If anyone else got in on it and admitted to buying multiple versions of Madden several websites are reporting that the EA Sports Settlement checks have started to arrive finally. I'm turning mine into Magic cards when it arrives.
They probably know full well that the Wii-U isn't going to do well this season. There's just nothing to move it off the shelves much faster than it has been.
As a company, they still need to bring in those delicious Christmas sales, though, so they need to get a product people WILL buy in bulk on the shelves. A decent profit margin, stripped down version of their old tech might be a conscious, strategic maneuver to extract as much in sales this season as possible. They're not dumb; they know the Wii-U isn't going to magically balloon into unprecedented sales this season.
What is this I don't even.
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syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
It's not like people buying a Wii Mini were going to buy a Wii U up until they saw the Wii Mini.
Being outsold by a predecessor is still not going do any favors for the Wii U's public image.
The PS3 and 360 were both outsold by the PS2 for quite a while.
Yeah, and remember how much respect the PS3 had right around launch.
But this is also a wildly different situation.
The PS2 was the undisputed king of that generation, which was a couple years shorter than this last one and therefore still in full-on sales mode, and over 400 dollars cheaper than the PS3.
The PStwo also had better internet connectivity than the PS2 out of the box, and a massive library of AAA titles that were still coming out for over a year, courtesy of the (original) backwards compatibility of the 3.
The Wii was mostly dead on the shelf when the Wii U came out, and it looks like they are trying to revive it when they can barely move units of their current offering.
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Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Which is dumb because Super Mario 3D World looks fantastic. I guess, worst case scenario it gives people something to compare that don't know any better, do I get the cheapo Wii.... or the Fancy Wii.
They probably know full well that the Wii-U isn't going to do well this season. There's just nothing to move it off the shelves much faster than it has been.
As a company, they still need to bring in those delicious Christmas sales, though, so they need to get a product people WILL buy in bulk on the shelves. A decent profit margin, stripped down version of their old tech might be a conscious, strategic maneuver to extract as much in sales this season as possible. They're not dumb; they know the Wii-U isn't going to magically balloon into unprecedented sales this season.
I don't think anyone will buy it. (Well, you know, relatively no one. Thousands instead of hundreds of thousands.)
It's just sort of there. A well-known-to-be-gimped device for people who are very late to the party or don't care. They probably won't even market it.
The Wii Mini is the thing you put in the kid's room. It can't do anything, so they can't do anything you don't let them, and you don't have to worry about internet thingie whatsit, or wires, or whatever; just hook it up to the TV and give them their games, and they can play without you having to worry about them doing anything "naughty" or being exposed to interweb stranger danger.
I mean sure, no "gamers" are going to get it for themselves, likely enough, but I can think of at least three families OF gamers who I could see buying this for their 7-9 year old kid(s) so they don't need to supervise game time.
They probably know full well that the Wii-U isn't going to do well this season. There's just nothing to move it off the shelves much faster than it has been.
As a company, they still need to bring in those delicious Christmas sales, though, so they need to get a product people WILL buy in bulk on the shelves. A decent profit margin, stripped down version of their old tech might be a conscious, strategic maneuver to extract as much in sales this season as possible. They're not dumb; they know the Wii-U isn't going to magically balloon into unprecedented sales this season.
I don't think anyone will buy it. (Well, you know, relatively no one. Thousands instead of hundreds of thousands.)
It's just sort of there. A well-known-to-be-gimped device for people who are very late to the party or don't care. They probably won't even market it.
I see it as a more of non-gamer or uninformed parent bait. A lot of people don't care or follow spec sheets, and just want to get "The New Wii" to play mario or whatever, and they will always go for the cheapest model.
Yeah, they probably had thousands of one particular Wii part sitting around, like the main chips but not the board or something. And they went "aw shit, sales are slowing, there's no way we can manufacture and sell all these. Quick, fit them in a new form factor and pull out everything we can to make it small, maybe form factor and price will be enough of a driving force to move them."
And it's not, really, but it was worth a shot to get those chips out of the warehouse.
Yeah, they probably had thousands of one particular Wii part sitting around, like the main chips but not the board or something. And they went "aw shit, sales are slowing, there's no way we can manufacture and sell all these. Quick, fit them in a new form factor and pull out everything we can to make it small, maybe form factor and price will be enough of a driving force to move them."
And it's not, really, but it was worth a shot to get those chips out of the warehouse.
