Post-Jobs Apple is in serious trouble

Say what you will about Steve Jobs, but the man was a visionary. Somehow, despite all his detractors and against huge odds, he was able to transform Apple from a computer company into a media conglomerate. Make no mistake, Apple has been out of the hardware business for a long time now as most of their revenue is driven by purchases from iTunes and the App Store. Apple's hardware is now only a reason for people to consume content provided by Apple's online stores.

However, Apple under Tim Cook seems to be digging itself into serious trouble. The first, and in my opinion the worst, faux-pas is their continuing lawsuits against Samsung globally. Public reaction to this continuing legal morass has ranged from tepid to outright ridicule and has done more to drive consumers to Samsung products than any other single factor I can think of. From a public relations standpoint, Apple accusing Samsung of being unoriginal copycats, have highlighted the fact that Apple is itself even more guilty of this than their competitor.

Consider that four product generations have now passed from the iPhone 4 to the just announced iPhone 5S without much in the way of originality or change. Except for the slightly larger 4" screen on the iPhone 5 series, each successive generational product has been largely incremental and rather forgettable. With each successive generation, consumers are complaining about the lack of product leadership that marked Apple under Steve Jobs, but Apple seems to be out to lunch. Where is the surprise, the flash, the excitement of past product launches?

The industrial design for the iPhone seems permanently stuck in neutral as Apple's preference is to play it safe rather than go for something startlingly fresh or new. And despite the larger 4" screen on the 5/5S, the 5-inch plus large screen market pioneered by Samsung has largely passed Apple by. Even in Asia where consumers have much smaller hands, everyone appears to prefer the larger screen Samsung (and Android smartphones in general) over Apple's offerings. Big screens are in, but Apple seems oblivious or grudgingly resistant to this market trend.

The second mistake has probably impacted Apple from an operational standpoint. Samsung isn't just a competitor to Apple in the marketplace, they are also a huge semiconductor manufacturer and vendor of strategic components and services. Samsung provides foundry services, and manufactures DRAM, FLASH, advanced displays (AMOLED anyone?), and all the other various bits and pieces that go into smartphones and tablets.

All of Apple's CPUs prior to the A6 were manufactured for Apple by Samsung Semiconductor. A large portion of the DDR DRAM and FLASH memory were also provided by Samsung since Samsung is the world's largest supplier of memory products with 50% global market share. Apple is still the single largest consumer of mobile memory and FLASH products in the world.

While I don't know the extent of the impact this has had to Apple's sourcing and logistics, I can safely say the impact isn't zero. If Samsung really wanted to put the kibosh on Apple, they could refuse to sell DRAM or FLASH to them, or raise the price as there is not enough supply in the world to satisfy Apple from the balance of remaining suppliers. Smart move on Apple's part? I think not.

And finally, yesterday Apple announced the new iPhone 5S and 5C. The 5C was rumored to be a potential Trojan horse for Apple to win back lost market share by adding a "low cost" model to their product lineup. However, pricing revealed that off contract the 5C is almost as expensive as the "regular" iPhones. Who would want to pay for something that expensive made out of plastic? Apple completely missed the boat and squandered a strategic opportunity to address their shrinking market share in the face of Android's assault.

And that's not all. The 5S comes in three colors now and none of them are the classic black or white which has become the trademark colors for all iPhones. Would it have hurt Apple to add three new colors in addition to the classic black and white?

When Jobs passed away, Tim Cook assured us all that Steve Jobs' influence in future product designs would continue to be felt for some time to come. However, given what's been going on lately at Apple, it's hard to say if Tim Cook is going strictly by Jobs' playbook or has actually been second guessing his work. What we do know is that Apple doesn't look as surefooted as when Jobs was at the helm.

I've used iPhones for many years and also have an iPad and iPod Touch. But lately, I've found myself less and less enchanted by the prospect of spending a premium amount of money for virtually the same thing as I already have. For my money, my next smartphone will probably be an Android device.

DUST 514: 30 days and counting...

I have been playing DUST 514 for about one month now, and in that time I've created 4 characters and 2 separate login accounts on PSN, due mainly to ongoing realizations about how to take the best advantage of the game's framework and rules. While the shooter mechanics are pretty straightforward, the game is quite complex when you consider all the various options available to you as a player.

