The Wii U is not a next gen console and is still based on old tech. A giant controller with a screen may appeal to the kiddies, but any seasoned gamer knows to save there money for something worth their money. You Nintendo fanboys and girls may get a lil butt-hurt over this comment, but that is because you are in denial and can't handle the truth.

Wasn't planning on buying one right away but GB's Quicklook of ZombiU tipped me over the edge and I preordered a WiiU and ZombiU (plus Mario for the Mrs) earlier this week - fingers crossed Blockbuster get the order through in time!

Decided to get the 8GB version as I have no interest in NintendoLand and I'm going to use an External HDD anywho.

Nope. I am waiting. After getting the DS and Wii at launch, I've learned my lesson about buying hardware at launch, and with the issues/bugs the Wii U is having at launch (load times, freezing, online connection issues, no TVii, etc.), sounds as if I made the right choice. I'll probably buy it in 12-18 months after launch, like I did with the 3DS XL, when it has (hopefully) gained a few good/great titles, and the bugs have (hopefully) been fixed/improved.

@pandorasbox said:

@iAmJohn said:

Kinect, which currently (inexplicably) still has zeitgeist on its side, and scores of excellent games you can get for really cheap. It really shouldn't be that surprising.

What?

Edit: Also, you should keep in mind that the original Wii completely sold out in the first week of it's release. The market went COMPLETELY dry. It was literally impossible for the original Wii to sell more units, because there were zero more units to be sold. The situation is different for the WiiU.

The Kinect is still popular for god knows what reason, and the 360 has a ton of excellent games that you can get for really cheap now because they're super old. Where is the problem with what I wrote?

And while it's true that the Wii sold out relatively quickly and had supply chain issues for a long time (didn't stop me from being able to walk into a random FYE and grab one for regular price that December, though) bear in mind that 2006 also had a much stronger economy and a more marketably unique system at a lower price point. And yet even with all that, the Wii U still managed to do close to the Wii's numbers and is sold out in a lot of places in spite of the conflicting reports. (I live in New York, and unless there's some Gamestop in the Bronx with them that no one's talking about, pretty much the only way to get a deluxe is to line up outside the Nintendo Store before it opens.)

My point being, much like people did when the 3DS stumbled out the gate, people are so eager to call this Nintendo's waterloo that they're ignoring the realities of the market and the trends of the previous systems.

@iAmJohn said:

Kinect, which currently (inexplicably) still has zeitgeist on its side, and scores of excellent games you can get for really cheap. It really shouldn't be that surprising.

What?

Edit: Also, you should keep in mind that the original Wii completely sold out in the first week of it's release. The market went COMPLETELY dry. It was literally impossible for the original Wii to sell more units, because there were zero more units to be sold. The situation is different for the WiiU.

@BPRJCTX said:

@Fattony12000 said:

In other home-based SCART-connected video system console gaming computer news...

Microsoft sells 750,000 Xbox consoles on Black Friday weekend after seven years of sales

Microsoft revealed today that it has sold more than 750,000 Xbox 360 consoles in the US on Black Friday weekend. Despite being seven years old, the Xbox 360's strong Black Friday sales follow 22 months as the top selling console in the US, according to NPD figures. While the sales are impressive, Microsoft managed to sell more than 960,000 consoles in the US during the week of Black Friday last year, with 800,000 sold within a period of 24 hours.

Microsoft now faces increased competition from Nintendo's Wii U console, which debuted in the US earlier this month. The Wii U sales surpassed 400,000 during its launch week, with the original Wii still commanding 300,000 sales. The surprising spike in sales for the Xbox 360 comes shortly after the release of Halo 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops II, both popular titles this holiday season. NPD sales data will be available in early December, which will determine the top performer for November, but it looks like Microsoft will likely hold on to its bestselling record, for now.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/27/3698428/microsoft-xbox-360-black-friday-sales-figures-2012

Wow... When i saw the number of Wii U's sold in the article, i tought to myself, that seeems low... But maybe it's just the economy, and the industry is down for everybody, but man... Those 360 sales, really make Nintendo look bad.

