This isn’t going to win me any popularity contests, but I can’t possibly be the only person who was left less than impressed after watching Nintendo’s most recent Nintendo Direct, can I? Sure, I can admit that there was some interesting, even promising, news revealed last night. But for every interesting tidbit there were just as many “announcements” that either only confirmed what we already knew, were “too little too late” or a thin smokescreen frantically attempting to veil the truth. That truth? That the Wii U is struggling to find traction with consumers, is failing to shift the numbers Nintendo were hoping for and is once again a Nintendo console without much of any third-party support.
I want to preface this piece by letting you readers know that I have always and am still proud to call myself a Nintendo fanboy. I love their games and their consoles and am always eager to learn anything new about them and upcoming products. Time and time again in recent years though I have come to experience what I call “Nintendo Expectations Syndrome” or NES. Far too many times have I become insanely excited about some Nintendo announcement or another only to be spectacularly disappointed sometime shortly thereafter. So while I welcome the news of a new 3D Mario, Mario Kart and Zelda I can’t help but feel like it’s simple misdirection. Nintendo’s attempt to distract consumers with something pretty and hope they don’t notice it’s the same trick they’ve pulled dozens of times before. So, let’s get into it shall we?
Nintendo Direct – 23.01.2013
Watch the latest Nintendo Direct here
Prior to last night’s Nintendo Direct, the Internet was abuzz with rumours and speculation as to just what would be announced in the first video from Nintendo for 2013. The announcement of a Wii U Virtual Console was popular, as was more information regarding Miiverse. Both of which proved to be accurate. Let’s look at each announcement individually and let me explain my interpretation and/or opinion as we go.
Miiverse update and future plans
Read about Miiverse changes here
To be entirely honest, the Nintendo Direct started off fairly strongly. The announcements regarding Miiverse were welcome and will definitely improve an already great service. The announcement of a mobile browser based version of the service and an eventual smart phone app are great steps. By being able to access Miiverse away from the Wii U console, Nintendo are sure to see even more activity on the service and more users logging in regularly. The other updates to the service including creating communities, filtering posts and adding Miiverse functionality to Wii U Virtual Console titles are all great news as well. All in all Miiverse has and continues to be a great asset for Nintendo and the Wii U, so a big tick from me there.
Wii U system updates
Read about Wii U system update news here
Continuing the trend of good news were the announcements of twin Wii U system updates coming Autumn and Winter (Spring and Summer for those in the northern hemisphere). There wasn’t a whole lot of detail given regarding these updates other than that they are designed to improve the speed of the Wii U’s loading times and menu and to introduce the Wii U Virtual console. Neither of these things could in anyway be considered bad news, but as they were being described I caught myself thinking, “so what?”
The Wii U has been available for nearly two months now and only now are Nintendo acknowledging the loading and menu issues. Worse still is that while they acknowledge the problem they won’t fix it until some unspecified time later in the year. It was bad enough that the Wii U launched with over 1GB of its functionality absent, but to announce that firmware updates to fix the slow performance of the console are between one and four months away is kind of a slap in the face. I personally have never had much of an issue with loading times or the menu on my Wii U, but I have witnessed some absurdly long waits for a game to boot up or the console to return to the menu. The sooner this issue is fixed the better. On the one hand I applaud Nintendo for admitting there is an issue I have to condemn them for taking upwards of six months to rectify it.
The other aspect of the updates that was discussed was the implementation of the Wii U Virtual console.
Wii U Virtual Console news and promotion
Read about Wii U Virtual Console news here
Everybody knew that it was only a matter of time before Nintendo announced a Wii U version of the Virtual Console and last night they did it. The two updates they announced would bring the Wii U Virtual Console to Wii U owners everywhere (well everywhere with an Internet connection at least). Initially there will only be first-party NES and SNES games available with 3DS style save state functions, off TV play and GamePad functionality. If you have previously purchased a game on the Wii Virtual Console you won’t be forced to pay for it again, but you will have to pay a small fee to access the Wii U version.
Excuse me, but what?!
First of all, when the Wii was launched the Virtual Console was fully operational from day one. Sure, additional games and consoles were added over time but on day one you could download NES, SNES and N64 games. With Wii U we have to wait up to six months before the service is even added to the console and then we get a gimped version of it. Worse still, we have to pay again for games we already bought the first time around. I understand that there is some cost in preparing these games for use on the Wii U but surely the cost would be offset by the new sales of Wii U Virtual console titles or, I don’t know, the more than 10 million Virtual Console titles already sold.
