Yesterday held the well-sought-after announcement of the release date and price of Nintendo's next console, WiiU. It will be available for purchase in North America on November 18th, and will come in your choice of one of two packages. $299 for the console, a touchscreen controller, a sensor bar, an AC adapter for the controller, and an HDMI cable. An extra $50 could net you everything in the cheaper package plus increased console memory, a console stand, a recharge stand for your controller, a subscription for discounts on online game purchases, and a copy of the Nintendoland game.
As always, Nintendo seems to be pulling out all the stops when it comes to launching a console. Bundles and media coverage aside, I am fairly impressed that Nintendo is becoming a little more modern with their home consoles, and I think the touchscreen controller could be used for a ton of innovative games. However, there are some things that I'm finding rather annoying about the WiiU.
First though, the positives.
First of all, Nintendo appears to be marketing the WiiU for more than just "making everybody a gamer". I did like their previous outing with the Wii and how they completely flipped gaming upside down by inviting everyone to be a gamer, but it alienated the hardcore crown to an extent, pushing them away to their competitors. This time around, Nintendo is bringing some well-known genre-specific games to their console early on, like Mass Effect 3, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and even the exclusive Bayonetta 2. Even Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is coming to the console. If they continue to include the same sort of games that appeal more to the hardcore crowd, then the WiiU might be as successful if not more than the Wii was.
Not only is Nintendo bringing in content for the hardcore crowd, but they're trampolining off the Wii's beginning of third party application usage by having users be able to watch video content. Not only that, but they can watch it directly on the touchscreen controller too! Netflix makes a return, and Hulu and Youtube are now officially on board as well. According to Nintendo, you can even pull up content that you have saved on DVR with TiVo and watch that as well.
Still, as with any recent Nintendo product, and as much as I think they're great, there is always a select few details that are nitpick-worthy. First of all, $300 might be a decent price considering the technology at hand, especially the controller considering by itself it may cost half the entire console (that's another nitpick there). However, this breaks a long tradition of Nintendo consoles launching at around $250 for years. It's understandable considering the innovative and new technology, but it defies the long-standing "affordable" Nintendo console trope that has stood against competitors before. Even the games are going to be $10 more expensive now, which is on-par with Xbox and Playstation titles.
The storage space might be an issue as well. With all the content and files that people must save from games nowadays, I doubt 8 GB will be enough. The deluxe version ($349 bundle) is 32 GB, but that is still in the grey area in my opinion, and even if that is enough storage space for some people, that is nothing compared to the monstrous 250 GB storage of the Xbox 360, which if you remember, is a console of this current generation and not the one the WiiU is kicking off and setting the bar for.
EDIT: You can apparently attach an external hard drive through USB to the WiiU. Hello infinite storage space! :D Yay for me being dumb.
I'm certain the WiiU will at least be successful, because as nitpicky as I and many fans of Nintendo are, they come pretty close to perfection with their games and hardware. It's a little strange though when we are able to compare this upcoming next-gen console with previous ones and wonder why the WiiU isn't better or at least equal to it in every way. Regardless, I do want one of these, and while I probably won't be getting one straight away (i.e. I'm a broke college student and memories of trying to get a Wii early years ago haunt me still...), I can't wait to at least try it out at the local retailer.
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