Polygon - "A Wii U is mandatory to talk about 2014's Game of the Year"

[Rennadrel]

havent seen their market share lately but the wii made them float in money and the 3ds is still selling strong, the ds sold waaaay too good and the wiiU apparently had some nice green numbers the last quarter.

The Wii U lost them money up until early this year. Once they started getting some big games on the market which really started around this time last year, they have been able to push stronger sales numbers because of increased numbers in game releases. Mario Kart and Super Mario 3D World really started accelerating their sales numbers for the console. Even if they lost money on the system, the 3DS has been making enough money to recoup those losses with game sales and a consistent flow of system sales.

[Zonned]

Sadly the Wii U hasn't sold nearly as well as its predecessor, although it has been improving as of late. Hopefully it will pick up more steam as we move into the 2015 releases.

[xylophone]

Then try some of the PC's "unique" offerings. Or does your first sentence not apply to your second?

PC isn't about being "unique", it just does the same thing as xbone and ps4, only better. At this point in the gen, which is still early, I don't see anything to justify owning anything other than PC+Wii U. That's just me though.

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Sadly the Wii U hasn't sold nearly as well as its predecessor, although it has been improving as of late. Hopefully it will pick up more steam as we move into the 2015 releases.

I think that has a lot to do with the complete lack of advertising.

[apepi]

I could see Hearthstone getting game fo the year, restarting card game love, no other game has that inpact in their game genre as they did this year.

[Tech614]

PC isn't about being "unique", it just does the same thing as xbone and ps4, only better.
.

I must have missed the part where PC could play Sunset Overdrive, Infamous Second Son, Bloodborne, The Order: 1886, Crackdown, Halo 5, Uncharted 4, Forza Horizon 5, Until Dawn should I go on?

I also must have missed the part where PS4/XBO could play WoW, Starcraft 2, Civilization, LoL, Dota 2, Divinity Orginal Sin should I go on?

Every platform, including PS4, PC , XBO and Wii U have things that make them unique. It's called GAMES YOU CAN ONLY PLAY ON THAT PLATFORM.

[xylophone]

I must have missed the part where PC could play Sunset Overdrive, Infamous Second Son, Bloodborne, The Order: 1886, Crackdown, Halo 5, Uncharted 4, Forza Horizon 5, Until Dawn should I go on?

I also must have missed the part where PS4/XBO could play WoW, Starcraft 2, Civilization, LoL, Dota 2, Divinity Orginal Sin should I go on?

Every platform, including PS4, PC , XBO and Wii U have things that make them unique. It's called GAMES YOU CAN ONLY PLAY ON THAT PLATFORM.

I was speaking more about the types of games. No shit, there's exclusives. I just don't see anything on PS4/Xbone right now that would make me want to buy one of them. Like I said though, that's just me.

[Zonned]

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I think that has a lot to do with the complete lack of advertising.

It's hard to watch TV without running into Smash or MK8 advertisements.

[87Octane]

PC isn't about being "unique", it just does the same thing as xbone and ps4, only better. At this point in the gen, which is still early, I don't see anything to justify owning anything other than PC+Wii U. That's just me though.

The person I said that to was bitching that their PC ports sucked, so in his case, he inadvertently justified an XB/PS purchase. While a PC can do better, the developers he was referring to obviously care not to exploit that. Trying to point out that he was championing Nintendo because of exclusives/uniqueness (I agree), but clearly doesn't appreciate the exclusives of PC and plays "ports" that are better on PS/XB. They aren't "better" because of hardware, they are better because they are better optimized.

