Is Wii U Next Gen?

I've heard this so many times since Wii U has launched. If you search Wii U on Google you will find this question being asked and discussed over and over again. This is such an easy question to answer.

Question: Is the Wii U next gen?
Answer: Yes!

Here's the thing the term "next generation" has nothing to do with a systems power. The word Generation refers to a time span, usually associated to people. Here's an example, My father is from a previous generation than me. Since he was born before me he's from a different generation.

Since the Wii came out in 2006 (around the time of 360 and ps3) and Wii U was released in 2012 (around same time as ps4 and xbone will release) they are obviously from different generations. The internal pieces and specs of the machine have nothing to do with a game systems generation!

Yes you can say that the Wii U has closer specs to the PS3 and 360(even though that's not entirely true).  You can not argue if Nintendo's Wii U is next generation.

Wii U Sold 1 Million in Japan

After being on the market for 33 weeks in Japan Wii U has finally sold 1 million consoles. YAY for Nintendo. Actually this isn't all that impressive. However it did make it to a million 5 weeks faster than PS3 did when it launched in Japan. So that's something to think about.

New Nintendo Franchise

Shigeru Miyamoto confirms that he's developing a new franchise, and he says it's keeping him very busy. This is good to know since Nintendo doesn't make new franchises very often. Shigeru Miyamoto is responsible for so many loved characters, so expect greatness. Here's what he said in a recent interview with Famitsu.

“I think it’s about time we brought out a new franchise. I can’t give out details, but that’s the title that’s been keeping me pretty busy lately.”

Hopefully Nintendo is working on multiple new franchises. Nintendo is seriously lacking in mature games. Both Sony and Microsoft have action and first person shooter franchises. These two genres make up most of their revenue. So Nintendo would be wise to add a few to their line up. Maybe Nintendo will release some official information before the end of the year.

Does Ouya Matter

Ouya has finally been released. Ouya was a huge sucess on Kickstarter. It had a lot of people excited about the idea of an Android gaming console. So how is Ouya and does it matter in today's gaming market?

For starters Ouya is not a powerhouse. Ouya is designed with Indie developers in mind. This means that you wont see a lot of big budget titles releasing. However Sega has a few Sonic titles and Square Enix has Final Fantasy 3 on Ouya. So there are some exceptions, but overall it will have smaller unknown games. For the record I love Shadowgun on Ouya (just like I did on Xperia Play).

Not that there's anything wrong with that. I actually like a lot of indie games. As smart phones have proven there is a huge market for these games. So time will tell of people want to play these games on the big screen.

Okay so Ouya wont blow your mind with graphics but it is a really well built(and good looking system). The OS is also smooth and attractive. Every Ouya game is "free to try" so there's no upfront money to get playing. Overall the Ouya is a good, cheap console ($99).

Does the Ouya matter? I thought the Ouya concept was great when I first heard about it. However since then both Sony and Nintendo have been making huge efforts to get Indie games on their platforms. In theory the games releasing on Ouya will also be on Wii U, PS3, PS4, and PS Vita. Plus the fact most of these games are on IOS and other Android devices.

Ouya really is a cool device. At $99 it has huge potential to make waves in the gaming industry. I just wonder if it's a little to late. Either way if you can afford to buy one you might as well, it's fun.

GTA V Looks Epic

The new trailer for GTA V was released today. WOW! That pretty much describes it.This has to be the biggest, best looking game I've ever seen. I don't know if the story will be any good(though Rockstar has a good trackrecord) but the game play looks amazing.

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I'm assuming this is running on a PS3 or 360 since those are the only 2 platforms announced at this time. However it looks so good it could be running on a PC. I would wait for this on PC but GTA's usually take about a year to make it to PC. So I wont be waiting for this one. I'll be buying this day one on my PS3.

UPDATE

Rockstar has now said that all footage was taken from the PS3 build. That is one seriously good looking PS3 game! Do we even need next gen?

Third Party Developers on Wii U

So today Ubisoft came out and said that ZombiU was unprofitable for them. Therefore no plans for a sequel. One of the reasons I bought my Wii U was to play this game...and I've still yet to beat it. It's not a bad game, just not a polished or overly fun game. It's actually one of the ugliest games on the Wii U. Metacritic has ZombiU rated at 77%.

