Reaction to the WiiU

Yesterday Nintendo held a press conference about the WiiU, release data, price point, etc. And the overall reaction from both fans and from the press is that people are bored by Nintendo. The company that has been known for ground breaking innovation and taking very strange risks, is now playing catch-up to the rest of the industry.

The WiiU falters right out of the gate with its name. From the standpoint of the casual consumer who bought a Wii, they won’t understand the WiiU is a completely different device, simply because its name is so similar, it sounds like it’s an expansion of some kind that you add to your device.

The second issue the Nintendo will face is that its spec’s are as good as this current console generation. They finally embraced HD gaming and now all of the developers are ready to move onto the next cycle. The PS4 and Xbox 720, whatever they will be called, will undoubtedly put the WiiU to shame when it comes out.

We were talking about the surprising long list of games the Nintendo has lined up that will be launching sometime within four months of its release. It’s something like 50 games strong, which is fantastic, especially if you look back on the Gamecube and even Wii list of launch titles. However, the majority of those games are ports that have already been available on other platforms for months.

Nintendo has been long known as a family friendly platform. However, that title will be sufficiently tarnished by the inclusion of these ported, third party games. Call of Duty, Mass Effect 3, etc, these games are great but can be exceedingly violent.

The platform comes out surprisingly soon, preorders are up, so we will see if the WiiU becomes a runaway success just like its forbearer.