Nintendo Wii U Unconvincing to the Money Men?

 Wedbush's Micheal Pachter has weighed in on the announcement of the Wii U, and his analysis is that the Wii U will be impactful, but it comes two years too late to make a significant impact on the market, given the relative power of competing systems like the Xbox 360 and the Sony PS3.

After mulling over the Nintendo Wii U annoucement, investors started selling Nintendo stock, enough to drive the price of the stock down 5% in a single day, and causing another 4+% the following day.  This is despite strong statements of support from third party developers, and a positive reception of the Wii U on the show floor by several media outlets.

Nintendo's president expressed surprise about the nearly 10% drop in stock price.  Mr Iwata said "The reaction to the presentation and what I heard from people I met and the mood of the convention did not chime at all with what happened in the stock market. It's very strange."

Nintendo formally announced their new console, the Nintendo Wii U at this year's E3.  Like the Wii, the Nintendo Wii U has a unique controller, and will use this controller as a differentiator in the hotly competitive console market.  The center of the large, pad-like controller features a 6.2 inch touchscreen.  This screen allows a gamer to switch from playing their games on their HDTV to playing directly on the new controller, seemlessly.  The Wii U isn't restricted to using this new controller to play games, however.  The system can also be controlled with the Wiimote, using the screen on the additional display to show extra elements of the game.  Several examples of this functionality was presented; for example, one demonstration showed a version of golf where the touchscreen was a picture of the ball.  The screen adds several possibilities for gaming, including magnification of elements on screen, video chat, and "swiping" elements from the portable screen to your TV. 

The Wii U is 100% backward compatible with the Nintendo Wii.  However, no price was announced for the system.

In addition to the 6.2 LED screen, the Wii U controller has dual analog sticks, a user-facing camera, an accelerometer, microphone, speaker, triggers, and more.  The imagery is generated on the Wii U console, which means that the graphics are all HD, and when desired, transmitted to the Wii U controller (not HD on the controller). 

Web browsing, sharing photos, playing a game with either two screens or a single screen, and more are being shown at the E3 press conference going on this week.  However, the Wii U won't be released until the Fall of 2012.

Nintendo's new console system was previously codenamed Project Cafe.  This year's Electronic Entertainment Expo marks the first time that the system has been shown publically.  Multiple sources have published rumors that the system will be more powerful than either the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox 360, and while this seems likely given their "bird" demo, this has not been directly confirmed.

A few months ago, Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo told Bloomberg News, "We would like to propose a new approach to home video game console. It's difficult to make 3-D images a key feature, because 3-D televisions haven't obtained wide acceptance yet." 

Nintendo sent out a statement immediately following their E3 2011 pres conference, confirming several details about the Nintendo Wii U.

Turn to the next page to learn all the Wii U hardware specs!

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Anonymous, 6/14/2011 7:54:41 AM
Score: 0  
Neither did the Wii when that unit came out
They complained about the Wii when that console came out as well. Look at what the wii did to the gaming market. I think price will be a determining factor of the success of this console as well. When the Wii came out the unit was priced right with a game and a controller unlike the xbox 360 and the ps3 consoles. I like the way nintendo has approached all of the consoles when coming to the market but the game cube was behind in time while the Wii U is a totally different view on what is to become of consoles.
Anonymous, 6/14/2011 8:18:19 AM
Score: 0  
Lame
The controllers are massive with a camera and a touch screen. My coffee table and game area is already swamped with Xbox 360 controllers, where am I supposed to put these massive Wii controllers when not in use? When the touchscreen inevitably breaks, how much are these monsters going to cost to replace?
Anonymous, 6/14/2011 10:51:11 AM
Score: 0  
Money Maker
The bottom line is this will do well. Just like the Wii did. This is a large Ipad, that is catered to the casual gamer. If hardcore games come on board it will do even better. I think, just like the Wii, the lack of 3rd party support will quickly fade and it will become another Wii, but until then it will capitalize on all the sales that both Microsoft and Sony will not get in new hardware sales (can't see the new Sony portable doing to well).

Even though some speculate the price will be the determining factore, I don't see it. When I bought my family's Wii for the holiday, I bought the Wii, the extra controlers, an extra game and the Wii balance board. All in all, I'm sure it will run about the same for the new system. Hopefully they bundle it with a cool game so that the cost doesn't seem to threatning.

The other peril I do see with this is that they controller will be too heavy. Although I have read it is light, but then again it looks like it is sync'd up to some powersource and does not include the "boatload" of batteries it looks like it takes.

I'm sure I'll preorder for 2012 holiday, as I have kids. :)
Dezoris, 6/14/2011 3:36:50 PM
Score: 0  

I have a feeling there will be more to the Wii U than they currently announced. Its a mixed bag of good and bad to me regarding the touch-screen-tablet-license plate-lapdesk-cookiesheet-controller. It they find ways to ENHANCE the gamer's experience (not just add unnecessary bells and whistles) then I'm very interested in where they take it. I think it would be great if Nintendo unveiled a redesigned controller that serves the way the classic controller did on the original Wii. Then again, with all buttons I see on this new tablet, I suppose that type of announcement would be unlikely.

Overall, I'm bracing for another gimmicky excuse to buy another console. Nintendo just needs to focus on making unmatched quality games and fun multiplayer experiences and they will make bank...by which I mean they will build their own bank to keep their money in.

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