‘Nostradamus’ Pachter Sees Poor Wii U 3rd Party Support In His Crystal Ball

Well, it wouldn’t be a normal gaming news week without Michael Pachter predicting doom for Nintendo. In an interviewwith Industry Gamer, Pachter explains how he came to this conclusion:

“Nintendo has to simply stop living in the past in 2012. They had a great deal of success since 1985 by making proprietary hardware and supporting it with proprietary software. They attracted third party support based upon the large installed base they generated for their hardware. They appear to me to be confident that ‘if they build it, third parties will support it’, but I don’t think that is the case for Wii U.”

He continued, “By trying to be ‘different’ with the tablet controller, they have complicated game design for developers, who can’t figure out if the Wii U will ultimately support only one or multiple controllers. Nintendo made the device sufficiently different that they are all but assured of limited third party launch support, which ultimately will lead to modest hardware sales.”

“They should stop relying upon the strategy that got them here, as it appears to no longer be working. I think their resolution should be to look outside of Nintendo for leadership in the areas of digital downloads, a user-friendly online interface and multiplayer gaming.”

I can understand how a man that has never created a game  has a problem thinking outside the box when it comes to a touch screen controller, even considering it ‘complicated’. In essence, what Pachter is suggesting here is that Nintendo fall in line with Sony and Microsoft’s  ‘more power in a box’ form of console design. In case anyone hasn’t been paying attention, Nintendo adding new dimensions to gaming has worked out swimmingly for them. The DS, Wii, and currently, 3DS are successes despite the outcry of ‘Nintendo is gimmicky!’ from the internet masses. However, I do agree a better, fleshed out online structure will do Nintendo some good (friend codes are outdated) as long as it doesn’t lead to a deluge of game patches(see our EIC Dave Nelson’s editorial for more on the subject). The Wii U has the potential to have some very interesting games and has the power to get the HD ports that would have once required drastic game design changes to be ported onto the Wii.  Even if it’s outclassed graphically by the next iterations of the Playstation and Xbox, the WiiU is in a perfect position. Being just out of reach horsepower-wise for massive amounts of  retail shovelware, but a great home for talented developers who can’t afford to go all out on the big systems, a list that grows larger with each passing generation.