It’s now six years since the Wii’s arrival in the US market, and Nintendo sees it’s time for change. But their competitors, Sony and Microsoft, already breached the HD field in these past few years and they are now looking into expanding further with their Next Gen systems. Will the Wii U stand the trials ahead, or will Nintendo fall into obscurity?

Before deciding the fate of Nintendo, it’s important to look at what information Nintendo released for their next big push in the home console. At E3 on Tuesday June 5th, Nintendo held their Press Conference, pushing the Wii U as well as some of their title games such as New Super Mario Bros U, Nintendo Land, and Pikmin 3 which will be released along with the system this winter. At the conference, Nintendo also released selected details regarding the Wii U ranging from what fans can expect and to details about the new controller.

One of the first announcements from Nintendo of America’s President and Chief Operating Officer, Reggie Fils-Aime, was the clarification that the Wii U will support two Wii U Game Pads along with four Wii-mote plus, nunchucks, and classic controllers. As for the Game Pad, features included are, a touch screen that can be used with either the player’s fingers or a stylus, four face buttons, dual analog sticks, motion gyroscope, rumble feature, headphone jack, camera, mic, speakers, volume control (used for both the Game Pad and T.V.), and a home button for menu navigation and for the social network.

Other features offered for the Game Pad are access to Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and Amazon Video. The device is also supposed to be able to function as a universal T.V. remote. The biggest feature that is offered for the Game Pad, is the option to play most of Wii U’s games directly on the Game Pad, which gives the option for gamers to play their Wii U games even if the television is occupied.

As for features on the Wii U, the underlying focus of the system is Social Interaction. Upon turning on the Wii U, gamers are dropped into the main hub of their Wii U Menu, which is currently known as Main Street. In the main menu, the gamer’s Miis are dropped in an open environment with Miis from other players all while roaming around in a social network Nintendo calls the Miiverse.

The Miiverse is the peak of Nintendo’s social interaction where gamers can communicate with each other by means of texting or pictochat. The Miiverse also gives gamers the ability to post status updates, high scores,  add game hints to help others through more challenging situations in a particular game (similar to that found in ATLUS’ Demon’s Souls), as well as the option to jump right into a game that has already started. The Miiverse is also announced to be available on the 3DS as well as other mobile devices at a later date.

But the biggest push Nintendo was offering with the Wii U was the Asymmetric gameplay. Since the Wii U gives gamers the option of using the Game Pad or the Wiimotes, this gives gamers the option to have up to five players on the same system (four on the Wiimotes and one on the Game Pad). This was not described much in detail, but continuously brought up, and it became clear by what Nintendo meant with Asymmetric gameplay. In some games, as players use the Wiimotes, the person playing with the Game Pad generally has a special role. In New Super Mario Bros. U, the player with the Game Pad has the option of placing blocks to assist other players or to create obstacles.

In Just Dance 4, the player that uses the Game Pad is known as the Puppet Master, in which during a song, the Game Pad user can pick and choose any dance move he desires to make the Wiimote players do, and even has the option to force the dancers to strike a pose and have them hold it until the Puppet Master decides to choose a different move. This Asymmetric gameplay leaves open new options to future games and can greatly increase the gameplay value of games to come.

With these new updates on the Wii U, the anticipation for its winter release is great, but it is a matter of how its sales do that will be the deciding factor if Nintendo can survive the home console market. The Wii U shows great promise and many gamers continue to anticipate other details that can be expected.

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Opening day two for E3 2012 was the Nintendo Press Conference but it was a big disappointment, and could be a potential disaster for Nintendo. This lackluster performance is not a way to advertise the next big console for Nintendo, because a poor showing at E3 can only lead them downhill in this heavily competitive market. So without further ado, these were the shortcomings of Nintendo’s press conference.

Nintendo opened up with a skit starring Shigeru Miyamoto, game designer and producer for Nintendo (Mario, Zelda, Star Fox, Donkey Kong, F-Zero, Pikmin). Pikmin scurried around his dressing room with one getting stuck in his jacket pocket as Miyamoto makes his way to the conference floor. Once on the floor Miyamoto jumps right into Pikmin 3 for the Wii U.

