Is the Wii U in Serious Trouble?

 

For fans of the Wii U, this week contained an unpleasant surprise - the Wii U's big Rayman title - Rayman Legends - was being delayed again. Having originally been slated for a 2012 release, it had been pushed back once already to early 2013. Now it's facing a release window in late 2013. But just when owners of Nintendo's new console thought things couldn't get worse, it turned out that the game was no longer exclusively coming to the Wii U - it's now headed to the Xbox 360 and PS3 as well.

This is an extremely bad sign for Nintendo, as the Wii U is, quite frankly, not a console one would consider to be doing well. Having launched last year, it's struggled for good releases in the same way Sony's PS Vita did. The similarity here is clear - a few flagship titles haven't been enough to give the console the push it needs to begin a real surge into the gaming market and draw people away from current-gen consoles that have specs that can easily compete with the Wii U's.

Nintendo have been known for taking big gambles on their hardware, and a lot of the time it's paid off. But if they want to dance with the inevitable PS4 and third Xbox, and even the latest iPhone, they're really going to have to step up their game. The graphics only just match up to consoles that are about to become obsolete. The touch interface doesn't even support multi-touch. You can only buy 18-rated games from their online store between the hours of 11PM to 3AM. Nintendo are really taking some serious risks.

It doesn't end there, either - the console has no expandable internal hard drive, GamePads are pretty expensive and few games support multiple GamePads to begin with, and third party developers seem to be avoiding launching new AAA titles on the platform at all costs. If the best the Wii U can hope for is to struggle behind the twilight years of the Xbox 360 and PS3, Nintendo are going to have to do some serious thinking if they want to survive the next ten years while still operating at the same capacity they are now (i.e., as though they were using money to light their cigars).

Taking the UK games market as a good example of how Nintendo is performing outside the bubble of Japan, the Wii U held 1.6% of the games market as of January 2013. That's a worryingly low figure - lower even than the PS Vita's 2.2%, and it shows that out of the ten available gaming platforms, the Wii U is struggling to even register on the scale, let alone thrive. Nintendo have some serious work to do if they want to have a platform that offers enough to gamers, and given this platform is potentially designed to last several years, we can only hope that 1.6% statistic makes them a little more responsive to the aforementioned issues.

Apart from Rayman Legends, here are some Wii U games that you should watch out this year:

1. Aliens: Colonial Marines (first quarter of this year)
2. Injustice: Gods Among Us (April 16, 2013)
3. Need for Speed Most Wanted (March 19, 2013)
4. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (March 19, 2013)
5. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD (third quarter of 2013)

Author Bio:

Jaime Wills is a tech-savvy entrepreneur who’s always up to date with the innovative trends from O2 and similar national and international brands. When she’s not busy with the demands of her flourishing business, she likes to wax enthusiastic about Apple products with their user-friendly and highly aesthetic interfaces.