The widespread rejection of the Wii U comes as a surprise to Nintendo who says it has to be played to be understood.
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Shares in Nintendo have slid deeper every day – 10 per cent in total – since the 6.2 inch touch screen tablet gaming device, the Wii U, was launched at E3 Expo on Tuesday, to somewhat mixed reactions.
Wii U also has a 16:9 touch screen and traditional button controls, including two analogue Circle Pads a microphone, stereo speakers and “removes the traditional barriers between games, players and the TV by creating a second window into the game world,” Nintendo says.
Analysts are doubting whether the device can cope against full multimedia tablets like the iPad 2 and Galaxy Tab, although some gaming reviewers on the other hand appear enamoured, although admitting it is a completely different type of gaming experience.
“What is an iPad doing in my game control?” one gamer was heard uttering at the Computex demo event.
“How is holding up another, smaller screen in front of your big TV screen any better,” another critic cried in an online forum.
Screen Digest’s Piers Harding-Rolls thinks Wii U may confuse people with its “complex vision”. “I don’t believe that this proposition is as mainstream as the original Wii,” he said, because Wii had a “more simple message”.
And the reaction has also left Nintendo scratching its head, with CEO admitting “it’s very strange.”
“Honestly speaking, the reaction to (Tuesday’s) presentation and what I heard from people I met and the mood of the convention did not chime at all with what happened in the stock market,” Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said in an interview on Wednesday.
Strange indeed. However, one must not forget that the launch of the original Wii was also met with mixed reaction and went on to be a gaming sensation, creating a whole new category which Microsoft Kinect among others looked to replicate.
