Ben-DutkaThe Nintendo Wii U is getting a ton of attention after its unveiling at E3 2011, and even the competition has made some observations.
Sony isn’t known for taking jabs and throwing stones, but SCEE president Andrew House had a question that is quite valid, especially considering Nintendo’s targeted demographic. For the record, the Wii U won’t come with multiple controllers (the ones with that nifty touch-screen). Therefore, other players will be stuck with the old WiiMotes, as it seems the main Wii U controller won’t be available separately. So House observed:
"But that means then that the lowest common denominator is going to be a Wii interaction for the vast majority of consumers. What if you’ve got a family of six?"
And isn't Nintendo all about family and multiplayer fun in the living room these days…? As for that well-known bit about Nintendo using PlayStation 3 footage in their presentation of Wii U titles, House only had one thing to say in speaking with GamesIndustry.biz :
"The only thing I’ve got to say is mimicry is the highest form of flattery."
Well, that’s certainly a classy remark; personally, if I had been president of a company that saw our footage stolen to promote a competitor’s product, I’d be freaking out. Big time. But that’s why I could never do that demanding job; it requires a whole lot of tact and political common sense. So good on ya, House.
"But that’s why I could never do that demanding job; it requires a whole lot of tact and political common sense. So good on ya, House."
haha, me too Ben! I have a hard time backing down from a good competitive disagreement! Why, just yesterday I almost got tossed for arguing about how I was safe when I tried to steal 3rd! (I was SO totally safe, by the way!!! The 3rd base ump called me safe then the home plate ump over-ruled him! WTF, MAN!!!! I walked up to the home plate ump and asked him things like if he knew the difference between a foot and a knee, and why we even bother paying for another ump if he's gonna power trip his way into the only way he knows how to make a difference in a sporting event since based on his belly, he'd never get the chance to make a difference as an athlete… yeah… don't know why he didn't toss me, now that I think about it. Nice guy, I guess. lol)
Last edited by Underdog15 on 6/13/2011 2:34:12 PM
Sony is a Class Act company.
'Nuf said.
they can be, but jack trenton has made some really crass comments in the past. almost as bad as when greenburg boasted that halo3 had outsold all of sony's exclusives combined.
sony should keep a close eye on nintendo, but should mainly focus on what ms is doing. that's their biggest competior by far. until nintendo prooves they can get core gamers, they really aren't a threat to sony in the console realm.
Last edited by Excelsior1 on 6/13/2011 3:02:45 PM
Jack isn't that bad with stuff like this, but Aaron Greenburg on the other hand..
What has Jack said that is even close to being on par with the asinine comments that routinely come out of Greenburg's bloated mouth? Where's the proof? Prove Jack has said things "almost as bad a Greenburg" otherwise stop with the slander.
Indeed Jawk, I personally never seen Jack say anything bad.
slander is verbal, writing it is libel
jack called the 3ds nothing more than a baby sitting tool, and said no self respecting 20 yr old would be cuaght dead with one. pretty arrogant comments on his part, and almost greeburg like.
if you can find a ps3 that's been sitting on store shelves more than 5 minutes i'll give you $1200 bucks is another famous arrogant qoute of his. not nearly as bad as the first one but showed arrogance and a real aloofness to actual situation on the ground regarding ps3's at the time. they weren't selling.
I understand his reaction, he probably realizes that the WiiU is a more powerful device than the PS3, but still they use PS3 gameplay to showcase what it is capable to do. It's almost as if Nintendo says that the PS3 produces comparable graphics to a next (8th) generation console. That is flattering indeed.
We haven't seen anything yet to validate it will be more powerful and have the same graphics, I have doubts it will in my opinion, this direction doesn't seem good for Nintendo to grab the Hardcore gamers.
Last edited by Clamedeus on 6/13/2011 2:58:28 PM
I agree with Clamedeus. Without specs no one really knows how powerful the Wii U will be. However, if the console can truly run full 1080P with the graphics of the PS3 and Xbox 360 then it would have to be powerful.
I think it's safe to assume that the Wii U will enjoy only some, but not all, technical advantages over PS3.
For one, I doubt Nintendo will implement a media disk on par with a BD, let alone a HDD for mass storage.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 6/13/2011 3:32:06 PM
Temjin, the disk will be a gimped BluRay without movie playback – rather like their DVD based systems were gimped DVDs.
