The Problems Facing The WiiU: Part Two

LAUNCH TITLES- Now, one bonus regarding the WiiU's potential launch line-up is that Nintendo seem to have learned from their past mistakes. Their initial offerings for the 3DS at launch this year were dismal at best, with Pilotwings and Nintendogs seemingly meant to provide the height of excitement at the time. The company are now dropping the price of the handheld by over a third, which has never been done before just five months after release (those who bought their 3DS at the hefty £230 RRP will at least get 20 free downloadable classics, but it's really not a good sign for sales). This shows that they know and regret not bringing us a successful launch batch, and actually bodes quite well for whatever first hits the WiiU. Sufficed to say, at their E3 conference Nintendo pleased plenty of hardcore gamers by announcing Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, Batman: Arkham City, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Tekken and Darksiders. Shortly after the frenzy of anticipation came from fans of all those franchises, though, the developers of the majority of them revealed that they were toying with ideas to enhance the gameplay experience on the console, rather than planning to bring out the most recent instalments (Revelations; Infinite etc) at launch as was hinted by the video reveals. This, combined with Nintendo's confirmation that the demos of New Super Mario Bros Mii and The Legend of Zelda HD were nothing more than tech demonstrations and that the announcement of a Super Smash Bros title was in fact premature, with the game itself not set for release until at least 2013, leaves the quality and quantity of the WiiU's launch titles worryingly uncertain. Worse still, assuming Arkham City, out on 360 and PS3 this October, and Colonial Marines, out next Spring for other consoles, make the first line-up, they will both have been released elsewhere over half a year before. That means Nintendo are going to have to offer something very big and innovative in each of these to convince those of us (likely such as myself) who will already own one version of both, lest they want poor sales again for the console.
GRAPHICS- Let's be blunt: in this day and age of video gaming, graphics matter. No, they do not affect how a game plays or the quality of its storyline, but the realism of a locale, a character model or a weapon can easily prove the deciding factor for use of a gamer's cash. Although all of the games on show for the WiiU did look relatively impressive, as hard as it is to admit, there was absolutely nothing that surpassed the high standards of the 360 and PS3's graphics, and considering the next iterations of those popular consoles will likely be on their way just one year after this hits that's an ominous prospect. Nintendo managed to get away with cartoony visuals with the likes of Wii Sports and Wii Fit on the basis that their last console was aimed at casual gamers for the most part, but now the aim seems to be mainly on getting back hardcore followers who wanted COD and FIFA to look great, that the jump in graphics doesn't seem to be anything huge seems contradictory to the development targets.
IS THE WIIU DOOMED ALREADY?- Don't get me wrong, I cannot wait to see what Nintendo have in store for us next year, and welcome their decision to herald the next generation of video gaming by bringing us their innovative new console before anyone else debuts new hardware. That being said, it does worry me that there already seem to be so many dilemmas facing the WiiU based on its initial E3 reveal, and I haven't even covered the mishaps of what the console itself actually looks like (basically the same as the Wii, adding to the feeling that not much has changed) or the potential for the same cycle of bland third-party games to repeat. Perhaps these anxieties have faced every console launch, I wasn't really old enough to notice when the 360 released, but I can't help but think that when we see the next Xbox and PlayStation in 2013 or '14, the WiiU will (again) be percieved as the lesser console, and suffer largely in the race for sales as a result. Nothing would please me more than for me to be proved completely wrong, though!