I do agree that having Xbone and PS4 isn't necessary, but I do believe that either or works depending on what you like. For my money, Nintendo doesn't put out enough games or use their IP's as well as they could, and I could pretty much buy every XB/PS game I wanted for the cost of just buying a decent PC (My PC is ancient) and there is "decent" overlap. If you already have a PC that can play the caliber of games that current systems can play - then of course PC is a better option. Unless you are stuck playing ports like that guy :P

Whenever new consoles come out we all do a little mental math with variables, whether we know it or not:

1. Exclusives (varies)
2. Overlap (PC > PS/XB > Nintendo)
3. Quality (Nintendo > PC > PS/XB, First-party/non-ports, but depends on the strengths you play to otherwise)
4. Quantity (PC > PS/XB > Nintendo)
5. Cost benefit - if PC is replaced - Nintendo > PS/XB > PC (of course with older games , reverse that order, PC starts catching up)

But that's just my situation, my "weights". For me, overlap, quantity and cost were my key factors. Well, also someone bought me a PS4 *cough*, but this is how I *would have* approached it :P

[xylophone]

It's hard to watch TV without running into Smash or MK8 advertisements.

We must watch different channels then.

[Zonned]

We must watch different channels then.

I mostly watch Cartoon Network and Comedy Central

[Xargoth6634]

please don't link to polygon directly.
archive.today lets you share articles from them without giving those corrupt bastards money

https://archive.today/BlJKC

Is this more of that gamergate BS you people keep going on about, or what? Let it go.

OT: to the guy that said that there have "only" been 4-5 SSB and other such games since '99, a rehash is a rehash. Nintendo will keep using the same formula as long as you guys keep buying it. I'm not defending COD/Madden/etc. I don't play any of those games and I agree that that's a far worse rehash.

[Rindrae]

IMO Bayonetta 2 is what makes the system worth owning. One of the best games I've played in a very long time. I'll definitely be giving Tropical Freeze a try.

[Daphna Faldor]

Bashing everyone that isn't into the games you're so looking forward to isn't going to help get your point across.
The truth of the matter is, if you're not really a Nintendo fan to begin with not many of those titles are going to catch your interest.

Let's be honest here: There's plenty of players with a bias against Nintendo, so it isn't as if they would give the game a fair shake. So it's a little bit more complex than there not being anything that interests them.

[Drakhar]

Wow this thread is still alive?

The person I said that to was bitching that their PC ports sucked, so in his case, he inadvertently justified an XB/PS purchase. While a PC can do better, the developers he was referring to obviously care not to exploit that. Trying to point out that he was championing Nintendo because of exclusives/uniqueness (I agree), but clearly doesn't appreciate the exclusives of PC and plays "ports" that are better on PS/XB. They aren't "better" because of hardware, they are better because they are better optimized.

Ehhh if you're talking about me, then it's time to work on your reading comprehension. In fact, I want to say the last PC port I played is Skyrim. So, yeah, nice strawman. No shit they're better optimized, I don't think anyone was arguing that.

I'll TL;DR for you:
Wii U = only console with exclusives worth owning.
XB1/PS4 = shitty PCs that do it worse, indirectly dumbing down the entire market for the console peasants.
PC = gets lazy ports that would be better if they were designed with PC in mind in the first place.
The market of "PC exclusives" (which, hey, is 95% of my library, before you make more assumptions) is irrelevant to this discussion.

Thanks for playing, better luck next time.

[87Octane]

Wow this thread is still alive?



Ehhh if you're talking about me, then it's time to work on your reading comprehension. In fact, I want to say the last PC port I played is Skyrim. So, yeah, nice strawman. No shit they're better optimized, I don't think anyone was arguing that.

I'll TL;DR for you:
Wii U = only console with exclusives worth owning.
XB1/PS4 = shitty PCs that do it worse, indirectly dumbing down the entire market for the console peasants.
PC = gets lazy ports that would be better if they were designed with PC in mind in the first place.
The market of "PC exclusives" (which, hey, is 95% of my library, before you make more assumptions) is irrelevant to this discussion.

Thanks for playing, better luck next time.

