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The Wii U Speculation Thread VI: The Undiscovered Country

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Penguin

Member
I honestly never understood the advantage to this way of announcing E3 stuff.

I always thought it was less an advantage... and more of being able to control when stuff gets out

MS has had a lot of their stuff leak the past 2-3 years.. including their entire conference last year.

I don't know a year when Sony didn't have a leak.. so they just announced stuff sooner.
 
Nintendo's disc formats have all been CAV. This means that the disc spins at a constant rate, resulting in higher data rates when reading from the outer edge of the disc, and lower data rates from the inner edge. Comparatively, DVDs and Blu-Rays are CLV, which means the rate of rotation of the disc changes to ensure a constant data rate. While the drive is most likely capable of both, running in CAV mode leads to a much longer life for the drive than CLV mode. Nintendo puts a lot of care into making sure that their hardware lasts as long as possible, so not playing DVDs/Blu-Rays, and hence not having the drive operate in CLV mode, is one of the decisions they make to achieve that.

I recall that DVDs were playable on the Wii via Homebrew, though I never got that actually working¹. I know that they read the discs differently, but would this not mean that the Wii was technically capable of spinning in CLV mode despite Nintendo's intent?



¹ I'm one of the incompetent hackers
 
Probably won't be at E3

A decent chunk, or at least an idea of the direction, of the UI will probably be seen at E3. The OS itself may be pretty vague. I mean, I don't think even Sony or Microsoft really go into detail there. Do we know if they have microkernels or monolithic kernels up in there?

Suddenly, visions of message passing and semaphores are clouding behind my eyes…


edit: Damnit people, post faster so I don't crowd up the page like this!
 

Thraktor

Member
I recall that DVDs were playable on the Wii via Homebrew, though I never got that actually working¹. I know that they read the discs differently, but would this not mean that the Wii was technically capable of spinning in CLV mode despite Nintendo's intent?



¹ I'm one of the incompetent hackers

Yep, as I say, the drive is almost certainly capable of operating in CLV mode (it's probably just a standard laptop DVD drive anyway, so there's no reason it wouldn't be), it's just that Nintendo has it running in CAV mode for longevity's sake.
 
That'd be horrible. The 3DS ain't doing too hot in any territory outside of Japan. They can't afford to throw it under a bus in order to focus on the Wii U. :/
I wouldn't call throwing on a repeat of luigis mansion 2, animal crossing, paper mario, whatever else under the bus. I don't mind them showing trailers in succession since that's fast, but I don't want them to stand there and talk about it for 20 minutes.

They can't afford to not focus on the wii U. Perception is everything /iwata
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
That'd be horrible. The 3DS ain't doing too hot in any territory outside of Japan. They can't afford to throw it under a bus in order to focus on the Wii U. :/

People in general dont care about E3. Only the "hardcore" ones like us will care about the conference, and most of us want to see as much Wii U details as we can. I don't think anyone who will watch it want to see 30 mins of Wii U and 30 mins of 3DS.
 

Effect

Member
People in general dont care about E3. Only the "hardcore" ones like us will care about the conference, and most of us want to see as much Wii U details as we can. I don't think anyone who will watch it want to see 30 mins of Wii U and 30 mins of 3DS.

Just said I'd like to see a 50/50 split in my post and I'm taking a half day to be home in order to watch the conference.
 

onilink88

Member
I wouldn't call throwing on a repeat of luigis mansion 2, animal crossing, paper mario, whatever else under the bus. I don't mind them showing trailers in succession since that's fast, but I don't want them to stand there and talk about it for 20 minutes.

Fifteen to twenty minutes of 3DS. Anything below that isn't acceptable. I'm not budging on this.

They can't afford to not focus on the wii U. Perception is everything /iwata

I didn't say they shouldn't. But that's no excuse for an anemic 3DS showing. :/

The 3DS is doing just fine.

Once again, in Japan.

People in general dont care about E3. Only the "hardcore" ones like us will care about the conference, and most of us want to see as much Wii U details as we can. I don't think anyone who will watch it want to see 30 mins of Wii U and 30 mins of 3DS.

You're looking at someone who wouldn't mind seeing that. I like that Ninty doesn't allow their handhelds to play second fiddle to their home consoles. That's Sony's job, and look where it's getting them.

Though, I am in agreement that the Wii U needs to have a more significant presence than the 3DS, but not to the point where the 3DS' showing is laughably pathetic (as I thought it was last year).
 

Skiesofwonder

Walruses, camels, bears, rabbits, tigers and badgers.
It's looking like each of the three console maker's conferences will easily be a step-up from last year, which is surprising.

Microsoft: Halo 4, Gears of War Prequel, Ryse, South Park (?), Tomb Raider (?), Harry Potter Kinect (?), other third party games, applications, and Kinect galore.