The first character I had created lasted all of 48 hours. I quickly realized that the starting 500,000 skill points were incorrectly allocated across too many items resulting in very little progress on any given front. There isn't much in the way of a tutorial for this game and you are tossed into an environment with a pretty steep learning curve.

The three main categories that would concern new players are Dropsuit Command, Dropsuit Upgrades and Weaponry. I quickly realized that I had wastefully allocated my starting skill points into too many skills. None of them made much of an impact at low levels and it would take me at least 2 weeks to get enough points to start to make corrections. Oops.

My second character fared much better and has been the main character I've been playing for the past month. I went with an Assault class and skilled into the Gallente Medium Advanced Assault Dropsuit off the bat. Truth be told, I'm not the best FPS player so I figured the Gallente dropsuits which emphasize more armor would be a good place to start.

While more armor kept me alive a little bit longer, I still got killed a lot. I came to the realization that situational awareness and cover are actually more important than how much shields and armor you have. Keeping track of where you are, versus where the enemy is, as well as making sure that you shoot from cover and have someplace to safely duck behind while your shields/armor regenerate is much more important to staying alive than being built like a tank.

This led me to making my third character about 20 days into playing DUST. As an experiment, I decided to switch things up a bit. Instead of going for a good dropsuit first, I decided to directly level my weaponry for more damage out of the gate. At this point I found that I was getting better at watching what was going on both in battle and on my HUD, so I figured I could give up better protection for more weapon damage.

The result was that I was actually scoring better early on as I was dealing more damage, despite the crappy basic dropsuit. The key was avoiding situations that would surely get you killed. This proves that playing smarter actually keeps you alive longer despite the fact that I had crappy armor. Again, cover and situational awareness are key to surviving.

Also, for my third character I went with a female since I was told that female characters are physically smaller than their male counterparts and therefore make them a bit harder to hit. In theory it sounded good, but in practice, I haven't noticed too much of a difference as most of the shooting is done at fairly close ranges. The hit detection in DUST 514 seems a bit suspect, to me at least.

I chose to go with a Caldari suit for my third character. Caldari suits emphasize shields over armor, which is the exact opposite of Gallente dropsuits. While the Gallente suit can make you a little tougher to kill, armor regenerates more slowly than shields. With enough shields and a higher level shield regenerator, you can quickly alternate between fire and cover. On a Gallente suit, once your shields are gone every hit penetrates armor and that takes a lot longer to regenerate.

And finally, I started my fourth character on a new PSN account today. The reason is that while you are allowed to play up to three characters per PSN account on DUST 514, only one character can be assigned to receive passive skill points. Passive skill points accrue at about 1,000 points per hour so you get 24,000 free points every day. With both my second and third characters on the same PSN account, I have to choose which one gets the passive SP bonus. Putting my fourth character on a separate PSN account means that it gets the passive bonus separately from my main account.

Also for my fourth character, I decided to make what is called an Assault/Logi. Logi (short for Logistics) characters can easily rack up a lot of points during battle by providing essential support services, other than just straight killing the enemy. Logis heal teammates, repair their armor/shields, repair vehicles etc. These actions give additional points not available to straight assault or heavy class characters.

Logis can be a little hard to play at the beginning. In order to be effective, you have more equipment you need to level up above and beyond your primary weapon. However, in the long run, you will consistently score more points than other character classes that score based only on killing the other side.

DUST 514 has a massive tech/skill tree for each of the 4 races present in the game. While choosing any particular race doesn't affect anything other than your starting location within the DUST/EVE universe, the dropsuits of each of the 4 races vary quite a bit. If you further consider the different classes such as assault, anti-armor, sniper, logistics and heavies, then there is a very wide range of options that you can skill into to optimize each of these classes.

As mentioned previously, the main categories important for the beginning player are Dropsuit Command, Dropsuit Upgrades and Weaponry. Dropsuit Command determines what class of dropsuit you skill into, i.e. light, medium or heavy; and also the level, i.e. basic, advanced or prototype.

You can choose the dropsuit of any race, but you really should focus on the suit that would be optimum for the class and role you plan to take on the battlefield. It takes a long time to move from basic to advanced and finally prototype suits so for the first 2-3 months, you're going to be stuck with leveling your one suit.

