But the Gamepad looks like it could be an addon for the Wii, is the problem. I think Nintendo would be better served to get the word out that this is an entirely new device and not just another peripheral.
Okay, but let's say I want to play Zombi U. Why does it matter if it's an entirely new device or not? If I want to play the game, I'll do the research to see what I need to buy to play it on.
Nobody's going to buy a Wii U just because it's a new console, it's sold on it's games.
It's like when DVD players first hit the market. Nobody bought a DVD player just to own one, they bought it because they wanted to watch movies on DVD.
You are not the average consumer though. You're an enthusiast. Enthusiast's will overcome poor marketing through researching things they're interested in.
Average consumers will see a TV ad, herp derp their way into the store and bring home the wrong gift for little Jimmy which will throw him into a fit which will then be projected angrily back onto the store rep for not being a mind reader.
And when the new XBox's games don't work on the 360 and the new Playstation's games don't work on the PS3?
This a million times. Just the fact that we are on here talking about this shows we are not the average consumer. We know the difference. Someone walking into best buy to get whatever I gonna be drawn in by it or employees trying to meet a quota that don't care what you buy in the end. PS2 to 3 makes sense, that's an upgrade. Wii to wiiu? That could be anything.
And what negative result does Nintendo experience due to this?
This is more the problem, though, for sure. Yeah, the controller is different, but there's really nothing out there for the Wii U that grabs people and screams at them "look at this great thing the Wii U has that nobody else can do!" The system is much more like the other consoles, which could actually be hurting it right now since it's a system with graphics and gameplay that more closely resemble systems which have been on the market for years now. I'm interested in ZombiU, but that's hardly a crowd-pleaser, even if it does show off the Wii U gamepad.
The Gamepad IS the great thing the Wii U has that nobody else does.
Games next generation will be largely the same that they are this generation, just with more shinies, like it always has been. Assuming Microsoft or Sony don't copy Nintendo yet again, the Gamepad is definitely what sets apart the Wii U from the competition.
But the issue is letting people know that that gamepad is a Big Deal. I can't even remember seeing any TV spots showing with the new Wii U does and it had an entire Christmas season essentially uncontested, so that was a big missed opportunity right there. And you can't even really appropriately show how it works in commercials anyway without things looking hokey, so if there isn't a big game out there to draw people in to try the thing out, then the average person isn't going to be interested.
As has been said, nobody will buy the system in any meaningful numbers without the games to justify the purchase, and Nintendo hasn't really done itself any favors with either the name or the marketing. They've got a while to pick up speed, but if the next Microsoft/Sony systems are running games the size of, say, Skyrim or Just Cause and look loads better while the Wii U is running games from "last" generation on neat controller, the controller isn't going to move anything, especially since it's far more like the 360/PS3 controllers than the Wii's "grandma"-friendly controls.
This a million times. Just the fact that we are on here talking about this shows we are not the average consumer. We know the difference. Someone walking into best buy to get whatever I gonna be drawn in by it or employees trying to meet a quota that don't care what you buy in the end. PS2 to 3 makes sense, that's an upgrade. Wii to wiiu? That could be anything.
And what negative result does Nintendo experience due to this?
If people don't know what the WiiU is, then they won't know they want one. It seems like a really stupid thing to us, but names and labels sell things. The name "WiiU" won't sink the system, but it won't do it any marketing favors. But if Nintendo can copy the old sales magic of the Wii, it won't matter at all; there's still plenty of opportunity there for brand confusion, though.
This a million times. Just the fact that we are on here talking about this shows we are not the average consumer. We know the difference. Someone walking into best buy to get whatever I gonna be drawn in by it or employees trying to meet a quota that don't care what you buy in the end. PS2 to 3 makes sense, that's an upgrade. Wii to wiiu? That could be anything.
And what negative result does Nintendo experience due to this?
If people don't know what the WiiU is, then they won't know they want one. It seems like a really stupid thing to us, but names and labels sell things. The name "WiiU" won't sink the system, but it won't do it any marketing favors. But if Nintendo can copy the old sales magic of the Wii, it won't matter at all; there's still plenty of opportunity there for brand confusion, though.
No, people don't need to know what the Wii U is. They need to know that games they really want are available. The mass market is not going to buy the system simply because it's new and they heard about it, but they will buy it to play games.
Wii sold to people because someone showed them Wii Sports, not because someone said "hey look, here is a gaming system with motion control and it is different from the Gamecube. Isn't this messaging clear to you?"
