Should You Buy a Console on Release?

So the start of a new generation: the Wii U is released today here in the UK or a week ago in the US. The Wii U sold 400,000 units in the US last week, which isn’t bad, until you compare it to the 750,000 and 525,000 the Xbox 360 and PS3 sold, respectively. The issue seems to be a lack of hype. Here in the UK, advertising has been to a minimum. The adverts that have shown have been awful and seem to be still aimed at casual gamers. After being burned by the Wii, as a hardcore gamer, I’m less than impressed that the people at Nintendo seem to be forgetting us again.

So many people are left in limbo as whether to fork out £250 to buy a new console which is still unproven. Then again, there are bragging rights as to being the first to own a particular console within your group of friends. However, the novelty wears off soon and there are reasons to wait.

Firstly comes the price, at £250 the Wii U isn’t badly priced, in fact it’s pretty damn cheap, especially when considering the Xbox and PS3 are roughly £200 (if you want a real version that you can actually use). You may not have been mistaken for thinking that the Wii U is part of this generation of consoles. Nevertheless, just because it’s cheap, doesn’t necessarily mean its price won’t drop. It may be cheap now, but it could get cheaper. On the other hand, Nintendo could keep the price constant since they are already selling at a loss. The main issue here is of the $800 release price for the PS3, which subsequently dropped price, very quickly! Sony claimed that this was due to the Blu-Ray drive, so if the next Xbox or Playstation have something new and modern, that really could bump up the price. It may be worth waiting till post-Christmas, when prices (should) shoot down.

The cover of the Xbox 360 manual

Then there’s the bugs, here is most famously the case of the RED RINGS OF DEATH! Microsoft were keen to get the 360 out early, in doing so they overlooked a mechanical fault regarding the cooling of the 360. The red rings essentially meant that the Xbox would not work because it was too hot (usually), thus, it would shut down to prevent damage to its internal components. It also faced other issues such as the E74 graphics error (which I ‘caused’ to occur on my cousins Xbox). All in all, it left you with a hefty bill from Microsoft because it always happened a day after your warranty ran out. Such was the outrage, Microsoft were eventually forced to provide three years of warranty on Xbox’s (even then, I’m sure some people still got issues after 3 years and 2 days). Though this sounds like a mistake on Microsoft’s part, Sony had their own Yellow light of death which affected many (and increasing number) of original PS3s. Though this yellow light problem occurred much later in a consoles life than the red rings, it still happened and as PS3s get older, more and more are succumbing to their demise. Again, as life would have it, this would set you a hefty bill from Sony’s doors (unless of course you go to the very helpful ‘Playstation Pros’ in Bow, London). The reason to wait would be that the new crash course diet Xbox and PS3 have not reported the same problems, yet.

Now comes user interface, any operating system comes with bugs on release and consoles are no different. Though there are few major bugs, it is often wise to wait a couple of months before developers fix all the more major issues. In terms of user interface, the Xbox shipped with a dashboard that wasn’t the best. It was ugly and difficult to navigate. Fortunately, Xbox continue to update their dashboard, to keep it modern and fresh, the result being that it is the best UI on any of this generations consoles. However, it took a long time for Microsoft to perfect the formula and release the second dashboard, so it may be worth waiting to see how the UI of a console may adapt before opting to buy one. On the other hand, you could argue that Sony has not changed its UI. This is partly due to the fact that the PS3 released last of the consoles and incorporated some of the better features of the original Xbox dashboard. Though some may argue that the lack of change is because the PS3 UI works, it does now feel dated compared to the Xbox Metro( I don’t care about its legal name) UI. To be honest, it does work, but the technology sector, which is based on innovation, should not be taking a ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach.

I know Lewis Smith, I thought a Wii would be a good buy too

Finally, we have the games, this is something that caused many to regret buying a Wii. 1^st party developers can only produce so much and the bulk of a console’s game list is bulked up by 3^rd party developers. It often takes time for developers to truly understand the console and also to choose whether they want to provide long term support for the console. The Wii in its first year (or two) released several great first party games including Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, Mario Galaxy and Zelda: Twilight Princess. However, slapping Mario on every game can only take you so far and up until the release of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the Wii lacked any incredible game. In general it lacked any truly great third party game and it took some time to realise that the big developers didn’t want to develop for Wii. This left hardcore gamers outraged that their console was sitting their gaining dust, while they played a 360 or PS3 (a proper console). When the Wii released, the motion controlled seemed like something an incredible variety of games could utilise, but developers didn’t really take it well and no one but Nintendo could find an application for them outside the genre of casual party games. The same is true for Kinect, it seemed incredibly promising as Project Natale, but developers still haven’t learnt to use its motion capture abilities (thought the use of it as a microphone has become increasingly popular). In essence, it takes time for developers to learn how to use new hardware and its time that may be best spent waiting for a game that can utilise the hardware. (I write this paragraph as someone who was duped by Nintendo and Microsoft into buying a Wii and Kinect, woe is me). 

So there is some glory in having a console before all your friends, that for  a few months they will be clamouring over at your place hoping to get a glimpse. At the end of the day it’s a risk, some consoles just die out like Sega’s Saturn or Dreamcast and other just aren’t what you think they’ll become, like the Wii. Hype and excitement may take you over, but patience is a virtue, and one that may be key when dealing with the virtual world.