How does the outspoken COO of Nintendo America Reggie Fils-Aime feel about the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One?
“It’s all about the games. The competitive systems have announced their launch lineups. I’m allowed to say ‘meh,” Fils-Aime said in an interview with IGN. The Nintendo head added that he feels confident in the Wii U’s title lineup, noting, “We’ve got Zelda. We’ve got Mario. We’ve got Donkey Kong. In addition to great titles like Pikmin 3 and Wonderful 101, I feel very good about our lineup, and I feel very good about the value proposition we’re putting out there for the consumer.”
Both the Xbox One and PS4 will have more than 20 titles available at launch, which is on par with what the Wii U’s launch was back in November of last year. The only problem is Nintendo’s flagship has been seeing less and less support from third-party developers, making the console a harder sell for gamers worldwide. Perhaps, Nintendo’s hoping to turn the tide with its recent announcement that the Wii U’s going to be a little cheaper starting September 21st, though only time will tell how successful that strategy turns out to be.
Even with two new consoles on the way that the Wii U will be forced to compete with,
“I don’t think consumers buy hardware just because it’s sexy and new. I think consumers buy hardware because of the experiences they can have on them. That’s why, for us, having a strong holiday line-up is so critically important.”
“You know, to a certain extent, how they perform is going to come down to the clarity of their proposition, their execution. There are a lot of variables out there, and that’s for my friends over at Microsoft and Sony to go figure out. My job is to drive Nintendo products and make sure we have a great holiday.”
There’s no denying that the PS4 and Xbox One have a leg up on Wii U when it comes to specs and visuals. However, Reggie pointed out that graphics alone “aren’t selling propositions”.
“Systems that generate pretty pictures by themselves aren’t selling propositions, and all you need to do is look at the last generation to see the evidence. And that’s true whether you look at the home console space or the handheld space. It’s not about the graphics by itself. It’s about the entire experience.”
How do you all feel about the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launch lineup? Do you agree that the WiiU can compete directly with its next generation competition?
In my opinion. Can WiiU compete with next-gen? No, absolutely not. Playstation has: Uncharted , Killzone, Little Big planet, God Of War, The last of us.
Xbox has: Gears, Halo. Both those games sell like crazy. Both have competitive support.
The Wii in general is aimed at little kids or a family experience. Playstation 4 and Xbox one’s hardware are no match for the WiiU. Both consoles have game(s) running at 60 Fps.
It’s a fair argument and I’m inclined to agree. Nintendo has been unable to cater to for a while now, even though they’ve had relatively high success regardless. It’s fine if they want to market primarily to kids, families, or whatever. But unlike the Wii, the WiiU is more of a “traditional” console and so consumers expect a more appropriate software lineup etc. Boasting that you have “Mario, Zelda, and Donkey Kong”, franchises you’ve had for 30+ years, is hardly going to sway or convince skeptics/critics of anything.
It also doesn’t help that the WiiU, from the technical standpoint, doesn’t appear like it’ll be able to directly compare to its peers (just as the Wii was next to the 360/PS3). That’s going to hurt it a lot, and with the gimmicky controller and third party support rapidly evaporating Nintendo has to do something quick to turn things around. And the 2DS is not the answer.