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From Cnet.....

GameStop reported its earnings yesterday, but perhaps the biggest news came from its earnings call, in which it said that demand for the PlayStation 4 is already showing signs of strength.
According to GameStop President Tony Bartel, "nearly 900,000 members have already signed up for the PlayStation 4 First to Know List." That list provides all of the latest details on the PlayStation 4 to customers and is usually a strong indicator of the number of people who might preorder the device when it goes on sale in the fourth quarter.
Bartel went on to tell investors that at this point, his company is expecting demand for Sony's console to outpace supply.
"Although we have been given no official numbers by Sony," he said, "we do believe that demand will far outpace the supply of this product during the launch window."

Sony made the somewhat surprising decision recently to unveil nearly all of the details surrounding its PlayStation 4 -- except for the actual hardware design. GameStop seems certain that the device will launch in the fourth quarter.
Aside from Sony talk, GameStop dug into its issues with Nintendo's poorly performing Wii U. Bartel said that the Wii U actually had a stronger-than-expected launch, selling out initially, but has proven to be "disappointing" over the last few months. That was made abundantly clear in the last two reports from research firm NPD, which revealed that Wii U sales hit only 57,000 units in January, and as little as 64,000 units in February. Still, GameStop isn't willing to give up on the hardware, and Bartel believes he knows why the device has had some trouble:
"One, I still think that there is tremendous opportunity from a consumer standpoint, that they do not understand the tethered tablet, the way that the gameplay worked. I think that the marketing has not broken through the level that it needs to, and in spite of efforts of our team to really talk about that, and educate consumers about that, I think that we still have an education process we need to go through. More importantly, I think where you're really going to see Wii U take off is when there is a strong first-party title, that's what we've always seen. And the fact that we really did launch without a strong first-party title, I think we're seeing the ramifications of that today".

GameStop generated $3.56 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter, a slight decline from the $3.58 billion it posted a year earlier The company's net earnings increased, however, to $262.3 million from $239.5 million.

So, is Nintendo's Hardware Division failing? Will the Wii U be the last Nintendo console available? And what next for Nintendo, will they concentrate on Software from now on? I understand that in a bid to boost the ageing Wii's sales they have released a 'Wii Lite' with no Internet connection and no backwards compatibility for around $99 in Canada and the UK. Bu that is surely pointless, with the release of the PS4 this year and almost certainly the Xbox 720 (or whatever it's called) coming hot on the PS4's heels, is Nintendo's fan base in the west likely to stick with them? Or will they jump ship for what are undoubtably the more popular consoles?

What does Dakka think?

I think the Wii U may have been a bit of a mistake. Its an upgrade to a console that isn't actually an upgrade, it's a half-step to another system. Too many customers I see are confused by the fact that the handheld unit is not available on its own or as an upgrade to the Wii, a simple Bluetooth connection would suffice for that.

Frankly, while I do own and like the Wii we purchased for our kid, I think Nintendo went too overboard on the cost-cutting by downgrading the memory and processor chips, thereby limiting performance. They did succeed in making wireless, motion-controls usable and affordable, forcing both Microsoft and Sony to do the same.

Its a wait-and-see kind of attitude I get from the Nintendo reps.

Not surprised in the slightest. A gimmicky console that provides nothing new except for a controller and with graphics that are already years out of date.

Releasing a current gen console with a sub-par tablet controller and no significant console sellers...how could that go wrong!

...and top it off, Nintendo is serious about the "year of Luigi". You know, the character everyone loves.

Gives us a damn, f-ing awesome dark and gritty Zelda. I would even buy a WiiU.

I actually don't blame the system, but the 3 months after launch with no new titles. Can you imagine Microsoft or Sony going 3 months without a new game?

Sony yeah (that's practically what happened with the PS3), but not MS.

Weren't we just talking about this in another thread XD

I didn't see the point of the wii u.

"Hey want to play a game that people with ps3 or Xbox have been playing for a year?!"

That isn't so much an argument against the Wii U as multi-platforming. Many of the ports actually were quite well rated, such as Darksiders II SE and Arkham City Armored Edition. As with anything Nintendo the real appeal is the first party titles, which have been non-existent since launch.

The Mario game was quite fun, as they tend to be.

I've basically been using my Wii U as a glorified SNES emulator for the last month or so.

 Monster Rain wrote:
The Mario game was quite fun, as they tend to be.

I've basically been using my Wii U as a glorified SNES emulator for the last month or so.

I basically use my SNES as a glorified SNES emulator ;D

Yes, the system *is* to blame. Nintendo tried to pull of another Wii and failed. And that "Year of Luigi" crap was a good idea to continue the fall of Nintendo.

Meh. I'm getting one anyway.

I don't judge a system by its starting line up of games. The PS3 had a very limited starting library, and that turned out to be the best system of the generation.

