful that the original XBOX. But that is not THE point of conversation. He’s saying the the XBOX 360 is BETTER than the Wii. I never said one was better than the other, nor do I care. I just brought up the fact that Nintendo took a so-called underpowered-system and wiped the floor with Microsoft and Sony with it. Period. Those are facts. So no, he does not have a point.

      People see what the want to see and hear what the want to here.

      We’ve see 3rd party companies coming out in droves giving their support to the Wii U. More than the Wii and GameCube combined. People ignore that and keep saying,”Gee, I hope the Wii U gets good 3rd party support.”

      EPIC Games has been one of the BIGGEST critics of Nintendo over the past few years. Now they like other major 3rd-party companies can stop talking about how excited they are about the Wii U and how POWERFUL it is. Just based on the information that we know for sure which is the type of CPU (Power 7) type of GPU (Custom Radeon 4870) and amount of on-board memory (768MB-1GB) it’s crystal clear that the Wii U is easily more powerful than the current gen/. Those are the FACTS.

      Now the “RUMORS” are that the final dev kits were even more powerful than the original dev kits. Even if the Wii U is only as powerful as suggested by the ‘minimal’ specs released by NINTENDO at E3 last year that is plenty good enough. If the Wii U games look like the Japanese Garden demo and the Zelda HD demo, nothing else needs to be said.

      I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. The weakest or weaker console ALWAYS wins the battle. There is no financial benefit to any company to release a console with the most advanced spec possible because there is no history of it EVERY paying off.

      Atari 2600 – Weaker = Winner
      ColecoVision
      Intellivision
      Magnavox Odyssey

      NES = Weakest = Winner
      Sega Master System

      SNES – Weakest = Winner
      Sega Mega Drive (Genesis/Sega CD/32x)
      TurboGrapx 16
      NEO GEO

      PlayStation – Weakest = Winner (number 4 all-time best seller 102 mil)
      Sega Saturn
      Nintendo 64

      GameBoy – Weakest = Winner (number 3 all-time best seller 118 mil)
      Atari Lynx
      Sega Game Gear
      Sega Nomad
      NEO GEO Pocket

      Nintendo DS – Weakest = Winner (number 2 all-time best seller 152 mil)
      PlayStation Portable

      PlayStation 2 – Weaker – Winner (number 1 all-time best seller 154 mil)
      Sega Dreamcast – Weakest
      Nintendo GameCube
      Microsoft XBOX

      Nintendo Wii – Weakest = Winner (number 5 all-time best seller 94 mil)

      Disptie all of that, people still are 100% focused on system POWER and the is THE deal-breaker and they refuse to look at it any other way. Some people feel that Nintendo is supposed to do what they tell them to do and yet Nintendo has been doing this longer than most of these people have been born. Look at the parade of companies that have fallen by the wayside over the past 4 decades. The reason why Sony and Microsoft can stick around is because gaming is not there sole focus. It’s just one division amongst many. They can afford to throw massive amounts of money into their console development and take significant losses in hardware sales (which they did until 2010. Nintendo is a major conglomeration, but they don’t have the scratch Microsoft and Sony does which means the margin of error is slim to none. That’s why when they do make a mistake (3DS launch) they jump right on it and take care of it. That’s all you really can ask for.

      The Wii U IS a powerful system. It IS more powerful than the 360 and PS3. Take it to the bank.

    • Grapefruit Assassin

      @D2K

      Lightning won’t strike twice for Nintendo if they release another weak console with under the guise of being “next generation.” In fact In this article from 2007 a Famitsu poll stating that 67% of Wii owners hardly played their system any longer. The number is probably much higher 5 years later.

      http://www.infendo.com/wii-is-just-a-novelty-device/

      Are you telling me there isn’t something to be learned from their competitors? This tells me just like in the article that the Wii is just a novelty to most casual gamers. No one is playing!

      In 2011 they lost 575 Million Dollars, their first loss in 30 years.

      http://www.dailytech.com/Nintendo+Posts+Huge+Loss+of+575M/article23870.htm

      You can argue that the weakest console always wins but that is the reason they are losing now and why so many developers have lost trust in their product. Essentially what the Wii did was provide a box too small for developers to create from by making their console so weak. How do you suppose a developer should port a 360 or a PS3 game over to the Wii?

      It doesn’t matter how many times you say it, the X-Box 360 IS the better system. The reason I said “all around” is because they did more than just improve on graphics it’s an actual entertainment device even the tech behind the Kinect is better than the Wiimote. It does more than gaming.