A 7 year old console sold more than a new Nintedo console.

I don't know man, i don't think Nintendo is happy, and i fear that if the Wii U doesn't become the new fad like the Wii did, Nintendo is gonna be in a really bad spot pretty soon.

The PS2 outsold both the Wii and the 360 (to say nothing of PS3) in the Wii's first month out, too. It's a seven year old console, which means there's a ton of really competitive deals for it, the Kinect, which currently (inexplicably) still has zeitgeist on its side, and scores of excellent games you can get for really cheap. It really shouldn't be that surprising.

@Nettacki: You either have a strong resolve, or just a lot of common sense.. maybe both, Either way I'm envious of you!

@Nettacki said:

@thebigJ_A: That seems impressive, but where's a straight up sales figure in number of purchases made? Don't get me wrong, I have no doubts about Steam's big-time success, but a more specific sales figure would be nice.

There isnt any, they dont get reported. When you consider some of the biggest selling games of all time are pc games, omitting online sales aswell, then you have to wonder why they omit. Diablo 3 for example sold 10 million copies. How many more do you think bought online? Unless that does include online aswell, i am not sure it seems vague in its citations, despite saying the NPD omits it in the paragraph above.

I didn't pick one up and I probably won't until early next year when I get my tax return. By then I am hoping some more impressive titles come out, but just for fun if I had to pick up some games with it today, I'd probably go with Zombi U and Assassin's Creed 3. Maybe Madden if I was feeling particularly generous.

@Nettacki said:

@thebigJ_A said:

Since I built a proper gaming PC last year, (it's not as expensive, nor anything like as difficult, as you think. Everyone should try it. Even you. Yes, you.) the release of new consoles, which used to get me excited, is completely irrelevant. As far as power goes, I'm already two generations ahead of whatever the NEXT xbox or Playstation can do. I also have a far larger variety of games, and they all look better. Sure, there's always one or two games exclusive to the console I'd like to play (ZombieU in this case), but weigh that against the dozens or hundreds of games only a PC gamer has access to. Hell, there are entire genres of games that are exclusive to PCs.

In other words, what's a console, and why do people still care?

And yet, more people still buy more consoles and games on consoles than they buy PC games. Gee, I wonder why?

It's easy to make bald assertions, but can you back them up with data? The majority of PC game sales are direct download, and none of those are reported in overall gaming sales figures (like, say, NPD). Consumer reporting still hasn't caught up with the times. Hell, just look at Steam. They doubled in sales last year. And each of the six years before that. http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/06/steam-sales-increase-100-percent-for-the-seventh-straight-year/

In other words, don't just say things because you feel like they're true.

Part of me really wants a Wii U simply because it's a new console.. The other part is screaming at me to wait and see how it goes. The latter part is winning so far, just barely lol.

Since I built a proper gaming PC last year, (it's not as expensive, nor anything like as difficult, as you think. Everyone should try it. Even you. Yes, you.) the release of new consoles, which used to get me excited, is completely irrelevant. As far as power goes, I'm already two generations ahead of whatever the NEXT xbox or Playstation can do. I also have a far larger variety of games, and they all look better. Sure, there's always one or two games exclusive to the console I'd like to play (ZombieU in this case), but weigh that against the dozens or hundreds of games only a PC gamer has access to. Hell, there are entire genres of games that are exclusive to PCs.

In other words, what's a console, and why do people still care?

I walked into a toysRus and found one on launch day afternoon.... Couldn't help but get it, it was a white model, got it with SMB2 and nintendoland. On a side note, every big box store I have been in this black friday weekend has had at least 1 if not more units in stock (Atlanta GA and Athens OH). I'm thinking there are more out there and this is not selling as well as they expected. How many current wii owners even knew that this was launching?

@Fattony12000 said:

In other home-based SCART-connected video system console gaming computer news...

