By Nelson Schneider - 12/08/12 at 03:13 PM CT
My own observations of the WiiU's WaraWara Plaza have shown that almost everyone who owns a WiiU is playing "New Super Mario Bros. U," while just a handful of Miis gather under "Black Ops 2." It seems that Kotaku, who actually have staff members who own those unappreciated-by-WiiU-owners titles, have been able to apply some hard numbers to the WaraWara Plaza Mii distributions.
~700 people playing "Black Ops 2"?
~30 people playing the newest "Madden NFL"?
These numbers sound appropriate based on my esteem for those games/franchises. Too bad the other platforms with those games aren't putting up similar numbers. Of course, considering how huge the numbers for these games are on the Xbox 360, I can't help but wonder two things:
Why aren't these games Xbox 360 exclusives?
Why does Nintendo care so much about getting this particular type of third-party support for the WiiU?
Comments
Jonzor - wrote on 12/09/12 at 12:25 AM CT
I think this is a lot more about Nintendo reaping the "rewards" of their decisions during the last console cycle than it is the superior palette of the discerning Wii U owner.
Wii U owners didn't reject AAA titles, Nintendo rejected the people that would like to play them, and now they're stuck with a user base that's going to ensure the failure of this first crop of AAA titles, thus keeping the cycle going. Expecting them to come flocking back in the first month of a new console seems... optimistic. It's like opening up a little shop that sells blankets and then being surprised that the Native American community doesn't buy a lot of them.
Nintendo chose this path long ago. If they now decide they want the AAA-game fans to take them seriously, they have to PROVE it. That's going to take a while, because Nintendo dug themselves a deep hole with the Wii... which I think was a mini game on several titles... see, you'd hold the Wiimote like a shovel and race your grandmother trying to see who can dig a hole faster while slowly failing to convince yourself this is better than playing Skyrim, Bioshock or Arkham Asylum.
People haven't just been sitting around since the SNES waiting for the Nintendo console to get all the good games again... they've moved on, and Nintendo made it extremely clear it doesn't care about them. So now, if Nintendo wants them back, I honestly think it's going to take a little time, and a little begging on Nintendo's part.
Chris Kavan - wrote on 12/08/12 at 08:41 PM CT
I honestly think Nintendo is trying to shed their "Nintendo is only for casual/young gamers" image by supporting more mature titles. I wonder how hard it is for developers to incorporate the gamepad into their games. Anyway - Nintendo is just trying to stay competitive - the real test is going to come when the system has been around awhile and a AAA is released on all systems at the same time (once the initial hype dies down). If the number stays that low, then it will be a bigger concern - though I doubt the numbers will ever match those for the Xbox 360 or PS3 - but, who knows, maybe the online component will turn out to be amazing and surprise everyone.
