Does your uncle work at nintendo and he told you the release date?

All jokes aside though....if it is really coming out this year then there has to be a reason for them not to tell us about any games or even a price (something they should have done at E3).

I forgot it was coming out so soon.

Maybe we'll learn more at TGS?

No this is not strange at all. This happened with the Wii in 2006. All the pricing and release date information was not announced until September 14. It ended up releasing November 19 of that year. The launch lineup of the Wii wasn't officially confirmed until November 14. I would expect the exact same plan this time as well.

It surely needs something more before it can be a day-one purchase for me.

This is perfectly normal. In fact, I expect them to wait even longer before announcing all of the information thant they did with, for instance, the Wii. I think this sincee Nintendo is hyper-aware that Sony and Microsoft are currently making their own consoles, and are likely to change their plans in relation to what Nintendo does (the longer they push back the reveal, the shorter time that their competitors have to efficiently respond with their own hardware and software).

I say TGS.

Considering how much more we knew about the ultra64, dolphin and revolution before release, it's astounding how little we know about it at this point. However the difference between then and now is that print media was much more of a factor, so it would necessitate getting info out much earlier. I though I can say with almost 100% certainty that it will be released on Nov 18, which is the third sunday of November. That's when the Wii came out. That's when the GameCube came out. Nintendo likes putting stuff out on Sunday

Nintendo is way secretive about these things.

Yeah there doesn't seem to be any hype building up for this thing. Kinda not surprised though, it doesn't seem half as interesting as the Wii was in 2006.

We'll probably get bombed by tv spots and more info in october.

I believe Nintendo did say they will talk Wii U stuff sometime in September. They haven't said anything yet is because they wanted to give the 3DS XL some time to shine.

@Video_Game_King said:

Maybe we'll learn more at TGS?

@SmilingPig said:

I say TGS.

Nintendo doesn't do TGS.

@JJOR64 said:

@SmilingPig said:

I say TGS.

Nintendo doesn't do TGS.

Sometimes they do ( they did for 2005 for the wiimote...uh before it was called a wiimote)

If they sell the system for any more than the current generation consoles go for, I will not be buying one. The dang thing isn't very powerful and none of the supposed launch titles really get my blood running. However, since God hates me and allowed Nintendo to snag Rayman: Legends - I feel I have no choice...

as of now, i am not sold

Part of the issue is that they are still working out some kinks. I read that they might have manufacturing issues and might delay the European launch. So they won't announce anything solid as far as launch dates since they need to figure out who and when the thing is going out.

Another factor is that you can't announce the launch line up since these are games that are still in development and for a new system to boot. You can't be sure they will be ready and maybe want to have as many titles ready and are therefore still holding onto the release date for this reason.

Pricing is something they need to be careful with since we don't know what kind of prices we will see for the current systems this holiday season. Also, forget that, some people might not be willing to spend 300 bucks on a new Wii. I predict that is where the price has to fall. $250 probably would have been doable had it not been for that screen on the controller.

outdated graphics and weirdass controller what else do you need to know?

Whenever they release more info, I hope it involves a Japanese man in a business suit holding fruit.

Their target audience doesn't care about technical specifications, online functionality or storage space. Mostly because they're 8. Don't get upset by that, you're allowed to like it too, but it's just not being marketed to you. Nintendo knows where their audience is.

@IIGrayFoxII said:

No this is not strange at all. This happened with the Wii in 2006. All the pricing and release date information was not announced until September 14. It ended up releasing November 19 of that year. The launch lineup of the Wii wasn't officially confirmed until November 14. I would expect the exact same plan this time as well.

Fair enough, but to be completely honest, I think Nintendo NEEDS to get their shit out now. The Wii was the hot shit. It sold disgustingly well. But that casual market has no incentive to buy a WiiU. I've heard no one be excited about the damned thing--casual or 'hardcore' gamer alike. It simply isn't being talked about at all. In fact, I don't think a lot of people were the Wii's core audience even know that the WiiU exists.

