Editor-in-chief at IGNcube: "So I'll tell you exactly what I told both Perrin Kaplan and Reggie Fils-Aime when they asked me the same question, which is, I believe Wii is $50 too expensive and three weeks too late.
As a gamer, I want Wii to sell for $200 for a number of reasons. It has about one tenth the processing prowess and one fifth the RAM of, say Xbox 360, and it also lacks a true hard drive. It doesn't play DVDs. It doesn't play music CDs. Yes, you read that correctly and yes, it's true. In fact, in many ways, it could be called a turbo-charged GameCube. So why the $249 price point?
Well, there are certainly reasons for it. It's easy to shrug off Wii as the least powerful of the three consoles, but consider what Nintendo has done. Wii is roughly half the size of GameCube and it still packs twice the power. It has roughly double the processing prowess, approximately double the RAM, an additional 512MBs of useable flash memory, built in 802.11b/g wireless capabilities and a full docking station for GameCube controllers. The console is backward compatible, in fact, with every GCN title ever made. And I haven't even mentioned its Wii Channels system or, most importantly, the Wii controller, which could represent one of the biggest hardware innovations the industry has seen in years.
Still, Nintendo says it's going after the mainstream audience so I want to see it really do that from the start, and a $249 price point is not quite mainstream enough. This is especially true when you consider that many Wii games are designed to be enjoyed by multiple players and each separately sold Wii remote will cost buyers $39.99 plus another $19.99 for the nunchuk attachment. Add in a classic controller or two and all of a sudden we're well beyond the $300 price point – just so that mom and dad can play Wario Ware."
Neil Hickton, Andy Buick and Alan Mollison from This Is My Joystick get together to talk about November’s notable (and not so notable) game releases and beyond.
In this episode, Neil H, Andy B and Big Al talk about:
■What they’ve been playing
■Wii U ”Bricking” update issue
■Wii U launch titles
■Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed Wii U
■Mass Effect 3: Special Edition Wii U
■New Super Mario Bros. Wii U
■Nintendo Land Wii U
■Rayman Legends Wii U
■ZombiU Wii U
■Trine 2: Director’s Cut Wii U
■Toki Tori 2 Wii U
■Nano Assault Neo Wii U
■WWE 13
■Need for Speed Most Wanted
■Football Manager 2013
■Just Dance 4
■Silent Hill: Book of Memories
■Halo 4
■Curiosity
■Little Big Planet Karting
■Call of Duty Black Ops 2
■Call of Duty Black Ops Declassified
■Wonderbook!
■Epic Mickey 2
■Hitman: Absolution
■Assassins Creed 3
■Lego Lord of the Rings
■Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition
■Far Cry 3
■GTA5
■One Eyed Monsters
Talk about being 100% backwards compatible… or just being 100% backwards in general.
That's not 100% backwards at all. At least you can play your Wii games on the Wii U. Yes, upscaling would be cool, but I would hardly call that a real dealbreaker.
So true and considering the upscaling thing was one of the bigger problems for the ps3 and 360 it isn't surprising they left it out. It would have been nice, but like you said at least you can play your Wii games.
Hmmm. I'm still debating whether I'll get one right away.
I'm so excited by the Wii U, but at the same time there are no real 'deal breaker' games at launch that I don't have on 360 and PS3.
I got to play NSMBU, and it was much funner than I had anticipated. I'm eager to find out what ZombiU will turn out like as well.
I'll probably just succumb to my own excitement and get one a few days after it launches (Provided it doesn't sell out). I'm sure many others are super excited to see what Metroid, Zelda and many of the JRPG's will be like on the Wii U. It has the potential to be better than both the Xbox 360 and the PS3.
Honestly, if you don't see anything you want right away then just wait a month or two. Make sure you purchase the WiiU because there are several quality titles or features that you want. Don't let your purchase of the WiiU turn into a situation where you play with the machine once and then never play it again. That happened to a lot of people with the Wii. So make sure you will actually be using the WiiU a lot before you buy it. I am going to get a WiiU a few months down the line, but right now there are enough quality titles to satisfy me.
Oh god no. I don't plan on letting it collect dust. I'll probably be buying most multi-plats on the Wii U PLUS exclusives.
My PS3 and 360 will be solely for exclusives, provided there are enough online players on the Wii U.
I don't like how Nintendo does backwards comp, but its the same as it was on Wii for playing game cube games. You had to boot into game cube mode to play GC games and all Wii functionality was turned off because you were basically playing a game cube.
Well "boot into gamecube mode" to me just meant, put gamecube disc in disc slot, play game.
Like anyone else's BC model is any better. Most PS3s don't play PS2 games and the 360's backwards compatibility is a joke. Many 360 slims can't even play original Xbox discs, only downloaded games.
I'm not buying a wii u for backward compatibility. I'm buying to for forward/New gaming experiance. I'm sick of people wanting backward compatibility consoles. Why so you can play your old games on new hardware? Here's a thought for you cry babies, don't sell your old console and use it for your old games.
You're sick of people wanting BC? You should probably lighten up a bit, its not that big of a deal. Honestly, it should be offered as an option if anything. I'm sure people wouldn't mind paying a little more for an SKU that offers it.
There are gamers who want it because they've amassed a nice collection over the years. I keep my consoles hooked up at all times though. My living room tv has snes, 64, dreamcast, ps2, xbox, wii, ps3 and 360.
