Iwata: Wii U E3 Reveal Confusing; Won't Be Cheap
Nintendo's Satoru Iwata admitted that the Wii U reveal could have been better, but admitted that it won't come cheap when it arrives next year.
Friday Nintendo's global president Satoru Iwata admitted that the Wii U could have had a better launch. He's also baffled that Nintendo shares are still continuing to plummet since the console's big reveal on Tuesday, dropping 4.6-percent on Thursday and 5.7-percent on Wednesday.
The biggest mistake in Nintendo's reveal, he said, was that there was too much emphasis on the controller. He really hit the nail on that comment: after watching the press conference, we were left scratching our heads about the actual console itself. On the surface, the presentation seemed to promote a Nintendo tablet capable of throwing games remotely onto an HDTV. To add to the confusion, video demonstrations also included Wii remotes, giving the impression that the Wii U was actually a touchscreen controller built for the current Wii.
It wasn't until after the reveal that IBM and AMD stepped up and announced that their hardware was installed inside the elusive box. Additional reports indicated that the console won't even be backwards-compatible with Gamecube games, and that the optical drive will use 25 GB non-Blue-ray discs.
But even in our own hands-on experience at the show, the console was removed from view – the featured controller was tethered to a device hidden behind the kiosk wall. You could barely see the unit in demo units on the ground floor of Nintendo's showcase area, parked behind a little glass screen. As seen in this image, the device was mounted below the HDTV, seated flushed against the kiosk wall. It's as if the console itself was nearly invisible.
"We haven't made any kind of blunder, but I should have shown a single picture of the new console, then started talking about the controller," said Iwata. "The console is not drastically different, and Wii U is about the controller. The console itself will be almost invisible."
Obviously. Still, looking back to the Wii, the motion-sensing money-maker was all about the controller too and a promise that the technology would change the gaming landscape. It did to some degree, pushing Microsoft and Sony into jumping onto the motion-sensing bandwagon with their Kinect and Move options. What probably hurt Nintendo's presentation this time around was that (1) Nintendo didn't show the actual console and (2) the industry is currently in tablet mode.
Still, Iwata blames some of the Wii u confusion on the press – or rather, those who are reporting on the device and haven't had the opportunity to test it out for themselves. He also said that the Wii U won't come cheap, which is expected given that the original Wii console wasn't necessarily cheap at launch either. As reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday, Iwata "signaled the Wii U will likely be priced at more than 20,000 yen ($250) in Japan when it goes on sale next year."
Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime backed up Iwata's signals, saying that the Wii U will offer consumers "fantastic value" for the money and be "competitively" priced with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. That could mean the console will retail for around $300 if Nintendo plans to compete with a new 160 GB PlayStation 3 console. Naturally those numbers will change for 2012.
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Not a bad price really.
Weird console though. I'm definitely going to wait on this one.
"Likely more than 250$"? If that means around 300$ Then it's VERY cheap. Especially for a new hardware on launch day. This comes with an iPad like device and considering the iPad alone costs 599$ this is VERY cheap.
Though there's really no way to know how much it'll cost.. all the preordering services have fake prices up, but I saw that on www.preorder-wiiu.com you can get emails about the latest updates on this whole preordering rush..
Thanks for trying Nintendo, I'm glad you didn't use blu-ray, and I'm glad your still trying. But you have always catered to the 12 and under crowd, every time you get a group attached to your games, you leave them in the dark by the time they hit high school/college. When was the last time you played an M rated game on a Nintendo console?
I think its too little too late to attempt to change your ways. If you would have followed suit with the Wii and made games that catered to teens and young adults, then you could continue the legacy and create games that catered to college age and higher adults with this system without any problems and actually kept your gamer audience instead of forcing them to buy your competitors systems or stop gaming.
Its not even that the Wii was seen as a family system. Its defiant lack of HD in its console design (even though they knew HD was going to be everywhere), along with a lineup of the worst games ever seen by any console far outweighed the few gems that were released. The Wii was targeted at small children, with 5 minute or less attention spans. Because if you played 95% of Wii games for more than 5 minutes, you would want to kill yourself.
