The Wii U and the 2DS

Some things are happening with Nintendo lately involving the Wii U and the 3DS.  Though Nintendo has been having a hard time selling the Wii U, they seem to have the games this holiday season to help combat against the X-Box One and Playstation 4.

Still, it seems Nintendo ain't taking any chances.

Nintendo's home console can be yours for just $299.99 starting September 20, the house of Mario announced today. That's a $50 price cut for a console that's about to get a steady flow of Nintendo-made games but that's been struggling to sell at even half the pace of its predecessor.

The Wii U will sell in two models: the existing black deluxe model bundled with the pretty-good game compilation Nintendo Land or in a new Zelda model. An image of the latter leaked last week.

That Zelda console is black, but its GamePad controller is etched with Zelda-style script The bundle will also include vouchers to download a digital (duh) copy of the Hyrule Historia Zelda lore book and a copy of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD.

Both consoles include 32GB of on-board flash memory. The system can be connected to self-powered hard-drives for more storage capacity.

"Obviously we want to drive Wii U momentum," Fils-Aime said of the reasoning behind the price drop. "We've been very clear that software is what drives hardware. And we feel very good about the line-up of software for Wii U. Taking the added step to improve the value just reinforces our commitment to make sure that Wii U has a strong holiday this year and is set up to be a strong platform into the future."1

The Wii U has been struggling to catch on in its first year, a fact Nintendo, to their credit, isn't trying to hide.

"All you need to do is look at the numbers," Fils-Aime said. "At this point in time the Wii install base was beginning to approach three million—this is U.S. numbers—and as we sit here today, the Wii U installed base is at about 1.5 million. So clearly the sales pace is different. But I will also tell you that the focus on making sure that this holiday—its second holiday—is really strong is actually quite consistent with the way we've always thought about our hardware launches."
 

A bold move on Nintendo's part.  But what about our sacred basic set?



Nintendo has all but phased out the white 8GB version of the Wii U, a system that retailers seemed to begin dumping this past spring. That "basic" version of Nintendo's console had originally sold for $299, sans pack-in game. "That has largely sold through in the marketplace," Fils-Aime said. "There is not much of that particular configuration out and we don't expect there to be much at all come September 20."



 Wait a minute.  You mean to tell me that you're phasing out the White 8GB version of Wii U?  Well how am I suppose to waste money on the cheapest system possible when you only have the 32GB version available? If there was only some sort of price cut....oh wait.  N/M.  Let's move onto the next topic: The 3DS.

For the past few months, the 3DS, despite its small sales, has finally dominated the X-Box 360.  But it looks like Nintendo is releasing an even cheaper version of their handheld that is aimed at a younger crowd with: Nintendo 2DS



The system will go on sale in October for $129, far cheaper than the current 3DS.  It will be compatible with all your 3DS and DS titles, and it lacks 3D and a Clamshell design.  Suitable for all your little kids needs.

But what's that you say?  You think the 2DS looks ugly.  You think it looks alot like an Axe.



Hah.  Ridiculous.  If it were anything like an Axe, it would do something like this.



I now officially feel sorry for the Playstation Vita.  It didn't even deserve that.

I now leave you with a small set of paragraphs of a heart touching story about a blind girl and her Nintendo Wii U.




Back when the Wii U was launched, I had hoped for things like Netflix allowing us to stream a movie to the TV as well as display it on the GamePad simultaneously so Jen could have her own display and sit on the couch with the rest of us to enjoy a movie.  This ended up not being the case, but the seed was planted for the GamePad being a display that could move with her.  

I looked through the library of Wii U games as they were released to find something we could play together in this way but could not find anything that would work.  New Super Mario Bros U had the feature, but she would die pretty quick and became frustrated.  It wasn't what we wanted.  But when I got home last Sunday with my new boxed copy of New Super Luigi U in hand, I had an epiphany about the new character that Nintendo decided to replace its signature plumber Mario with...Nabbit.  
Nabbit is different because this character is basically invulnerable.  I'm talking you can run about the screen and you will just pass around enemies without being "bumped" or "tossed" anywhere so you are free to move about.  This lead to a character Jennifer could play and run with, but without the frustrations that plagued her before.  She still can fall into a hole, but then Nabbit is tossed into a bubble and she gets to "shake" the remote to let us pop it which she thought was hilarious.  I was amazed at how quickly she picked up the mechanics and started jumping gaps and running about.  I would smile as she got her face so close to the screen that a platform would pop up when her nose tapped it from time to time before she figured out it was a touch screen too. 

 People complain and argue that the GamePad is an unnecessary accessory on a system that is failing to launch fast enough.  They complained that the Wii Remote was too simple and could not allow for "proper" gaming.  Yet here I sit able to say that the Nintendo Wii U...with it's GamePad and ability to use the Wii's Remotes has led to me playing a game with my daughter directly for the first time. Where at night when my wife goes to work at the hospital me and the boys could join into a 3 player game while my daughter would watch a movie finally have a 4th player.  We are together and my daughter has broken another "she can't".