Microsoft sells 750,000 Xbox consoles on Black Friday weekend after seven years of sales

Microsoft revealed today that it has sold more than 750,000 Xbox 360 consoles in the US on Black Friday weekend. Despite being seven years old, the Xbox 360's strong Black Friday sales follow 22 months as the top selling console in the US, according to NPD figures. While the sales are impressive, Microsoft managed to sell more than 960,000 consoles in the US during the week of Black Friday last year, with 800,000 sold within a period of 24 hours.

Microsoft now faces increased competition from Nintendo's Wii U console, which debuted in the US earlier this month. The Wii U sales surpassed 400,000 during its launch week, with the original Wii still commanding 300,000 sales. The surprising spike in sales for the Xbox 360 comes shortly after the release of Halo 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops II, both popular titles this holiday season. NPD sales data will be available in early December, which will determine the top performer for November, but it looks like Microsoft will likely hold on to its bestselling record, for now.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/27/3698428/microsoft-xbox-360-black-friday-sales-figures-2012

Wow... When i saw the number of Wii U's sold in the article, i tought to myself, that seeems low... But maybe it's just the economy, and the industry is down for everybody, but man... Those 360 sales, really make Nintendo look bad.

A 7 year old console sold more than a new Nintedo console.

I don't know man, i don't think Nintendo is happy, and i fear that if the Wii U doesn't become the new fad like the Wii did, Nintendo is gonna be in a really bad spot pretty soon.

750,000 XBox360's last week...

In other home-based SCART-connected video system console gaming computer news...

Microsoft sells 750,000 Xbox consoles on Black Friday weekend after seven years of sales

Microsoft revealed today that it has sold more than 750,000 Xbox 360 consoles in the US on Black Friday weekend. Despite being seven years old, the Xbox 360's strong Black Friday sales follow 22 months as the top selling console in the US, according to NPD figures. While the sales are impressive, Microsoft managed to sell more than 960,000 consoles in the US during the week of Black Friday last year, with 800,000 sold within a period of 24 hours.

Microsoft now faces increased competition from Nintendo's Wii U console, which debuted in the US earlier this month. The Wii U sales surpassed 400,000 during its launch week, with the original Wii still commanding 300,000 sales. The surprising spike in sales for the Xbox 360 comes shortly after the release of Halo 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops II, both popular titles this holiday season. NPD sales data will be available in early December, which will determine the top performer for November, but it looks like Microsoft will likely hold on to its bestselling record, for now.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/27/3698428/microsoft-xbox-360-black-friday-sales-figures-2012

I haven't really been enthused with any console in the seventh gen; I'm not, either, expecting a turnaround in the next. I think a lot of it has to do with the overhead involved in making games, and developers, thus, putting out the safest (or tritest) game possible instead of a novel one, which, because it's novel, might or might not find a sizable enough audience to turn a profit. I get excited when I see a game being something different, but that sort of game doesn't happen as much as I'd like. Although the Wii U itself looks different, so did the Wii, but none of its games really were -- I don't think. That's my outlook on the Wii U, and the gaming industry itself, more of the same.

Maybe in a time of economic expansion, without an oligarchy of companies and instead a diversity of independent developers, with low unemployment and decent living wages, everyone could be pandered to. Reality, however, is the opposite. Hence, I can't wait to play Call of Duty 26: The Eighth Re-enactment of WWII in the future. Or can I? =P

A system released in late 2012 capable of barely matching/bettering 7-8 year old console hardware. I'll stick with my 4 year old PC which can still outperform every one of these consoles. As an added bonus the PC lets me do my job and make money. Tough decision ;-).

All that aside I wish no malice to Nintendo, I really hope they pull this off. It would be a much duller world without Nintendo making consoles and games for them. They really do try and come up with new ideas.

Nope. Not interested in beta testing a console. Maybe when they release the next Mario title.

The WiiU seems interesting, but it's launch is not strong enough for me to get one.

There are some interesting titles at launch. I think Zombi U is incredibly interesting. Scribblenauts Unlimited looks like fun, but I think that series works better on PC. Nintendoland seems good enough, but definitely not a reason to buy a console.

I'll wait till other games come out for it, and the price goes down.