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
Except the Wii was a whole new sort of thing and there's a fair amount of brand loyalty to be garnered from that. If the average person doesn't even know there is a new Nintendo console because they think WiiU is just a variant of the Wii (like with slim 360s), then they aren't going to be real interested in what they don't realize is a new system.
I'd consider the lack of taking advantage of this last Christmas season will affect the WiiU far more than the name, but it is a dumb name to have for a "sequel" system, if for no other reason than it's easy to confuse with the original. Minor mistake, but a dumb one nonetheless.
As of this morning, it appears that all of the videos on the well-liked Angry Video Game Nerd webseries have been removed from YouTube. Text on the landing page cites severe violations of YouTube terms of service, which seems to indicate that this wasn't a voluntary move on Rolfe's part.
Chatter on NeoGAF and Facebook point at the copyright complaints related to games Rolfe talked about as the reason for the shutdown.
With a movie in production, things were looking great for James Rolfe, the man behind AVGN. His brand of ranting—where he plays through and excoriates the bad old games of yesteryear—won him millions of fans over the six years he and his crew have been doing AVGN. The backlog of AVGN videos can still be seen on Rolfe's Cinemasscre site. But, with more than more 900,000 subscribers and over 400 million views on YouTube, being exiled from the video service is a major blow to AVGN's visibility and revenue.
Kotaku has reached out to Rolfe and YouTube for comment and will update this story if they respond.
Curious what/who this is from.
Wtf? I love that guy. He's the reaason I'm trying to track down a nes and a few games. Ya, he's really making people not buy your 20+ year old, not for sale anymore, games. Ya, shut it down.
Some company is about to get some serious backlash
Apparently the videos are back up. If I had to guess a company I'd guess 20th century fox, as I was watching a screw attack top 10 video and they said they couldn't show the Simpsons arcade game due to legal reasons with fox.
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
While I don't think Nintendo is DoooOoooOomed I do feel like they are not playing the same game as Sony or Microsoft.
It's like Sony and Microsoft are over there playing Monopoly and Nintendo is playing Hungry Hungry Hippos by itself.
I also feel like Nintendo doesn't give a fuck about third-parties and honestly I feel it has been that way for years now. Not sure when it started though. I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing, like I already mentioned they seem to be playing a totally different game then Sony or Microsoft and so far it seems to be doing right by them.
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
On the now somewhat old topic of disappearing (and reappearing) channels, perhaps Youtube's been testing out some new automated content recognition software, leading to certain channels testing a kind of "false positive"? It'd be my best guess, because usually what happens when a channel is taken down so promptly (as I understand it at least) is because the channels test positive for copyrighted content, after which they're locked down automatically pending a counterclaim.
Alright and in this next scene all the animals have AIDS.
As of this morning, it appears that all of the videos on the well-liked Angry Video Game Nerd webseries have been removed from YouTube. Text on the landing page cites severe violations of YouTube terms of service, which seems to indicate that this wasn't a voluntary move on Rolfe's part.
Chatter on NeoGAF and Facebook point at the copyright complaints related to games Rolfe talked about as the reason for the shutdown.
With a movie in production, things were looking great for James Rolfe, the man behind AVGN. His brand of ranting—where he plays through and excoriates the bad old games of yesteryear—won him millions of fans over the six years he and his crew have been doing AVGN. The backlog of AVGN videos can still be seen on Rolfe's Cinemasscre site. But, with more than more 900,000 subscribers and over 400 million views on YouTube, being exiled from the video service is a major blow to AVGN's visibility and revenue.
Kotaku has reached out to Rolfe and YouTube for comment and will update this story if they respond.
Curious what/who this is from.
Wtf? I love that guy. He's the reaason I'm trying to track down a nes and a few games. Ya, he's really making people not buy your 20+ year old, not for sale anymore, games. Ya, shut it down.
Some company is about to get some serious backlash
Apparently the videos are back up. If I had to guess a company I'd guess 20th century fox, as I was watching a screw attack top 10 video and they said they couldn't show the Simpsons arcade game due to legal reasons with fox.
If you are confused, the quick summary is that some guy bought the rights to Action 52/Cheetahmen and made a Kickstarter to sell NES carts of Cheetahmen 2, which AVGN backed with a video of their own, which some people called a scam because the guy is kind of shady and appeared to just be dumping existing rom data onto carts, others having done the work to restore Cheetahmen 2 long before he showed up. But there's some contention there. Apparently an activist decided to take down AVGN for supporting something he saw as a scam.
