Wii U, a Follower or a Pioneer? Does It Hold the Key to Future Successes?

It's starting to bother me. People are already saying the Wii U is not a real console upgrade, that it brings nothing new to the table, that it seems way too uncomfortable to offer any kind of entertainment, and that it's made for kids. Well, I beg to differ, and let me kindly explain why.

We all know of Nintendo's free spirit, and perhaps that's what upsets the non-believers. It's easier to grasp a concept that already exists than to have to think outside the box and be lead by somebody else's enthusiasm. I got news for you, however. That's how video games started back in the day. Or do you think the first virtual tennis and Tic-Tac-Toes of the world came to life following any kind of standardized precedents? Do you think Nolan Bushnell and company had everyone on their side when they came up with one of the first coin-operated arcade machines and the first successful video game? Yes, Pong. They sold 19,000 of those "babies", and then came the imitators, thinking they could do better. And maybe they could, but that wouldn't have happened without Bushnell's and Dabney's first invention!

That's what one has to understand in order to understand Nintendo. They have a passion for innovation, and they want to make decisions that seem to make business sense. If someone else comes and improves what they're trying to do, like Microsoft is already planning, and like both Microsoft and Sony did after their success with Nintendo Wii, so be it.

Nintendo just wants to pioneer new ways of entertainment, and for them, the TV screen and the console that plays the games are just a medium. They don't care if the other consoles are going to offer superior technical specs, and perhaps that was their biggest gripe when they launched the Wii in 2006. However, they're thinking in bigger terms. It's time to bring home a new experience, time to do something out of the ordinary one more time, and time to make money all over again. Of course, this attitude hasn't always worked for them, and they've tripped a couple of times in the past, but you can't deny their trajectory has been quite impressive, and they haven't been crying out loud every year, grieving for those billions of dollars in losses due to low sales of their expensive yet underpriced (for them) hardware, unlike others.

So that part is true, Nintendo Wii U isn't a console trying to surpass others with hardware. In fact, its meager 8-32 GB of internal memory (depending on the Wii U model you buy, Basic or Deluxe) and rather normal CPU and GPU give that away. It'll indeed offer high-definition (up to 1080p) games comparable to the ones we've been seeing on Xbox 360 and PS3 for the last few years, but that's about it in that regard. As you can see, there are no expensive components, ultra-HD quality, or the processing power of a military computer, but did you notice they haven't even been talking about that? That's because it's the least of their worries. And again, maybe it should be more so, as Nintendo Wii missed out on a lot due to its underwhelming graphical capabilities, but that's not what these consoles are about. The "upgrade" comes in a different way.

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