With PS4 Announced, Do You Think Wii U Is In Trouble?

[Hero of Time]

I thought it was obvious the Wii U is in trouble before the PS4 was announced. The console hardly stands on the same platform as the Xbox 360 and PS3, and we all know the Nextbox and the PS4 will blow it out of the water. The Wii U has nothing to offer but first-party titles (which are going to sh*t these days anyway) and a touchscreen. I'll admit the touchscreen is great and I enjoy using it, but that's not enough to keep third parties interested when the Wii U's competitors will be incomparably more powerful, and it's not enough to keep the console alive.

At Nintendo's E3 2012 press conference they talked about all the third-party support they're getting, but in reality, it's pretty sad. The Wii U got a bunch of rushed ports of a month to over a year old games at launch, of which only a few were better than their Xbox 360 and PS3 counterparts and most were worse. Many great games releasing in 2013 like BioShock Infinite will not be coming to Wii U, and games set for release later like Bungie's Destiny will not either, despite being slated for release on 7th and 8th gen consoles of Sony and Microsoft.

In terms of first-party games, often stated as a reason for supporting Nintendo, the Wii U isn't doing very well either. New Super Mario Bros. U was a very bad game that was no different than the other 3 NSMB games we already have. Very few other first-party games have been announced, so it's likely Super Smash Bros. U, Zelda U, and maybe Super Mario Galaxy 3 or another 3D SM game will have to save the day, and even then that's only 3 games. The PS4 already has exclusive titles like Killzone: Shadow Fall (set for launch) and Infamous: Second Son, which is not to mention the third-party games that the Wii U won't get like Destiny and the PS exclusives like Uncharted and God of War which are sure to come.

I hate to be cynical - I really wanted the Wii U to succeed - but I don't see the Wii U surviving as being likely. I'll give it another year or two to fix things up and get more support, but I doubt it'll happen. At the end of the day the Wii U is extremely underpowered in comparison to the PS4, and it can be safely said that the Nextbox will be much more powerful as well. The Wii U will not win this generation unless the PS4 and Nextbox are complete flops, which is unlikely, and I doubt any gamer, regardless of how much they like Nintendo, wants to witness that.

 

[JuicieJ]

I thought it was obvious the Wii U is in trouble before the PS4 was announced. The console hardly stands on the same platform as the Xbox 360 and PS3, and we all know the Nextbox and the PS4 will blow it out of the water. The Wii U has nothing to offer but first-party titles (which are going to sh*t these days anyway) and a touchscreen. I'll admit the touchscreen is great and I enjoy using it, but that's not enough to keep third parties interested when the Wii U's competitors will be incomparably more powerful, and it's not enough to keep the console alive.

At Nintendo's E3 2012 press conference they talked about all the third-party support they're getting, but in reality, it's pretty sad. The Wii U got a bunch of rushed ports of a month to over a year old games at launch, of which only a few were better than their Xbox 360 and PS3 counterparts and most were worse. Many great games releasing in 2013 like BioShock Infinite will not be coming to Wii U, and games set for release later like Bungie's Destiny will not either, despite being slated for release on 7th and 8th gen consoles of Sony and Microsoft.

In terms of first-party games, often stated as a reason for supporting Nintendo, the Wii U isn't doing very well either. New Super Mario Bros. U was a very bad game that was no different than the other 3 NSMB games we already have. Very few other first-party games have been announced, so it's likely Super Smash Bros. U, Zelda U, and maybe Super Mario Galaxy 3 or another 3D SM game will have to save the day, and even then that's only 3 games. The PS4 already has exclusive titles like Killzone: Shadow Fall (set for launch) and Infamous: Second Son, which is not to mention the third-party games that the Wii U won't get like Destiny and the PS exclusives like Uncharted and God of War which are sure to come.