Dropsuit upgrades affect and optimize the different abilities of the various dropsuits. There are skills for increasing the effectiveness of armor and shields as well as core system upgrades that affect things such as available CPU/PG and allows you to use equipment such as active scanners, drop uplinks and nanohives or improve skills such as hacking which is required to capture resources on the battlefield.

Finally the Weaponry skill determines the class and type of weapon you can use. Weapons are separated into several categories including light weapons which cover the various types of assault rifles, sidearms which cover pistols and SMGs, and finally heavy weapons such as the heavy machine gun or forge guns.

As you can see, there is a huge amount of choice and customization available for every player to create a character suited to their playing style. In my next update, I'll get into the various classes and how they work together on the battlefield.

DUST 514 First Impressions

Recently, I decided to give DUST 514 a whirl after watching some gameplay videos on YouTube. I also wanted to make some updates to my original blogpost here.

First of all, DUST 514 is a completely free to play MMOFPS. Most everything you can purchase through the use of Aurum (AUR) can be earned and purchased with ISK. Aurum and ISK are two types of in-game currency.

Aurum is purchased using real money, while ISK is earned from battling in game. That said, there are some things which you can only purchase with Aurum using real money: Blueprints and Active/Passive SP (Skill Point) Boosters.

Blueprints for various in-game items give you an infinite number of that item which will never disappear. Non-blueprint items can be purchased with ISK but are consumed during gameplay. When your clone dies in battle, everything that the clone was equipped with for battle are lost with it.

Boosters are available for varying periods of time and come in two types: Passive and Active. Passive boosters increase the rate at which you earn SP's when you are not actively in battle. This carries over regardless of whether you are online or not. Active boosters increase the SPs you earn in battle.

Why are boosters important? Because DUST 514 has a very tech-heavy skill tree. You must use ISK to purchase training in order to use specific items and use SPs to train up those skills as prerequisites for any equipment beyond the most basic default militia equipment. Earning SP more quickly will allow you to advance to better equipment earlier.

Each skill has five levels (from 1-5) which requires various amounts of SP to increase. More advanced equipment in game require various combinations of skills and levels of training in order to unlock for use.

As you might have guessed, everything from dropsuits to weapons, modules and augmentations require training to use. This system and the elaborate tech-tree give a decidedly RPG bent to what might otherwise have been just another space-themed shooter. The amount of choice is staggering and allows you to customize your dropsuit, equipment and weapons to best complement your style of play.

The central piece of equipment in your arsenal is your dropsuit. The dropsuit provides armor and shield protection for battle, and have optional module slots that allow you to customize the performance of the dropsuit. Dropsuits come in three variations: Light, Medium and Heavy and are useful for different player classes.

Dropsuits also have PG and CPU limitations which affects play-balancing. Each module or weapon you equip requires some amount of power and compute cycles so creating a combat capable suit is based managing various tradeoffs. You try to optimize your dropsuit for your style of play using available equipment and try to keep it within the PG/CPU limits of each suit.

More advanced suits usually offer more equipment slots and have higher PG/CPU limits to allow you to use more or better equipment. In this case, SP grinding is much like the level grinding you find in many RPGs. The skill points and ISK you earn allow you to continue to upgrade your combat effectiveness.

So for new players of DUST 514, their primary goal at the start of the game should be to try to get to advanced or even prototype dropsuits before investing heavily in upgrading equipment or weapons. Everything you can or can't use depends on the dropsuit, so that is the place to focus 100% of your early effort.

I have settled on level 3 (Advanced) medium assault suit as my first goal. The assault suit can be customized for Assault, Sniper or Anti-Armor roles. You can also go for medic/logistics builds with an Assault suit. However if you want to specialize as a healing or engineer class, the better choice would be to go with a logistics skill adaptation (as opposed to an assault skill) as logistics suits usually have the most slots available for equipment and modules.

So far DUST 514 has been an interesting twist on the shooter genre. I will add more information on various suit adaptations and classes in my next blog, so stay tuned!

Duke Nukem Forever: Press Censorship and the View from Above

Duke Nukem Forever: Probably the last outing for this iconic gaming franchise. RIP 2011.

