Nintendo kills off the basic Wii U in Japan


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Nintendo is about to halt production of its 8GB Wii U Basic in Japan, according to a notice on its product site. The white-clad product has been around since 2012, but wasnever super popular since the 32GB version is typically only $50 more. In fact, the rumor mill had it being killed off two years ago after it went out of stock at GameStop and Best Buy, though Nintendo later called that a "misperception." Somehow the model has hung on until now, but has gradually become harder to find.

 

There's no word on whether Nintendo plans to kill the basic version in the US and Europe, but a Japanese death often presages a similar fate elsewhere. However, the company plans to launch a white version of the 32GB Premium model, so at least you won't get too nostalgic for the color.

 

http://www.engadget.com/2015/05/21/nintendo-kills-off-the-basic-wii-u-in-japan/

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Poor Nintendo, they really didn't get lucky with the WiiU, but I'm not surprised since it's essentially a last gen device power wise.

With the NX being AMD based like the other consoles now, they have a very good chance of ultimately being the most powerful current gen console though, just a tad late.

If it's 14nm from the start, NX has the possibility of being MUCH more powerful than either Xbox One or PS4.

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I don't know if it is just a power/performance issue. I think Nintendo fans have been frustrated by Nintendo for awhile.

 

Having a hardcore fanbase is a double-edged sword: if you keep them happy, they will throw their money at you like it is going out of style. If you disappoint or frustrate them they will desert you and tell everyone far and wide why they did so, potentially turning others off of your brand.

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Nintendo tried to recreate the gimmicky nature of the Wii by going with a tablet-based controller, which significantly added to the cost. In order to do that they had to skimp on other specs, with the CPU being especially weak (slower than the X360 and PS3). They also shipped with pathetically small storage and as such couldn't offer an online service comparable to that of Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network. It's worth pointing out that the asymmetric nature of the console relied on multiple players, making it less suited to solo play. And as always, Nintendo had very poor support from third parties and was slow at producing first party titles.

 

Nintendo targeted casual gamers and children and missed the mark. Killing off the basic model doesn't do anything to help Nintendo's long-term strategy. In the short-term they should be replacing both models and introducing a new model with 500GB storage in order to push digital distribution. It was pathetic that the 'Premium' model only included 32GB of storage.

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Nintendo tried to recreate the gimmicky nature of the Wii by going with a tablet-based controller, which significantly added to the cost. In order to do that they had to skimp on other specs, with the CPU being especially weak (slower than the X360 and PS3). They also shipped with pathetically small storage and as such couldn't offer an online service comparable to that of Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network. It's worth pointing out that the asymmetric nature of the console relied on multiple players, making it less suited to solo play. And as always, Nintendo had very poor support from third parties and was slow at producing first party titles.

Nintendo targeted casual gamers and children and missed the mark. Killing off the basic model doesn't do anything to help Nintendo's long-term strategy. In the short-term they should be replacing both models and introducing a new model with 500GB storage in order to push digital distribution. It was pathetic that the 'Premium' model only included 32GB of storage.

1. Yes the CPU and GPU are weaker than the competition, but the games still look amazing. I don't pick up my Wii U and go "oh ###### this game looks awful". Whereas I have picked up games on my PS3 and gone meh the same game is available on PC and looks significantly better.

2. The gamepad is hardly a gimmick. If you owned a wii u and actually played the games that support it, you'd have realized that pretty fast. And a lot of games support off tv play, which in my house is a pretty big deal. As for the cost of the gamepad, the wii U is still (and always has been) cheaper than the Xbox and PS models even with you getting a game or two free.

3. I play plenty of games solo on my Wii U and they're just as fun, absolutely no clue what you're talking about there.

4. Yes it has small storage but unlike the 360, I can plug in any flash drive, any hardrive, any ssd and expand my storage instantly. It only took Microsoft 8 years to come up with something similar instead of selling proprietary crap. Sony at least allowed you to pull out the HDD and replace it.

5. They cannot sell a 500gb model. The Wii U uses flash memory, if they threw in a 500gb SSD it would significantly increase the cost of the unit not to mention there is barely any space in the console for one. I will agree though that there really wasn't any need for Nintendo to sell the basic model. The deluxe gave you more than 4x the onboard storage, and you got nintendo deluxe promotion (which gave you 10% of your money back for any game you purchased on the eshop) while costing not that much more.

The reason I like my Wii U over any other console is because the games are varied and different. The vast majority of games that interest me on an xbox or a PS are available for PC and I'd rather play the exact same game on my laptop with significantly better graphics. The rest of the games barely interest me at all. They're boring, they're dull and they're just rehashed crap. Yes nintendo makes 7 million super mario, mario kart, zelda etc games but each one of them is unique enough that they don't feel repetitive.

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