Nintendo seeks to shake up gaming again with Wii U

mostly eliminates the need to pause the action to study a map in order to figure out where to go next

Whoever does this?

“You can’t manufacture buzz,” said Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime.

He's right, and that's why nintendo has none for this new product. And he's also wrong, as many gamers will tell you they have a different buzz drowning their sorrow as nintendo abandons the one market they were still good for so they can be a third rate xbox.

This is going to be a big flop in the States because kids and adults prefer tablets/apps over Nintendo. Got nephews and they are not playing their Nintendo DS. Nintendo games are too expensive compare to free apps. Tablets and apps are here to stay and they are replacing Nintendo.

Between cell phones, iPods and these dopey games, humanity has become so self-absorbed in electronic gadget addiction it doesn't even realize the speed with which it's going down the tube. Idiots all.

“You can’t manufacture buzz,” said Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime.

That's ironic since the Wii buzz was completely manufactured...

Nintendo has completely screwed up their big chance after Wii.

Requiring exercise to play a video game defeats the purpose of video games.

Not sure if you live in the states or not skipbeat, but so far it does't seem to be a flop. Pre orders are sold out just about everywhere.

Pass, no more gimmicky controls and user interface please Nintendo. Go back to what made you great in the first place, making great and fun to play games.

Stuff like this is killing the gaming industry. It caters to casual gamers (like the Wii) and while casual gamers tend to spend more money than hardcore gamers, they make the game producing companies lazy. What do we get? Instead of awesome games that you can play over and over again, even decades after they were released. We get a bunch of mediocre games with a very few awesome titles. Not to mention the slew of even more mediocre squeals of games that weren't that great to begin with.

Why make a great game when mediocre sells so much better?

Gonna need bifocals now.

@Ryan Davis

Preorders sell out for everything nowadays and no one ever says how many preorders there are. For all I know, they plan to launch 1 million consoles on launch day and only 10 were available for preorder.

Wii U is going to bomb. It's nothing new and it's nothing users bothered to do either. PS3 has had this option already and no one cares. PS3 + PSP = Wii U. PS3 + PS Vita = Upgraded Wii U.

@Stephen Jez

Casual gamers do not spend more than hardcore gamers. That's essentially why Nintendo has to put out a new console. No one is bothering to purchase a Wii and those who have one aren't purchasing games. While consoles like the 360 and PS3 are having huge game sales. MoH: Warfighter, Halo 4, Assassin's Creed, Borderlands 2, CoD:BO2, etc sold millions.

Now if you include games outside of consoles, like Farmville and such or what's on your Android/iOS phones and tablets, than yes. Casual gamers do outspend the hardcore gamers. Course none of that is relevant, as they don't affect the quality of games to come out on consoles.

Also what games are people play over and over again, even decades after they were released. Super Mario? Tetris? I mean, seriously, those are the most repetitious games available. The only reason they last a long time is cause they were simple.

Forgot to mention the Wii is collecting dust. Not interested in paying $300-349 for a Wii U.

I hope they keep the price within the reach of middle person .

@Korlacan: Ever play any recent MMO? WoW, Rift, SWTOR, all started out great. But with an infulx of casual gamers that wanted to experience end game content, the developers changed their game and made it "easier". So now, the guy walking around with a really rare armor set or weapon who worked his/her ass off for it is nothing special because they made it so easy so anyone could get it. Then, after the changes, the casuals stop playing because that's all they wanted. They ruin end game content for the rest of us who are planning on spending more time playing the game.

Yes, the Wii was a casual gamers mecca, as is the Wii U. Sure it will get ports of games that always span all the consoles but that doesn't mean it's for "hardcore" gamers. Also, I could list a great deal of SNES and NES titles that I could still play to this day (besides mario) that I get enjoyment out of. Chrono Trigger comes to mind, as does FFIV and FFVI.

If casual gamers really ddin't spend more money then hardcore gamers then we wouldn't have every gaming company catering to them. Even games that used to be PC exclusive (Elder Scrolls, Fallout, etc) have become dumbed down console ports like Skyrim.

@Stephen Jez

WoW started out as the most kiddy MMO on the block and not much has changed from the start. End game was already way easy to get to. Making it easier isn't saying much. I play RF Online and you'd be lucky to hit max level in a year. You'd be lucky to be extremely well geared in that year either.

MMOs being dumbed down after release is cause the game was crap to begin with. Dumbing it down was to try and pull in more players. It never helps and just ends up a big failure. Aion tried that. Game got dumbed down, all the players left. Ended up an F2P game. If you hit max level and become well kitted out in half a year or less, it's already a dumbed down MMO.

So you pick 3 games that "YOU" can play over and over again. How many of these games do you think the general public would play over and over again, outside of Mario and Tetris? Not many at all. I can tell you Chrono Trigger, FF (any of them) or other crappy turn-based RPGs are games I never enjoyed and could never play over and over again. Let alone play once all the way through. Only one I even got far through was Xenogears. I got near the end, quit. Considering that Square was a gigantic failure on the verge of bankruptcy (multiple times), kind of shows that most people will side with me. If not for a Square Enix merger, they wouldn't be around. At the same time, how many times has Square Enix almost gone into bankruptcy or actually went into bankruptcy?

