1. Lack of Great Games

There just isn’t much there, at the moment, for the Wii U. Their library started off rather slow, without too many major franchise releases from the get go, which kept a lot of people from becoming earlier adopters. Other than ZombiU, there are no great exclusives on the console. Sure, it has quite a few AAA titles on it, but they can also be bought on the 360 and PS3, where more often than not, those versions of the game are a better experience.

2. Major Releases Too Long of a Wait

For those who did buy for major franchise releases, many were sorely disappointed in finding out a lot of their big characters wouldn’t be seen for a while.  Super Mario 3D World, as cool as it looks, is not coming out until the holidays. Smash Bros and a new Zelda aren’t going to hit until 2014. It might be because Nintendo is trying to compete with the major console launches of the Xbox One and Playstation 4, but it’s a bit of too little, too late.

3. Terrible Online Capabilities

Compared to even other current gen consoles, the WiiUI is dated in its online capabilities. The Miiverse, Nintendo’s attempt at a social network on their console, is confusing and limited. What’s even worse is before the Wii U’s release, even developers were confused about how their network worked. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 head Katsuhiro Harada said in an interview, comparing internet capabilities with the other consoles, “Not quite sure at this point. I don’t fully understand it. We’re still working with Nintendo to find out about their network.”

4. Styling Years Out of Date

Another major problem with the Wii U is that it’s pretty much a fatter Wii, with a tablet as its controller. That isn’t necessarily the worst thing, except that when it comes to what is inside, that doesn’t hold up to well to even current generation graphics and hardware, let alone what will be coming out in just a few short months. And though the dual screen idea of the controller seemed great in theory, it doesn’t seem to pan out quite as expected in practice.

5. Too Strict on Content

Streaming content and using the web browser is difficult enough, but when Nintendo starts holding their franchises close to the chest, it makes it hard to want to back them up. take, for example, the recent news that they wanted to pull Smash Bros Melee from EVO’s tournament. Apparently, it took a lot of finagling to keep it, but EVO went public with the information that Nintendo told them to pull it. This is not the first time Nintendo has gone after people for using their games where they have decided they don’t want them, and it likely won’t be the last, either.

6. Wii Is Still Sellng Well

even after the release of a new console and all this time that has passed, the original Wii is actually still selling well, better than the Wii U has been. It sells over 160,000 units a month, even after all these years. But if people are looking to the older console for their homes and panning over the more recent release, that’s a problem. The Wii allows for backward compatibility with GameCube games and people are still sticking by it as a hardier console than the Wii U.

7. The iPad Is Taking Their Market Share

Consumer spending patterns are changing rapidly, as people are moving to iOS and Android-based games with enthusiasm. More people are buying tablets (it’s estimated about 60% of American consumers will have them by 2015) and they want to play games there. Not only is this hurting the Wii U, but could potentially hurt their portable 3DS as well.

The post What’s the Matter Wii U? appeared first on Gaming Debugged | Gaming Site Covering Xbox, Indies, News, Features and Gaming Tech.

Ouya was its own, standalone idea in the world of consoles and while not everyone is going to abandon Microsoft or Playstation for one, there are quite a lot of people buying as pre-orders have been sold out for months. And at only $99 and its design of being so darn small, it’s a very appealing piece of equipment. It doesn’t really compete as much as compliment other consoles.

But if Google were to come out with something similar, it could really hurt Ouya’s chances, and let’s admit it Ouya game list is not that impressive at the moment. Why? Because Google has the money to turn a console into something bigger and better. They also have a reputation, as one of the “good guy” as well as the technology leader. People might want to buy in literally because they are attached to the project.

If Google does announce a console, there is one thing that is for certain; it’s going to make the overall market very interesting and diverse.

Image: The image above is just a concept floating about and does not represent the final product.

The post What the Google Android-based Console Could Mean for Ouya appeared first on Gaming Debugged | Gaming Site Covering Xbox, Indies, News, Features and Gaming Tech.

Until now, 3rd party iOS controllers have been a bit of a mess. Devices like the iCade have worked ok, but in order for them to function properly, the games need to be designed to take advantage of the product. iOS game developers are going to spend a lot of time implementing a control scheme for a device only a handful of people have.

With the controller support coming in iOS 7, however, there is a standard. Every compliant 3rd party controller will have to work in exactly the same way, be it Logitech’s iPhone 5-to-PSP converter kit style, or a controller with a clip — peripheral maker Power A is already prepping an iOS version of its popular MOGA Android controller. Game developers no longer have to panic about which consumers own which controllers — they all work.

