It is not how excited I am. I wish Nintendo would do well. These are my predictions nothing else. Seriously stop seeing console wars in everything negative someone says. The only thing I am excited for is being right for something you get shit on for a long time even you present them facts. I was saying just like Jeff for example that Third party support is done after at most 3 years and we were right so far. It is just a realistic view at something without any bias.

@hailinel I just like this financial game. I think it is interesting to predict stuff and to be right of course. On a gaming level I don't care much about Nintendo games anymore. That is why I do not talk about the quality of these games. I am interested in the financial and market situation. And of course I am trying to prove and show confidence in my predictions. If you want to talk about the quality of Nintendo games and only say games matter then I am the wrong person to talk to. This is strict financial and technical nothing else.

You sure don't sound like it. You seem more thrilled with the desire to see them fail. The enthusiasm on display in your posts is just weird.

In japan it is. As much as I do not like the FFXIII series, this one play really well but the story is still a complete shit show.

By that token though my 2 year old PC runs better than a Xbone or a PS4.

That said I will buy a wii U eventually. I am just waiting for the new Xeno game before I do.

I believe I have asked you this before but you didn't respond. How old are you? Just out of curiosity.

Beating that dead horse, the issue for Nintendo and others is that both the hardware and software markets have changed. With the innovations from Apple and Google both hardware and software have moved more rapidly than most of the players are used too.

Square-Enix and Nintendo aren't sunk but they probably need to be working on their "next thing" now.

Here is why I have not, nor will I, buy a Wii U despite having a soft spot for Nintendo:

• A sizeable portion of its cost is associated with that stupid controller I have absolutely no interest in using; and I cannot bring myself to pay for something I do not want
• Nintendo needs to fix the way it handles accounts and digital purchases
• Nintendo needs to higher a team of software engineers that know what they're doing in order to fix the severe issues the Wii U operating system suffers from

When this is done I am all aboard.

PS. I won't buy a Xbox One because I know that I'm paying $100 for Kinect, which I do not want.

Two questions:

1. What is it about the controller you don't like?

2. What technical issues in the operating system are you talking about? Because over the past year, Nintendo has done a lot to improve both its functionality and performance.

I dunno about you guys, but I keep seeing the Wii U at $249 and I think my weak impulses are going to get the better of me.

I want nintendo to go third party so badly. I also want SEGA to make a new console. so I guess I'm insane.

Guys, I now own a Wii U. It seems pretty neat.

I think a study was done that the vast majority of people who play phone/pad games only play one game at a time. So they get their Words with Friends then Candy Crush then a couple months later they're like "okay whats the next thing" and do that. And the 3DS has filled that niche multiple times with the same audience via Animal Crossing and most recently Pokemon. Nintendo already have their "next thing", its the 3DS, the question is what the hell do they do with this WiiU thing and Im sure they're working new functionality into it as we speak.

@gonmog said:

Nintendo's efforts with their games should be recognized (and it is), but on the console end? I don't ever see anything remotely out there advertising the WiiU. If there is, it's not visible. I consistently see the Xbox One and PS4 advertisements everywhere. There is absolutely no visibility of the WiiU.

Everything that has plagued the WiiU is 99% Nintendo's fault. The consumers should not be blamed for a lot of the missteps that Nintendo have made in the home console market. Some people say that it is unfair some of these criticisms of Nintendo. But how? Nintendo from the get go has promised that the games were coming, but it is such a slow trickle of games. It doesn't help that they've almost completely lost 3rd party support and when they do get it they can't secure exclusive bonus content or in some cases content is cut from the game.

I would say because it feels like they are consistently trying to their own thing, in their own world, their margin for error in not recognizing certain things is huge. They seemingly ignore or don't properly understand certain trends while creating new ones, but at the same time unable to sustain viability of that trend. The best example is the motion controller, it had its moment with the Wii and now its gone. An example of not understanding a trend is the online space and how gaming is becoming very much more digital and connected through online.

I'm not going to scream that Nintendo is on their deathbed, but rather I'm just disappointed that in the last 3 generations of Nintendo consoles there hasn't been enough for me, for me to keep me interested in and feeling justified in my purchase of their consoles. I know I'm not alone in that sentiment too. This will be the first generation of all Nintendo home consoles (not counting Virtual Boy) I'm pretty sure that I will skip.

Cool. What games have you got?

part of the solution :)

(ok that was a bit fanboyish...)