Its not about playing old games on new hardware. It would be nice to condense some of them down and play my titles through 1 console is all. People, like myself, have hundreds of games on their shelf that essentially become obsolete unless you keep the old hardware. Some convenience would be nice is all. Its not necessarily a make or break situation, just ease of use to further support your product as a whole would be cool.
Chris the red head, I understand why you would want the option of backward comp., you are a true gamer to own all those consoles, but in the business world the manufacters want to make money and not lose money also I'd rather have Microsoft/Sony focus there engineering on moving forward and not sacrificing ram/internal components then to please the very few who own all the consoles. If anything they can put your classic games on live marketplace or psn/soe. And you can repurchase the games on there. That would be even more conveinant. Because you'll never have to put a disc in the tray and wait for it to load.
Why Nintendo's new game system is completely useless to anyone over the age of 12. A parody.
Say what you want but the cow did make some good points. From the cases to the OS. It does make the system look childish. It doesn't have the sophisticated look that Sony or MS gamecases/OS has.
Nintendo is a family/children company. So to the core gamers that buying this system. Expect the OS interface to look childish and expect everything to look kiddy. That just how it is when it comes to Nintendo as you can see from their past handhelds/consoles.
You do realize that this is EXTREMELY sarcastic right? I mean for crying out loud the description says "parody". I thought you would of gotten that when you read the last line:
"They should make it like Sony does the Playstation, design it for no one. Look at the PS3!"
*Picture of PS3 Super Slim*
"Not a single part of its design process considered the costumer, and that’s why I love it. They focus on the tech, not on stupid things like “concave triggers” and “updating the Dual Shock design to standards that aren’t from 1998.”
"Nintendo still thinks that success comes from giving people something they can use, instead of something that looks good on a tech sheet."
"What idiots."
But why am I even surpised? Of course you'd obviously believe he was being serious because he basically said alot of things that you spew all the time. It's almost like in order to make himself sound like a retarded fanboy he took notes directly from you.
I say Oh Brother because I knew this parody would bring out the trolls such as yourself and not see the humor here and instead go off on a nonsensical rant..such as what you did.
In any case, it was a well written article.
Guys... mika spouts infactual crap all the time, no matter how ridiculous. No matter how crazy. No matter how constantly proven false.
How are we so sure mika is serious? I've been thinking... mika may ALSO be a parody...
O.o;;
Mika, you might be the most pathetic troll on N4G, next to Evildead.
Thank you thought for making this parody so much more funny than it was meant to be.
Another kid that thinks that Ninty are kiddy if that's true why do Ninty have more of an older audience than Sony with all its teenagers and sub teenagers ect Ninty have the most mature gamers due to owning the late 80's and 90's ect and thats a fact this new generation will only make Sony/Microsoft more obsolete.
Mika a prime example of the bias on this site... Does nothing but troll but is never banned. If a NIntendo supporter went into a Sony article and said something like Sony is in 3rd place, they would most likely be banned even though it's the truth, but then Sony supporters like Mika are allowed to say whatever garbage they want and nothing is ever done to them.
I'd love one of the mods to explain to me why it is you can only be banned for showing Sony in a negative light no matter how remotely true yet we have Mika,Divine Assault, SHutupand wahtever, and a few others that do nothing positive for this site and only spread ignroance and hate.
The cow is just upset because it has hooves and can't play video games at all and it is obviously sexually confused. It acts like a bull but its a cow with utters.
I love the concept behind the OS , it looks well integrated, haters will be haters tho, watch the rest copy nintendo again.
This is the reason you havent heard anything from the other 2, they are watching how nintendo do there thing, then they copy
all the gizmos built into the gamepad including video chat Wii u gamepad makes ps3 and 360 controllers look like dinosaurs
But the gamepad comes with the system, not as an expensive add-on. and it does way more than just vidchat
wow, that was very funny. Amazingly the article tries so hard to put down the Wii U in ways that actually make it look good instead. Very well written parody!
I totally agree with what this author wrote... I've done some adding of my own.. now its not a knock against the wii, its a great console and going to be extremely popular... but for a HDTV owner without broadband who wants to play supersmash brothers and wario ware this is the breakdown
Wii: 249.99
3 wii-motes: 119.97
3 nunchaku: 59.97
4 classic controllers: 79.99
wario ware: 49.99
super smash bro brawl: 49.99
component add-on: 59.99
ethernet add-on: 29.99
total: 699.85 (+ 8.8% WA state sales tax yuck ><)
I'm not saying that its cheaper than the other consoles, but for someone who already owns a 360 its a lot to pay to achieve what i want the wii for... If things were cheaper say... the wii was under 200 and the controllers were around 40 total (including nunchuku) then I would be there on day one.
Dang son, 40 bucks for a remote and 20 for the chuck.
That's way to much to ask the supposed "casual gamer". Next gen consoles will continue to sell their majority at 200 bucks. And for the Wii it's gonna have to be lower than 250 cause that's still expensive to play wario's next hit.
Also why the heck do you have to buy an ethernet add on for 360, and component add on for 60!!! Nintendo's really milking their fanbase that's shrinking.
Although I have every intention of getting a wii on day one, I completely agree with the article.
At $200 it is a great toy, at $250 you really have to start doing a compare/contrast of whether it is worth going for the 360. I understand the arguments about the xbox core vs premium and the need for extra components and whatnot, but the simple argument for the "one console purchasers" boils down to:
$250: Wii
$300: 360
At $200 I'd be a lot more comfortable with that idea.
Can I buy the nunchucks for my Gamecube so I can have a Wii,?