180°

Wii U: 'Consumers Have Not Understood Its Value' - Iwata

NowGamer: Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata admits that there is some consumer confusing regarding the Wii U.

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psp2roundup4116d ago

Or, to put it another way, we haven't explained it properly to consumers.

Never underestimate the general consumer and their ability to not give a rats ass about your (in fact any) lovely product.

bicfitness4116d ago (Edited 4116d ago )

Or consumers just don't want the product. The simplest excuse is usually the correct one. The tablet was a huge mistake. I'd rather they just stuffed a $350 box with off the shelf mid-range PC components, kept the Wii Motes and added a controller. At least that way, it would be more competitive with PS/ Xbox Next software. If you all missed the EA conference call or headlines, EA isn't referring to the Wii U as next gen and shan't be offering it much support moving forward.

The full quotation is here:

Q: I know Nintendo came out today and was a little bit more cautious with their outlook for Wii U sales, doesn't sound like this is a platform you guys are really pursuing aggressively on. What does this really say about the consumers' willingness to adopt the next-gen consoles — we should have something new from Sony and Microsoft, so what does that say with Nintendo going through the early struggles on the Wii U?

A: So, couple of things. First, you never count Nintendo out. They've got some of the best IPs in the game industry, when their marquee titles show up, that's when you usually see the bounce. I'm deeply respectful of the achievements they've had over the last several years, and so yeah, never really count them out.

Having said that, I wouldn't say that we see much correlation between the results that Nintendo have just shown with the console debut of the Wii U and what we see coming. We see a pretty sharp distinction and unfortunately I'm unable to go any further than that.

Ours is an industry where a lot of devices come in and represent themselves as the next generation or the next generation after that. You know in many ways, we would argue that the gen— what we're describing as "Gen 4", is yet to come — and it's that we're excited about, and that's what we're investing in, and frankly we've been quite consistent with that for some time, recognising the frustration our inability to articulate precisely why, causes for you."

The Wii U tablet is killing Nintendo's hardware margins too, and non 1st party developers aren't, and likely won't, use the tech in any meaningful way.

mcstorm4115d ago

I see what you are saying but what is to say MS and Sony do have a table built into there next controller?

We don't know anything about the next xbox or Playstation. What people seem to forget is Nintendo don't need 3rd party games to survive as they have there own IP's to fill peoples needs but I do think they will get the backing of AV, EA ect.

People seem to forget that the WiiU is new and its not until 12 to 18 months after a new console comes out we start to see games that really show off what a console can do. Look at the PS3 for example it took along time for the games to show off the hardware to get out.

I think people are expecting massive jumps with the power the next xbox and PlayStation will have and if you look at the PS3 again at the start of the gen then you will see this is not the road to go down. Consoles need to be affordable to have massive sales. Plus if you look at the games that were out the end of this year in Halo, BO2, NFS ect the are games that are on current consoles and are bing ported to the WiiU and why would anyone buy a new console to play a game that they can play on there console they already have.

Once we see the shift in games from 360 and PS3 to the next gen consoles this is when people will make the jump to the WiiU, Next xbox or PlayStation.

The way I see it panning out is that the sales between the next gen consoles is there will not be a big game in sales between all 3 as I see them all offering more or less the same features it will just be what type of exclusive games you want on which console will be picked up as I see all 3 having all the 3rd party games on them.

bicfitness4115d ago (Edited 4115d ago )

@MC. If I may.

"I see what you are saying but what is to say MS and Sony do have a table built into there next controller?"

I guarantee you that they won't MC, as MS and Sony have already hedged their bets. MS has Smartglass and Sony has the Vita for second-screen interoperability. Neither one will take the risk of going "all in" with second screens, after watching the incurred costs and lackluster reaction to the Wii U. They'll just work with the tech they have. To that end, I'm expecting to see actual, function remote-play type functions on both the PS4/ Vita and XboxNext/ Smartglass.

Regarding "power", I've said this before, but a mid range PC with a CLOSED architecture, made at manufacturer, mass-production level discounts would produce the sort of output we'd expect from top tier PCs. All this at a $350ish or less production cost. So they could sell it for $400 and make a profit. Also, consoles have stripped down OSes. You have no idea how much bloat is added to performance just by running Windows or from not directly accessing the GPU, which some of these consoles are rumoured to do.

kayoss4115d ago (Edited 4115d ago )

@MCstorm
I think its not the tablet that people care about. Its what the Wii U can offer in performance wise when the PS4 and Xbox720 are release. How can developers make games for the PS4 and Xbox720 and try to port to a Wii U which will be inferior spec wise? Developers been asking for a more powerful machine for the last 2 years and Nintendo knew that but they decided to release a console that is in par with current gen. The only choice they have is to develope the games on the Wii U and port it to the PS4 and Xbox 720, but that just holding back the full potential of the developers and the next gen consoles.

