Wii U Discussion

[Firewind]

Re: Wii U Discussion

It tends to take a lot to break something Nintendo releases. I've seen my 3DS bounce twice on concrete flooring and slide across it face open. No scratches.

That never happens with my iPhone or Sony handhelds because I'm way more conscious about those breaking. My iPhone has made it 16 months without incident so far.

My youngest sister has been through 3 DS consoles though given that she as 9 when she broke the first one, I can put it down to not even Nintendo making kid proof stuff.

And Sony's stuff is actually very durable. I have had:

A portable CD player that repeatedly survived being knocked off a desk by idiot classmates at high school.
A PSP that has survived my rugby teammates using my bag as a rugby ball with the PSP in it (to be fair they didn't know that it was in my gear bag and I lost count of the number of apologies and offers to replace it if broken I got for that).
A PS3 that has survived my aunt dropping it in box down a flight of stairs when I was moving into a new dorm at college.
A PS3 pad that has survived my sister throwing at at the wall in frustration and being stepped on when my sister left it lying around on the floor.

Trust me, stuff like this is assumed to be treated roughly at some point and Sony's handhelds and consoles, while fragile looking, are surprisingly durable.

That said iPhones and Xbox 360 pads are exactly as fragile and/or cheaply made as they look. I've had 360 pads literally vibrate themselves apart. Also, Yyg, Cid, Hayde and Jarre will be able to tell you how ridiculously over the top the vibration can be when playing PC games. I'm fairly sure they they have heard my pad vibrating over my microphone while playing FFXI before I worked out how to turn it off.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Does PS4 really even have any momentum, though? I mean, sure, last wee there was excitement but now that everyone sees we're not getting that broad leap in performance lots of people seem ambivalent about PS4 and even the prospect of what MS could show for the next Xbox.

If Sony and MS's best case for this gen is social media integration, I think a lot of people would just go build a PC. Don't get me wrong, integrating social media more deeply is a fine direction to go in, but I don't think its going to take gaming to the next level. It might take people being annoying to the next level, but not gaming

I like that Catherine and The Walking Dead collect data and show you what other people think or what choices they made - that's cool, but Bioware proves there's a negative to that. All the data they collected for Dragon Age Origins shows people prefer playing humans so derp derp no more playable elves and dwarves. What was cool polling data for Atlus and Telltale was focus testing for Bioware and EA. So I'm really iffy about how far the social media stuff goes.

[Kailea]

Re: Wii U Discussion

I can not wait for Monster Hunter, the fact that the Wii U and 3DS versions are cross play is a nice touch, and allows me to get the game on each, and let a friend play with me, as they do not have a 3DS or Wii U, but they like Monster Hunter.

Also if crossplay works well, I hope to see a Monster Hunter 4 on Wii U as well, instead of just 3DS

[Malacite]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Yeah I'm honestly surprised they didn't have a Mario game ready to go. Metroid or Zelda would have been nice, but hard to expect those as they tend to take longer.

[Icemage]

Re: Wii U Discussion

I still think people are blowing the software thing out of proportion, though. Every console is like this after launch. The real problem with platform launches is they throw out a load of games up front, people consume them and then there's nothing for months on end. 3DS, Vita and Wii U all made this mistake. They put everything on the launch and then there was seemingly nothing for months.

Oh, no doubt. It's still early days yet, but you can't help but think Nintendo's really squandering their best chance at success. They've basically got the entire next-gen market to themselves for the next 7 months or so, and they're selling maybe 200K units per month worldwide? That's not a comfortable situation to be in when you've got not one but two competitors poised to hit the market by holiday 2013.

Things will pick up a bit as new titles hit in the next several months (Monster Hunter, LEGO City Undercover, Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, etc.) but I don't see any of those titles really moving the needle for the Wii U in the numbers it really needs before Microsoft and Sony use up all the oxygen in the room with their announcements.