      This is more than a graphical issue its an always late to the party issue the reason they lost the 32bit/64 bit era wasn’t because of lack of power its because they were the last to change from cartridge to CDs. The developers of that generation prefered developing on CDs more. Also it could play music. In the last generation PS2 won because it had a DVD player and could also play music. Might I add it had online gaming just like the X-Box which the Gamecube (at least it didn’t take advantage of in the US it has a port for internet) didn’t, unless you count phantasy star online. Once again Nintendo is reactive instead of proactive.

      There are a ton of things they can learn from their competitors. The reason why Nintendo was successful this generation is because of Wii Sports, the novelty of motion gaming and the fact that in a recession people didn’t want to pay $800 for a HD console.

      How many Wii owners are there in the world and how many own Mario Galaxy? Buy and large your grandma/casual gamer (this is an example) bought the Wii to play Wii Sports then forgot about it.

      What would have happened if there were a Wii HD? I guess we’ll find out this November if the rumors are true. I am 100% sure that more 3rd party developers would be developing for the Wii had it been HD which is my point. Why would you want to develop for an inferior system where your product doesn’t sell?

    • Trulaw

      @D2K don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I agree with Grapefruit Assassin completely. I simply said that he was correct to say that the Wii is underpowered. I also think you have misunderstood my point about the original XBOX. I wasn’t saying that it’s all round better than the Wii, simply that in some areas the XBOX has the advantage and considering that the XBOX was last gen and the Wii is this gen, that is a fair reason to say that it’s underpowered. I hope that Nintendo makes a console that can last in the long run this time and that it gets more good 3rd party games rather than being seen as a machine to put shovelware on and I think that there is some evidence (some of which you have pointed out) that Nintendo has learnt from their mistakes and will correct these issues. Perhaps they are simply waiting for E3 to show us what they have to offer :)

    • http://www.nintendoworlds.net TurboPikachu

      @D2K:

      The SNES was not the weakest in terms of raw power.
      The TurboGrafx-16 was the weakest of its generation.

      The PlayStation was not the weakest of it’s generation…
      The Sega Saturn was the weakest of the generation.

      The NES wasn’t the weakest of its generation… The Atari 7800 was.

      Also, I just have to agree with others. The Xbox 360 is an overall better system… end of story… There’s nothing we can say that will make it any different. Sorry, but it’s the truth… I like the Wii, but it’s just not there…

      I mean, look: The Wii may have the best games ever made. But those great games are made by Nintendo only.
      But we have to face the facts: Over 80% of the Wii’s library is bargain-bin trash from companies that want money, not the gamers’ satisfaction… I love Nintendo, but they have no 3rd-party quality control, and they let any company just take a crap on their systems…

      You see, Microsoft and Sony make sure that other companies don’t defile their systems with utter garbage…

      Now the Wii was totally underpowered from the start, being less powerful than the XBOX-1… However, Mario Galaxy, Galaxy 2, Mario Kart Wii, Brawl, and Pokemon BR made me ignore that fact. But a chilling factor played in the Wii’s failure to impress me:

      The Wii has been around for 6 years, but the 5 games I mentioned above were the only games I EVER enjoyed on the system. Now doesn’t that say something to you?

      The 3DS has only been around for 1 year, and I already have 5 games that I enjoy more than any Wii game. And the 3DS isn’t being bombarded by useless crap like the Wii, DS and DSiWare.

      Nintendo has made the worst mistake they could have made in the 7th generation of video games: Not monitoring other developers’ projects for their Wii and DS.

      But they seem to have learned from that mistake with the 3DS and Wii U.

    • http://nintendo3dsbloglatino.blogspot.com AceNinty

      Look man. They have already said they made a mistake with not making the Wii a true 7th gen console. While they might not care about numbers, they do care about quality third-party support. Truth is, the dev kits are constantly changing to the developers needs, which means that the Wii U will not be a wiipeat. Listen to Nintendo, not to your 7th gen senses.

    • Trulaw

      @TurboPikachu The Sega Saturn wasn’t the weakest of it’s generation, it was the most advanced system (in a number of ways) of it’s generation but it was very hard for developers to program for.

  • Beat

    They’re gonna say stuff like this and at e3 be like “But we decided to have high specs and great experience of playing” followed by Zelda HD or something.

    …Hopefully.