I just think Nintendo's stupid to wait. They aren't going to have the same kind of launch the Wii did--their market already has the Wii and there isn't much motivation to upgrade. And the 'real' gamers have barely any information to get them excited, so they've got no motivation either. It'll sell well 'cause it's Christmas time, but it isn't going to be the Wii launch version two. The economy's ass, and again, no one knows a thing about the WiiU--not to mention the Wii itself not selling along with 3DS being kind of ass too has really cut into their profits. They can't just wait until a month or two before release date and hope for the best.

I say the actual release date, price, launch software, online service, etc...

In all seriousness, I have little to no interest in it. I have my PC and my PS3 for console gaming.

@GrantHeaslip said:

@jonnyboy said:

Their target audience doesn't care about technical specifications, online functionality or storage space. Mostly because they're 8. Don't get upset by that, you're allowed to like it too, but it's just not being marketed to you. Nintendo knows where their audience is.

Dude, come on, you know that's verifiably not true. Did you really read through this topic and determine that it needed 100% more trolling?

Not at all. I'm gonna buy one. I'll pay too much for it, but whatever I'll probably enjoy most of what I'll play on it. But lets face it, in all honesty can you really say that in Nintendo's marketing department, there is a whiteboard with a picture of me in the middle and a group of men in suits sitting around it going "Yes that's who we are going for, 30 year old men, nobody is targeting these guys! Genius!". No they go where the money is, and market specifically for that group. And furthermore when that money looked like it might be waning a few years back they did something very few companies have managed to do and actually forged a new market in the elderly and housewives. I'm not disparaging them, far from it, I think Nintendo's marketing strategy is the best in the industry.

IMO they should be getting as much information out there as possible and bombing television with ads for the next two and ahalf months. The issues with next-gen Nintendo products is well established at this point. The Wii U is still getting thrown around by mainstream media outlets as not actually a fully new console, and the 3DS suffered the same problem at first, with people failing to make a distinction between the million DS models and the 3DS. If they don't advertise the fuck out of the Wii U, and soon, they have absolutely no room to complain about why their shit isn't selling like it was expected to. Most consumers are idiots, you have to give them direction.

@GrantHeaslip: I said their target audience is children, going back to the Thread topic, when you market to a child you really focus on the time frame around release, that's why you haven't seen much in the way of marketing for it yet.

I remember reading that they would be announcing stuff next week

They should at least tell us how many bits are in it.

They'll probably have some random Nintendo Direct soon or around TGS and announce a lot of stuff.

outdated graphics and weirdass controller what else do you need to know?

The Wii U is gonna sink faster than a paper-mâché nuclear submarine.

not knowing the price at this point is rather odd.

@Video_Game_King: funny thing about that is japan will learn more at TGS and unless the launch is closer like the wii was, we might get some weird mini press conference later on where Nintendo just spills everything out. They'll wait till TGS hoping hype will build a tad bit, so they can feel better about launching at a higher price.

I think it will sell but no where close to what the Wii sold. Reason being that the majority of people who bought the Wii are super casual and not very tech savvy, they'll be asking "why do I need a new one?" The people who own an original Wii aren't there to play Mass Effect 3 or Batman Arkham City they are there to play Wii sports and Wii move. And the people who are going to buy a next gen system are going to wait to buy the next Xbox or the PS4 because they want the new experience and not the experience they pretty much have already in their 360 or PS3.

@GrantHeaslip said:

It's been so long since the last home consoles came out that I can't say if this is unusual, but it strikes me that we really don't know that much about the Wii U considering it's supposed to come out in about 3 months. The stuff they showed at E3 felt limited, and there's still big features like the online functionality that they've been pretty mum about.

The funny thing is: they actually haven't! They've said quite a lot.