Thatguy-3104115d ago (Edited 4115d ago )

Think by naming it wii u. It confused a lot of customers thinking it was just an add on for the wii. The marketing that Nintendo uses didn't really help them at all. Let's just see how well it does as time goes by. All I know is that Nintendo better drop big announcements by e3 because sony and microsoft are going to go hard since new hardware always takes the spotlight. Especially the orbis and durango since everyone has been waiting for them.

USEYOURFIST4115d ago

i agree with the perception that its just an add on, i got my kid one for xmas and parents that pop round when his playing it just think its a pad add on for the wii, then when i explain what it is they just say "were not paying that much for that, they can just play there wii". Nintendo have made a big mistake in how they have marketed the wiiu and were probably overoptimistic with the casual markets, or parents, desire to pick up a new machine.

Rainstorm814115d ago

Exactly this , I own a Wii U and I passed on the Wii yet every person I know that bought the Wii (mostly casual gamers) either aren't interested or don't know what the system is..... It's difficult to convince the causal crowd which makes up majority of Nintendo's base market to go a buy a 300$ console which many think is a Wii add-on... Nintendo is partly to blame because of the reputation they built as the "family console" and early on the Wii U seems to be slightly opposite of that.

For now the Wii-U will be supported by core gamers , so in turn Ninty support us.... The casuals will come in the long run like every other core console at launch...although I doubt the Wii-U will have the same success as the Wii

OmegaSlayer4115d ago

Or, to put it in other terms, "we made a machine that does a lot of things but does it with old tech"

Resistive technology on the pad is shameful.

The more times passes by, the more I dislike Nintendo.
Never stood their characters, I hate Reggie, I disliked Iwata and with Nintendo direct I hated him more.

I never heard Ballmer or Hirai complain that people didn't understood the 360 or PS3.
I frankly hate this irresponsability.
If it's not received as you expected you didn't do a great work.
The point is that Nintendo itself doesn't know what to do and where to go with this turd of a machine and that's why they can't explain to others.

Lots of 3rd party games will skip WiiU, EA more or less already cut support, expect Rayman Legends to become multiplatform by the end of the year.

It's not about the sales, it's not about the attachment rate, it's not about the hardware quality and not about the software, it's a turd because behind the WiiU there is not a plan, and that's why Nintendo is freaking out.

PS3 in the early days was doing much much worse than WiiU, but Sony said that they had a 10 years plan, they didn't whine.

ElectricKaibutsu4115d ago

What are you talking about? He wasn't blaming the customers. He goes on to say they will have to get the message out there, meaning actually advertising the thing.

I really hope they explain to people why they didn't use a fragile, inaccurate capacitive touch screen. I'm assuming you're a hardcore gamer and you don't even get it.

OmegaSlayer4115d ago

@ElectricKaibutsu

Yeah, touch screens for me are "whack-a-moles" and small screens are not my cup of tea for gaming experience.
Bought a Gameboy when I was youuuuung, bought only Tetris and Battletoids.
Loved Battletoids but played Teris much more.
I bought a PSP, it collected an amount of dust that is beyond imagination.
I have an iPod, bought Infinity Blade 1&2, Rayman, Chaos Ring Omega and guess what...the game I play mostly are Sudoku and Mah Jong.

The WiiU pad is not revolutionary enough in the sense that it doesn't add much.
TVremote is nice but it's for sickos mostly.

ElectricKaibutsu4115d ago

@OmegaSlayer

Fair enough. I don't like touch screens for the most part really. I'm writing this on my phone and if it weren't for autocorrect half of these words would have typos. Touchscreens in general are inaccurate and not suitable for gaming. Give me buttons any day. But saying that, the touch screen that annoys me the least is the gamepad's. The stylus is much more accurate than a finger. I don't know if the gamepad adds much to single player experiences yet; it certainly hasn't proved itself necessary anyway. I like it more for multiplayer games. Couch co-op where each person has their own screen is cool. The everyone vs. the person with the GamePad is fun in NintendoLand. On the rare occasions I used the off TV play feature it was convenient at least.

Donnieboi4115d ago

Typical. Blame the consumer for not finding value in a (as of now) rather underwhelming product. Damn, Iwata has always been the wrong guy to run Nintendo. He's been a paper weight since he became prez during the Gamecube era.

