Nintendo reiterates plans for 2012 Wii U launch
No 3DS repeats, insists president
Nintendo head honcho Satoru Iwata has stated again that the Wii U will be released next year, promising a final build will be on show at E3 in June 2012.
The announcement means we'll probably have to wait until the summer for an official Wii U launch, although we could be tapping our thumbs even longer as the company attempts to avoid the struggles it faced with the 3DS.
"As we learned a bitter lesson with the launch of the Nintendo 3DS, we are trying to take every possible measure so that the Wii U will have a successful launch," the Ninty prez said during his quarterly financial presentation.
Unveiled at E3 last year, Nintendo's Wii U almost made enough noise to deflect attention away from the stuttering 3DS sales.
It has to be in Ninty's best interestests to bring the Wii U to market long before Microsoft hits back in 2013 with a next-gen Xbox and Sony follows suit with its PS4.
Nintendo hopes to recover from the battering it took this year. The company forecast its first ever annual loss this week, ¥20bn (£164m), for the 12 months to 31 March 2012. ®
COMMENTS
Oh, dear. Alarm bells ringing.
To stand any chance, Nintendo had to get the Wii-U to market by Q2 next year. Demonstrating the 'final build' at E3 would realistically equate to a Q3 release in Japan and the US and a (hopeful) Q4 release in Europe.
Unless that 'final build' is significantly more powerful than the specs released so far, the 720 and PS4's likely unveiling at E3 will urinate on Nintendo's proverbial fire, even though it's highly unlikely we'll see either at retail before Q3 2013.
That means the Wii-U has just one year to establish its market position, during which we'll be bombarded by a continuous drip feed of 720 and PS4 specs and previews.
The high cost of additional controllers will likely put casual 'family' buyers off, leaving the Wii-U to compete in the hardcore space against vastly superior hardware.
And although the 'Nintendo difference' will always make its products an attractive alternative, I expect the Wii-U's USP will be severely eroded by 720/Win Phone and PS4/PSP Vita combos.
Nintendo should have taken a bite from Apple's marketing strategy and remained schtum on the Wii-U's features until the very last minute.
Add this to the 3DS catastrophe and who would bet against Mario et-al going mutliformat within the next gen?
