The Top 7... Reasons the Wii U might win the next console generation

What do U want to play?

Words: Hollander Cooper on November 19, 2012

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CUFCfan616 - November 19, 2012 7:18 p.m.

The vast majority of consumers for the Wii were and still are casual gamers. Wii Fit was massively popular not with 'hardcore' gamers, but with those people who never really played games and were intimidated by the prospect or were in the state of mind that games are immature. The Wii changed that perspective by making it fun for people to play, and if you're waving your arms around to control things, you're not gaming in the traditional way. However, what I fear will happen is that these people won't feel the need to buy another Wii. To them, there probably won't be much of a distinction between the two consoles, especially given the names are basically the same. They might see it as a case of 'I have an iPhone 4, what's the point of upgrading to an iPhone 4S?'As a result, the Wii U probably won't have the massive casual gamer base that the Wii has. Also, with the Wii, amongst hardcore gamers, due to the large amount of casual gamers playing the Wii, there's now a distinction that the games themselves aren't any better than what's currently on the PS3 & 360. Jay on The Inbetweeners said it best from a gamer point of view when he said the Wii is for girls. There's now a perception that Nintendo consoles are no longer for hardcore gamers and that might damage sales. Hopefully I'm wrong as there's some great series in Nintendo, but I fear that beyond the Nintendo fans, not many people will be lining up to buy it, especially as many people already have a Wii, and hardcore gamers will be waiting for the PS4 & 720 (if that's its name)
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Octaviux - November 19, 2012 6:25 p.m.

"already has strong game library" aaaahahahahahahahaha
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Cyberninja - November 19, 2012 4:34 p.m.

Lets see I don't care about Graphics but about games and the wii easily had the most exclusive third party games even if they didn't sell by the truck load, this time I see the same thing happen happen again only with the games actually selling this time, in short Nintendo is easily going to win if Nextbox/PS4 stay the same thing in a different package with different problems
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iluvpkmnmonday - November 19, 2012 4:17 p.m.

I predict people buying WiiU for first party games and novelty while buying PS4/Nextbox for everything else.
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Bam_Boozle - November 19, 2012 4:32 p.m.

Personally its going to be a Wii U/PC gen for me. Most of the games that are released on Sony and Microsoft consoles are released on PC anyways.
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ohms - November 19, 2012 7:30 p.m.

In my opinion, Wii was the console that had the most interesting 3rd party exclusive games of the last/this generation (Mad World, Last Story, Xenoblade, etc.) But for some unknown reasons, people don't really care about them and those games suffered from poor sell. That's why I cannot understand when people saying that the only selling point of Nintendo consoles is 1st party games when there are tons of awesome 3rd party games out there but got overlooked.
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ollyn - November 19, 2012 9:31 p.m.

Most of my favourite games for PS3 are unlikely to grace a PC anytime soon likewise for Xbox 360. Uncharted, Journey, Unfinished Swan, Heavy Rain, Wipeout, God of War, Resistance 3 (criminally Underrated), Gran Turismo, MGS 4 etc..... I doubt we will see Rain, Beyond, Puppeteer, Last of Us on PC either. Don't get me wrong if sony go under and go the sega route and start making these games on PC i'll agree with you but saying most games released by sony are released on PC is blatant BS. Not seen Halo, Forza or Gears of War on the PC for a while either.
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Viron - November 19, 2012 4:12 p.m.

You may as well replace the image for this article with the Troll Signal.
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SpiritTemple - November 20, 2012 2:59 a.m.

U mad? See what I did there?..
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Smash_Bro - November 19, 2012 3:03 p.m.

Wii U has started too strong for it to just fail and fall off the face of the Earth. Besides, when has Nintendo ever given up on a console (save the poor Virtual Boy)? Have they EVER really disappointed their audience? Having said that, the GamePad may be one of the most difficult features of their consoles for which to come up with ideas. I like it a lot; hope the devs feel that way, too.
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7-D - November 19, 2012 2:42 p.m.

On Zelda Wii U: "...the first test dungeon Nintendo produced, which was set in a forest and ran on early, buggy Wii U hardware, was “bigger than Hyrule Field in Ocarina [Of Time]… Its scope and details are unlike anything you’ve seen in a Zelda game.” “They’re using a new, state of the art engine that’s being built from the ground up in parallel with the game,” the source claims. “It’s got the most advanced visual features Nintendo has ever made, and includes a lot of thirdparty tech like Havok for physics and rendering middleware from Umbra.”
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Smash_Bro - November 19, 2012 2:57 p.m.

This is one of the most beautiful things I've ever read (assuming it's a true quote). Thank you for posting.
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7-D - November 19, 2012 3:12 p.m.

Seems legit (edge is a pretty sober games mag) http://www.edge-online.com/news/wii-u-zelda-in-2014-source-claims/
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Fox_Mulder - November 19, 2012 11:45 p.m.

This will be the Wii U's system seller for me. Twilight Princess was the reason I got a Wii at launch.
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Grif - November 19, 2012 2:24 p.m.

Right now Bayonetta 2 is the only reason why I want a Wii U.
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zombi3grim - November 19, 2012 2:19 p.m.

Its really hard for me to look at the Wii U and consider it next gen. To me, its just the next Wii. The next gen starts with the new playstation and xbox.
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Nomado - November 19, 2012 2:45 p.m.

You know few months back official from nintendo said that Nintendo consoles are in its generation. The reason why they didn't go HD in last generation or so call mainstream is HD TVs weren't that popular.Indeed in place were i live HD TVs started selling in mass only 2-3 years ago. And they are creating their own generation. Also look at how eventho there is E3, Nintendo started doing its own Nintendo Direct.
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JMarsella09 - November 19, 2012 2:14 p.m.

If the Psp and Wii taught us anything, it's that if a system has Monster Hunter on it, it will sell millions in Japan.
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stealth2k - November 19, 2012 1:55 p.m.

Forget all those unlesses, its going to win by default
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Pruman - November 19, 2012 1:40 p.m.

In the past, the sales pitch for a new console worked like this: Console maker: "Our new system has 100 times the power of the crappy old one, and its games are the prettiest things EVAR!" Gamer: "Damn, that looks AMAZING! Here's some money!" As of the PS360 generation, we've reached a point where additional graphical power really doesn't impress as much as before. The game companies will need to come up with better reasons for us to buy into their platforms than "the last generation looks like utter ass by comparison!" Nintendo's better reason with the Wii was, "anyone, ESPECIALLY people who've never touched a video game in their lives, can have a blast with our system." It's worked out pretty well for them. They've applied that kind of marketing across all of their systems, and are making a conscious effort to not alienate the hardcore crowd, which is smart. I have a feeling that the usual trumpeting of the capabilities of new hardware that accompanies a new console launch and run-up, which is most likely going to happen with XBOX 720 and PS4, is not going to translate into sales like it has in the past.
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