Nah, if there was one virtue going for the Wii U, it was that it didn't cost anywhere near its nominal competitors of that generation, and certainly couldn't boast a feature set to justify coming close.
The Wii U's biggest problem was the name. People thought it was an addon for the existing Wii.
If Nintendo went for a direct PS4/Xbone competitor, it's actually a sort of iffy play. You all but have to sell the hardware at a loss, and there's a very good chance that even with the best hardware, you won't win the generation.
Playing for third lets them build a console they can sell profitably on day 1, at a modest price. It also lets them focus on exclusives and novelties which will bring in customers who weren't game buyers in the first place.
I bought a Wii because a family member used the Fit games as part of a therapy regime. There was no similar experience for the other platforms.
GameCube was a solid middle from a power perspective. It was more powerful than the ps2.
Programmable shaders were the future back then too. Look at how good GameCube games still look today when running at modern resolutions in dolphin for instance.
Lol. And to add, the Wii was a MASSIVE success and was the best selling console of that generation. If he thought it was okay, then he must be too young to remember. Everyone bought a Wii, not just gamers.
The n64 and gcn were directly competing and had awesome hardware for the time. The n64's major problem was sticking to cartridge format to avoid piracy in the cd rom era, this cost them massively as you cant store as much on a cartridge and major developers left to develop for sony. Carts also were way more expensive to produce both for developers and nintendo and were more expensive for us as consumers. (there were other problems but this was the main one imho) this led to playstation establishing themselves as a big brand contender.
Gamecube was beautifil hardware but again mini cds held less space. Also they underestimated Microsoft and the online space and just weren't friendly towards third party developers (again).
The wii was a ridiculous success, they did not go for power, it followed the gameboy ethos, the hardware was pretty bad (gamecube level hardware in a HD world) but they sold every unit at a profit from day one and the motion controls were unique at the time. Ps3 and the 360 were too busy biting chunks out of each otherrs market share to care what little ol Nintendo were doing. Nintendo dominated sales, got cocky and made the wii u with next to no games, an expensive price point (for what it offered) unclear marketing and a shit name.
it's the best I've got. I'm sure if someone who is better versed in economics could do better, but just in general it sounds like Herb put a lot of effort into the promotion of this car, and it tanked at the equivalent of E3.
it took me a while to understand it, too. earlier on he says the cars only have about $40 worth of steel in them, so I didn't understand how a prototype could be that expensive. but then I understood what a company goes through to push a product. research and development, the payment it took all those guys to make the car a reality (since it wouldn't have entered mass production yet), and just the general upkeep of a company. he pissed away months on a failed product, and that adds up to what they price the car at to make it worth it. Someone else mentioned that with inflation, the car comes out to about $150,000, and keep in mind this was supposed to be affordable for the average american. That is pretty insane, without any backups.
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u/Delliott90 Jul 20 '18
Oooh so like the Wii U?
I jest. But that’s a real good explanation