Xavier Poix, managing director of Ubisoft’s Annecy, Montpellier, and Paris studios, has told Gamespot that he believes the slow start of the Wii U is caused by the fact that the overall message of the console is difficult to convey to consumers, unlike the original Wii console. Poix also believes that it’s technology like Microsoft’s SmartGlass application that will lead the way in the area of interconnectivity and multi-screen experiences.
“The depth of what you can do with that console is really hard to get across unless you play with it. It’s different from the Wii, where seeing was believing. With the Wii U, people really need to experience it.”
“The whole idea of the asymmetrical gameplay and using two screens to do two very different things is not simple to explain to people. ZombiU was designed to be a game for core players launching with a new Nintendo console. We should have communicated better in this respect to let people know what kind of experience to expect. It wasn’t obvious enough that there would be a new controller and new gameplay and a new skill set to develop.”
“We are at a new start in the industry, a moment where gaming is no longer just for geeks. We have consoles like the Wii to thank for that, and the rise in mobile gaming. It’s all leading towards interconnectivity. What will you do on your phone in the future will impact what you do on your console back home, and so on. There will be different applications for different devices.”
“You’ve got a new toy to play with, and for the first time you need to think differently. It’s hard to achieve but it’s the best moment.”
“No longer just for geeks” … ouch. :p
It has been like that since the 360 was released, just saying :S
No I know gaming’s not “just for geeks” anymore. But for a gaming company to put it like that. I’d think they’d be a little more carefull in choosing their words. :p
Why? Geeks are proud of being geeks and truth always needs to be told.
holy shit he said the G-Word…!
…seriously… theres nothing wrong with the word Geek, thus there is nothing wrong with their wording.
Don’t even try to lie my friend and up an American company hahahahahaha. Shut the @$@& up, the Wii brought in non gamers and families alike. In fact the NES was the machine that started the non geek influx, the Wii just made it global.
Can you shut the fuck up too? Just seeing the way you write things makes me want to punch you.
What’s wrong is you trying to give the xbox credit for nothing it ever accomplished. Don’t try to twist history like the knights and pope did with the crusades. We all know Israel and other innocent people died in that mess. Give credit to nintendo for the changed the game in 2006 with the Wii, you don’t even need to read a history book because you were there. Xbox caused it my foot. People that want to fabricate nonsense like you irk me the wrong way. Next you will be saying Norway invented gunpowder.
“Give credit to nintendo for the changed the game in 2006 with the Wii”
They created something extremely shit. Also once again, you’re so up yourself.
Yeah, I invented it.
In Norway.
That kid had a serious mushroom finger problem
How so?
“Geek” is a compliment. ;)
Expected – certainly, not going to deny that things with the Wii U may take longer for some consumers to understand than others…it’s not a simplistic concept, even if the console itself may not be of the most complex specifications. Still, when developers hit the sweet spot, you may see some rather glorious applications come to light – it’s all about getting a balance comfortable for each willing developer who sticks with the console over time!
I´d say that playing with two screens, in a home console, is really a paradigm shift. I notice that during some game fairs in my city, many people, even dedicated gamers, got a little confused when playing games like ZombiU and NintendoLand for the first time, some of them got the idea right after a few minutes, others felt that they still needed some more time with the console. At home, every relative or friend that came to try it loved the WiiU, but I had to explain how it works a lot of times.
Where did he say that “Smartglass will lead the way in the area of interconnectivity”? It sounds more like he’s talking about using Miiverse on the phone more than anything
exactly, i think he has them mix up.
GameSpot: “Looking forward, Poix pointed to technology like Microsoft’s SmartGlass application as leading the way in the area of interconnectivity and multi-screen experiences.”
ok i see.
SMARTGLASS IS STILL ALIVE?!?!?
Oh wait its just a useless app.
Can you do off tv play with smartglass? no? then I could careless, its one of my favorite features of the Wii U.
You basically can do NOTHING with smartglass compared to the Wiiu gamepad , and it has a load of input lag … It’s like saying Playstation Move is leading the way in Motion controll. It’s just Simply not.
