The Wii U is still ways away but industry analyst Michael Pachter is already having doubts on the system, as well as questioning whether it truly is next-gen or not, in an interview with Industry Gamers.
"The Wii U is a pretty ambitious undertaking. It's a new console, with new controls and architecture, but it's not quite "next" generation." This could technically allude to the Wii U being current, rather than next-gen. Let's face it, the current consoles were hailed next-gen already starting in 2005, by now next-gen consoles should be considered the ones that succeed the ones currently on the market. The Wii U isn't necessarily doing that partly because by graphical standards, it's about the same that you already get on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
He goes on saying "The timing is still up in the air, and as far as I know, there are no significant third party "exclusives"; instead, we'll see iterations of third party games already on the market, which is unlikely to drive significant hardware sales." This statement is very true. At the Nintendo E3 2011 press conference where the Wii U was officially unveiled to us, we were treated with many trailers of games that will appear on competing consoles such as Darksiders 2, and even Battlefield 3 which is slated to come out in just 2 weeks on the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
Though the truest of all statements was when he closed with saying "In order for the launch to be 'hugely successful' , the console will need three things: a competitive price, compelling first party launch titles, and compelling third party launch titles. We don't know if the Wii U will have any of these." We already saw something like this happen with the Nintendo 3DS. The hardware was fairly impressive, yet it completely lacked a library of must own games that would warrant a purchase of the system. It not only hinges on First Party games, but there has to be a quality selection of Third Party games as well. If Nintendo has learned anything from the disastrous 3DS launch, then they'll know that Steel Diver and Nintendogs just won't cut it.
What do you think of the Wii U? Do you think it has what it takes to stand side by side with the current systems on the market, or is too late to the party? Sound off in the comments below!
