Do You Want Games to Be More Cinematic? And Will the Wii U Recover? Sessler's... Something

This week on Sessler's ...Something, Adam continues to answer your questions! Today he's tackling the idea of gaming becoming more "cinematic", and pondering whether the Wii U will recover after a slow year.

[lassenwolf]

I love the game pad , and Nintendo has more controller choices than anyone.Playing a game like wind waker on the pad in another room is cool. Its the games that they need and they are coming, secondly the wiiu is selling now . I think the wiiu will out sell the xbox1 in 2014

[LOL_WUT]

The Wii U will not outsell the X1 nor the PS4 in 2014. People are easily forgetting that these two consoles quickly cut the Wii U's lead in half! Nintendo would most likely end up in 3rd place by the end of this gen ;)

[mikeslemonade]

It's Nitendo's act of desperiation. From the weird designs they are really hit or miss.

N64 controller
C button on the gamecube
D pad in place of the thumb stick on the gamecube

So they hit with the Wii1 but they miss about on 80% of everything else.

There's no saving the WiiU.

[BosSSyndrome]

really? 2014 when wii u is getting a ton of huge exclusives and ps4/xbone are have their post launch dry spell they will still outsell it? i dont think so. 2014 is wii u's year.

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

that funny I guess Wii really won last gen. Despite haters say it has no games.

Claiming PS3 the real winner lol only cause sales didn't matter til it caught up to 360.

[KingDadXVI]

I love the WiiU game pad too but there need to be more games designed for it. It works well when you have a game that is meant for it but it sucks when you play a game that is meant for a controller like the Xbox or PlayStation controllers. A good example of that it Batman Arkham City. The controls are just the shits on that game as the game was not designed with that controller in mind.

As to your other comment, " I think the wiiu will out sell the xbox1 in 2014." Seriously? ROFL, the Xbox one sold 2 million units in 18 days. The WiiU has only sold 4 million in a year. I love the WiiU but seriously give your head a shake on that comment.

[dedicatedtogamers]

There are certainly Wii-U fans out there but it's not going to be a big seller. Nintendo simultaneously alienated their Wii fanbase (with a confusing name, a departure from the Wii-style games, and a complete lack of games) while also failing to excite the hardcore gaming community.

Who does this leave? Die-hard Nintendo fans and that's it. I'm going to get a Wii-U this upcoming year (I won't miss out on the new Xenoblade) but it's a console with Gamecube-style games being unsuccessfully marketed as a Wii successor.

[Roccetarius]

Eh, hell to the no man. Games are already becoming too cinematic, and it shows in the overall quality. We shouldn't strive to become just another Hollywood.

[DARK WITNESS]

Could not agree more. it's actually turning me off a lot of games. I want more realtime interaction and less scripted cutscenes and all that crap.

especially a lot of the action genre games. gaming is becoming more and more like watching bad B movies with little sections of shooting here and there.

pissing me off.

[Joe913]

Are you kidding me Uncharted 2 and 3 story was better than most of the movies that came out this year lol I hope they do not change anything one of the main reason I play TPS games are for the story.

[DARK WITNESS]

You pick uncharted 2 and 3 which are (arguably) right at the very pinnacle of excellence in terms of what gaming has to offer from a story perspective....

What about all the other Rushed, low budget, half arsed games that try to copy it's cinematic style without having an excellent narrative to support those amazing cinematic?

my comment still stands... I said a "LOT" of games, I didn't say every single one that has cinematic, just most of them. I didn't mention uncharted at all anywhere in my post

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

no they are not movies they are games. Something western developers do not comprehend.

[Dannycr]

Outselling the PS4 or Xbox One will be extremely hard, specially without 3rd party support, however, it won't fail like some people think it will. We will start to see a lot of games soon. Smash Bros will help the sales, same with the usual Mario Kart

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

Mario Kart 8, Smash Bros. and Donkey Kong will sell more copies than third party games.

Despite them being multiplat.

[Dannycr]

Right, buuuuuut, they need to sell consoles. Nintendo didn't capitalize on his year head-start and that's the whole problem. The Xbox360 did take advantage of the head-start.

The problem the WiiU is facing is not lack of good games, it is just that the consoles are not selling. I see Mario Kart 8 selling consoles like crazy, Smash will do that as well (but not as much as MK8) and I don't see DKC: TP pushing console sales.

This is not about game sales, but console sales. With a smaller userbase, a game will sell a lot less than what it could potentially sell.

