Nintendo Wii U is now officially discontinued (Jan 31st 2017)

[GalacticPirate]

What the heck ? They came on the Wii ? ...

* STV headbangs

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Yeah. The Wii U version sold so poorly that they didn't even bother making a new version, and the Wii version runs on the Wii U anyway.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Wow... so now there are rumors about the Nintendo NX switching back to cartridges

http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/nintendo-nx-no-optical-drive/


I guess that if the cartridges are like the 3DS and PSVita rather than the expensive-to-produce carts that had extra chips and stuff in them like the NES/SNES/N64 had, then that might not be as bad, since such carts can now have much higher capacity than back in the days, but I am curious about if it will really be cheaper to produce both cartridges and the hardware that can read them than blu-ray/proprietary discs and the reader for them?

Nonetheless, it would definitively be akward if they went for larger cartridges that looked like NES ones and probably be more durable against scratches and stuff.

[Araidia]

Yeah, having cartridges would be really awkward to people used to discs, but then cartridges are more durable than discs anyway. And you could probably fit the same amount of data considering that micro sd cards can fit so much data for the cost

Maybe it will become mainstream and everybody uses cartridges

[aetios]

I just hope the NX will have some fun games. What gameblabla said about many games having no soul is true to me. One big example to me is the many open world style games that have been coming out lately. Many of those have very little in terms of story and resolve solely about some half odd online world. Many recent racing games come to mind... The same goes for sandbox games; KSP and Minecraft are pretty cool games (ksp more than MC but that's personal opinion) but they have zero goals. I know I'm supposed to set my own goals but... I dunno, I'm not that kind of gamer?

[Dream of Omnimaga]

I also noticed how JRPGs seems to try to behave like MMORPGs sometimes too, not just open world games. For example, Star Ocean for PS3/360 and Borderlands. Nintendo recent games have soul, but often offers very little new features compared to predecessors.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Well, assuming the most recent rumors are true and that Nintendo still has no plans to replace the 3DS, it seems like they still have not learned from the Wii U failure and loss of third-party support:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-07-26-nx-is-a-portable-console-with-detachable-controllers
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/nintendo-nx-the-pros-and-cons-of-a-transforming-portable/0170297

As a 3DS successor, I think this could be very successful, because it's portable and will most likely have better hardware than the New 3DS, and I doubt Sony will release a new portable console again in the future. However, if their plans is solely to compete against the PS5 and the successor of the Xbox One, then the NX is doomed to failure just like the Wii U was. That said, if their marketing is better than the Wii U then it might help them a lot, but it would probably not sell much more than the Gamecube.

Personally, I like the portable console idea that can be hooked to a TV, because I often use my Wii U gamepad without a TV and wish it could be used without the console, but it should be smaller than the Wii U gamepad IMHO.


I also suspect that this will replace the Wii U gamepad and that Nintendo will release a Wii U OS update and bundle that uses the classic controller or a Wiimote instead. If they get rid of the gamepad then they could sell the Wii U for much cheaper and justify the purchase of both consoles. But I hope that they don't rely on the Sega 32X strategy of making games that requires both the Wii U and NX, like with those Sega CD 32X  games.



On an off-topic note, while the Xbox One is doing well, I noticed that its game library is much smaller than the PS4. At first, all PS4 games were ports of PS3 games or sequels to PS3 games, but their library is starting to expand like the PS2 and PS3 did later on. Meanwhile, the One has a lot of quality titles but the library is much smaller and it has a poorer range of game genres. I'm thinking the PS4 will dominate this console generation.

[::CMG (UTOPIA)::]

Well, assuming the most recent rumors are true and that Nintendo still has no plans to replace the 3DS, it seems like they still have not learned from the Wii U failure and loss of third-party support

I'm not surprised their not touching the 3DS.  Between the fact that it's backwards compatible with regular DS cartriges & DSi digital games, the fact that Pokemon Sun & Moon are going to be released for it (which will sell even more units, especially since the release of Pokemon GO, everyone has been infected with Pokemon fever). and the fact that they've been recently pushing their line of SNES games for the NEW3DS, I don't see the 3DS going away any time soon.  Third party support aside, the main issues with both the Wii & WiiU were that they were gimmicky as hell.  They got lucky with the Wii and brought in a cload of casual players with the motion control, but after a while it got annoying and to the point where gamers just want to play their games without having to do other stupid c ontop of it.  Granted, the 3DS has that whole "Gyroscope" c, but i can only think of like a handful games that actually use that (2 of them are part of the built-in software in the console itself), plus the 3D isn't forced... you can turn it off completely and it won't affect the gaming experience.

[ben_g]

...  Granted, the 3DS has that whole "Gyroscope" s***, but i can only think of like a handful games that actually use that (2 of them are part of the built-in software in the console itself), plus the 3D isn't forced... you can turn it off completely and it won't affect the gaming experience.

Majora's mask uses the gyroscope to aid aiming. The analog stick is good for fast aiming in the general direction, and the gyroscope provides additional accuracy. With that system, you can aim almost as accuratly as with a mouse, so I think that the gyroscope is actually a good addition.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Yeah the Wii U was successful due to the novelty factor of the wiimote. The Wii U failed due to the bad name, marketing and the gimmick not being attractive enough.But sometimes I don't feel like playing with a Wiimote and a nuchuck.

I just hope that the NX won't just compete head-on with the 3DS or the PS5 and Xbox 4 or whatever those will be called. Otherwise when will Nintendo learn?

[gbl08ma]

I just hope that the NX won't just compete head-on with the 3DS or the PS5 and Xbox 4 or whatever those will be called. Otherwise when will Nintendo learn?

Yeah, I think it would be best for Nintendo to distance the launch of the NX as much as possible from the next version of the competitors' consoles, to make it clear they are not in for a specs race of yet-another-PC-in-a-console-shell. The problem is that the media and many users will always try to forcibly catalog things into generations, so even if the NX was released tomorrow it'd still be called the first console of the 9th generation, and once Sony and Microsoft released theirs, welp, there goes the Nintendo product into the "low specs" bin again.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

It's unclear about when the next consoles will come out, though. I know that Sony is planning a PS4.5, so the PS5 is probably still a few years off, but if they plan the PS5 for 2018 then it might not give Nintendo much room for NX. That said, there is still danger that people balk at the NX because they want to see a Mario and Zelda game running Unreal Engine 4 maxed out so that Mario meets realistic.

[GalacticPirate]

Guys, the NX will have an Nvidia Tegra X2. So it may be the most powerful console on the market for some weeks until the PS4 Neo is released

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Intersting. I hope it offers something that stands out, such as good portable console capabilities. But I'm still disappointed that it will be last-gen just a short while after its release. That said, a low price could play in their favor.

[gameblabla]

CPU-wise, the Tegra X2 is much superior to the Wii U's PowerPC cpu.
However, GPU-wise, the Wii U has a pretty strong Radeon 4600-based GPU and Tegra X2's GPU should just a hair better if not worse.
I'm not sure if a game like Xenoblade Chronicles X can be ported easily to it...

The new Tegra X2 should solve the issues developpers had the Wii U's CPU.
But...
It is still less powerful than even an Xbox One and i predict that even some multiplatforms games will pass on the NX
because getting a decent framerate on it might be too difficult. (or they will be severely hampered)

It seems like Nintendo are no longer wants to make home consoles...
I think people should have lower expectation for the NX.