Well you were the one who felt bad PC ports were worth mentioning as dumbing down your gaming experience, so it was a reasonable assumption that you cared and were impacted by such games. So you like to complain about things that are only 5% relevant to you, cool? But you pretty much just repeated what I said, if I want to play a decent version of X game made for consoles, I am better off with a PS/XB rather than a PC playing a shitty port, so they don't really "do it worse" do they? The PC version "would be better", but it's not, is it?... Thanks for driving me around the block.

A PS/XB is worth having, just not both. At the end of the day it still comes down to WHICH games you want to play, and every system has it's perks. A PS/XB is a shitty alternative to a computer, hardware wise - but, as long as the games I want to play are made primarily for my system, they are better than their PC ports. It's not even an argument. It's just a case by case basis.

[Coronius]

It's a shame a lot of console fanboys are too stubborn with their "omg nintendo sucks"-attitude that they refuse to see that the Wii U is an amazing console with a lot of great games.

Personally, I'm a PC gamer. But if you were to own a console aside from your PC, the Wii U is perfect IMHO. I'm sure the PS4 and the Xbone both have their upsides, but a lot of the games they have are just games that really should be played on a computer instead.

[87Octane]

It's a shame a lot of console fanboys are too stubborn with their "omg nintendo sucks"-attitude that they refuse to see that the Wii U is an amazing console with a lot of great games.

Personally, I'm a PC gamer. But if you were to own a console aside from your PC, the Wii U is perfect IMHO. I'm sure the PS4 and the Xbone both have their upsides, but a lot of the games they have are just games that really should be played on a computer instead.

That's just the issue though, a lot of "AAA" ports have such inflated system requirements because of poor optimization that they aren't financially viable to play on PC, unless money is simply no object.

Look at the system requirements of Shadows of Mordor, AC: Unity, Dying Light, Evil Within - that's a just a few recent examples I found on page 1 of google. Yes you can play them if you have a great PC, but it's squeezing blood out of a turnip. That's not to mention the numerous games where the requirements are exceeded, but still offer less than stellar performance.

[xylophone]

That's just the issue though, a lot of "AAA" ports have such inflated system requirements because of poor optimization that they aren't financially viable to play on PC, unless money is simply no object.

Look at the system requirements of Shadows of Mordor, AC: Unity, Dying Light, Evil Within - that's a just a few recent examples I found on page 1 of google. Yes you can play them if you have a great PC, but it's squeezing blood out of a turnip. That's not to mention the numerous games where the requirements are exceeded, but still offer less than stellar performance.

The whole "PC gaming is too expensive" argument is pretty weak IMO. You already have a computer don't you? The money needed to convert your average PC to a system that can play games at medium-high settings is like $250, which is still cheaper than buying any of the current gen consoles.

[87Octane]

The whole "PC gaming is too expensive" argument is pretty weak IMO. You already have a computer don't you? The money needed to convert your average PC to a system that can play games at medium-high settings is like $250, which is still cheaper than buying any of the current gen consoles.

What I said has nothing to do with that, in fact I said the opposite a few posts ago about the price of older PC games actually making PC a value for serious gamers. It's about throwing money away to brute-force a PC to play a console designed game. If you want to play certain titles, buy a PS/XB. Even these "early" console games require at least 3gb vram to run at decent settings on a PC and some even more. Plus, as I mentioned, some PC ports choke even at beyond absurd hardware levels (6gb video cards). Solution? Avoid those games or buy a console. Checking on those prices - they start at around $250 (though most versions hover around $500, that's just a video card). It's only going to get worse from here.

[kail]

The whole "PC gaming is too expensive" argument is pretty weak IMO. You already have a computer don't you? The money needed to convert your average PC to a system that can play games at medium-high settings is like $250, which is still cheaper than buying any of the current gen consoles.

That depends on how old the system is and what is being bottlenecked. I'm assuming your talking about a gpu upgrade with that price range.

Octane isn't wrong when stating how unoptomized these recent AAA games are becoming. Consoles provide more security in terms of game stability (though not always the case; Unity).