Video game industry analyst Michael Pachter has revealed in the latest episode of Siftd’s Pachter Factor that he believes that the forthcoming Nintendo NX platform will be able to hold its own against the mid-cycle upgrades we are seeing from both Sony and Microsoft.
“The answer is, the Wii U has sucked. It’s a complicated, hard-to-use console because the GamePad just adds a layer of complexity that’s not intuitive and people didn’t like it. It wasn’t well designed, the GamePad didn’t have a battery life that was efficient for people who play more than an hour at a time. And, they didn’t have third-party support.
“They really lost third-party support. EA supported the launch and then stopped making games for it after a year. If you don’t have third-party support the only people that end up buying a Nintendo console are fanboys, who only want to play Nintendo games. Now, flip that over. If you are not a Nintendo fanboy but you love Nintendo games, the cost of playing them is you’ve got to buy a second console. Because, you’re already playing GTA or FIFA on your Xbox One or PS4. So, just to play Nintendo games, it’s hard to justify a console. With one exception, Zelda. I totally get why people would buy an NX to play Zelda. It’s a frickin’ great game.
“I don’t know if Nintendo is telling me the truth, they’re not liars. But I don’t know if Nintendo is exaggerating for a fact, but they told me that the map in Breath of the Wild is 12 times the size of the map in Twilight Princess. Like I said, I don’t really know what that means but it sounds like there’s 12 times as much to do.”
He continued, “The point is, it sounds like a much, much bigger game. And, if the game is as big as they say, that’s enough. You will buy a console just to play that game. Obviously they are going to have other games coming up behind it. I think that they recognised a year or two ago that the Wii U was kind of over. I think they probably diverted all of their development efforts to support the NX. Zelda is going to be essentially a launch title, it will be the biggest game out.
“So, I think the NX kind of quickly sells the same install base as the Wii U and, assuming the NX is not as complicated as the Wii U. Assuming that they’ve sold the GamePad problems, whether it’s just a conventional controller or they’ve fixed the battery life, made it more of a tablet, and there’s more to do with the NX. If they can get third-party support, I think they’re going to be competitive again.
“I frankly think that they’re benefitted by the Xbox One S not being an upgrade over the Xbox [One], it’s just thinner and lighter. I think they’re benefitted by the PS4 Neo and the Xbox Scorpio essentially being mid-cycle, modest upgrades intended, I think, to support VR, and all fully backward compatible. Maybe the NX is coming at the right time.
“It looks a lot to me like the NX is going to be essentially a PS4 in a Nintendo case. If it’s that powerful, if it’s easy enough architecturally for all the publishers to support, so FIFA, Call of Duty and Battlefield are on the NX, then absolutely I think this thing is going to sell really well. Let’s hope Nintendo get their mojo back, let’s hope they get third-party publisher support. If they do, I frankly think it is enough to carry the NX launch. If they get third-party support, it will sell 20 – 50 million units and be a solid, competitive console.”
Thanks, minibitminibit
While I’m no fan of Michael Pachter, I have to admit, he has a point. The Wii U was poorly designed from day one. It was rushed, backwards, needlessly complicated and counter-intuitive for no reason, and a stark contrast to everything the Wii stood for. Sure it has great games, but take that away, and that’s all it has going for it. It’s the modern day Sega Saturn.
ok, much granted and credit is due there, but I’m going to say this now.
“I don’t know if Nintendo is telling me the truth, they’re not liars. But I don’t know if Nintendo is exaggerating for a fact, but they told me that the map in Breath of the Wild is 12 times the size of the map in Twilight Princess. Like I said, I don’t really know what that means but it sounds like there’s 12 times as much to do.”
Patchler, look at the youtube videos…several has shown how big the map really is, failure on your part there.
“hard-to-use console because the GamePad just adds a layer of complexity that’s not intuitive and people didn’t like it”.
I call that lazy devs adn sputid jump off the issue dumbasses, granted they said “I DON’T LIKE IT” because of its sizes. surprisingly it was light and comfortable. Again, “dumbasses”. However I agree with everything else, about time you showed some brains there.
“Gamepad very complicated”
Too many buttons. And you have to touch a screen? Pschht, what is this sorcery?
Just to clarify, I think Patcher is just saying that the Gamepad isn’t inviting as a controller. The ignorant gamer might look at it and feel like it controls like a tablet and we all know how greeaaaaaat controls can be on a mobile game.
lol again dumbasses…*shakes head laughing*
Why is saying the Wii U is too complicated the new trendy criticism coming from the haters? Neither the console nor the gamepad are complicated.
Is the Gamepad complicated or is Michael Pachter just simple?
I mean seriously, the Gamepad is many things but complicated is not one of them. Unwieldy, unnecessary, gimmicky – I’d accept all of these as at least valid subjective criticisms. But not complicated – it’s just a controller with the same buttons as usual, plus gyro and a touch screen which I think we all know how to use by now.
