It's fair to say the biggest reveal at E3 this year was undoubtedly the Wii U, Nintendo's new console. This piece of hardware will have 1080p HD capabilities, a touch screen in the controller, a killer set of launch games, motion controls and is intended to bridge the gap between casual and core gamers. And yet, since revealing this console on Tuesday, Nintendo's stock has dropped roughly 10%, from ¥17960.00 to ¥16160.00, the closing price last night.
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| The Wii U console, controller and a very pretty Zelda tech demo |
When it comes to the Wii U, reactions are as varied as they come, with some fans singing its praises and others wondering who would spawn such a thing. Many Nintendo investors are apparently skeptical if such a console can really sell, and they have sold their stock in Nintendo, causing the price drop.
The Wii U has some obvious problems, such as the clunky controller, the projected $250 price tag and the fact that (at the moment) it only supports one Wii U controller at a time. Not to mention the opinion that Shigeru Miyamoto holds. The president of Nintendo believes that the Wii's lack of HD is all that created the casual/core gap.
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| How can you not trust this face? |
The Wii is a casual console for casual gamers; most of its games, controls and user interfaces appeal to a wide audience of part-time gamers, not the core crowd that flock to Sony and Microsoft, and it'll take more than a graphics update to change that for the Wii U. Making your controller look like an iPad is not helping, either.
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| A closer look at the console itself |
The new system will start off with a strong launch lineup, which should help in the sales department. A new Super Smash Bros., Batman: Arkham City, Assassin's Creed, Darksiders 2, Tekken, Ninja Gaiden 3 and more will help this console off its feet. That's a better batch of games than the 3DS got with it's reveal, so there may be hope yet.
So this is a whole new console I thought it was just a remote at first. Good God how many consoles are they going to put out there? I guess it's ok for the parents who don't mind shelling out hundreds of dollars to give their teenagers new consoles each year. It might be ok but you know they're going to put it out, sell it for the $250, then fix all the stuff that's wrong with it and put the new one out the next year for $350, and they'll sell it just the same.
ReplyDeleteThe entire Nintendo press conference served no practical purpose. The console is a year away from even 'talking' about a release. They didn't even address the console itself and just focused on the unusual controller. They didn't show any games to support their arguments and instead left it to dinky tech demos and our imagination. The controller is awkward and difficult to get used to. And to top it all off they showed no Wii games during the conference and overall only have 2 lined up.
ReplyDeleteBasically, they just confused and frustrated a lot of people more so than they were before and they shot their Wii sales in the foot by bringing up the new console to begin with...not that they were stellar before. The only thing Nintendo has to carry them for a year+ is the 3DS...which has slow sales because of high price and no content, meanwhile their competitor just announced their new handheld which is vastly more capable, the same price, and an intense launch lineup planned. I think THAT may have a bit to do with the decline. Best way to sum it up is that Iwata doesn't understand why the stocks are going down and most of the press don't know what to make of the console. If none of them understand then how are the consumers supposed to understand just going off of videos and pictures?
Nintendo couldn't have done much worse with their campaign thus far.