Smartglass works well with what it can do, but it’s not really appealing. I downloaded it and only used it once since its launch last year (or whenever it was).
It’s a terrible idea That can’t achieve 25% of what the Wiiu gamepad can do lol.
Only retards don’t get the concept.
Especially if they call themselves gamers
Bullshit. Im with this guy 100%. If you want consumers to buy something, they have to see what it does right away. Nintendo can’t use the same approach with an entirely different product and people are confused. They need to iron things out and find their target audience.
I’m with Amadox on this one, Ladow; it isn’t because it’s confusing, it’s because the tech isn’t being advertised enough to get the point across.
When’s the last time you saw a Wii U commercial that really highlighted all the neat things you can do with the pad?
Basically, Nintendo’s console is a great system, but it’s being held back from its full sales potential by weak advertising.
yea, the only thing hurting the wiiU is that there is no advertising for it at all….
I get the concept, just without big games it’s not exactly a must buy.
if he thiinks smartglass is better he should go to lionhead instead
Exactly, I thought smart glass was pretty weak sauce… Ok, so you have a seperate screen for your map, OOOOooo so revolutionary.
Until it can handle panoramic view and off tv play, I really don’t think it even comes into the same league as Wii U’s second screen concept.
To be fair for a moment, having an off-screen map is pretty damned handy.
I’m thankful for it every moment I play Darksiders II on the Wii U.
Nintendo fanboys praise having off screen maps, and I’m pretty sure lots of tablets can already do panoramic view.
if you havent played AC3, you dont know the pain in the ass that is being pausing and pausing, just to know if you are in the right direction, i know tablets can do the same but the developers cant count on you having one and they wont waste resources, other point to note is that the tablet wont be implemented on the gameplay as it is on the gamepad
at least as good
Enough of the how will you play next, it’s time nintendo marketed the life out of the Wii U’s games. If you are reading this Reggie, start making adds about a family, dudes, with their friends and girl friends playing Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Lego city undercover and Aliens colonial marines. Forget directs, they are for us the core gamers, plus drones and xbots.
Smartglass is not leading the way in anything. Leading the way in ripping off the Wiiu maybe.
Keep your trousers on Ubisoft. Give the Wiiu a bit of time to mature. Once games like Lego City arrive , things will get better :) . Nintendo really needs to do som advertising though. What is it with Sony and Nintendo that they don’t like about the TV ? All I ever see is stupid Xbox adverts.
Nintendo advertises a bit actually. Mostly for the 3DS but I do see some Wii U ads here and there. I do admit that they should advertise the Wii U more and with better clarity though. On there other hand, I almost never see Sony ads. ._.
As for moneybags Microsoft, well, they thrive off of advertising.
What Nintendo really needs is for someone to create a really cool commercial for the Wii U.
One that’s eye-catching yet still conveys the point well, preferably with memorable music.
I see occasional Sony ads, it’s normally only for their first party titles though, Uncharted 3 got one, and i know there’s a PS+ one floating about, but the ps3 has the favour of games like Dead Space 3 advertising, Sony doesnt pay for it, EA do, but Sony still gets publicity for it, Nintendo dont really have that privilege, i always just see 3DS ads, which are great, but no WiiU ads, or barely any.
I’ve noticed Sony doing a lot of Youtube advertising and net advertising come to think about it.
Yeah, but online advertising only gets you so far.
True , and everybody just presses Skip on Youtube…..
because its cheap and sony are POOR
I still think Nintendo needs to market it more but they’re in a rough space where they released a new system and nothing is ready to come out or be shown yet.
The Nintendo Direct was good, but alot of it was “we have this coming, but we cant show it”, alot of consumers arent going to react to a couple of Wind Waker HD screenshots, or a short Shin Megami X Fire Emblem trailer. Even Monolith’s X didnt spell much out, it showed us that the WiiU definitely has power, and any Xenoblade fan probably came in their pants, but we didnt get any info, ballpark release date, it was just snippets of gameplay, we need full trailers to hype people up.