It’s starts to get slightly complicated when you have to order a high capacity battery from their website and have to install it yourself making sure you have the proper screw driver to do so. And then you have to buy a new hard drive with a dedicated power source in order to take full advantage of the eshop. Not that these things are required but if you want to get the most optimal use out of your wii u these are the things you must do.
” I think they’re benefitted by the PS4 Neo and the Xbox Scorpio essentially being mid-cycle, modest upgrades intended…”
The PS4 yes, but the XBox Scorpio? A mid-cycle, modest upgrade? No way. The Scorpio is a massive, monster upgrade.
What about their Jojo?
Nice PowerPuffGirls reference.
Imfao
Of course they CAN, but the Question is, WILL they?
A lot of people still don’t even know the Wii U exists. Lol.
The fucks a “Wii U”?
I thought it was a sex toy or something? lol
…………..I’m going to ignore what I just read.
He did miss some key points, such as the gamepad being really bulky and also disrupting gameplay. It just never made sense to me how you have to look at the 2nd screen ,which isnt even where the main game is, especially for a home console meant to be viewed on the TV. “But the Nintendo DS had a 2nd screen.” Yes, but both screens were there at all times. A lot of times it felt like both screens were the game. Also, never a moment could you not see what was happening on both screens if you looked at the other. I mean how would you like it if you were playing a game, you were in the middle of a boss fight, and then I forced you to look straight up for 10 seconds and then let you continue playing the game. It would drive you nuts. With the Wii U, you take your eyes off that screen, there’s a chance you lose a life or lose the game or take damage or whatever. Sure, its more challenging, and people like a challenge, but that’s not where the challenge should come from. Its completely artificial.
play monster hunter 3 Ultimate and find out.
This guy still exists?
I’m personally sick of NX news that isn’t actually news. Wait until this fall when Nintendo says anything, any hype about it is potential for disappointment.
Wow… stating the obvious was always a job on the Enterprise. I didn’t know you could do it in life as well. What a douche bag!
He was just answering a question given to him.
Someone should ask him when he’s going to commit suicide!
That’s… not funny.
Even Pachter saying positive things about Nintendo, why people get so mad at him?
He was right when he said that Wii U and 3DS would not replicate the success of Wii and DS. He was spot on when he said that Wii U would sell around 15-20 mil units in its lifetime as well. Also, he predicted that The PS4 would have the upper hand this generation.
Although… Although I like make fun of him. He became a legend in the video game industry — maybe not for the best reasons, but anyway.
Don’t know…but its because of that “legendary status” is why people hate him. Me included…
I used to hate him. Nowadays, he entertains me, truth be told.
now i see why people started to hate pachter because he doesn’t know what he is talking about.
I see. But as I said before, he’s an entertainer to me.
no wonder why
Yeah but Pachter does a lot of flip flopping too and that’s the reason why he gets so much hate. He once said the Xbox One would be the best selling console this generation only to change his mind and say the PS4 would be. He also said that the Vita would eventually overtake the 3DS in sales…..well we both know how that turned out. Has he been right about some things about Nintendo? Yes…but he’s been wrong about a lot of things too….not to mention making asinine suggestions like for Nintendo to go 3rd party and even abandon their handheld market. He gets the hate he gets is because sometimes he says outlandish stupid things without logically thinking but I’ll give him credit he does at times make valiant points about the state of gaming industry and to a degree Nintendo
Right, I agree with you. He says stupid things here and there, and flip-flops a lot. But I stopped to take him seriuosly. When I did so, it used to make me sick.
I really hope Nintendo NX is a success. If not It’s over for anyone including me defending anything Nintendo. Especially after all this buildup and hype.
If NX fails, someone will have to throw it into a casket with the “Saw” theme playing and yell “GAME OVER!” and slam it shut. Ahaha.
Does this Michael Pacter dude wear flip flops? One month he says one thing and then next another. I remeber when he said the Wii U couldnt get over 10milllion.
He doesnt even know what the NX is. But is 100% sure the next console will flop. Ok.
he stated his opinions are facts….yes and im actually Lucifer disguised as a human
So if you Lucifer why did you trick eve from eating off the tree? Where you get your evilness from. What did the tree look like? How old were you back then?
well the Wii U is not that very well to me.
nothing complicated about the gamepad. that’s what shows he has no idea what he is talking about. it was lack of third party games especially AAA. it was making a OS that was lacking in media options, it was game delays, shortages, and some games were almost a step back. (3d land was great but shouldn’t have bin the only Mario game, Mario party SUCKED, no new Zelda (still) and NO Metroid at all. not one M tittle out of Nintendo the whole life of the system. and they didn’t really think about planning ahead cus Nintendo thought they could just ride on old success which also held the Wii U back in power, and away from X86.
sure the Wii U was not all bad. (I still play it like every day)
BUT it could have bin better in a lot of ways. even the 3DS kind of missed the mark. (and it ended up selling well) so imagine if the 3DS was better to begin with.