The black friday bundle came with New Super Mario Bros U/New Super Luigi U and Nintendoland (also a wii remote), and then we got Super Mario 3D World on top of that. I figure I'll get Zelda and Monster Hunter somewhere down the line and maybe borrow my friend's copy of ZombiU while I'm at it.

@video_game_king said:

@tourgen said:

Give me that, Boyonetta 2, and Wonderful 101 and that's probably enough for me to think about the WiiU seriously.

Transforming hair magic... come on, you know she does it.

Sounds like a solid grab!

Indeed it was. I figured I was going to get one once Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem became an actual physical game that I could purchase and not just a logo with infinite possibilities, but this works too!

Man, I really hope that Nintendo shows off something about that game at E3 next year, at the very least, if not sooner in a Nintendo Direct. I am really curious to know just what kind of RPG it even is.

That is the game that would push me over the edge into owning a Wii U. 3D World looks fantastic, and I know Wind Waker is but I want something completely new and interesting to convince me, and SMT x FE seems like the thing.

Mario games are truly great, but to be honest I'm simply tired of Mario. It's a shame, but what can I do, but wait it out if I'm bored of a character or franchise?

I would get Lightning Returns over a new Mario game any day. Not a big fan of Mario games.

I know a lot of people who want SM3DW but I don't know anyone who wants to buy a Wii-U. I think that is the core of the problem.

Oh yeah and Lightning Returns is actually pretty good guys!

I don't think it's our fault that they didn't make a console worth buying. I mean that's certainly why 3D World didn't sell well, it was for the wii u, and nobody has one of those.

Less WiiU more 3ds i approve Nintendo

@karkarov: yep, I'm sure your 2 year old PC will run watchdogs just fine

It will, easily.

Nintendo obviously needs a different marketing strategy. For instance: why can't I dress Luigi in a variety of skimpy, demeaning outfits? If anything, power-ups just put moreclothes on him.

It's just a matter of time before Nintendo's on top again. Also, I seem to recall they're the only ones that actually made a constant profit last gen, so it's not like they're hurting.

Mario 3D World got me to buy a Wii U, but I've spent more time in the nifty Netflix app that thing has than playing games on it...

I bought the NSMB+NSL bundle, and while I'm certain these games are good, I can't tell if I'm just suffering from gaming fatigue in general or if I'm just bummed out because it's more of the same...

Nintendo needs help, fast.

Shit, how much did you pay for that thing? A PC that will run watchdogs well today is 1200 to 1500$. How much was it 2 years ago?

The biggest hurdle Nintendo has to get over is its awful marketing. I just bought a brand new Wii U Deluxe from a dude for $200...he said his kids already had a Wii and he got it in a drawing at work. He didn't seem to realize it was a totally different system worth $300, but hey I got a good deal for Christmas and now it's in a closet till then. Can't wait to play some Mario 3D World, Nintendo Land, Pikmin 3 and Monster Hunter. More great games are on the horizon too and this system as a whole appeals to me a lot more than the Wii ever did, but man...I haven't met anybody outside games enthusiasts that even know the thing exists.

The shouldn't have called it the Wii U. They should've had some bigger games at launch. And they should've advertised the heck out of it with all those Wii bucks. Though my favorite Nintendo generations are the ones where they're fighting hard to stay relevant (SNES, GameCube, and now Wii U) and aren't sitting in a perceived position of power where they rest on their laurels. That's when they make their best games in general and really seem serious, instead of just releasing a couple amazing Mario games (Galaxy) and then a bunch of other quaint garbage.

Here's a question I have for anyone deeply familiar with Nintendo's history with third-party developers:

Since the Super Nintendo, has Nintendo's third party support ever increased from one generation to the next? I have nothing to back this up besides being there and playing them but it feels to me like each time they release a console it gets less third-party support than the console before it. Maybe the Wii was an exception because of it's install base, but even that may be working against them now.

This.

The account/digital purchase issues are the same reason I haven't dove on a 3DS yet. It's insane that your game downloads aren't tied to your account. If my 3DS is stolen/lost that shouldn't mean that I have to rebuy all of my games.

I most likely will still get one eventually, but I will exclusively stick with physical game purchases.