I mean, something like Monster Hunter, they meed to advertise that, because alot of 3DS owners may be interested to make that push to WiiU if they have something like that, maybe their brother has a 3DS, and they might think about getting a WiiU because they can do cross play with the game, same goes with any first party title, only advert i’ve seen in one for NSMBU, and ZombiU (which in my opinion does the opposite of attract people, because it looks horrible in the trailer).
If all else fails, blame the consumers!
Ubisoft must be getting either arrogant or worried to begin biting the hand that feeds.
The Wii U somehow has lost that good ole’ Nintendo charm, as seen in The Wizard, where they’re having tournaments, and playing nes in the hotel.
I’m just saying, if Nintendo wants to get consumers interested, they NEED popular movie product placement to catch gamers attention and get them interested in the Wii U and buy one!
Also, MORE exclusives never hurt anyone.
…what? Nintendo just need to release some first party games, they don’t need The Wizard 2
People still watch a lot of movies you know? Don’t write off my suggestion so quickly.
Bring over Watch Dogs to help get the message across :)
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I think what this guy is saying about the Wii U is true, also Miyamoto and Iwata have been saying the same thing. When I got my Wii U I had read about the gamepad miiverse and it’s other features, but it wasn’t till i set it up and actually put it to work that I understood how different and cool this console really is. I think Nintendo is having a hard time getting the concept of the Wii U across because it’s actually something new, not just a beefed up version of the last console with the same controller. I honestly think it would take a commercial just for Miiverse so people can undestand it’s concept with out owning a Wii U, same goes for Nintendo Tvii and the gamepad. Nintendo ran into this problem with the DS and it’s two screens and the 3DS and it’s StreetPass and Spotpass, and the only thing that can get them out of this mini pickle is great games, and when it comes to great games there’s no company like Nintendo.
Maybe so, but the extreme lack of advertising around the world is one of the primary reasons to why many don’t wanna buy a Wii U and probably don’t even know about it.
Promote MH3U, Pikmin 3 to start with aswell.
They will promote those games when the time comes. I don’t really worry about Wii U sales at this moment. Once this 2 month drought ends sales will pick up. Wii U has lots of games coming out this year. Rayman, Aliens, Resident evil, lego city, pikmin 3, monster hunter 3, wonderful 101, skylander swap, game & warrio, disney infinity, plus many eshop games, and that’s just for the first half of the year. I’m certain that along the year Wii U will also have a new FIFA, new Madden, some new baseball and basketball games, and if an other wrestling game drops this year Wii U will have it too. All this games plus many more that we don’t know about will push systems for Nintendo and by the time the competition releases their systems at a higher price the Wii U will have a strong library to back it up. Nintendo is playing chess and they are in a great position.
THE POINT IS THO IT ISNT JESUS YOU GOT TO BE THICK TO NOT GET WIIU I HAVNT PUT THE GAMEPAD DOWN IN 2 MONTHS UNLESS IM HOLDING A WII REMOTE AND CHUCK ITS AMAZING AND ITS COMMONSENSE
HOW CAN COMMONSENSE BE HARD TO GET IM SORRY BUT PEOPLE ARE FUCKING DUMB
ITS WII MEETS DS MEETS SMART DEVICE DERP I DONT GET IT JESUS THATS LIKE NOT GETTING IF YOU PUCH YOURSELF IN THE EYE IT WILL HURT OR IF YOU PUT YOUR HAND IN A FIRE IT WILL BURN
I GIVE UP
DIGITAL FOUNDRY DONT GET WIIU GPU ETHER YET THERE COUGH EXPERTS LOL
a wiiu sports pack in with wii eemote and gamepad interaction would have given the DERP PUBLIC a better idea of things
Nintendo tried this with Nintendo Land, but I have to agree with you, and it should come with all Wii U bundles.
Wow an article without fanboys nor trolls … Must be a nice day
Aaaaaand its over
I don’t get whats so complicated. The Wii U has 2 freaking screens which can be used in a million diferent amazing ways! It is an HD Nintendo console.. whats not to get COME ON BUY IT PEOPLE!!!
Well, that’s all well in good, but from most forums I’ve looked at, people think the game line up at the moment is pretty average.
I love the pic for this article, it always cracks me up. It looks like their entire entertainment center houses one gadget: the Wii U.
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