"Talking with IndustryGamers, Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities has made a bold prediction about the Wii U. He expects it to have weak third party support, due to its complicated controls.
Pachter believes that Nintendo continues to live in the past, since it has worked for them. However he feels that it will no longer work in 2012. "They had a great deal of success since 1985 by making proprietary hardware and supporting it with proprietary software. They attracted third party support based upon the large installed base they generated for their hardware. They appear to me to be confident that 'if they build it, third parties will support it', but I don’t think that is the case for Wii U."
Pachter continues that Nintendo is trying to be different to remain innovative. However that the tablet controller is complicated and it will turn away third party developers. "By trying to be 'different' with the tablet controller, they have complicated game design for developers, who can’t figure out if the Wii U will ultimately support only one or multiple controllers. Nintendo made the device sufficiently different that they are all but assured of limited third party launch support, which ultimately will lead to modest hardware sales."
Pachter also says that Nintendo needs to seek outside help to get an online service in order to compete against Xbox Live and PSN. "They should stop relying upon the strategy that got them here, as it appears to no longer be working. I think their resolution should be to look outside of Nintendo for leadership in the areas of digital downloads, a user-friendly online interface and multiplayer gaming."
I somewhat agree with him. Nintendo definitely needs to have outside help with their online service and with the rumors of EA and Valve it looks like that is taken care of. His views on third party support make sense. Third parties program on one console and then port the game. If the Wii U tablet makes it hard to do that then third parties will most likely not mess around with it especially since most people buy Nintendo consoles to play Nintendo games so the sales won't be that great to begin with. The only thing is how difficult could it possibly be to program for the tablet?
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