For the past few days since the release of Duke Nukem Forever, the tweetosphere and blogosphere has literally been ablaze with postings from 2K Games/Redner Group/Gearbox Software and independent gaming media outlets; with both sides crying foul. In the process, what has been revealed of the dark underbelly of the gaming industry has given me pause to wonder exactly how much we can really trust the published reviews we use to make our purchasing decisions.

Caught in the Act: The post that started the whole ball rolling, courtesy of Ars Technica.

At issue are the poor media reviews for Duke Nukem Forever. DNF is certainly not the first game to ever get a poor review. This spot is also usually reserved for most movie tie-in games. However the level of vitriol leveled at Duke Nukem is rarely seen from the gaming press, more so that it has been unanimous across the board. In fact, the level of "venom," as The Redner Group puts it, was so great, they took the unusual step of publicly threatening to blacklist offending media outlets.

Admittedly, the level of hate for this game was pretty high. Just going by current Metacritic scores for DNF doesn't give the full picture of the reaction by gaming media. You'd have to read a few reviews to fully appreciate this. I'll get to the whys in a bit, but if I were to sum it up, I would say that everyone probably really wanted DNF to be good. While I believe expectations were kept realistically in check, everyone was pulling for the Duke and hoped he'd come through in classic underdog style. Unfortunately, DNF did surprise everyone and turned out far worse than anyone could have imagined.

To the dismay of the Duke Nukem fanbase, the classic mechanics of exploration and item collection along with rapidfire acton featured in past games were gone. Also, the humor in past Duke Nukem games were juvenile and irreverent, but never bigoted or offensive. Unfortunately, Duke Nukem Forever became an on-the-rails, corridor shooter  sandwiched between tasteless, in-game cinematic sequences. The game was dumbed down and the humor reached for the lowest common denominator. Many frankly found the game to be offensive and politically incorrect in all the wrong ways. This critical miscalculation on the part of Gearbox in terms of the tone of the game and the lowbrow humor was the final nail in the coffin.

A decade ago, these same reviewers might possibly have just laughed all of this off. But now among the target demographic, most are pushing their 40s, married with kids and are more politically correct. It's often said, "Timing is everything," and Duke Nukem Forever missed that boat 10 years ago. The lesson to be learned from this is that people's memories are sacred. Duke Nukem Forever is nothing like the classic games from the beloved franchise. Instead of reminding everyone again why they loved Duke Nukem, DNF instead reminded them of everything that the game was not.

Keep in mind DNF was a game that spent most of its 13 year development cycle in intensive care. Over the years, it got ported through several engines and eventually burned through nearly a half-dozen development teams in the process. The game was scrapped and restarted so many times the design document - if it exists - probably looked like Humpty Dumpty on a bad egg day. On the face of it, chances were pretty good the game had already lost its way long ago, certainly well before 2K Games and Gearbox got involved.

2K Games and Gearbox were probably not well prepared for the reception that DNF got. Granted, a lot of money got burned up in the development and marketing for this game but that sort of risk goes hand in hand with the potential rewards of a runaway hit for any game. Instead of taking the criticisms to heart and maybe learning something about themselves and their gaming audience, 2K Games and The Redner Group went on the offensive to defend the undefendable. In so doing, they very publicly threatened the use of blacklists against reviewers and review sites for future titles.

Publishers have historically taken a carrot and stick approach to gaming media. They reward journalists by using money to pay for them to travel, stay in nice hotels and get some nice meals as part of the process of reviewing games. Publishers also provide lots of nice free gifts. On the flip side of the coin, they use blacklists to let journalists know when they aren't happy with a review. This stuff goes on all the time, but nobody talks about it publicly. Let's just call this what it is - it is bribery and censorship plain and simple.

I'd like to think that most journalists and gaming sites have the integrity not to be swayed by these machinations.  But just as there are always those that value integrity above all else, there are also those that value the perks associated with being in the good graces of the publishers. As consumers, we have to make sure that the sites we follow are really on the up and up. Metacritic (www.metacritic.com) is a great aggregator of review information and is a good measuring stick to help us in that regard.

As gamers, we spend good money to indulge in our favorite pastime. We want to know what games are good and worth buying; and we need reliable and impartial reviews to make our purchasing decisions. Conversely, developers and publishers that make good games deserve to make money from their efforts, and those that create crap should face the consequences when consumers vote with their wallets.