Electronics Arts has said that their 4 games have sold poorly on Wii U as well. However every game EA brought to Wii U were ports of games that were already released on all other major consoles. Not good ports either, watered down ports. Fifa and Madden both were missing some features from the PS3 and 360. Mass Effect 3 Special Edition had all the additional content at that time. However it had some technical issues and no other DLC was released. On top of that EA released a collection that had all 3 Mass Effect games in 1 case slightly before this version released. Then they charged $60 for this version as well as the Complete Collection. Which made the Wii U version look like a bad deal (and it was). The only good EA game was Need For Speed Most Wanted U. This game also released months after the other console and pc versions. Also this game got no other DLC. However this game did look better and run smoother than the PS3 or 360 versions.

I could keep listing companies that just did quick ports when the Wii U was released. When you release a game after it's been out on other consoles and pc can you really expect it to sell well? Most people have multiple game systems and they don't want to wait months for a game. Or if you make a mediocre game do companies think that will sell well?

This is the problem the Wii U has with most 3rd party developers. They were to lazy to make new games so they just ported over old games. Or they just made a mediocre game and hoped it would sell. It's no wonder your damn games don't sell! Make better games! People need to tell these developers this. People will buy games if they are new and worth buying.

A Bloodbath is coming to Wii U

Another new game is announced for Wii U. It's called Bloodbath and it's made by Freedom Factory. There isn't a whole lot of information out yet. However it does look like a gory arena style fighting game. I welcome every and all games to Wii U, so yay a new game. Also no release date is known so who knows when it will come out. Either way it's nice to have another mature game on a Nintendo platform. Check out the link below to watch the trailer.
http://youtu.be/KpjWyCAMDpE

Injustice DLC on Wii U

This has been out for a few days, but just a reminder to those who may want it. Injustice Gods Among Us on Wii U finally has dlc. This brings it mostly up to par with the PS3 and 360 versions. Hopefully all new dlc will also release on Wii U(and on the same day).

Wii U's Best Feature

Sometimes I forget why I bought my Wii U. There was one main reason I bought it, for that awesome tablet controller. Most games really haven't used the Wii U's tablet in any original way. Most companies just throw a map and inventory screen on it. Actually both of these come in handy while playing a lot more than you'd think. It's nice to be able to look down at the screen and see how much ammo you have, or where you are on a bigger map. Plus having these on the map free's up the screen of clutter.

However the main reason I like the tablet controller is for the off screen play. In case you don't know what this is I'll explain. If the game supports off screen play (and most do) you can send the picture from the TV to the gamepad and play the full game on the tablet. The screen is a good size so most games this works fine on. This works with two player games as well. Player one can play on the tv, while player 2 can use the gamepad screen. This way both players have their own screen. To be honest I really like playing on the tablet.

So you may ask "why do I need to play on the pad while I have a TV"? Well I'll give you an example. Last night I was playing Injustice on my Wii U. I had the game on my monitor and the moves list on the tablet screen. My wife wanted to use my PC (it's faster than her laptop and I have a 26 inch monitor). So I just sent the the game to the gamepad and kept playing. I've done this plenty of times to share the TV(monitor) or just so I can lay in bed(or couch) and keep playing.

This alone is a great reason to own a Wii U. It really is a great feature. It's hard to tell you why the gamepad is so great. If you haven't played a Wii U go the store and demo it. After a few minutes of playing you will really like the controller tablet.

Can Wii U survive?

Well we are past E3 2013 and where is the Wii U? Honestly I think it's in the exact same place it was before E3. It's still on the shelves waiting for consumers. People still don't have to much of a reason to purchase a Wii U. The only main stream game released recently was Game and Wario, and that got average reviews at best.

Even the games shown for the future were not very exciting. We got a Mario game that no one wants, and another Donkey Kong game. Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros were shown but are still going to be next year before a release. The other games shown were titles we already knew about.

As far as third party support went...well there wasn't any. No one talked about Wii U any except Sega with Sonic Lost World. The only time I remember seeing a Wii U anything was during the Ubisoft convention. It briefly showed a Gamepad in a dance game. Square Enix talked about it's Wii U Exclusive of Deus Ex. Then it told the world it was no longer an exclusive.

 I love my Wii U. I see so much potential in this little system. It's just hard for us early adopters to have faith in Nintendo when all you hear is bad press. I'm hopeing that once Pikmin 3 and Zelda release later this year that Wii U will start selling consoles. I can't imagine how much of a drought next year will be if doesn't start selling and selling soon.