Fool Me Once, Shame On You. Fool Me Twice...

Well, looks like Nintendo decided to try and steal Microsoft's thunder (such as it is) and have a Pre-E3 show in addition to their Tuesday show. In today's pre-show, Nintendo announced that Tuesday's show would be all games, which is good because the system looks like it's focused in the exact same direction that the Wii was: Not at me.

But rather than take my word for it, here's some handy-dandy tidbits from Gamespot's report on the show.

[3:03] He talked about the book "Alone Together," saying that new technologies have made life easier and more efficient, but suggests it is changing the nature of human relationships.

[3:08] He also touts "asymetric diversity" implications of having different screens with different abilities for different players.

[3:08] By using more intuitive motions to control a game, players of all skill levels can better play together.

[3:13] He intros a clip with some gamer talking about serving zombies a bullet sandwich.

[3:14] He gets eaten by the zombie boss, and then the GamePad asks him what his mood is. He picks a picture of a sad face from a list, and then checks posts from a number of other people who have been having problems beating the boss.

[3:19] The GamePad will show a familiar lineup of games and applications, but the TV screen will show a bunch of games and the Miis of people playing those games at that moment.

[3:20] The result (Miiverse, Iwata calls it) will show people which games are popular right now. He explains that Miiverse is a combination of "Mii" and "Universe," just in case that wasn't understood.

Anyone who remembers Cammy Dunaway will remember this...

[3:28] The GamePad is an idea that has the potential to solve several problems that the Wii U was created to address, Iwata said. It enables more smiling, more laughs, and more empathy, and gets around the problem of "Alone Together."

There's more, of course. I just decided to put here what stuck out to me. The point? Well, I'm having some serious flashbacks right about now. Everything here sounds a good bit like the pie-in-the-sky promises that Nintendo made with the Wii. The console that was going to bring everyone together and bridge the gap between gamers and non-gamers.

It's all the same garbage we heard when the Wii was coming out, and while the Wii was a massive hardware success, software sales were always a problem on the platform. Why? Because Nintendo placed all their bets on people who didn't care about anything other than the gimmick. Wii Sports was enough for most of the Wii "audience." Nintendo's repeating the same mistake: Trying to start from the non-game audience and to work inward, rather than working from the inside out, the path that brought Microsoft so much success and has fueled Sony's remarkable comeback after the PS3's disastrous first year.

Basically, Nintendo's positioning here is clearly "casual first" once again, and once again, they're going to have a whole lot of trouble convincing gamers that this is going to be anything for them more than ports of PS3 and 360 games and the occasional Mario or Zelda title.

It doesn't help that the Wii U Pro Controller shown at the show looks terrible. Both sticks on top and the buttons on the bottom? Yeah, that's not gonna be hard to use.

While it would be unfair to judge Nintendo as a whole before Tuesday, my initial impression is that they're going casual again, hoping for another Wii. Be careful what you wish for, Nintendo.

Well, looks like Nintendo decided to try and steal Microsoft's thunder (such as it is) and have a Pre-E3 show in addition to their Tuesday show. In today's pre-show, Nintendo announced that Tuesday's show would be all games, which is good because the system looks like it's focused in the exact same direction that the Wii was: Not at me.

But rather than take my word for it, here's some handy-dandy tidbits from Gamespot's report on the show.

[3:03] He talked about the book "Alone Together," saying that new technologies have made life easier and more efficient, but suggests it is changing the nature of human relationships.

[3:08] He also touts "asymetric diversity" implications of having different screens with different abilities for different players.

[3:08] By using more intuitive motions to control a game, players of all skill levels can better play together.

[3:13] He intros a clip with some gamer talking about serving zombies a bullet sandwich.

[3:14] He gets eaten by the zombie boss, and then the GamePad asks him what his mood is. He picks a picture of a sad face from a list, and then checks posts from a number of other people who have been having problems beating the boss.

[3:19] The GamePad will show a familiar lineup of games and applications, but the TV screen will show a bunch of games and the Miis of people playing those games at that moment.

[3:20] The result (Miiverse, Iwata calls it) will show people which games are popular right now. He explains that Miiverse is a combination of "Mii" and "Universe," just in case that wasn't understood.