Following this, Miyamoto left and Reggie Fils-Aime, President and Chief Operating Officer for Nintendo of America, stepped in and took the role of introducing details of the system and future games and their developers. Just taking a general look at Nintendo’s conference, it is like any other conference that one would see at E3. But usually the selling points of these press conferences are the unveiling of their big project that has been kept under wraps. So what did Nintendo have to offer?

Besides the already announced Pikmin 3, Nintendo offered a handfull of third party games, a rehashing of games that have already been released, a Wii Fit game that can count as a glorified add-on, two of the same type of Mario games, and an apology that they did not have time to discuss many of the anticipated 3DS games coming out.

Yes, there are quite a few amazing games in the lineup for Nintendo’s Wii U like Pinkmin 3, New Super Mario Bros U and New Super Mario Bros 2 for the 3DS, and Nintendo Land, which gives gamers a unique way to grasp of the potential of the Wii U (like Wii Sports to the Wii). But there was nothing that stood out and made the audience’s jaw drop in awe. The conference was like going to a movie that has been over hyped.

Nintendo really did a great job with creating a system for the casual gamer, as well as keeping their diehard gaming fans entertained, but out of all the games they showed off, they were games that we expected. Something that would have blown the conference out of the water would have been an introduction of an HD Star Fox or Metroid game.

By bringing in something that everyone wants, but does not expect, would have really brought the crowed to life. Instead Nintendo just offered us the firework effects from Nintendo Land. Instead of rave applauds, Nintendo received a dumbfounded look of disappointment from their audience. What Nintendo needs to do is learn from their mistakes and even if the project isn’t ready, give the gaming community something that will make them want to buy their system.

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Sometimes the technology used in a product is so advanced that even its rivals cannot help but be impressed. While in Paris promoting a 3DS-powered visitor’s guide for the Louvre, Nintendo superstar Shigeru Miyamoto could not help but express his praise for the Sony PlayStation Vita’s technological capabilities. Of course, the legendary game designer found another way to criticize the machine.

Miyamoto says he finds the handheld’s software lineup ultimately unsatisfying. “[The Vita is] obviously a very hi-spec machine, and you can do lots of things with it,” he said. “But I don’t really see the combination of software and hardware that really makes a very strong product.”

The Vita was released in Japan last December in Japan and late February for the US, UK and Australia. Despite selling 325,000 units after its release date in Japan and 600,000 in other regions, sales of the handheld have slumped. In Europe both the Wii and PlayStation Portable—the handheld the Vita was supposed to replace—outsell Sony’s new console.  Sales in the United States are more positive. There only the PlayStation3, Xbox 360 and 3DS outsell it, with the Vita slowly catching up to the 3DS in weekly sales.

In Japan, though, the 3DS is trouncing the Vita, outselling it 10:1. This is in spite of a slow start for the Nintendo handheld, which only picked up after a price drop for the 3DS. Miyamoto blames the poor initial sales on a lack of games available at launch.

“When we launched the 3DS hardware we didn’t have Super Mario 3D Land, we didn’t have Mario Kart 7, we didn’t have Kid Icarus: Uprising,” he said. “We were striving to have all of these ready for the launch, but we weren’t able to deliver them at that time. We were kind of hoping that people would, nevertheless, buy into the product, find 3DS hardware promising, but looking back we have to say we realise the key software was missing when we launched the hardware.”

The solution to Sony’s problems, then, is more games with maybe a price drop, and few Vita owners would disagree. Despite a collection of launch title representing a wide range of genres, the trickle of games released has slowly dried up. Gravity Rush is the next big game due for release in the United States and Europe, coming out in mid-June.

Little support from publishers proved to be the bane of the PlayStation Portable. Although its sales were not abysmal, compared to its competition, the DS, they left something to be desired .

So will more games solve the Vita’s problems? At this point Sony may need to more than just that and to drop the Vita’s pricey retail value of $249, in order to see significant changes in sales. It worked for the 3DS, so a change in price may make the Vita victorious.

Image Courtesy of   Ricardo “Eb” Trejo

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