Yeah, they probably had thousands of one particular Wii part sitting around, like the main chips but not the board or something. And they went "aw shit, sales are slowing, there's no way we can manufacture and sell all these. Quick, fit them in a new form factor and pull out everything we can to make it small, maybe form factor and price will be enough of a driving force to move them."
And it's not, really, but it was worth a shot to get those chips out of the warehouse.
AMD Mantle Graphics API Adopted by Various Developers
AMD today announced three new game developer partnerships for Mantle, its highly acclaimed, groundbreaking graphics API. Cloud Imperium Games, Eidos-Montréal, a part of the Square Enix Group, and Oxide Games are the latest game developers to join AMD in optimizing the way PC games are developed to extract maximum performance from a modern graphics architecture that spans desktop PCs, notebooks and consumer devices like tablets.
"AMD is proud to play an instrumental role in transforming the world of game development with Mantle," said Ritche Corpus, director of ISV gaming and alliances, AMD. "With the support and close collaboration between AMD and industry-leading game developers like Cloud Imperium, Eidos-Montréal and Oxide, Mantle can maximize optimization for highly anticipated PC titles, bringing an unparalleled gaming experience for players."
...
Cloud Imperium Games, Eidos-Montréal and Oxide Games will join AMD and DICE in speaking about Mantle architecture and implementation at the AMD Developer Summit (APU 13), running Nov. 11-14 in San Jose, Calif. In addition, Oxide Games will be showing a public sneak preview of Mantle performance at the event.
Cloud is the studio behind Star Citizen and Oxide is preparing a game engine.
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
Wii Mini? Look how shitty that is, please by a Wii U!
This is actually pretty great marketing. As a company offering products, you typically want to have three core offerings, a good/better/best type of structure. This comparison chart does that very well. Of course, it's hampered by the fact that they discontinued the Wii, but the core concept is there. This way, the Wii U looks like the premium offering.
The Wii Mini and Wii U are different hardware. The 3DS and 2DS are variations of the same hardware.
It's different.
Look, again, a comparison is based on highlighting similarities. Literally every comparison can result in someone saying "it's different," as if that invalidates it. I didn't say the hardware release was the same, I said the reaction was.
The similarity lies in:
A product of some sort is is going to be sold by Nintendo in the future.
Forums: "This is terrible, horrible, what are they thinking!"
* No noticeable negative effects occur at all and business continues as usual *
And the reason I would say it appears similar is because I expect this situation to play out here. In saying that the situation is different, are you claiming that there will be noticeable negative effects? Or do you see what I mean in saying that there might be some similarity here?
I wouldn't take this as evidence of the "norm", or maybe not even anecdotal evidence. Just a small bit of observation from just one person.
As a person who is generally "in the know"... upon briefly skimming that news post, for about 5 seconds I did have the thought of "Holy shit, they're making a mini Wii U and slashing the price?!". Clicking the link and seeing the picture cleared that right up.
I guess all I'm saying is that I'm starting to understand the Confusion side of the argument.
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
AMD Mantle Graphics API Adopted by Various Developers
AMD today announced three new game developer partnerships for Mantle, its highly acclaimed, groundbreaking graphics API. Cloud Imperium Games, Eidos-Montréal, a part of the Square Enix Group, and Oxide Games are the latest game developers to join AMD in optimizing the way PC games are developed to extract maximum performance from a modern graphics architecture that spans desktop PCs, notebooks and consumer devices like tablets.
"AMD is proud to play an instrumental role in transforming the world of game development with Mantle," said Ritche Corpus, director of ISV gaming and alliances, AMD. "With the support and close collaboration between AMD and industry-leading game developers like Cloud Imperium, Eidos-Montréal and Oxide, Mantle can maximize optimization for highly anticipated PC titles, bringing an unparalleled gaming experience for players."
...
Cloud Imperium Games, Eidos-Montréal and Oxide Games will join AMD and DICE in speaking about Mantle architecture and implementation at the AMD Developer Summit (APU 13), running Nov. 11-14 in San Jose, Calif. In addition, Oxide Games will be showing a public sneak preview of Mantle performance at the event.
Cloud is the studio behind Star Citizen and Oxide is preparing a game engine.
Eidos-Montreal (fuck your accent mark Frenchies!) signing on to support this is pretty huge for the more mainstream audience. Very nice.
