Respected online gaming publication Eurogamer has written an article declaring that the Wii U and the PlayStation Vita are our new Dreamcasts. However, the publication says this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as despite neither achieving commercial success, they both have a good back catalogue of games.
“Commercial success may evade them, but these ailing consoles are future classics.”
“It’s one of the odd phenomena seemingly exclusive to video game fandom that some people really do care. Sales figures are used as self-validation for those that have picked the most popular side, and there’s no shortage of morbid mobs prematurely ringing the death knell for struggling hardware. The strangely partisan behaviour of players who pledge blind allegiance to corporations is a matter for another day, though – what’s important is to forget about all that, and embrace some of those commercial failures while they’re still around for us to celebrate them.”
Whatever.. xD
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110420235153/metroid/images/b/b9/Anthonylaughgif.gif
I can understand when they say that WiiU has a good catalog of games, but Vita??? In Japan it may be ok, but in the West there´s nothing much to play on it besides Tearaway and Gravity Rush
Blazblue, soon to be minecraft (march), soul sacrifice, slew of indies. Ragnarok odyssey. Plenty of games that I’ve enjoyed emensly. Maybe not games for you but there’s plenty.
lololol
Just wait guys. The beautiful games will start rolling in. *slurp*
My thoughts exactly ^_^
It no longer matters what games the Wii U gets. Its fan base will only slowly creep forward. Nintendo just needs to accept that and focus and giving the current Wii U owners the games they want. (F-Zero, Starfox and such)
It doesn’t mean what they say isn’t true. You wanna talk about a system with beautiful games, lets talk about one then. It was called the dreamcast and quiet honestly it was a fitting name. It launched with amazing games, quiet honestly the greatest launch I have ever witnessed. Soul calibur absolutely floored people, powerstone was beyond fun, sonic adventure was great, we had never seen graphics like tokyo xtreme racer’s, they were beyond good, it had the superior version of ready 2 rumble by far, it had house of the dead2, hell I think hydro thunder came out relatively early and even that game was good. You couldn’t of asked for a better console. Then the ps2 lauched with shit games. The only good one it had were dreamcast ports. In the end it didn’t matter, the dreamcast died.
Wouldn’t PS Vita be a Game Gear?
Ugh, the amount of people that are going to take this the wrong way by not actually reading.
Example: The Gamecube was a “Dreamcast” situation. Commercial failure yet full of classics through it’s lifetime. Dreamcast was home to games like Shenmue, Rival School, Power Stone, Sonic Adventure, SF:3rd Strike, RE:CV, and many more.
Everyone’s talking shit right now but in a few years, the few that played the games that came out will be glad they did, just like Gamecube, PSP, Wii (yes, game wise), and the Dreamcast.
Gamecube definitely had some of my favorite games. I’m hoping I can say the same about the WiiU someday. Of course, I have no choice but to savor the WiiU, It’s my only gaming console besides my 3DS.
Me too.
Dreamcast received Marvel vs Capcom 2 years before it came out any where else. Also, Soul Caliber, DOA 2, Crazy Taxi, House of Dead 2, Grandia II, Skies of Arcadia, Ecco the Dolphin, Seaman, Space Channel…the list never ends!
Chu-Chu rocket!
Don’t forget Seaman. I still play Seaman every day. So lonely, please help.
But the GameCube wasn’t a commercial failure, it was still very profitable. The Wii U has actually cost Nintendo money. If they can’t make profit off of the hardware, or make up the costs with software, it is a commercial failure, at least for now.
The problem with that comparison is that the GameCube still made a profit. A popularity failure, for sure, but commercially, it made money, so it was a success in that regard.
This comparison is faulty for the reason that Sega didn’t support the Dreamcast, but Nintendo is DESPERATELY trying to turn Wii U around. As far as Vita goes, drop the memory price by 65%, get some more big games like they’re starting to, and it’ll do just fine. I might even pick one up myself.
Not only that, when the Dreamcast first launched in the U.S., it was selling out. It had a tremendous first year, but it slowly waned in sales in sequential years. And, not to sound like a “yes man,” the Gamecube and Dreamcast were fantastic game consoles; I can’t agree with the selection of the PSP (but, again, I feel no animus in your decision to favor it).
Fuck I miss the dreamcast. Shenmue is in the top 3 greatest games of all time.
I agree, I definitely think we won’t be seeing something else with Wii in the title ever again…. but Nintendo isn’t going anywhere yet. They’ll have other home console systems. So this is all a bit over-dramatic.
I’ve been savouring them since I got them.
:O how dare you? The wii u will pull a 3ds, you’ll see! YOU’LL ALL SEE. The gamepad is by far the best control ever (IMO of course) and i loved the way it was implemented in Batman AC, when i had to put my fingerprint to open the hatch it was love at first site.