Last edited by TheHighlander on 6/13/2011 3:44:02 PM
It doesn't matter if will be more powerful, no hardcore gamer would want to play with those crappy ass controllers, IMO.
I'd consider myself a core gamer and I would play games with the Wii U controller.
Nothing about the WiiU has me even remotely interested in it… I think i'll stick to my PS3 thank you
the analyst in me says this. If Nintendo used PS3 and 360 footage from third parties as representative of what to expect from WiiHD – as has been stated. Then Nintendo really only expect to catch up with PS3 & 360, rather than exceed them. In which case, why bother?
if they don't surpass them i won't bother. i do have a strong feeling it will be more powerful and enjoy some advantages over the ps3.
"In which case, why bother?"
Because this Nintendo fan would like to see Link and Samus in 1080p HD.
I have some doubts about that Excelsior, I heard this same thing with the Wii before it released. "The Wii is going to be more powerful than the PS3 and the 360." But where did that happen? The direction it's going in isn't helping it's case.
Who told you that Clamedeus? Who ever did was making stuff up because I heard it right out of Miyamoto's mouth that he wasn't trying to surpass the Ps3 or 360 with the Wii. Graphics and processing power wasn't his goal. Old fashioned family fun was his goal. One they achieved.
It was on the Internet, and a bunch of people where I live that was getting the Wii, a friend of mine heard it from someone as well. I'm not sure who the person was or what position he's in either. It was every where around here.
Yea….I won't call them liars but they had their info wrong. Nintendo never said such a thing. I remember very well too because I was more excited about the Wii than the PS3($600 price tag turned me off initially) and followed the news closely leading up to it's announcement.
Very wrong about the info, I've even called them out on it, they didn't believe me until it actually released. But something about this Wii U doesn't seem right. Why go this direction if they are supposedly going for the Hardcore?
Maybe later they will go for them? I'm not sure, if they were going for the hardcore straight out of the gate this doesn't make sense, maybe something else is being hidden or being saved for last.
Not sure. I think it remains to be seen what impact this will have once it's released. I know this core gamer is excited for it. I think PorkChopGamer brought up a nice point about how this could work pretty well with games like L.A. Noire. I can already imagine how this will impact games like Zelda. The two games on DS are two of my favorite Zelda games of all time and half the reason is because of how they incorporated the stylus with in puzzle solving and combat. One example I can think of, no more opening a menu to look at your dungeon maps. They can be on the screen.
Also, the U is just the controller right? They do have some new hardware on the way don't they to accompany it? I didn't get to watch their whole presentation. Just the preview video showing all the clips. So I am ignorant to that info.
Last edited by Jawknee on 6/13/2011 11:16:20 PM
Jawk, I don't know if they did show a console, all I seen was the controller tablet thing, didn't watch much of it though, I wasn't interested about it, Maybe when they release some stuff that will pique my interest a bit more I'll probably get one.
No Jawknee nintendo didn't show the console at all. It was a little white box under the TV that was never pointed to or shown and all HD clips were either put together just for show or were compiled of PS3/360 footage. All tech demo's where cutesy little mini games. So you'll have to wait for TGS or next E3 to hear any real news on the console. The whole show for N was about the 3DS and the Tablet controller.
Last edited by Sancho on 6/14/2011 6:38:41 AM
Well Reggie didn't get nasty or do any heavy slick talk when asked about his thoughts on Sony Move taking a page from the Wii so…
That's because Move doesn't take a page from Wii, or a chapter, or a verse or anything.
Highlander's right. Completely different tech. Aside from that, each tech got to where they are via completely different routes. The only thing they have in common is having to move your arms around.
Kinect on the other hand…
I think the Wii U looks pretty cool. I don't think it'll beat the ps3 by any means. It seems to me that it's a different machine all together. One that is targeting a different audience. What audience??? Not really sure yet. They kind of pulled a microsoft and said "We want to target the the Core audience but look at what this cute little camera can do!!!" LOL. I guess it's a wait and see for me. I love nintendo and still really enjoy their first party games immensely. Plus it's something that my kids can play when they get a little older. I just needs the great games. Those my friend will define the Wii U. Hope they created something awesome… I guess we'll see.
Looking at the controller, it will make a great steering wheel with the right attachment. Maybe they will use the same footage as the PS3 and PSP to show the second screen as the rear view mirror:)
Last edited by vicious54 on 6/13/2011 4:11:38 PM
I think the 3rd party devs deserve some blame in this too.