The Wii Mini and Wii U are different hardware. The 3DS and 2DS are variations of the same hardware.
It's different.
Look, again, a comparison is based on highlighting similarities. Literally every comparison can result in someone saying "it's different," as if that invalidates it. I didn't say the hardware release was the same, I said the reaction was.
The similarity lies in:
A product of some sort is is going to be sold by Nintendo in the future.
Forums: "This is terrible, horrible, what are they thinking!"
* No noticeable negative effects occur at all and business continues as usual *
And the reason I would say it appears similar is because I expect this situation to play out here. In saying that the situation is different, are you claiming that there will be noticeable negative effects? Or do you see what I mean in saying that there might be some similarity here?
One could suppose that a negative effect is by selling the Wii Mini, Nintendo is in effect competing against itself with two home console platforms in a (however diminished) limelight. 2DS, 3DS, 3DS XL, no matter what, Nintendo is pushing the 3DS handheld platform this holiday season. Home platform? You'd think it'd be Wii U, but maybe now they're saying "eh, you know, we don't care, just buy something". There's a very believable case here that selling Wiis undermines Wii U. That's what's different, and that's where a similarity claim gets really shaky.
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
I don't think there's a lot of overlap between the group of consumers who will buy the $299 Wii U and the group of consumers who will buy the $99 Wii Mini.
If anything, I would think that the overlap exists at the point where you would have people who would potentially buy the Wii Mini AND a nextgen console.
The issue is now you have people wondering why you would want to pay an extra 200 dollars for the Wii with the bundled tablet controller.
It would be a great idea if Nintendo manages to tell people that Wii Mini: Wii U :: PS3 slim : PS4 (with backwards compatability). I presume toploading NES/SNES version 2 was reasonably successful, though I don't have any idea how well they sold
One could suppose that a negative effect is by selling the Wii Mini, Nintendo is in effect competing against itself with two home console platforms in a (however diminished) limelight. 2DS, 3DS, 3DS XL, no matter what, Nintendo is pushing the 3DS handheld platform this holiday season. Home platform? You'd think it'd be Wii U, but maybe now they're saying "eh, you know, we don't care, just buy something". There's a very believable case here that selling Wiis undermines Wii U. That's what's different, and that's where a similarity claim gets really shaky.
Yeah, that's possible. It's not inconceivable. I think it's more likely that the device won't really be heavily marketed and ultimately won't have much of an impact on the console market as a whole, though.
I agree with Dhalphir that there shouldn't be much overlap. Its low price puts it into a whole other class of devices. It practically feels like one of those Android consoles, tiny, limited, plenty of caveats, but if you don't have a lot of money you can technically Play Games On It.
Due to the existence of the Wii Mini, I expect that there will be exactly 87 less Wii Us sold in the US next year than would've otherwise been sold.
I thought that maybe Nintendo would rather drive people towards the Wii U rather than give them a "good enough" dead platform option at a third the price, but what do I know. They should be saying "you want a Wii and somehow don't own one yet? Let me tell you about this new shiny model, it does everything you want and has the newest Mario..." not "oh, yeah, there's a really cheap gimped one, off you go".
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
edited November 2013
the Wii Mini serves two purposes. It drives interest in the Wii brand, which provides an opportunity for clever marketing to make people pick the superior Wii U when it comes time to actually purchase.
And it also serves the purpose of clearing out no doubt tons of stock at high profit margins. I wouldn't be surprised if they make more profit dollars off the $99 Wii Mini than the $299 Wii U, though I wouldn't go so far as to claim that.
I thought that maybe Nintendo would rather drive people towards the Wii U rather than give them a "good enough" dead platform option at a third the price, but what do I know. They should be saying "you want a Wii and somehow don't own one yet? Let me tell you about this new shiny model, it does everything you want and has the newest Mario..." not "oh, yeah, there's a really cheap gimped one, off you go".
That's exactly what they are doing. But for you to get an opportunity to tell customers about that new shiny model, you have to get their interest first, and a well-known home entertainment console like the Wii for $99 is a pretty good way to get them researching the brand.
I thought that maybe Nintendo would rather drive people towards the Wii U rather than give them a "good enough" dead platform option at a third the price, but what do I know. They should be saying "you want a Wii and somehow don't own one yet? Let me tell you about this new shiny model, it does everything you want and has the newest Mario..." not "oh, yeah, there's a really cheap gimped one, off you go".
