Nintendo Wii U

atomicdomb

So I would like to discuss this with you guys.

It's no joke that the Wii U game drought really hurt sales of the console, especially in South Africa (so much so that incredible connection offered the deluxe version of the system for R950!!, the lowest price a brand new WiiU has been every sold at). However I feel the system is really interesting and has an awesome selection of games at the moment, Super Mario 3D world, Pikmen 3, Wind Waker to name my personal must haves.

I personally don't understand the medias obsession with predicting Nintendo's Death. I have read an odd 25 articles (most from Motley fool, lol?). I ordered my Wii U for Christmas now because I feel it has the best value for money (2 games + the 32GB console for R3799 on Kalahari) and the best line up of games for the next Gen consoles.

The system is super interesting for devs as well, with the touch screen controller and other features.

The obvious stuff aside, Sony really needed to make the PS4 work and I'm glad they did because they have lost 9 Billion US$ in the last 10 years on electronics, admitantly their insurance company made more than enough to cover for that, however I do want to see gaming consoles from them and Microsoft and Nintendo as I enjoy the 3 console wars at the moment. Nintendo has enough money banked and doesn't sell consoles at a loss to ever be in any real trouble, one must remember that games is Nintendo's only focus.

What do you guys think of the Wii U?

What do you guys think of Shigeru Miyamoto's latest masterpiece (Super Mario 3D world).

Miyamoto is my personal absolute role model as a designer (I love his games!!)

Karuji

People said that the 3DS was dead in the water when it came out. Now it is a must have.

People like counting Nintendo out for some reason. But they have been in the console game far longer than their competition, and they seem to know what they are doing ;)

The Wii U won't be another Wii, but then again most people didn't see the Wii being what it was.

Only time will really tell.

---

From a design space the Wii U is the most interesting of the consoles since you need to think differently when working with it. I would love to play around with it, and I know that Ninty offer a Unity Pro license with their dev kits, so it's one of the reasons I am trying to get my Unity skills down since it is a space I would like to explore.

What do I think of Super Mario World? Haven't tried it but the trailers I saw made me super keen to steal someone's Wii U for a weekend and play it.

Bensonance

I agree with @Karuji in that the Wii U is a really exciting design space. One of my favourite designed games of the momement is that of Zombie U and specifically its multiplayer (although the controls are horrid). Using the tablet as a Zombie King, while the other player operates in a traditional FPS manner is so interesting and fun to play.

Having said that, I wouldn't touch developing for it professionally with a ten foot pole. Nintendo really screwed up with their marketing this time round. They knew the Wii U wasnt really a device that their current market would want ('casual' / children/ @rumor ), it's more of a hardcore gamer's console. Problem is, they didn't explain well enough to anyone that this was the case, so their Wii users think Wii U is the same thing as a Wii and the 'hardcore' gamers turn their noses up at the console because they think it's more casual aligned. Even if they did know it was targeted at them, technically it's pretty far from other Next-gen machines, and frankly, that's just about all the hardcore gamers care about :/. Developing for a machine that has no idea what it's target market is, and doesn't know how to market to that in any case, is pretty dangerous.

@rumor should get in on this - he's a big Nintendo fan :).

colinGravity

Wii U is awesome. I don't understand the negativity. I got mine on launch day and haven't regretted it for a second. Some of the games on the system are ridiculously good.

Haven't been able to play 3D World yet - 11 days to go!

Really interested in developing for it. The gamepad is a great controller, I find it incredibly comfortable, and I actually prefer playing simpler games on it than on the TV.

But in SA, Nintendo seems to be giving up. I can only assume this, because they barely have a presence in any stores and many games are near impossible to get hold of. Been trying to find a copy of Fire Emblem: Awakening, can't seem to get it anywhere. Really sad.

Tuism

I feel there's two things that are in tension when thinking about developing for Wii U:

Unique platform-specific game idea/mechanic <------------> Idea/mechanics that works well across multiple platforms.

Can you guarantee the former well enough that it outweighs your potential in the latter? The same could be said of any novel platform, really. Oculus Rift, Sifteos, that Omni-treadmill thing, etc.

Of course that's a strategic thought, otherwise in terms of creative, yeah, it's a really exciting space that *could* work awesomely given the right circumstance, environment and dev.

But I think, make a game first before worrying about what platform it goes on. Don't reverse-dream.

atomicdomb

Haha yeah I feel the WiiU is going to have an interesting console cycle to say the least :)

I suppose I can say this now (I hope, so keep it on the downlow). Pixel Boy will be coming to the Wii U :) After some interesting talks with Nintendo. We are personally super excited to start developing for the console and are interested to see what unique features we can make for the game and how the DevKits work with Unity :)

FanieG

As a gaming retailer, I would just like to mention that the biggest reason people are not buying the Wii U is the local distributor's fault. Not game line-up. There are plenty of titles, and good ones. But the suppliers have a monopoly on some of the titles and at the cost they are selling it at, it is just not viable for retailers to buy and resell. Nintendo have always gone for the casual gamers and kids, and those gamers are not willing to pay R1000 for a title. Our company are no longer buying in Wii U because of this. The other consoles are just easier sells because of features vs price point.

atomicdomb

I feel this is why Nintendo will see a surge of sales when games are primarily downloaded and the idea of game retailers becomes more or less obsolete (which sadly will inevitably happen, not for a good while, but sooner or later a boxed copy of a game will become a niche commodity as opposed to the primary way of purchasing video games)

FanieG

@atomicdomb - Thanks for calling me "soon to be obsolete" :)

atomicdomb

@FanieG - I didn't mean for it to come out that way >.< Haha my bad!!! Fuck that sounds bad after I re-read it :P. What I really meant to say is that Nintendo won't need to sell games for R700+ as they can sell them cheaper digitally meaning a retail shop could stock a Nintendo console without having to give up shelf space to the games :P

FanieG

@atomicdomb - All good man. lol.

rumor

@bensonace haha thank man XD

Yip im a total Nintendo fan :) I have my WiiU and sadly havent bought any games of late as the Distributors in SA dont give a f*ck about promotion and sales, they just think it will sell itself and sadly have brought no game stock into SA, and it was like that even with the wii and the gamecube.