  • SEGAGIGA

    The key here is that Nintendo does not want you to have very high expectations about the system. They want to make you experience it to believe what the system is truly capable of. This is the Big N giving you that poker face. Nintendo is playing their cards right this time, and I’m sure it will be one hell of a surprise once they lay them down on the table and rake in your hard earned cash this fall.

    • Pleasant

      This is it, right here. All you need to read to have common sense. Right here.

  • uriel

    i think people who think wii u will be a next gen powerhouse will be let down but at least its almost a guaranteed improvement of this current gen . but this might turn off alot of hardcore gamers who think this might be wii all over again and you know what its a possibility . i never believed it was going to be insanley powered anyway ..nintendo doesnt need that ..all they need id hd ,new ip, reamagined games ,and that great ninty charm and good competitive price and we have a wiipeat

  • idk

    ok just to get this straight,just because the wii sold the most doesnt make it the best console when in reality its the worst. Plus obviously since its the cheapest its gonna sell more,so the fact that it did sell a lot sais nothing. “QUALITY OVER QUANTITY” but the industry dosent follow tht saying…

    • D2K

      There is no such thing as the “best” or “worst” console. When you say “best” console what does that even mean? According to you? According to me? According to some guy on a website somewhere? According to the general consensus? Who makes that determination?

      If someone paid $600 dollars for a 320GB PS3 and they are happy with it, so be it. It was their money and they spent it on what they wanted. If someone spent $199 on a Wii and they are happy with it, so be it. They got their money’s worth. Each person bought each console because they felt that it was the best console FOR THEM.

      Bragging rights don’t pay the bills. The only statistic that matters at the end of the day is how many people bought your product, not whether or not your system has the most advanced specs. It doesn’t do you a whole lot of good when your product is sitting on the shelf. People laughed at Nintendo, and then they joined in on the laughter. All the way to the bank.

    • uriel

      yeah but ill be more specific then ….they need to reinvent there franchises in hd and make a captain falcon game ? maybe..

    • Grapefruit Assassin

      I hope you don’t run a business D2K, no one stayed rich resting on their laurels. Telling stories of how they set trends 30 years ago.

      The Wii is the most inferior console this generation anyway you slice it just because it sold more doesn’t make it the best it just makes Nintendo the richest.

      Costco may sell more hotdogs at $1.50 but that doesn’t mean their hotdog is better than Targets which is $2.50. In fact their hotdog taste like soggy crap don’t eat it…

  • alex

    I really don’t care if it is not powerful.
    It is a day one buy for sureeee
    :D

  • Grapefruit Assassin

    @D2K
    Now that I answered your question about the HD Wii you can you answer mine.

    Where are the awesome 3rd party games after 4 or 5 years D2K?

    How come we have yet to have any big Wii games in 2012 and why was the only blockbuster game released in 2011 Skyward Sword? That’s a huge drought.

    Also if you were so content with your Wii how come you own a 360?

    • D2K

      You did not answer my question at all. You just said that you did to use as a vehicle to ask me a question that has absolutely nothing to do with what we are talking about in order to try and salvage this epic disaster of your posts in this thread. But I will humor you because I am in a good mood and answer your question.

      The Wii was never built to have awesome 3rd party titles. The Wii was designed to introduce motion controls to the gaming industry. As I said earlier, the vast majority of people that bought Wii’s is because of Wii Sports, Wii Fit, and probably 1st party titles like SMG, SSBB, Zelda, etc.

      If Nintendo was serious about 3rd party titles they would have made it HD. Yes, 3rd party companies did not want to make games for the Wii because it was a system based off of the previous generation hardware. Not underpowered as you have convinced yourself off. They didn’t feel it was worth their time, and I never once before nor do I know have an issue with that. If it was HD there would have been no excuse to not make games for the Wii which is why the Wii U already has more 3rd party support than the Wii did because it is a powerful HD system. So yeah, the being a generation behind caused it to lose 3rd party support. The question is, at the end of the days did it really matter? NO. Nintendo has 94 million reasons why it didn’t matter. If Nintendo can take a system (using your words) that is “underpowered” compared to the current gen and has “less popular titles than the PS2 did” and lacked strong 3rd party support and win a console war going away, what do you think is going to happen when Nintendo released an OVERpowered system compared to the current gen that is in HD with strong 3rd party support with the Wii U.

      Why do I have an XBOX 360? That’s easy. It’s because I’m grown and I can buy what I want with my money. Gears Of War, is not on the Wii so I cannot play it there. Super Mario galaxy is not on the 360, therefore I cannot play it there. I like both games so in order to play both games I would have to buy both systems. Right? I mean this is a pretty simple concept to understand. Even a child could figure this out.

