Wii-U thoughts so far

[RyaNtheSlayA]

I dropped another $40 on my Wii U today in order to buy Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed. So far it's a blast. I've heard there are some pretty bad bugs at the moment but they are supposedly working on a patch for it. Highly recommend to any Kart-racer fans, or even Sega fans. They really packed this game full of fanservice.

(Now if I could just figure out what the hell Danica Patrick is doing in this game)

Just avoid (or fail on easy a lot) the Boost challenges and the game will otherwise be mostly solid. Unfortunately not a very good looking game.

I love how there's Sonic R music mixed in with the more notable songs.

[equalsign]

Stopped by my local Wal-Mart today. They had 5 Deluxe and at least 2 Basic units.

It seems they were better prepared this time. It was a successful launch for sure. They are mostly out of stock around me in the north of Boston area but I did see a basic unit at TRU.
System launches.

Wii U - 400k sold in one week. Is this number US only or US/Canada or all of NA?

PS3 - 197k in two weeks in the US.

X360 - 326k in two weeks in the US.

Wii - 476k in two weeks in the US.

I don't think these numbers are as telling as you think. The Wii could have sold FAR more than 476k had there been units available. The demand was huge and remained huge for two years. I highly doubt the Wii U will see anything remotely close to the success of the Wii.

This time 2006 (just after the Wii's launch) I tried to find the console for a friend. I literally called over 100 stores. When I asked to be transferred to electronics, many of the associates just told me that they didn't have any Wii consoles. Every store I have checked has had Wii U units in stock.

One year after the launch of the Wii, I decided to buy a second. My brother and I had split the cost of the console, and I had left it at home when I went off to University. I got lucky and saw someone exit a Gamestop with a Wii. I ran in and got in line. Every person there wanted a Wii. They were literally sold out within 10 minutes of opening their stock.

It's fine to be optimistic, but give me a break. 400,000 units at launch isn't impressive. It's great that their system wasn't DOA, but with Nintendo's core base that really wasn't a concern. Whether the Wii U is a success remains to be seen.

[Octopod]

400,000 units at launch isn't impressive.

What is impressive then if outselling the past competition isn't? Seems impressive to me.

[girlracer]

anyone buy the pro controller? i know it works for zombi u and was wondering if it was worth it

[RyaNtheSlayA]

anyone buy the pro controller? i know it works for zombi u and was wondering if it was worth it

Well, it's a good controller, though I'm a bit annoyed that Super Mario Bros U doesn't work with it properly. The battery life is ridiculous apparently. Something like 80 hours.

[equalsign]

400,000 units at launch isn't impressive.

What is impressive then if outselling the past competition isn't? Seems impressive to me.

I believe I answered that already. It will be impressive if the system manages to keep its momentum. The past competition it outsold was subject to enormous shortages during the launch window. Nintendo has a core audience that likes to buy their products and the newest tech. That core is not large enough to sustain a console. That core audience has continued to shrink over the years. Nintendo was always going to sell a few hundred thousand at launch, supposing they had the availability. They'll probably approach 5 million in the first few months of 2013. It is not impressive. It is expected.

What remains to be seen is whether they succeed in the long term, get crushed in a Dreamcast-like way when the PS4 and neXtbox arrive, or simply putter out in a more competitive video game console market. They need to recapture the casual market. Most of that market stopped playing their Wiis years ago. I do not know how Nintendo is going to convince them that this machine won't end up becoming a dusty Netflix box. They already have one of those anyways.


(Note: Nintendo still has enough market and capital to survive a failure, so the death of the Wii U wouldn't mean the end of the company in the same way the Dreamcast marked the end of Sega.)

[KDub]

Seems like you just need to put a negative spin on it; do you write for Kotaku or IGN? It is an impressive (aka very good) launch no matter how you want to slice it. It doesn't matter if it did better than A B or C, it did a heck of a job at launch.

[equalsign]

Seems like you just need to put a negative spin on it; do you write for Kotaku or IGN? It is an impressive (aka very good) launch no matter how you want to slice it. It doesn't matter if it did better than A B or C, it did a heck of a job at launch.

Har har. What next? Going to ask me for my Gamefaqs handle?

Launch sales are usually pretty dependent on the number of units available. It's interesting to note that the Dreamcast sold 500,000 in the first two weeks (more than the Wii). That didn't mean much when the PS2 came around.

I'm not being pessimistic. You guys are being blindly optimistic. I'm taking the "wait and see" position. Nintendo's core is strong enough to gobble up the launch units. It cannot carry them through 2013. Nintendo needs to make a strong case for the Wii U before the end of next year. Anyone trying to call the Wii U a success or a failure right now does not have an argument based in empirical evidence.

[Thierry Henry]

My short experience thus far with the Wii U.
(it got officially released here this past Friday the 30th of Nov)


As many others have noted the Wii U OS is horribly slow. And the second screen is very distracting. Is there a way to put if off if you only want to view your telly?

Otherwise though Nano Assault Geo is pretty good especially the Arcade mode. I've also played a little of bit of New Super Mario Bros. U and it is fun as well as one would expect.

The one big deal for us in this side of the world is that there's absolutely NO eShop support which also means no updates etc. I wonder what the gamers who bought the premium edition will do when they realize they can't participate in the limited Nintendo Network Rewards Program as ZA is not supported. It states so on the printed material, but in practice it's not. Highly frustrating.


Edit:
I think I finally figured out how to turn off that Gamepad screen. lol
Hit the Home button on the Gamepad to access controller settings to dim the gamepad screen and turn it off.

[Weekend_Warrior]

400,000 units at launch isn't impressive.

What is impressive then if outselling the past competition isn't? Seems impressive to me.

Agreed. Considering the high price tags on the two versions of the Wii U, I'd say those numbers are pretty impressive

Btw, I just found out the Wii U controller doesn't support multi-touch (I haven't done much research on this system) and it often requires you to press firmly on the screen for many things to register. Sounds a bit weak, in my opinion. Since the controller is supposed to be the main selling point for this system, I think Nintendo should have spent a little more time into developing better tech... and have it support multi-touch.

I've also heard talk about poor frame-rate performance on many games, as well as lack of anti-aliasing... with very noticable jaggies