Wii U...will there be a new version?

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wacekar7

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I'm on the fence about taking the plunge and buying the Zelda Wii U bundle. I'd love to be able to play WW in HD and NSMB, but I feel thats all I'd be interested in at the moment. I'm also very eager to transfer my Wii stuff and get rid of that console. But I just can't shake the feeling that if I take the plunge, they will release a newer version of the Wii U in some form. I know its not too typical of Nintendo with the home consoles, but I feel like its a good possibility this time.

Reasons:

1. A tablet controller could always be improved, whether it be battery life, slimmer, etc.

2. Though I understand hard drive space can be expanded externally, I feel 32GB really does look/sound bad compared to the other consoles.

What do you guys think?

 
I don't think Nintendo is going to release a significantly different version of the Wii U any time soon. They already made it possible to store and play digitally purchased games off of an external hard drive. That will keep them covered as far as memory expansion is concerned. USB-compatible memory is only going to keep getting cheaper and cheaper.

The tablet battery is another possibility, but from the sound of it you can already change that battery out yourself right now. The form factor of the tablet controller is NOT going to change any time soon. The ergonomics of that controller are actually quite good, and the heft isn't too bad either.

I just don't see it happening. Any of the changes you are suggesting would increase the production cost of the system, and Nintendo is already allowing for workarounds for those consumers who care enough. There's just no incentive for them to change out those factors of the system. I'd go ahead and pick up the Zelda bundle with the custom controller fringe. It looks pretty swanky.

 
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They should make a smaller, cheaper to produce Game Pad. Estimates put it at around $80-$100 to make, let alone sell to consumers. They need that down to $30-$40ish. Make it smaller and even downgrade the screen perhaps? I don't know but something must be done.

Nintendo hasn't redesigned a home console (not handheld) in a while. Cube did badly yet they never redesigned it. I do like the idea of redesigning the console to be cheaper to produce (matte instead of gloss, take a few things out here and there) and making it a top loading drive that is in the shape of a U and rebranding it the Nintendo U instead of Wii U but that probably won't happen.

This year I think your safe. If they're really in a bad place they will redesign both the console and game pad in 2014 IF Smash and Kart don't improve things.

 
What could they take out to cut costs?

-Wii backwards compatiblity?

-Might as well take out SD slot since all its used for really is transferring your Wii content to the Wii U

-Take out a USB port? You need at least two for a USB HDD and one to charge a Pro controller

-Make the case cheaper, like a matte case instead of gloss.

-Make it top loading instead of slot-loading, the disc drive that is.

Other than that I can't think of anything they could get away with taking out to reduce costs of the system

 
AND HERE COME THE PACHTERS

The battery problem has several solutions, the best two being the Nyko uBoost and the expanded internal battery Nintendo is rolling out.

The storage thing isn't that big of an issue since flash memory is so cheap. Just buy a small thumb drive and put it on a back port.
 
Well, between The Year Of Luigi, NextGEN consoles, and Newegg leaking that Luigi's Mansion :wiiu:, I don't think I'd be shocked if there was a Luigi themed Black Friday bundle to keep Nintendo in the mix of all of the hype.

If not, I'm going with the Zelda bundle since it'll hold it's value better.  

 
bonesawisready said:
-Wii backwards compatiblity?
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There's no reason to remove Wii backwards compatibility. They eventually removed GameCube compatibility from the Wii, but that was just so they could use cheaper-to-produce slot loading drives. (ones which wouldn't have to accommodate two different sizes of discs) The Wii U uses the same size discs as the Wii, there's no practical reason for removing the backwards compatibility.

 
Now that they have the Wii games streaming to the Gamepad I doubt they would remove backwards compatibility, they would have never added that feature if they thought they wanted to remove it.

I think they removed GameCube compatibility because they had to add a lot to the system for that, they had to add the ports to the top, memory card slots, plus a special disc drive, taking these things out saved money.

With the Wii U some games are using the same remotes as the Wii did, so it would literally be like removing an option on the menu, I don't think there is much extra hardware in there to make Wii games play.

