Is the Wii U back in the console wars?

[Bremaine]

The Wii U seems to be doing quite good as of late, especially since Nintendo rocked it at E3 this year and it seems as if they may be poised to make 2015 their year. I was wondering, what is your opinion on the Wii U? Will it be able to compete with the likes of the PS4 and Xbox One? With all the games coming this year and in 2015, I really think they can turn things back in their favor. What do you think?

 

[Scarsz]

imho Nintendo is on life support from Super Smash Bros.

 

[Avex]

Wii U has no almost no chance of becoming as successful as other competing consoles. Seemingly they've built their games for a younger audience which hasn't entirely helped them out

 

[sglider12]

I don't think that the Wii U will really be that much of a success. Super Smash Bros is definitely going to help it out, but that will probably be it. I bought a Wii U specifically for Smash Bros and owned it for about two months before I decided to sell it. I even cancelled my Smash Bros pre-order and just purchased it on 3DS. In the two months I owned that Wii U, I played Mario Kart 8 and Super Mario/Luigi Bros on it. To be honest, the games are alright but the console itself just isn't worth the money. It is seriously lacking behind other consoles of its generation.

The console basically just sat on the shelf for the majority of that two months. I realized the same would probably be true even if the Wii U version of SSB were out already.

 

[insertkittyface]

I don't think the Wii U is ever going to be extremely successful like a lot of consoles out there, it just doesn't have what it takes, and don't get me wrong, I love Nintendo, but I think this one is kind of a flop. I didn't end up buying it and I won't in the future considering I don't see it sticking around very long, sales will either just drop off or something else that's a lot better will come out to replace it.

 

[Ridge]

The Wii U will be the supplemental console for a lot of people this generation.

There are a lot of fun Wii U games, most of them 1st party titles, and whenever one comes out everyone will whip out their Wii Us and love it. But you just need an Xbone or PS4 to get you through the rest of the time.

 

[lorcan]

I think the wii is not really a competing console as it caters for different things compared to the Xbox and the playstation. Really the two other consoles compete against each other not the wii. I think the Wii major challenge is to try and make consumer get into their category of sports and sensor technology .

 

[GlacialDoom]

Nintendo never really wanted to compete with Sony and Microsoft; they are fighting a different war on a different front. I really think that Smash Bros. will mean a huge increase of consoles sold, but I still don't think that'll be enough to satisfy them. I'm sure more exclusives are on the way and that they too will be console sellers.

 

[techbeast34]

A good user base is what makes or breaks a console, and so far, Nintendo's user base isn't doing too hot. There aren't that many good games that people will buy a Wii U specifically for, and the user base is really just a lot of nostalgic adults looking to relive their childhood. The Wii U was meant to be aimed at younger kids, but because younger kids are more interested in the Xbox One and PS4, that marketing isn't really effective anymore. The Wii U may be saved by Smash because they made a specific adapter for GameCube controllers, but that still may not be enough to be the console of 2015. But we'll see as time starts to unfold.

 

[TheViper]

Nintendo was never in the console wars to begin with. They could have easily done so by actually coming out with a console able to compete against the two giants. Though, they decided to stay in their lane and satisfy their own audience.

 

[CosmicOdyssey]

Nintendo does what it wants and it makes money they know it and so do you.

 

[Avex]

Of course they make money, just nowhere near as much as they do with their 3DS console. The only reason Nintendo is still alive is due to Pokemon, Super Mario, and Smash games.

 

[CosmicOdyssey]

And they generate huge sales every time so they don't feel the need to worry about 3Rd party I just wish they would use the Wii u to its potential. I've seen better usage ideas from comics then from the actual game makers.

 

[joshposh]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolo...art-8-steers-Nintendo-to-surprise-profit.html

According to this bit of news, Mario Kart 8 has brought Nintendo Wii U profit during it's fiscal second quarter. Looks like their mascots is Nintendos saving grace. Isn't that one of the reason why we chose certain platforms in the first place, is because of the exclusives?

I also agree that Nintendo Wii U was never in the race with Sony and Microsoft. They had a demographic in mind and their own little niche. There is no room for 3 major consoles fighting for pissing rights.

