Wii U is the best games console of this generation

One may ask here, what is it that makes a games console of this generation the best? The gaming industry is a huge business first and foremost. The features of a games console and its games are all catered as such in order to try to maximise the profits for the companies behind them. If a games console does not sell as well as its rivals, then can it be appropriately be called the best of that generation? Herein lies the crux of the argument I will present. One may find real joy in a certain games console and its games and think of it as the best, irrespective of the commercial success of its competitors. Of course, simple qualia is qualia, but there are of course elements of a games console that usually differ from the elements of its competitors. Nintendo recent console, the Wii U, is prized as a family console, attempting to offer balanced game-play across the age ranges; a similar trait shared by its predecessor the Wii. Whilst the Wii can be argued in a very reasonable manner to be the best of its generation, with both strong sales over its mainstream lifespan and many features which were received well and as revolutionary, the Wii U has failed to match the commercial success of the PS4 and Xbox One. In its wake, it remains a shadow of the revolutionary ideas incorporated into the Wii, with reports to suggest that Nintendo may be planning to release their next console sooner than expected--leaving the Wii U era left in a state of commercial failure. A tech news website notes statistics as follows on the 29th of July this year: "Nintendo sold less than half a million Wii U consoles these past three months, but, nevertheless, that was enough to push the near-three-year-old device"s total sales to date past the 10 million mark. Sony notched that very figure for the PlayStation 4 in just nine months."[1] This alone is able to show a great disparity in customer demand for the respective consoles and statista.com is able to provide a number of other statistics comparing the consoles, including global units shipped from release through 2014, which succeed in showing the gulf of commercial success that has been created between the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, and the failing Wii U.[2] It is clear that the Wii U is not a commercial success when compared to its market rivals, so is there anything moral or outstanding that the Wii U offers? Whilst we may not want our toddlers shooting prostitutes on the streets of Grand Theft Auto, an age rating prerequisite is always stamped onto games that may raise a few eyebrows from people concerned about the content a child is exposed to. Since underage gamers cannot purchase these age-limited games themselves, it is the responsibility of those allowing these children to play them, should any psychological harm affect them. There have been no real studies on the detrimental effects of violent and mature games to children that provide anything close to a substantial worry, however, and thus the legal age requirement for selling the products are more than sufficient. Whilst the Wii U can surely be said to be the most family friendly out of the 3 consoles, whether through it's overall lack of games with mature elements, or even more opportunities for a local multiplayer experience in the home, these aspects in themselves should not be taken as a precedence in importance simply based on that. I spoke about the Age ratings, and the gamer market is filled with people from all ages, some of those adults who look for a more mature experience in their games' themes and content. Furthermore, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One certainly do provide local cooperative experience, not least in 2 of the biggest titles and well played games in modern gaming: Call of Duty and FIFA. Mowing down zombies in Call of Duty or beating your mate in a game of FIFA, can hardly be called bland experiences. These are incredibly popular local multiplayer modes, and I certainly would not be surprised if their global play-time together eclipsed that of every local multiplayer game on the Wii U, especially given its commercial failure. That potential fact, however, is not a point I need to stress. It goes without saying that the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One's local multiplayer experiences are most certainly a far cry from being called anything close to incredibly worse than what is offered on the Wii U; those were only two titles I listed in their defense, mind you. So, to start concluding, Sony and Microsoft have simply outdone Nintendo in this generation of home consoles. Their business success has eclipsed Nintendo's and Nintendo offers nothing to redeem that fact; not their mass collection of family friendly and fun games, and nor their wide range of local multiplayer options. It is certainly nice to be able to buy a home console for so cheap in the Wii U, but is it the best of our generation? Confidently speaking, I think not. [1]http://techcrunch.com... [2]http://www.statista.com...