Nintendo Wii U Costs Around $300: Sources

[Mega-Japan]

@FordGT90Concept

1. Yes, and Ubisoft (read: non-anonymous) also said the system was several times more powerful. It's a rumor, you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet. Or else we all could be Nigerian millionaires by now.
2. With that logic, we could argue that the Wii has the best games ever, or that the PSP has no games. GameCube did have many great games. Resident Evil library, Pikmin 1 & 2, Star Fox, Mario Sunshine, just to name a few.

 

[xenocide]

You forgot to mention married women regardless of age Also bought the Wii. This alone was a massive market never touched before by a video game console. Another reason why Wii outsold both XBox360 & PS3.

Once again, it looks like Nintendo will is going to let both Sony and MS fight each other.

You're making it sound as though the only thing that matters is hardware sales. When you look at the Software side, Nintendo failled hard compared to Sony and Microsoft. They had almost no high quality 3rd party titles (If you say Monster Hunter I will fist you), which meant even if every single person bought a Wii, they were only playing Wii Sports and maybe one other game. Compare that to PS3 and 360 owners, who own dozens of games. Microsoft sold the 360 at a loss knowing Hardware sales wouldn't be the answer, instead they focused on the Software side, and once the manufacturing cost of the system came down, and developers abandoned the Wii, they started making very good money.

I think them cutting costs is a cause for concern. Those tablets not having their own processors is also a concern, because it means they are cheaper, but are infinitely less capable, and put more strain on the system. As I said in the past, it basically means anything displayed on the tablet is processed on the console, and then sent wirelessly to the controller. This means there is tons of information being streamed to and from the system and controller, making dropped signals more common and a huge hinderance (several dev blogs have mentioned this but people are just taking Nintendo's word for it).

I expect the Wii U to be a pretty big failure. If they really are cutting costs expect a weaker GPU and CPU than originally detailed, and the controllers to feel really flimsy and cheap.

 

[Mega-Japan]

They had almost no high quality 3rd party titles (If you say Monster Hunter I will fist you), which meant even if every single person bought a Wii, they were only playing Wii Sports and maybe one other game. Compare that to PS3 and 360 owners, who own dozens of games.

My games for Wii:
-LoZ: Twilight Princess
-Super Mario Galaxy
-Super Mario Galaxy 2
-Super Smash Bros Brawl
-Kirby: Epic Yarn
-Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
-Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
-No More Heroes
-Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
-Pokemon Battle Revolution
To get:
-LoZ: Skyward Sword
-Xenoblade Chronicles
-The Last Story
-Pandora's Tower (if released in NA)

PS3 games:
-Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe
-Mortal Kombat
To get:
-Tales of Graces f

360 games (before I sold it):
-Gears of Wars 2
-Tales of Vesperia

PC games:
-A lot

 

[xenocide]

So you have 10 Wii Games, making you definitely an outlier. To reinforce my point about 3rd party development, of the games you have 6 or 7 of them are Nintendo IP.

 

[Mega-Japan]

So you have 10 Wii Games, making you definitely an outlier. To reinforce my point about 3rd party development, of the games you have 6 or 7 of them are Nintendo IP.

That is because they just happen to be the best. Even if FFXIII, MGS3, Assassin's Creed 2, Resident Evil 5, and the likes were somehow released on Wii, the Nintendo games will still stand out more. Really, if I wanted much more superior graphics and online experience, I'd stick to PC, not PS3/360. PS3 serves as a nice blu-ray player...

 

[FordGT90Concept]

1. Yes, and Ubisoft (read: non-anonymous) also said the system was several times more powerful. It's a rumor, you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet. Or else we all could be Nigerian millionaires by now.

Linkage? Everything I see about Ubisoft commenting on the Wii U suggests the Wii U is "several times more powerful" than the Wii (like comparing a snail to a turtle). I don't see anything that remotely suggests it comes anywhere close to the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. If anything, they are dodging the topic.

2. With that logic, we could argue that the Wii has the best games ever, or that the PSP has no games. GameCube did have many great games. Resident Evil library, Pikmin 1 & 2, Star Fox, Mario Sunshine, just to name a few.

The control scheme is what sold the Wii, not the titles. A dozen "great" titles is pathetic for a console that was released and discontinued in 6 years. That's two titles a year. Even the Wii can beat those figures.

 

[xenocide]

That is because they just happen to be the best. Even if FFXIII, MGS3, Assassin's Creed 2, Resident Evil 5, and the likes were somehow released on Wii, the Nintendo games will still stand out more. Really, if I wanted much more superior graphics and online experience, I'd stick to PC, not PS3/360. PS3 serves as a nice blu-ray player...