      If I was an immature fanboy, I would just buy Nintendo products or Microsoft products or Sony product and refuse to buy the others simply because of the name.

      In my life I’ve owned an Atari 2600, NES, SNES, PlayStation, N64, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, XBOX, PSP, XBOX 360, and Nintendo Wii. You see, THAT is the TRUE definition of a hardcore gamer. They play and buy anything that is of quality. Nintendo marketed the Wii as an “and” not an “or”. There was no reason not to have a 360 and a Wii, or an PS3 and an Wii because of the price. If the Wii was HD then it would have been significantly more expense and people would have had to make a choice. That being said I don’t think the Wii would have sold as much as it has, but would still be winning this console war by a very small margin.

      Nintendo only set trends 30 years ago? I guess PS Move, PS Vita, and Kinect are figments of my imagination. Nintendo has been consistently setting trends and is still doing it.

      It’s painfully obvious to an astronomical level of embarrassment that you are a Microsoft fanboy and are too ashamed to admit it. There is nothing else that needs to be said because you already have decide only only your opinion matters and the facts do not. So it’s a waste of my time to talk to you any further. I’m sure you will respond with some diatribe of saying I said things that I didn’t and then go into a dissertation as to why that viewpoint is wrong. Have at it pal. We are done here.

    • Grapefruit Assassin

      “The Wii was never built to have awesome 3rd party titles.” That sounds like an excuse to me D2X.

      I see it as complete bullshit. Nintendo didn’t intend to lose the 3rd party developers to their competition. Do you think thats how a business works? You’re 34 years old and have played games since chess was invented thats the DEFINITION OF A HARDCORE GAMER! Congratulations I’m 150 years old and commenting on an internet thread!

      I’m glad you totally missed my proof that majority of people don’t play their Wii’s according to a 2007 Famitsu poll. 67%

      I didn’t buy my Wii to just play 4 or 5 Nintendo games that’s icing. I’m sure you don’t mind long drought in games but I’m sure 90% of the people here with level heads would disagree with you.

      The reason you have a 360 isn’t because you are an adult its because you are supplementing what Nintendo couldn’t give you and that’s consistent quality games from developers other than themselves. Quit lying. That’s the reason I owned a PS2 in the last gen which is really where the Wii belongs in last gen.

      “More specifically, the reported analyses state that the Wii is roughly 1.5 to 2 times as powerful as its predecessor”- This is off of wikipidia.

      I found an article with Satoru Iwata agreeing with me.

      http://wii.ign.com/articles/116/1165674p1.html

      D2K your full of crap and at 34 you have a lot of learning to do.

      I’m a Nintendo Fanboy.

    • http://www.nintendoworlds.net TurboPikachu

      @Grapefruit Assassin:

      I’m in the same boat with my Nintendo Wii, Grapefruit Assassin. I’ve had the system for over 5 years now, and I’ve only ever liked 5 games out of its entire 700+ library of games, due to 80%+ of the library being made up of 3rd-party bargain-bin trash.

      Yet the 3DS has only been out for just over a year now, and I already more games than I have for the Wii, and I’ve enjoyed them more than I have ever enjoyed a Wii game.

      D2K, in case you haven’t noticed, Nintendo has stabbed their core audience in the back with the Wii and DS. You just can’t argue with that.

    • Grapefruit Assassin

      @ TurboPikachu

      You should tryout Taksunoku Vs Capcom, Monster Hunter Tri, Sin Punishment, Metroid Prime 3, DK Returns..

      These are all great games.. But it’s really out of 20 games out of the whole lifetime of the system I’m not joking here. I don’t think Nintendo pandered to the casual crowd solely on purpose but they did a poor balancing act.

      The Wiimote, lack of HD and lazy developers really ruined this system.

  • donzaloog

    D2K’s got it right. Nintendo may have had the weakest console this gen but they used, marketed and priced it right. It doesn’t matter who bought your console once they bought it and were satisifed with their purchase. That’s what Nintendo is all about. They said don’t focus on the specs.

    They want to give you a new experience with Wii U. And I bet they will deliver. Say what you will about Nintendo they keep the industry interesting. Sony and MS seem content to give you the same thing in a prettier package every few years. Nintendo is not like that, they want to improve how you play. Besides, they stated expressly when they released the Wii that it’s purpose was to bring in the audience that wouldn’t normally play games. Women, old people, younger kids. Now they have the best selling console on the market, take that audience that you introduced to gaming with Wii, and bring them to the next level with Wii U. Give birth to a new generation of gamers, right there.