The Sunday before E3 they had their Nintendo Direct presentation that focused on the controller redesign and Miiverse (which includes a twitter-like feed for individual games, your friends, text and hand-drawn message system and video chat with implied voice that inclusion). That's a pretty major thing and its the core of the online interface. Beyond that, we know there will obviously be an eShop where you can buy download-only titles like Trine 2 and full retail titles on day one (at least all first party titles will be there right out of the gate). Old WiiWare, VC and Wii saves will be transferable to Wii U. The Wii U will also finally have user accounts. Miiverse will theoretically allow for every game to have a Dark Souls-like messaging integration and double as a "what's hot right now" game promotion for titles on everyones main screen since Miis from your friend list and people from your region will "hang out" around the game's they're playing so you can see what everyone is into and read messages from gamers attached to that title.

That's all part of the Nintendo Network which is the overall online platform which is free and fully featured (see Randy Pitchford's comments from months ago, saying "we wouldn't do Aliens Colonial Marines on Wii U if it didn't have everything we need" when asked about online multiplayer).

Though I agree they still have a lot to share which will be very soon. TGS is coming up and they always do a pre-TGS show since they're never participating. Not sure if there's a separate event or they roll both into one, there's also the bi-monthly Nintendo Direct presentation (the last one revealed the 3DS XL) and the next one would be at the end of this month.

Expect more Wii U news very very soon and in the meantime, look at the stuff that is already out there. I put a lot of work into the Wii U page around E3 (data loss of the first big edit so I had to do everything twice *sob*) and that details a lot of the controller features and the online features that have been officially revealed and detailed so far.

@GrantHeaslip said:

@IIGrayFoxII said:

No this is not strange at all. This happened with the Wii in 2006. All the pricing and release date information and launch lineup was not announced until September 14 of that year with it releasing November 19 of that year. I would expect the exact same plan this time as well.

In that case, I guess this is par for the course.

Can that cut it though? There's no mystery surrounding what that thing can do. It's just the price and the 1st party stuff that has a question mark over it. Nintendo can't be all mysterious when it's trying to appeal to people who know about consoles.

@jonnyboy said:

@GrantHeaslip: I said their target audience is children, going back to the Thread topic, when you market to a child you really focus on the time frame around release, that's why you haven't seen much in the way of marketing for it yet.

Their target audience is EVERYBODY. Not children, e-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y. Broad, not focused. They don't have a white board and point to a group and say "we only want THOSE people." That's what the other two platform holders are doing, or at least how they tend to start out. Nintendudes (yea, sue me...), they sit there and say "we need something for them, those guys, and the other ones and their grandma, too."

My Little Pony Farm is something that is made and marketed towards children. You don't seem to realize that just because it's not full of shooting and gritty stuff means that it's "for kids." That's unquestionably the wrong way to look at what they're doing. It doesn't mean they make a game that completely satisfies each individual group with the Errrr'bodey segment, they like to make stuff that is suitable to all those groups together, with the occasional more focused title.

It'a kinda ridiculous how little Nintendo is telling us about the Wii U.

Now you bring it up, it is really worrisome.

has to make you wonder if they are going to push back the launch.

@MyNiceIceLife said:

not knowing the price at this point is rather odd.

In Amazon.es it's already available for pre-order for €357. It's not the €500+ of PS3 at launch, but it's more expensive than I should have guessed. I wouldn't have expected it to go over €300.

@JoeyRavn: In Sweden it's currently €545 ($676) to pre-order. If that'll be the final price (which, admittedly, I doubt) I can't see Nintendo selling a lot of consoles in Sweden at least.

@Cincaid said:

@JoeyRavn: In Sweden it's currently €545 ($676) to pre-order. If that'll be the final price (which, admittedly, I doubt) I can't see Nintendo selling a lot of consoles in Sweden at least.

Here in Aus, EB Games has it estimated at $598 ($628 US).. Which if that is the case (I think EB is estimating on the very top end) That thing will die way to quickly

I already know i'm never going to buy one, that's enough for me.