The Cyclical Problem of the WiiU

I was going to write something more open ended and fun that discussed the idea of games being art and why we haven’t gained the same level of respect outside of our gaming community from non-gamers. But because I’m relatively pissed off at some recent news (or more like a recent news trend) I’ll talk about that instead and annoy you with my ranting and raving for a few minutes.

The biggest question that people ask at some point in their life other than “Will you marry me?” is “What came first: the chicken or the egg?” It’s a question presumed to have no real answer, but if you look at the evolution of birds, you’ll see that, in fact, eggs existed long before the actual chicken did. So whatever two animals mated to produce the chicken obvious created the egg first from which the chicken was produced. Thus, the egg had to come first. Others will argue that since it wasn’t a “chicken egg” that said argument is invalid. The chicken had to come first to lay the first chicken egg. But the question wasn’t asking specifically about the “chicken egg” and that’s not the point of this article anyway, so shut up. The point is many things in nature and in life are cyclical in nature and that many things come down to two sides blaming the other for why things don’t happen.

Take the WiiU’s recent lack of games lately. Most publishers/developers (some say one, some say the other) outside of Atlus, Ubisoft, and SEGA have refused to make games for the WiiU for the simple reason that it doesn’t have a large install base. This is a large reason why EA has neglected to bring up any games for the console. This is a large reason why we really haven’t seen many games period for the WiiU despite it being more capable than the current consoles on the market. Now, let’s be fair, there are probably other reasons along with those. BUT the fact remains that this is the reason that companies decide to tell us and, anymore, it’s lost all meaning.

On the flip side, I’ve seen responses to many reviews and articles related to upcoming and already released games on the WiiU. Quite a few always spout the same, “This game sounds great. But I don’t want to buy the WiiU for just one game.” First, the fact I see this on MULTIPLE games already shows that their statement has a huge flaw with it. Second, you realize that there aren’t a lot of great games on the console because of people like you refusing to take a chance and buy it? Again, this is another line of thinking that no longer means anything to me simply because of how often it is brought up in response to “A New WiiU game”.

What we have here is a cyclical relationship. Companies refuse to make games for the WiiU, stating that there aren’t enough people with WiiU’s to justify making it. And we have gamers saying that there aren’t enough games being made on the WiiU to justify buying it. Both HAD a valid excuse, but both are clearly in the wrong and neither is giving in to help fix the problem. I actually got into an argument with one of the people who made the “there aren’t any games for it” argument by pointing out this flaw in logic. But apparently I was alone in my idea because a few others argued against me asking why they should be the ones to take the first step in this issue.

The problem is no one SHOULD have to take the first step because this SHOULD NOT be a problem to begin with. Companies should have been making the games for all the platforms to begin with and then adjust accordingly based on early sales numbers for future releases. Instead, what we’re getting is a failed cyclical problem that neither side is willing to help fix. What’s worse is that this problem doesn’t affect EITHER of them. You know who this actually hurts? It hurts Nintendo because their consoles aren’t selling fast enough for them. It hurts those who publish on the WiiU because while they’re making sales, it isn’t enough to please their publishers. It hurts the gamers who love the WiiU because we aren’t getting all the games we would love to play. And what’s worse is that those of us getting the shit end of the deal can’t do anything about it but complain to those sides to stop doing what they’re doing.

The real shame is that the WiiU is a solid console. From what I’ve done on it, I’ve preferred the WiiU experience over most any other console (save for the Gamecube). I like the idea behind the controller. I like the internet system they decided to go with. I like their virtual console that took forever to set up. Yes, there are faults with it, but it’s vastly superior to the competition at this point and the lack of support from damn near everyone overshadows all the great aspects of it.

But why bother bringing this up? This isn’t news. This isn’t surprising at this point. Well, the straw that broke the camel’s back this time was Warner Bros. recently announcing a multiplayer aspect to the upcoming Arkham Origins game. It seemed pretty cool and I remember thinking, “This could be fun to play with friends mixing the WiiUPad and the TV.” Unfortunately, I may never get the chance to enjoy it because according the WB, the Multiplayer mode will NOT be included in the WiiU because the “Multiplayer Base is too small.” And why do you think that is, WB? Could it be because there aren’t a lot of games released on the WiiU with multiplayer components? Could it be that the ones that are already have games on other consoles and people didn’t want to buy a port of a game they already own? Could it be your logic is completely fucking irrelevant and that you should give us the full game experience or fuck off?

And what’s annoying about that is that Warner Bros, not more than a month ago, said they were in full support of the WiiU and willing to develop games for it. This shows the exact opposite ideal. Sure, they’re developing games for it, but they’re giving the WiiU audience a lesser experience and helping to contribute to the stagnation of growth on the WiiU console’s install base. They’re two-faced (ironically) opportunists that will jump ship the first sign things aren’t looking good for them. I don’t even care about multiplayer features. Especially in a Batman game when they’ve never had or needed multiplayer on those games. If anything, multiplayer would likely detract from the game. What makes me mad is we’re just not getting the full package of the game on the WiiU, yet, you can be sure that we’ll still get charged the full fucking price for the game because that’s how business works. Let’s charge $60 across the board, even though the WiiU owners are missing some features the other consoles will get. No one is going to care.

I was going to buy it for the WiiU, like I’ll buy all my multiplatform releases. Because, as I’ve said, the WiiU is a great console that deserves to get more games for it. But with this news, unless the game is actually cheaper to buy than the other versions, I will just not buy it. I don’t care if I can just get it for PS3 or whatever. I won’t support a company that’s going to tell us it’s our friend one second, and then refuse to give us a helping hand when we need it the next. I’ll buy Arkham City again for the WiiU instead or just some other game entirely. And when I say cheaper, I mean it should be $40 at that point. I know it won’t be, and I’ll settle for the more likely $50 price tag, but for as expensive as I’ve heard multiplayer is, the game should be significantly cheaper based on that knowledge alone.

So, I’ll end with this. Warner Bros, I love you guys because you have done some great things in the past. You published the previous and spectacular “Arkham Games” and you even published the superb “Bastion.” But this is something I won’t stand for, despite the good things you’ve done before. I certainly hope I’m not the only one with this sentiment and that you either get your act together on this one before we’re forced to make the hard decision to not buy what would be an otherwise magnificent game.