 

[Lights]

Not a lot of third-parties supported the Wii U at launch, and there are hardly any third-party games for it now, so I don't think they can compete at all even with the trickle of amazing titles coming out... I mean, you certainly can't compete when you don't have hot titles like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare on your console...

Nintendo will keep the Wii U from flopping with those amazing Nintendo exclusives, but I don't think it'll ever do sales like what the Xbox One and PS4 are doing now.

 

[pcgamer]

Nintendo has loads of cash to spare right now. Even if they sustain the losses they are sustaining right now, it would take 20 years for them to come near bankruptcy. Despite being pushed back by Sony and Microsoft, they are still a big player. So counting them out would be foolishness. As far as Wii U is concerned, I don;t think it has much juice left in it to be bale to handle the current-gen only games like Mirror's Edge 2 and Dying Light.

 

[Yort]

The Wii U will be the supplemental console for a lot of people this generation.

There are a lot of fun Wii U games, most of them 1st party titles, and whenever one comes out everyone will whip out their Wii Us and love it. But you just need an Xbone or PS4 to get you through the rest of the time.

WiiU with a PC seems to be the winning combination. I see this all the time on other forums about having a PC as a supplement for the WiiU, and I couldn't agree more. I think one could live with a WiiU alone but I do see the need for other third party games. I'm happy right now playing games for the WiiU and the Wii. I never had a Wii so I'm catching up with the best of Wii games right now. So far I finished Donkey Kong Country Returns and Mario Galaxy. I'll start on Galaxy 2 next.

 

[GamerPerson]

I'm not even sure this is even a war.

I'm confused as to how they weren't even part of this "console war" in the first place, all things considering they PREVENTED the gaming business from dying out. All the systems have their appeal compared to the ones from years ago - Virtual Boy and Pippin, anyone? - that these were the only ones to survive those years. (Even though, PlayStation was breed in the process because of Nintendo. Thanks for making this company flourish, guys! ) Mircosoft just came out of nowhere and thought it'd join the battle because it looked promising on the gaming aspects. (They make computers and game systems are designed and drawn up on them, so why not?)

However, with all the things they've touched and try to put out it's failing. They may be making figures, but the quality is horrible. (Seriously, their quality of Skype tanked when they took over. The Xbox One initial release was horrible and anyone with a working sense could see that all the ads for companies that signed up with was JUST to get it out there!)

So, while people argue about who's winning, I'll simply just sit back and enjoy whatever console or PC game I'll pop in.

 

[fjellse]

The Wii U hasn't been a great success. Honestly, it didn't have the opportunity to. It was branded so poorly. I can't begin to count how many of my friends and family thought the Wii U was an optional expansion to the Wii. Worse than that, it still hasn't recovered from that branding blunder.

Despite this, quality Nintendo games keep putting it back in the spotlight, which is remarkable. Look at Amazon's video games bestseller list: top 3 games are Nintendo, with one being Smash Wii U.

If any console has ever had the opportunity to make a resurgence (of some sort) after an abysmal start, it's the Wii U. I think in the long term, the worst case scenario is that Nintendo breaks even after this generation comes to an end.

Nintendo is in a weird position. With their boatloads of cash, they can really do whatever they want. And what they are doing is continuing to support their console. Which is fantastic because the games they have released for it so far are really going to be timeless classics.

 

[BPBWessel]

Nintendo tends to focus its new systems on creative innovations. On the classic Wii, motion sensing was a new feature for consoles, while the others had to follow. The Wii U also tried to introduce a new feature, the whole screen in your hand and in front of you thing. I personally think that this was a bit of a failure. The Wii U innovation can be traced back to the N64 where certain game boy games could interface with the N64 via the a plug in for the controller. This was enhanced on the gamecube and GBA via the link cable, allowing more handheld games to interface with the TV system, and give two screens. The Wii and Wii U's wireless capabilities allow for including the DS and 3DS into the gameplay of some WII and Wii U games. The Wii U's handheld screen controller just seems a bit redundant after that explanation and that its not really a new innovation like the Wii had.