But the Gamepad looks like it could be an addon for the Wii, is the problem. I think Nintendo would be better served to get the word out that this is an entirely new device and not just another peripheral.
Okay, but let's say I want to play Zombi U. Why does it matter if it's an entirely new device or not? If I want to play the game, I'll do the research to see what I need to buy to play it on.
Nobody's going to buy a Wii U just because it's a new console, it's sold on it's games.
It's like when DVD players first hit the market. Nobody bought a DVD player just to own one, they bought it because they wanted to watch movies on DVD.
You are not the average consumer though. You're an enthusiast. Enthusiast's will overcome poor marketing through researching things they're interested in.
Average consumers will see a TV ad, herp derp their way into the store and bring home the wrong gift for little Jimmy which will throw him into a fit which will then be projected angrily back onto the store rep for not being a mind reader.
And when the new XBox's games don't work on the 360 and the new Playstation's games don't work on the PS3?
Microsoft. Sony. FUCKED.
You obviously have never worked in a customer service role or have been very lucky in a customer service role.
People, in general, act like children when things don't work out the way they expect, or they have a bad experience. I've seen people who would rather pay a $700 cancelation fee than do something so simple as power cycle a modem because principles... I guess.
There are people out there that would buy a Wii U game, expect it to work in their Wii and when they find out that it doesn't they will take it back and then choose to have nothing to do with Nintendo again because they were inconvenienced in their busy lives.
Besides that, the jump from PS2/XBox to PS3 and 360 was very noticeable. The consoles looked very different, had a very clear name difference and the game boxes were all quite different.
You can't honestly look at this image and tell me there is zero chance of confusion here.
Yes, it's colour coded and there's a difference in names between Wii U and Wii... but the game art looks nigh identical and the design of the box itself is very similar. If working years of tech support has taught me anything, it's that the average consumer does not pick up on differences in computer technology and do not know what Google is. You wouldn't believe how many times I've heard something like "I've got that new LG iPhone."
Consumers are generally retards that need to be lead by the hand, otherwise they lose their way. It often baffles me how some of these people actually function in society on a day to day basis.
Do you envision a Steam Box connecting to other screens outside the living room?
The Steam Box will also be a server. Any PC can serve multiple monitors, so over time, the next-generation (post-Kepler) you can have one GPU that’s serving up eight simulateneous game calls. So you could have one PC and eight televisions and eight controllers and everybody getting great performance out of it. We’re used to having one monitor, or two monitors -- now we’re saying lets expand that a little bit.
That reminds me.. apparently an early alpha version of the original Half-Life, specifically a demo intended to be shown to the press, was leaked onto the web recently. It's a version from 1997, prior to the massive restart in production that game went through. I can't wait to get home to take a look at it.
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Not to play too much into this debate, but if we're comparing game boxes:
Ain't all that far removed from:
Lack of consumer awareness is a problem, but it's not like it's isolated to Nintendo and the WiiU in any way. They could have made a better distinction, but your average consumer has been clueless as fuck since the dawn of time.
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
The worst it would result in is people taking back a game or two that they purchased. The best it can result in is "well we may as well buy the new thing" after they discover they can't play the new games on the old console.
Does anybody else think about how the difference between 'this edition is not the other thing' could end up with Batman Arkham City GOTY?
There is only so much space on the front of a game case and companies spend an assload of cash to develop what they believe to be the most uniform, informative, and differentiating design possible.
And sometimes it doesn't matter. I once took a CS call from a man upset that his version of NCAA Football 2003 looked terrible. Turns out, he bought the PS1 version and not the PS2 version. (By that point, PS1 games were in the CD case and not the larger, DVD-style.) When we discovered what the problem was, he admitted that he was surprised he only paid $20 for it.
The number one place to put the most relevant information on any thing is the header section. Right at the top. In this case, it's what system it plays on. If people don't read it or just glance at it without a thought, it does kind of shift the problem from the maker and onto the buyer.
Nintendo can take some blame for not doing enough to differentiate, but 'similar' does not mean 'same'. Even when people aren't interested in finding the correct information.
Not to play too much into this debate, but if we're comparing game boxes:
Ain't all that far removed from:
Lack of consumer awareness is a problem, but it's not like it's isolated to Nintendo and the WiiU in any way. They could have made a better distinction, but your average consumer has been clueless as fuck since the dawn of time.
