As the Wii U ushered in the eighth generation of console gaming, what was initially extreme hype has turned into a whisper. Half a year since its launch, support and sales of the Wii U has waned with the sales of the console. There is one console that many will point to as the same fall from grace - Sega's Dreamcast. The console was the death blow to Sega's loosened grip on the hardware market that declined post Sega-CD. Here are five reasons the Wii U is on a road to commercial irrelevance like Sega's fifth and final console .
Console hardware lived for the moment without planning for the future
Sega's Dreamcast featured hardware that was powered by a Hitachi SH4 CPU, Voodoo 3dfx graphics processor, a built-in modem, a proprietary CD-ROM that held up to 1GB.
Nintendo's Wii U features an IBM PowerPC 750-based tri-core processor, ADM Radeon GPU, 2GB of RAM, a proprietary high-density optical disc that could hold 25GB per layer.
What's the problem?
Both were first to their respective generations but came in last place due to future competition. Sony's future generation defining PlayStation 2 had a better graphics processor, PlayStation backwards compatibility and a DVD drive. Even as more power consoles like Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's Gamecube came into the fray, the PlayStation 2 became the lead development console for multi-platform games.
That's pretty much it.
Ironically, that was all it took to take The Dreamcast down. Maybe that's all the masses wanted. The Wii U is in the same exact position.
The PlayStation 4's processor features eight processing cores, 8GB of RAM, and an improved dualshock that features a small touch pad while carrying over the Blu-Ray drive of the PlayStation 3. Let alone with the Xbox Infinity is going to bring to the table seeing that most next-gen announcements mention Microsoft's next console in the same conversation with the PlayStation 4.
Controllers that seem too gimmicky
The Dreamcast controller featured four face buttons, an analogue stick, a d-pad and gaming's first standard analog triggers along with featuring a special slot housed in the middle. This slot could be used for its jump pack, memory card or Sega's own Visual Memory Unit. Sega's VMU featured a monochrome LCD screen, a d-pad and two gaming buttons. Nintendo's controller houses two analogue sticks four face buttons, two bumpers, two triggers, motion sensors, a front facing camera, and a 6.2 inch touchscreen in the middle. Both failed and are failing to fulfill gameplay potential of their controllers.
Loss of EA's support
EA recently announced that games using DICE's Frostbite 3 engine would not be hitting the Wii U. DICE's technical director Johan Andersson, said this on Twitter:
"[Frostbite 3] has never been running on Wii U," Andersson tweeted. "We did some tests with not too promising results with [Frostbite 2] and chose not to go down that path."
Ouch!!
Even Epic Games's own Mark Rein had to recant some statements on Wii U's Unreal 4 compatibility. Nintendo's console won't even see a new "Madden" this year.
The Dreamcast fell to a similar fate when EA flat out skipped over the console during its run.
Diminished quality of first-party software at launch
One would always look toward Nintendo to deliver where third party wouldn't, in terms of quality of games released on its console. Many didn't mind buying N64 just for "Mario 64" or a Wii just for "Wii Sports." In fact, many started to see anything from Nintendo as a second console to their main whether it be Sony or Microsoft's offering. Not this time. While "Nintendo Land" was a great showpiece for the Wii U controller, the tech-demo feel of it just didn't make it a killer app. The same goes for "New Super Mario Bros U" which really wasn't much different than previous entries in the series. Sega's first-party launch line-up pretty much out-shined by third-party releases like Namco's "Soul Calibur." Sure "Sonic Adventure" was great, but not the system seller everyone hoped for it to be. "NFL 2K" created great competition for EA's "Madden" franchise but that series didn't become a true contender till a few years later.
Sales that started incredible strong but fall each and every month
The Dreamcast sold a then record breaking 500,000 in the first two weeks after it's much hyped 9/9/99 launch. High demand even led to hardware shortages. By the time Sony's PlayStation 2 dominated Christmas, only 2.32 million Dreamcast would be sold between April-December of that year. Even a price drop to $99 couldn't save them. The Wii U, on the other hand, sold its entire allotment of over 400,000 when it launched November of last year. During the first of the year, the Wii U would only sell 57,000 units; low enough to cut Nintendo's 2013 fiscal year sales projections by seventeen percent.
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