My argument is they only stick out so much because they have no good 3rd Party games. It doesn't have anything like Assassin's Creed or Metal Gear Solid. It had a few games, No More Heroes comes to mind, but other than that it's basically a game of "wait for the next Mario\Zelda\Metroid", and the offerings of even those on the Wii are--imo--much worse than they could have been. Look at the Zelda Tech Demo from the Wii U, imagine you got a game like that instead of Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword, 1-4 years ago. You can NOT tell me you wouldn't have enjoyed it that much more.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Its sad to think in a few years we won't be building PC's like we used to. But its also cool to think of all the possibilities tablets with powerful hardware will do for us.

Speak for yourself dude. Stronger as they could be, laptops or tablets could never be as strong as a desktop. Personally I own both, but even my old 10 years old desktop is like 10x times more powerful than the latest tablet model. Common, wake up to reality.

 

[digibucc]

Speak for yourself dude. Stronger as they could be, laptops or tablets could never be as strong as a desktop. Personally I own both, but even my old 10 years old desktop is like 10x times more powerful than the latest tablet model. Common, wake up to reality.

that's simply untrue, the eeepad transformer prime has a quad core 1ghz processor and a gb of ram - that's more powerful than many decade old computers.

you seem to forget, how much of the market we enthusiasts actually comprise - it is small. even if every one of us bought new hardware every year, that would not be enough to keep the companies making this hardware afloat, and they will go under.

enthusiast pc building will still exist, but it will be much simpler, with less choices and less variance between those choices then there are today.

 

[TheMailMan78]

@FordGT90Concept

1. Yes, and Ubisoft (read: non-anonymous) also said the system was several times more powerful. It's a rumor, you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet. Or else we all could be Nigerian millionaires by now.
2. With that logic, we could argue that the Wii has the best games ever, or that the PSP has no games. GameCube did have many great games. Resident Evil library, Pikmin 1 & 2, Star Fox, Mario Sunshine, just to name a few.

Mega don't bother arguing. He argues about everything and posts speculation and rumor as fact. Its Ford. Just let it ago. I troll. Ford argues. Its the natural order of TPU. We just have to respect each other!

 

[ZoneDymo]

gosh. i'm sorry. i thought i was entitled to my own opinion.

and my opinion is that it looks like crap and i dont want to be using some gimmick controller

Apology accepted, but on a more serious not, I never said you weren't entitled to your own opinion now did I?
I just pointed out that it is an opinion stemming from pure ignorance, which it is.

 

[ZoneDymo]

1. Developers said the Wii U is less powerful than the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Expect the Wii U to be 5-6 years behind the next Microsoft and Sony offering from a hardware standpoint (just like the Wii was when it came out).

2. The numbers speak for themselves. Remember, the Wii was Nintendo's last ditch effort at making a console. If it flopped like the GameCube, Nintendo was only going to make portable consoles (Nintendo DS and sons).

1. "The developers said" is a rather big and skewed statement to make, I know of that article and ill take it with a grain of salt but once again it does not matter as multiple 3rd part devs already said they are making their games for the WiiU.

2. Never said the Gamecube was not considered a flop did I?
Did you even read what I typed because I did not correct you on that point at all as it is fact that everyone considers the gamecube a flop.

 

[brandonwh64]

I somehow like the controller. I hope that its comfortable in your hands and you do not have to interact with the small screen much.

 

[Super XP]

My argument is they only stick out so much because they have no good 3rd Party games. It doesn't have anything like Assassin's Creed or Metal Gear Solid. It had a few games, No More Heroes comes to mind, but other than that it's basically a game of "wait for the next Mario\Zelda\Metroid", and the offerings of even those on the Wii are--imo--much worse than they could have been. Look at the Zelda Tech Demo from the Wii U, imagine you got a game like that instead of Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword, 1-4 years ago. You can NOT tell me you wouldn't have enjoyed it that much more.

Nintendo software and hardware sales were superior versus both MS and Sony combined. This was a unique strategy they chose to pursue. Anyhow it took both MS and Sony several years to catch up.

 

[digibucc]

they are separating software from hardware, and doing that you DO see that they sold a lot more hardware than software.

as a bonus, they actually made money on each hardware unit sold, whereas xbox lost the first year and sony the first few. it's only the last year or two they began to be able to make a profit on hardware too.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

1. "The developers said" is a rather big and skewed statement to make, I know of that article and ill take it with a grain of salt but once again it does not matter as multiple 3rd part devs already said they are making their games for the WiiU.

Ubisoft and EA--they're the ones that made a fortune on the Wii (especially Ubi with the Rayman titles). They're not drawing in Capcom, Activision, THQ, Eidos, Square Enix, and the other big publishers. That doesn't exactly send a message of confidence.

And once again, the Wii U being very unique from the others, many developers are still going to steer clear because they can't easily port titles. The games for Wii U have to be developed from the ground up for the Wii U. That's costly and a huge risk because only a few select titles (most of them Nintendo) ever gain much traction on the platform.