Publishers and the media alike should think long and hard about the long term ramifications of the carrot and stick approach to business as usual.  Honest and impartial media helps everyone and will help the industry grow. It is the mechanism by which the wheat is separated from the chaff and helps to inspire consumer confidence. And in the long term, it will create a more healthy and vibrant gaming industry. That's a win-win in my book.

Sorry, Wii only allows U one controller

Recently, it seems the more that gets revealed about the Wii U, the less appealing it looks to me as a hardcore gamer. First, despite Nintendo's claims that this is a fully realized next-gen HD console, we see that the Wii U seems to lack an internal harddisk. Of course, the next ringer is that Nintendo says the Wii U won't play Blu-ray or DVD discs, because they don't feel the need to pay for the licenses required to do so - http://engt.co/jhOX3h; and since the Wii U doesn't play back media files, you didn't really need that harddisk anyway. How convenient.

Now, we get further information that the Wii U will only support one Wii U controller - http://bit.ly/iRhLbF. Hello. According to Nintendo CEO Iwata, while it is technically feasible to support multiple Wii U controllers, cost is the main issue. Of course, cost seems to be the main issue with everything related to Nintendo's decisions lately. I find this a bit disingenuous to say the least, because Nintendo is also the only console player to make big profits on their hardware. So who is all this cost cutting for... the consumers or Nintendo's bottom line?

Now this probably wouldn't have raised my hackles if Nintendo's online gaming capabilities were more in line with what Microsoft or Sony provide. But I sometimes have problems remembering friends' phone numbers, much less their friend codes. For better or worse, the Wii was a social gaming machine that you played together with people in the same room. Due as much for the lack of online multiplayer as for the casual party games that made up a large percentage of its content.

Now it is true that the Wii U will also work with Wii-motes. But that means most social gaming on the Wii U will be done from the standpoint of dissimilar competition. One person will have the Wii U controller, and their goals will be different from everyone else who is playing against him or her with Wii-motes. As casual party games go, this is ok. But do you see a problem with this picture?

Ostensibly, the Wii U is aimed at a more hardcore market and shooters are standard fare. How do you play split screen co-op or multiplayer with dissimilar controls? The answer is, you don't. And in the case of shooters, you really need two analog sticks which Wii-motes most certainly lack. So unless Nintendo allows more than one Wii U controller to be connected or gives the Wii U a total networking overhaul, you're not going to be playing co-op multiplayer with any of your friends, either together in the same room or online. What a friggin' mess!

Maybe it's because Nintendo has spent too much time making casual party games and not enough time with real hardcore, multiplayer titles; but I get the distinct feeling that none of this has been particularly well thought out. And all the stuff that's been coming out of Mr. Iwata's mouth lately is doing nothing to convince the hardcore gaming audience of the Wii U's credibility to go up against Microsoft's Xbox or Sony's PS3 anytime soon.

More critical look at the Wii U

Nintendo's Wii U: The Nintendo console for the hardcore?

The E3 show has come and gone and the adrenaline rush and heady euphoria has all but worn off. Now it's time to take a more critical and objective look at some of the show's major announcements. First up is the Nintendo Wii U - and again I have to think to myself, people are getting paid to come up with this stuff. It certainly boggles the mind.

On the positive side, Nintendo has finally come up with an HD capable console. However, many are critical (and rightly so) that this is a move Nintendo should have made years ago, but didn't because the Wii gravy train hadn't been completely milked yet. This is a fair assessment since Nintendo is the only one of the big three console makers that actually makes money on the hardware it sells. Both Microsoft and Sony heavily subsidize their hardware, counting on software licensing fees to cover these subsidies and to make money.

Michael Pachter, Wedbush Morgan analyst, has said for years that Nintendo was late to the HD party and has missed a huge opportunity. I would tend to agree. While this is seen by many Nintendo fans as a good move, it isn't enough to satisfy the hardcore crowd which Nintendo is making moves to address with this latest hardware. Nintendo has claimed that this console is superior in performance to both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 platforms, but nothing shown by Nintendo to date has been able make a solid impression in that regard.

