In just a few weeks, Nintendo releases its latest console the Wii U. The Wii U hopes to introduce new gaming concepts and create new experiences in the living room for gamers and their families. But is the Wii U slated for a similar fate to Nintendo's Wii?
The Wii got off to a tremendous start thanks to its innovation with the Wiimote and motion controls. The system quickly took over the console wars in its first years and it seemed that for the first time in three cycles, the Big N was king again. But then the mask was removed and gamers realized that while fun for a little while, the Wiimote was more style rather than substance as the content that really took advantage of the system's new remote was sparse and the only strong content was coming from Nintendo. Nintendo had promised more third party support, but arguably, it was immediately apparent that people did not know how to make games for the system.
Coming into the last generation of games, third party exclusivity was still a card being played, but during the Wii-PS 3- Xbox 360 war, that concept fizzled out as mobile gaming came to the fore and developers realized it was silly to bank on one console. As a result, big titles such as Grand Theft Auto 4, Batman: Arkham Asymlum, and Call of Duty came out on both Xbox 360 and PS3 **Correction**. Nintendo likely didn't calculate this and ended up losing a great deal of major titles. The result was a drop in sales and popularity among serious gamers in the system's later years.
With the Wii U, Nintendo has updated its specs to match the PS3 and Xbox, knowing well that their next consoles are still a few years away. The latter consoles have already garnered the support of major third party titles including Mass Effect 3, Batman: Arkham City, and COD Black Ops 2. The fact that some third party developers are already calling out the next gen consoles on sacrificing content for graphics power should also add some confidence to Nintendo's plan.
Nintendo may find some trouble It will launch in an 8GB model and a 32 GB model. PS 3 is offering a 500 GB version for $300 while Xbox 360 comes with a 250 GB version for the same price. Nintendo's 32 GB version will cost $349.99 **Correction**. While it will support external hard dirves, this is an added cost that should be highly unnecessary when you are making a $300 or $ 350 investment on a system and $60 per game.
Online gaming has been a sore spot for Nintendo fans for years and details for it in its latest console is all but clear. Nintendo will have to play its cards right for online activity in the Wii U if it wants to appeal to the current generation.
People will be looking into some of its high profile classic games in the new controller/pad console and hopefully the new tablet controller will make available new styles of entertaining gameplay.
People can all bet that the next Mario and Zelda and Metroid will make full use of this pad, but if the Wii U is to be successful the third party content needs to be on par and better than what is being offered on the PS3 or Xbox 360. If the Wii U is unable to do anything for the next two or three years that will help it battle its the rival consoles, then it will suffer when the next gen consoles come to take over.
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