No Zelda Wii U in 2015

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VideoGameCritic
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No Zelda Wii U in 2015

Postby VideoGameCritic » March 27th, 2015, 8:42 pm

I have to admit I'm a little surprised by this.

http://www.wired.com/2015/03/zelda-wii-u-delayed/

I figured with so few Wii U releases Nintendo was putting everything they had behind this title to get it out soon.

I'm glad they aren't rushing it, but maybe they should hold back on the talk about new consoles.

Atarifever1
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No Zelda Wii U in 2015

Postby Atarifever1 » March 27th, 2015, 8:59 pm

I don't think any console Zelda's have delivered on time since the SNES.  

ActRaiser1
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No Zelda Wii U in 2015

Postby ActRaiser1 » March 28th, 2015, 4:05 pm

Heh, this sounds like the Wii launch all over again with what they did to Twilight Princess.  They'll release the new Zelda on the NX console as a launch title to get fans to upgrade early. Then a few months later they port to the Wii U in time for Christmas.  

Anyone that couldn't wait for Zelda will upgrade.  Those that can't afford a new console at launch will pick it up on the Wii U.  It maximizes sales and guarantees sold out consoles at launch.

Smart move Nintendo.  Smart move.

So, when do we start making guesses for what the NX console will be?  My guess is the rest of the world goes VR.  Nintendo tries it again.  The thing about that technology is to do it right you need to output two HiDef signals.  Right now, the Wii U only outputs 1/2 of one wirelessly and the other goes to the TV.  If you can increase the throughput you can power a VR headset wirelessly. Or cable it and you avoid that problem along with extra weight for batteries.  Now, if they can solve the through put issue they can also solve the lack of more than one Wii U controller at the same time.  The NX console becomes a Wii U upgrade - same ATI like chipset and that makes it backward compatible to the Wii U games. 

So, they solve a couple of problems, 1 VR as Sony has theirs, Occulus, and Steam all have something in the works.  If it fails to catch on - well you still have the NX as a super Wii U that is at least twice as powerful if not more, aka can run the same games as the PS4 and Xbox One now.  Plus, they're still in the high end gaming side of things with a VR solution.

The killer app is a first person Zelda available at launch, in 2016.

There I said it.

Oh, and it supports subscriptions.  



Weekend_Warrior1
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No Zelda Wii U in 2015

Postby Weekend_Warrior1 » March 29th, 2015, 2:35 am

The Wii U hasn't even outsold the Sega Dreamcast yet. That's how bad this system is doing. 
 
At this rate, Nintendo will be lucky if even half of the major retailers are still carrying the Wii U system in stores by this time next year.

Edward1
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No Zelda Wii U in 2015

Postby Edward1 » April 2nd, 2015, 8:24 pm

I'm 100% ok with this.  There are plenty of games on my backlog anyways.  I'd rather the game be as close to perfect as possible than be released on time.   There are plenty of publishers that are good at releasing games on time, but buggy as hell (Ubisoft, EA I'm looking at you!).  I'm glad Nintendo is different.  

Ocarina of Time, for example, was delayed a bunch of times, but noone remembers that anymore.  Now everyone only remembers how great the game is. Great games stand the test of time.  Buggy rushed games will always be terrible (someday the servers will be down so patches don't count and are annoying anyways.)

Leo1
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No Zelda Wii U in 2015

Postby Leo1 » April 2nd, 2015, 11:27 pm

Nintendo must be sick of this. Twilight Princess for the GameCube when it was basically dead and out of production, Skyward Sword for the Wii when it wasn't much more alive, and now, Zelda U during the late stages of the Wii U.

[QUOTE=ActRaiser]Those that can't afford a new console at launch will pick it up on the Wii U. 
[/QUOTE]

I've been thinking similarly, but not so sure that we'd even be given a belated release on the Wii U.

It was easy on the Wii with a GameCube release due to the high degree of commonality between both generations of hardware.

But we don't know what the guts are inside of a future Wii U successor. If it's not again Power PC based with an AMD GPU, I'm not so sure that we'll see them follow through on the Wii U if they have to code it with two greatly different types of hardware architecture in mind. 

They might just say to heck with it and try to correct the release timing of this franchise by making it be a full fledged next generation exclusive.

Atarifever1
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No Zelda Wii U in 2015

Postby Atarifever1 » April 3rd, 2015, 6:07 am

[QUOTE=Leo]

They might just say to heck with it and try to correct the release timing of this franchise by making it be a full fledged next generation exclusive.[/QUOTE]

They have only ever once done the "next and last" generation release anyway.  Skyward Sword would have been an easy port to the Wii U, given timing and wiimote compatability, as well as the obvious Wii U pad integration for inventory and Beetle control.  They never did it.  Given the fact that a) mobile releases will line their pockets in the near term, b) mobile announcements should appease investors in the near term, and c) they have promised HD Zelda on WiiU from day 1, it is highly, highly unlikely they would put Zelda Wii U on another system, and certainly won't skip it entirely.  

I don't think a lot of people realize that the day "Donkey Kong Jungle Runner," "Elite Beat iOS," and "Dr. Mario: Mobile Clinic"   drop, is the day Nintendo stops having to worry about sales.  There is soon going to be no push on Nintendo to rush anything, move anything, or burn customers for any reason.  It is hard to be seen in Google Play or the App store for almost anyone.  That is the biggest difficulty with hitting it really big there.  It is VERY easy for Nintendo to be seen there.  Very, very, very easy.  

