Console Wars Thread! PS4 vs. Xbox One vs. Wii U Fight!

Nintendo definitely failed on marketing it, and the controller can have some gimmicky aspects (what motion control based solution isn't?), but the games that are on the system are quite fun. I definitely wouldn't judge it if you haven't played Nintendoland, Rayman Legends, or even Wind Waker HD for example (games that take advantage of the gamepad). Also if you're in a household like me where you have to share a television the offscreen gameplay in most games is a system seller in and of itself.

I wish they would have put a capacitive display rather than the one that is on it, but I'm guessing that would have raised the price of the controller (this is probably less likely to break as well...weighs less also). With that said it definitely doesn't look bad. I remember being stuck in bed sick for awhile and playing through Mario Wii U. The console purchase was worth it for that period alone. (my TV is in an entirely different room)

My opinion on Wii U's failure is 3 fold:

Spoiler

1. The system is underpowered (compared to a PS4 or Xbox One), with that said it's more powerful than people give it credit for. It's definitely more powerful than a 360 or PS3. It's also a lot cheaper, and has better exclusives than both as of now. (http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Wii-U-Memory-Bandwidth-GPU-More-Powerful-Than-We-Thought-62437.html)

2. They marketed the system terribly. The name is also ridiculously stupid. They made the system look virtually like their last system as well. There are still people who don't know that the Wii U is an entirely different console than a Wii, or that the system is out for that matter. I mean freaking Wii owners don't know. How did they manage that?

3. A huge lull in games during the first year.

With all of that said (see spoiler), I don't think the story is written on the Wii U. People who think Nintendo is just going to die are seriously misinformed as well (Nintendo has about $15 billion in cash reserves for 1). The 3ds started off similarly and is currently the highest selling console (game device, or whatever the hell you'd like to call it), and I don't believe it's close (it wasn't the last time I checked). The Wii sold like hot cakes because it was cheap, and the motion controls were revolutionary. The Wii U is still $200 (in most places) cheaper than a Xbox One, and $100 cheaper than a PS4. I think there is a market for it, especially when the price becomes about $200. (If you don't, again...see all the people who own a Wii) The issue is games. Nintendo has a VERY strong line up coming out this year, and I really think things will begin to turn around for them when Smash brothers comes out. I don't think it will be anywhere near as popular as the Wii was in the long run, but I think the "Wii U is useless" and "Nintendo is dead, they're going to make mobile games" talk is really overblown.

One final point: Games on the Wii U look very pretty in my experience. They're usually 1080p and 60fps as well! (I keed, but it's true.)
(Before some jackass tries to make a serious reply based solely off my last comment, obviously there's a lot less going on graphically in the Nintendo games. Please preemptively shut up.)

 

I agree with most of your points, but at the same time also feel the system is pretty dead.

I do own a WiiU and have played Nintendo Land, which IMO is actually one of the best reasons to own the system. I've probably used it more for Mario Chase than anything else (best use of the tablet I've seen). Also the little Zelda co-op mini-game is reasonably fun too. Other than that I bought MH3U for it to play online, also ZombieU but haven't gotten around to playing it yet. I realize the latest 3D Mario game is out there, which I'll pick up when it gets cheaper.

I know there are some quality games on the system if I look really hard. But its library is so dwarfed by PS360, and the tablet controller adds so little value in 90% of cases, that I'm just not a believer in the system right now.

I bought it to play X. Anything else that I get out of the WiiU is just gravy really.

 

I definitely don't blame you. Donkey Kong is apparently outstanding, but I haven't finished Mario 3D world -- I'm really having trouble being excited for another platformer. Rest assured, I'm pretty positive Retro is going to (if they haven't already) immediately jump on making a Metroid Prime follow up. Smash brothers and Mario Kart also look quite promising (not to mention X, Bayonetta, and Hyrule Warriors). I'm expected Zelda at E3, the future is bright just a few more months to go. (After a 1 and a half year wait?) I guess I can be patient now since I have my PS4 and Titanfall on the brain, but I certainly don't blame you for skepticism.