It’s a very ‘game console’ approach to controller support, one that Apple is uniquely situated among mobile platform makers to implement. The Android platform has been supporting different controllers for quite some time, but with countless manufacturers creating an endless array of diverse Android devices, achieving a standard for controllers is problematic. The iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch share a single manufacturer, so standards are easy.

What about Apple TV

With the addition of a game controller and some decent games, this could be muscle in on OUYA’s turf

At the moment we can connect our iPhones and iPads up to our TVs or stream our games through Apple TV, which is cool but feels a bit like Wii U But an app-enabled Apple TV with controller support would be awesome. It’d be a pretty cheap game console with established media streaming capabilities, a rapidly-growing library of games and one of the world’s biggest companies backing them.

An Apple-based game console wouldn’t be much competition for Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft but it does have the potential to reach a much larger audience. Such a large audience would be very attractive to developers and publishers

The post Apple’s 3rd Party Game Controllers and Apple TV | WWDC 2013 appeared first on Gaming Debugged | Gaming Site Covering Xbox, Indies, News, Features and Gaming Tech.

Although there has been no details released, there has been plenty of speculation about how this might work.

Some have suggested that you get points for watching entire series and other rumors suggest you can earn virtual items for your digital avatar.

The patent says the aim of the achievements is “To increase interactive viewing and encourage a user to watch one or more particular items of video content, awards and achievements may be tied to those items of video content,”

So with this in mind I have decided to look back at what awards and achievements I could have earned already:

Usage awards

Channel surfer

After successfully changing channels over 10 times within one minute.

Coach potato

After successfully watching television for over 16 hours straight

TV Watching Awards

CTU Long Service Award

For watching the entire collection of 24

Super Hero

For watching all three series of Heroes

Observers Award

For watching all of Fringe (to date)

Possible Movie achievements:

Disney Addict:
After successfully watching 20+ Disney Movies

Cult Member:
After viewing 25+ cult movies

You’re SO Indie
For watching 10+ independent movies

Oscar winner
For watching 10+ films that have won academy awards

Achievements I am NEVER gonna get:

City Slicker
For watching the entire collection of Sex And The City

Football Crazy
After watching 3+ games if the Super Bowl

What’s in the box?
For watching 30+ episodes of Deal or No Deal

My WatcherTag Avatar

Accessories earned:

Dr House’s Cane
For watching an entire series of house

Daredevil Costume
After watching 25+ episodes of Kick Buttowski Suburban Daredevil

Sonic Screwdriver
After watching all the latest series of Dr Who

The Sitting Dead
After watching every series of The Walking Dead

Obviously these are totally made up but it was good to think about how it would work. Do these achievements tell you more about me, does it open me up to advertisers and how would you feel if the same information was displayed about you?

It was good to think about how it would work. Do these kind of achievements scare you, or do invade your privacy? I would love to hear your comments.

I would love to hear your comment about this and any suggestions for other achievements!

The post My current Xbox One TV achievements appeared first on Gaming Debugged | Gaming Site Covering Xbox, Indies, News, Features and Gaming Tech.

It is a virtual reality head mounted display that turns major release games into a 3D experience that people playing the NES in the 80s only dreamed of.  The Oculus Rift lets players block out the real world and have a fied of view of more than 90 degrees horizontal, more than any other competing device, which is its strongest pull. It has been said to really provide an immersive experience.

The Oculus Rift started off as a Kickstarter idea, developed by Oculus VR, and raised $2.4 million dollars. It was first introduced at the 2012 E3 with a live demonstration of the prototype and it only took four hours for them to reach their original Kickstarter goal of $250,000. Now, the device is being supported by huge developers like Cliffy B, John Carmack of id Software, Gabe Newell of Valve, as well as a ton of others. Having that kind of developmental backing is proof that the Oculus Rift isn’t just a gimmick but a seriously great piece of technology.

So when will it actually be in homes? Well, currently Oculus VR is working on tweaking the headset even further and working on tracking movement better. But there are a lot of great videos out on Youtube if you want a demonstration of how it works. It has already been used on past releases like Team Fortress 2 and Skyrim, to name a couple, and with astonishingly accurate results. There’s been talk of a starting price point of around $400, though nothing has been confirmed.

Could this be the future? Will every gaming household have an Oculus Rift in it at some point in the next 5 years? If price ends up going down once development is really set, it is more than possible that this could be the next big piece of technology in homes. It’s everything gamers ever wanted, but we’ll have to wait and see how things develop down the line.

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