December 19, 2012 byccanfield1

It was just announced that Nintendo TVii service will be available on Wii U starting tomorrow. While this is an important step in making the new Nintendo console relevant in the current generation of gaming, it may already be too late.

I am a long time gamer and Nintendo fan (originally Sega fan but that ship unfortunately is sunk and all that remains are the ghosts of it's past, for the most part). I am also someone who owns a Wii U and thinks that the system shows a lot of promise. However, much like the Dreamcast, Sega's last console it may be too late.

The world of Mario is finally coming in in high definition but it is already half a decade, at least, behind it's competitors. While this may not be an essential point for most Wii gamers. It did cause the last couple of years for the Wii console to languish, as demonstrated by the financial loses the Nintendo company suffered.

So while many of Nintendo's initiatives like HD gaming, an improved online gaming presence and eShop offerings are respectable. They only put the Wii U in line with the systems Nintendo's competitors have had out for around 10 years.

Features like Nintendo TVii, Miiverse and second screen gaming are noble efforts to once bring new life into all too often uninspired hardware development. Nintendo may learn, like Sega did with the Dreamcast, it may not be enough.

Now if all these things were available at launch and worked smoothly, then maybe Nintendo had a chance to establish a substantial install base with the help of significant praise. Yet, the lack of a major product endorsement from reviewers and gamers alike, prevented the system from really taking off at launch. So to attempt to convince consumers to plunk down next generation money on current generation technology with a twist is a hard sell. I myself can't really recommend to most people to pay the price for the Wii U gaming experience.

This is a sad reality to me. I saw it happen with Sega and I hate to see it happen again. Nintendo is the last stalwart from gamings gold age. The new entrants, Microsoft and Sony, don't have their hearts into it like these older companies. Don't get me wrong, they do some great things for the video game industry. However, when you are only a small part of a large company, I don't think you have the same investment into gaming that a video game only company has. Xbox and Playstation are pieces of their companies business strategy and for a company like Nintendo video games are the whole pie.

To conclude, while I hope the Big N can turn things around with Wii U, much like they did with the 3DS. I think they face a much tougher challenge. While large franchise game releases, added features, operating system improvements and a price drop would certainly help. I think it is probably too late already. Second screen gaming has been proven to work by the DS but is still a tough sell to most console gamers. With announcements for Sony and Microsoft's new system expected in the next few months, it will be even more difficult to ask customers to pay the same price for a system that will already look like it's playing the previous generations games. Once again Nintendo will find itself playing to the casual market and it will be one that they priced themselves out of on day 1.

Thank you for whoever reads this post. It is just one humble gamers opinion that he hopes may be proved wrong. Luckily Nintendo has managed to do that for quite a few years now. Maybe they can pull another rabbit out of the hat.