Not to mention what to do about the shop, if you take out backwards compatibility then the Wii shop goes as well which some people still use and which obviously makes Nintendo money, so they definitely wouldn't want to take that feature out unless the shop was getting next to no sales. Then there would be an issue with how to move games to the new system....
 
Not a new version, but there is a new deluxe bundle of wii u just announced including new super mario + luigi on one disc instead of nintendoland for $299.  Might actually bite on that if someone throws in a gift card down the line.  Would have got zelda bundle if it came on a disc.

 
scottman said:
Not a new version, but there is a new deluxe bundle of wii u just announced including new super mario + luigi on one disc instead of nintendoland for $299. Might actually bite on that if someone throws in a gift card down the line. Would have got zelda bundle if it came on a disc.
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The zelda bundle is a digital code for the game? Ugh. Guess I'll nab the M/L bundle.

 
bonesawisready said:
Nintendo hasn't redesigned a home console (not handheld) in a while. Cube did badly yet they never redesigned it. I do like the idea of redesigning the console to be cheaper to produce (matte instead of gloss, take a few things out here and there) and making it a top loading drive that is in the shape of a U and rebranding it the Nintendo U instead of Wii U but that probably won't happen.
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They did change the Game Cube.. The original had a A/V port that supported component out. Sometime later they removed that feature.

 
Brad Bishop said:
They did change the Game Cube.. The original had a A/V port that supported component out. Sometime later they removed that feature.
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Quite true, but most people don't consider that to be a major revision. Slight changes such as this happen all the time with home consoles, they just never get advertised. I actually have an original component-capable GameCube, as well as the newer non-component GameCube. I also have one of the original component cables. The cables in particular are not easy to come by.

When I was shopping for a PS2 slim, I noticed a similar revision. I believe one of the earlier versions of the PS2 slim features a modem port as well as a network CAT5 port. But later versions excised the modem port. These minor hardware revisions happen all the time behind the scenes.

 
There was a PS2 with a ethernet port? I didn't know that. I had the original PS2 and it had the network attachment on the back which also allowed you to plug in an IDE drive.

I gave my Game Cube + component cable to my daughter years back. I wish I had held onto it. It was overshadowed by the PS2 and Xbox but it really did have a lot of unique/fun games on it.

 
The GamePad needs analog triggers. Most Wanted U is fun but it kinda feels like crap without have that spring resistance on the triggers. 

 
I am tending to lean towards them releasing a Wii U without backwards compatibility now but because the Wii VC and Wii U VC are not the same yet so I don't see that happening right now. If the VC's ever merge completely, then I think that might be a possibility. I don't think they would take down the Wii VC unless it was merged with the Wii U VC due to the fact that people still buy games on the Wii VC.  Though I don't know how cost effective that would really be for Nintendo to remove Wii compatbility or how much extra hardware is required for Wii compatibility.

One thing for sure if Nintendo releases a new version Wii U it will probably be a somehow downgraded and cheaper version, given their pattern with the Wii.  Unless they add more storage to it, I am not sure if they would do that though, 32GB seems to be the standard model now.

I don't see them releasing a model without the gamepad and just the pro controller, the gamepad is required for some games and the pro controller is not compatible with all of them. Nintendo doesn't want to split the market. In order for this to happen all the games that don't use the pro controller would have to be patched to use it, and that would be a lot of trouble.

 
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SaraAB said:
I am tending to lean towards them releasing a Wii U without backwards compatibility now but because the Wii VC and Wii U VC are not the same yet so I don't see that happening right now. If the VC's ever merge completely, then I think that might be a possibility. I don't think they would take down the Wii VC unless it was merged with the Wii U VC due to the fact that people still buy games on the Wii VC. Though I don't know how cost effective that would really be for Nintendo to remove Wii compatbility or how much extra hardware is required for Wii compatibility.

One thing for sure if Nintendo releases a new version Wii U it will probably be a somehow downgraded and cheaper version, given their pattern with the Wii. Unless they add more storage to it, I am not sure if they would do that though, 32GB seems to be the standard model now.