We now know the pricing for major regions: $1.30 AUD, $1.70 NZD, $1 USD, €1 or £1 for NES games and $1.95 AUD, $2.55 NZD, $1.49 USD, €1.49 or £1.49 for SNES games. This does seem really low, but imagine for a second that you own 50 or 100 or even 200 VC titles. Not all of them will be NES or SNES and judging by the current pricing N64 titles will be even more expensive. So, being conservative, if you have 50 VC titles and they are a mix of NES, SNES and N64 (not to mention the myriad other consoles available) you could be looking at anywhere between $50 and $100 or more, just to bring your Virtual Console collection across to your Wii U. A system you already spent around $400 or more on.
Don’t get me wrong. Virtual Console is great and a great selling point of the Wii. But coming to the Wii U after a six month delay and forcing gamers to pay to use games they’ve already bought once before is just wrong.
Game announcements
If there is something that the Wii U is sorely needing it is announcements about games. Specific and detailed announcements. There needs to be dates and they need to be soon. Unfortunately, everything that was shown in the Nintendo Direct was either old news or a title so far off it may as well not exist at this point. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as excited as the next Nintendo fan to hear about a new Mario or Zelda but when I barely turn my Wii U on due to lack of available games, I’d rather Nintendo told me about soon to be released titles and not something out there in the ether.
Nintendo showed us a new trailer for The Wonderful 101 which looks like a lot of fun and appears to use the GamePad in some interesting and clever ways, but no release date was given and no further details were revealed. We know it’s coming, we know it looks good… now tell us when we can play it.
Next up we were “treated” to a behind the scenes look at Platinum Studios other Wii U game, Bayonetta 2. There was some pretty art and a few nice wire frame models to admire before the video was over and we knew not much more than when we started. At least we got to be reminded about it’s Wii U exclusivity again…
The Nintendo Direct took a break from showing off it’s exhaustive list of non-first party exclusives for Iwata-san to apologise for the lack of games during January and Februaryand to promise more games were coming from March onwards. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and Lego City Undercover would both be released in March and following them would be GAME & WARIO, Wii Fit U, Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101, none of which were given a release date. We were once again given the same list of games we’ve seen time and again with no new information. No rough idea of when they’d be released. Nothing other than their titles and a promise that they would be available some time after March 2013.*
Then they brought out the big guns…
It was announced that Nintendo EAD are currently developing a new 3D Mario game while work on a Mario Kart for Wii U is also under way. If this is actually news to anyone I’d be very surprised. I’m a big fan of Mario games and Mario Kart and the news is welcome, but with both games being playable at E3 this year it’s likely they won’t see a release until Christmas or possibly later. I could be wrong, but it doesn’t seem likely that either game will be out in the next six months. The Super Smash Bros. name was dropped but only in passing with a brief mention that we’ll see it at E3. Wii U Party was also announced, looking like a cross between Wii Party and Mario Party. While it looks fun I don’t see people racing out to buy a Wii U for it.
The announcement of Mario games coming to Wii U is the equivalent of a man dying of thirst being handed a bottle of sea water. He drinks it all down because there is nothing else, but all it really does is make him thirstier and drives him mad. From my perspective Nintendo was simply wheeling Mario out to distract fans from the reality that there isn’t anything much to play on the system at the moment and that is unlikely to change for some time. With the promise of Mario dangling out there like a tantalising carrot, Nintendo are hoping fans will stick it out, like they always have. How is it that only two months in and the Wii U already looks like the system you’ll play twice a year (if you’re lucky)?
More “announcements” of games followed including a Yoshi game developed by the team responsible for Kirby’s Epic Yarn, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD, Zelda Wii U, a Fire Emblem x Shin Megami Tensei game and and unnamed game from Monolith Soft that looked suspiciously like a Xenoblade game. Both the Fire Emblem crossover and the Monolith Soft game look interesting but so little was revealed that they could barely even be considered teasers. At least there are two more games in development for Wii U.
The Yoshi game looks fun but once again looks like it’s a long way off. The small amount of footage and screens that were shown made the game look as charming and cute as you’d expect and the graphics looked gorgeous. But lets face it, Yoshi won’t sell Wii U consoles. It’s nice that a game is coming but it’s not the killer app Nintendo so desperately needs.
