Iwata: No price cut for Wii U
"We have not yet fully communicated the value of our product"
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has ruled out a price cut for the Wii U console, despite the machine's inability to repeat the success of the Wii.
"With Wii U, we have taken a rather resolute stance in pricing it below its manufacturing cost, so we are not planning to perform a markdown" he said in a statement following Nintendo's latest financial results.
"I would like to make this point absolutely clear."
He also admitted that the company had failed to make consumers understand why they should pay the current price, around £240 for a basic package, for the machine.
"We are putting our lessons from Nintendo 3DS to good use, as I have already publicly stated. However, given that it has now become clear that we have not yet fully communicated the value of our product, we will try to do so before the software lineup is enhanced and at the same time work to enrich the software lineup which could make consumers understand the appeal of Wii U."
Yesterday Nintendo's financial results saw it cutting forecasts for the Wii U, expecting to sell 4 million by the end of March - rather than the previously hoped for 5.5 million units.
Personally, I think the most likely outcome is Nintendo drop the basic model and reduce the price of the deluxe model to basic levels. In an ideal world, Nintendo would have sensibly planned to ship 4 million units from the beginning, all of them 'deluxe' models, at the basic price. But hey, it's not an ideal world, is it?
Graphics have reached a point where they have almost flatlined. If you look at games like Fuse, Uncharted 3, Metal Gear rising, The Last of Us, Beyond 2 souls and halo4, and compare it to the tech demo's of variose game engines like squares Luminouse engine, Unreal 4 or Frostbite 2... the differance is not as great as the leap from standard definition to HD or from 2D to 3D.
If you look at games for the WiiU like Xenoblade, The Last Story ... they look pretty good. In last story you can have a party of up to 5 characters all batteling in real time, while most RPG's can only handle 3. Xenoblade has massive draw distances and a pretty detailed world with individual blades of grass, however these effects are faked as they are 2D poligones that rotate with the camera. But still it has achieved stunning results, a vivid game world and very good art aesthetics and style.
Then we have games like Nino Kuni That look stunning, and if the Wii you has even a bit more power than current generation consoles, it all means it can produce pretty impressive graphics.
I belive that when designing a game now a days, tech horsepower helps, but its more about artistic, cinematographic direction. Good writing, and inovative gameplay.
I can see why Nintendo didnt push with HD since I honestly bought my first HD TV last year, and its only now that prices have become affordable. Im in no rush for 4k resolutions.
All Nintendo needs to do is keep their first party franchises fresh. Fire Emblem Awakening is amazing and they also need to grab as many AAA exclusives as they can, such as with Xenoblade and Bayonetta. I think with the right plan, Nintendo can do fine. They have a great controller with all the face buttons, clickable dual analog sticks and all, plus the touch screen which can add custom control options for more complex games (still dont like the size though :( ).
But after Nintendo's announcements Im pretty excited. However i do think Nintendo should put the premium WiiU bundle in the 300$ range and simply eliminate the basic console. They shift more units this way. Im personally waiting for a price drop but will stock up on games in the meantime.
However Nintendo failed with the virtual console and Wiishop. I cant understand why my games wont work, or simply allow me to download updated versions for free to work in WiiU mode. I dont understand why downloadable content is strapped to console and not an online account. If my console breaks I lose everything. They also failed to give a unified account for all their consoles. And it also sucks that because of it I cant play any gamboy games on my Wii or WiiU and if I buy them for the Wii I cant play them on the gamepad... sux sux sux. That prevented me from purchasing so much stuff I wanted. Nintendo failed miserably there.
The process is really fiddly, but it works.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Neil Millstone on 31st January 2013 3:49pm
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