Picnic4115d ago (Edited 4115d ago )

One the few exceptions to that rule was the PS2. But people would have bought it anyway as the follow up to the PS1 and just because it had so many games.
Many PS2 owners don't even know agree on what its greatest games are. They just bought one because that's what people did. The fact that it happened to have some very quirky artsy games was incidental to many people. At least they stood out more on the Gamecube because the games library was so much smaller.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 4115d ago
iamnsuperman4116d ago (Edited 4116d ago )

Then show it. Consumers are not stupid and would rather see the "value" in practice and not just talked about

I personally think the Wii U gamepad isn't as big of a value as Nintendo thinks it is. If it was a full competitive tablet then sure but the fact it is fairly useless outside the home is putting people (the mass market) off. Obviously can't talk about power because we have no idea what competitive system are like

Crillvirus814115d ago

That's cause you don't own one that's why you say that feature for feature it's better then any of the other 2 consoles right now all it's missing is some games and why would they make it a competitive tablet no body plays real games on those plus they got a great hand held console out right now that's selling millions I own a ps3 and Xbox 360 and haven't touch mines since the wii u came out but I will be playing them soon cause bioshock and tomb raider and crysis 3 will be coming out and that's nintendos problem there's none of the first quarters big games going out for them but that will change come next year plus they got there own exclusives and no one sells better the Mario lol

kayoss4115d ago

I have a wii U and to me its very gimmicky. I feel like the Tablet portion of the game was forced into some of the games with out any real thoughts put into it. Tablet was great for Zombie U but super mario it was really really difficult to coordinate with the person you are playing with.

scottd4115d ago

Ya we hope they still have 3rd party by next year, that's the problem

solid_warlord4115d ago (Edited 4115d ago )

Consumers Know the Value of Ninty's new product for sure and its a terribly imlemented console and a laughing stock to consider it NextGen.

Worst Console Ninty's come out with since Gamecube. After a shock and fluke comeback with original Wii, Nintendo's gone back to its original self. Trying to be too smart and think they are too good for everyone. Ninendo, u will be put back in your place to where you belong. Failure this gen could be the end of them.

nevin14115d ago

The Wii is much worst than Gamecube.

G-cis4115d ago

not when they have billions in bank
HA!

Thatguy-3104115d ago (Edited 4115d ago )

Money comes but it goes quicker than you think. One bad move it can all go away. Look at Sony for example they were able to save the PS3 and Nintendo should learn from them.

lilbroRx4115d ago

So what will you say when Orbis and Durango sell even less at the end of the year?

1upgamer994115d ago

IF PS4 even gets released this year. I have read for months that Sony may not release PS4 till 2014 and this week Sony said they were going to let Xbox launch first. I really don't think 720/PS4 are going to come out at the same time. IF that does happen Sales will suffer, people will have to choose between one or the other, as most people will not have $1000 dollars PLUS to pick both up. I really doubt Sony/Microsoft are going to sell more than 3 Million in the same time frame it has taken Nintendo.

GreenRanger4115d ago

It's your job to make them understand, Iwata.

LOL_WUT4115d ago

Sometimes I feel like Mr. Iwata doesn't know what gamers want. ;)

Show all comments (63)
80°

How Many More Victims, Like Garry's Mod, Will Nintendo's Hurtful Crusade Create?

Hanzala from eXputer: "As Nintendo takes out 20 years' worth of stuff from Garry's Mod, I watch in shock, thinking why it continues to hurt and discourage its fans."

RiseNShine4d ago (Edited 4d ago )

The irony that some of the most disgusting business practices come from companies like Disney or Nintendo, i can't even begin to understand what terrible damage was Garrys Mod making to Nintendo bottom line, imho they're getting pretty nervous about where they're heading in the future, handhelds are no longer something exclusive to Nintendo, from Steam Deck to many others, now you can play the latest games and pay a fraction of the price on Steam sales, so it's up to their exclusives, which just on their own would make hard to justify purchasing a closed overpriced hardware with outrageous price policies (Super Mario Odyssey is still 60 euro 6 years later!), and as a home console they're always underperforming compared to Sony or Xbox.

gold_drake4d ago (Edited 4d ago )

i cam guarantee you, that their exclusives alone is what drives switch sales. they sell in the 10s of millions of copies.

nintendo created their franchises to be sort of nostalgia driven, exclusive only on nintendo.

people will always buy the pkmn games as they always bring in new younger fans amd is family friendly

mario kart, the same thing, mario games in general.

zelda games are system sellers. animal crossing for the casual gamers.

nintendo doesnt need third vame devs essentially. they made sure with the switch and the limitations that they looked more to pc ps and xbox.

its sad, but nintendo is more than fine with what they're doing. they positioned themselves to appeal to the more casual gamers.

but to your point, im not sure why they're doing this rly.