I don't see them releasing a model without the gamepad and just the pro controller, the gamepad is required for some games and the pro controller is not compatible with all of them. Nintendo doesn't want to split the market. In order for this to happen all the games that don't use the pro controller would have to be patched to use it, and that would be a lot of trouble.
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Hardware wise, there isn't really anything that's exclusively Wii in the Wii U to remove. They're still using the same basic PowerPC architecture, wireless connectivity and inputs.

 
I don't think so. Nothing major at least. A new color, or a few limited edition bundles down the line for sure. I can't really see them making any major changes to the console. MAYBE, MAYBE something to do with the gamepad, and that's really about it.

SaraAB said:
Now that they have the Wii games streaming to the Gamepad I doubt they would remove backwards compatibility, they would have never added that feature if they thought they wanted to remove it.
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Wait... Wii games will stream to the pad? So you can play with the pad, or just use it as a screen (if the TV is being used for something else). A little confused here. :(

 
There will probably be a Wii U Slim/Mini in about 3-4 years, but other than that nothing but new colors, 80% of which will never see the light of day in the US.
 
I have a feeling we'll just see a new one with more storage. I don't think we'll see anything else done to the console. 

 
Well, I got the NSMBU bundle for xmas and I gotta say, I'm extremely impressed with this system and I feel kind of foolish for questioning it.

I grabbed 3D World, Zelda and Rayman Legends.

I must say I am 100% satisfied with each and every game. Zelda to my eyes is graphically the best HD remake I've ever seen, and I own a bunch of HD collections on PS3. As far as the Gamepad, I feel like there are just so many possibilities there, and I'm surprised to find out that Rayman actually gets the best use out of it! That game is a very unique experience. While I will no doubt grab Pikmin and the upcoming DK title, I must say that I'm truly looking forward to the first true 3D (full exploration) Mario/Zelda game.

At the end of the day, the issues I were afraid of are really non-issues from my experience thus far. Whether they do come out with a new version of any sort or not, I will remain happy with my system.

 
The Wii U.is already pretty tiny. Maybe in the way the Wii Mini came out in the last two years of its life cycle, we'll see a new model towards the end of the Wii U life cycle.
 
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I believe they're going to remove backwards compatibility with the Wii U in a future revision.  It could happen as early as this year and probably no latter than next year (if the Wii U isn't discontinued by then).  As it has the actual Wii hardware in the system, this would save them about $50 per system of the new SKU.  They aren't going to support the Wii e-shop forever and since they'll likely shut it down in the next couple of years and since they're still losing money on the Wii U, I think it's a certainty that they remove the Wii hardware from the system

 
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I dunno about that, mainly because it still supports (and in the case of multiplayer, needs) most Wii accessories.
 
I can't see them changing anything major.  I love mine, but it's an absolute failure for them.  There's nothing they can do to make it sell better.  The Wii was a one time fad with casuals, and gamers have been moving away from Nintendo consoles for years other than that blip with the N64 selling less than the SNES, the GC less than the N64 and now the Wii U looking to sell significantly less than the GC.

There's not much point in tweaking hardware as that just involves putting R&D money into a sinking ship.  I mean I guess they could drop Wii support and save some money as suggested above--but that would probably hurt sales as being able to play Wii games is a selling point for some gamers and probably helps drive sells as prices drop and some nice bundles are out.

But otherwise, they just need to ride it out and really go back to the drawing board and figure out what to do next go around.  Whatever it is, it needs to launch much cheaper.  Nintendo consoles are really only for playing Nintendo games these days, and not many gamers are going to buy that at $300-350 launch prices. 

IMO they need to stay underpowered, launch around $200 and make their games work across both their console and next portable so they aren't splitting their limited development resources across two platforms.  Some type of hybrid portable/console single system may work too--but that would put them at only one revenue stream and it may be hard to make that powerful enough and stay under in the $200-250 range.

 
dmaul1114 said:
I can't see them changing anything major. I love mine, but it's an absolute failure for them. There's nothing they can do to make it sell better. The Wii was a one time fad with casuals, and gamers have been moving away from Nintendo consoles for years other than that blip with the N64 selling less than the SNES, the GC less than the N64 and now the Wii U looking to sell significantly less than the GC.

