Nintendo: Project Cafe - Wii U

[dsheinem]

At this point, I'm getting slightly confused, it seems like we're mixing and mingling arguments for two things.

Does the WiiU appear to have what it takes to be a quality, fun console.

Is the WiiU going to succeed in the "Upscale Fishing" mission, and will it sell well in general?

Yeah, we are addressing both. The Wii did the first, but not the second. We are debating if the Wii U will do both (among some other things).

Also, "upscale fishing" made me think of something like this:

[Ivo]

There has to be a plateau of graphics as the human eye has limits (in terms of number of colours we've been there for a while). We don't need to go endlessly to get 100% realistic, just need enough polygons so that it is indistinguishable without pulling out a magnifying glass. We are probably not that far-off, the main difficulty will be getting believable "behaviour" in terms of physics (think realistic hair blowing in the wind, realistic jaw movements etc.).

There is certainly diminishing returns as well. After some thresholds it gets much harder to make a push that significantly improves the graphics, and it costs not just more hardware power but also immensely more producing effort. Frankly I do not think it is worth it except for a few choice titles that would keep demonstrating what could be done (but I'm a retro gamer mostly).

I'm MUCH more interested in innovations in gameplay than in graphic improvements so I am optimistic about the Wii U improved motion controls by default and separate touch screen. There are some possibilities and I think it is possible to do some great stuff for players on the same room (whether it will happen I am not sure but Nintendo have had good 1st party titles with that kind of stuff on handhelds before) and also for multiplayer over the net where the main screen can be shared while each player has a private separate one.

I was excited for the DS touch screen and was really happy with what was done on it. Based on that I was excited with the Wii, and while I do not have one and played some fun stuff on it I think overall it was a bit disappointing what devs managed to used the motion controls - maybe the precision wasn't quite good enough.

Ivo.

[Jamisonia]

Ivo makes a good point. We're reaching a point of diminishing returns here. Its going to cost exponentially more money for each step in making that cloud look realistic, or that wave look perfect. We already same games reach a new norm of $60 a title on the HD consoles this generation. It might be time we decided that that graphics we have now are good enough and start improving other areas of development.

[dsheinem]

Apparently investors were unimpressed by the E3 showing: http://mashable.com/2011/06/09/nintendo-wiiu-investors/

[Jamisonia]

Gaming journalism is so yellow. I read an article about how Nintendo's stock plummeted after the WiiU announcement! It plummeted 5% to $200 per share. Most companies only dream of having stock prices that high.

[dsheinem]

Gaming journalism is so yellow. I read an article about how Nintendo's stock plummeted after the WiiU announcement! It plummeted 5% to $200 per share. Most companies only dream of having stock prices that high.

But lowest since 2006...

[Jamisonia]

We already knew this thing wasn't going to have a good reception. Its too different. I'm not worried at all. Nintendo's idea's often initially seem dumb but with patience show their brilliance.

[AppleQueso]

When we have real-time CG looking like the CG stuff in the Matrix sequels then we can stop.

[YoshiEgg25]

Gaming journalism is so yellow. I read an article about how Nintendo's stock plummeted after the WiiU announcement! It plummeted 5% to $200 per share. Most companies only dream of having stock prices that high.

But lowest since 2006...

And what happened in 2006? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?

[pepharytheworm]

You guys, I think dsheinem is sounding pessimistic, so that when the WiiU comes out he will be pleaseantly surprised. I think he feels burnt on his expectations for the Wii.