Casual gamers don't play any of the Fallout Series or Elder Scrolls games. Yes, they have definitely been dumbed down to work on consoles, but that's cause hardcore console gamers want PC games too. That or companies are trying to hit a wider audience as the audience has split into PC gamers and console gamers. Few do both. Console gamer doesn't equal casual gamer. A casual game is a simple game that one can easily pick up and play or put down and leave. We're talking, I can sit down, play the game for a quick 5-10 mins, then be done. With any of the Elder Scrolls or Fallout games, you haven't completely much of anything in 5-10 mins. Half the time, I'd be lucky to make it to the town of my next quest in 5 minutes. Sure they are dumbed down to match the lack of keyboard/mouse on a console, but that doesn't mean they aren't a hardcore game.

Casual gamers don't play fallout or elder scrolls? Really? Have you played the most recent installments? Skyrim was a cheap console port with no distinct difference between the races like previous installments except your skin. I remember that if you wanted to be a lightly armored, quick moving thief/assassin then Kajit or Bosmir were your best bet. Sure you could do it as a Norn or Redguard, but you wouldn't be able to get the highest stats possible. Want the benefit of heavy armor? Well then be ready to be slower than a light armored character. Oppisite goes for light armored characters, more mobility and harder to detect but can't take as much punishment in a head to head fight. With Skyrim, all of that went out the window. You could be any race and do pretty much anything if you grind enough. You could be maxed smithing from spamming iron daggers over and over again. Same thing with conjuration, spam soul trap for a couple hours on a dead crab and you're at max level. The armor advantages/disadvantages went out the window as well. Because no matter which one you choose, you'll eventually hit max level with it. When you hit max level with heavy armor then you no longer are hindered by it's weight and can move as fast as someone with light armor. At max level of light armor you get an added armor bonus that allows light armor to provide just as much defense as a heavy armor set. Because there was no distinct differences between classes, if you grind enough, you could be a Norn with max 2H and bow stat, in heavy armor but mobile, and then still spam dual destruction spells. With the PC version it makes it even easier because you could just use console commands to give yourself whatever stat you wanted.

This is the result of casual gamers whining and gaming companies listening to them. People say "Oh I want to do this, but I want to do this as well." and don't feel like grinding out more then one character. So they dumb down the whole system to cater to those casuals so they'll spend money on their game, ruining the experience of those of us who actually enjoyed the grind and the challenge.

It's always funny to see gamers (=otaku = nerds) criticizing nintendo. They did the exact same thing when the original Wii came out.

I don't know why it's so hard to understand that Nintendo targets wider audience, people who don't spend hours everyday playing video games. I only play those games when I have guests, and Wii or Wii U is great for that.

But I have no doubt grumpy posters on JapanToday knows more about the market than the experts Nintendo has on their payroll :)

It's always funny to see gamers (=otaku = nerds) criticizing nintendo. They did the exact same thing when the original Wii came out.

No one said they didn't. I merely pointed out that their business model is leaking into the rest of the industry and that I'll pass on another under powered nintendo system.

@Stephen Jez

I don't think you understand what a casual gamer is. A casual game is a game like Tetris, Angry Birds, Geometry Wars, etc. Something you can easily pick up and play and then put down. All in the span of 5-10 mins. Casual gamers are the people that play those types of games.

Skyrim...ya. Not casual. It doesn't matter if the game has been dumbed down or not. There is still a grind in the game to max your stats. You can easily put 50+ hours into doing that. 5-10 mins into Skyrim and you haven't done a whole lot. You might have finished one quest, but you probably haven't even leveled once.

Skyrim and Fallout are not casual games.

@Hide Suzuki

We know what sells and sells for a long time. Wii wasn't it. Since 2008, their profits have been dropping and earlier this year, Nintendo had a $500 million dollar loss.

You say Nintendo targets a wider audience and that we somehow don't know this. Duh, we all know this. What you don't seem to know is that targetting the casual gamer market with a console is stupid. You just opened up to a whole new mess of competitors and Nintendo is feeling that now. Not only are you competing against the Xbox 360 and PS3 (which of couse have casual games), but now you are competiting against handhelds and mobile devices. Even smart TVs are capable of playing casual games. My Samsung Smart TV can download game apps and play them.

Now with the Wii U, they plan to directly compete with the 360 and PS3, after half a decade of them being out. At the same time, they are charging more for their console than either the 360 and PS3. The Wii U brings absolutely nothing new to the table that the other consoles don't already have, except a stupid screen in the controller. For hardcore gamers, there isn't anything compelling about the Wii U over the 360, PS3, or PC. For casual gamers, there isn't anything compelling enough for them to choose it over the latest iPad or Android tablets this holiday season.