Two things: there's a HUGE difference between those and when was Halo 2 released on the oXbox?
Edit: I'm getting old. I honestly thought Halo 2 was on the 360. Then again I kinda hate Halo...
Does anybody else think about how the difference between 'this edition is not the other thing' could end up with Batman Arkham City GOTY?
There is only so much space on the front of a game case and companies spend an assload of cash to develop what they believe to be the most uniform, informative, and differentiating design possible.
And sometimes it doesn't matter. I once took a CS call from a man upset that his version of NCAA Football 2003 looked terrible. Turns out, he bought the PS1 version and not the PS2 version. (By that point, PS1 games were in the CD case and not the larger, DVD-style.) When we discovered what the problem was, he admitted that he was surprised he only paid $20 for it.
The number one place to put the most relevant information on any thing is the header section. Right at the top. In this case, it's what system it plays on. If people don't read it or just glance at it without a thought, it does kind of shift the problem from the maker and onto the buyer.
Nintendo can take some blame for not doing enough to differentiate, but 'similar' does not mean 'same'. Even when people aren't interested in finding the correct information.
I agree that it's the consumers fault, but y'know the old saying...
Regardless, the only reason I'm faulting Nintendo this time around is simply because I've had several different discussions with different people of varying levels of gaming knowledge tell me they weren't aware it was a new system.
Actually, it is. There is a distinct difference between those logos and the color scheme. The 'U' in Wii U is barely noticeable to the average consumer I'm guessing. Also, the 360 was hyped beyond belief and actually has BC so most of those "old" games would play on it. People knew there was a new system. Not a ton of people know there's a new Wii.
Hell, Nintendo can roll commercials of their games where people are playing using the same controllers as the prior console. The viewer would see better graphics and the gamepad, but they'd also see people swinging around Wii Remotes. That's fairly unprecedented in consolespace.
+1
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Actually, it is. There is a distinct difference between those logos and the color scheme. The 'U' in Wii U is barely noticeable to the average consumer I'm guessing. Also, the 360 was hyped beyond belief and actually has BC so most of those "old" games would play on it. People knew there was a new system. Not a ton of people know there's a new Wii.
This is the sorta thing you're gonna need to get some citations on. The U is in a block next to "Wii," so that's enough to draw attention. I will agree that simply adding a 'U' between two consoles is a bad decision, but the boxes are distinguished enough.
For a guess? How about *I* barely noticed it and I'm not an average consumer? That being said, the color scheme and placement of the logo clued me in before I even saw the U. I'm not really arguing, I think those two styles are terrible to distinguish between for people that aren't us. I disagree on the oXbox/360 packaging, however. You don't get much different than black and white.
Anecdotal evidence, but the few people I've talked to about the Wii U recently, only one of them knew it was a new console before our discussion.
I also really don't know that many people that would go "Oh this game requires a new console? Sure, we'll fork over $350 for it right now." I think the more likely thing would be either "That's too much now, maybe for Christmas" (which it's now too late for) or "$350 to be able to play this Mario game! What the fuck? I only paid $200 for the last gaming thingie! This one even uses the same remotes I already have at home, why won't it work!? I want to talk to your manager!"
As an aside, the little U block on the game case isn't really that big of an attention drawer, and "Wii" is written in the exact same font as before. They probably should have put more emphasis on the U at the very least (why is it smaller?). I wouldn't put too much stock in your average person paying much attention to box color either, as different box colors don't always indicated different systems (such as the 360 cases which can be green or silver).
Heck, I had enough trouble with relatives mixing up Playstation and Xbox when it comes to multiplatform releases, so Wii & Wii U certainly isn't doing them any favors.
Anecdotal evidence, but the few people I've talked to about the Wii U recently, only one of them knew it was a new console before our discussion.
I also really don't know that many people that would go "Oh this game requires a new console? Sure, we'll fork over $350 for it right now." I think the more likely thing would be either "That's too much now, maybe for Christmas" (which it's now too late for) or "$350 to be able to play this Mario game! What the fuck? I only paid $200 for the last gaming thingie! This one even uses the same remotes I already have at home, why won't it work!? I want to talk to your manager!"
And the consumer would think that whether they knew it was a new console or not. "The only game I want is Mario and it costs $350?"
Like I said before, the library sells the console. Not...clearness of the message on the fact that it's a new console.
Not...clearness of the message on the fact that it's a new console.