Why is it either/or?
If they made too many Wii Minis for Canada and are moving that product elsewhere to sell off unsold stock, isn't that preferable to saying "well, we're trying to sell the Wii U now, guess we'll have to bury these in a landfill somewhere and eat the losses?"
the Wii Mini serves two purposes. It drives interest in the Wii brand, which provides an opportunity for clever marketing to make people pick the superior Wii U when it comes time to actually purchase.
And it also serves the purpose of clearing out no doubt tons of stock at high profit margins. I wouldn't be surprised if they make more profit dollars off the $99 Wii Mini than the $299 Wii U, though I wouldn't go so far as to claim that.
Yet on the other hand, there is also concern that if it's marketing too heavily, it cuts into Wii U again by being the focus. If they can market the Wii MIni as "no, actually, this is garbage, the cool model is over here --->" then great, but that's a really odd message. A message that might just end up being interpreted as "hey, actually, the Wii games are what I care about, and I can play those for cheaper!" Nintendo can make that brand marketing move without actually releasing the gimped console. The predecessor already exists. There's still many sitting on store shelves everywhere I go.
I suspect you're right on the profit differences, though, from a binary "cost of console vs. MSRP perspective" --- hasn't Nintendo admitted that they're selling Wii U at a loss?
I thought that maybe Nintendo would rather drive people towards the Wii U rather than give them a "good enough" dead platform option at a third the price, but what do I know. They should be saying "you want a Wii and somehow don't own one yet? Let me tell you about this new shiny model, it does everything you want and has the newest Mario..." not "oh, yeah, there's a really cheap gimped one, off you go".
That's exactly what they are doing. But for you to get an opportunity to tell customers about that new shiny model, you have to get their interest first, and a well-known home entertainment console like the Wii for $99 is a pretty good way to get them researching the brand.
If Nintendo is still hoping to hit 9 million Wii U sales by April, they better hope that hypothetical "buy "new" console, research the console I actually want, buy that console in addition" cycle is really short.
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I thought that maybe Nintendo would rather drive people towards the Wii U rather than give them a "good enough" dead platform option at a third the price, but what do I know. They should be saying "you want a Wii and somehow don't own one yet? Let me tell you about this new shiny model, it does everything you want and has the newest Mario..." not "oh, yeah, there's a really cheap gimped one, off you go".
This is pretty much the thing that will get answered with time - is the Wii Mini going to accidentally make Nintendo compete against themselves?
Again my theory going forward is maybe they somehow think they can help highlight the Wii U's increase in performance / features by releasing this thing. It'll either backfire or not work at all or work exactly how they imagine it. But they're also getting more games out for the Wii U right? "Oh you can't play Super Mario World 3D on the Mini, you need the Wii U."
Is anyone thinking that this is risk-free for Nintendo? I hope not.
I thought that maybe Nintendo would rather drive people towards the Wii U rather than give them a "good enough" dead platform option at a third the price, but what do I know. They should be saying "you want a Wii and somehow don't own one yet? Let me tell you about this new shiny model, it does everything you want and has the newest Mario..." not "oh, yeah, there's a really cheap gimped one, off you go".
Why is it either/or?
If they made too many Wii Minis for Canada and are moving that product elsewhere to sell off unsold stock, isn't that preferable to saying "well, we're trying to sell the Wii U now, guess we'll have to bury these in a landfill somewhere and eat the losses?"
It's not either/or, but it is a very tricky thing to balance. Selling a new model of leftover Wiis is likely preferable to their bottom line, but eating the losses and laying on the Wii U gas pedal over an already difficult holiday season might help the overall health of the platform. If the holidays are where the console manufacturers make their money, they'd ideally want that money in their future platform, not their past one.
3DS: 2466-2307-8384 PSN: bssteph Steam:bsstephanTwitch:bsstephan Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e Occasional words about games:my site
I thought that maybe Nintendo would rather drive people towards the Wii U rather than give them a "good enough" dead platform option at a third the price, but what do I know. They should be saying "you want a Wii and somehow don't own one yet? Let me tell you about this new shiny model, it does everything you want and has the newest Mario..." not "oh, yeah, there's a really cheap gimped one, off you go".
This is pretty much the thing that will get answered with time - is the Wii Mini going to accidentally make Nintendo compete against themselves?