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

the console is selling
Those two games are Nintendo biggest system seller why do you think people say they will get one when these two games launch

[Evilsnuggle]

Bu bu but The x1 is sold out yeah right wii u out sold x1 last week worldwide. X1 is doing horrible in Europe only 60000 consoles sold.WiiU 319,860 x1 307,366. Another price cut or great Wii u bundle and wii u and x1 could have a dog fight. The PS4 is King 3.4 million sold . 1 million more than x1 and counting. http://www.vgchartz.com/#em...

[Dannycr]

Games are going to be the factor here and Nintendo has better games in the horizon. Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Zelda vs Halo. The rest is unknown, however, Nintendo has the advantage 'cause Nintendo sells great worldwide and on the other hand, the Xbox is mostly niche to USA.

[SpiralTear]

I'm seeing a recurring trend from Adam, that he just hates the Wii U Gamepad. He brought that up during his E3 impressions of Bayonetta 2 as well, barely talking about the game itself and only talking about how he didn't like the Gamepad design.

Also, why in the world would Nintendo scrap the Wii U controller when it's the system's most recognizable and distinctive feature compared to its competitors, the thing that gets consumers' attention in the first place?

[Xof]

So the WiiU's biggest problem... is that the analog sticks are placed above the buttons.

Really?

THAT's the thing that will determine the WiiU's fate?

[MidnytRain]

That's not even what he said. Must have missed the part about the tailor-made games.

Either way, their weird@$$ controllers aren't helping them any. Notice how Sony and MS controllers stay mostly the same.

[JackieCruise69]

No, I don't want 'more' cinematics in my games.
Games. Not movies. Games.
Sure a little bit here and there are fine and pretty, but too much would just be ridiculous, imo.

As for the Wii U. Time will tell, I hope it does good. I don't expect it to beat out Ps4 but even so, I'll get full enjoyment out of Wii U with this New Year bringing great looking games to it.
And as for the complaints on the Gamepads design... I have no problems with it. I think it's designed pretty nicely. I have small hands and it works great for me- and my BF has bigger hands and has never complained either. So the analog placement is fine if you ask me. I'm satisfied.

[TripC50]

I think the Wii U will do a turnaround with the games it has coming in 2014. It wont be a complete 3DS kick ass turn around but enough to end the failure talk.

I don't want all games to go more cinematic than they currently are. I don't want interactive movies.

[johny5]

even if it means selling at a huge loss!

Right now there main goal should be having the Wii U break into the Western markets to increase market share then once they accomplish that then can they think about selling bundles to start making money. There other problem is not having any noteworthy games to keep up consumer interest!

It's called risk Nintendo you should try it sometime!

[yewles1]

I want games to be more of whatever they CAN be, whatever genre a dev can make their title in, I want them to flourish in all departments.

[nfl]

Tbh....i would have probably bought the wii u, had i not bought the wii. The reason being that i loved the idea of the new motion controls at 1st. However, despite the good games, time after time there where loads of rushed games that just where all too similar. After buying so many, hoping for something different. I got fed up.

When the wii u was announced and hyped. I just become more cautious and decided to wait longer to decide. I seemed to have lost interest now....shame.....as i think its prob ok.

[pyramidshead]

Would depend on the genre I think.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

I don't know nor care about Wii U outselling anything.
Nor does it really matter.

But as to games becoming cinematic?

On two conditions;

#1 Cinematic doesn't become synonymous with "photo-realistic". I like cinematic stuff, but photo-realism is becoming over-rated, and to be honest I feel that it's trying too hard and that it's an art style that limits the amount of expressive freedom characters and scenes can have, compared to something less realistic.

#2 It cannot take priority over any other part of a game's development.
Not the music, not the gameplay, not the puzzles, not the written part of the story that plays out outside of cutscenes.
All of those things MUST take priority over the cinematics.
I play a game to experience it through some degree of, you know, actually PLAYING.
If I wanted a more cinematic experience, I'd watch a movie.

[clouds5]

Lol at the controller rant 😊i have the wii u since one year and often play with the 360 pad on my pc. No issues at all. Just because sessler has issues doesnt mean the controller is bad in any way. I love the dual analog placement with wiiu. I still cant stand the ps way thouh. Gives me cramps.
So i could say sony needs to change because i find it uncomfortable? No...

[AWBrawler]

i understand Sessler's opinion, but i disagree. don't scrap the gamepad, focus on it more instead. just imagine what happens when big wii u exclusive take advantage of the gamepad or two gamepads. it gives them an advantage that the ps4 and xbone can't readily copy.

[KratosSaveUs]

Wii U has the strongest exclusive lineup next year. A lot of great games coming. I'm excited for Nintendo. Nintendo and PlayStation are the best.