The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is in full swing right now in sunny, Southern California and today was the Nintendo’s big press conference. There had been rumors floating of a new console to be revealed and everyone who was curious was not disappointed. At least not by the reveal itself. The Wii U was indeed announced and shown off to the credentialed press and they’ve given us a broad range of reactions and info to make our own conclusions. After going through a lot of the material, I have to ask what the point of the console is?
I’ll be honest that my first reaction to the photos from the conference was confusion. Trying to piece together what Nintendo was trying to show based off still photos was challenging. Seeing some video and commentary helped solidify the concept being shown. Being able to switch the game from TV to controller screen looks like a solid feature (definitely better than my college setup of having 2 TVs next to each other, one for sports, one for gaming). The controller itself looks like a well-designed and gracefully-engineered piece of equipment. Thumbs-up on the video calling on that screen. The console is apparently able to produce HD output of games and had a strong list of backers in the publishing department. Maybe I'm shortchanging the innovations the touchscreen adds. But why release this now?
Nintendo said that the Wii U will be hitting our living rooms sometime in 2012. That gives them 7 months on the low end (unlikely, to say the least), to 19 months at the most. I would bet a Holiday 2012 release. While that does put it at 6 years post-Wii, a long generation for the underpowered initial hardware, I feel like jumping the gun on Microsoft and Sony again isn’t going to win them more buyers from their competitors. It is exciting that the Wii U will apparently have 1080p output; but the PS3 and 360 have HD right now. All those games by the strong publishers will most likely be simultaneously released for the other consoles and the only difference will be a lack of touchscreen controller and whatever add-ons it provides. Will it be worth it for consumers to purchase a console just for that, especially if that console is not that cheap? I’d wager no. Instead, Nintendo seems to be aiming to hold on to it’s current crowd and hopefully catch the next wave of casual gamers.
Maybe that’s where all the analysis coming out of E3 is wrong. It’s been said several times that Nintendo is no longer fighting Sony and Microsoft for the “old guard” of gamer, but is instead fighting Apple for the casual gamer. The Wii U seems like a step in that direction. The hardcore gamers, the people who love shooters, sports, and huge RPGs, aren’t going to migrate to the Wii U and Nintendo knows that. There are still a few nostalgics out there who love every Zelda or Metroid release (myself included), but it’s becoming tougher to justify each purchase when there’s not much else with it. I don’t get the point of the Wii U, but that’s most likely because I’m outside of it’s target audience. I’ve become older to the point where not everything Nintendo puts out interests me. Kid-me would’ve been absolutely floored by today’s announcement, but kid-me didn’t enjoy science fiction space operas nearly as much as I do now. And there’s the rub: I’ve become older with different interests, whereas Nintendo marvelously stays the same and caters to the kid in all of us. It means the gaming console war is now happening on two fronts: Sony versus Microsoft for the technically-inclined; and Nintendo versus Apple for the more relaxed interests.I think it means this will be the first major Nintendo console I won’t be getting.
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Thanks to all the coverage of E3 being put out there, especially by Kotaku, Ars Technica, Engadget, and Joystiq.
I’ll be honest that my first reaction to the photos from the conference was confusion. Trying to piece together what Nintendo was trying to show based off still photos was challenging. Seeing some video and commentary helped solidify the concept being shown. Being able to switch the game from TV to controller screen looks like a solid feature (definitely better than my college setup of having 2 TVs next to each other, one for sports, one for gaming). The controller itself looks like a well-designed and gracefully-engineered piece of equipment. Thumbs-up on the video calling on that screen. The console is apparently able to produce HD output of games and had a strong list of backers in the publishing department. Maybe I'm shortchanging the innovations the touchscreen adds. But why release this now?
Nintendo said that the Wii U will be hitting our living rooms sometime in 2012. That gives them 7 months on the low end (unlikely, to say the least), to 19 months at the most. I would bet a Holiday 2012 release. While that does put it at 6 years post-Wii, a long generation for the underpowered initial hardware, I feel like jumping the gun on Microsoft and Sony again isn’t going to win them more buyers from their competitors. It is exciting that the Wii U will apparently have 1080p output; but the PS3 and 360 have HD right now. All those games by the strong publishers will most likely be simultaneously released for the other consoles and the only difference will be a lack of touchscreen controller and whatever add-ons it provides. Will it be worth it for consumers to purchase a console just for that, especially if that console is not that cheap? I’d wager no. Instead, Nintendo seems to be aiming to hold on to it’s current crowd and hopefully catch the next wave of casual gamers.
Maybe that’s where all the analysis coming out of E3 is wrong. It’s been said several times that Nintendo is no longer fighting Sony and Microsoft for the “old guard” of gamer, but is instead fighting Apple for the casual gamer. The Wii U seems like a step in that direction. The hardcore gamers, the people who love shooters, sports, and huge RPGs, aren’t going to migrate to the Wii U and Nintendo knows that. There are still a few nostalgics out there who love every Zelda or Metroid release (myself included), but it’s becoming tougher to justify each purchase when there’s not much else with it. I don’t get the point of the Wii U, but that’s most likely because I’m outside of it’s target audience. I’ve become older to the point where not everything Nintendo puts out interests me. Kid-me would’ve been absolutely floored by today’s announcement, but kid-me didn’t enjoy science fiction space operas nearly as much as I do now. And there’s the rub: I’ve become older with different interests, whereas Nintendo marvelously stays the same and caters to the kid in all of us. It means the gaming console war is now happening on two fronts: Sony versus Microsoft for the technically-inclined; and Nintendo versus Apple for the more relaxed interests.I think it means this will be the first major Nintendo console I won’t be getting.
---
Thanks to all the coverage of E3 being put out there, especially by Kotaku, Ars Technica, Engadget, and Joystiq.
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