There's not much point in tweaking hardware as that just involves putting R&D money into a sinking ship. I mean I guess they could drop Wii support and save some money as suggested above--but that would probably hurt sales as being able to play Wii games is a selling point for some gamers and probably helps drive sells as prices drop and some nice bundles are out.

But otherwise, they just need to ride it out and really go back to the drawing board and figure out what to do next go around. Whatever it is, it needs to launch much cheaper. Nintendo consoles are really only for playing Nintendo games these days, and not many gamers are going to buy that at $300-350 launch prices.

IMO they need to stay underpowered, launch around $200 and make their games work across both their console and next portable so they aren't splitting their limited development resources across two platforms. Some type of hybrid portable/console single system may work too--but that would put them at only one revenue stream and it may be hard to make that powerful enough and stay under in the $200-250 range.
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Nintendo desperately needs third party support, as cliche as it sounds. They need new exclusives to showcase the best that the Wii U has to offer. They need to shift the conversation from graphics and poor sales to amazing must play games. They were able to do it with the 3DS but as we all know the console market is totally different from the handheld market.

 
kill3r7 said:
Nintendo desperately needs third party support, as cliche as it sounds. They need new exclusives to showcase the best that the Wii U has to offer. They need to shift the conversation from graphics and poor sales to amazing must play games. They were able to do it with the 3DS but as we all know the console market is totally different from the handheld market.
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They aren't getting third party support on their console. There's simply nothing that will change this. The problem is that most people have the Wii U as a secondary console and given the choice would buy their 3rd party games for the most powerful/best looking console. This leaves the people that are exclusive to Nintendo stuck with just Nintendo games. I've seen them around on various forums (rarely on this one) and typically they seem happy with just Nintendo games though I do wonder if it's bullshit because I would have been unhappy to miss many of the great 3rd party games over the last 10+ years.

The only way that Nintendo will get 3rd party developers to their platform is if they pay them to do it. That's not really unusual, it's what MS does all the time. Nintendo has only done it with one or two games and I believe they were both super niche Japanese developed games and not something the likes of Titanfall. Of course they don't even have to go so far as to pay for exclusivity, just the porting costs.

 
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Blaster man said:
They aren't getting third party support on their console. There's simply nothing that will change this. The problem is that most people have the Wii U as a secondary console and given the choice would buy their 3rd party games for the most powerful/best looking console. This leaves the people that are exclusive to Nintendo stuck with just Nintendo games. I've seen them around on various forums (rarely on this one) and typically they seem happy with just Nintendo games though I do wonder if it's bullshit because I would have been unhappy to miss many of the great 3rd party games over the last 10+ years.

The only way that Nintendo will get 3rd party developers to their platform is if they pay them to do it. That's not really unusual, it's what MS does all the time. Nintendo has only done it with one or two games and I believe they were both super niche Japanese developed games and not something the likes of Titanfall. Of course they don't even have to go so far as to pay for exclusivity, just the porting costs.
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I can't argue with what you are saying because it is true, but Nintendo needs a few third/second party exclusives outside of the typical Big N games. IMO, they need to focus on buying/supporting struggling studios or IPs that have long been forgotten. They should have made a play for Atlus and some of the THQ IPs (Darksiders, SR etc). Who knows, maybe they are waiting for Capcom to go bankrupt so they can buy off Monster Hunter and Mega Man.

 
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kill3r7 said:
I can't argue with what you are saying because it is true, but Nintendo needs a few third/second party exclusives outside of the typical Big N games. IMO, they need to focus on buying/supporting struggling studios or IPs that have long been forgotten. They should have made a play for Atlus and some of the THQ IPs (Darksiders, SR etc). Who knows, maybe they are waiting for Capcom to go bankrupt so they can buy off Monster Hunter and Mega Man.
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I couldn't agree more. They've missed many chances. They should have bought the Saint's Row franchise. It's not really in the "Nintendo Image" so to speak but they wouldn't have to brand it as Nintendo, they could have just let is be listed as Volition and that's definitely a genre (one of many) that they are sorely missing. Nintendo has a huge pile of cash and they don't seem to know what to do with it. They wouldn't really need Darksiders because it's very similar to (and in many ways a rip off of) Zelda. Certainly they could have picked up Red Faction and a few other IP's. As for the Atlus stuff, they should have gone for them as well.

