Wii are U? The step back from Nintendo
It has not been a good few weeks for Nintendo, or more specifically the Nintendo Wii U console. Firstly in the UK Asda has stopped stocking the next gen console in its store thus taking out a major retailer for Nintendo.
Then gaming developers Bethesda has added its name to the list of developers who don’t care about Wii U this week by stating that it has no plans to release any games for Nintendo’s newest console at the moment and all of its confirmed upcoming games will release only for the PC, the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One.
This follows on from EA’s announcement back in May that they were abandoning plans to build a new gaming engine for the Wii U. Upcoming titles from EA including Battlefield 4, Star Wars, the next version of Mass Effect and the upcoming Madden NFL game will never be available to Wii U.
Finally Nintendo has also announced that the Wii U is still selling at loss this week after initially announcing this startling piece of information back in October of last year. What this means is that the Wii U has nowhere to go price-wise so it’s a case of the price of the console is now as cheap as it’s going to get.
Nintendo’s recently released annual report pointed to Wii U hardware sales as a major culprit in the company’s $387m operating loss which is seeing things look a little bit shaky for the company.
Things just aren’t looking good for Mario’s company and with the 3DS and original Nintendo Wii keeping the company going right now something drastic needs to be done to save the Wii U.
The perfect new console bundle?
News this week came rocketing in that the Sony PS4 had already sold out of its day one console sales before an official release date has even been confirmed, which means that if you go online and pre-order the console now there is less of a chance of you getting hold of the Sony PlayStation 4 on release day.
This of course spurned many of us to rush out and get our own pre-orders confirmed and thus fall into the marketing trap! However, the pre-ordering of both the Sony PS4 and Xbox One has opened up the question: What console bundle do we opt for?
Well first things first; we like to game so let’s take our initial console price of £349.99 for the PS3 and £429.99 for the Xbox One and add on an extra controller to the bundle package. When a console is first released you can guarantee that lots of your friends won’t be buying the console too, so the best way to play and show off your latest purchase is with a second controller!
So that’s another £54.99 for a PS4 Dual Shock 3 controller (making £404.98 so far) and whilst Amazon is listing the Xbox One additional controllers as £89.99 it’s rumoured that the actual price will be around £39.99 for the Xbox One controllers, totalling making £469.99 so far.
Next up is the games and this is where things gets convoluted.
The PS4 and Xbox One both have 16 titles each confirmed for release day, but where the issue lies is in getting the most out of your new console purchase. Many of the release day games will be available on both platforms from day one with Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Battlefield 4, Battlefield 4, FIFA 14, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Just Dance 2014, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, Madden NFL 25, NBA 2K14, NBA Live 14, Skylanders: Swap Force and Watch Dogs all appearing on both consoles from day one.
For the Xbox, Dead Rising 3, Forza Motorsport 5, Killer Instinct, LocoCycle and Ryse: Son of Rome will be exclusive on launch. And for the PS4, DC Universe Online, DriveClub, Killzone Shadow Fall, Knack and Warframe will all be exclusive.
All of the games cost around £55 at the moment, so add that to our already large shopping basket and we have a whopping one-off cost of £460 for the PS4 and £525 for the Xbox One on release.
So what do you choose? You already have 2 controllers so you might as well get a multiplayer game, right? So a sports game like FIFA, NBA or Madden. But are you then getting the most out of your console then by just getting another instalment in a sports franchise? On the other hands, do you go for a single player game? If so, games like Call of Duty: Ghosts, Watch Dogs and DC Universe Online will all be available for older consoles so is there much point?
Finally, do you go for exclusivity? Shun the other console and go for the games that you know will only be available to dedicated Xbox or PlaySation fans?
We know… It’s a bloody hard decision! These are all issues we came across when trying to come to a decision on what to pre-order here at Gadget Helpline.
What it will all come down to though is just what you are looking to get out of your new console from the day of release and your personal preferences.
It’s going to be a hard decision, but someone has to do it.
The Xbox One is massive
What’s big, black and excites teenagers? Well, it’s the Xbox One of course!
This week we have been treated to a full hands-on video of the incoming console from Microsoft and one thing that comes to mind is that it’s massive. Yes, the Xbox One is taking after its grandfather the Xbox original by being a huge hunk of front room machinery which hides behind a black shell.
Xbox’s very own Major Nelson posted the very first unboxing video for Xbox One which shows us all just what sort of box will be sitting under our TVs. The video shows the full unboxing of the “Day One” edition which has the chat headset and includes a limited edition controller with Chrome D-Pad and some sort of digital download, but we’re not yet sure what that entails.
Inside the box is the console itself, Kinect 2.0, new controller and the new headset and then the final nail in the huge setup is an equally large brick-like power supply. This will surely be a back of the TV stand filler and the ultimate bane of the tidy wire people out there!
You can check out Major Nelson doing the unboxing video below and see for yourself just how large the console is in a human being’s hands!