Thankfully they did bring in the Gamecube, before that there was no official company distributing Nintendo in South Africa and thats why you could buy a PS(Distributed by Sterkinekor which is a power house of distribution in SA) but no N64 :'( but thats about as far as the company goes. I have always had to order or buy the games I want from overseas. Im a crazy holiday shopper, I would save up cash so that when I went to visit family in EU or Aus, I could go to the closest GameShop and bath in there Nintendo selection and Nintendo events. If anyone plays pokemon here, you would know how much it sucks as they never do the pokemon events, where you can catch a special limited pokemon by going to an event day.

This Fan boys rant if over :D

Developing for Nintendo would be awesome :) *jealous of pixelboy* :D When I get some down time im going to be playing some Pikmin 3 or WindWakerd HD(Freaking loved the original)

Karuji

@Atomicdomb one of the weird things for me is that the 3DS is completely separate from the Wii U as far as dev and use goes. Which I find really weird considering how Sony has been trying to bring the two together, in terms of both dev and consumer use.

So kinda curious what your thoughts on PB for the 3DS would be?

atomicdomb

@Karuji We would love to bring PB to 3DS however as it stands until Unity support for 3DS becomes a thing that might be a pipe dream >.< considering how a 3DS build would have to be natively reworked, it is an extremely interesting platform though!!

I would love to see what Nintendo do with the 3DS in the next year or so, as the Wii U and 3DS e-shops just recently got merged (I think the accounts got merged) meaning we could see a software merge in the near future which would allow (hopefully) us WiiU users to be able to play 3DS games on WiiU :) If Nintendo do this we could see some great synergy with the devices and probably a massive wiiU surge however I tentatively think that won't happen (due to the possibility of the sales of the one dwarfing the sales of the other)

I believe the reason 3DS is different from a dev perspective is due to the fact that it was created as a separate piece of hardware at an earlier stage, We might actually see Unity support for it soon (I REALLY hope so haha) but until then I still think the WiiU is a rad piece of hardware :)

colinGravity

@Tuism I know what you mean about making a decision based on that tension, but I find the advantages of the gamepad to be quite subtle, and don't really make a game unplayable on another system, just better on Wii U. Having off-TV play is fantastic. Local 2player games where you each have your own screen are the best. Menus that you don't have to pause to use are great too.

But I keep hearing about this quest for a killer app that sells the idea of Wii U and I struggle to understand it. I think people who say this are comparing it directly to the Wii and Wii Sports. But the Gamepad doesn't overturn the tea table in the same way. It jsut kind of makes everything better. Or at least that's what I think.

@rumor Nintendo's SA distributors are a special kind of useless. I had some trouble transferring my Wii data to my Wii U. I tried to get help from Nintendo SA, and after a while I had to come to the conclusion that no one there had ever actually turned on a Wii U, since they were giving me blatantly incorrect info about basic menus.

@atomindomb Wow - I'm so jealous. That's amazing. I'm busy working on developing a new design that I fantasize about bringing to Wii U, but it feels completely out of reach. Well done!

colinGravity

As fun follow up re Nintendo SA distribution. I decided after a long search to just email the distributor about where to find a copy of Fire Emblem. They just replied, sending me to a link to bid or buy, where someone is selling the game for R758.

astounding.

EvanGreenwood

Just regarding one thing in @atomicdomb 's initial statement.

The media love to tout how badly Wii U has sold. It has sold pretty badly thus far, though I've heard there has been a little bit of an increase in sales due to Super Mario 3D land. I think the media got so into it because Nintendo was the king in the last generation... and is the king with the 3DS as far as handhelds go. People love to hear stories about winners failing, and so the media amplified the facts for a bit (though I think everyone is mostly over it now).

On a purely personal note. The Wii U is going to be my first current gen console (when I have the money to spend). Obviously it's a question of my taste, but I'm not really excited about any of the exclusives on PS4 or XBOX ONE (and the indies will all come to PC)... until Last Guardian that is.

And I totally envy @atomicdomb developing for Nintendo :)

atomicdomb

@colinGravity, @BlackShipsFilltheSky, Thanks guys! We are just filling in the tons of Paperwork from Nintendo >.< They need to know so many arb details :P But they have been super pleasant to speak to and work with :)

I'm getting my Wii U in 4 days!! haha I bought it and it arrived but I'm saving it for Christmas :) Got the Super Mario and Super Luigi bundle off Kalahari, It's AMAZING VALUE! Remember how the ZombieU bundle was like R5000 and the 8Gig basic version was like R4000 well you can get the Mario + Luigi Bundle for R3700 that the 32 Gig WiiU + 2 Games and it delivers QUICK :P

On that note I've sunk a stupid amount of time into desktop dungeons during the holiday (just over 50 hours!) Damn some indies can really be inspiring :)

@BlackShipsFilltheSky, Ps4 and Xbox One exclusive don't excite me as of yet either :/ Last Guardian is going to be the tits though!

colinGravity

@atomicdomb speaking of amazing value - Zombi U will be on sale for £7.99 on the eShop form the 26th.

I wonder if the Last Guardian will make it to PS4 or if we'll have to wait for PS5 ;)