Video sharing with Mario Kart?? That’s going to save them? OK.
So, I didn’t pick up the WiiU because I was under the impression it was made to fight against the 360/PS3 in terms of performance, and that its user interface/experience was WAY TO SLOW. So the question is; Have they improved the UI/Loading/Etc since the launch reviews that first mentioned the issue?
instant, I bought mine a few months ago and I haven’t noticed any issues. I -think- I’m a snob when it comes to UI speed but I could be wrong.
It would be incredibly difficult for the Wii U’s system UI to be slower than the Xbox 360’s, at any rate.
Also, Clanan, at least you never have to worry about an eShop security breach involving your credit card info being leaked!
Or they could strive to develop a broad game library. Bet that would work
That’s a little uncharitable. The Mario Kart thing seems to be an attempt to dip a toe into the video sharing/twitch arenas, but it’s typically Nintendo half-assed. They don’t seem to understand the critical-mass user-base concept at all, reflected again in their refusal to have a unified online strategy.
The NFC tech is fine, I guess. It’s kind of neat, but nobody seems to be thinking big enough. For instance, I think it’s a shame that the toys themselves are so boring, although I guess that’s the established business model - simple toys minimize costs. It would be cool if the Nintendo NFC toys did something wildly different (but complementary) on different platforms.
The emerging markets thing is weird. I’ll buy that they’ve run numbers etc in such a way that they think it makes sense, but I don’t really know how it would make sense. They talk about developing specific content and hardware for those markets, which seems like a lot of resources. Maybe they have specific things in mind that they want to test in those markets without diluting their global brand?
I understand why they would think health and fitness is a good direction, but I’m not sure it has legs either.
Ubisoft will not be showing any games for Nintendo systems at this year’s E3.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/37499/no-wii-u-or-3ds-games-from-ubisoft-at-e3-2014
Rise from your grave!
In case anyone is interested in a little Disney Infinity action, it’s currently available for free on the Nintendo eShop. Of course, you still need a base and characters to play, but at least you can go cross-platform if you have another version, or use your 2.0 base when you get it.
got one for Christmas for the kids… what a major pain in the ass to get up an running. For a process that should be straight forward, it was like pulling teeth getting just Mario Kart 8 up and running. From a patch, to an update, to applying the update, to another update… it’s like what the hell.
I waited until the kids went to sleep to move over my old Wii stuff… those directions F’n blow. Do I copy the app to the memory of the console ,or the SD card? Would it be that hard to explain where you are saving the app too in the directions?
And the final straw was, what the hell is a nintendo network ID. Do I have one already since I have a Wii? Do I need one? Does each account need a different one?
It would be awesome if such a “kid friendly” console took some major user interface tips from other devices out on the market in terms of intuitive shit.
Gah. So annoying… pretty neat console though :)
Everything you said, I experienced as well. Nintendo is fighting online functionalty sooooooo hard.
Everything you described is a symptom of embracing online functionality, not fighting it. If they were fighting it, they wouldn’t require software updates and online accounts. I had the exact same experience with buying a new game on the 360, and you couldn’t say that Microsoft was fighting online functionality.
It’s not even clear that “develop a broad game library” is a good approach to having a “successful” console. I mean, that is supposedly the approach MS and Sony take and it doesn’t take them very far, and they’re both trying to shoe-horn other entertainment/media aspects into their consoles. The 360 had – arguably – the best library of games of the previous generation (albeit by a slim margin if at all) and their approach to this generation (at least initially) was to go hard on the One being an all-in entertainment machine.
I don’t really mean to start a console argument, just an observation that in this day and age we can’t even take for granted that having the best game library is sufficient (or heck, even necessary) to have a successful console. In fact, I think Nintendo has done a good job making their game library different, if not necessarily better. There isn’t a heck of a lot of light between the Xbone and PS4 libraries (even the PC is close these days), but you can’t argue that the WiiU’s library isn’t unique. Whether it’s unique in a good way, well that’s a different argument.