Sony: Last of Us, Playstation Battle Royale, GOW:A, David Cage's new game, Sly, Soul Sacrifice, Gravity Rush, other third/first party surprises

Nintendo: Wii-U and 3DS awesomeness

It's crazy how we can basically shape what Sony and Microsoft's conferences are going to hold yet we basically know nothing about Nintendo's.

Anyways, consider EA and Ubisoft are also holding conferences on Monday, I am almost more excited for the 4th over the 5th. Almost.
 

HylianTom

Banned
I am still rather surprised that the others are so willing to give-away so many secrets prior to their shows.. I was looking forward to more surprises.
 

onilink88

Member
Last I checked it was selling better in the US than the DS was at the same point in its lifetime.

This is considered "not selling well"?

The DS didn't take off until the DS lite. Selling more than that system is not a considerable feat. Then you have Nintendo themselves saying that the 3DS is underperforming (it can't even meet lowered predictions) in NA and Europe.

I'm sorry, but I don't understand how this is up for debate; the 3DS needs a severe kick in the pants (in the aforementioned territories, at least).
 
What uh...what are you talking about?

The 3DS is doing just fine.

"Fine" is a really relative term. It is not doing badly, but it's going to be easily trumped by the DS and (I presume without looking at actual numbers) even the GBA in non-Japan if it keeps up this rate. I'm sure Nintendo wants it to sell better than it's currently doing.

Granted, it's still more expensive than the entry prices of the NDS and the GBA, so it's not that surprising that it's not at gangbuster level of sales.


Yep, as I say, the drive is almost certainly capable of operating in CLV mode (it's probably just a standard laptop DVD drive anyway, so there's no reason it wouldn't be), it's just that Nintendo has it running in CAV mode for longevity's sake.

Okay. I read your post a little poorly and thought you might mean that Nintendo might have made the drives somehow incapable of working in that mode. All's good. :)



People in general dont care about E3. Only the "hardcore" ones like us will care about the conference, and most of us want to see as much Wii U details as we can. I don't think anyone who will watch it want to see 30 mins of Wii U and 30 mins of 3DS.

E3 does add to the word of mouth some. My friends will vaguely hear about the Wii U and likely ask me about it. If I have actual things to say that they'd like, then they would be more likely to consider buying it.
 
Ya know, I was actually thinking about how it's actually pretty cool to go into a conference and already know there's gonna be some games you like. With MS, I thought it was gonna be a Kinect-a-thon and bore me to tears, but at the very least now I know there's gonna be Halo 4 and Gears of War, there's something for me to get excited about. Same thing with PS with Last of Us, GoW: A, Sly Cooper, etc. It's not always about the surprise megatons, sometimes it's about hyping up the known quantities and delivering on the goods.
 

Skiesofwonder

Walruses, camels, bears, rabbits, tigers and badgers.
The DS didn't take off until the DS lite. Selling more than that system is not a considerable feat. Then you have Nintendo themselves saying that the 3DS is underperforming (it can't even meet lowered predictions) in NA and Europe.

I'm sorry, but I don't understand how this is up for debate; the 3DS needs a severe kick in the pants (in the aforementioned territories, at least).

Ummm.... It is up for debate when it is the fastest selling Nintendo console of all-time.
 

wsippel

Banned
I recall that DVDs were playable on the Wii via Homebrew, though I never got that actually working¹. I know that they read the discs differently, but would this not mean that the Wii was technically capable of spinning in CLV mode despite Nintendo's intent?
It's not really running in CLV mode, it even reads DVD video in CAV mode if I remember correctly. But because the speed isn't quite right, it constantly has to brake or reposition the head, which isn't exactly good for the drive.
 

GCX

Member
Exactly. I don't see what expectations the 3ds isn't living up to.
Umm Nintendo's own sales expectations?

3DS is doing amazingly well in Japan but is lagging behind in other markets. Even Iwata acknowledged that in the last investor Q&A and said there should be E3 announcements that'll fix that.
 
It's not really running in CLV mode, it even reads DVD video in CAV mode if I remember correctly. But because the speed isn't quite right, it constantly has to brake or reposition the head, which isn't exactly good for the drive.

Then it's a good thing that I totally failed to get DVD reading operational. Thankfully downloadable movies are more of a thing now. And we won't even have to do the homebrew thing to watch them, given what we've heard so far about the Wii U (and, well, what Nintendo has already been doing for streaming video on the Wii).
 

onilink88

Member
Ummm.... It is up for debate when it is the fastest selling Nintendo console of all-time.

Exactly. I don't see what expectations the 3ds isn't living up to.

Then you have Nintendo themselves saying that the 3DS is underperforming (it can't even meet lowered predictions) in NA and Europe.

If you have a problem with what I said, take it up with Nintendo. As these are their words and data appearing in their reports. I'm not going to stick my fingers in my ears and pretend that everything's hunky-dory. :/
 
Ummm.... It is up for debate when it is the fastest selling Nintendo console of all-time.

Even by shipments, not quite.
3DS_WW
 

BlackJace

Member
Umm Nintendo's own sales expectations?