Works Cited:
Kotaku
Zenspath

I hate being bored....but something did pop up

Man.  I hate boredom.  Next to waiting for new consoles to poke fun at to Disney Infinity now out on consoles, there isn't much to look at.  I wonder what will pop up in front of me.



It’s been revealed that the Call of Duty: Ghosts unveiling was actually done on PC, with Xbox One controllers plugged in. With only three months before the launch of both the console and the game, some may be worried by this, although it’s not really as bad as it sounds.



Wait a minute.  You mean to tell me that the unveiling of Call of Duty: Ghost was done on the PC?  Well that's gonna mess up those who wanted to buy it on the consoles.

Anyway, various news sources pointed out that the Call of Duty unveiling wasn't done on the X-Box One, but on a PC with similar specs to an X-Box One.  As a matter of fact, IGN's Scott Lowe has this to say.



This week’s Call of Duty: Ghosts event wasn’t just the first opportunity to see the game’s much-anticipated multiplayer content, it was also my first chance to see how the new Xbox One controller performs when playing a competitive first-person shooter. While the controller wasn’t paired with the Xbox One console — rather, PCs configured to next-gen specs — the demos highlighted the new changes to the ergonomics, thumbsticks, d-pad, and trigger design.



If you want to see more about Call of Duty: Ghosts, check out the video below



Works Cited:
GamesReviews

NPD June 2013: After Comic-Con edition.

Folks, I'm running late again reporting for the NPD in August instead of July.  Man, why do I keep getting late over this?

Before I get into details, last week Phil Fish rage quits over a tweet and ends up cancelling Fez II.

---

Polytron's Phil Fish has quit the games industry, cancelling the development of Fez II in the process.

Fish announced his decision through various channels on Sunday. He gave no specific reason for the move.

A statement published on the official Polytron website read: "Fez II is cancelled. I am done. I take the money and I run. This is as much as I can stomach. This is isn't the result of any one thing, but the end of a long, bloody campaign. You win."


Poor Fish.  He's been fried badly.  And now we'll never know the sequel to Fez.  But what was it that caused the Fish to lose it?

---

While Fish claims that his departure is the culmination of a, "long, bloody campaign," it is believed that a recent Game Trailers video may have been the final straw.

In an episode of the GT web series Invisible Walls, Marcus Beer called out Phil Fish and Jonathan Blow for refusing to offer comment to Game Informer on rumours about Microsoft's decision to allow self-publishing on Xbox One. Beer called both Fish and Blow "hispter ***holes" and "tosspots" for their lack of communication with the press, saying, "You should be grateful that these guys still consider what you say to be something of use."

Fish subsequently took to Twitter to provide more context for his decision. "To be clear, I'm not cancelling Fez II because some boorish **** said something stupid," he said. "I'm doing it to get out of games.

"And I'm getting out of games because I choose not to put up with this abuse any more."

---

In other words, this is what happens when fish and beer meets.  You end up getting a tasty, breaded dinner, or someone named Marcus Beer should have felt bad for what he did.

Anyway, Lemme count down the Top 10 games of June 2013.

At number 10: Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon by Nintendo for the 3DS.  Who's up for pranking Luigi with a Ghost costume?

At number 09: Battlefield 3 by Electronic Arts for the 360, PS3 and PC.  It still ain't like Call of Duty

At number 07: Donkey Kong Country Returns by Nintendo for the 3DS and Wii.  No Kremlings allowed

At number 06: Injustice: Gods Among Us by Warner Bros Interactive for the 360, PS3 and Wii U.  Meanwhile, Cyborg got in trouble for eating Raven's Nachos.

At number 05: NBA K13 by Take 2 Interactive for the 360, PS3, Wii U, PSP and PC.  Good thing Dennis Rodman didn't screw up this Top 10

At number 04: Call of Duty: Black Ops II by Activision Blizzard for the 360, PS3, PC and Wii U.  I'm surprised this game is still doing well with Ghosts coming around the corner

At number 03: Minecraft by Microsoft for the 360.  Wait a minute, Minecraft?  How did that make it onto the Top 10?

At number 02: Animal Crossing: New Leaf by Nintendo for the 3DS.  Hey wait a minute.  How did that get up there?

And at Number 01: Last of Us by Sony for the PS3.  Nothing more needs to be said.

But what about hardware sales?  Well, it is official.  The 3DS truly overtook the 360.

Nintendo 3DS: 225K
Xbox 360: 140K

Is it a transition, or is something more sinister on the horizon?  Stay tuned for the NPD July 2013 as we bring you more on the NPD fallout.

Works Cited:
Games Industry
NeoGAF