New Wii released, gamers react

Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo American CEO and president, revealed at a press conference in New York City on Thursday Sept. 20 that the new Nintendo is set to debut the Wii U and its new controller next month.

IGN Entertainment reported that most major retailers have already sold out of Wii U pre-orders. 

The official Nintendo website states the new “controller removes the traditional barriers between you, your games and your TV by creating a second window into the video game world.” Nintendo’s new LCD touch screen controller starts $299. 

John Dell, game advisor for the GameStop in People’s Plaza, said he noticed a considerable amount of excitement around the upcoming release amongst customers.

“I’ve heard good things about it, and people come in saying they look forward to picking it up,” Dell said. 

He attributes the popularity of the updated Wii U to its handheld mobility. This component appeals more to gamers who travel and move around often as opposed to more serious gamers, who prefer to sit down and play their games on the big screen. 

Dell said although Wii gaming systems were very popular when they first came out, people have lost interest in the games in recent years. 

Computer and information sciences professor James Clause stated in an email message that similarly to the launch of Apple products, gamers flock to the latest console releases for a variety of reasons. 

“The latest technology usually provides more realism, especially for the visual aspects of a game, but it also provides for more complex game mechanics,” Clause said. 

Clause said he thinks that Nintendo does a good job of building enthusiasm without overselling what the corporation can deliver to consumers. 

According to Clause, the Wii U’s ability to play TV shows, movies and sports programming are not significant software updates to gaming systems.

“It’s a negative if [features are] not there,” he said. “But it’s not clear that they’re actually wanted beyond that superficial level.”

He said he thinks that gamers have the same expectations and simply want software to be useful and work correctly.

Clause said advancement in already-created products is essential to a company’s profits.

“They need to keep up with technological advances in order to remain competitive, but they also need to create their own advances in order to set themselves apart from their competition,” he said. 

Freshman Jimmy Drummond said he plans on purchasing the new Wii U. He said he looks forward to seeing how the new controller will affect his gaming experience. 

“I will buy it because I like Mario, Donkey Kong and Pokémon,” Drummond said. “You can only play those games on Nintendo consoles.” 

According to Nintendo, the new Wii includes eight to 32 GB of internal memory that will be used to save apps, player profiles and downloadable games from the Nintendo Network. The Wii U also supports external USB hard drives, flash drives and SD cards.