Video Gamer is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices subject to change. Learn more
Michael Pachter, the Wedbush analyst and commentator on the video games industry, has once again expressed his negative feelings towards the Wii U.
“I’m not a fan of the console,” Pachter told [a]list. “Essentially I look at the GamePad and the television, the two screens, and I see a DS that’s disaggregated. It’s very similar to playing a DS game. The difference is, with the DS your line of sight is on both screens. It’s easy to toggle back and forth. With the GamePad on the Wii U you have to look back and forth, and that’s not natural.
“I understand the console is going to be way more powerful than the DS. It’s entirely possible you’ll get great experiences that are console-like but take advantage of the touch screen. But I think most developers look at the GamePad as either a gimmick or very DS like, and they don’t want to incorporate the touchscreen features because the games aren’t any better for them.”
And of those attempting to create titles for Wii U, very few besides Nintendo will create bona fide hits.
“Nintendo will pioneer, they’ll do a far better job than anybody of exploiting the console and the control scheme, and I think others will learn from them,” he added. “I’m afraid we’re going to have a repeat of the Wii cycle from the publishers’ perspective and the developers’ perspective, where very few people will support it. Then if it’s successful they’ll come in, and they’ll fail. When they fail, they’ll go away again. The reason I think they’ll fail is, I can’t think of a third-party publisher that did well on the DS. I mean, Scribblenauts, so there are a handful games and you can count them. Nobody did very well on the DS, and I don’t think anybody’s going to do very well on the Wii U.”
Pachter does believe the Wii U will be an instant hit, selling out to Nintendo’s hardcore base, but this figure is substantially less than the installed base for Wii U.
“They sold 90 million Wiis; it’s certainly less than 90 million hardcore fans. I would guess it’s between seven and ten million, and it could be 20 million but they don’t all have $350. When the hardcore fans are satisfied, I think sales are going to drop precipitously because I don’t think the thing is priced competitively with what most people think is a comparable console, Xbox 360 or PS3.
“I think that this thing, rather than launching and being the cheapest of the three consoles, which the Wii was, and very novel because no one had ever seen motion control before, this console is launching and it’s the most expensive of the three consoles and it’s not novel because it’s very much like the DS.”
And to compound Nintendo’s problems, Pachter believes new low priced tablet such as Kindle Fire HD and even the expected iPad mini will be more desirable gifts than Wii U this Christmas.
Wii U launches in the UK on November 30 and is available to pre-order from GAME.co.uk.