I live in Houston, TX. I called every wal mart, target and best buy in town and most of them did not have any Wii Us left on launch day. I'm talking EVERY single store that was listed on each of the retailers websites. A couple places said they had one white one left. I checked a few Gamestops too which were also sold out, in addition to lengthy wait lists. On the afternoon of the Tuesday following launch, I walked into a Best Buy on a whim and they had just unloaded a shipment of deluxes and basics, I'm gonna say about a dozen each. I picked up a deluxe, ZombiU and NSMBU.

I grabbed one. Also, anecdotaly I work at a best buy and we sold our launch shipment day of. We got a second shipment the following day which we sold through that day too. The whole state has been sold out since then.

@Colourful_Hippie said:

@GreatDane said:

Dreamcast sold 374k in the first week in the US......

And the Dreamcast died, your point is?

Achievement Unlocked: I think you just put it together for yourself.

**New-Super-Mario-Bros-Round-of-Applause**

I was in Best Buy, Sears, and KMart  on Black Friday afternoon (buying a small HD tv) and the only place I did not see systems was Kmart.   
 
It does seem like the system didn't sell out, except in stores the got swamped.   I think if we are honest we can say there was less frenzy about this console.   Now, that doesn't mean it is not popular, or won't be popular, but lets all be clear about this was not a "sell out" except in local situations.

@Little_Socrates: Thats good! I wondered how that would feel, the EB Games around me don't have any test stations up (they still have a PS2 test station at one of them), and every time I look at it I start to sweat, I shiver a bit, and feel very alone suddenly, and a voice whispers in my ear "sega game gear"

@krelmoon said:

Dreamcast comparison seems to make sense to me.

• New hardware,
• Slight upgrade from current consoles,
• Tepid 3rd party support,
• Disk format that is variation on industry standard,
• Likelihood of getting trampled by new more powerful consoles in a years time.

It X factor this time is also Online.

The scrubbed down internet community on the WII U, based on what I have seen so far, could be the killer app gaming has needed. Who else is tired of xbox live's constant abuse?

That could be what gets it into peoples homes like wii sports did for the wii.

Wii U's are sold out completely across southern New Hampshire. This Is more than likely because of New Hampshire lack of Sales Tax. go to Massachusetts or Connecticut and you could probably still find one.

Not at all like the Dreamcast. At that point in time Sonic's name was no longer selling like it did in the Genesis days and they had come off multiple pieces of hardware being financial failures for them. For Sega the toilet was already flushed we were just waiting for the shit to go down.

Dreamcast comparison seems to make sense to me.

• New hardware,
• Slight upgrade from current consoles,
• Tepid 3rd party support,
• Disk format that is variation on industry standard,
• Likelihood of getting trampled by new more powerful consoles in a years time.

It X factor this time is also Online.

The scrubbed down internet community on the WII U, based on what I have seen so far, could be the killer app gaming has needed. Who else is tired of xbox live's constant abuse?

That could be what gets it into peoples homes like wii sports did for the wii.

Wii U's are sold out completely across southern New Hampshire. This Is more than likely because of New Hampshire lack of Sales Tax. go to Massachusetts or Connecticut and you could probably still find one.

@VicRattlehead said:

@Jensonb said:

The Wii sold 475K over the same period in the US. The quoted 600K figure was for The Americas.

this will be ignored for the usual nintendoom'd funtimes

Why does it matter what the Wii's sales numbers were in comparison to anything? It sold out. The demand far exceeded supply for about a year.

HEY GUYS! I JUST CHECKED 50 WALMARTS AND THEY ALL HAD ABOUT 20 WIIU'S IN STOCK EACH. NOW I USED THE HIGHLY INACCURATE ONLINE STOCK CHECKER AND DIDN'T ACTUALLY GO IN TO ANY OF THESE. I HAVE NO LIFE PLEASE KILL ME.

It's interesting hearing Jeff talk about Nintendo how I used to start doing a few years ago. I think Jeff is a couple years younger than me so he's hitting that realization at a similar time.