A case could be made that one of the reasons why Sega isn't in the hardware business anymore is because of this. Most of the Sega systems had great libraries but their new console message got muddied with the Sega CD & 32X which made it difficult for the Saturn to succeed which in turn made it difficult for the Dreamcast to succeed.
AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
I'm really curious what difference in sales there might be in an alternate universe where Nintendo went with Wii 2 instead of Wii U? Sadly this is impossible to know, so the whole thing is somewhat moot.
Anecdotal evidence, but the few people I've talked to about the Wii U recently, only one of them knew it was a new console before our discussion.
I also really don't know that many people that would go "Oh this game requires a new console? Sure, we'll fork over $350 for it right now." I think the more likely thing would be either "That's too much now, maybe for Christmas" (which it's now too late for) or "$350 to be able to play this Mario game! What the fuck? I only paid $200 for the last gaming thingie! This one even uses the same remotes I already have at home, why won't it work!? I want to talk to your manager!"
As an aside, the little U block on the game case isn't really that big of an attention drawer, and "Wii" is written in the exact same font as before. They probably should have put more emphasis on the U at the very least (why is it smaller?). I wouldn't put too much stock in your average person paying much attention to box color either, as different box colors don't always indicated different systems (such as the 360 cases which can be green or silver).
Heck, I had enough trouble with relatives mixing up Playstation and Xbox when it comes to multiplatform releases, so Wii & Wii U certainly isn't doing them any favors.
This is embarrassing for me to say, but for the longest time even I didn't know it was a new console. For a good long while I simply thought that it was sort of like a Kinect thing in that they were touting a new fancy control scheme. However, before launch I did figure out it was a brand new console.
Though to be honest I've stopped paying attention to Nintendo consoles since the Wii. So I've barely been paying attention to Nintendo console news over the last few years.
Their handhelds on the other hand is a different story for me. Love my 3DS.
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
I'm really curious what difference in sales there might be in an alternate universe where Nintendo went with Wii 2 instead of Wii U? Sadly this is impossible to know, so the whole thing is somewhat moot.
I'll bet you alternate universe funbucks that the bitching would be exactly the same.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
+1
MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
Not...clearness of the message on the fact that it's a new console.
A case could be made that one of the reasons why Sega isn't in the hardware business anymore is because of this. Most of the Sega systems had great libraries but their new console message got muddied with the Sega CD & 32X which made it difficult for the Saturn to succeed which in turn made it difficult for the Dreamcast to succeed.
Let's be honest, the Saturn had even more dire issues than the Sega CD and 32X
Namely that it released yesterday and you didn't even know it!
If customers weren't confused with "Xbox" vs. "Xbox 360" I can't see why they would be confused with "Wii" vs. Wii U".
Because Microsoft didn't advertise their new console in such a way that the only thing that's "new" is the tablet, then show a bunch of kids playing what looks exactly like Wii games on Wiimotes. Those Wii U commericials feature Nintendo Land which prominently features Mii's that anyone who's played Wii Sports would instantly recognize. It's all very misleading in an unintentional way.
Also, Microsoft isn't known for releasing a crapton of peripherals like Nintendo is. The tablet could very easily be mistaken for another one of Nintendo's new gimmicks like the Balance Board.
I'm really curious what difference in sales there might be in an alternate universe where Nintendo went with Wii 2 instead of Wii U? Sadly this is impossible to know, so the whole thing is somewhat moot.
I'll bet you alternate universe funbucks that the bitching would be exactly the same.
"They used to give each of their consoles an entirely different name, Wii 2 sounds like DSi or something, an iteration instead of something new! This is the exact same problem the 3DS had! They're also way behind now, consumers won't give something with a 2 after it a second look compared with PS4!"
As far as my own useless opinion goes, this whole naming confusion junk only matters at the very start of a new console, when you're still in the transition period between old and new. Not that Nintendo couldn't have taken some better precautions, but there are always dumbasses. They could have named it the Nintendo White Dwarf, and a section of people would still go "Hurrr does this work on my Wii??? suxors".
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
I am excited for the Gabecube. I kinda want to hold out on upgrading for a while longer and get that instead. But it depends on the specs and flexibility
Posts
And when the new XBox's games don't work on the 360 and the new Playstation's games don't work on the PS3?
Microsoft. Sony. FUCKED.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
And what negative result does Nintendo experience due to this?
