Wii U Discussion

[mestevo]

Re: Wii U Discussion

DICE confirmed no Wii U Star Wars games likely coming from their studio.

After mentioning on Twitter that the newly announced Star Wars games from DICE and Visceral will be running on DICE's powerful Frostbite 3 engine, Andersson responded to a reader concern that this will mean the games will not be available for the Wii U.

"[Frostbite 3] has never been running on WiiU," Andersson tweeted. "We did some tests with not too promising results with [Frostbite 2] & chose not to go down that path."

This statement follows a Eurogamer interview from March's Game Developers Conference in which DICE's Patrick Bach admitted DICE "could probably make a Wii U game in theory" but said the company is not currently interested in devoting "development time" to the system. "To make the most out of the Wii U, that's a different game because of the different peripherals. We want to utilize all the power of each console... It's about 'where do you put your focus?' And the Wii U is not a part of our focus right now."

So it's not just a question of focus but a question of performance.

This is not encouraging news for Nintendo, considering that Frostbite 2 was running ably on the Xbox 360 and PS3 in late 2011's Battlefield 3. If Wii U tests for that engine were "not too promising," then the system would seemingly have no chance of running Frostbite 3-powered Battlefield 4 later this year, not to mention more demanding games coming down the pike.

Keep in mind, too, that last year's version of Madden NFL on the Wii U didn't make use of the real-time physics modeling of the Infinity Engine that powered other versions of the game (possibly contributing to EA's decision not to release a Wii U version of Madden this year). Similarly, Epic's Unreal Engine 4 won't be offering official support for the Wii U, though Epic's Mark Rein has clarified that the engine will technically be able to create scaled-down games for Nintendo's hardware.

Put it all together, and it paints a picture of a system that's not really ready to handle the high-end graphical experiences third-party developers will be offering this year, much less marquee titles being planned for the future. In this way, the Wii U is shaping up to follow the lead of the Wii, which developers often ignored for ports of popular titles in part because it just wasn't powerful enough to do them justice (the Wii's unorthodox controller and more casual, family-focused audience also played into this trend).

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/05/dice-battlefield-4-engine-wont-run-on-the-wii-u/

[Skyboxer]

Re: Wii U Discussion

No shocker there really......

[dbeth]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Just a quick question regarding this past update a couple weeks ago:

Has anyone noticed games running smoother at all? The other day, I put NBA 2k13 back to 1080 from 720 (per Tomba's suggestion) as it was running choppy in 1080 before. Now it's smooth as silk and I'm not noticing any hiccups.

This may have occurred with an earlier game patch, but I hadn't played it for a couple months and may have missed something.

There's also this that I noticed this morning:

Increased CPU speed somehow?

[Skyboxer]

Re: Wii U Discussion

When I get off work tomorrow I'll have some time to fire it up and see if I can notice it.

[bkfount]

Re: Wii U Discussion

http://kotaku.com/ea-has-no-games-in...ii-u-507588994

Less than two years after vowing to deliver on an "unprecedented partnership" with Nintendo, gaming giant EA is quiet on the Wii U front.

"We have no games in development for the Wii U currently," company spokesperson Jeff Brown told Kotaku yesterday. He did not rule out the chances of EA developing for the Wii U again. EA publishes many of gaming's biggest franchises, including Madden, The Sims, and Battlefield.

[Skyboxer]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Understandably no EA hurts a bit but there are games and will continue to get (obviously) Nintendo games.
Again anyone who bought a WiiU for 3rd party made a dumb purchase.

With that said... Nintendo needs to bring it sooner rather than later.
They need to show some new games at E3 or I may even be on the "dump it" mind frame.
I want the Pikmens and Zeldas before 2015!!

[bkfount]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Understandably no EA hurts a bit but there are games and will continue to get (obviously) Nintendo games.
Again anyone who bought a WiiU for 3rd party made a dumb purchase.

With that said... Nintendo needs to bring it sooner rather than later.
They need to show some new games at E3 or I may even be on the "dump it" mind frame.
I want the Pikmens and Zeldas before 2015!!

Sure, you buy Nintendo hardware for Nintendo games. However, no third party support just isn't a healthy ecosystem. EA supported the snes, n64, GameCube, and the wii. Third parties put out compelling games and unique experiences around Nintendo hardware too.

I think Nintendo is capable of pushing a well priced niche console all by themselves, they just botched the launch and most of the first year with nothing but NSMBU, Nintendoland, and a handful of delays and promises. Sega had an incredible lineup for the Dreamcast while circling the toilet and being forced out of the console business. Nintendo is better than this.

Maybe they're just stretched too thin between supporting two platforms now.

[mestevo]

FWIW there's a Nintendo Direct tomorrow.

They need a steady flow software now though, the only console with less support is probably the Wii (Vita in that neighborhood too) and it's outselling it on price point alone.

IMO first party titles releasing this fall will be too little too late in the glare of new consoles. Will surely get a boost, but then what?

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

[Skyboxer]

Re: Wii U Discussion

FWIW there's a Nintendo Direct tomorrow.

They need a steady flow software now though, the only console with less support is probably the Wii (Vita in that neighborhood too) and it's outselling it on price point alone.

IMO first party titles releasing this fall will be too little too late in the glare of new consoles. Will surely get a boost, but then what?

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

Who knows. There is still a huge Nintendo game following so IMO as long as they get some Nintendo games flowing I think they will be alright.
They also probably need a price drop or something to help it along.

