John Romero not impressed with Wii U
June 4th, 2012 Posted in News, Posted by Valay, Wii, Wii UJohn Romero, best known for his work on Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake, isn’t really intrigued with what Wii U brings to the table.
Romero was asked for his thoughts surrounding the console in an interview with GamesIndustry. However, he eventually said that the system “doesn’t look like it is innovative, and to me the Apple ecosystem is the place I like to live in and the Nintendo ecosystem has stopped their innovating ways.”
Romero explained:
“It’s funny. I have a philosophy of the way that I see things in the industry because I’ve been doing this for so long. I don’t sit and read every little piece of news all the time because I’m really busy with the things that I do. News that reaches me is usually more important. When the Wii was coming out, it was one of those ‘I have to have one of these things’ and I had to pull some strings and get one because it was sold out all over the place. There was this game called World of Warcraft and I heard about it and I had to get it. There are these things that are really big that I’ll hear about, but I don’t hear about a lot of the other things.
“Over time those big things became big things, so the fact that I don’t really care about the Wii U or even want to find out more about it says something. It doesn’t look like it is innovative, and to me the Apple ecosystem is the place I like to live in and the Nintendo ecosystem has stopped their innovating ways.”
Romero went on to discuss the future of Nintendo following the Wii’s success, noting how its “design was more powerful than the hardware, and the library is what stood that platform up for a while”. Romero feels that the system’s successor, Wii U, “is just to me not interesting enough to even pay attention to anymore.”
Romero said:
“With the Wii they were very underpowered. The design was more powerful than the hardware, and the library is what stood that platform up for a while, but I think that the new Wii U is just to me not interesting enough to even pay attention to anymore. If that means overall on the huge scheme of things that it’s not going to do very well, it might be because I’m not that excited about it and maybe a lot of other people are not excited about it.”
2 Responses to “John Romero not impressed with Wii U”
By Hisiru7 on Jun 4, 2012
Well, I think he should wait for tuesday before saying the platform isn’t innovative or unique. How can he make bad assumptions before we see all the functionalities/launch games/specs?
Nintendo Direct yesterday already showed that the WiiU will innovate in the social and online aspects of the industry. I think he should wait for tuesday before he say any bad things about the system.
He looks like a biased Apple fanboy.
And again, Nintendo makes consoles and handhelds, not smartphones/tablets. I don’t know why people still compare Nintendo and Apple (or WiiU and Ipad), it’s between Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft.
By jckapono on Jun 4, 2012
After seeing the Nintendo Direct presentation I think it would be safe to say the Wii U is going to be innovative to the gaming industry. The interaction between the tv and gamepad alone make it innovative, particularly because xbox 720 and ps4 are already rumored to incorporate gaming tablets of their own when they launch.
I take all Wii U opinions with a grain of salt. This guy in particular, seems quite vain. “I was interested in the Wii, that’s why it was successful. I’m not interested in the Wii U, that’s why it won’t be successful.” If the 3DS launch proved anything, it was that without a great software line-up at launch, the system will fail. Nintendo isn’t making this mistake again. 2 IPs are basically already confirmed for launch, those being Mario and Pikmin. The Wii U will fly off the shelves if for no other reason, those games.