Anyway, I LOVE my Wii U. I think it’s a great videogame console. Nintendo’s approach to online functionality still sucks, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have some good ideas. The Miiverse is wonderful and personally I get some good entertainment from trolling it and checking out people’s doodles and posts. I’m also a big fan of using the gamepad as a less portable handheld. Finally, there are still a LOT of games that I want, which I can’t really say for the Xbone or PS4.
Some of these problems are common and part of the new normal for consoles, but Wii U absolutely stands out as having a particularly bad setup experience. It doesn’t help that its interface is the worst of any modern console as well. “Fighting online functionality” is hyperbole, of course, but I don’t think it’s crazy to think their previous reluctance to include online capabilities set them back and they still haven’t caught up. “Online is hard” is true, plenty of AAA releases across the board this year confirm that, but that just underscores the problem of Nintendo’s position since they don’t have as much experience with this as Sony and Microsoft.
Hey, no fair, I didn’t say “Nintendo sucks” three times into a mirror at midnight! They told me that was the only way I could summon an Andy Bates to defend the Big N, but they were clearly wrong.
But seriously, I have used all three and Nintendo has the worst setup experience of all the 3 current-gen consoles. And its online store is the clunkiest. And its digital infrastructure is the weakest (online game of MK Wii anyone? Yeah, right). And its digital account implementation is not user-friendly (and frequently fails during the setup process despite their having over 2 years to fix this problem). And its digital game selling policies are the least customer-friendly. And as a result, its setup and license transfer procedures are clunky, difficult to understand, convoluted, fail a lot, and require fixing after the fact.
And I remain convinced of my theory of many pages ago that Nintendo has an institutional problem with any innovation that it didn’t come up with itself, to the point where they half-ass it once they have no choice but to provide the service in question. They are not embracing online, they are holding at arms length like a baby with a soiled diaper that they don’t want to change.
Hey, no fair. I didn’t actually defend Nintendo, as much as point out that all consoles have problems with online updates. I do agree that Nintendo has the worst console-transfer experience of any console, and the online store isn’t much better. However, I still haven’t had a worse experience than Battlefield on the 360, where I had to install a system update, then a game update, then a single-player game update, then a graphics update, then a separate multiplayer game update before I could play the game. Five updates over the course of two hours is ridiculous, and the PS3 isn’t much better, with a system update basically every time you boot the system.
That was annoying indeed. Background updates (or at least updates that you can delay as you see fit) are the far better way to handle that situation. Sony was way too paranoid about piracy.
At least it was pretty clear what was happening when Battlefield updates were happening. On WiiU it is incredibly confusing as to who needs to be a user, who needs a Nintendo ID, how the parental controls work, how Miis figure in, etc. The Wii transfer instructions are so spare it took me a while to figure out you have to initiate the process from inside the WiiU’s Wii mode for some reason and requires downloading the same utility twice because even if you save it to the SD card initially it won’t run on the Wii and you have to download it again.
I spent 4 hours figuring this stuff out for my sister Christmas Eve and that doesn’t count the Wii->WiiU transfer because the Wii Shop kept timing out when I tried to download the utility until I gave up for the night.
Agree with the wii u is not intuitive comments. We got one for Christmas and while I’m happy with it and the kids love it, I spent an hour or so getting it setup that I did not enjoy. The bundled Mario world game has more than made up for it though, along with finally being able to play Mario Galaxy (we never had a Wii). I wish virtual console extended to wii games so I could buy the wii Fire Emblem game for a reasonable price though.
An interesting point on the wii -> wii U transfer the last few comments made me think of… So it transferred over my old games… cool, and the “money” I had in the shop… but that doesn’t appear to translate to money in the new Wii U eStore… wtf? seriously?
So I guess I can only use that credit, if I run my Wii emulation on my Wii U, and then go in to the store via the Wii - not the Wii U Store.
Yea, that makes complete sense :)
Again I do really like it, and don’t have/don’t plan on getting an Xbox one or ps4; my PC/PS3 can handle what little time I have for additional games there.
I read an article that made me think of this discussion: Basically, nearly all the main people on the Xbox One team have left, and it seems like their initial vision of an all-in-one entertainment machine left them way behind in the marketplace. It wasn’t until they refocused on gaming that their console turned around. Anyway, interesting read: ParisLemon — Almost All Xbox One Execs Have Vanished From...