But the issue is letting people know that that gamepad is a Big Deal. I can't even remember seeing any TV spots showing with the new Wii U does and it had an entire Christmas season essentially uncontested, so that was a big missed opportunity right there. And you can't even really appropriately show how it works in commercials anyway without things looking hokey, so if there isn't a big game out there to draw people in to try the thing out, then the average person isn't going to be interested.
As has been said, nobody will buy the system in any meaningful numbers without the games to justify the purchase, and Nintendo hasn't really done itself any favors with either the name or the marketing. They've got a while to pick up speed, but if the next Microsoft/Sony systems are running games the size of, say, Skyrim or Just Cause and look loads better while the Wii U is running games from "last" generation on neat controller, the controller isn't going to move anything, especially since it's far more like the 360/PS3 controllers than the Wii's "grandma"-friendly controls.
If people don't know what the WiiU is, then they won't know they want one. It seems like a really stupid thing to us, but names and labels sell things. The name "WiiU" won't sink the system, but it won't do it any marketing favors. But if Nintendo can copy the old sales magic of the Wii, it won't matter at all; there's still plenty of opportunity there for brand confusion, though.
No, people don't need to know what the Wii U is. They need to know that games they really want are available. The mass market is not going to buy the system simply because it's new and they heard about it, but they will buy it to play games.
Wii sold to people because someone showed them Wii Sports, not because someone said "hey look, here is a gaming system with motion control and it is different from the Gamecube. Isn't this messaging clear to you?"
I'd consider the lack of taking advantage of this last Christmas season will affect the WiiU far more than the name, but it is a dumb name to have for a "sequel" system, if for no other reason than it's easy to confuse with the original. Minor mistake, but a dumb one nonetheless.
Apparently the videos are back up. If I had to guess a company I'd guess 20th century fox, as I was watching a screw attack top 10 video and they said they couldn't show the Simpsons arcade game due to legal reasons with fox.
It's like Sony and Microsoft are over there playing Monopoly and Nintendo is playing Hungry Hungry Hippos by itself.
I also feel like Nintendo doesn't give a fuck about third-parties and honestly I feel it has been that way for years now. Not sure when it started though. I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing, like I already mentioned they seem to be playing a totally different game then Sony or Microsoft and so far it seems to be doing right by them.
I got a little excited when I saw your ship.
This was found by Reddit.
If you are confused, the quick summary is that some guy bought the rights to Action 52/Cheetahmen and made a Kickstarter to sell NES carts of Cheetahmen 2, which AVGN backed with a video of their own, which some people called a scam because the guy is kind of shady and appeared to just be dumping existing rom data onto carts, others having done the work to restore Cheetahmen 2 long before he showed up. But there's some contention there. Apparently an activist decided to take down AVGN for supporting something he saw as a scam.
Edit - Typo.
You obviously have never worked in a customer service role or have been very lucky in a customer service role.
People, in general, act like children when things don't work out the way they expect, or they have a bad experience. I've seen people who would rather pay a $700 cancelation fee than do something so simple as power cycle a modem because principles... I guess.
There are people out there that would buy a Wii U game, expect it to work in their Wii and when they find out that it doesn't they will take it back and then choose to have nothing to do with Nintendo again because they were inconvenienced in their busy lives.
Besides that, the jump from PS2/XBox to PS3 and 360 was very noticeable. The consoles looked very different, had a very clear name difference and the game boxes were all quite different.
You can't honestly look at this image and tell me there is zero chance of confusion here.
Yes, it's colour coded and there's a difference in names between Wii U and Wii... but the game art looks nigh identical and the design of the box itself is very similar. If working years of tech support has taught me anything, it's that the average consumer does not pick up on differences in computer technology and do not know what Google is. You wouldn't believe how many times I've heard something like "I've got that new LG iPhone."
Consumers are generally retards that need to be lead by the hand, otherwise they lose their way. It often baffles me how some of these people actually function in society on a day to day basis.
Somehow, extremely popular accounts get reviewed on a much quicker timetable.
That reminds me.. apparently an early alpha version of the original Half-Life, specifically a demo intended to be shown to the press, was leaked onto the web recently. It's a version from 1997, prior to the massive restart in production that game went through. I can't wait to get home to take a look at it.
Actually, is AVGN's account part of YouTube's ad partnership thing? Because if it is that could explain it.
Ain't all that far removed from:
Lack of consumer awareness is a problem, but it's not like it's isolated to Nintendo and the WiiU in any way. They could have made a better distinction, but your average consumer has been clueless as fuck since the dawn of time.