 

[xenocide]

Nintendo software and hardware sales were superior versus both MS and Sony combined. This was a unique strategy they chose to pursue. Anyhow it took both MS and Sony several years to catch up.

Nintendo's total sales is higher, yes, but my argument was their Software side isn't making as much money as Microsoft or Sony. People buy Wii's, then over the past 6-7 years, have only bought a handful of games. My parents got a Wii for my siblings, and bought 3 different Just Dance games, and got Wii Fit as a gift for Xmas. That's it. Compare that to me with my PS3, I've bought over a dozen games.

I think it comes down to the audience. Nintendo is targetting families and "casual" gamers, meaning they want to sell them a really low budget system, and make a massive return on the system, and maybe a couple games, since these people don't sit down and play a lot of games. Sony\Microsoft are targetting "hardcore" gamers, so they sold their system at a loss, and then bank on the consumer to buy dozens of games once they have the system, and continue to do so over the entire life of the system.

Look at the difference between the 2 charts you posted, Nintendo's share of the $10.3B dropped 15.1% from the previous year. This all happened while Sony's share went up 4.6% and Microsoft's an astonishing 10.6%. The next chart probably shows an even split of ~33% for each company. I even would go so far as to say Nintendo will be pass by at least one of those companies. Wii sales have been dropping hard, and they just don't have the game catalog to make up for it. Looking at VGChartz, the Wii has been selling around 70,000~80,000 units a week, compared to 150,000~200,000 for the PS3, and 100,000~150,000 for the Xbox 360.

It is clear Nintendo needs to have better Software if they want their system to continue selling through the entire life cycle. That's what made the PS2 so successful. To make their system more attractive to developers they need to not only sell a lot of units, but be able to make sure the developers are well supported with adequate hardware, and a userbase that will actually buy their games.

 

[Nihilus]

The whole gameplay matters only argument will kill Wiiu sales. Everyone has a Wii already, so what incentive is there to buy WiiU?? Casual wii gamers will not care about Just Dance 7 HD. The only ones that will upgrade are hardcore Wii owners on this site looking to get Tales of Symphonia: Fairies of Time or Zelda: Links Rapeing HD

 

[TheMailMan78]

Yup and the Wii was gonna fail because the casual market would never outsell the hardcore market.......lol

Then it was "The Wii controller is just a gimmick. Its a fad". Then MS and Sony tried to knock it off and they sucked.

Now there is a RUMOR the WiiU will be under powered and everyone takes it as fact when SO MANY developers have already signed on and are making games for it. You people just don't get it. Doesn't matter about hardware. Its all in the marketing. Want an example? Call of Duty.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

The Wii U is going to sell very well and likely better than what Microsoft and Sony have cooking because it is releasing first and by at least a year and again appeals to a broader demographic. The hardware is likely crap like the Wii but also like the Wii, that's not what made it sell.

 

[brandonwh64]

Yup and the Wii was gonna fail because the casual market would never outsell the hardcore market.......lol

Then it was "The Wii controller is just a gimmick. Its a fad". Then MS and Sony tried to knock it off and they sucked.

Now there is a RUMOR the WiiU will be under powered and everyone takes it as fact when SO MANY developers have already signed on and are making games for it. You people just don't get it. Doesn't matter about hardware. Its all in the marketing. Want an example? Call of Duty.

The Wii U is going to sell very well and likely better than what Microsoft and Sony have cooking because it is releasing first and by at least a year and again appeals to a broader demographic. The hardware is likely crap like the Wii but also like the Wii, that's not what made it sell.

As long as this console can play the cartoonish mario games in semi HD I will be happy.

 

[TheMailMan78]

As long as this console can play the cartoonish mario games in semi HD I will be happy.

Day one buy for me as well! Love Mario and Donkey Kong. Plus Ninja Gaiden as a launch title!?!?! BOUGHT!

 

[brandonwh64]

The new super mario for WII was the all time SHIT! It made me cry just by playing it and remember how many NES controllers I broken on my VERY old MAGNAVOX TV over the original Super Mario 1, 2, and 3 LOL

Also if you have the WII 720P HD cable this game looks beautiful!

 

[digibucc]

seriously. Mario Galaxies were good, New Super Mario was (as brandon said) the all time shit, and Donkey Kong Returns was awesome. add to that Skyward Sword and i'm sure a few others. those games are worth buying a $200 console for imo.

 

[TheMailMan78]

seriously. Mario Galaxies were good, New Super Mario was (as brandon said) the all time shit, and Donkey Kong Returns was awesome. add to that Skyward Sword and i'm sure a few others. those games are worth buying a $200 console for imo.

Exactly. Everything else I have on the PC.