Nintendo Shows Wisdom “We have to do better”
When the Wii U was launched it was billed as a second screen HD console that built upon what the Wii accomplished. Unfortunately the majority of consumers saw it as a more expensive Wii that played games in HD and included a gamepad with a screen and it all costed too much. With dismal sales of 3rd party titles, support is pretty much non-existant for the console now.
That’s why its so awesome to hear that they know it.
Now big Nintendo is not off the hook by just saying they need to educate the consumer. The other big problem was the convoluted “Espresso” CPU, “Latte” GPU architecture of the Wii U requiring an extended development cycle due to developers not knowing how to use the hardware properly. Making matters worse were the release of the Playstation 4 and Xbox One a year later utilizing x86 CPU and AMD GPU hardware lineups shortening development cycles radically. But with all the lessons of their past, Nintendo seems to know what it means to make it easier on their 3rd party partners with Reggie stating “we have to do a better job from a software planning standpoint to have that continuous beat of great new games that are motivating more and more people to pick up the hardware and more and more people to pick up the software.”
Graphics Chip manufacturer Nvidia seems to be an integral part in the Nintendo strategy as it is heavily rumored to be providing its Tegra X1 or possibly even its upcoming Tegra X2 to power the handheld console. Nividia itself cancelled its upcoming Shield Tablet with an FCC filing in early August stating “For business reasons” and it makes sense for Nvidia to focus on selling more chips in a Nintendo console than it would in their own tablet.
So far only 5 games have been confirmed for the upcoming NX console including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Just Dance 2017, Holiday 2017 Sonic the Hedgehog game, Dragon Quest X and Dragon Quest XI. Although very few games have been announced, 3rd parties are excited about the new mobile/home console hybrid. Ubisoft’s EMEA boss Alain Corre speaking to MCV stated “We believe that the NX will recapture a lot of the lapsed Wii players, so we will see when they release it, but we are confident.”
Whatever the case with this new Nintendo platform, I’m excited and will be keeping my eyes open daily for any news whatsoever.
That’s pretty exciting to hear that Nvidia will be in part of NX’s hardware. The game lineup however doesn’t look too impressive. I like Zelda and Dragon Quest, so there’s at least a couple in the lineup to look forward to, but it’s not much to warrant a console purchase for me.
I didn’t buy a Wii U until there was at least Wind Waker HD. Even it’s a negligibly altered game, I still enjoyed it. I had the most fun with Xenoblade Chronicles X though and think it was the most enjoyable Wii U console game I have aside from Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE. Having said that, if we do not get more games of that quality (if not better), then I don’t think there’s much for NX regardless of the hardware potential.