Anyone who remembers Cammy Dunaway will remember this...

[3:28] The GamePad is an idea that has the potential to solve several problems that the Wii U was created to address, Iwata said. It enables more smiling, more laughs, and more empathy, and gets around the problem of "Alone Together."

There's more, of course. I just decided to put here what stuck out to me. The point? Well, I'm having some serious flashbacks right about now. Everything here sounds a good bit like the pie-in-the-sky promises that Nintendo made with the Wii. The console that was going to bring everyone together and bridge the gap between gamers and non-gamers.

It's all the same garbage we heard when the Wii was coming out, and while the Wii was a massive hardware success, software sales were always a problem on the platform. Why? Because Nintendo placed all their bets on people who didn't care about anything other than the gimmick. Wii Sports was enough for most of the Wii "audience." Nintendo's repeating the same mistake: Trying to start from the non-game audience and to work inward, rather than working from the inside out, the path that brought Microsoft so much success and has fueled Sony's remarkable comeback after the PS3's disastrous first year.

Basically, Nintendo's positioning here is clearly "casual first" once again, and once again, they're going to have a whole lot of trouble convincing gamers that this is going to be anything for them more than ports of PS3 and 360 games and the occasional Mario or Zelda title.

It doesn't help that the Wii U Pro Controller shown at the show looks terrible. Both sticks on top and the buttons on the bottom? Yeah, that's not gonna be hard to use.

While it would be unfair to judge Nintendo as a whole before Tuesday, my initial impression is that they're going casual again, hoping for another Wii. Be careful what you wish for, Nintendo.

Why would you expect Nintendo to not go "casual first"? That business strategy has clearly worked for them with the Wii. Think this was prety obvious to be honest.

I feel like Nintendo should just completely embrace the casual market and give up on the hardcore market at this point. For all of their talk, they haven't had a game on any of their platforms that I've given a shit about in like three years.

I wish nintendo would go byebye

The last Nintendo console I owned was the Sixty-Four, so you know, whatever.

Casual paid off bigtime with the Wii. It's all about the Benjamins.

im fairly excited for it. i was late to the wii party and i like it alot. trying to compare it other consoles is stupid. it cant compare.

but if the price is right for the wii u and it has more than one or two games then i might pick it up. if not ill just do like i did with the wii. wait till it's been around for a few years and then pick it up cheap along with all the good games.

It looks like they are trying to have the Wii U cater to both but, of course they are going to push the casual.

@Ravenlight said:

For all of their talk, they haven't had a game on any of their platforms that I've given a shit about in like three years.

Hey @Jay444111, you wanna yell at him about Fragile Dreams or something?

@forkboy said:

Why would you expect Nintendo to not go "casual first"? That business strategy has clearly worked for them with the Wii. Think this was prety obvious to be honest.

The strategy "worked," because they profit off hardware. It's no secret that software sales were... Less than nominal on the system. The problem with focusing on people who don't play games is two-fold

1) There's no guarantee that they can catch lightning in a bottle. The Wii was, by all accounts, the right piece of kit at the right time. The question remains whether non-gamers will buy another system when they barely use the one they have. The masses are, after all, a fickle bunch.

2) Going casual-first jades the gamer market, which further serves to exacerbate the software sales problem. Nintendo can, of course, fart out Mario and Zelda games until the head death of the universe, but even Nintendo-developed games have problems if they don't have the mascots on the box. Don't even get me started on 3rd party games....

Nintendo is basically betting that they have the pulse of the non-gamer market. I had hoped that the 3DS' initial failure would have served as the wake-up call necessary.

From everything i've seen so far i think the system could turn out very enjoyable. And i think that pro controller looks awesome, do you complain about how the dpad and stick is switched on the left side of xbox and playstation controllers?

@Thoseposers said:

From everything i've seen so far i think the system could turn out very enjoyable. And i think that pro controller looks awesome, do you complain about how the dpad and stick is switched on the left side of xbox and playstation controllers?

I'm more concerned about the right side of the Pro Controller. Looks ripe for lots of accidental button presses.