There is only so much space on the front of a game case and companies spend an assload of cash to develop what they believe to be the most uniform, informative, and differentiating design possible.
And sometimes it doesn't matter. I once took a CS call from a man upset that his version of NCAA Football 2003 looked terrible. Turns out, he bought the PS1 version and not the PS2 version. (By that point, PS1 games were in the CD case and not the larger, DVD-style.) When we discovered what the problem was, he admitted that he was surprised he only paid $20 for it.
The number one place to put the most relevant information on any thing is the header section. Right at the top. In this case, it's what system it plays on. If people don't read it or just glance at it without a thought, it does kind of shift the problem from the maker and onto the buyer.
Nintendo can take some blame for not doing enough to differentiate, but 'similar' does not mean 'same'. Even when people aren't interested in finding the correct information.
Two things: there's a HUGE difference between those and when was Halo 2 released on the oXbox?
Edit: I'm getting old. I honestly thought Halo 2 was on the 360. Then again I kinda hate Halo...
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I agree that it's the consumers fault, but y'know the old saying...
Regardless, the only reason I'm faulting Nintendo this time around is simply because I've had several different discussions with different people of varying levels of gaming knowledge tell me they weren't aware it was a new system.
Anecdotes and all that.
This is the sorta thing you're gonna need to get some citations on. The U is in a block next to "Wii," so that's enough to draw attention. I will agree that simply adding a 'U' between two consoles is a bad decision, but the boxes are distinguished enough.
I also really don't know that many people that would go "Oh this game requires a new console? Sure, we'll fork over $350 for it right now." I think the more likely thing would be either "That's too much now, maybe for Christmas" (which it's now too late for) or "$350 to be able to play this Mario game! What the fuck? I only paid $200 for the last gaming thingie! This one even uses the same remotes I already have at home, why won't it work!? I want to talk to your manager!"
As an aside, the little U block on the game case isn't really that big of an attention drawer, and "Wii" is written in the exact same font as before. They probably should have put more emphasis on the U at the very least (why is it smaller?). I wouldn't put too much stock in your average person paying much attention to box color either, as different box colors don't always indicated different systems (such as the 360 cases which can be green or silver).
Heck, I had enough trouble with relatives mixing up Playstation and Xbox when it comes to multiplatform releases, so Wii & Wii U certainly isn't doing them any favors.
The U is so stylized (to look like the gamepad) that if you didn't know about the Wii U, you might think it's just a weird logo.
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And the consumer would think that whether they knew it was a new console or not. "The only game I want is Mario and it costs $350?"
Like I said before, the library sells the console. Not...clearness of the message on the fact that it's a new console.
A case could be made that one of the reasons why Sega isn't in the hardware business anymore is because of this. Most of the Sega systems had great libraries but their new console message got muddied with the Sega CD & 32X which made it difficult for the Saturn to succeed which in turn made it difficult for the Dreamcast to succeed.
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This is embarrassing for me to say, but for the longest time even I didn't know it was a new console. For a good long while I simply thought that it was sort of like a Kinect thing in that they were touting a new fancy control scheme. However, before launch I did figure out it was a brand new console.
Though to be honest I've stopped paying attention to Nintendo consoles since the Wii. So I've barely been paying attention to Nintendo console news over the last few years.
Their handhelds on the other hand is a different story for me. Love my 3DS.
I'll bet you alternate universe funbucks that the bitching would be exactly the same.
Let's be honest, the Saturn had even more dire issues than the Sega CD and 32X
Namely that it released yesterday and you didn't even know it!
Because Microsoft didn't advertise their new console in such a way that the only thing that's "new" is the tablet, then show a bunch of kids playing what looks exactly like Wii games on Wiimotes. Those Wii U commericials feature Nintendo Land which prominently features Mii's that anyone who's played Wii Sports would instantly recognize. It's all very misleading in an unintentional way.
Also, Microsoft isn't known for releasing a crapton of peripherals like Nintendo is. The tablet could very easily be mistaken for another one of Nintendo's new gimmicks like the Balance Board.
Well, the lack of Xbox Sports/Fit/Play/Music/etc probably helps.
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"They used to give each of their consoles an entirely different name, Wii 2 sounds like DSi or something, an iteration instead of something new! This is the exact same problem the 3DS had! They're also way behind now, consumers won't give something with a 2 after it a second look compared with PS4!"