The end result is a general consensus that Nintendo is several years late to the party and is just now reaching parity status with Microsoft and Sony. Both Microsoft and Sony are expected to release new hardware in the next 2 years. These platforms will undoubtedly set the performance bar even higher, and will make the Wii U look dated just as it is starting to hit its stride. Next generation hardware from Microsoft and Sony will prove problematic for third parties that will also need to support the Wii U, the reasons which we will get into a little later.

For it's part, Nintendo is hoping the new Wii U controller with integrated 6.2" touchscreen display will make enough of a difference to convince the hardcore crowd. I question if this is really enough. Nintendo demonstrated enchanced functionality and interoperability at E3 between the Wii U, the new controller as well as with the Wii-Motes from last generation's Wii. The game demos on display using the new controlers were said to be fun and engaging. Nintendo is obviously bringing their dual screen DS gameplay paradigm over to the bigscreen. While the new controller brings lots of added potential to change gameplay in new and exciting ways, the amount of support by the third party developers may be questionable. Again, more on this later.

The move to a 25GB "Blu-ray like" optical storage medium is a welcome sign. It addresses storage issues for modern HD games. However, all the Wii U specs that have so far come out on the web have not mentioned the inclusion of an internal harddisk. Loading huge textures and art assets from optical discs is slow. Sony's PS3 games have data duplicated throughout the game disc to reduce load times. Microsoft uses DVD drives which have much higher read speeds than current Blu-ray drives, even then an option is available to load the game directly to the built-in harddisk on a 360.

This tacit omission doesn't mean that the Wii U won't support harddisk storage, after all the Wii U features built-in USB ports like its predecessor. What it does mean is that Nintendo expects the customer to pony up for it. All current generation HD consoles include harddisks, and for good reason. This is a major failure on Nintendo's part as the decision points to them not thinking too far beyond their own bottom line; and certainly makes their claims that this console is superior to both the 360 and PS3 somewhat dubious.

The Wii U is obviously using Blu-ray optics, but like the Wii, it won't allow you to play standard movie discs. Nintendo's continual omission in this regard leaves me dumbfounded. Most consumers already have a huge library of DVDs and a growing library of Blu-ray discs, and they will want to watch these on their consoles. I specifically bought my PS3 because in addition to being a game console, it also plays back my movie discs. Nintendo's President, Mr. Iwata, recently stated that consumers already had many playback devices in their homes so he didn't see the point of paying additional licensing fees to enable this feature on the Wii U.

I think Iwata missed the point entirely. Most consumers are trying to simplify their lives, not make things more complex. I would rather have one machine as my central media hub, as opposed to having multiple pieces of fixed function electronics cluttering up my entertainment center. The wording in Mr. Iwata's statement again leaves the impression that these decisions are driven more by profit motive than actually caring about what consumers want. Nintendo continues to ignore this convergence at its own peril. In its current state, the Wii U won't be replacing Xbox 360s and/or PS3s as the central media hub in the livingroom.

On the software side, the Wii U looks very similar to what developers are already accustomed to with the Xbox 360 and the PS3. In fact, the Wii U probably looks more like the Xbox 360 as it is using a Watson 7 derived, PowerPC-esque CPU from IBM and a graphics chip from AMD (ATI). This makes porting current hardcore HD titles to the new Wii U a relatively simple affair. But this ease of porting may not necessarily be a good thing, and certainly may not play to the strengths of the platform.

Wii U Touchscreen Controller: But would you want to play an FPS using this?

Keep in mind that what makes the Wii U different from the current Xbox 360 and PS3 is the new touchscreen controller. This controller offers new ways to interact with games, but a straight port of current 360 and PS3 titles won't be able to take advantage of these new interactive possibilities. To take advantage of the new controller and put it to best use would require building in those capabilities from the start, not just tacking them on at the end of a development cycle while doing a port. What Nintendo needs are developers with DS style experience.

Unfortunately, the hardcore publishers and development houses that Nintendo are targeting to support the Wii U have probably never developed anything on the DS. This could translate into a fairly long learning curve for these developers. It is a given that a small initial Wii U install base guarantees that software for the 360 and PS3 is ported to the Wii U, instead of Wii U titles being feature cut and ported back. And since this is a money making proposition, you would have to question how much development time and effort would be expended to add truly unique and compelling features for Wii U to a current generation multiplatform release.

