Pachter isn’t a believer.
Game Industry analyst Michael Pachter doesn’t believe that Nintendo’s Wii successor will be able to compete against Sony and Microsoft.
“Nintendo can’t let Microsoft have a 20 million install base of next-gen consoles and they’re still in the last generation,” said Pachter on Bonus Round. “I’ve been vilified during the last couple of weeks for saying that. I said in ’08 [the Wii HD] was coming, because I really thought the time was right […] 2010, I think, was the absolute last Christmas they could afford to wait. They had to do it and they didn’t. Now, I think it’s too late.”
“Clearly, any of the three console manufacturers can advance the technology to the next level and have facial recognition, have Milo that actually works, that kind of stuff. I mean, they could do it, but do you think any of the third parties are gonna support that?”
“I don’t see EA, who’s barely profitable, saying: ‘We had such a great experience with the Wii last time, we’re gonna dedicate $500 million of R&D to make facial recognition stuff.’ It ain’t gonna happen.”
“So without third-party support, I think the Wii 2, if it’s truly a revolutionary device, will fail,” Pachter said. “I think they boxed themselves in. No matter what they do, it won’t be as successful as the Wii.”
alex q
February 1, 2011 at 4:45 PMi think thats bull the nintendo hd will do well why is everyone attacking nintendo when they outsold both xbox and ps3
Jacob Clark
February 1, 2011 at 11:30 PMI agree with alex I think to write off Nintendo just because of graphics is wrong. They outsold both PS3 and Xbox 360 combined and they were not even a HD system. Most consumers are not really looking for a graphics blowing system but a console that fits their lives and Nintnedo has done that the best. The only thing that Pachter gets right is that the competition for Wii is from Move and Kinect not really because of HD graphics. I think Nintendo could always do better about supporting their third parties as well.
Grant Gaines (大将)
February 1, 2011 at 11:49 PMAs I’ve said in the past… A lot of what people forget is that there’s a different game break down here.
Group A: Xbox/PS3
Group B: Wii
Most titles the Wii gets are unique to the Wii, this is NOT the case with the others. Also a lot of people forget that the Wii costs less to make games for, this makes classics like Taiko no Tatsujin make the move from PS2 to Wii over this. Also lets not forget that the Wiis main competition is just gimmicky titles too.
PS3fan
February 2, 2011 at 1:57 PMI just bought the PS3 for $99 bucks, it’s way better than the Wii. Honestly, I was thinking of selling my Wii..not sure if anyone would buy it though!
Will
February 2, 2011 at 2:45 PMwho the hell is pachter? oh well, thats not important anyway since hes way wrong.
nintendos next console will be groundbreaking and im guessing it will also be shoddily imitated by sony again. N has a history of being incredibly innovative with everything(cept the gamecube). i’m thinking that their next console is going to have ecolocation(bat hearing) or some crazy shit like that. hopefully they’ll make a reasonably powerful machine, because since it cant handle GTA, Halo, or any popular and resource consuming game, N has lost the whole “gamer” market.
in any case, you cant make predictions on a console that hasn’t even been worked on yet. the wii is still a huge cash-bringer, nintendo wont even care about a future console yet.
i hope the next console has like… some straps you can attach to your arms and limbs, or maybe some glasses that have eye-tracking.
PS3fan
February 2, 2011 at 8:56 PM@Will The Move has 3-D options..the Wii is old school now!
....
February 3, 2011 at 2:05 AMwho’s to say that Nintendo wont use the 3D imaging used in the 3DS? With that implemented everything else would be “old school.” and you wouldn’t have to worry about spending a fortune and a half on all of that 3D TV crap.
PS3fan
February 3, 2011 at 2:40 PMTrue! I don’t think 3D is good for your eyes in the long run anyway ;-)