But Nintendo should've been smart enough to include a small "ps3/360 footage" text in the corner of those vids. Better than getting caught after.
Still it also shows that aside from 3rd party ports the Wii U doesn't have much else…
there is an article on cvg stating the wii u is at least 50% more powerful than the ps3/360. developers are apparently surprised at the power they are dealing with.
The problem with that is the same problem PS3 faces with 360, if Wii I is the most powerful it still will only get identical experiences with multiplats. There won't be many 3rd party exclusives if any, and the 1st party games don't aim for advancement in any category. Mario, Zelda, Metroid, they will all pretty much stay the same no matter the hardware. Don't forget the demographic they are after.
The rated speed of the CPU in the WiiU – according to the rumored specification/configuration is approximately on par with the CellBE. The GPU is about 3 times faster in terms of floating point operations. Since 90% of multi-platform developers don't do much with the SPUs and therefore depend on a single dual issue PowerPC core and the RSX to do their heavy lifting, it's not surprising that they'd find a quad core (each core is dual issue) combined with a modern GPU to be faster. What's surprising is that they assess it as being only 50% more powerful than the PS3 – after 6 years (by the time the WiiU launches)
Also, 150% means next to nothing in terms of computation. It's well within the margin of efficient vs. inefficient programming.
Last edited by Fane1024 on 6/13/2011 10:08:39 PM
@Highlander
If that is all Nintendo needs to do to the hardware so that third-party developers can make games that, with relative ease, output at 1080p and 60fps, does Nintendo really need their hardware to do much more?
Simcoe, I never said it did have to do more. If you read my comments on the WiiU, you'll see I've consistently pointed out that it will be faster than PS3 or 360. That's not in doubt.
My problems with Nintendo and their WiiU have nothing to do with the apparent specification. My problems include the name, the controller and the near complete absence of the WiiU from it's own unveiling – even including the showing of representative view from other consoles.
My comment was more of a discussion in response to your hardware spec. comment and especially "What's surprising is that they assess it as being only 50% more powerful than the PS3 – after 6 years".
What I was getting at is how much more powerful than a PS3 does the Wii U hardware need to be. I have no doubts that it would only take hardware 50% more powerful than the PS3 to achieve a system where developers could easily push out content at 1080p and 60fps.
With regards to the second part of your comment, I too also think they should have put more time in to the name. I happen to think the controller is interesting and can see uses for it in many games (ie. as a map for sandbox and driving games), ultimately it will be developers who think up ways to use it just like Sony has been with the Move. Finally, I wouldn't be surprised (since it's still more than a year away) that there are some aspects of the main hardware that haven't been finalized yet including, but not limited to the design of the case. I do remember the PS3 having somethings changed between E3 2005 and E3 2006.
Well, once you're rendering at 1080p, you're kind of in the best position – resolution wise. But of course you can always add more effects and more filtering and anti-aliasing for increased visual fidelity. So, although there is probably an upper limit somewhere, I don't think we're in danger of hitting it just yet. In other words, even with the WiiU being more powerful than the PS3, it's still viable to add more power – and use it.
Last edited by TheHighlander on 6/14/2011 4:40:49 PM
Ninty plans to counter this by releasing a lot of games that have one player require the single working gigantic controller and the others use the wiimote. I just don't see it working out though. Most family time gaming kind of petered out and collected dust.
Think of the fights that will break out when children play it. They are all going to want to use that WiiU controller.
My god… I shudder to think what if my two nephews had that…
"The only thing I’ve got to say is mimicry is the highest form of flattery."
LOL! Reggie from Nintendo said the same thing about Sony when they announced Move. So I guess they're even.
Lol Jawk…
Q!
"play.experience.enjoy"
Trouble is, Move doesn't imitate the Wii.
It does when it comes to FPS's. And it doesn't even do it as well as Metroid Prime.
No, it doesn't 'imitate' Wii in any way. Sorry Jawknee, but technologically speaking, the Move and the Wii are poles apart, the only 'imitation' is in the eye of the beholder.
It does. Have you played Killzone 3 with Move and Metroid Prime on the Wii? It's the exact same idea and concept only Metroid controls a lot better.
I think the Move is great and I don't believe Sony ripped Nintendo off but you can't say they aren't similar concepts only the Move is more advance in a lot more ways.
Last edited by Jawknee on 6/13/2011 11:19:36 PM
To be fair, Sony dabbled in motion gaming first about a decade ago. If tech doesn't matter, then…