[4Tran]

Originally Posted by GDB

But you aren't paying attention to the discussion at hand. Your argument is that the WiiU base doesn't buy third party games.

Not quite. My argument is that the Wii U's buyers are primarily in it for Nintendo games. That they're not buying third-party games is inherent in the sales figures, and is only incidental to my points.

Originally Posted by GDB

Our argument is that there aren't any third party games for the WiiU. Therefore, if one were to look at this strictly in terms of console exclusives, Nintendo offers far more. Thus, if the third party developers got their heads out of their asses and actually put third party games on the system, people would buy it, because it would then offer both third party games and the best console exclusives.

I think that this isn't the entire picture. Publishers have released games on the Wii U. They didn't sell, so what more do you expect them to do?

Originally Posted by GDB

The fact that people who want third party games do not buy the WiiU is precisely because third party developers do not make games for it. And a single game is not going to do it. A committment is necessary.

I think that it's a lot more likely that these gamers don't buy Wii Us because the console doesn't interest them. If they already have access to the PS3 and 360 versions of the games, why would they want to spend an extra $300-350+ to do the same thing on a similar system? All other consoles have their selling points, but what's the Wii U's?

Originally Posted by GDB

Like you said, that isn't "trying", that's half-assing. Ensure the fans that the games will come out. All of the games. Then, they will purchase it. Ubisoft, at least, sounds like they're giving it a legitmate shot. And I dearly hope that it succeeds, just to prove to the other idiots that you shouldn't neglect fans.

Half-assed efforts should at least receive half-assed sales. Historically, half-assed releases for console launches performed decently. For the Wii U, they outrigh flopped. Why?

Originally Posted by GDB

Source data on "most" WiiU buyers having a PS360?

There's no hard statistics on it, but it makes a lot of sense given the gaming market, game sales figures, and the historical pattern for early adopters. There are about 2.5 million Wii U owners out there, and most of them spent $300-350 or more on a console that has relatively few games available. The chances are that a large number of these gamers would have picked up either a 360 or a PS3 for around the same price some time in the last 6-7 years.

If we look at the prototypical buyer who doesn't one of the above two consoles, and I can only think of only two distinct possibilities: primarily PC users like myself or Wii-only gamers. Neither group seems to be very likely to prefer buying AAA games on the Wii U. I suspect that a lot of the launch ports were feelers to see how conducive these two groups were to those purchases, and whether there were many hardcore gamers on the system.

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Yeah, I know. Either way, it is a shame Crash died off like that. It could have been Sony's Mario (in a platformer meaning)... maybe.

That was way back in the PSX days when Sony was less interested in controlling the intellectual property, and so Crash Bandicoot is now with Activision and Spyro is with Ubisoft (and still gets new games!). Rachet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, and Sackboy are Sony's mascots nowadays - with Sackboy being Sony's Mario (insofar as far as they're willing to push the image). I imagine that Kat from Gravity Rush will join them sometime soon.