@ retro - Agreed. Nintendo already had several missed opportunities in their last two consoles, there really isn't a point to trying again. Too many people were burned by both the Wii and Wii U, and most of those people have just moved on to better products.
Unfortunately, you're in the minority. Most people couldn't stand the bulky, awkward, distracting gamepad. And it's the main reason that the Wii U failed. It was a gimmick that, in the end, failed to make games more enjoyable.
Sadly, I think Nintendo's main goal these days is to differentiate themselves from the competition, at all costs. They use gimmicks to do this, and I fully expect the NX to be centered around a gimmick, just like the two previous consoles.
Unfortunately for Nintendo, people just don't want weak hardware crippled by forced gimmicks anymore, so if they do follow the same approach, they'll be completely done in the gaming industry.
This is a VERY well-written article, that really succinctly summarizes how the Wii U failed. The sad truth is that Nintendo could have easily done a much better job on the design, had they just skipped the gimmicky gamepad and focused on making a solid, feature-rich product. Instead, they gutted the internal specs to make up for the high cost of the gamepad, leaving the system unable to compete, this generation.
That "mission" failed many years ago, the Nintendo of today is just struggling to remain relevant in the gaming industry. And they are not going to make it if this leaked device is what the NX will be.
@ Wallstreet37 - Very well said.
"Why not instead BUY a Wii U (for example) for far less than either PS4 or XB1 and you can play them today."
Because the Wii U hardware is cheap, low-spec, feature-lacking, overpriced junk. And it certainly isn't "far less" in price than the PS4 or XB1, Nintendo's own pride and greed have kept the price of the system ridiculously high.
There were so many features cut from the Wii U base console, and specifications scaled back, all ...
Just because Nintendo goes out of their way to be "different", doesn't mean that their actual products are good. Sadly, in most cases, the gimmicks that they force into their hardware just ruin the gaming experience.
Eye toy and Kinect - Yep, but both were optional gimmicks, easily ignored
D-pad, analog sticks, rumble, face and shoulder buttons - Not gimmicks, all widely accepted features
Motion controls - one of the worst gimmicks ever forced on gamers, thanks to Nintendo
So no, most of your points really miss the mark, completely.
Nintendo has been on a downward spiral into irrelevance for quite a while, continually chasing the next "big gimmick" to set themselves apart, at the expense of their hardware and games. Even though the Wii itself was a commercial success due to a fad that caught on with casuals, it died years ago when people realized that the novelty just didn't deliver a better gaming experience.
This company clearly feels that it can't compete in terms of technology, whi...
"I do not think its cool, when the console is still on the market."
But the Wii U is basically limping along on life support now, and production of the console is ending this year. There really isn't much of a reason to be upset, people emulating Wii U games were never going to buy the console or its games to begin with, and even Nintendo has pulled the plug and is moving on. Not a big deal at all.
Whelp, that's it for the Wii U, 4 years is one of the shortest console lifespans ever.
Now let's hope that Nintendo skips the gimmicks for the NX, and instead designs a genuinely solid console, without the many missing features that the Wii U had. If not, the NX will be DOA, and end up being Nintendo's last home console.
In a way, you're right. They are off doing their own thing, completely oblivious to the needs of both developers and gamers, always desperately trying to set themselves apart with silly gimmicks. But in that respect, they really aren't "fighting their own battles", they're just kind of flopping around.
Unfortunately, Nintendo put far too little resources into the Wii U for it to qualify as a current gen console. To accommodate the high cost of the gamepad, they cut many features out of the Wii U console itself, and substantially scaled back the specs as well (CPU, GPU, etc.).
The result? Wii U couldn't even match previous gen consoles, much less current generation ones. No matter how much you want the Wii U to be considered a peer with the current generation PS4 and XB1...
"IF Nintendo 'phoned it in' with the Wii U, then what the hell do you call what Sony and/or Microsoft did with the PS4/XB1?"
They both made much, much better consoles that were actually well improved over the previous generation; something Nintendo completely failed to make with the Wii U. They also didn't base their consoles on unappealing gimmicks, at the expense of the base consoles, like Nintendo's Wii U did.
Just because the Wi...
Why add Wii U to the platform list above, when not a single FPS is coming to it this year (or ever in the future probably, for that matter)?
Looking forward to this game. Gamestop is the sole distributor of the physical version, and it's a steal at only $14.99, so I preordered it from them.
Unfortunately, most of their recent "innovations" have been nothing more than cheap gimmicks, which degrade the gaming experience, rather than enhancing it. Look no further than the Wii (waggle gimmick), 3DS (fake 3D effect), and Wii U (gamepad) for proof of that fact.
Yep, but they've actually been failing for quite some time. And unfortunately, Iwata presided over the development of many of their substandard products.
Even though the Wii console was a financial success, it was ultimately just a cheap fad that fizzled out years before its competition. The waggle gimmick and weak, feature-lacking hardware failed to deliver good gaming experiences. So instead of being a shining example of Nintendo's success, it ended up damaging the...
The Wii U doesn't deserve "more respect"; it deserves to be forgotten among the pile of rubbish gimmicks that were discarded in the history of gaming. And sadly, many of those gimmicks were created by Nintendo. Rob the robot, power glove, Virtual Boy, Wiimotes, nunchuks, useless 2nd screen on DS, phony 3D effect on 3DS, and finally the Wii U gamepad. Nintendo is always searching for a "cheap hook" to entice people to buy their poorly-designed, low-spec hardware, but pe...