Atari founder critical of Wii U, believes next-generation consoles to be an end of an era

By: Muhammad Qasim Hassan

  |   November 27th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

Nintendo seems to have found itself a permanent place on the hot seat, getting bombarded with criticism over Wii U from all angles.

The latest swipe at the Japan-based company’s first-ever HD console comes from a man who is often regarded as one of the founding fathers of gaming, Atari and Chuck E. Cheese’s founder Nolan Bushnell.

During an interview with the New York Times, the 69-year-old engineer-cum-entrepreneur said that the latest offering by Nintendo is not going to help it find significant success.

“I actually am baffled by it,” Bushnell said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a big success.”

He did not go into the details of why he feels that Wii U does not have what it takes to become a super-hit in the masses, but the confidence with which he voiced his opinion may be enough to spread the pessimism.

Bushnell, however, does not only seem sceptical about the success of Nintendo’s next-generation console, but in fact has similar sentiments for the new consoles that Sony and Microsoft are rumoured to be working on.

Commenting on the Big 3 and their new consoles, the Atari founder opined that the next-generation consoles did not mark the beginning of an era, but instead mark the end of it.

“These things will continue to sputter along, but I really don’t think they’ll be of major import ever again,” Bushnell said. “It feels like the end of an era to me.”

While Bushnell has made it clear that he does not expect Wii U, or the high-end consoles that Sony and Microsoft are expected to release in the market sometime during next year to be viable, the $20 million gaming industry will surely make it easy for the Big 3, publishers, developers and gamers to hold on to their optimism.

The gaming industry has unarguably dropped from its peak due to the massive surge in the popularity of smartphones and tablets in recent years.

The hand-held devices opened up the gateway for smaller and cheaper games, the simplistic nature of which began to attract casual gamers. In no time, the figure of casual gamers touched millions.

Sensing the opportunity to find success in the casual gaming space and also working with new technology, more developers turned their attention to smartphone and tablets.

The gaming industry, on the other hand, has been finding itself struggling to retain gamers. The challenge, according to many analysts and developers, is associated with the extended life-cycle of current-generation consoles.

With Nintendo already launching Wii U in America and all set to launch it in Europe tomorrow, the next-generation era has already begun and both the health and appeal of gaming industry is expected to improve a little.

The situation, however, is expected to show a massive improvement once Sony and Microsoft launch their high-end console.