Again my theory going forward is maybe they somehow think they can help highlight the Wii U's increase in performance / features by releasing this thing. It'll either backfire or not work at all or work exactly how they imagine it. But they're also getting more games out for the Wii U right? "Oh you can't play Super Mario World 3D on the Mini, you need the Wii U."
Is anyone thinking that this is risk-free for Nintendo? I hope not.
This is really the thing. Nintendo already has a bad look going into this holiday season, and this is another move that's either just background noise ("we're selling the Wii Mini, but please ignore it") or a weird move ("buy Wii Minis if it makes you happy, we're cool either way!"), but in pretty much any scenario it's a risk they're taking. A strange, interesting risk.
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Escaping The Shooter Mold: How Oxide Plans to Revive The RTS
Last week saw the announcement of Oxide Games, a brand-new startup aimed at creating an all-new engine. That engine, Nitrous, is the work of former Civilization V developers Brian Wade, Tim Kipp, Marc Meyer and Dan Baker, with help from Stardock president Brad Wardell. The original announcement called Nitrous a 64-bit, multi-core engine designed for strategy games, but Nitrous is meant for more than just strategy.
...
Baker said that when Firaxis began work on Civilization V, they looked for engines they could license and found none. Nitrous is an engine for "all the types of games that don't fit inside the traditional engine licensees." Wardell said that part of the problem is most games are trying to fit themselves into the first- or third-person shooter mold because that's what the licensable engines do best.
...
It's not just for RTS games but it's meant to be scalable depending on the number of cores available.
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"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
I thought that maybe Nintendo would rather drive people towards the Wii U rather than give them a "good enough" dead platform option at a third the price, but what do I know. They should be saying "you want a Wii and somehow don't own one yet? Let me tell you about this new shiny model, it does everything you want and has the newest Mario..." not "oh, yeah, there's a really cheap gimped one, off you go".
Why is it either/or?
If they made too many Wii Minis for Canada and are moving that product elsewhere to sell off unsold stock, isn't that preferable to saying "well, we're trying to sell the Wii U now, guess we'll have to bury these in a landfill somewhere and eat the losses?"
It's not either/or, but it is a very tricky thing to balance. Selling a new model of leftover Wiis is likely preferable to their bottom line, but eating the losses and laying on the Wii U gas pedal over an already difficult holiday season might help the overall health of the platform. If the holidays are where the console manufacturers make their money, they'd ideally want that money in their future platform, not their past one.
Their financial report last week stated they expected/wish to sell 8.6 million WiiU's by March 31st 2014, so they better not only step on the gas pedal but slam it into the Earth's mantle layer.
For some context, they've sold 160K and 350K the last 2 quarters respectively. It ain't gettin' any easier in the next 5 months.
The Wii Mini and 2DS are basically two examples of the "cheaper hardware revision to entice new buyers" paradigm, only the 2DS does it properly while the Mini fails. The 2DS only removed vestigal limbs from the 3DS: the hinge and the 3D. The system is fully functional without those things: every single game and every single game mode will work exactly the same as they do on the 3DS. Meanwhile the Mini removes a large chunk of functionality from the Wii which means any game with an online mode will be missing a portion of its content and anything you'd need to download is forever out of reach. Those limitations will cause potential buyers to think twice, even if they would never bring their Wii online if it had the ability.
The Wii Mini and 2DS are basically two examples of the "cheaper hardware revision to entice new buyers" paradigm, only the 2DS does it properly while the Mini fails. The 2DS only removed vestigal limbs from the 3DS: the hinge and the 3D. The system is fully functional without those things: every single game and every single game mode will work exactly the same as they do on the 3DS. Meanwhile the Mini removes a large chunk of functionality from the Wii which means any game with an online mode will be missing a portion of its content and anything you'd need to download is forever out of reach. Those limitations will cause potential buyers to think twice, even if they would never bring their Wii online if it had the ability.
The 2DS is also a new variation of the current generation system, not the last generation system while their current generation system is facing trouble selling 50k a month.
...and now Angry Birds will be in Puzzle & Dragons. If there's another game this eager to whore itself out I haven't heard of it.
Define "whore itself out"
Because, well, Mario Kart, Mario Tennis, Mario Party, Mario Basketball, Smash Bros, Mario Soccer, Mario RPG...
Ed: all of which, to be clear, were great games.
Does Mario appear in games from other publishers as a main selling point?
I don't remember if the Olympics game was first party or not, so... maybe once?
