Well said, I feel exactly the same. And I will most certainly be skipping this game, even though I own almost every previous NFS game on multiple platforms.
Online only games really have poor shelf lives. They rely on having large amounts of gamers active all the time, and even then you're often out of luck finding decent gamers to play with. I always skip online only games, they're just not worth it. Will skip this one as well, even though I have almost every other NFS game in my collection.
They already had three years before this to "sell us a Wii U", but failed to make a compelling reason for a purchase. Had they put more effort into the design, and skipped the gimmicks this time, they might have had a chance to succeed this generation.
Sadly, they followed the exact same formula as the Wii that came before it, a recipe for disaster. Make the cheapest possible base console, with the bare minimum specs/features, and throw in a gimmick to ignite sales....
The title of this article really should be: "Nintendo E3 2015 Predictions: The Wii U’s Last Year". With a meager handful of upcoming games, no 3rd party support, and dismal sales, the system's effective lifespan is all but over. There will be some crumbs in the final year, but not enough to reverse its flagging fortunes.
Let's hope that the NX, or whatever Nintendo ends up calling it, is a solid, well-specced, feature rich console/handheld, which is not ba...
Third parties will probably skip the NX just like they skipped the Wii U, it really makes no difference to them. The money is in developing for PS4/XB1, there isn't money in developing for Wii U and probably won't be for NX either.
Knowing Nintendo, the NX will be yet another "new concept", based on a gimmick, with very substandard specs and features. They may still think that the old Wii formula can bring back success to them (make a super cheap, low-spec...
There is no one to blame but Nintendo for this situation. They are the ones who cut the specs/features of the Wii U to a bare minimum, all to accommodate the gimmicky gamepad. There was no way that the Wii U was going to be able to compete, this generation, with the meager specs and features it included.
Only 2gb of RAM (with only 1gb useable for games), weak CPU, weak GPU, no internal HDD (or even a bay for one), the list goes on and on. The console is fine for Nintendo'...
I agree. Plus this is essentially an online only multiplayer game, on a platform where the bulk of the user base prefers single player games. (I know it has a small single player campaign, but that really doesn't amount to much).
Without a robust base of people playing multiplayer, the game is going to essentially be dead in a short time.
At this point I expect the game to sell much worse than Wonderful 101, which itself only did around 320k worldwide....
@ 3-4-5 Translation of what you wrote: "Since it's not coming out on the Wii U, it must be crap". Sounds like sour grapes to me.
The reality is that Nintendo cut way too many specs/features out of the Wii U, to accommodate the gamepad gimmick. That decision has left the Wii U unable to run current gen games. With only 2gb of RAM (only 1gb available for games), a weak CPU, weak GPU, no internal HDD, and all the other missing or gimped features/specs, the Wii U...
It'll be interesting to see how Nintendo's first online-only game sells, when most of its loyal fans don't even care for online games. Plus its a new IP and as pointed out previously, and looks pretty kiddish (I watched several of the ads and they really seem to be aimed at pre-teen kids).
I'm predicting that it will sell around the same as Wonderful 101, which was also a new IP and unfortunately didn't do very well (320k worldwide, according to vgchartz)...
@ wonderfulmonkeyman
In reply to your response to my comment, if anything it is fans like you that are encouraging Nintendo to commit "financial suicide", by expecting them to always produce new hardware to showcase their games.
The last two home consoles from Nintendo have both been very low-spec and lacking in many commonly-expected features, but each one also incorporated a gimmick to try to reel people in. For the Wii, that gimmick worked, but ...
So to summarize: all Wii U games should focus on cartoony graphics, to make up for the fact that the console really can't handle more realistic graphics?
It's pretty sad that Nintendo put so little resources into the Wii U; too little RAM, weak CPU, weak GPU, no internal HDD, poorly optimized hardware. Instead of always making excuses and running damage control for these poor decisions, how about actually stepping up and demanding that they do a better job on their h...
Excuses, excuses, excuses.
Instead of always running to defend Nintendo's mediocre products, how about actually demanding, as a diehard fan (which you are), that they buck up, do away with all these silly gimmicks, and produce a genuinely solid gaming console? In eternally defending every bad decision they make, you are just enabling them to continue down this road, and contributing to their inevitable demise.
The Wii U is a failure. The gamepad gimmick ...
No, the graphics would be the same on the New 3DS, it might just load faster. 3DS hardware is very weak, non-3D resolution is only 400x240, 3D resolution is 800x240 but that breaks down to only 400x240 "per eye". Shame Nintendo didn't put better specs into the system, it really falls way short. The 3DS gimmick doesn't make up for the weak hardware either, sadly. Most people just turn off the effect.
Just click on the site's URL above, then:
Story quality? WTF?
Like this website? No
And move on. No need to waste clicks on it.
Because Nintendo cut every possible corner on the Wii U base console, to accommodate the high cost of the gamepad and to increase their profits. It probably would have cost them less than $5 to add an Ethernet port to the console, and its really hard to believe they left it out.
Those ports were in the original XBox back in 2001, and of course in the 360 and PS3 that released in 2006/2007, yet here in 2012 the Wii U doesn't even have one? Very sad.
@SpaceRanger - I agreed with everything you said, until your last sentence. Nintendo's gimmicky controllers have ruined both of their last consoles, neither one added anything great to the systems, which is why they're in such a poor position today. The Wii U gamepad is directly responsible for the base console's poor specs and missing features, and it really doesn't improve games on the system at all.
Bubble up to you sir, you hit the nail directly on the head!
Great news if it is true. Then they can ditch all the gimmicky controllers, create a solid traditional controller, and actually include decent specs and features this time. Backwards compatibility really isn't a great feature, especially when it drags down the performance of the console, and most people don't even care about it anyway.
But you forget about games purchased digitally. Does that mean that Nintendo didn't plan ahead for digital sales? It certainly does.
How about these digital Wii U games:
Lego City Undercover - 19gb
Batman Arkham City - 19gb
Donkey Kong TF - 19gb
Assassin's Creed 3 - 17gb
Bayonetta - 25gb
The other consoles require installation to give you the best performance, having games load from the HDD vs. loading ...
No, the undisputed King of Arcade Racers is Burnout. Burnout 3: Takedown and Burnout Revenge were masterpieces, it's a shame that the series was effectively abandoned after those games.