Savour the Eurogamer, they are our new “we dont give a fuck”
also, they forgot that from start, the Sega genesis was even struggling, the Dreamcast just delivered the final blow. Not to mention the only good franchise was sonic, while Nintendo has at least 6-7 that still sell
The Megadrive/Genesis was successful actually. It sold 40million compared to the SNES at 50million.
It was the Saturn that really struggled.
have you heard of the flop the Sega 32x? that toilet was what brought the doom to Sega, making an useless addon
the Saturn (and the alpha Neptune) were expected to seel really bad due to the flop the 32x was
The failure of the addons for the Megadrive don’t change the fact that the core system sold really really well and was very successful.
The Megadrive was not a failure by any means. It’s addons were. Both the Sega CD and the 32X.
Then there was also the Sega Nomad that failed too.
Sega CD, 32X, Nomad, Game Gear, Saturn & Dreamcast. All those failures combined forced Sega to quit the hardware business. None of them alone would’ve been enough to bring them down. But these all happened one after the other. It was too much.
Back on point. Megadrive/Genesis was not a failure. And the Dreamcast was awesome.
my point is that N is not following the same pattern, they just a hard time with the WiiU
i agree the Dreamcast was cool, but I had a GC over that
Oh I know Nintendo aren’t following the same pattern.
One struggling system Nintendo doesn’t mean a whole lot. And it would take a lot more to force them out of hardware than it did Sega. Nintendo could’ve survived Sega’s 6 hardware failures.
I think they should be able to make a profit on the Wii U in the end. Maybe it’ll reach Gamecube sales, or N64 levels if they’re lucky. Either way, the Wii U won’t have been as successful as they’d like, so I’m sure they’ll try hardware for their next system.
try harder*
You’re kidding right… Genesis struggled only because of its pricing point. Nintendo was 129.00 while the genesis was close to 200.00. Once Genesis price dropped it exploded and Nintendo rebounded back with a new system. It was the sega Saturn that struggled because if price and limited selection.
Genesis and Snes had the know Bit Wars, but the problem with thtat was that, while the Genesis sold, Sega released 6 consoles that failed, even against 1 single opponent
to count
32x addon
Sega CD addon
Sega Saturn
Sega Neptune
Sega Dreamcast
if you ask wha the Neptune is, is a “semi-unreleased” console
It was a proptotype that even on QA was bad
my point is that N is not gonna be as the Dreamcast
Many said the same about the Wii and DS just because the were weaker than the Ps3/PsP
ummmm why isn’t it mentioned that the dreamcast was in no way a bad system. it was bootlegging that brought it down. people could just copy disc so why buy software for it. same with the sega Saturn but sega didn’t learn from that experience. consoles are only 1 part of the sales most come from software and sony themselves don’t make many software sales its the third parties that keep them alive that make the biggest sales on the ps4 it don’t matter how many units sold they themselves havnt made any real big sales but third parties are cleaning up. third parties could make more sales if 15% of ps4s didn’t ship broken. I had a vita I liked it but developers used it as a dumping ground for low budget games :( I enjoy my wii u cuz Nintendo’s 1st party games border on legendary. 10 years from now if u ask me to name many memorable Nintendo games ill have a long list and yet I cant think of any memorable sony games but some third party games will be on my list :)
some said the same about 3DS and even Vita is selling well
Good. I’m pretty glad that Nintendo is doing poorly. Not that I have anything against Nintendo, I just think that them being pushed into such a position will force them to keep pushing out amazing games. More so than we would have probably seen if they were doing financially well.
Not sure if I should insult you or shake your hand…
No idea, I just think people/companies perform better under pressure. If you agree with that, shake my hand, if you don’t, then insult me.
Ok.
the whole dreamcast thing is a bad comparison. Its only said because they thing its the last, but they fail to realize that nintendo has 15 billion in bank sooooooo….pointless article against nintendo. the dreamcast was the last, because sega pulled consoles out of market like people ask nintendo to do with the wiii u. They done the same with their handhelds i belive. People didn’t trust sega they thought they would be fucked again by sega. dream cast sold around 10 million in its life time about three years. likely the wii u will past that.
didn’t the dreamcast get a brand new game last year thanks to kick starter? Plus some big Wii u games sold 1 million units each including Wind Waker. I never hear anything like that for the Vita so I would say the Wii U is more like the game cube and the Vita the ET atari game
I believe there are a few Vita games (maybe one or two) that have sold over 1 million physical copies. Then the digital sales are a separate addition to that.
Hopefully the Wii U isn’t a Dreamcast – lots of great games on that machine but it only lasted 3 years I think.
Yay for the Vita!
Huh. So that’s what a Dreamcast looks like.
