HD was 'biggest factor' in lack of Wii core appeal
Nintendo's Satoru Iwata talks about how the Wii was perceived as a casual only system, and attributes most of that problem to its lack of HD support.
Despite its sales, core gamers generally preferred other consoles over the Wii. As the company prepares to launch the Wii U, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata is opening up about some of the Wii's shortcomings, and says that the lack of HD played a major role in the system's perception as casual-only.
"One of the key reasons that such things as the core and the casual exist today is that we decided not to adopt HD on the Wii console," Iwata said.
"Of course, besides that there are things like issues with the controller and the challenges that it brings, network functionalities and many other things, but I think HD was the biggest factor that everyone was able to clearly understand the difference," Iwata added in the latest edition of Iwata Asks.
He went on to say that the Wii U will have both HD and a unique controller, so the system can support both casual and core games. Iwata said the Zelda series proves the company is capable of core games, but recognized "quite a number of people who assume that Nintendo is the equivalent of being casual."
Nintendo may be battling the same perception in the next generation, given the company's Wii U presentation at E3. Although Nintendo teased several hardcore franchises for Wii U during its E3 presentation, its demos were largely casual mini-games starring the cute Mii characters.
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replySteve Watts posted a new article, HD was 'biggest factor' in lack of Wii core appeal.
Nintendo's Satoru Iwata talks about how the Wii was perceived as a casual only system, and attributes most of that problem to its lack of HD support.-
they always advertise hardcore franchises and one game comes out and that is the end of it
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I still think Zelda needs a makeover for this generation. Let the ranting begin. :/
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I would love to see a "dark side of Nintendo" show up in all their franchises, maybe only as off shoots but still.
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I don't know how the online stuff is handled on the 3DS, but all I know is the friendscode shit on the Wii and DS was the worst thing ever. I played a ton of local mulitplayer Mario Kart DS, but only took it online once. He might produce some top shelf beats, but toneh is forever most notable to me as the only person I played MKDS online with. :[
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Don't you still have to use those terrible friend codes?
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Not really, no. Basically, if you know someone in real life, you don't have to enter anything - being around their 3DS locally will give you the option to add them.
If you only know them remotely, there is a single machine-specific code you'll have to enter one time to verify, and that's it - it's not game specific or anything. It's no harder than adding someone's name on a different service.-
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But, if I buy a Wii HD and I want to play with shackers I'll still have to exchange a 16 digit random code, right?
I like usernames because I can remember a username, I'm not going to memorize a random Wii code. Now that profiles are gone I have no idea what my existing Wii code is. I know what my username for Steam/XBL/PSN are though.-
Wii codes are sort of burried under the gamelog screen.
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For all the crap they get for their online support on the Wii (and rightfully so), they have actually done a stellar job with online support in the 3DS.
* Great eStore
* Background content loading/patching in suspend mode (for all installed apps)
* Ability to pull up the web browser during any game and surf the web - invaluable if you're lame like me and need to remember how to get through the Water Temple without interrupting your game
* Spot pass is a thing of genius
* Daily content updates for a lot of applications
Here's hoping most of this stuff makes its way over the the Wii U-
I thought they changed up the Water Temple in this one?
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I didn't really care whether or not it was HD, it didn't matter when games like Super Mario Galaxy had great art style and still looked good. I DID however hate the fact that their software support was shitty and the fact that their online support was garbage compared to the PS3/360/PC.
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Is this another example of nintendo publically demonstrating that they either don't get what's going on and just luck it in, or just another example of that awesome Japanese corporate habit of deliberately lying to consumers about an issue because they tell you what to think you don't get to think what you like about them.
I don't think they're stupid, I just think they're disingenuous because it's convenient to their corporate vision.-
What do you think is wrong with what he said?
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I'd say that HD being the primary problem is correct. Not to say that network play and other issues aren't important, but the primary issue is the lack of HD.
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It's all about the way he said it or write it
These big companies have the best PR / marketing people wording everything to their advantage..
They use "lack of HD" because that's certainly something that they're going to fix in the next iteration (U?).
What about
Lack of decent system for Online play
Lack of buddy list
Lack of hardcore games
Shittastic graphics regardless of HD
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This isn't news to any 'hardcore' gamer.
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Yeah we've been saying that exact thing for years while they denied it :/
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Exactly, they didn't get the software because the hardware wasn't up to snuff. That being said, Nintendo should given better 1st party support for the HC crowd.
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I'm pretty sure it was their strategy that caused the system to be perceived as a casual only system. Why are they acting like they are shocked that they lost the core demographic? The entire system was designed around capturing the previously untapped causal market. But I guess that dried up faster than they expected so now they are scrambling to get the people back that buy 20 or more games per console cycle.
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Not to be blunt but... uh, duh.
The out cry during development told them that, they acknowledged it, why does admitting it now change anything except to be a poor attempt at marketing their 5 year late to market new console? -
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I can't imagine buying it or the 3DS. Too many of the same old games.
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I suspect most of the problem is that Wii was abandoned by most of the 3rd party developers of AAA titles. That was the problem for me. I owned a Wii first, and then two years later I got an xbox 360 because of so many AAA titles that I could not get on the Wii, like Burnout series, Midnight club, Fallout, Assassin's Creed, etc... However, I have enjoyed the Need for Speed series on Wii and EA does port that to the Wii, also Tiger Woods golf is fantastic on the Wii too.
Which came first, the lack of 3rd party support, or the lack of HD?
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