The information released about the Zelda Wii U title can be summed up as, well, it exists and Nintendo are trying to play with the formula. Like the announcement of Mario before it, Zelda is being trotted out to please the fans and direct attention away from the lack of actual, tangible games coming to the system. Wind Waker HD is being developed to tide gamers over while they wait for the new Zelda. HD re-releases are the norm these days and the screens that have been released of Wind Waker HD look really pretty. It could be great fun to play again and would be a great way to fill the void while we wait for new Zelda but no footage was shown, no release date was given and other than the fact that it exists we know nothing about it. Nintendo seem to think that a drip feed approach to information will keep gamers engaged, when in actuality it infuriates and annoys.
Overall
In all the Nintendo Direct did deliver a lot of information and at the same time it diverted attention away from some of the most glaring issues surrounding the Wii U right now. The improvements to the system’s performance and inclusion of a Wii U Virtual Console are both great news, but are both coming far too long after launch. Having to pay a second time for Virtual Console titles is an absolute joke and only having a small selection of NES and SNES titles available is a major oversight. However, the biggest and most pressing issue facing the Wii U right now is its lack of games. Something which, I feel, this Nintendo Direct did nothing to alleviate. The fact that Mario and Zelda are coming isn’t a surprise and their mere existence doesn’t make up for or change the fact that as of right now there are few games to play on the system and few with confirmed release dates in the next few months.
Iwata-san mentioned that Nintendo is making an effort to bring more third-party titles to the system, but so far it isn’t apparent. All you have to do is look at a release list for the next few months to see that Wii U is being left out. DmC, Dead Space 3, BioShock Infinite, Metal Gear Rising and Tomb Raider are not coming out for Wii U. It’s a major problem. I don’t want my Wii U to become just another dust collector, but without a steady release of games it’s in danger of doing just that. It doesn’t matter how many Marios, Zeldas, Metroids or Super Smash Bros. we are promised, the Wii U needs new games and software and it needs them now. No amount of hand waving and smoke screening from Nintendo will change that.
[UPDATE] - As of 6:30pm AEDST 24 January I received an email from Nintendo which states that both The Wonderful 101 and GAME & WARIO would be available in the first half of 2013. No exact dates were revealed and all the other games mentioned in the Nintendo Direct remain without release dates or release windows.
Related Posts
RE the VC – You still have access to your VC games via the Wii mode. You don’t have to convert across all your titles if you don’t want to. Don’t really see the issue. At least they aren’t asking us to pay full price again!
With regards to 3rd party, I will say that a lot of those games started dev before Wii U dev kits were sent out! So I'm not surprised that a lot of games aren't coming to Wii U. I'm sure there'd be more if the dev kits went out earlier. I'm sure there will be more games in the coming.
it will come and it will be fine! And who knows, Nintendo could be withholding some things that they can whip out when xbox whatever comes out.
One thing I've noticed is that it seems people are expecting a perfect launch and line up. I don't think any previous console has a perfect launch and launch window? The Wii U's launch has had a lot more games when compared to previous console launches (like xbox360 and ps3) so there are plenty of games.
Game dev takes time
I'm keeping an optimistic view for now
With regards to the Direct – I thought it was good. True, not as many concrete dates as I would've liked and still vague details on major releases, but its something to look forward to
The Monolithsoft game has me the most excited though! Looking forward to more info on that!
Bayonetta – sassy as ever! Though I was hoping for more concrete info. Looks like it might be a "later this year" release.
The SMT/FE crossover game has me intrigued! Especially with Ninty involved it means we will get in a reasonable time frame (unlike solo Atlus games that take forever to come over because they don't believe euro regions exist). Will be interesting to see what future collaborations pop up!
With Miiverse I was hoping they'd mention a 3DS release, but perhaps they'll keep that to a 3DS Direct.
On WW HD – if they fix the issues of the original game (as it felt incomplete/rushed back then) I may consider playing it again.
I'm with you on the optimism – this was a shaky launch, admittedly (even shakier than previous hardware launches across the board), but Nintendo had no choice – unless they wanted to compete with Sony and MS directly (provided the rumours are true that they are both releasing new consoles this year). That was a war they were not likely to come out of – they had little choice but to release now, and upgrade over time.
We'll just have to wait and see how they fare later in the year!
I really find it ridiculous that you need to pay to convert games over from one console to the next. Its the equivalent of paying for a song on one computer from a website, and then having to pay for the exact same song to have it on a new computer – its not like they are running off different mediums – its entirely digital for crying out loud! Companies like MS, Nintendo and Sony need to realise that gamers don't want new profiles every generation – with every new gen console from the current ones on, all games should be transferable as well as DLC. This just sounds stupid.