Inverno4d ago

Look at how they handled Nintendo games being streamed or uploaded on YouTube in the past. They killed Yuzu and Citra even when they had nothing to do with ToTK being leaked, not to mention it was basically unplayable on emulation the week it was leaked. Smash Bros tournament, that was fairly recent. They shut down their online services without any care for purchases made. I bought a switch after skipping their last 2 consoles and handhelds but I don't plan on buying anything Nintendo in the future. They take things to the extremes, they legitimately hate their fans. They're honestly right up there with the likes of Acti, EA, and Ubi, only difference is that they disguise themselves as being family friendly all the while being shady.

80°

Nintendo's Massacre Of The 3DS And Wii U Is Finally Complete, Regrettably

Hanzala from eXputer: "The cruel hammer of Nintendo has fallen. Farewell, 3DS and Wii U, you surely brightened my life and many others; you won't be forgotten."

280°

Xbox's Preservation Step Sets A Much-Needed Example, Especially For Nintendo

Hanzla from eXputer inquires: "If Xbox can care about preserving its games and legacy, what exactly is wrong with Nintendo, trying to kill game preservation single-handedly?"

purple10125d ago

Ahh yes the good old game preservation of saving all your games to a removable hhd on the Xbox 360, taking it round your mates house, setting up multiple tvs to
Be met with “save data corrupted, please re download”

Or how about removing 360 games
From the store
, download them now or else, and, better hope to god that save data doesn’t corrupt, or it’s lost for ever

Nice one ☝️

Zeref24d ago

It's better than what Nintendo and Playstation is doing. It might not be perfect but at least they are TRYING. Unlike the others.

DarXyde24d ago

Trying? Take off the blinders for a moment, mate.

1. A failure to preserve games is just that: a failure to preserve games. Don't try to sugarcoat it: NO ONE is doing it properly. Better than awful is nothing to write home about.

2. At the time of this comment, isn't it the case that you need an internet connection to play Xbox games even if you buy physical discs that are hardly in circulation anymore? I don't have a Series X and I can't verify, but I think that is correct. I'm fairly certain you can at least play PS5 games at version 1.0 (not much of a win really when many games require day one patches). I think Microsoft's all digital, licensing approach is by far more aggressive than anyone else's. They really try to push you to game pass where you lose your entire library by umm.... Skipping a month of payments.

I don't think anyone is doing it right whatsoever. Don't get me started on Nintendo, who goes after anyone looking to preserve their games better than they ever would with extreme litigation.

Don't be a simp for any of these companies. Get it together.

PhillyDonJawn24d ago (Edited 24d ago )

@DarX never speak on Xbox again. You lost all credibility with your internet connection comment. Smh you have 0 clue and misinformed yet speaking on something you don't no squat about.

Einhander197224d ago

What has Sony done exactly? You guys keep deflecting to Sony but I am not actually seeing any results, and ai am certain nothing that you can come up with even comes close to what Microsoft has done and what they have tried and failed to do, like tie all your disks to your account on xbone.

Microsoft removed their whole indie section when they moved to the xbone because they were going to only allow games on the service that came from a publisher, id@xbox started after xbone launched and it only exists because Sony embraced indie and Microsoft was forced to cancel their plans and reverse course.

And every single game that was part of games for windows live including disk games (I have gta 4 on disk that won't work) so hundreds of games that use that DRM no longer work unless the company themselves patched it out which of course very few did.

MrBaskerville24d ago

Not trying. Tried. they killed of the backcomp program years ago. They set something up again, but sounds like it's more of an attempt to save the current library on whatever they are planning next. With luck they save everything and more, but let's see. I could see them killing off parts of the OG xbox and 360 libraries. Can't imagine that they would allow us to play Forza 5-7 in the future.

With that said, I do like what they've done and really wish they could have done more.

shinoff218324d ago

Zeref

So killing off physical media is trying what exactly. Ms don't really give a fk if you think they do your kidding yourself.

Profchaos24d ago

They are not trying this team is established for forward compatability the team is. It interested in preserving Xbox or 360 games.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 24d ago
isarai25d ago

Is that why Hellblade 2 is digital only?

Zeref24d ago

Just because it's digital only doesn't mean you can't preserve it. Just put it on an external and you have the exact same functionality of what a disc does.