    The Wii U only needs to be priced right, offer something that no other console can and have an active online community. It already has 1080p natively, the tablet controller is revolutionary and they are seeking outside help to improve their online capabilities. Nintendo is bringing out the big guns this time. Is your body ready?

    • D2K

      Mine body is! Until I know what the final specs are it is really hard for me to determine what I think a fair price would be. I’m thinking $299-$399. I can’t see it being cheaper or more expensive than that.

      I think that online is going to be a huge issue for the Wii U. It might not be a dealbreaker, but if it’s not done properly it could hurt the Wii U in the long run. Nintendo usually doesn’t get involved in something unless they feel that they can offer something the competition doesn’t or hasn’t. For instance, Nintendo dabbled in motion controls and 3D more than 30 years ago (even before Virtual Boy,) but only brought it back once they figured out how to make it work universally and for it to be affordable. To me that says that the online system for the Wii U could offer something we haven’t thought of yet. I guess we’ll see what happens.

  • Deadly Scream

    People are arguing to different styles of game play. I honestly think CANT compare them to each other.

    • Grapefruit Assassin

      D2K just doesn’t want to admit that the Wii was underpowered that’s the reason why 3rd party developers shunned it buy and large large.

      He want to throw sales number around but it still doesn’t change the fact that there are probably only 20 good games on the Wii after 5 or 6 years. That’s pathetic.
      PS2 also a “weak” system probably has somewhere around 80 good games over its lifetime. He can’t argue that.

    • Deadly Scream

      @Grapefruit Assassin I don’t agree with you nor D2K. All this debating doesn’t matter to me because these are all based on opinions. Like me saying they cant be compared because there 2 different styles of game play. That’s my opinion on this subject.

    • Grapefruit Assassin

      You are correct about the two different styles of game play.

      We are actually debating 3 different things.

      I am debating that WiiU needs to be powerful (more powerful than the current gen) to garner 3rd party support which is true and that they need to learn from the competition moving forward. Like emulating what X-Box has done with X-box live and being more with independent developers.

      You are talking about game play styles which will ultimately set the big three apart.

      And D2K is arguing that Nintendo has nothing to learn based on sales and past accomplishments and being in the gaming business the longest.

      If that were true Blockbuster < Netflix, they had some growing to do. They went bankrupt and got bought out by Dish Network all because they refused to change or changed too late.

      Developers need a bigger sandbox but not so big that its too expensive.

      http://wii.ign.com/articles/116/1165674p1.html

  • a gamer apart

    thats because nintendo clearly know what there talking about ARE PEOPLE STILL PLAYING SUPER MARIO 123 I THINK SO

    are people playing dlc virtual console games yes i think so are 2d games still being played and purchased oh again i think so

    at no point has nintendo stated anything but the above commonsense does mario 64 become irreverent because of a 10 grand powerhouse pc with 10 graphics cards i think not

    does a top of the line power mac with 8 gig of ram make sonic the hedgehog irreverent i dont think so

    anyone who thinks this statement by Nintendo admits a shortage of power IS ON INDUSTRY CRACK

  • tbpb2010

    I know so many people use the phrase “Quality over Quantitiy” to defend Nintendo’s philosophy of putting emphasis on “interesting” ways to present and play a game on their consoles vs making their consoles the most advanced and being technically flexible. I’ve always felt Nintendo should focus on both equally.

    While it is great that a game company can produce revolutionary concepts and ideas that drives the gaming industry, that company also needs a good system to back those games up which also appeals to 3rd party developers who can have potential breathing room on these systems and can push them to its limits. Something like this would greatly appease the wants of the audience.

    Nintendo can still be Nintendo, I mean its pretty obvious that their creative influence is a necessity in the gaming market (i.e. it makes their competitors try harder to be creative too which I see as a very good thing) I just think its time for Nintendo to push their system capabilities to higher limits than they previously have done, relative to the competition while maintaining that creative charm. I’m hoping for the Wii-U to be the result of this :D

    Of course something like this would be extremely hard to do since no next-gen consoles from any other companies have been released yet and the pricing of their systems would of course be affected. I guess only time will tell how the Wii-U will really stack against its generation of competition.

    Srry for the somewhat big wall-o-text but hey I had alot to say ;)