Today's Wii U Rant

GenGame

It's too bad it would be so unlike Nintendo to release a Wii U bundle without the mostly useless (and super expensive) Gamepad.  I bet they could sell a bundle like that right now for $200, just pack in one of those 360-ish "Pro" controller that don't have a damn 6-inch LCD touch screen in the middle of them.  In fairness, this move would render many current Wii U releases incompatible without an unlikely patch release.  In further fairness, the market has proven consumers do not care about these presently-existing titles.

Something is going to change before Christmas, anyway.  It might be some boring pack-in game bundle, it might be the Deluxe system dropping to $300 from $350 now that the basic bundle has been removed from stores.  But I sure would love for it to be some interesting kind of change.  Something big, something energizing.  A major, but short-term loss for the company to cement a future for Wii U.  A movement comparable to the 3DS Ambassador program that raised consumer and enthusiast morale immensely.

Nintendo's leaders have promised stockholders a fight for a modest profit for the current fiscal year's end, so, sadly, I believe bold moves are not likely.

I'm seeing articles talk like the Wii U can go about surviving along the same lines the Gamecube did last decade; all third-party support gone and just a few headliner Nintendo game launches each year.  I really don't think it's that easy.  The Gamecube was a failure, yet it took four years before that system started selling as badly as the Wii U did this past quarter.  Combine that with the great increases we've seen in the cost of game development since the Gamecube days for a grim picture.

I don't see it as a successful plan, even if simple survival is the only goal.  As it stands, one of of every three Wii U owners must purchase a new release for it to become a million-seller.  That's an absurd proportion.  For perspective, if one out of every three Xbox 360 owners purchased a game, it would hit around 25 million units sold.  That is not a thing that happens.  Then, look at an HD game like Tomb Raider that sold three million units between Xbox 360 and PS3 earlier this year, and was named a "disappointment."

Development costs will vary from game to game, of course, but in Tomb Raider we're talking about a game that matched the number of whole Wii U consoles sold.  If a big budget game like Tomb Raider was sold to every Wii U owner, it still could not have succeeded.  With growth of Nintendo's newest console moving forward so slowly, how can anyone hope for them to make money on a desolate, Gamecube-styled release schedule?

The Wii U is, so far, less popular than its predecessor and exists in a far riskier market.  Gamecube was lucky to last a little longer than four years.  With the present outlook, how long will Nintendo bleed themselves dry supporting the Wii U?

It's a recurring subject for me because I want the system to succeed.  I am always morbidly curious about corporate failure, but much more important is my desire to play great games.  Wii U will be host to a few games I desperately want to play this holiday season -- Sonic Lost World and Mario 3D World among them.  My anticipation for the Wii U's incoming lineup is more optimistic than anyone I have spoken with, and still I cannot justify a purchase.

I'm baffled by the situation, honestly.  I feel like I keep handing Nintendo my wallet and they keep swatting it away, as though they want nothing to do with it.  That's fine; surely somebody else will take my money.