The Wii had another audience so the 3rd parties tried and sometimes succeeded with casual friendly stuff but "real gaming" wise it was as barren as before due to the huge difference in power of these consoles. Sadly Nintendo did not learn from that at all so with the Wii U not capable to stand up against the other two and Nintendo not listening to anyone in this industry they alienated themselves even more with the Wii U.

At this point I am pretty sure this will be Nintendo's last console and they will try to concentrate on the handheld market as long as possible.

The same thing you would pay for it today? PC component prices really don't shift that much anymore except maybe graphics cards and ram. A equivalent tech level motherboard that is in the same "range" as mine in today market would probably cost about the same mine did when I bought it. My processor for example is still the same price it was the day it came out, and two years later unless I go to an "extreme" version there is only 3 or 4 upgrades and they are all marginal at best. Either way I seem to recall paying around 1.4-1.5 somewhere in that range. I don't just "play games" on my pc though, I do sound editing, video editing and capture, some graphics stuff, blah blah.

We'll see about it running better than a PS4 and Xbox One in a couple years. My guess is that you'll need to upgrade when games drop the old consoles and really start optimizing on the new hardware.

This is the console warrist console war thread in the forums in weeks.

Naw they don't... they are stuck pandering to the OoT crowd for four gens now. (which is pretty hypocritical for a company that tried to expand the audience all of a sudden with the DS/Wii) Nintendo deserves to be where they're at. Although I do think WiiU is underrated. (yes I like WiiU but hate Nintendo... I am very complicated)

You know, I was going to agree with darji to a certain degree. Not about Nintendo dying or anything like that, because that's just silly... Actually retrospectively, I'm not sure what part of his argument I DID agree with specifically. But I remember agreeing with something! And then he tossed out the word 'real gaming' as a way of discrediting third-party support for the Wii.

I admit, I laughed pretty hard. Then I realized you were serious. And I laughed just a bit harder.

Reasonably successful, downgraded from wildly successful? I agree. Though you probably meant it as a pejorative like they should fall on their sword for not making exactly what you want. But people like you dont matter that much to the market anymore and that's all this rage is, really. People who used to be relevant who badly want the people who made them irrelevant to fail.

what were to happen to sales of units of Mario games if they just renamed them to Party or Kart?

Nintendo's at the top right now, seeing as how they're the only ones turning a profit, so I agree they deserve to be where they are. Also, if you played something other than Zelda games, you'd know that they make a whole lot of great games that have actual gameplay in them.

yeah, and this is going to be much sadder. Nooot really, my goy you need to listen to reason. Mario sells over time unlike FF.
But seriously you can't sell a gimmick and expect people to run when they have been fooled once.

@altairre: That ending was not that crazy, I mean, we have seen stuff like that in many other games and other mediums. I guess in the context of final fantasy it is kinda crazy but I was basically numb watching it, no emotions. They really need to get Nomura out of there and some fresh people in there.

Remember when Squenix was blaming all of Eidos and their well made well selling games for not hitting crazy sales targets but at that same time, spent 5+ years on FF13, still didnt release versus 13 or announce a proper non-rehash kingdom hearts? AND were making THAT ending for lightning returns? sigh...

I'll play it myself, thank you.

• Nomura had nothing to do with the story in the Final Fantasy XIII series. He was the character designer for the primary characters in XIII and nothing more.
• The original Final Fantasy XIII sold quite well worldwide, though I don't know how profitable it was despite the protracted development cycle.
• We don't know what the budgets for games like Tomb Raider were in comparison to FFXIII. It's quite possible that a lot more money was sunk into them. Certainly, they made no effort to hide the fact that FFXIV 1.0 was a financial dud.
• We similarly don't know what the cost of development or reasons for radio silence on Versus XIII were, but it's FFXV now and back out in the open.
• This past generation saw several "non-rehash" Kingdom Hearts titles. Birth by Sleep in particular visited a number of worlds that hadn't even been seen before and covered plot and characters that had yet to be seen in any detail. Just because it's not KH3 does not mean it's a "rehash."

@ungratefuldead: Sorry but I searched for the right word. You als could say core gaming? Games for gamer? If that makes more sense. For me there is a difference between those things. But you also can call them more traditional games what ever you like^^

Why blame us? It's Nintendo's fault that it's not selling. Their marketing campaign has been absolutely horrendous, their is literally no third party support and the system already looks and feels old. I really don't want Nintendo to fail, but I just can't see them digging themselves out of this one. At least they have the 3DS to fall back on, I guess.