The only real problem with the Gamepad was the fact the settings for your Wii U can’t be accessed without the Gamepad. If that breaks & you need to transfer your data to another Wii U or make room for other games because you need to delete a digital game, you are screwed. I guess Nintendo forgot some of us gamers do tend to lose our cool sometimes & do things we regret… like breaking our damn controller. -.- Sure you can replace or fix it for free but only if you didn’t directly damage or destroy it. Otherwise, you have to pay over 100 bucks for it. :/
I do agree with one thing. If the NX is structured in a way that 3rd parties can port their games more easily, that will bring in more support.
Power wasn’t a problem with the Wii U. It was the fact that it was designed in a weird way that essentially made 3rd parties create new versions of their games just for it.
Remember the Wii U alamo!
https://youtu.be/2SrQQPC1j_s
No, but good laugh…I take it fanboy vs hater of all consoles…no contest.
My gamepad lasts 4-5 hours on brightness 3 while playing games, don’t know what he’s talking about.
For a controller, that’s really terrible. Lol.
While he says some stupid things in this, he also said a couple of smart things. A shame most of it should be common knowledge, though.
“If you don’t have third-party support the only people that end up buying a Nintendo console are fanboys, who only want to play Nintendo games. Now, flip that over. If you are not a Nintendo fanboy but you love Nintendo games, the cost of playing them is you’ve got to buy a second console. Because, you’re already playing GTA or FIFA on your Xbox One or PS4. So, just to play Nintendo games, it’s hard to justify a console. With one exception, Zelda. I totally get why people would buy an NX to play Zelda. It’s a frickin’ great game.”
That was his best part, though. He’s 100% right. And to zero in on that last bit about Zelda being the exception. I’ve seen a few people comment here in MNN about how they got the Wii U just for Zelda U. If NX proves to have the better quality BotW & it also has a ton of 3rd party support, powerful tech, universal account system with cross save, cross buy, cloud storage, etc, it’s going to bury the Wii U in a year, maybe less, as long as Nintendo doesn’t fuck anything up. Unless it’s honestly too late to win back the millions of fans that felt betrayed by Nintendo & left for PlayStation & Xbox.
High Five!
i get why you people hate him because he doesn’t know any better then nintendo and sony.
You might have a point there. But as seeing that the “only game there” worked very well, then we might see some comeback after all. I mean look at the 90% over all and the stampede. One game did this? This new president is throwing alot of new curves I can’t see and its working. I honestly thought it was a downfall, curtains for nintendo, but they proved me wrong. I saw that stamede and I saw the over all played games at e3, I was shocked to see that breath of the wild took the show by storm and even beat god of war by 5%. You DO however got a good point. I give credit where it is due and respect.
Let’s hope Breath of the Wild won’t be the only game that gets people rushing to Nintendo once the NX releases, though. We want people to continue to play their NX even after they finish Breath of the Wild, after all. Even if NX sells millions, it won’t matter if the attach rate for games is horrible. :/
You can count on me having a NX at launch…I said it once and I’ll say it again, “A true gamer plays all”. So you can count on me having it day one…
Hell, might as well make my channel an “unboxing product” channel.
I’m waiting on specs. Preferably whether there will be a universal account system with cross save, cross buy, and cloud storage. If it’s just like the Wii or Wii U where our shit is console locked, I’ll just hold off on NX for awhile and get Breath of the Wild for Wii U instead.
Because if I have to go through some bogus system transfer to get my shit from one Nintendo console to another again when I’m still pissed off about my shit trapped on a broken Wii U, I refuse to get NX day 1.
then I’ll be your ginipig I guess. I still want to know more about it, none of these bullshit rumors.
This guy really likes Austin Powers, I guess.
now i see why people started to hate pachter because he doesn’t know nintendo very well.
The gamepad is far too huge to use as a “controller”, and there are barely any games that utilize its functionalities.
The only thing I have ever used it for as of late for is off TV play, and that’s it.
||We will get our power back, you though will never get a brain…||
What does 12 Times Size of Twilight Princess Meant?
||Game map size…||
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I would love to see another exclusive Bloody Roar Primal Fury sequel on the NX, because that game was hellafun on the gamecube, and it was the best version out the series in my opinion! Nintendo need to bring this series back as an exclusive to compete in the fighting genre along with Smash Bros!
its not apart of nintendo, its apart of hudson who gone bankrupt and out of business, konami now owns hudson…and I agree, bloody roar needs to return, good fighting game.
they need to release a new bomberman as well
http://files.gamebanana.com/img/ico/sprays/bomberman.png
Gosh the thing isn’t even out yet and Pachter is already damning it. NX, it was nice to meet ya.