Same thing happened with the 3DS. It was a failure and even talked about being a failure here. Then the price drop hit and games started flowing and it's selling well.

The WiiU needs the same treatment but needs it's sooner than later.
And I probably won't dump after E3 etc.. it even though I should because I've been down that road before of dumping a system only to turn around and grab it again when it turned around....

[mestevo]

The 3DS (which still missed forecasts this FY BTW) had more competition from other SKUs it replaced than from the Vita though. Given its place and capabilities in the home console market and lack of support it's a pretty easy sell that the Wii U is in a much worse position than the 3DS ever was.

People wanted to buy the 3DS but it was too expensive and the software wasn't there. I think the window for the Wii U to recover from a historicly bad launch closed when the PS4 was officially announced. Then casual non-gamers have lost the third party fitness/shovel ware support that helped make the Wii a success

Im not saying this to just **** on the Wii, I'd love to see 3 viable consoles, it's just a shame the third came out several years after the first two this gen. In a vacuum 'lower the price, put out games' = win, absolutely... but outside of the Nintendo faithful who spends hundreds on this console instead of putting that toward a next gen console? Isn't it very possible that they've already got a Wii U? The real question will become if they still have one by the fall.

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[Flawless]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Wii U is tracking behind the Gamecube, and appears to have less third-party support than even it did. Obviously, software and a price cut would help, but it needs a relaunch in terms of marketing. Nintendo is stuck with the name, but everything from ads to packaging should change. They need to aggressively court publishers and developers. You hear it a lot, that there's a lack of communication. They now have great incentives (very similar to Sony) for publishing on eShop, but they don't tell anyone and just expect them to find out themselves. Also, create an actual ecosystem and have a unified account system.

[Dos_Santos]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Wii U is tracking behind the Gamecube, and appears to have less third-party support than even it did. Obviously, software and a price cut would help, but it needs a relaunch in terms of marketing. Nintendo is stuck with the name, but everything from ads to packaging should change. They need to aggressively court publishers and developers. You hear it a lot, that there's a lack of communication. They now have great incentives (very similar to Sony) for publishing on eShop, but they don't tell anyone and just expect them to find out themselves. Also, create an actual ecosystem and have a unified account system.

Other than doing a massive relaunch, they are pretty much toast and could not have done a worse job with the extra year they had on Microsoft and Sony.

I bought every Nintendo product on launch day dating back to the NES and I sat the Wii U out.

And at this point, I have no problem just waiting 5 years til it is around $99 and then getting the 4 or 5 Mario games I want to play.

When it was all said and done, I only thought 4 or 5 games were really amazing and worth playing during the Wii lifespan.

[Skyboxer]

Re: Wii U Discussion

The 3DS (which still missed forecasts this FY BTW) had more competition from other SKUs it replaced than from the Vita though. Given its place and capabilities in the home console market and lack of support it's a pretty easy sell that the Wii U is in a much worse position than the 3DS ever was.

People wanted to buy the 3DS but it was too expensive and the software wasn't there. I think the window for the Wii U to recover from a historicly bad launch closed when the PS4 was officially announced. Then casual non-gamers have lost the third party fitness/shovel ware support that helped make the Wii a success

Im not saying this to just **** on the Wii, I'd love to see 3 viable consoles, it's just a shame the third came out several years after the first two this gen. In a vacuum 'lower the price, put out games' = win, absolutely... but outside of the Nintendo faithful who spends hundreds on this console instead of putting that toward a next gen console? Isn't it very possible that they've already got a Wii U? The real question will become if they still have one by the fall.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

Not saying it isn't in a worse place. Just saying every time basically a Nintendo product is proclaimed dead they seem to miraculously bounce back.

No matter what happens Super Mario, Zelda etc.. will never be on a Sony or MS system and that alone (Along with Nintendo doing some price adjustements) will keep them making $.

The 3DS may have missed forecast but it's still a money maker for Nintendo I believe and it survived when a few months ago it was "A failure".
If I'm not mistaken (I read this somewhere) Nintendo was always in a much better financial state (Don't believe they ever lost money on hardware like MS/Sony did/do) than the others.

Hopefully things turn around but as long as they produce the Nintendo games I'm fine as that's what I got it for. And yep I don't want to see it down to a 2 company race. Then we would be 1 away from another "1 choice only" scenario and we know where that got us NFL wise
Just need to decide on 720/PS4 (Leaning 720) for my main system.

[Skyboxer]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Wii U is tracking behind the Gamecube, and appears to have less third-party support than even it did. Obviously, software and a price cut would help, but it needs a relaunch in terms of marketing. Nintendo is stuck with the name, but everything from ads to packaging should change. They need to aggressively court publishers and developers. You hear it a lot, that there's a lack of communication. They now have great incentives (very similar to Sony) for publishing on eShop, but they don't tell anyone and just expect them to find out themselves. Also, create an actual ecosystem and have a unified account system.

Agree. They did fail miserably in the marketing aspect that's for sure.
It's a shame that I spend a ton more time on my 3DS than I do the WiiU but hopefully that improves over the next few months.
You just never know these days. Will this be first time they really do "fail" with a system?
The next year will tell the tale but I feel they have to do a price drop soon as well as get some more good games out the next few months.

[jmood88]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Nintendo has bounced back in the past but the difference this time is that they are selling their console for a loss already and even with how bad the GameCube sold, they had much better third party support than they have now.