They seem more interested in developing their own family friendly franchisees like Pikmin and The Wonderful 101 than picking up existing and popular franchises. The fact of the industry is that sequels typically sell better. As long as you don't create IP fatigue like many in the industry do, your titles should continue to do well as your fan base grows over time.

I know people here accuse me of hating Nintendo and such but I really don't and I hope that they get this situation figured out.

 
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The third party support is not going to come. The Wii U is too underpowered and too different in architecture from the PS4 and X1 to allow for easy ports. And with the terrible sales it's not worth the effort to third parties to port games over given that, much less put out Wii U exclusives. Plus a lot of them just aren't fans of Nintendo due to all the expensive licensing fees they've charged over the years from using proprietary carts and discs up through the GC and probably couldn't care less if they fail.

And honestly, third party support isn't that great on 3DS outside if JRPGs.

Nintendo just has no backing from western developers and that's what has really hurt them from the N64 on.
 
Blaster man said:
They seem more interested in developing their own family friendly franchisees like Pikmin and The Wonderful 101 than picking up existing and popular franchises. The fact of the industry is that sequels typically sell better. As long as you don't create IP fatigue like many in the industry do, your titles should continue to do well as your fan base grows over time.
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While I agree that Nintendo could benefit from some fresh IP, I don't think that's their primary issue. Let's not forget that they managed to get an exclusive hold on the next Bayonetta game, simply by offering to provide the funding necessary to complete it. Nintendo has already taken steps to snag a few titles that would have otherwise probably not have come to their platform.

The best approach Nintendo can take for a broader library of titles is more managed out-sourcing of their own properties, as well as poaching specific franchises that are a bit more vulnerable. We're seeing some of this already, but they have a pretty steep hill to climb.

There is no real way for them to goose 3rd-party support at this point. The history of the Wii has already proven this. The first Wii saw minimal 3rd party support despite Nintendo managing to achieve a huge install base for the hardware. The problem was that the Wii's hardware was simply too different for 3rd parties to cope with. The Wii U has a similar issue. The touchscreen, as well as the differing processor architecture, makes it a different enough beast to prevent most 3rd parties from being able to take advantage of it properly. A lot of this falls on those 3rd party developers. They aren't stepping up to the challenge of developing for the system. But Nintendo is still going to have to deal with the fallout of their design decisions.

 
Richard Kain said:
While I agree that Nintendo could benefit from some fresh IP, I don't think that's their primary issue. Let's not forget that they managed to get an exclusive hold on the next Bayonetta game, simply by offering to provide the funding necessary to complete it. Nintendo has already taken steps to snag a few titles that would have otherwise probably not have come to their platform.

The best approach Nintendo can take for a broader library of titles is more managed out-sourcing of their own properties, as well as poaching specific franchises that are a bit more vulnerable. We're seeing some of this already, but they have a pretty steep hill to climb.

There is no real way for them to goose 3rd-party support at this point. The history of the Wii has already proven this. The first Wii saw minimal 3rd party support despite Nintendo managing to achieve a huge install base for the hardware. The problem was that the Wii's hardware was simply too different for 3rd parties to cope with. The Wii U has a similar issue. The touchscreen, as well as the differing processor architecture, makes it a different enough beast to prevent most 3rd parties from being able to take advantage of it properly. A lot of this falls on those 3rd party developers. They aren't stepping up to the challenge of developing for the system. But Nintendo is still going to have to deal with the fallout of their design decisions.
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They can get third party support by paying for the ports. Bayonetta was one of the games I was actually referencing earlier. Instead of porting popular western games, they're paying for these niche games made by Japanese developers. I get that Nintendo is a Japanese company but more than half their customer base is the Western audience.

 
Hurdle One: Third party parts still don't matter when it's the weakest of the 3 platforms.  

