Tuesday, June 7, 2011

What Frightens me About the Wii U



I'm not going to lie, Nintendo's unveiling of their new system, the Wii U, looked out of this world to this long-time Nintendo fan.

Relevant question: did they hire the same marketing juggernauts that Apple hired to promote the iPad when coming up with the name?

What we saw would make your average Nintendoian very happy.  It has a pretty cool tablet controller thing that is part alluring and part marketing fodder.  It finally will have some third-party support (for the first time since the Super NES).  <sarcasm>Hey, it's 2011 so we can finally take advantage of that new technology known as HD.</sarcasm>  What could possibly go wrong?

From the initial video at E3, I don't think that anything that the Wii U is able to do is going to persuade any of the 360 or PSIII fanboys to jump ship.  The capabilities of the system didn't appear to break any new ground.  Actually, it will probably just make the Nintendo haters scream foul that Nintendo is simply doing another marketing maneuver with a cute accessory and not putting any power into their system.

That is fine and all.  I have had no problem ignoring them for the last few years and will have no problem ignoring them in the future.  But, my big concern about the Wii U is the price.  Not the price of the console mind you (my guesstimate is that would be in the $299 range) but the price of the super seductive tablet controllers.

It is standard practice to only give one controller with a new console and I am guessing Nintendo will stick to this strategy.  However, unless you are forever alone, the rest of the world will buy anywhere from one to three more controllers.  That isn't too big a deal for your average 360 controller or even a Wiimote (even though it does get a little pricey when you start adding on the nun chuck and all the other necessary evils) but for, what appears to be, a relatively sophisticated tablet controller, the price could be sky high.

That was the first thing I thought of when I saw the controller (that and it kind of looked like an Etch-a-Sketch).  On top of which, is Nintendo going to come up with twenty-five versions of the controller (do we really need a Legend of Zelda Wiimote)?  The days of the indestructible NES controllers are now long gone - protect your Wii U controller like it is gold, because it very well may be worth more than that.

I guess I will wait patiently like the rest but I guess I should start saving my money now because 2012 may be a very expensive year.

1 comment:

  1. I'm also skeptical of the Wii U, but unless Nintendo's crazy, they won't be releasing this system until after E3 2012 where they'll be able to show more games. More realistically, they would be wise to wait until Oct./Nov. 2012 like they did with the Wii in '06. I'm with you, though: those controllers are probably going to be pricey.

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