It reminds of the service Apple iTunes has or had (not sure if they still do it) where for $1 or whatever it was, you could convert the old 128kbps songs to the new Plus format (at 320kbps).
Forgot to add: they do have to wrap these old games around an emulation layer, to make sure it works on Wii U, in particular to have it work on the GamePad. So there is extra dev time used to do that.
It's still a different format and it costs money to convert. It's a cost that would be difficult to absorb any other way.
But like I said, what about the millions of dollars they would have made from the original sales of VC games? Surely there was a pretty good profit margin on those?
No it's not and you're not paying to transfer games from one console to the next. A song doesn't change function between platforms. It plays the same file.
All of your Wii Virtual Console games are able to be played on the Wii U in Wii mode. If you want to play them on the GamePad (a new function) then you have to pay for the upgrade.
You're asking for something for nothing.
Agreed – Wii U owners CAN transfer their games to Wii U for free. They just have to play them in the Wii app. No big deal.
IF they want the upgraded version with added perks, there's an upgrade fee. This is standard across… virtually every industry.
Damned if they do and damned if they don't. If Nintendo say nothing people complain (like me), if Nintendo offer glimpses of the future, revealing new games then they're misdirecting. They can't win.
Nintendo never date anything until a couple of months out, at least in Japan, the UK and the US. In Australia it's a lot closer. Nintendo AU don't like to miss dates (and probably would get in trouble if they did) so dates aren't decided until really close to release.
Nintendo definitely get far harsher treatment than others and I think that's because of how much they mean to people.
My best mate said to me "I hate them because of my love for them" and I think there's a lot of truth in that.
You know what, I'll be happy to pay the upgrade fee for 1 or 2 games, but I'm going to be hesitant about buying new games, since I'm not convinced Wii U will last all that long.
Nintendo's just made me wary about needing to do this and possibly pay more again in 3 years.
Digital games should transfer from one platform to another, and that means working with the major control input of that device. At the very least, surely it wouldn't have been any harder to get them to work on the GamePad but otherwise be the same. There shouldn't be a fee for that, considering I already paid $10 for these old games.
If these were 99 cent games, then maybe. But they weren't.
On that, iPhone games constantly get free updates. I don't see why the same couldn't apply to a slight control modification.
Sure, Nintendo don't HAVE to give these updates away for free, but think about the people who are going to upgrade them. The faithful Nintendo fans, the ones who pine for the old days. It would have been nice if Nintendo said "hey thanks for sticking with us, have some cool updates to these classic games you already bought and we're sorry it was missing 2-3 months ago."
Nintendo's going to have to do something about that, sooner rather than later. They can't remain the only digital platform in the world where this doesn't happen. Right…?
But yeah, I won't be paying to upgrade all my games either. But to pull them out of Wii mode, that's something that's probably worth the money for some of the really good VC games I have.
I don't really get the whole 'distracting people from a lack of games' idea, you yourself even said Iwata apologised for the lack of games releasing. I see it more as Iwata saying "Look, we may not have everything you want right now, but bear with us and look what you'll get!" Yeah, we don't know exactly when they're coming, but does that really matter? If you've got a Wii U, you've gotta wait anyway, and if you don't, you're not going to say "Oh, a game's coming next year, I'll buy a Wii U now", you're going to wait until that game's actually out. I dunno, maybe I'm just used to waiting after handhelds and consoles I've owned in the past, but so long as something's definitely coming, and isn't too far away I don't mind. I knew we wouldn't be getting the big Marios, Zeldas and Smash Bros. within a few months of release, and likely not within the first year, either, but they've got enough to keep you occupied. I got 5 games at launch, which is the most I've gotten for any console ever, and they'll keep me occupied until later in the year when we get Pikmin, LEGO and Monster Hunter. They'll be more than enough until Wind Waker HD and Wonderful 101 come, which should be enough until whatever they have planned for 2014. There'll no doubt be even more announced in between then, so I'm not really that concerned.
I will agree though that they need third party support, but it's not entirely their fault. Third parties just don't like putting their games on Nintendo consoles. Could they push harder for them to put games on the Wii U? Yeah, probably. But there's only so much they can do, and in the end it's up to the third parties themselves. The underpowered Wii probably didn't do them any favours, because the multiplat games that were ported to the Wii didn't do too well, but when you see the half-assed attempts like the FIFA games, it's not always a surprise. Third parties should take a different strategy. If their multiplat games aren't suited to the Wii U, make something that is, something that uses the potential of the console. There's so much that can be done with the GamePad, and the console itself is powerful enough to make decent games. Look at all the great games still being made for current gen, GTA V, Ground Zeroes, Last of Us, Watch Dogs. The Wii U is more than powerful enough to make good games. I have no doubts that the next Xbox and PlayStation will outpower it, but it's not like the Wii U is incapable of running demanding games.