Hurdle Two: Even if the WiiU was on par with the X1 & PS4 spec-wise, they failed in the online space for MP

Until they address those two problems they will never be a primary console for a hardcore gamer.  Neither of those will be addressed with the WiiU, so it will again be a first party only console.

 
Corvin said:
Hurdle One: Third party parts still don't matter when it's the weakest of the 3 platforms.

Hurdle Two: Even if the WiiU was on par with the X1 & PS4 spec-wise, they failed in the online space for MP

Until they address those two problems they will never be a primary console for a hardcore gamer. Neither of those will be addressed with the WiiU, so it will again be a first party only console.
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As I stated earlier they need exclusives not ports. They need to generate buzz based on Wii U exclusives that aren't made by Nintendo. That said, I am not sure Nintendo will ever be a primary console for "hardcore" gamers in the West. They don't have the understanding or infrastructure to appeal to the hardcore gamers. Also, it doesn't help that Nintendo doesn't make the types of games hardcore gamers like. But as they proved with the Wii, you don't need the hardcore gamers to succeed.

 
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Why would any one want to make an exclusive for a console that's sold less in a year plus than the PS4 did in less than two months?

They don't and for that reason, among others, Nintendo never be the primary machine for many hardcore gamers ever again. Third party publishers just don't care about supporting Nintendo platforms. They didn't bother even with the huge Wii install base.

And I doubt Nintendo will ever catch lightning in a bottle with casuals/non gamers again as that crowd has long since moved on to stuff like Angry Birds and Candy Crush on their phones/tablets and Facebook games.

The only market they still have cornered is kids with their portable systems. And even that market is shrinking as the 3DS isn't going to come close to DS sales numbers. More and more kids are moving on to tablets etc as well.

Nintendo doesn't have a lot of options for turning things around. Best I see them doing is just riding the portable/kid market as much and as long as they can and make their next console (if they don't go portable/hybrid only) cheaper and sell it more as a secondary system that hardcore gamers buy to play Nintendo games. That was easy to justify when their consoles were launching at $150 (N64), $200 (GC) or even $250 (Wii). $350 at launch and $300 now is just too much for a lot of gamers to pay just to play a handful if Nintendo games a year. Especially for those only into some if their franchises and not others.
 
Blaster man said:
I get that Nintendo is a Japanese company but more than half their customer base is the Western audience.
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It would be a lot more difficult for Nintendo to buy off Western developers. The kind of niche titles they're picking up right now are low-hanging fruit. They don't have to pay very much to get them, and they don't represent nearly as much risk. For a lot of the more popular Western-developed franchises, they would have to drop fat stacks of cash just to get ports. And ports just wouldn't cut it at this point. Exclusive titles are the only real help for Nintendo right now, especially with the atypical nature of their primary controller.

Any developer opting to go with an exclusive deal with Nintendo would basically have to write off huge potential profits in favor of whatever Nintendo offered them. Even a game that was successful on the Wii U would still sell a fraction of the number of copies possible on other platforms. Nintendo would be forced to foot the entire development bill per game, and then some.

Perhaps in some cases that's exactly what they should do. But I don't think it would be appropriate with every title.

 
dmaul1114 said:
Why would any one want to make an exclusive for a console that's sold less in a year plus than the PS4 did in less than two months?
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Exposure, due to lack of competition. At this point that is Nintendo's best bargaining chip along with footing the development bill. Everyone wants to get paid at the end of the day and we tend to forget that not every game is a money maker. A 5 game K with Nintendo might not be a bad deal for a struggling publisher.

 
Of course, even if they do make games for WiiU, it won't sell if nobody knows it exists on Wii U. *coughubisoftcough*
 
kill3r7 said:
Exposure, due to lack of competition. At this point that is Nintendo's best bargaining chip along with footing the development bill. Everyone wants to get paid at the end of the day and we tend to forget that not every game is a money maker. A 5 game K with Nintendo might not be a bad deal for a struggling publisher.
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Sure. But that's really on applicable for niche stuff like Bayonetta that the average Western core gamer doesn't give a rat's fart about. You were talking about them needing exclusives that would generate a buzz--not little niche titles from struggling publishers. Those aren't going to help the Wii U sell.

