"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet"
- Juilet Cappelletti
Romeo and Juilet
Before any Wii fans protest to the notion that the Wii U should be NAMED the Wii 2, that is neither the thrust nor the theme of this article, I hope you all hang in there to get what this article is all about.
The Wii U possesses the moniker of it's predecessor, which gave a lot fans hope and inspiration for the future: The graphics are updated, Nintendo has came off of a stunning comeback over the last generation, and the base of Nintendo players have expanded exponentially compared to the last two generations of Nintendo's consoles. The future looked bright, brighter than it has been for Nintendo and it's fans for a long time. When The Wii U was revealed, it showed off it's new game, Zombi U, which looked exciting, to say the least. The survival concept seemed very enjoyable, the new aspects of how to play thrilled fans.
Almost.
While the average gamer that loves innovation was enthusiastic about the New controller, most of Nintendo's new fan base weren't lovers of innovation: as a matter of fact, a lot of the fans were very appreciative of the refreshingly simple and dynamic control scheme. A lot of new gamers, especially the more mature gamers, did not grow up to correlate a reflex action to a button push, which essentially alienated them to most forms of gaming. When playing a tennis game, a swinging motion with their arm would be the appropriate response to their experience; with the Wii, this system finally opened a door to many people who, after playing, finally realized why gamers could play games for hours on end. The Wii's controller was probably the most important gaming device since the home console in terms of bringing video gaming to the masses; it bridged the gaming and generation gap between older, inexperienced gamers and seasoned gamers. Watching someone's grandpa game along side of their granddaughter is heartwarming as you see the kid come out of the grandparents and the maturity of the children emerge as they give almost sage-like information to their newfound friend.
That is what made the Wii the most popular console for most of the last generation of consoles, and why that success was not followed up on is the most baffling thing I've ever seen in all of gaming. Not Nintendo, who already had every one of their own fans in their camp; not Sony, who put out the Sony Move in lieu of Nintendo's success; and not Microsoft, who, for some reason, thought people would use Kinect as they would the Wii's controller. This current controller turns most of the games that take advantage of Nintendo's controller offerings into "Game while you game" games; which comes off as confusing at times, even for seasoned gamers.
Although I don't agree with this notion fully, there is no reason why any of the console developers shouldn't put out a higher-powered Wii-like console for cheap and get previous Wii 3rd party developers to develop for them, set aside funds to have an in-house team to make exclusive games, and encourage indie developers to take the "wand" experience to new realms of gaming. It's a shame that such a lucrative opportunity is not fully explored since it's already been proven that the Wii did not significantly impact the sales of the other two non-wand consoles; meaning that kind of console won't under-cut any current consoles that are out already.
Nintendo has some of the brightest and best executives in gaming, period. Nintendo's longevity is a unquestionable testament to their innovation and savvy. To be honest, you don't really see the loyalty Nintendo's executives have in other companies; that being said, Nintendo's fatal flaw is that Nintendo as a company has troubles learning from both their failures and successes. When something fails, they tend to repeat their failures until it works, and when something succeeds, they often immediately attempt to innovate away from their success, sometimes resulting in failure. While I'm all for innovation, you should evolve innovation in small increments, not going too far off just for the sake of having something different than what you had before. For all of the intelligence Nintendo has at their company, they must realize that change is most useful when needed, and The Wii was one great idea that did not need any major changes.
The name Wii U isn't just a name: it was, and still is, a responsibility. A responsibility to all of Nintendo's fans, old and new, to continue hearing and responding to their concerns, a responsibility to the future to put gaming before and above innovation, an responsibility to themselves to uphold and maintain their reputation.
And if they fulfilled the needs of their fans and not their own need to innovate, whether it appears rosy or not to the average proponents of change, would be a breath of fresh air to their newfound fans, Wii-developers, and people who see the innovation and change already accomplished by the Wii itself that still haven't been fully explored...
...and it would also smell sweet.
With Microsoft closing studios, fewer new exclusive releases are expected for Xbox.
Not sure it ever was. It's upside was day 1 releases from 1st party. Few and far between plus it is just a rental service where you don't pick. It is fairly cheap for now that's a bonus. I think the beat deal in gaming is gamesale on reddit , and watching amazon
I got PSPlus and let me tell you it already feels like too much. As in, its nice to have all these games to play, but I'm still human and I only have a limited amount of time for gaming. The selection is definitely larger and better than Game Pass, but keep in mind, its 'Value' isn't something that normal people can really cash in on. Perhaps if you had it for GP ultimate, to get day on MS games, and only those games, and MS delivered on some bangers, it would be cool, but the same thing applies as with Plus. You are going to wind up paying for more than you actually use over a five year period. With GP set to go up in price, this exacerbates the situation. Plus you still got to PAY for games that aren't in the services that you want to play like GTA 6.
The only conclusion is that you pay more. You will not be able to get around that with any subs in the long run.
It most certainly is the best deal in gaming. It's definitely not GOOD for gaming. But, the value is undisputable right now. I fully expect that value to decrease within the next year or two though. It has never been sustainable. It's only a matter of time.
"Suddenly", my gosh are people so slow on the uptake.
I've been saying this for years, its just a rental service nothing special, and you don't get to pick what the rental catalogue is nor how long it lasts. Anything can be taken away from you on a whim, even while you keep paying.
You know what the best deal in gaming is? BUY your games on disc / cart, OWN THEM, play them as much as you want, and no one can take them away from you.
Tapes and cartridges from the 80's still work to this day, and people can still enjoy them without having to pay any additional fees. That sounds like a far better deal than a corporate rental service.
This. Playing xenogears on my OG PS1 right now. Just got to Dazil and have most deathblows learnt but not accesible due to my level. What makes it bearable on a 4K tv is a AV to HDMI upscaler. Obviously has limits but good enough for me. No worries of the game being removed from a service too.
That's the whole point of renting... you rent, you play, you buy your own copy if you feel the need. What GP is doing is no different than the blockbuster or hollywood videos or every mom and pop rental shop. And people would buy their own copies if they liked what they rented.
I'll probably download 4 of the games they announced coming today over the next month for £9. Seems ok to me.
But then, I tend to play single player games and i rarely revisit so a "rental service" suits me. Pretty much everything I play on PS is via PS+ extra.
I am the complete opposite. I have ditched both GamePass and PlusExtra because I find I just add stuff to my play later queue and end up playing all the games I've bought instead. I went a whole year on both services and barely used them at all.
It was always overrated. It only ever appealed to a certain subset of gamers anyways, which are the type who don’t care about owning games and are content to just experience them once and move on…or people who wanted to play CoD without buying it. It never seemed that glamorous to me, and I’m not at all surprised it has turned out to be unsustainable for MS.
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What exactly is the point of your blog?
super Wii
Wii 2 would make people understand this is a new console.