It... works. You can play online, download games (from a very convenient interface devoid of ads), video chat, browse faster and more conveniently than on any other console, so my guess is we're dealing with an Eastwood Chair situation here.
Text overload!
- It takes 9 seconds to load up your friends list which kicks you out of the Mii-verse, eShop and some other "apps".
- Sending an invite to a friend doesn't put an invite on their console. They have to add you themselves. They fixed this.
- You can't message friends from your friends list. You have to go into the Miiverse to send anything. The Miiverse takes over 20 seconds to load up.
- Lack of system level invite system. Apparently Tekken Tag 2 is pretty dumb about this. If you want to play versus a friend you have to share a code with them and you both have to enter it. Playing Call of Duty and want to invite a friend into a game? Well they better be playing the game at that moment or it won't work.
- Want to use the video chat as a workaround for a party chat? Sure, but you can't do it while playing a game. Get ready for loads!
- The entire account system is fucked. You can't move saves, profiles, or games between consoles.
- Everything takes forever to download and install.
So to demonstrate the fucked up flow here is an example. Let's say you are browsing the Miiverse and you want to see who is online to play. The Miiverse won't tell you who is online or not, so you'll have to press the Home button (7 seconds) which backs you out to the main WiiU menu and at the same time pops up the in-game overlay thing which contains quick buttons to access your friends list, Miiverse, eShop, Browser etc. So you click on the Friends list (9 seconds). Once that loads you see who is online. Now you want to send them a message asking them if they want to play something. You click on their name, but there is no messaging option here. You have to click on the go to their Miiverse profile icon (~20 seconds). Now it has auto loaded into their profile page, but there isn't a messaging icon here, so you have to click on the General Messages tab on the left and then click on their profile in this screen and finally you will get the option to "Write Message". Not only are the Nintendo recognized load times an issue, but so is the entire system they designed where they separate out features from the WiiU system itself (Friends list) into the Web based Miiverse. Whoever designed this didn't put much thought into it.
It all creates for an atmosphere of nothing going on. The only place with any color is the Miiverse and that's so far entirely a novelty to go and see good artists fuck around. Games that take advantage of the Miiverse is unique way number in the 1's (ZombiU).
I don't expect much of these issues to be fixed. I expect Nintendo to make great games like they always do. But the current gen consoles already surpass Nintendo's online solution and the PS4 and most certainly the 720 will make the WiiU look like a ghost town in comparison. There is a reason more people will be playing on the 720 and PS4. No it won't just be because their are social Facebook walls in your face on every menu. You'll be able to pop up a video or voice chat room while in a game, and possibly on the PS4 and probably on the 720 in every app. If these features aren't integrated to a level where you can access them everywhere quickly people won't use them and the community will suffer. Even if you don't care about how the community thrives these features will be just as half baked for you. Just look at the Kinect Video Chat on the 360. No one uses it. It suffers from the same issues as the WiiU.
There are maybe 2 positives I can see in Nintendo's implementation of online features. The browser is easily the best browser on a console so far, and the implementation of the video player with the WiiU Gamepad which lets you continue to browser while you play a video is exactly the type of thinking I want from them. Maybe i'm too optimistic about Microsoft, but I full expect them to 1-up this with the ability to just push web pages and video to the 720 from your tablet, phone or PC using Smartglass. Combine that with the quick loading apps and you have a new way that people use their televisions. Google has been trying to do this with Google TV, but no one bought it. I don't see Microsoft having that problem. Anyways the other success appears to be the policies they have in place with the eShop. Self publishing, free updates etc. Rumor is the next gen will do that as well. I expect Sony to, but Microsoft worries me. I really feel like they have to do it if they want to succeed like they did for the first half of the generation, but they seem to be the strictest.
