It’s no secret the Wii U is, from a business perspective, failing miserably. Not a day goes by without some form of news article foretelling the former console giants demise, and it seems that Nintendo may finally admit to feeling the heat — and may already be in development of a brand new console.
Iwata stated earlier:
“Since the revision to our full-year financial forecast, there have been various reports and comments about us. However, we do not hold a pessimistic view of the future of dedicated video game platforms. We therefore believe that dedicated video game platforms which integrate hardware and software will remain our core business. Naturally, we are moving ahead with research and development efforts for future hardware as we have done before and we are not planning to give up our own hardware systems and shift our axis toward other platforms.“
So what, exactly, can we take from this? That Nintendo is always doing a little behind-the-scenes R&D, or that they’re admitting to being in the process of creating a new console to compete with the Xbox One and Playstation 4?
Nintendo has always been one to do their own thing, and they’re practically swimming in money from their stranglehold on the handheld market, but with both Iwata and Miyamoto taking pay cuts over the agonizingly poor sales of the Wii U, could we see Nintendo abandoning ship sooner than later?
Personally, I’ve had my Wii U for a while and I know there are a handful of good games for it, but aside from Nintendo themselves, larger developers don’t seem to want to support the console. I think that anyone who is a diehard Nintendo fan already owns the console, so the sales won’t exactly skyrocket any time soon. Iwata has already stated that Nintendo has no plans to develop as a third party, so understanding that the Wii U is both underpowered and less desirable to the mass market (even with the support of the Nintendo faithful), maybe a new console is what Nintendo needs?
Let’s keep in mind, however, that we still have some positive reinforcement from Nintendo coming down the line with Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Super Smash Bros Wii U and the possibility of a new Metroid on the console at some point. We also have X & Bayonetta 2 from the third party corner, so not all is bleak, but are these all system sellers to anyone who hasn’t already invested in the Wii U?
How do you all feel about it? Do you think that Nintendo should abandon the Wii U and start working on something a bit more powerful to lure in the third parties? Should they just focus on handhelds? What about the rumored console/handheld hybrid, Nintendo Fusion? Or should Nintendo stick to their guns and pump out more first party content?
I’d love to hear your suggestions on this, especially those of you who already own the Wii U. Would you feel betrayed if Nintendo brought out a new console within the next 12 months, or do you still feel that your time with the Wii U was worth the money you paid?
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Interesting point on the New console Idea. I think that Nintendo should stick with the WII U as there main home console.To launch a new a console just probably towards the end of this year or the beginning of the next would be right at the time when the PS4 and Xboxone are begining to flex their muscle and I think would cause Nintendo a problem, Consumer Confidence in there Home consoles are low. The focus should be in my opinion, on building up more Nintendo home based games, they are after all the reason ( after brand loyalty) people purchase a Nintendo console, or any console, the exclusive titles, the Marios, Zeldas and smash Bro’s.
In terms of R&D, I mentioned in my Blog that a Nintendo smart phone may be the best way to go and I stick by that. A smart phone with all modern smartphone capabilities but with Nintendo community, games and extras would grab a much wider audience, its a tough market to enter, but being a gaming phone may give them the edge, if they execute both the phone and game functions properly. If they were to also integrate the ability to sync the phone with the WII U, they may even see a boost in sales in their Consoles as well.
Good Post
I generally buy the Nintendo console for the first party games, and then pair it with another for the cross-platform stuff that tends to skip Nintendo altogether. I was surprised by how many great third party games released on the Wii, but so far I haven’t played much on my Wii U aside from Monster Hunter that isn’t published by Nintendo.
I think I’d rather see Nintendo offer mobile versions of their games like Sega is doing, rather than developing their own gaming phone. Or add Skype to the 3DS and call it a day (not sure if it’s on there or not since I don’t own one).
Still an interesting concept though!
It could be possible for Nintendo to go Full Sega, dump all forms of Console and produce what would be Nintendo exclusives for other platforms as their hold on the Handheld market loosens.
People have been saying that for a while now, yeah. But Nintendo has already confirmed as early as yesterday that they have no interest in going third party.
If there next console does as badly as the current one, they may have no choice
I’d rather the virtual console on my smart phone, but you can only buy the games on a nintendo ocnsole, so you’d just download any games you’ve bought on your phone. That said, I’d think it’d be better suited to the iPad, touch-control wise (the controls for Mario alone would cover the whole screen on qn iPhone).
It’s supposed to be a fitness-based console, and released at teh end of 2016. There’s probably untapped potential in that market (they must have big numbers from Wii Fit or something), and it could work, but I’m sceptical about the games. It’s all goign to be variations of the same game. Maybe there’ll be games which have a fitness component (e.g. a first-person Mario platformer where you jump to jump, run to run, etc.)
Both versions of Wii Fit on the Wii sold quite well and were even well received, but Wii Fit U has been struggling so far. Even Wii Sports Club isn’t doing too hot, and I thought bowling was a hell of a lot more fun there than the original Wii.
If only the new Nintendo console hadn’t been entirely inspired by the clunky Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles multiplayer interface! D:
I’ll drink to that, lol.