Everyone already payed $200-$300 for your last crappy system with a cool controller, I for one will be skipping this. Fool me once....
So basically they are betting it all on that controller. Which does not seem all that great for a gamer due to the wear and tear it would receive.
Try throwing that controller at your plasma.... should be some fun youtube vids next year hi hi hi
Was hoping for a real system from nintendo this time. Another gimmick that sells consoles to those that don't play games doesn't interest me. It'll still make a profit, because the non-gamer market is bigger than the current console market.
I was more excited before i saw E3. Nintendo fucked themselfs this E3, Hords of Hardcore gamers were waiting to see the new system, and we got a giant pad?,"Thats funny in two ways actauly" I'm even more on the fence with this console now. No backwards compatibility with Gamecube is also sad. Still looks like a pussy system too, odd the look of a console effects how i perceive it but it really does. They should dump the R700 and go above one more step, Also...i'm not sure that this really effects me, maybe in some in-direct way but only 1 "PAD" controller is supported. Bad move i think as well. Microsoft or PS3 needs to jump on this fumble and get a new console announced.
@dalethepcman
LOL the wii sucks
Just because Nintendo showed it one way doesn't mean it's only gonna be that way. They already have all those third party developers for it. Pretty sure they'll bring out a regular 'ol controller to play your Modern Warfare, Battlefield 3, etc.
You guys didn't see that tech demo of Zelda they showed? The controller worked pretty well with it. You have your UI on the controller so the screen is clean with nothing on it.
maybe it would of been less confusing if they actually released some specs. have no idea how powerful the system actually is.
people would be supporting them alot more if they had announced some specs that blew xbox360 and ps3 out of the water, but instead they keep everything secret, and people are rightfully skeptical.
How does a top 3 game company screw up so much on explaining a new system? Did they get any outsiders to give their opinion on the new console- because if they had they would have immediately found out that people were dead confused. You sort of just expect more out of a company that's been doing this stuff for 20 years. Also, this is the amount of games Target stocks for the Wii that are M-rated
http://www.target.com/Nintendo-Wii [...] =342907011
Yeah- you counted right- 6. Now compare that with 74 for the PS3 and 81 for the XBOX360 and it's no wonder Nintendo isn't keeping older customers.
It is like you all are expecting the Wii U to come out tomorrow. We still got about a year. There are going to be changes. I don't think anyone can make a valid opinion about it by just looking at it. We are going to have to wait and see what else is in store for this new console.
Geez, why is it that I'm like the only one on this page who is actually excited for this console.
Just because you get older doesn't mean you HAVE to play M rated games.
Im 32 and I love the wii, only 8 of my 50 games are M rated .
To me both the ps3 and the xbox360 offered nothing new, just the same crappy fps shooters that I've played since wolfenstein 3d.
If you judge a system by how pretty the graphics are and how much blood and gore you can get on the screen, then you are missing out on a lot of fantastic games out there.
Weird console though. I'm definitely going to wait on this one.
I just hope it's good enough to play Crysis...and well, all of the CoDs and BFs.
this is going to be a huge flop. This is the worst thing i have seen from nintendo. I guess you cant knock it till you have tried it, but seriously, im not looking at the tv, then back down at the controller screen and all that BS to play a game. Having a screen in the controller is a majorly stupid idea.
If you judge a system by how pretty the graphics are and how much blood and gore you can get on the screen, then you are missing out on a lot of fantastic games out there.
You're right. Where would the world be today without Gems like "Super Pii Pii Brothers" the urination simulator, "Majestic march" the walking simulator, and
If not for these gems and many many many more just as bad, where would the world be today?
