A few weeks ago, we asked Bessie, our resident "psychic cat", if she could predict some things we'd love to know about the Wii U's launch. Although she'd never really shown an ability for psychic predictions before (in fact, she'd rarely shown a clue about anything at all), we were at least fairly confident in our cat's hidden abilities, and so set out our momentous challenge - one that highly paid, industry analysts had struggled with for years. We wanted her to tell us, in no uncertain terms, when the Wii U would launch, how much it would cost, and what it would launch with in terms of the launch line up, and bundles. For the full story, you can read Bessie's original predictions here - or read on, as we reveal if Bessie really does have psychic powers after all.
Q1 - How much will the Wii U cost?
Being the nice people that we are, the first question we asked Bessie was arguably the trickiest one of the lot - how much will the Wii U cost? Presented with a number of bowls of food, each one representing a different price, Bessie showed none of the hesitancy, or reluctance to commit, that's expected from most analysts, and instead shoved her head straight into the dish labelled £300. And while we may have had our reservations at the time, it seems Bessie was actually right. Although Nintendo didn't announce a price themselves for the console (apparently, they're not allowed to set an RRP for the UK), the company did announce the Wii U would launch with three different bundles - the Basic, Premium, and ZombiU packs, which are currently available for pre-order for £250, £300, and £330. And although we haven't quite written off the idea that a pre-launch Wii U price drop may occur, as things stand at the moment, with £300 not only being spot on what retailers would like to squeeze out of us, but also bang in the middle, it turns out that Bessie was actually, 100% right.
Correct!
Q2 - What month will the Wii U launch in?
Next, an equally tricky question for a cat to answer - in what month would the Wii U launch? Armed with one of her favourite toys, a ball of silver foil, and several boxes representing months, Bessie was initially reluctant - perhaps unsure about this one - before she batted it into November. As you'll know if you've read our Wii U UK launch details article, on this count too, Bessie was dead right! So far, so good!
Correct!
Q3 - What date will it hit stores?
This is where Bessie's 100% track record starts to stumble a little bit. Thanks to a combination of a piece of paper marked up as a calender, and a laser pen (every cat's mortal enemy), Bessie swung into action, and tore a chunk out of her chosen date for the console launch, picking the 13th of November. Sadly, in the US, the console launches on the 18th, and in the UK, on the 30th. We'll give her the benefit of the doubt in this case though, and say that her cat eyes may well have mistaken a 3 for an 8, especially in our handwriting - which means Bessie was actually right!
(Almost) correct!
Q4 - Which games will be available at launch?
The single most important question of any console launch, and also one of the trickiest for Bessie to get right, thanks to the number of options that were available to her, Bessie next had to predict which games would be hitting shelves on launch day, alongside the Wii U. After giving her a collection of her favourite toys, each one labelled with a name of a game which, we thought, stood a decent chance of finding itself amongst the Wii U launch line-up, Bessie was like a cat in heaven - but were her choices right?
New Super Mario Bros U - one of few confirmed launch titles for the Wii U.
Due to the number of potential launch games available, and because we didn't want to risk Bessie having a fun overload, we stopped this experiment at three games. Seemingly, Bessie knows her stuff. Going for the obvious one first, Bessie picked out New Super Mario Bros U., which Nintendo have since confirmed will be available on day one. Next up was LEGO City Undercover, closely followed by Wii Fit U - but sadly, we're still not entirely sure whether either of these will be available on day one. With retailers and Nintendo themselves playing their cards close to their chest, presumably while the respective developers work every hour God sends with the hope of hitting shelves alongside the Wii U, the best date we have for either game is that they'll be out in the "launch window", which, in Nintendo parlance, means anything from November the 30th, alongside the console, to the end of March 2013.
Still, as Meatloaf would have said if he needed a different rhyme, one out of three (and potentially three out of three as the details come out) ain't bad.
(Could still be) correct!
Q5 - Will Nintendo Land come bundled?
Another rather important question for us revolved around the bundle-status of Wii U show-off game, Nintendo Land. Intended to be the Wii U's answer to Wii Sports, in that it helps show exactly what the new console, and controller, are capable of in the most entertaining of ways - via a number of themed minigames - Nintendo Land is arguably one of the most fun-looking games in the Wii U's line-up. If it were bundled, we thought, it'd make Bessie's predicted (and actual) price of £300 seem a lot more reasonable than if we were expected to buy it separately. And so, we put the question to our furry psychic.
The answer? A resounding No. But she was right.
As mentioned earlier in the article, the Wii U will come in three different flavours, and two of those three don't come bundled with Nintendo Land - one instead going for the London-based survival game ZombiU, while the other comes sans any bundled game at all. With only 1/3, or 33% of the available bundles coming with Nintendo Land, and no way for Bessie to explain her cat-like logic (we don't understand her meows and purrs, sadly), it seems that our sooth-saying moggy has done it again. Bessie was right.
Correct!
In total, five questions were asked of Mystic Mog - and all five questions were answered correctly. That's pretty impressive, we're sure you'll agree. While industry analysts get paid tens of thousands of pounds a year, or even get their own internet TV shows to make predictions that often seem more based on guess work than anything, we have an analyst here who's not only right 100% of the time, but also requires nothing in the way of payment - bar a tickle behind the ear and a bit of cat food. OK, a lot of cat food.
If only we'd have listened to her wisdom. When Bessie predicted the Wii U would cost £300, and that (most) variants of the console wouldn't be bundled with Nintendo Land, we wrote her off. We thought she was speaking (or purring) rubbish - there was no way the retailers would price the Wii U at £300, and Nintendo Land, we were sure, would be bundled, in an attempt to recapture the magic of the Wii six years ago. We hadn't even considered the possibility of there being multiple bundles, and that the £300 option would be the one that came with Nintendo Land included. Seemingly, Bessie had.
She may look smug. But she's got the right.
So, while she may seem a bit dense, it seems it's Bessie who's been leading us on all these years after all. She's not a dopey cat, who doesn't understand windows, and bashes her way through a cat flap when it's locked, using only her head - instead, her large, unassuming eyes are portals to a world of information beyond our human comprehension. Like most geniuses, maybe Bessie's just eccentric, rather than daft. Either way, with a 100% correct answer record, we think it's time we made the most of Bessie's psychic gifts. If there's anything you'd like to know about a game, a console, or the games industry in general - something that no-one yet knows - we'll humbly ask Bessie if she'd be willing to take a few seconds out of her very busy schedule, and give us some answers. When we have enough questions, we'll print the results - and maybe even turn it into a regular feature. To submit a question for consideration, either leave a comment below, or send an email to mysticmog{at}outcyders.net.
Outsmarted by a cat. Maybe she should get her own column, too.