Having to pay for the VC games you already own is a bit rough, but 1. It's less than $2 and 2. I believe that you can transfer your VC games from your Wii and play them just fine, you just can't use the Wii U enhanced features (don't quote me on this one I haven't tried it). If they were the exact same as their Wii counterparts, then yeah, having to pay a fee would suck, but considering they've rebuilt them with added features, a small fee seems fair enough to me.
Sorry if this post comes off as argumentive or grumpy, I'm in a bad mood today and it's not intentional
fair points
and nope not sounding grump or argumentative at all. you're well within your rights to act so if you like though
This author leo has created a flame article. He insist that nintendo is not looking out for us. So we wait until spring for them to release a update that will fix the system and add other features. They aren't turning a blind eye to the issue but promising a fix. I know he has a ps3 that thing updates automatically everytime you turn it on. It renders your system useless while it downloads. I guess it would have been better being surprised by the pending download. He's complaining about having to pay a whole dollar for games that will be updated. But people paid 20 plus bucks for HD remakes. when you buy a record and a remix is made do you not pay for the remix? Why would he say the wiiu virtual console is gimped. He should look up the definition of what gimped is. If I'm not mistaken I took it as though the wiiu version would add much more functions than the wii virtual consoles. So what if I pay a damn dollar for an upgaded version of a game.
The killer part of it all is he complains about the announcement of future games. What he fails to realise that nintendo isn't going to just throw out one of it's most cherrished franchises half done. Does he not realise it takes time to build a game the scope of mario galaxy in 3d to look like nothing that has been done on other consoles. There are a lot of games out there for the wiiu that can be bought. I got zombie u for christmas and haven't played because I work 2 jobs.
In my conclusion is instead of these negative spins on what ninten don't do. They should focus on what ninten does.
hating troll plain and simple
this is what we call a trolling joke article. But it is his opinion.
Seems more like a trolling comment, to me.
This Nintendo Direct was basically a teaser of what to expect from Nintendo in the future. A lot of people have complained about Nintendo being too secretive about the release schedule of its games, but here we got a nice taste of some of the games currently in development. Nintendo simply wanted to give us a heads up instead of simply waiting to announce stuff in E3. Be grateful we got to learn about some of these pleasantly surprising announcements this early on. I don’t think it was necessary for Nintendo to reveal the release dates of all these games when we’ve just entered the launch window period because there’s a handful of new game releases upon us.
I think we’ve grown too impatient where we expect companies to inform of us their projects ASAP, but as we all know, games take years to make, roughly around 2-3 years for some of the big ones. Consoles are becoming more complex and because of that, you won’t likely see all of the planned software applications and services coming out within the launch period, and this goes for
Sony and Microsoft too. Some of you guys should seriously look back at what it was like on Xbox 360, Ps3, and Wii back in 2006 and 2007. For example, Microsoft didn’t offer any of its own games for launch window or spring. The only games it offered all came out between the end of Summer and holiday season. Sony didn’t have much to offer that justified buying a $600 machine within the first half of 2007. All 3 consoles had one thing in common : their hardcore killer-app titles all come out a year after release. I’m referring to Mario Galaxy, Uncharted, and Gears of War. We may see some big launch games for the next Xbox and PS4, but then again, we may not. Xbox 360 and PS3 didn’t provide any so anything can happen.
At E3, we’ll see updated, longer footage of most of these game announcements and likely hear one more announcement. Obviously, there’s some franchises that are guaranteed to come to come out such as 3D Mario, Zelda, and Mario Kart, and Smash Bros (though the latter may end up being the last time Sakurai directs the series) but the big question is when they’re coming out. Now, we know that 3D Mario and Mario Kart aren’t only going to be at E3, but they’ll actually be in playable form, indicating that they may possibly be ready for a holiday 2013 lineup.
I feel sorry for you Nintendo fans, I really do. I’m not even trying to troll on here at all…..what services Nintendo is providing for you guys is pathetic and sad. Your WiiU will collect dust once again like the other consoles. But i got good news for you, Xbox 720 & PS4 is coming to brighten your day. You can get a Xbox 360 now and experience true gaming. Let Nintendo RIP 2013, enough with the same rehashed Mario, Zeldas, Pikicrap, over, over, over again. Enough!!!!