NBA Street V3 and SSX on Tour for the Gamecube both had Mario Characters as its main selling feature. Im surprised that Nintendo hasn't tried this feature again with 3rd party titles on the Wii U as a selling point.
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Is the phrase "lolSony" legal in this thread?
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As I just said in the Wii U thread, this sort of thing feels like the exact same reaction to the 2DS.
They probably know full well that the Wii-U isn't going to do well this season. There's just nothing to move it off the shelves much faster than it has been.
As a company, they still need to bring in those delicious Christmas sales, though, so they need to get a product people WILL buy in bulk on the shelves. A decent profit margin, stripped down version of their old tech might be a conscious, strategic maneuver to extract as much in sales this season as possible. They're not dumb; they know the Wii-U isn't going to magically balloon into unprecedented sales this season.
But this is also a wildly different situation.
The PS2 was the undisputed king of that generation, which was a couple years shorter than this last one and therefore still in full-on sales mode, and over 400 dollars cheaper than the PS3.
The PStwo also had better internet connectivity than the PS2 out of the box, and a massive library of AAA titles that were still coming out for over a year, courtesy of the (original) backwards compatibility of the 3.
The Wii was mostly dead on the shelf when the Wii U came out, and it looks like they are trying to revive it when they can barely move units of their current offering.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
I don't think anyone will buy it. (Well, you know, relatively no one. Thousands instead of hundreds of thousands.)
It's just sort of there. A well-known-to-be-gimped device for people who are very late to the party or don't care. They probably won't even market it.
I mean sure, no "gamers" are going to get it for themselves, likely enough, but I can think of at least three families OF gamers who I could see buying this for their 7-9 year old kid(s) so they don't need to supervise game time.
I see it as a more of non-gamer or uninformed parent bait. A lot of people don't care or follow spec sheets, and just want to get "The New Wii" to play mario or whatever, and they will always go for the cheapest model.
And it's not, really, but it was worth a shot to get those chips out of the warehouse.
They're releasing a inexpensive console for customers that want to play Mario games but don't want to spend $300 to do so.
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Take a look at the tech spec details for the mini on their comparison chart.
"Features an integrated chip (system LSI) that combines a CPU, a GPU, and device I/O."
It sounds like the mini has totally different guts from the original Wii.
Eh, it could be anything. Maybe the disc reader.
Or I could be wrong, but it just feels that way, a way to use up stuff lying around as cheaply as possible.
Cloud is the studio behind Star Citizen and Oxide is preparing a game engine.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
This is actually pretty great marketing. As a company offering products, you typically want to have three core offerings, a good/better/best type of structure. This comparison chart does that very well. Of course, it's hampered by the fact that they discontinued the Wii, but the core concept is there. This way, the Wii U looks like the premium offering.
It's different.
Look, again, a comparison is based on highlighting similarities. Literally every comparison can result in someone saying "it's different," as if that invalidates it. I didn't say the hardware release was the same, I said the reaction was.
The similarity lies in:
A product of some sort is is going to be sold by Nintendo in the future.
Forums: "This is terrible, horrible, what are they thinking!"
* No noticeable negative effects occur at all and business continues as usual *
And the reason I would say it appears similar is because I expect this situation to play out here. In saying that the situation is different, are you claiming that there will be noticeable negative effects? Or do you see what I mean in saying that there might be some similarity here?
As a person who is generally "in the know"... upon briefly skimming that news post, for about 5 seconds I did have the thought of "Holy shit, they're making a mini Wii U and slashing the price?!". Clicking the link and seeing the picture cleared that right up.
I guess all I'm saying is that I'm starting to understand the Confusion side of the argument.
Eidos-Montreal (fuck your accent mark Frenchies!) signing on to support this is pretty huge for the more mainstream audience. Very nice.
One could suppose that a negative effect is by selling the Wii Mini, Nintendo is in effect competing against itself with two home console platforms in a (however diminished) limelight. 2DS, 3DS, 3DS XL, no matter what, Nintendo is pushing the 3DS handheld platform this holiday season. Home platform? You'd think it'd be Wii U, but maybe now they're saying "eh, you know, we don't care, just buy something". There's a very believable case here that selling Wiis undermines Wii U. That's what's different, and that's where a similarity claim gets really shaky.
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If anything, I would think that the overlap exists at the point where you would have people who would potentially buy the Wii Mini AND a nextgen console.