Calling the Wii U a Dreamcast just 1+ year on the market lol. Why is Eurogamer a respected gaming publication? They are a joke and their fanbase is even worse. Wii U is no Dreamcast but the Vita is (kind of)
This comparison isn’t fair. The Dreamcast had more than one game worth playing.
The Wii U has more than one game worth playing.
As a consumer I actually think the Wii U becoming a classic is much better than being a commercial success. Nintendo obviously wants the commercially successful console, but I will have a very special console that not “everyone” experienced around this time….unlike the Wii…which isn’t really special….
Pretty exciting if you ask me.
bit premature to call it a dreamcast yet
the wii u will probably share the same fate as the gamecube.. not commercially successful but with a happy, albeit small, fanbase
The Wii U has yet to have actual good games beyond Mario.
No, seriously, the few Mario titles on the Wii U are literally the only kind of games (games original to the Wii U here, not ports or remakes) worth playing on the console right now. It’s still a pale shadow of what the Dreamcast was right now. With the Dreamcast, I can think of games like Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5, Chu Chu Rocket, and of course the Shenmue games. I haven’t seen anything like that on either the Wii U or the Vita yet, any games that totally make either system stand out in our minds. They still need more time, it seems.
They both have a nice treasure trove of games, if you actually look for and play them.
Atari jaguar anyone.
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There’s just no excuse for the way people are treating the Wii U. It’s a great new console, and Nintendo’s first step into HD. What’s wrong with people? All of those people who bought (and loved) the Wii, WHERE ARE THEY? Don’t they know that the Wii U has just as much potential (if not more) than the Wii? You’d think that people would love it even more, seei g as how the Game Pad controller is more normal than the Wii remote. Plus you can play games with the Pro Controller etc. The games don’t force you to use only the Wii remote and make you look like an idiot when playing.
Doesn’t anyone like Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Pikmin, Kirby and all other great Nintendo franchises and characters anymore? Don’t tney know that the only way to play new games in those series is to buy the Wii U? *sigh*
I seriously don’t understand people. Just like with my current favorite disc-format console (the Gamecube). People crapped on that too, yet it’s one of the greatest consoles ever!
Sadly, many people who bought the Wii were people who were drawn in by the simplicity of motion control (not egging on the motion controls- just saying that they may have looked better to them than a controller with a dozen buttons), played only a few games and didn’t play very frequently, and were people who don’t follow the gaming scene as much as other people. Most Wii owners that fit that category (in tandem with Nintendo’s nearly non-existent marketing of the Wii U) didn’t know exactly what the Wii U is/was- in fact, many saw it as merely an add-on to the Wii instead of as their next console, and couldn’t justify the high price point for such an add-on. Again, this is attributed to Nintendo not marketing the system as adequately as they should have. And for those who did and do know that the Wii U and its gamepad are a new system haven’t seen the console (specifically the gamepad) be used in a truly innovative way. The last problem is the lack of must-have hardware- yes, its library is expanding, but slowly.
I’m only stating facts. I personally do like the Wii U, but I can’t ignore its problems, especially its lack of games. Nintendo needs to stop its philosophy of “casuals first, dedicated supporters and hardcores later,” release the games we’ve been waiting for for years (a TRUE Star Fox game, a new F-Zero, a Metroid game where the plot wasn’t written by 4-year-olds and features protagonists having panic attacks after seeing their nemeses for the fifth time), and make Mario what he once was- make another challenging Mario game in the vein of Mario 64 or Galaxy instead of the super-easy, super-casual-friendly games like 3D Land and 3D World.
Respected… by who?
Vita yes. Wii U no. Wii U is a “Gamecube” situation not a Dreamcast.
Also, if the Wii U is a Dreamcast, I expect 2 good Sonic games. Still at 0…
The vita has restored my faith in handhelds. And it plays ps4 games and they look good too. Lots of ps3 games crossing over to it and with plus it’s a no brainer for me. Party chat, playing with friends online. I think it’s done well with the exception of troubles i had cross-playing with the ps3. I do’nt go with who sells the most but it has several impressive games already. Nintendo has been screwing up lately I like them but they need to go big or go home.
I really don’t see how they are like a Dreamcast, if I recall correctly, the Dreamcast was top of the lead technology wise at the time, but it was being crushed because of the total of 2 3d console companies, and a 4th one “the Xbox” just around the corner, the Wii U will still survive, it has some great games, there’s just a major headache in looking for which hardware to buy, what mostly killed nintendo’s sales around where I live is the DS family, they’re releasing so many different versions of the DS now that we barely have the money to decide on home consoles, Nintendo is a nostalgia machine, whereas Sony, they are mostly about gfx and social communication, and Xbox, they are just to burn the souls the unfortunate… xD and rareware… D: