Editorial: Buying Nintendo Consoles on Day One-Is it worth it?

“With Wii U, we have taken a rather resolute stance in pricing it below its manufacturing cost, so we are not planning to perform a markdown. I would like to make this point absolutely clear. We are putting our lessons from Nintendo 3DS to good use, as I have already publicly stated.”--Sotoru Iwata

Greg Bargas on the Destructoid Community Blog asks, "Is buying a Nintendo console on day-one, worth it?"

[Concertoine]

for me buying no console is worth it day 1. i didn't buy a wii u until last august.
i wont be picking up a ps4 until the end of 2014, as the wii u has enough coming to keep me occupied by then and by 2014 any inevitable problems with the console launch will be fixed and more games will be out.

[Shnazzyone]

Yeah I feel like the reason they get this much hype is simply to pad the day 1 sales, I haven't seen a console with a good first year since SNES. Quite literally every console from the 32/64bit gen on has had terrible launch years. It's gonna be interesting as this sets in for those who buy the xbox one and ps4. That's also disregarding the dangers of getting a system in it's first year as far as hardware failures.

[Baka-akaB]

I vastly disagree . The ps1 and saturn had mostly hits at launch . The Dreamcast had almost its best games at launch and the best launch line up ever seen so far .

The first xbox wasnt too shabby with the first halo either .

As for early hardware issues , i've little reasons to fear them . It mostly concerned two consoles : the ps2 with faulty japanese launch units (with eu and us launch being way behind and with fixed units) , and faulty lens anyway ALL its LIFE . And the xbox 360 .

Anyway so far the xb1 and ps4 launches sound more interesting than what happened previous gen for everyone . A decent mix of exclusive and multiplatform titles plus as a new trend F2p games

[abzdine]

i am a Nintendo fan but i have to admit that buying a Nintendo console day one has never been really worth it because quality launch titles have always been lacking. Usually after 1st year games start to come out (3D Mario, Mario Kart, Zelda...)

[Shnazzyone]

@baka PS1 had a good start but it also had about a year without too much. It seems like more because it had a head start and it took a while to catch on. Additionally, by the time n64 hit it had finally gotten it's games. I agree with saturn, it's launch lineup was pretty good. just it petered out very quick.

[Deadpoolio]

You realize that Sony isn't the company that knowingly releases defective hardware onto the market right? Nor was it Sony who had a 55% failure rate for 4 years, losing billions of dollars to continually repair their knowingly defective hardware.

[Concertoine]

The xbox 360 failure rate was nowhere near that high past the first 2 years.
You do realize that sony isn't jesus right? Hardware issues, network issues, and other problems are a given with new launches, especially as these things become more complex.

[Venoxn4g]

tell that to my ps3 fat ylod

[TheVideoGamHer]

"Editorial: Buying Any Consoles on Day One-Is it worth it?"

Fixed.

[LaWiiG]

That's true. However, there has been a certain changing of faces that Nintendo owners succumb to.

[Kos-Mos]

Well said. Bad article; I have to ovote it down.

[dark-kyon]

the smart thing with nintendo is wait 3 years when the mario,the zelda,mario kart,etc. is being out and the second zelda is to few months of being put a sell.obviusly. only if you have much money and time to buy severals consoles and want to play the "new" games of nintendo.

[link2Dpast]

I mean no console is worth first day purchase. Most consoles don't start bringing b out the big guns until a year later.

[Eldyraen]

True but it still doesn't stop me from buying them.

I can easily see why many won't and unless there is a game you can see yourself playing a ton then there is even less reason to be an early adopter. Essentially the longer you can wait the less downtime you have between great games which is always a good thing (backlogs are awesome but also daunting at times).

Being an early adopter just means I go in knowing there will be weeks or even months when nothing totally worthwhile is released to 'justify' picking it up early. It doesn't mean I won't be having fun during that time though as nowadays there is actually more 'value' at launch than sometime in the past. The last few generations in particular have been great as solid multiplayer experiences lessen the blow from early release woes.

[link2Dpast]

I usually pick up Nintendo products at launch since the snes days but recently been slow. Wii sports was actually great and held up for awhile but Nintendo land didn't have that same appeal

[Starbucks_Fan]

NOPE. I paid $150 for my Zelda Wii U and wouldn't pay more than that. There's only a few games I'm going to get in the next year. I hope they announce more exclusives soon. No interest in 3rd party games as I'm getting a PS4.

[LOL_WUT]

Man if I knew they were going to drop the price and bundle it with an actual game I would've waited even more. As for this article going by some of the complaints i'd have to say no the WiiU had a very heavy game drought that alone would make someone regret it. ;)

[OMNlPOTENT]

name a console launch that didn't have a heavy game drought.

[Nate-Dog]

Well of course they were going to drop the price and bundle it with a game. That's the nature of console releases isn't it? Prices never stay the same. Nintendo come out with tons of different bundles or different versions (like the 3DS limited editions), Sony always make a new version and release it around 2-3 years after initial release which is usually free of what is effectively the beta-testing phase now and which is usually more efficient, and Microsoft do something similar.

[Knushwood Butt]

@ omni

Vita had a ton of titles at launch. Didn't really pay off though. Many of them got totally overlooked.

You really only need 3 or 4 quality, varied titles for a launch, followed up by a steady stream of software.

[MrCastle]

3ds was a good day one item. You could still play all your old games on a brighter screen. And having Mario 3d as a launch was a good idea. The wii u on the other hand, has collected dust since I've bought it. I have put maybe 10 hours on it. The 3ds I've played for hundreds.

[OMNlPOTENT]

3ds was a terrible launch item. Mario 3d didn't come until half a year later. The 3ds is great now but terrible launch.

[Moncole]

Buying any system at launch is stupid. Their are hardly any games and if you wait a year their will be discounts and all the bugs will be fixed.

[MadLad]

I don't think buying any console day one is worth it.
You really don't know what to expect from the thing. All you have to go on is promises and assumptions.

[rustyspoon80]

I bought a Wii on day one for Zelda:TP. I dont own a Wii U.

I'm buying a PS4 day one for COD, Battlefield and possibly Killzone. 2 games that I'd buy anyway for this gen, now I'll get some graphical and gameplay updates.
Add in PS+, and there's loads of games I'll get to play in the first few months.

If you can afford it, why not get them day one. If there's games to play, get em.

[TwistingWords]

Is any console worth a day one purchase? the answer is yeah I suppose but after the glut of day 1 titles there is always a lew of new titles for 6 months to a year.

I bought my PS2 and PS3 day one and got stung with the lack of decent titles for a while... But saying that though I bought Smugglers Run A few months after and it was one of my favourite games of all time.

[wls1012]

Yes and no...

[Jagsrock]

Buying any console at launch is a bad move. Typically the games are lacking and not a huge leap. the online services are not totally ready and a lot of the launch systems have bugs. I got my wii u last month and I've been loving it mostly because it came with Windwaker and I didn't have to deal with all the system update issues launch people went through.

[CaulkSlap]

Nintendo consoles nowdays - absolutely not. Both the 3DS and Wii U launched overpriced and lacking games. Wait for price cuts from Nintendo. Games come eventually.

PS4 is definitely worth a day 1 purchase. I'm not saying it's justified by the launch lineup, but there's almost no chance it's going to be under $399 for quite a long time. Imo there's no reason to wait if the pricing won't change. The games will come regardless and might as well get next-gen asap.

XB1 has a decent launch lineup going but it's overpriced compared to the more powerful PS4. I'm guessing $399 by holiday 2014 if anyone wants to wait.