It would be a great idea if Nintendo manages to tell people that Wii Mini: Wii U :: PS3 slim : PS4 (with backwards compatability). I presume toploading NES/SNES version 2 was reasonably successful, though I don't have any idea how well they sold
Yeah, that's possible. It's not inconceivable. I think it's more likely that the device won't really be heavily marketed and ultimately won't have much of an impact on the console market as a whole, though.
I agree with Dhalphir that there shouldn't be much overlap. Its low price puts it into a whole other class of devices. It practically feels like one of those Android consoles, tiny, limited, plenty of caveats, but if you don't have a lot of money you can technically Play Games On It.
Due to the existence of the Wii Mini, I expect that there will be exactly 87 less Wii Us sold in the US next year than would've otherwise been sold.
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
And it also serves the purpose of clearing out no doubt tons of stock at high profit margins. I wouldn't be surprised if they make more profit dollars off the $99 Wii Mini than the $299 Wii U, though I wouldn't go so far as to claim that.
That's exactly what they are doing. But for you to get an opportunity to tell customers about that new shiny model, you have to get their interest first, and a well-known home entertainment console like the Wii for $99 is a pretty good way to get them researching the brand.
Why is it either/or?
If they made too many Wii Minis for Canada and are moving that product elsewhere to sell off unsold stock, isn't that preferable to saying "well, we're trying to sell the Wii U now, guess we'll have to bury these in a landfill somewhere and eat the losses?"
Yet on the other hand, there is also concern that if it's marketing too heavily, it cuts into Wii U again by being the focus. If they can market the Wii MIni as "no, actually, this is garbage, the cool model is over here --->" then great, but that's a really odd message. A message that might just end up being interpreted as "hey, actually, the Wii games are what I care about, and I can play those for cheaper!" Nintendo can make that brand marketing move without actually releasing the gimped console. The predecessor already exists. There's still many sitting on store shelves everywhere I go.
I suspect you're right on the profit differences, though, from a binary "cost of console vs. MSRP perspective" --- hasn't Nintendo admitted that they're selling Wii U at a loss?
If Nintendo is still hoping to hit 9 million Wii U sales by April, they better hope that hypothetical "buy "new" console, research the console I actually want, buy that console in addition" cycle is really short.
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
Define "whore itself out"
Because, well, Mario Kart, Mario Tennis, Mario Party, Mario Basketball, Smash Bros, Mario Soccer, Mario RPG...
Ed: all of which, to be clear, were great games.
Does Mario appear in games from other publishers as a main selling point?
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I don't remember if the Olympics game was first party or not, so... maybe once?
This is pretty much the thing that will get answered with time - is the Wii Mini going to accidentally make Nintendo compete against themselves?
Again my theory going forward is maybe they somehow think they can help highlight the Wii U's increase in performance / features by releasing this thing. It'll either backfire or not work at all or work exactly how they imagine it. But they're also getting more games out for the Wii U right? "Oh you can't play Super Mario World 3D on the Mini, you need the Wii U."
Is anyone thinking that this is risk-free for Nintendo? I hope not.
It's not either/or, but it is a very tricky thing to balance. Selling a new model of leftover Wiis is likely preferable to their bottom line, but eating the losses and laying on the Wii U gas pedal over an already difficult holiday season might help the overall health of the platform. If the holidays are where the console manufacturers make their money, they'd ideally want that money in their future platform, not their past one.
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
This is really the thing. Nintendo already has a bad look going into this holiday season, and this is another move that's either just background noise ("we're selling the Wii Mini, but please ignore it") or a weird move ("buy Wii Minis if it makes you happy, we're cool either way!"), but in pretty much any scenario it's a risk they're taking. A strange, interesting risk.
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
It's not just for RTS games but it's meant to be scalable depending on the number of cores available.
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Their financial report last week stated they expected/wish to sell 8.6 million WiiU's by March 31st 2014, so they better not only step on the gas pedal but slam it into the Earth's mantle layer.
For some context, they've sold 160K and 350K the last 2 quarters respectively. It ain't gettin' any easier in the next 5 months.
The 2DS is also a new variation of the current generation system, not the last generation system while their current generation system is facing trouble selling 50k a month.
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NBA Street V3 and SSX on Tour for the Gamecube both had Mario Characters as its main selling feature. Im surprised that Nintendo hasn't tried this feature again with 3rd party titles on the Wii U as a selling point.