Nintendo Wii U @ E3: thoughts and concerns

Another excellent view from Kenneth.

I recently read about the new Wii U presentation. Below are some quick thoughts I have:

Positives

The ability to bring the game onto the controller when someone else wants to watch TV makes it a great family device with regards to serving the needs of a varied group.

It’s a mini tablet essentially which again offers cross functionality for other uses (such as the demonstrated ability to transfer video onto the TV for others to watch).

Concerns

Price point is going to be a big problem. The touch screen and tablet like nature of the controller makes me worried that the controller is going to be priced out of range for a lot of buyers. How much is a single controller going to cost? It’s a family device but can multiple children are going to want a controller in their hands.

Durability is the other concern. Controllers need to durable because the drop all the time, especially in the hands of children. This coincides with the price issue. If the all-in cost for the Wii U is going to be expensive because of the controller, there might be fighting over who gets to hold the controller in a multi-child family household. If that’s the case then the controller is going fall a lot (during fights among children). How durable is the controller, especially the screen?

3rd party development quality. One of the worst things about the Wii is the mass amount of shovelware games. Most in-house games by Nintendo were well made, however a large amount of Wii games were gimicky and terrible in general. The Wii U is a family oriented device, which means that developers might feel they can mass produce poor games to sell to uninformed parents. Does Nintendo reign in shovelware developers? If not, they might not attract any hardcore gamers and lose out the Sony and Microsoft.

Overall, I think Nintendo has a great hardware product on their hands. It should be very marketable to the family environment. However, I think if Nintendo really wants to be dominant in the next generation of gaming, they need to keep the price point of the controller down, even if it means taking a significant loss.