I hate to be cynical - I really wanted the Wii U to succeed - but I don't see the Wii U surviving as being likely. I'll give it another year or two to fix things up and get more support, but I doubt it'll happen. At the end of the day the Wii U is extremely underpowered in comparison to the PS4, and it can be safely said that the Nextbox will be much more powerful as well. The Wii U will not win this generation unless the PS4 and Nextbox are complete flops, which is unlikely, and I doubt any gamer, regardless of how much they like Nintendo, wants to witness that.

You're under the misconception that more power = more success. It doesn't. Just look at history. There were plenty of companies back in the day that released more powerful gaming devices than Nintendo and SEGA did, especially in the handheld department, but wound up utterly failing to the "inferior" competition. The Wii and DS were also indisputably successes despite being "inferior" to their competition. I don't understand why people blindly believe this concept when history has shown it's not true at all. Just open your eyes and see the truth. The Wii U will succeed.

 

[Castle]

Actually, the majority of any console's library is shovelware.

Okay, sure. It's just that the Wii's load of shovelware happens to be greater than that of those other two...

 

[JuicieJ]

Okay, sure. It's just that the Wii's load of shovelware happens to be greater than that of those other two...

No, it's just that the Wii's third party support was really bad.

 

[surferguy7]

First, "technobabble" (a.k.a: hardware specs) is what PC gamers such as myself live by. How good a game "looks" is not an indication of the hardware that it runs on.

Second, It's been confirmed that the PS3's GPU is capable of 1.84 teraFLOPS. That would mean its performance is right up there with a Radeon 7850. The Radeon 7850 benchmarks over 10 times higher than a 7800 GT. The Radeon 7850 is defiantly not as powerful as some of the high-end desktop GPUs out there such as the GTX Titan (4.5 teraFLOPS), but it's almost certainly more powerful than the GPU found in the Wii U.

Which means nothing to me.

Call it ignorance, but I apologize for not having a formal education in the matters of specs. Sure I can waltz on down to TV Tropes, spend a few hours there, and then have a basic understanding, but for now these number are nothing. Oh sure, I in no way ever denied that the PS4 is more powerful than the Wii U, but from what I've seen gameplay-wise, I haven't encountered a huge difference. Yes, yes, people can continue babbling on about the potential the system has in terms of visuals, but that's all it is as of now, potential.

 

[Castle]

Call it ignorance, but I apologize for not having a formal education in the matters of specs. Sure I can waltz on down to TV Tropes, spend a few hours there, and then have a basic understanding, but for now these number are nothing. Oh sure, I in no way ever denied that the PS4 is more powerful than the Wii U, but from what I've seen gameplay-wise, I haven't encountered a huge difference. Yes, yes, people can continue babbling on about the potential the system has in terms of visuals, but that's all it is as of now, potential.

Shiny tech does not guarantee "good" games...

 

[Lord Death]

I know this phrase is used time and time again, but it's so true! "Never count Nintendo out." I know the Wii U appears a dead console at the moment, but things will get better. I promise.

As for the impact of the PS4... There isn't much. First of all, when the Wii U was announced, we all knew that the PS4 and 720 would make leaps and bounds ahead of it in terms of hardware. If you questioned that fact, you were lying to yourself. So how does this announcement change anything? 8GB RAM certainly is impressive, but to most people, graphical power isn't everything. One thing that annoyed me this generation is that gamers became graphic *****s. They only accept the best and everything else is crap. But that's simply not true! The N64 had worse graphics than the PSone; who here would say that the PSone was a better console? ....

It's the games that make the difference. You've heard it before. Yes, it's a cliche, but it's a true one. People buy Nintendo systems for Nintendo games, and Nintendo will be delivering this year. Pikmin 3, 3D Mario, Mario Kart, The Wind Waker, and what ever other surprises are in store. Who's to say that the PS4 won't have launch woes like the Wii U? We all thought the Wii U had a super strong lineup for launch, but that fell apart. The PS4 looks like it has good games coming it's way, but it's success has yet to be seen.

And that brings me to my last point. It's November, and you have these two consoles. The Wii U has all of these great first party titles; the PS4 has it's launch lineup, which may or may not be as stellar as it appears now. You then look at the price. The Wii U costs $350 and offers second screen gaming; the PS4 costs $530, and if you want second screen gaming, you need to buy a $250 Vita. Many people may be turned off by this.