Regardless I think Nintendo had a really strong launch. Plus there won't be any real competition till a year from now. Plenty of time for Nintendo to get some games on the console that wow people even more.

@Jensonb said:

The Wii sold 475K over the same period in the US. The quoted 600K figure was for The Americas.

this will be ignored for the usual nintendoom'd funtimes

@Thoseposers said:

@GreatDane said:

Dreamcast sold 374k in the first week in the US......

Also, not getting a Wii U. Have a 360 and a wii I dont use..

after some quick googling it looks like the 360 sold even less at lauch

Very true, was quite suprised by these figures. Would be interesting how much the 720 sells at launch considering how fucking huge the player base has become on the 360. Decided to save that money for more games instead of a system I wouldn't play, still can't believe this didn't launch with a Wii sports or comes with a Wii Mote.

The only thing I like about it is being able to turn your console into a awesome hand held around the house, hope someone like NYKO or Madcatz makes one of these for the 360\PS3.

The Wii sold 475K over the same period in the US. The quoted 600K figure was for The Americas.

@Y2Ken said:

@MildMolasses said:

@blacklab said:

Nintendo reports that it sold 300,000 original Wii units last week.

That is shocking

Except for the very real market confusion where people probably thought they were getting awesome black friday deals on the new Wii. I seem to remember Ryan retweeting something that one of the mods overheard about this very incident occurring

This. I'm pretty confident a bunch of people straight up bought the wrong thing. I mean, how are they to know how much the new Wii is supposed to cost? I'm sure some people decided this was the best time to cash in and grab an original Wii too, but there have definitely been reported cases of mistaken identity.

My roommate got one and had no idea that the new ones don't play GameCube games or use GCN controllers. Smash Bros. SUCKS HARDCORE without those controllers.

@whitespider: The problem with rating PC games is that unlike consoles where the performance is identical for owners of a particular console, the PC gamer's mileage will vary greatly. How do you rate that compared to console versions? Do you give it a 9.5/10 because it looks stunning and at a better clip for those who can run it or do you give it a 4/10 because it runs like ass at a certain threshold? It doesn't seem useful at all to rate a PC game on its performance when a reviewer's experience is completely inconsequential to any given customer's experience.

Now if you're going to rate a console game you can rate it based on certain expectations. A game should typically run at at least 30fps most of the time at something resembling 720p. If Hitman runs at minimum adequecy on one console but not the other and gives a more muddled experience and the experience is hampered then the score for that version should reflect that. If it's a juddery mess then the experience will be greatly hampered. And to be clear, the difference between 30fps and 25 fps average is a 17% decrease in performance assuming everything else is equal, which it just as likely is not. Often a bad version can also suffer from multiple other issues: resolution is lower, textures are murkier, screen tearing may appear, alpha effects halved or at much lower resolution, input latency is unbearable and the bottom will drop out on the framerate substantially more often.

With that said, I personally haven't read any of the other site's reviews for Hitman so if scores are different from console to console I don't know who or why the scores would have varied, but according to Digital Foundry the console versions are virtually identical from a performance standpoint. But in general if a game plays well on one and like a mess on the other the scores should reflect that.

@MildMolasses said:

@blacklab said:

Nintendo reports that it sold 300,000 original Wii units last week.

That is shocking

Except for the very real market confusion where people probably thought they were getting awesome black friday deals on the new Wii. I seem to remember Ryan retweeting something that one of the mods overheard about this very incident occurring

This. I'm pretty confident a bunch of people straight up bought the wrong thing. I mean, how are they to know how much the new Wii is supposed to cost? I'm sure some people decided this was the best time to cash in and grab an original Wii too, but there have definitely been reported cases of mistaken identity.

@Gladiator_Games said:

@Little_Socrates

I was able to get one at a Best Buy for the midnight Black Friday rush. I was probably the 70th person in the store, and they had restocked late Wednesday, so they had at least three Wii Us for each model.

I picked up a black one (Nintendoland) with Mario, ZombiU, and Scribblenauts. Oh, and a pro controller.