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Well, while its not a huge boost, Monster Hunter is coming next month and given the climate in the US - which is understandably resistant to this series on handhelds due to local-only play - we could see a small boost in sales. There are people that will buy a whole system just to play MonHun. It won't be a big boost, maybe a boost like Vita had with Persona 4 Golden or Project Diva in Japan, but it will likely be a healthy one. Hopefully we get some dates of Pikmin 3 and Wonderful 101 soon.

I believe Lego City Undercover is also next month and while that's clearly not for everyone here, it looks like the buzz is pretty strong for it. Bit Trip Runner 2 just hit Wii U and Steam today and Gajin considers the Wii U version the best and the PS3 version the one they had more difficulty with.

I still think people are blowing the software thing out of proportion, though. Every console is like this after launch. The real problem with platform launches is they throw out a load of games up front, people consume them and then there's nothing for months on end. 3DS, Vita and Wii U all made this mistake. They put everything on the launch and then there was seemingly nothing for months.

[Kailea]

Re: Wii U Discussion

good lord, so it is 150... -.- well damn

[Icemage]

Re: Wii U Discussion

I think we can all agree that the price of the currently non-purchasable-outside-of-Japan GamePad is the least of the Wii U's woes at the moment. What it really needs is more games (and maybe some better tech). Getting a second gamepad isn't really an issue when no games will ever use one (esp. not at THAT price point).

It does give a good indicator of where Nintendo thought they were headed when they invested that much into the controller, but that's sort of academic at this point.


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Wii U Discussion

It tends to take a lot to break something Nintendo releases. I've seen my 3DS bounce twice on concrete flooring and slide across it face open. No scratches.

That never happens with my iPhone or Sony handhelds because I'm way more conscious about those breaking. My iPhone has made it 16 months without incident so far.

[Armando]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Yeah so all that flak I took for blasting the estimated price of the controller when it was announced way back, according to sources from Kotaku/Destructoid that turned out to be totally right in the end?

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

While the pad's pricy, I can't think of a whole lot of reasons you'd destroy it. It's useless without the main console, so it's rarely going to leave your house. If it does, you'd probably lose both things; that guy's lucky (or unlucky) he packed them separately. It's not something you swing around (not that that was ever a legitimate excuse to fling your wii remote...) So unless your kids destroy it, I don't see any reasonable situations that would lead to a destroyed pad. I guess you could step on it, but why would you ever place it on the floor? I guess you could tip a glass of water, but why would you put a glass of water next to electronics? It could fall, but probably not more than three feet; it'd probably survive.

[Malacite]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Yeah so all that flak I took for blasting the estimated price of the controller when it was announced way back, according to sources from Kotaku/Destructoid that turned out to be totally right in the end?

I'll take those apologies now.


Seriously though Nintendo is out of their damn minds with that kind of pricing.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Jesus fucking Christ...

$150 for the damn controller? At that price you're on your way to just purchasing another system, and you can forget about ever making use of local multi-player at that price point.

[Etra]

Re: Wii U Discussion

I honestly forgot I had a WiiU. Oops?

[Malacite]

Re: Wii U Discussion

HAH, wow that's insane...

[Icemage]

Re: Wii U Discussion

The controller will more likely be $99.99 and only launch window games will use one, later games will be able to use two, as the system can support up to two game pads. Nintendo just told devs to not release any games that require two game pads for a year or so.

$99 doesn't sound right at all. The standalone GamePad in Japan retails for ¥13,440. By current conversion rates, that's roughly $160 USD. Japanese pricing does tend to be higher, but not 60% higher.

For reference the retail price for the basic Wii U in Japan is ¥26,250 ($312 USD, +4% from US pricing of $300) and the deluxe edition is ¥31,500 ($375 USD, +7% from US pricing of $350).

If we assume a roughly 5% markup on the Japanese price, that would peg the standalone GamePad controller at about $150.

Looks like I was right about the controller pricing.

Replacement Wii U Pads $150 - NeoGAF

Someone on NeoGaf just had to replace a GamePad lost in airline luggage. Nintendo's charging them $140 + $10 tax + $5 shipping. $155.

No wonder these things aren't available on the open market. I can just imagine the backlash if someone buys it "for their Wii" not knowing it's a controller for a new console.


Icemage