Many people aren’t aware of it, but the next generation of
home video game consoles has been with us since the release of the
Wii U in November 2012. Though it’s been out for many months now,
many consumers are unaware of what the Wii U even is. With the
hyped announcements of the PlayStation 4 back in February and the
next Xbox soon to come on May 21, it seems like the Wii U has been
all but forgotten. Sales have slumped significantly since its
release; Nintendo had predicted 4 million consoles to be sold by
January, but only 3.45 million consoles had been sold at the end of
March. With a dismal library of games that’s filled with many
titles available for other consoles, it’s no question why the Wii U
isn’t selling. Embarrassingly bad games like Family Party: 30 Great
Games Obstacle Arcade drive gamers away, and its best-selling game,
New Super Mario Bros. U is more of a rehash of older Mario content
than anything actually new. It seems like Nintendo has been banking
on the Wii U’s tablet controller to entice people to jump onto
their bandwagon, but it has failed. Nintendo just can’t count on
another gimmick, like the motion controls of the original Wii to
sell consoles again. One of the major downfalls of the original Wii
was the lack of third-party support. After consumers finished
replaying motion controlled party games, the Wii craze died out and
console sales considerably slowed down. Many who were looking for a
better library flocked to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 instead,
which both had massive third-party support. It was only at these
consoles where people could experience a broad spectrum of highly
praised games like Skyrim, Dark Souls and Super Street Fighter IV.
Nintendo will need to do whatever it can to woo third parties to
develop for the Wii U. They can still breathe life back into the
Wii U themselves with some first-party development. As bad as it
may seem, the Wii U still stands a chance. The Wii U is in dire
need for a new Super Smash Brothers, Zelda or Super Mario Galaxy
type of game. Announcing first party exclusive titles like these
will excite many people to take notice of the Wii U. After months
of suffering with the Wii U’s disappointing library, Nintendo needs
to jumpstart excitement with their classic killer apps. These games
have brought success to Nintendo time and time again. The
PlayStation 4 and next Xbox are coming soon. If the Wii U continues
to drop, there may be no coming back for the system; Sony’s and
Microsoft’s consoles will crush the Wii U in the coming months if
Nintendo can’t shock life back into it. Nintendo is facing a long,
tough battle this generation. For your weekly dose of the Gaucho
Gamer, check out the online weekend edition of the Daily Nexus on
Fridays.     A version of this article appeared
on page 5 of the Tuesday, April 29, 2013 print edition of
the Nexus.

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