It has been more than a month since Nintendo announced its plans of launching Wii-U sometime next year.
It has been described as the 8th generation console, and is Nintendo’s first console that would feature 1080p high-definition graphics and a controller with an embedded touchscreen.
This means, a player would be able to engage in gaming even when there is no television connected, and can also play using the larger TV screen. The Wii-U is fully backwards compatible and all your Wii games, Wii peripherals like the Wii Remote and Wii Balance Board can be used. The only hitch at the moment seems to be the fact that it would not be backward compatible with Nintendo GameCube media. While much of this information has been processed and reprocessed, most video game industry insiders are bogged down by that annoying question which relates to the Wii-U being either a hit or a flop.
Even that question has been debated endlessly for the last few weeks and if you searched for ‘Wii-U flop’ on Google, you would be surprised to see the number of arguments and counter-arguments that are offered by various reviewers. Before we decide to judge the Wii-U as a flop or a hit, we must know that it has not yet arrived in the market, and the psychology of the consumer can be quite weird. Moreover, Nintendo never targeted the hardcore gamer with its products, unlike Sony and Microsoft, what with their graphic-rich Xbox 360s and PlayStations.
Microsoft and Sony also catered to a very niche segment of video game community, that demanded graphical content, themes that may sometimes not be suitable for family-playing, and difficulty-levels that would make most casual gamers cringe. This is perhaps where Nintendo has always scored, with its visually appealing peripherals that lacked the technology its rivals possessed, and also games that lacked the niche themes that appealed to hardcore gamers, but certainly made the masses happy. In fact, Nintendo Wii was responsible for bringing video games to the family room.
Nintendo’s Wii-U may continue to do that, and those who can afford a slightly more expensive Wii-U will definitely buy it if they are fond of Nintendo games like Mario and others. It certainly may not appeal to hardcore gamers who are Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 fanboys, as they would expect a lot more than what Nintendo might think they want. At the end of the day, one can’t really say if it would be a hit or a flop so easily. It definitely would be a hit among the masses, but may be termed as a ‘flop’ by niche gamers who would rather play graphically rich games offered by Microsoft and Sony.
One must also remember that Wii-U brings the individual gamer to focus (‘U’ placing emphasis on the individual gamer) where as previously, Nintendo placed an emphasis on ‘Wii’ or ‘We’, which meant that Nintendo aimed at being a party console or a family-friendly console that was targeted at the masses. Instead of arguing whether Wii-U would be a flop or a hit, we must rather focus on the market and audience it has been targeted at. Wii U would surely be a hit with the masses, but may not be so with hardcore gamers. Meanwhile, you can take a look at the Black Eyed Peas Game for Wii.