So no, I don't think the Wii U is in trouble due solely to the PS4. Right now it is facing woes, but I think Nintendo will bounce back following the hype they generate this E3. The latter half of 2013 should be good.

 

[DarkestLink]

Of course superior hardware doesn't guarantee better games. However, it does for higher framerate, reduced framerate drops, faster loading times, more responsiveness, longer draw distances, etc.

I don't know about loading times...I mean...I am constantly hearing people complain about games loading for their Xbox360 or PS3...but I have never heard that for the Wii and I myself have never found myself thinking "Hurry up!" when playing a Nintendo console...except for sailing, which may as well be loading. <.<

 

[Snoober]

Since the N64, when has Nintendo had the attention of hardcore gamers?

Just because the hardcore flocked to PS2 and XB doesn't mean Nintendo quit aiming for them. The Gamecube had just as much hardcore titles the other two, but people chose them over it. Nintendo didn't start focusing on going casual until about the 3rd year of the Wii's lifespan.

 

[JuicieJ]

So no, I don't think the Wii U is in trouble due solely to the PS4. Right now it is facing woes, but I think Nintendo will bounce back following the hype they generate this E3. The latter half of 2013 should be good.

Not to mention the PS4 doesn't have backwards compatibility, unlike the Wii U. ...Which is a huge error on Sony's part.

 

[Clank]

I don't know about loading times...I mean...I am constantly hearing people complain about games loading for their Xbox360 or PS3...but I have never heard that for the Wii and I myself have never found myself thinking "Hurry up!" when playing a Nintendo console...except for sailing, which may as well be loading. <.<

I don't know about you, but for me they are terrible, for example Skyward Sword when you jump off of Skyloft and call your bird, immediately after you land on the bird there is a completely unnecessary loading period.

Had they used hardware that had even a quarter of the power the PS3 has, those little loading periods would have been done away with, thus making the flying and overall gameplay a lot smoother.

I think the reason you never hear about it is the fact that the PS3/Xbox 360 have enough power that those loading times should not have existed, whereas they are pretty much impossible to avoid on the Wii.

 

[Ventus]

Not to mention the PS4 doesn't have backwards compatibility, unlike the Wii U. ...Which is a huge error on Sony's part.

Error? Ehm, take a gander at the PS3. It had backwards compatibility, but it was later removed. Why? It costs too damn much to manufacture the technology required to emulate PS2 games. What do you think would happen if they had BC for PS3? Even HIGHER prices than PS3 launched for. Wii U "regressing to" (by that I mean emulating, if that's what the U does - I don't know if the U has some parts of the Wii in it or if it's just emulation) the Wii is nowhere near from the PS4 to PS3.

 

[Hero of Time]

Not to mention the PS4 doesn't have backwards compatibility, unlike the Wii U. ...Which is a huge error on Sony's part.

The PS4 doesn't have backwards compatibility because the system architecture is being upgraded; I don't think making an even better console is something that should be counted against Sony.

 

[Ventus]

The PS4 doesn't have backwards compatibility because the system architecture is being upgraded; I don't think making an even better console is something that should be counted against Sony.

The only conceivable problem with the lack of backwards compatibility on the PS4 is the fact that most of the PS3 games will essentially be "discarded"; in order to play those games, you'd have to go purchase a $200-$300 system, in addition to the $60 or so to get each game. The PS3 is still relatively recent; it was released, what, six years ago? Why would Sony throw away a still-capable piece of technology?(because it'd cost too damn much to add BC on the PS4) This is something Nintendo hasn't done with the Wii U - you can still play last gen games on the Wii U, and is still relatively cheap

 

[ThePurpleKnight]

Nintendo releases it's 8th console, Sony releases the playstation.... again! As if everyone and their grandma didn't already own a playstation.

Who cares if they got slightly better graphics, Nintendo has better games and characters, now if they'd just start releasing them it'd be obviously Sony are the ones in trouble.