I applaud Nintendo for continuing to push the limits on how we interact with our entertainment experiences. Unfortunately, the only way for us to get truly incredible, built for Wii U gaming experiences would be for games to be designed specifically for the Wii U and then ported back to the 360 and PS3. I rate the likelihood of this happening in the early life of the Wii U as slim at best. It is likely for reasons of experience and probably also cost, most third parties won't be able to make effective use of the new Wii U touchscreen controller. All we need to do is look at the history of third party development on the Wii to get a clue of where all this might be headed.

If we take this argument to a logical conclusion, we'd have to wonder why any hardcore gamer would buy the Wii U if they can get nearly the same experience already on the Xbox 360 or the PS3? Despite the inclusion of two analog nubs, the size of the Wii U controller could make extended use uncomfortable, especially if there isn't a compelling enough gameplay mechanic to use this controller in the first place. In this case, the Wii U controller becomes nothing more than a clunky novelty.

Nintendo's troubles on the software side don't end there. History has shown that the only companies that really made any money on the Wii were Nintendo's first party developers. Most third party developers derived little benefit from the enormous Wii install base. We could argue over the reasons the third parties fared so poorly, but the end result was alienation and diminishing third party support. While Nintendo's stable of first party developers continued to release mostly excellent content, these releases were few and far between. Most Wiis, mine included, spent more time gathering dust than being played. This general lack of content, which has dogged Nintendo for the past 2 years or more, had finally taken it's toll with demand for the Wii drying up rather precipitously - sales of the Wii console have continuously fallen for the past two quarters.

Which is why I find the timing for the recent Wii U leaks in the run up to E3 too coincidental and view Nintendo's motives in a fairly cynical light. The maturity of the hardware shown at E3 and recently rumored release in summer 2012 could only mean that Nintendo had been sitting on this console for a while. I fully believe Nintendo was waiting for the cash cow that was the Wii to finally die before announcing the Wii U. Nintendo's profit motive seems to be the key driver for their hardware releases, which is a shame. Strategically, they would have benefitted more in the long run had the Wii U come out earlier. This, I believe, will come back to bite Nintendo in the ass.

Certainly within 2 years of the Wii U's release, the market fully expects new consoles from Microsoft and Sony. Sony sort of let on that a new console would be out in 2014. I expect Microsoft may have something as early as Christmas 2013, again to beat Sony to the market by a year or more for the next, next-gen. This strategy worked well for Microsoft in the current cycle against Sony, and coming out sooner rather than later would also cut the legs out from under the Wii U. Next generation hardware and graphics capabilities would far surpass the capabilities of the Wii U, and at this point, developers will be left wondering if they want to continue to port over to the Wii U with the decision point probably being the size of the install base.

These trends don't bode well for unique content on the Wii U. Again, the history of the Wii is littered with failed third party titles. Whatever the cause, it stands to reason that if third parties continue to have a bad experience on the new Wii U console, Nintendo will eventually be left again being the sole software provider for their new platform. We will end up getting some stellar first party titles, along with a whole gamut of ports from Nintendo's past library. But this won't make the "U" part of the market very happy and certainly wouldn't incentivize them to buy into what Nintendo is peddling. So who is the Wii U really catering to anyway?

The answer to that question might surprise you. Despite Nintendo's messaging and most pundits predicting that the Wii U is aimed squarely at the hardcore, I have come to an entirely different conclusion. Given the problems Nintendo is likely to face both on the hardware and software front, I find it highly unlikely that the hardcore gaming segment will be moved to buy the Wii U en masse. The addition of an expensive touchscreen controller that may not offer much more in terms of interactivity on hardcore titles would keep most hardcore gamers away. Everyone pretty much assumes that by 2014 latest, the new next-gen consoles from Microsoft and Sony will be out and that will set the new performance bar for the hardcore.

The only conclusion that I can really draw from this is also a fairly cynical one. Nintendo, despite saying otherwise, is really selling the Wii U to their current Wii customer base. Like Apple's iPhone, Nintendo wants to upgrade their casual gaming customers to a DS like experience on the bigscreen. The "hardcore" aspect of the Wii U just gives Nintendo more talking points. Nintendo isn't stupid, and given the installed Wii user base, Nintendo could make oodles of money just replacing all the Wiis currently out there without worrying at all about converting any of the Microsoft or Sony fanbase. As a business gambit, this is really downright brilliant; but for the hardcore gamer, sorry, the Wii U really doesn't seem to be for the rest of us.