Im really trying to sort out what it says about the console when a normal controller for other consoles is called "pro" on the wiiu

hahaha

Well, honestly, both the gamepad and the pro controller feel pretty good, so the terminology doesn't turn me off that much.

@PompousDawson: What I also find interesting is the media's reaction to pc versions.

Pc version of hitman: 8.0

360 version of hitman: 8.0

Oh right, so "unnamed publication", you are being COMPLETELY unbiased and judging the game purely on the game.

Oh wait.

"The ps3 version 'of unnamed game' is substantially worse to play than the 360 version, due to a lower framerate on the ps3"

Hold on. Do I sense a double standard here? When pc versions are another game entirely, we get the same score When the console versions bicker of 5fps here or there, scores get shifted.

It kind of feels like major publications understand that the majority of the audience is console gamers, so actually scoring a game on the entire spectrum of it's merit - will anger them. Because let's face it, what you actually see (visuals) and how it plays (partially framerate) are big factors in games. Just like the audio, story, gameplay are big factors.

I wonder how many of those consoles were people buying them to put on ebay to try to get those 800$ bids that were happening on the Wii

aaaand how many will be returned since they're not selling for that much more then retail this time around

interesting stuff! Can't wait to see how it goes

I wonder how many of those Wii sales didn't even know there was a new system out.

I was able to get one at a Best Buy for the midnight Black Friday rush. I was probably the 70th person in the store, and they had restocked late Wednesday, so they had at least three Wii Us for each model.

I picked up a black one (Nintendoland) with Mario, ZombiU, and Scribblenauts. Oh, and a pro controller.

@thebigJ_A said:

Since I built a proper gaming PC last year, (it's not as expensive, nor anything like as difficult, as you think. Everyone should try it. Even you. Yes, you.) the release of new consoles, which used to get me excited, is completely irrelevant. As far as power goes, I'm already two generations ahead of whatever the NEXT xbox or Playstation can do. I also have a far larger variety of games, and they all look better. Sure, there's always one or two games exclusive to the console I'd like to play (ZombieU in this case), but weigh that against the dozens or hundreds of games only a PC gamer has access to. Hell, there are entire genres of games that are exclusive to PCs.

In other words, what's a console, and why do people still care?

Hehe yep pretty much what he said. Plus also games are cheaper.

Since I built a proper gaming PC last year, (it's not as expensive, nor anything like as difficult, as you think. Everyone should try it. Even you. Yes, you.) the release of new consoles, which used to get me excited, is completely irrelevant. As far as power goes, I'm already two generations ahead of whatever the NEXT xbox or Playstation can do. I also have a far larger variety of games, and they all look better. Sure, there's always one or two games exclusive to the console I'd like to play (ZombieU in this case), but weigh that against the dozens or hundreds of games only a PC gamer has access to. Hell, there are entire genres of games that are exclusive to PCs.

In other words, what's a console, and why do people still care?

I bought a Wii U at launch, so far I'm really into it. Can't wait for some of the features like TVii to be released.

Part of me really wants a Wii U simply because it's a new console.. The other part is screaming at me to wait and see how it goes. The latter part is winning so far, just barely lol.

I bought a WiiU. I picked up ZombiU, NintendoLand (Black WiiU), and Mario. ZombiU is amazing... I've enjoyed it very much. Mario is ok, considering I didn't play the 3DS "New" Mario. In all, I'm enjoying the Wii U very much. The controller is very comfortable in my large hands. Excited to get some more games for it. I'm enjoying my Wii U much more then I ever enjoyed my Wii. My only complaint is that Nintendo didn't update the Wii-mote to be more like PS Move. I like the Move controllers alot better then the Wii-mote and nunchuck. Better button layout and the ball at the end lights up!

That would seem to jive with personal accounts from various Internet users, who have often reported seeing one or two consoles at most available at stores.

You could also look at ebay and see most of scalpers have lowered their prices to retail levels. Which is a great side-effect, because fuck those guys.

I just bought a Wii (not WiiU)

See ya in 5 years, Nintendo!