@YukoAsho said:

2) Going casual-first jades the gamer market, which further serves to exacerbate the software sales problem. Nintendo can, of course, fart out Mario and Zelda games until the head death of the universe, but even Nintendo-developed games have problems if they don't have the mascots on the box. Don't even get me started on 3rd party games....

Yes & going hardcore first can alienate the sort of people who do not have 20 years plus of video gaming experienced, who haven't gamed since they were kids. And the market for casual gamers is potentially much larger than the one for a consoled aimed largely at hardcore gamers.

I will likely not be buying the Wii U as it doesn't really seem to be for me from the little I've seen so far. If Nintendo want to go in that direction then best wishes to them but they aren't really building machines I want to play. So I won't buy it & I thus won't give it much though. I'll probably survive without regular doses of Zelda & Mario if I'm honest with myself. Especially as there is still the 3DS for these properties i fI start getting desperate.

Guess what guys, the NES was a 'casual' first platform. They marketed it at toy companies and directed it at kids instead of the teenage miscreants skulking around at arcades playing Zaxxon. You're welcome.

I want to get on board, but it seems like the WIi-U will just repeat the problems I had with the Wii - namely:

Motion-controls continue to struggle with 100% execution...arguably just like Kinect and Move, using motion controls is never is accurate as using a controller. I love the idea of using motion as an immersion tool, but it never works fully as intended...we either get overly simplified motions - "waggle games" or we only get the same kind of motions, i.e., the ones developers can easily replicate - "dance moves" and then even then the performance of these motions is spotty at best, making for a less than ideal gaming experience.

For me personally...motion fatigue - At some point during the last Zelda, my girlfriend stopped playing and just said "I wish I could just play this on a regular controller" I know myself, that motion controls while quirky and interesting, often get in the way of simply playing the game. There's something to be said for simplifying a person's gaming experience...just and input device and the television...I'm no longer invested in shoe-horned movement or quirky dual screen functionality.

@YukoAsho said:

There's more, of course. I just decided to put here what stuck out to me. The point? Well, I'm having some serious flashbacks right about now. Everything here sounds a good bit like the pie-in-the-sky promises that Nintendo made with the Wii. The console that was going to bring everyone together and bridge the gap between gamers and non-gamers.

It's all the same garbage we heard when the Wii was coming out, and while the Wii was a massive hardware success, software sales were always a problem on the platform.

Wat.

How can you possibly say that Wii didn't bridge that gap? It did. It exposed non gamers to the concepts of gaming and became a household name in the process and yet at the same time managed to hold onto a very strong portion of the core market with exclusives and non exclusives.

How can you possibly say the system had good hardware turnover but poor software turnover? It had excellent turnover of both, even from third party titles (or especially if you're talking shovelware which Ubisoft made a killing from on Wii).

EDIT: was distracted...

The point of the video seemed to be (at least to me) that Nintendo are quite clear about the distinction between casual and harder core gaming experiences and so they previewed the controller and made sure to exemplify the ways in which the gamepad could be used outside of casual gaming too.

Also, was all of your bombast really necessary?

I wonder if they'll go after Mrs. NEVER this time around.

@Video_Game_King said:

@Ravenlight said:

For all of their talk, they haven't had a game on any of their platforms that I've given a shit about in like three years.

Hey @Jay444111, you wanna yell at him about Fragile Dreams or something?

Alright!

BUY FRAGILE DREAMS RIGHT NOW!!!!!!

Fragile Dreams is worth buying a wii for... I am DEADLY SERIOUS!!!!!

Buy it NAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

I really liked then fact that the tablet controller doubles as a programmable remote for your entire entertainment center, that alone will justify the price for a lot of people.

Between that and being out the door a year before the other guys, I think Nintendo is sitting pretty right now.

I honestly think the Wii-U is sheer genius. They have created the first completely uncontrollable, unplayable game console in industry history. That's kinda remarkable when you think about it. The OP makes the error of assuming the Wii-U has any direction whatsoever in terms of target audience, So the Wii-U is a graphically prettier Wii with a more fucked up controller which is a gimmick, inside of a gimmick. That's just.........extraordinary.