3DS is doing amazingly well in Japan but is lagging behind in other markets. Even Iwata acknowledged that in the last investor Q&A and said there should be E3 announcements that'll fix that.

That's Ninty's fault for setting the bar too high. They made (and acknowledged) the mistake of pricing the device at 250 at launch. You can bet the sales would have been even better if it launched at 179.

Toppling a phenomena like the DS is going to take time, and for the little life the 3ds has been in the market, its done pretty well.
I hope they understand this with the Wii U as well.

EDIT: Gravijah said it right.
 

GCX

Member
That's Ninty's fault for setting the bar too high. They made (and acknowledged) the mistake of pricing the device at 250 at launch. You can bet the sales would have been even better if it launched at 179.

Toppling a phenomena like the DS is going to take time, and for the little life the 3ds has been in the market, its done pretty well.
I hope they understand this with the Wii U as well.
Nintendo revised their expectations after the price drop and 3DS didn't meet even those lowered numbers (though it missed them only slightly). It's not doing bad but there's certainly room for improvement.
 

Thraktor

Member
If you have a problem with what I said, take it up with Nintendo. As these are their words and data appearing in their reports. I'm not going to stick my fingers in my ears and pretend that everything's hunky-dory. :/

How much time Nintendo devote to 3DS at E3 will have zero effect on whether sales increase. The console's already out there, all they need to do is get more games people want to play out on store shelves.

The Wii U, on the other hand, is still an unknown quantity in the minds of most gamers, media and even developers. E3 is very important for the Wii U in terms of making sure people form the right impression of the console, and there's no doubt that Nintendo will, and should, devote most of their stage time to it.
 

Anth0ny

Member
I am still rather surprised that the others are so willing to give-away so many secrets prior to their shows.. I was looking forward to more surprises.

E3 is no longer that important for Sony and Microsoft. They drop bombs to magazines, VGAs, TGS (for Sony), GTTV... only Nintendo is keeping the spirit of E3 alive. Only Nintendo chooses to blow its entire load during their E3 press conference, and tell us NOTHING during the rest of the year.
 

BlackJace

Member
Nintendo revised their expectations after the price drop and 3DS didn't meet even those lowered numbers (though it missed them only slightly). It's not doing bad but there's certainly room for improvement.

Well yeah that's what I was debating haha.
 

Skiesofwonder

Walruses, camels, bears, rabbits, tigers and badgers.
If you have a problem with what I said, take it up with Nintendo. As these are their words and data appearing in their reports. I'm not going to stick my fingers in my ears and pretend that everything's hunky-dory. :/

Ok? Nintendo consoles miss expectations all the time. Doesn't mean they didn't still sell well. Look, I'm not saying that Nintendo doesn't need to be a bit concerned with recent trends in the Western Market. But saying it is not "doing to hot in any territory besides Japan" and "it's not up for debate" is silly if you actually look at the numbers.
 

Skiesofwonder

Walruses, camels, bears, rabbits, tigers and badgers.
Nintendo's actually usually very moderate about their sales expectations and it's pretty rare for them to miss the forecast.

Not in the last two years. Though that has a lot to do with the Wii slowing down quicker then originally thought and the 3DS eating into DS/ slower then predicted start for the 3DS.
 

blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
Discs burned by developers won't run on final systems, though, they'll only run on dev kits. The show-floor units are likely to have their copyright protection measures configured to accept these discs, but perhaps it hasn't been possible to do this for games running off flash memory or hard-drives.
Aside from the consideration that show floor units will most likely be some sort of QA/debug units (be that by firmware alone), devs had the ability to run entirely off SD around E3 time last year. If nintendo removed that (which they might), that'd be a tad dickish in my book.
 

onilink88

Member
How much time Nintendo devote to 3DS at E3 will have zero effect on whether sales increase. The console's already out there, all they need to do is get more games people want to play out on store shelves.

And I firmly believe that those titles should be showcased during their conference. Given the visibility that E3 provides, I'd consider it a huge missed opportunity if they didn't (especially when considering the 3DS' current situation).

The Wii U, on the other hand, is still an unknown quantity in the minds of most gamers, media and even developers. E3 is very important for the Wii U in terms of making sure people form the right impression of the console, and there's no doubt that Nintendo will, and should, devote most of their stage time to it.

Once again, I'm not against the Wii U having a more significant presence. But I don't agree that it should be overshadowing the 3DS to the degree certain people seem to be suggesting.

Ok? Nintendo consoles miss expectations all the time. Doesn't mean they didn't still sell well. Look, I'm not saying that Nintendo doesn't need to be a bit concerned with recent trends in the Western Market. But saying it is not "doing to hot in any territory besides Japan" and "it's not up for debate" is silly if you actually look at the numbers.

I never said that it was doing poorly. "Ain't doing too hot in any territory outside of Japan" was alluding to its weaker-than-expected performance.

Not in the last two years.

But here's the problem: expectations are constantly being revised and they're still not being met.
 
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