Here are results in page hits for sets of keywords from google
"Worst Wii game" 154,000
"Worst Playstation 3 game" 21,700
"worst 360 game" 30,400
Gimmick or not gimmick, it depends on of the viewers eyes, but I`m really looking fordwar to play a FPS were I can use the wii u controler as a sniper view, or playing a FPS (Starcraft please) using the tablet screen as a pointer. Just my thougts, sorry for my bad English.
It is like you all are expecting the Wii U to come out tomorrow. We still got about a year. There are going to be changes. I don't think anyone can make a valid opinion about it by just looking at it. We are going to have to wait and see what else is in store for this new console. Geez, why is it that I'm like the only one on this page who is actually excited for this console.
Nahh, count me in, I'm excited too. I enjoy the wii just like i enjoy the Xbox 360, i play different games on both of them, but I play games for fun, not for graphics or horsepower,
Why are all the comments I agree on all grayed out? You guys really must not know what other types of games there are outside FPS/SUPERULTRAGOREGAME. Nintendo is being innovative. They want to break the monotonous gaming. Games can actually be fun without it being Rated M. I'm sorry, but my Wii actually gets higher hours per game than my PS3, with the exception of my GT games. I have dabbled with the 360 before, but if it wasn't for M$ milking Live, I'd buy it.
But to the article, yeah I think Nintendo marketed the controller too much. I don;t think I saw a single segment in their video that actually showed the console for more than 20% of the screen. It's a promising enough game system though, and my Nintendo fanboy inside will make my buy it.
@hectordamian I think you mean RTS... but yeah SCII on the WiiU would be interesting to see. I also pictured the sniper screen thing too when I saw the controller mounted on the Zapper.
@dalethepcman I have a hunch that you were a butthurt Sega fanboy. Or, if you were too young for that, then you have never actually played a game outside the FPS genre.
"To add to the confusion, video demonstrations also included Wii remotes, giving the impression that the Wii U was actually a touchscreen controller built for the current Wii."
lol... Was anyone actually confused by this?? People are actually misinterpreting the device everyone's referring to as the "Wii U controller" as the console itself? I agree that more emphasis should've been placed on the console, but this is the first time I've heard reports of such epic levels of fail.
Just because you get older doesn't mean you HAVE to play M rated games.Im 32 and I love the wii, only 8 of my 50 games are M rated .To me both the ps3 and the xbox360 offered nothing new, just the same crappy fps shooters that I've played since wolfenstein 3d.If you judge a system by how pretty the graphics are and how much blood and gore you can get on the screen, then you are missing out on a lot of fantastic games out there.
It isn't about the gore and it isn't about the shooting for me. Nintendo's core linup (Zelda, Mario, Super Smash Brothers) do not provide any real intellectual invigoration (as valve would put it). One's about the same teenager trying to save the same world as he has been for decades. One's about the same plumber with the same hat and color scheme as he has since the days of the old arcades. The last offers nothing more satisfying than muscle memory and twitch reflex.
Yeah, Mario Galaxy had some hard puzzles but seriously, if I wanted to play a puzzle game I'd play World of Goo on pretty much any PC in existence. I want a story, I want interesting characters that cause me to think and question my position, I want a shooter that makes me think about how to approach a situation like Crysis 2, I want adult themes like War, love, sacrifice, and tragedy.
The reason I see Nintendo games as kid games is because they rarely approach these topics. And, if they do, it is done with the heavy hand of children's shows.
Add to that the brightly colored art direction, appealing most to children (look it up: children love bright colors), the chibi-esque character design, and the flat stereotypes of characters and I just can't take Nintendo seriously.
In regards to the Wii U, I don't see it doing well. If it is targeted at competing with the 360 and PS3 then it is already lost. At most it will be in the market against these two systems for 2 years and then MS and Sony will again create systems that outstip Nintendo's offering.
Nintendo better get its act together and get as many third party developers on board while they can; a killer lineup of exclusives seems to be the only thing that can save this console.
I am more concerned about addon costs. The Wii is cheap on the surface, but when they charge so absurdly much for each controller/nunchuk combo, then there is the pad, the motion+ and all that stuff... it gets expensive if you want to play a 4 player game.