Vexer1
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No Zelda Wii U in 2015

Postby Vexer1 » April 3rd, 2015, 5:29 pm

Patches absolutely do count and are not "annoying" in the least.

Leo1
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No Zelda Wii U in 2015

Postby Leo1 » April 3rd, 2015, 6:17 pm

[QUOTE=Atarifever]They have only ever once done the "next and last" generation release anyway.   [/QUOTE]

Of course, but it still establishes precedent for viewing this a bit cynically and wondering if there's a different motive behind this delay other than just making the game all that it can be.

[QUOTE=Atarifever]Skyward Sword would have been an easy port to the Wii U, given timing and wiimote compatability, as well as the obvious Wii U pad integration for inventory and Beetle control.  [/QUOTE]

I disagree, I believe that one was saved as a Wii exclusive by various factors.

One is its dependence on the Motion Plus capabilities of Nintendo's enhanced Wiimote, which along with the nunchuck, isn't packaged in with the Wii U (Although I think there was one SKU that included a Wiimote). Publishers, even Nintendo themselves, have seemed loath to do much more than just utilize those last generation controllers as an optional control configuration or to fill out a multiplayer roster with on their Wii U retail products.

Despite statistics like 100 million Wii's and the Motion Plus exclusive, Wii Sports Resort, selling over 30 million copies, nobody seems to really want to focus on motion on the Wii U when some of their customers aren't going to have access to Wiimotes and nunchucks, and a significant chunk that does isn't going to have Motion Plus capabilities.

Secondly, is the mere fact that the Wii was still very much alive when Skyward Sword released and had an install base that was at the time, closing in on the 100 million mark fairly rapidly. It was a lucrative market even later in its life, compared to the Wii U nearly two and a half years in that hasn't even equaled the Dreamcast in sales yet or the GameCube that wasn't even in production any longer when Twilight Princess appeared. 

Third, they weren't going in under the assumption that the Wii U was going to be the commercial disaster that it has been for Nintendo. I suspect if they could go back in time, they very well may of tried to realign this one for release early in the Wii U's lifespan.

After a decent launch, that drought of post launch releases until later the following year seemed more than anything else to be responsible for the commercial situation that the Wii U is in.

I've said it here before and still say that something like Mario Kart 8 in February or March of 2013, and things could've been drastically different for the Wii U.

[QUOTE=Atarifever]Given the fact that a) mobile releases will line their pockets in the near term, b) mobile announcements should appease investors in the near term, and c) they have promised HD Zelda on WiiU from day 1, it is highly, highly unlikely they would put Zelda Wii U on another system, and certainly won't skip it entirely.  [/QUOTE]

They're still going to focus on being as successful as possible in the console arena. They need to be careful that success in the mobile sideline doesn't make them complacent in their traditional product lines.

It's possibly one factor why they're in the situation that they're in, since generations of Nintendo handhelds propping up their financials did the same thing and we're now on our 4th Nintendo console in a row with serious financial issues of some sort. Yet the softness in the dedicated handheld market is now preventing Nintendo's handheld line from compensating for that on the balance sheet. 

That said, I'm still operating under the assumption that the Wii U will receive Zelda U. I merely was speculating on potential possibilities, not their likelihood of happening.

Atarifever1
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No Zelda Wii U in 2015

Postby Atarifever1 » April 3rd, 2015, 10:06 pm

[QUOTE=Leo]



Secondly, is the mere fact that the Wii was still very much alive when Skyward Sword released and had an install base that was at the time, closing in on the 100 million mark fairly rapidly. It was a lucrative market even later in its life, compared to the Wii U nearly two and a half years in that hasn't even equaled the Dreamcast in sales yet or the GameCube that wasn't even in production any longer when Twilight Princess appeared. 

[/QUOTE]
This is not true.  I love the Wii, but it was not "very much" alive when Skyward Sword came out.  It was already mostly dead as far as the market was concerned.   It was considered completely dead by most people in the games media, and had no major releases after 2012, Skyward Sword coming out very late in 2011.  I still bought stuff for it, but even most game geeks I know didn't know about most of the good 2012 stuff, because they stopped caring in 2009 or 2010.  

And to put the mighty Wii 100 million install base in perspective in 2011, there were 10 times as many Wiis sold as Wii Us sold as of 2013, yet Skyward Sword sold only 3 times as many copies as Windwaker HD.  Ten times the install base gets a brand new Zelda only 3 times the sales of a HD upgrade to a Gamecube title.  To further put this in perspective, Twilight Princess sold twice as many copies on Wii as Skyward Sword did, so Skyward Sword really was looking like a good bet to be upgraded for a second kick at the cat.  If anything, the low Wii sales of SS should have made the upgrade to Wii U a lock.  

As for the Wiimote problem, I think Mario Party and Mario Kart make it pretty obvious Nintendo thinks most people with a Wii U have Wiimotes.  Those games just kind of assume it as a starting point for multiplayer.  It's not like the average Wii U owner has two or three pro controllers floating around.  There aren't many households in North America without a drawer full of Wiimotes.  



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