MrNinosan24d ago

Guess you're trolling, but if you actually think that's how it works, I'd recommend buying some braincells.

mkis00723d ago (Edited 23d ago )

Volitile vs nonvolitile data. A disc will not corrupt either. A drive can be corrupted.

Einhander197225d ago

This is just a scammy PR move to distract from the fact they are going digital only and trying to push streaming and subscriptions only.

No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft.

Without discs there is no preservation, preservation can't be done by the rights holders it can only be done by the consumers, anything else is a lie.

25d ago Replies(3)
Einhander197225d ago

Anyone remember xblig which Microsoft removed their whole 360 indie section removing hundreds of games from people?

25d ago
24d ago
Zeref24d ago

Do you know you can put your games on an external and preserve them that way? There are no benefits to discs. ZERO. Idk why some of you are still obsessed with them.

DarXyde24d ago

Because games like Persona 5 exist. It's STILL V1.00. On Playstation, that's a win because 1.00 is installed on the disc—no need to download anything.

If a game does not require any updates, it's all on the disc.

Extremely low bar in the modern era, of course. It's not much of a win by any stretch.

But for now, physical media does have a purpose, at least on Playstation.

Einhander197224d ago

That is factually not how game licensing works, try plugging your hard drive into someone else xbox, It's not going to work, and it won't work if the licensing servers ever go down.

Einhander197224d ago

Anyone remember games for windows live.

I have around a dozen games, some on Steam itself that will not work because Microsoft shut off the licensing servers.

BehindTheRows24d ago (Edited 24d ago )

I do. I STILL have games (Gears of War being the big one) I cannot access because Games for Windows LIVE is total garbage and no one has held Microsoft accountable.

Zeref24d ago (Edited 24d ago )

You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership.

Chevalier24d ago

"You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership."

Damn how many times do people got to explain your idiocy to you? You can take a copy of Persona 5 like someone used as an example and play that game on ANY console WITHOUT logging in which means I can lend the game to a friend without internet and they can play my game. Can you lend your hard drive to anyone without logging in for them to play? NOPE. That is a huge difference and if you think otherwise then sorry you're an idiot.

Tacoboto24d ago

"No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft."

Ubisoft is literally erasing games people bought from their libraries... My PS1-3 discs are useless on modern hardware. Nintendo's re-published and resold almost their entire Wii U library, and the eShop is completely dead with no BC mechanism in the Switch software. Microsoft publishes everything they make today day one on Steam and Xbox/Windows. Sony only brings to PC the titles they think you might want some years later and Nintendo won't even design a functional long-lasting joystick.

You're absolutely trolling and not serious if you think Microsoft today is the worst offender.

shinoff218324d ago

Yay steam

Not everyone fks with computers though. The disc is still the best way as a console player. Period.

Tacoboto24d ago

How do Sony and Nintendo feel about these discs from 2001-2013?

Don't be stupid, you know Xbox is the best at this today.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 24d ago
Hofstaderman24d ago

Nobody wants this. Sales or the lack of it in the case of XBOX is very telling. I wonder how the adorably all digital series X will fare. Adorably dismal perhaps?

crazyCoconuts24d ago

Only time will tell, but for from someone like me suspecting that Xbox is trying to gracefully exit the console market, that "forward compatibility" team is trying to get Xbox games playing on Windows PCs. I mean, it's nice that they're not planning on exiting with a "enjoy your games while the hardware still works" message, so that's nice. They still have a brand to protect via Microsoft so probably feel obligated to have a better exit strategy.

Xeofate24d ago (Edited 24d ago )

That is not their plan, their plan is to transfer users accounts to the cloud.

Phil Spencer himself said as much a few months back, plans could have changed but I think people are reading way too much into one statement where Phil said he would allow Epic on xbox because he wants to be able to sell xbox games directly on other platforms. Aka, instead of selling Sea of Thives through PSN he wants to have an xbox store to sell his games on PlayStation without giving PlayStation any money.

Again, it's extremely unlikely that Phil plans to put PC on xbox and licensing would prevent them from just giving out other publishers games purchased on xbox copies of thier games on PC, Microsoft does not own their games.

crazyCoconuts23d ago

The thing that doesn't align with the cloud strategy is the giving up on exclusives. You'd still need strong exclusives for cloud streaming - it's still a "platform" , just with a lower upfront hardware investment. I feel like they've learned what PS learned with PSNow long ago. We're not ready to stream games and it's only gonna lose them money to try at this point

FinalFantasyFanatic24d ago

I would love that, I'd buy up some of the Xbox games if they could run on PC, like the Rare Replay, Lost Odyssey and Dead or Alive Ultimate, probably a pipe dream though.

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