I mean, 3 extra remotes with the nunchuk was around $200... how much is a controller with a freakin touchscreen going to cost?
Pretty good article. I was very disappointed in the Nintendo E3 reveal. The tablet thing sounds interesting and I think was a good move but it strikes me as not shooting for the casual gamer that bought the Wii (I don't see many adults picking this up) and not shooting for hardcore gamers (again, I have a hard time imagining playing BF3 with this...). That being said, Nintendo has a pretty good track record and most people thought the Wii was going to be a failure.
I think the disappointment with Nintendo was the lack of any substantial information about the system as discussed in the article. I am still not sure if the CPU is a newer generation PowerPC that will spank the 360 one or is similar to the 360 cpu. The GPU sounds like it might be pretty powerful but we will have to wait and see. Also, it seemed unsubstantiated if it was playing in 1080p or not - which, in of itself, doesn't mean anything. Heck Plants Vs Zombies can be played in 1080p but it looks like a flash game. The indication it will get BF3 is good - if it can play BF3 with Directx11 at 1080p then it will be a decently powerful system.
um 299$ sounds about right. what were they expecting it to cost?
The hardware of this new console hasn't been officially confirmed but by all accounts it's hardware will indeed blow the current xbox360 and PS3 away. Couple that with the fact that Nintendo now has lots of new games developers on the job creating not-the-normal-kiddy-type-games they are famous for, and you have an exciting gaming machine. It may surprise a lot of people.
Someone mentioned above, will it run Crysis2. Yes and then some is the answer to that.
It should exceed the graphical capability of PS3 and Xbox360 for a good while (years anyway) before M$ and $ony get their next offerings out. (But by then Wii-U may be globally massive)
One of the most exciting features of this for me is that it will bring instant (and easy) video-conferencing to families. The Wii-U controller pad will be great for this. No need for skype and a pc/tablet/phone etc. One of the things that Nintendo do really well is the user interface. An good and easy UI for video-conferencing will make the technology much more accessible for more people that otherwise wouldn't even try it out.
I love that it will support all the existing Wii games and peripherals. This makes keeping your existing Wii setup and usage pattern very straightforward and familiar and will be appreciated by many I'm sure. I also love the idea of sitting in bed playing a game on the controller whilst the wife watches a movie etc on the telly in the sitting room.
I'll be watching the Wii-U closely. It's an exciting and truly innovative product, just like Nintendo said they would deliver.
It will sells because it is a frigging iPad... and peoples love stupid iPads...
It could be interesting, but I think it is a step backward if devs don't have a clue about how to use it.
did anyone even read the article?
I played many xbox360 games for years. Games like left4dead, GoW, Silent Hill, GTA, Assasins Creed, alan wake etc. But a year ago i started to play wii and a single hour with new supermario bros. wii and all those games were forgotten. I need to play more games of wii but if only game gave more fun than the ones from MS, what can i expect of the rest? Now with the Wii U, nintendo knew it was the right path to follow after sony and ms decided to goin the motion games bus, they needed again to separate of the rest. You said this ins't new? well actually nintendo announces revolutionary consoles but with tech that has been in use before. Let's start with the DS: touchscreen has been available many years ago, but with this handheld nintendo pushed the touchscreen market and now everything is touch. The same happened to Wii, it wasn't a new technology, but now the major companies are using it.
Anything that has been said aboud hardware is: 3.2 Ghz Power PC prosessor 45nm (same as xbox360) and custom AMD GPU... So no much information in there. But it seems to have same CPU power as Xbox and most propable a little bit better GPU. (Hopefully with DX11 comparable features... or maybe not... Who knows)
So it seems to be powerfull enough to be suitable as an alternative to Xbox and PS3.
$300 is actually not a bad price. Not sure why they call it expensive - sure, expensive compared to the current Wii but once you get the message out, I'm sure there'll be many people waiting to buy one.