Also, when I bought the Wii U I already knew it was going to be less powerful than the next gen Xbox or PS4 so I knew I'd need both. I was really just buying it because I missed Nintendo games, and for that it definitely serves it's purpose.

Side note/Edit: I actually hadn't tried the Mario Chase one. I really love all the mini games other than that though Zelda, Metroid (is AWESOME!), F-Zero, the shuriken throwing game (whatever it's called), the Yoshi puzzler, and so on. I think all of them make great use of the hardware.

 

Yeah, I will of course get Smash Brothers for it, and Mario Kart has never truly gotten old for me. Can always count on those 1st-party games, even if they are only re-treads/refinements.

But duuuuuude... Mario Chase is a total blast for sure, providing you have at least 4 people (best with 5). I've played that for hours at a time with friends. My only big complaint is I wish they could add more maps, there are only 3!

Also, on a totally separate note, I'm super-glad that the WiiU at least supports Wii titles. The disc drive on my original Wii is starting to make strange noises. So this way I can use the WiiU for Wii games, and save my Wii for when I want to play GC games (which I still have a decent-sized stack of that I want to keep... most important of which: Mario Strikers! One of the best co-op games ever. Shame the Wii version of Strikers sucks donkey balls).

 

Haha, yeah there's the problem I never really have more than 2. I think the most has been 3. Oh yeah, I mean...before I got into Wind Waker I was playing Skyward Sword through backwards compatibility and I thought it was a lot of fun. I play punch out (NES) on the virtual console constantly (that game never gets old to me, and I still haven't beaten it...yet). I don't tend to play a lot of the old Wii games, but I certainly wish I had some sort of ability to play old playstation games on my PS4 (especially PS3). Playstation now can't come soon enough (not to change the subject of course). Wii U Wii U Nintendo Mario Zelda Metroid Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

 

you need to stop being a loaner and make some new friends :grin:

 

Eh, I have friends. They just have no interest in the Wii U when they're over, so it's usually just my wife and I (hence the 2). Even when she has female friends over, they want to play the PS4. Saturday evening a few of my friends wanted to try it out, and we ended up playing Injustice: Gods Among Us for most of the evening. (with a smattering of NBA2K, Ghosts, Resogun, etc) I mentioned Mario 3D world and the Wii U a few times, no one bit -- they just suggested other PS4 games they wanted to try out.

 

Persona 5 coming to PS3 in North America in 2015

:grin:

 

Haha, that's why I threw in that Persona 5 comment earlier (and the 2015 mention).

I didn't post it as news though. Just made a comment regarding the news.

 

Maybe that Faster movie was just a bad example of Bluray quality then I guess.

I have mostly watched DVDs on my Xbox 360. Now I watch them on the XBone. That is also what I watched the Bluray on.

I'll give them another try, probably when Thor 2 comes out.

 

We have some sales numbers for PS4 games in Japan:
1. Knack - 322,083 (PS4 First Limited Pack bundles)
2. Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin - 73,086
3. Battlefield 4 - 26,878
4. Killzone Shadowfall - 25,978
5. Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends - 13,576

Not very good. Knack is bundled with the system, so ignore that. I'm not sure what they are playing on these PS4s. Guess FFXIV and maybe some other digital games.

Maybe they bought into the hype as well. I wouldn't be too optimistic about sales in upcoming weeks for PS4. Need much better software in order to sell the system.

 

That's pretty interesting...all those consoles sold yet such few games. I guess Knack is a good title to hold you over for a little bit until the bigger games are released. March is right around the corner, we'll see...

 

This was a similar issue with the launch of the PS3, just not games really worth playing for the first 6-12 months. This is also a reason Microsoft isn't worried about the Xbox One.

At some point PS4 is going to hit it's launch-window market saturation, and at that point the only way to sell systems is to provide games people want to play. Of course, those will come - but will they come fast enough to keep Xbox from catching up? I don't think so.