As you note, Nintendo doesn't make the type of games the average core gamer wants to play (shooters, WRPGs, racing games, sports game etc.). Thus their market isn't a fit for the types of games most major third parties are making. Even if they had sold more consoles, it would just get more JPRGs and niche Japanese stuff like the 3DS is getting, and not the types of exclusives that would generate buzz with core gamers.

In any case, Nintendo can't compete for the core gamer market in the west. They best they can do is to find a way to make as much profit as they can from their niche--be it kids, people who like platformers and mascot games that are lacking on the other platforms etc. They can probably survive a long time if they do it right--with cheap hardware that is easily affordable for those markets (kids and second or third consoles for core gamers). Not by driving up hardware cost with gimmick hardware like the gamepad.

And honestly, that's probably the best outcome for us core gamers. We don't need another console pumping out FPS, WRPGs etc. There's more than enough of that stuff on PS4, X1 and PC. Having Nintendo thriving in their niche gives us that option for a second or third console that isn't just more of the same with just different exclusive franchises largely in the same genres.

 
dmaul1114 said:
IMO they need to stay underpowered, launch around $200 and make their games work across both their console and next portable so they aren't splitting their limited development resources across two platforms. Some type of hybrid portable/console single system may work too--but that would put them at only one revenue stream and it may be hard to make that powerful enough and stay under in the $200-250 range.
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I think you're right, there. If you're going to knowingly make an underpowered machine then you need to make it pretty cheap and the $200 mark makes sense.

 
Richard Kain said:
Quite true, but most people don't consider that to be a major revision. Slight changes such as this happen all the time with home consoles, they just never get advertised. I actually have an original component-capable GameCube, as well as the newer non-component GameCube. I also have one of the original component cables. The cables in particular are not easy to come by.

When I was shopping for a PS2 slim, I noticed a similar revision. I believe one of the earlier versions of the PS2 slim features a modem port as well as a network CAT5 port. But later versions excised the modem port. These minor hardware revisions happen all the time behind the scenes.
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That's easy for you to say. You're a single rich dude that buys everything he wants. It's not common on CAG but there are people out there that only get a single console.
 
Blaster man said:
You're a single rich dude that buys everything he wants. It's not common on CAG but there are people out there that only get a single console.
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Single? Yes. Dude? Yes. But I definitely wouldn't say that I am rich. If I were rich, there wouldn't be any reason for me to frequent these boards. But I do take your point. When you are single and have relatively stable income, you have a lot more options when it comes to spending on entertainment. I may not be burning Benjamins, but I'm not going hungry either.

The system models I mentioned earlier were all purchased used, several years after any of those systems came out. In most cases they were acquired long after the successor system had already been on the market for a while. I am a Cheap Ass Gamer, after all. It's still true that video game systems get minor hardware revisions on a regular basis to cut back on production expenses.

While I don't agree that the removal of backwards compatibility will happen, I do acknowledge the possibility. It is less likely for this feature to be stripped out than it was for the original Wii. And even there it took Nintendo several years before they removed it. By the time they did, the Wii was already in decline.

The Wii U does not actually include identical hardware to the Wii. Nor did the Wii contain a complete GameCube inside it. They simply all had processors of the same basic design and from the same manufacturer. They were advancements on the same concept, but the basic architecture never changed. Because of this, Nintendo was able to run the same software with very little trouble. Some degree of engineering had to go into the design in order to allow the backwards compatibility, but there was no need for them to reinvent the wheel. With the Wii, they didn't remove the backwards compatibility in order to remove something from inside the machine, but rather something outside of it. The controller ports and memory card slots on the side of the Wii were an unnecessary production expense. By stopping backwards compatibility support for the Wii, Nintendo could start producing Wii systems without those ports. This allowed them to simplify the motherboard as well as the external case, cutting back on both production and assembly.

The Wii U has almost nothing that needs to be removed. It already supports the Wii controller as one of its default inputs. The Wii U and Wii have identically sized discs, so there is no need for a custom disc loader. The only real benefit from removing Wii compatibility from the Wii U would be to remove the SD card slot on the front.