Games I'm looking forward to

With the global economy in a shambles the past few years, many people have had to opt out of more expensive vacations and stay closer to home to be entertained. The gaming industry certainly has not suffered as has most of the economy when viewing their year-on-year sales growth for the past two years. Despite the economic ramifications, I would like to think that the continued growth of gaming also has to do with the quality of titles being released.

This year has already seen the release of some big titles, such as Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Call of Duty: Black Ops, reboot of the NFS franchise Hot Pursuit, Dead Space 2, Dragon Age II, Fable III, Fallout New Vegas, Portal 2, L.A. Noire as well as the latest installment of the Mortal Kombat series. So far, 2011 hasn't been too bad at all, and has been a lot of variety in the various genres. In fact, I personally can't remember the last time we've had such an embarrassment of riches in the first 6 months of the year.

This is a good thing since developers and publishers are starting to realize that they don't need to squeeze everything into the 4th quarter of each year. In the past, too many games in such a small release window led to a lot of games falling through the cracks. By spreading out the titles evenly throughout the calendar year, I believe that more of the really good games will garner better sales overall. Even the PC has had a lot of good releases from Call of Duty, Crysis 2, Portal 2 Sims 3 Medieval, Shogun 2: Total War and the heavily anticipated Witcher 2.

Despite this, there are still a boatload of games that I am personally looking forward to before the end of 2011. Here are my picks for the balance of the year:

Shooters:

Gears of War 3 (duh), Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Future Soldier, Aliens: Colonial Marines, RAGE

Action/Strategy:

Batman: Arkham City, Devil May Cry, Assassin's Creed Revelations

Role Playing:

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, BioShock Infinite, Star Wars The Old Republic (YES!!!)

Racing:

Driver: San Francisco, Need for Speed: The Run, Forza Motorsport 4

I'm sure that there are other titles that I may have missed. Even this list would be challenging enough for me to pick up without breaking the budget. So what are you looking forward to? Add your feedback to the comment section below! 

The Wii for the rest of us.. Wheeeee!

Unless you've been living under a rock, then you've probably heard about Nintendo's Wii U announcement during the second day of the E3 show. In case you have been in dire need of sunlight, here's the snip of the Wii U announcement video from Nintendo's press conference http://www.g4tv.com/videos/53459/Wii-U-Announcement-Video-from-Nintendo-Press-Conference-E3-2011/.

The question of whether this would be the triumphant return for Nintendo to the hardcore gaming market segment was answered in parts by the independent testimonials from developers and publishers as well as the followup video montage showing current titles in development. The next generation Wii U certainly has the graphics chops to go head-to-head with the current HD heavyweights from Microsoft and Sony. But that by itself wouldn't be enough to set it apart from the competition.

In line with Nintendo's continued push to expand the gaming accessory envelope, they also debuted the much talked about new controller with built in display/touchscreen functionality. This new controller can be used in conjuction with your main display or in some usage cases, in place of the main display through wireless video streaming. It also offers new ways to interact with the Wii U in conjunction with the Wii-Mote - and we've all got a boatload of those. In particular, the new contoller brings DS-like dual screen funtionality for your large display.

As developers seem keen to support this new console, the inclusion of a BluRay player might be enough to allow the Wii U to displace the PS3 as the all purpose gaming and A/V console of choice for watching movies. Full third party support on the software side will negate much of the advantage that both Microsoft and Sony currently have over Nintendo for the hardcore gaming market.

The only nitpick I have with the new console is its name. Wii U seems to be even sillier than the initial Wii announcement from a few years back. If Nintendo wanted to convey inclusiveness for all gamers, especially the hardcore, why not call it the Wii-All? That would have automatically gotten most of the southern states in the US behind Nintendo 100%. Or for the more tech-saavy why not the Universal Wii, or U-Wii for short? This would also be popular with people who can't make up their mind what direction they're going. Alternatively, you could pronounce that "Ooohwee" as in WOW! Certainly, these names are much more catchy and display a bit of humor that would work great from a marketing standpoint.

Oh well, I guess you just can't win them all.