And honestly, I'd rather have a relatively small amount of really good game that take a while to come out than a massive heap of shovelware on launch. We've already got Nintendo Land, which looks pretty decent, ZombiiU, New Super Mario Bros U, which is exceptionally decent from what I've seen, even by Mario standards, and in terms of upcoming games, we have an HD remake of Wind Waker (this alone is enough to tempt me to go WiiU), Bayonetta 2, we're more or less guaranteed to have a new Zelda game or 2, which considering Nintendo's excellent track record with the franchise, is always a good thing (the only "real" Zelda game which actually sucked was Zelda II), probably a Metroid game, a new Smash Bros game...

Yup, I'm on board.

Also, am I the only one who's pleased about the Year of Luigi? I think it's high time the green-clad plumber got some recognition.

As for this "fall of Nintendo" naysaying...People have been saying that Nintendo is going to imminently collapse for, what, 15 years now? And oh look, it's still going strong.

I think we can count on the big N being around for a while longer.

 Soladrin wrote:
Not surprised in the slightest. A gimmicky console that provides nothing new except for a controller and with graphics that are already years out of date.

people said that about the wii too

doesn't matter if the games are fun as hell

I will buy the Legend of Zelda edition of the WiiU as/when it comes out.

Just give us a mature LoZ. Dark. Gritty. Please.

Twilight Princess was the closest to that there's been so far. I don't know how much grittier it ought to get.

 Manchu wrote:
Twilight Princess was the closest to that there's been so far. I don't know how much grittier it ought to get.

Whilst I love Twilight Princess (despite having never played it) I think that's as gritty as it should get. One of the great things about Zelda is that it still has some colour and silliness in it, and hasn't turned into a Skyrim style "realistic everything beige brown and grey HURR!" type series. It is still fantastical, if you will.

Something that advances the plot would be nice. So far we've been on a nonstop chronological trip backwards.

Voice acting, done well, would be cool too. After all, how awesome would it be to finally hear "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" properly voiced?

 Manchu wrote:
Twilight Princess was the closest to that there's been so far. I don't know how much grittier it ought to get.

TP was a very tedious, backtracking-loaded borefest. Neither dark, nor gritty.

I liked it a lot. I think Skyward Sword is the best LoZ game of all but I don't think they will do something else in that vein. They will probably do something less cartoonish to show off that the WiiU is a "big boy" console.

I hated Twilight Sword for its incredibly goofy and downright stupid character design...and the tutorial was one of the worst in recent gaming. Still like LttP the most, but it's most likely nostalgia clouding my objective verdict on it, thus I'd say OoT gets the cake. Currently re-playing on my 3DS and it still is a lot of fun.

Eh... I'll end up buying a Wii U anyway once Bayonetta 2 and SMT vs. Fire Emblem comes out.

As for Zelda, Skyward Sword was absolutely horrendous. I couldn't bring myself to play past the first dungeon because the controls and camera were just awful.

Windwaker is easily the best Zelda title.

 Fafnir wrote:
Windwaker is easily the best Zelda title.

Having played these games since 1987, I could not disagree more. Windwaker was neat but it certainly falls below Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, and Skyward Sword.

Skyward Sword is definitely my favorite, with LttP as runner up.

I loved the Flying aspect of it, and the mini games were addictive.

For me LttP is probably the definitive Zelda, but my emotional favorite is Wind Waker. I will definitely be getting the HD remaster of it on the WiiU. I know it is heresy, but I actually didn't care for OoT. Felt to much like a hub with dungeons then a large world, and finding all the skulltulas was an exercise in tedium. I found it brilliant in places, to be sure, but overall it didn't grab me like it seems to have others.

I completely agree.

I only finished that game out of sheer force of will, as I was pretty much over it by the time I got to the fire palace.

 Grundz wrote:

 Soladrin wrote:
Not surprised in the slightest. A gimmicky console that provides nothing new except for a controller and with graphics that are already years out of date.

people said that about the wii too

doesn't matter if the games are fun as hell

You are aware that the WII had the worst attachment rate of any console in over 10 years right?

 Soladrin wrote:
Not surprised in the slightest. A gimmicky console that provides nothing new except for a controller and with graphics that are already years out of date.

Yeah, I would've preferred a simple release of the tablet for use with the normal Wii, rather than a whole new console. They got me with the Wii and the million hardware add-ons. I'm not biting on what looks to be somewhat similar graphics in a new box with a fancy controller...

Another thing is that the Wii got a very intuitive controller that even allowed stereotypical Grandma to play e.g. Bowling. My grandma certainly doesn't know what to do with a tablet.

 Soladrin wrote:

 Grundz wrote:

 Soladrin wrote:
Not surprised in the slightest. A gimmicky console that provides nothing new except for a controller and with graphics that are already years out of date.

people said that about the wii too

doesn't matter if the games are fun as hell

You are aware that the WII had the worst attachment rate of any console in over 10 years right?

Calling you out bro. Lord of Hats and I already proved the Wii world-wide attach rate is 7-8 games per console, at least five times higher than your dubious 1.5.
Please provide at least some sort of comparison numbers from Sony and Microsoft, otherwise you're just blowing smoke.

I know the quality of the games for the Wii has greatly tempered my desire for any new Nintendo hardware. The ratio was, in my opinion, 1 good game to about 200 shovelware titles. For years after the launch of the console, I still thought Wii Sports was the best game on it.