 
Richard Kain said:
Single? Yes. Dude? Yes. But I definitely wouldn't say that I am rich. If I were rich, there wouldn't be any reason for me to frequent these boards. But I do take your point. When you are single and have relatively stable income, you have a lot more options when it comes to spending on entertainment. I may not be burning Benjamins, but I'm not going hungry either.

The system models I mentioned earlier were all purchased used, several years after any of those systems came out. In most cases they were acquired long after the successor system had already been on the market for a while. I am a Cheap Ass Gamer, after all. It's still true that video game systems get minor hardware revisions on a regular basis to cut back on production expenses.

While I don't agree that the removal of backwards compatibility will happen, I do acknowledge the possibility. It is less likely for this feature to be stripped out than it was for the original Wii. And even there it took Nintendo several years before they removed it. By the time they did, the Wii was already in decline.

The Wii U does not actually include identical hardware to the Wii. Nor did the Wii contain a complete GameCube inside it. They simply all had processors of the same basic design and from the same manufacturer. They were advancements on the same concept, but the basic architecture never changed. Because of this, Nintendo was able to run the same software with very little trouble. Some degree of engineering had to go into the design in order to allow the backwards compatibility, but there was no need for them to reinvent the wheel. With the Wii, they didn't remove the backwards compatibility in order to remove something from inside the machine, but rather something outside of it. The controller ports and memory card slots on the side of the Wii were an unnecessary production expense. By stopping backwards compatibility support for the Wii, Nintendo could start producing Wii systems without those ports. This allowed them to simplify the motherboard as well as the external case, cutting back on both production and assembly.

The Wii U has almost nothing that needs to be removed. It already supports the Wii controller as one of its default inputs. The Wii U and Wii have identically sized discs, so there is no need for a custom disc loader. The only real benefit from removing Wii compatibility from the Wii U would be to remove the SD card slot on the front.
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The Wii U is in bad need of additional price cuts and Nintendo needs to save money on it in order to reduce losses. They have all but abandoned the Wii. I just don't think they're going to keep Wii backwards compatibility in there forever.

To take it a step further, I don't think they'll do anything that would increase costs. Every single move they make going forward will be a cost cutting move. For example, they'll probably never release a Wii U with more flash memory than 32GB. If the console is still be made in 4 years, I expect it will still have 32GB in it. They won't put a hard drive in it and they aren't going to increase the flash memory.

 
Blaster man said:
The Wii U is in bad need of additional price cuts and Nintendo needs to save money on it in order to reduce losses.
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Well, I can't argue with that. And I think you're right about the rest of your predictions. The price is definitely a hindrance to the Wii U in the current market. Especially with the approach that Sony and Microsoft took with their new consoles. The PS4 and XBox One will both be placing additional pressure on the Wii U.

I just don't think that the backwards compatibility is where the cuts will happen. Because of the way in which the Wii U and its predecessors were designed, the backwards compatibility in the Wii U has almost no physical cost. (and not really any software cost either) It's effectively free for Nintendo to support Wii games on the system.

Sadly, Nintendo has painted themselves into a bit of a corner when it comes to slashing production costs. The one area where they could chop off the most expense is in the tablet controller. Nix that thing and the system could drop by $100 and still be profitable. A Wii U with just the Pro controller would be much less expensive to produce. While I personally like the tablet controller, it is a bit of an anchor around the Wii U's neck when it comes to production cost.

 
What hardware in the WiiU drives up the cost for backwards compatibility?  I thought they were built on similar architecture.  The only reason to cut backwards compatibility is to save money.  On the Wii, that meant getting rid of GCN ports and components.  There was room to remove stuff.  The WiiU doesn't have that luxury. 

mini rant...Where they could save money is to stop printing up 900 page manuals in 10 different languages for every console sold.  Same with all those warning pages included in every game case for console and mobile games.  Include that info in the game menus.  Waste of money, waste of trees.  Also why a second printout for Club Nintendo codes?  Print the code in the back of the manual or also in game menus.  It's ironic to open an eco-friendly dvd case only to find a bunch of wasted paper and manuals.  Yes this is probably a tiny sum of money in the scope of things, but it's still a waste.

 
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