We're in for a long battle, and as with previous generations - it all comes down to the games. Xbox dominated and will continue to dominate attachment rates, and that is where Microsoft makes their money.

 

Yeah. And to think, Sony held off launching sooner in Japan because they wanted to wait until they had better games for the market.

Those numbers are just terrible. Granted, none of them are big sellers in Japan (except for Yakuza, but that's just a port). I'm not sure if Famitsu counts digital sales, so *maybe* everyone is just buying games online. But I doubt it.

The number of PS4s sold were almost identical to the number of Vitas sold during its launch. There might just be ~300K hardcore PS fans in Japan, who will buy the system no matter what.

Not sure there's really much to help. Ground Zeroes in coming up, but MGS isn't THAT big. Plus it is a "demo," and it is also on PS3/360. Deep Down seemed like possibly something, but that won't be available until after the summer I believe.

It will come down to the games, though I think with both platforms sharing so many of the same games, it becomes less of a factor (and things like price become more of a factor). I don't think either platform will really have a library of games that, by itself, will substantially allow the platform to "pull away" from the other (unless we're talking about pulling away in certain regions). This isn't a Dreamcast or Wii U situation. Want to play Titanfall but can't? Well go play BF, CoD, Destiny, etc. instead. Want to play Uncharted but can't? Go play Tomb Raider, LotR, Quantum Break, Assassin's Creed, etc. instead.

I'd be curious to see if attach rates will change up a bit this generation. Multiplatform gamers often bought more games on 360 last generation (due to better performance/etc.). This generation, it seems those same gamers might prefer PS4 (BF4/TR/etc. gamers definitely seem to prefer the platform). Additionally, if MS will be pushing for more "casuals" with their platform, that will likely result in lower attach rates. It is fine to target Mom with Kinect and all those media features. But Mom isn't going to be interested in buying Halo, Gears, Titanfall, etc. Sony is going the opposite direction (focusing on gamers, while they initially focused on other things with the PS3).

So I'm not 100% sure that the attach rates from previous generations will repeat themselves (and even then, I wouldn't use the word "dominated").

 

This.

Also, one other factor: the blu-ray player in the PS3. Obviously the PS3 had one and the 360 didn't. And the PS3 was actually the best blu-ray player on the market for a good period of time. That certainly hurt attach rates, because some people bought it just as a media center and barely played games on it at all. I know a guy at work who did just that... his 360 was for games, his PS3 was for movies. And that's no longer a factor this generation.

 

About this "attach rate", does it include all those free games that comes with PSN Plus?

 

It does not. Or likely would not. Digital sales in general will be hard to get numbers from. But yeah, someone could buy a PS4 and NEVER actually purchase a game. They could be sending Sony $100+ a year with PS+ and possibly PS Now though (and devs will get a cut of that). Having said that, it is true that the Xbox platform (at least the 360) had a better attach rate, even before PS+ entered into the conversation.

Though on a side-note, a high attach-rate (or software tie ratio, a similar concept) is NOT necessarily a good thing. Naturally, if your console is NOT selling well, your attach rate will stay the same or grow (people are still buying games, but no new systems are being purchases). If EVERYONE must have the system, your attach rate will get smaller (a lot of games could still end up being sold, but also a lot of new systems). If XBO stays at ~3M, it could have a very good attach rate and SW tie ratio for games. Total software sales would be dreadful though.

This is why Forza 5 is the best selling (by attach rate) racing game of all time (or whatever MS PR came up with). Of course, wait a few years, and it will no longer hold that title.

 

Wow, really? I felt for sure this would be higher. Maybe they're all buying it for the Vita instead?

This is one game I'll be buying whenever I see fit get myself a PS4, I actually like those games.

 

Have you tried One Piece Warriors, Fist of North Star Warriors, Troy Warriors, Gundam Warriors and what not?:grin:

 

Nah, I'm not that crazy about them. I own DW5, DW7, and DW8, but I don't need a bunch of copies of other series that are basically the same game. I'll stick to the one series.