General Nintendo sales/business discussion topic (previously: The Wii U Thread)

[Nintendoga]

Loling at people worrying about the Wii-U being less powerful.

THQ: “WiiU is just alot more powerful than current HD consoles it does 1080p very easy.”

Epic: “It will do things current HD consoles simply cant do its going to be a powerful box.”

Crytek: “WiiU devkits are very powerful,the specs are very good”

Vigil Games: “We had the game at the same level as high end pc version in a matter of days and a few lines of code got the game up and running on tablet in 5 mins.”

EA: “Wii U is not a transitional platform, it is a true next generation system.”

Edited April 4, 2012 by Nintendoga

[Conando]

It kind of should be expected anyway, considering the card it has in it is based off a card that's several generations higher than the PC GPUs the PS3's and 360's GPUs were based on. It's not top of the line but, it's significantly better than what we've had.

[DGam'r]

Most people say it's not going to be good. From the looks of these pics....it seems like it'll make a major breakthrough for Nintendo. Think of the Sonic Games

[Sami]

Why are people comparing it to the PS3 and 360? Being more powerful than the two of those really isn't an accomplishment, considering the hardware in those is incredibly old anyway. We need to wait to see the specs of the next Xbox and PS4 before comparisons are really going to matter.

[TrueBlue]

I just hope that the gap between Nintendo and MS/Sony isn't as huge as this generation. Ninty missed out on a lot of good games this generation due to many developers disliking said gap. I mean I'm not gonna fool myself: the Wii U will probably be home to a lot of the weaker ports of multiplatform games, so I hope the Wii U does have a decent but of punch under the hood.

[Candescence]

The gap won't be nearly as significant. Sony and MS can't really afford to shoot ahead in console power to such lengths like they did from last gen to this one - it'll be "five ninety nine US dollars" all over again.

Besides, if rumors of the "XBox 760" having a couple of AMD 7000 GPUs is actually true, that console's power won't be that much more than the WiiU, anyway, if (the more reliable) reports of the WiiU having decently high-end specs compared to PCs are true. PCs have improved a lot this generation, but good grief, it's not a GIGANTIC leap, and trying to keep on the cutting edge would make a console ludicrously expensive.

The next generation isn't going to look very much better than this one. The WiiU isn't going to get shafted this time, it'll simply have slightly worse-looking games.

Edited April 4, 2012 by Masaru Daimon

[Scar]

At worst, we'll have games that look like Uncharted 3. I'd like to think thats a pretty good baseline.

Even if the neXtBox and PS4 are astronmically more powerful than the Wii U, I think most superficial differences would be hard to spot. A few particle effects and textures. Maybe the draw distance would be affected in some way.

Unlike last gen, I don't think this generation is going to produce an improvement in visuals quite as large as there was between the 6th Gen and the 7th Gen. So if there is a difference, it won't be as noticable.......hopefully.

[Candescence]

Well said, Scar. Polygon counts can still go up, but now that things look much less 'poly' than previous generations, differences won't be THAT great visually; things are slowly hitting a baseline - Crysis 1 and 2 are practically the peak, now, as far as current graphics are concerned even on PC, and incremental change from that won't be very much... Well, unless Euclideon's Unlimited Detail tech turns out to be totally legit, but that's for another topic, and it would pretty much put all three console makers on even footing anyway.

Cutting edge visuals don't matter so much anymore. The Wii and DS already proved as much, and I'd wager it'll be a while before game visuals make a legitimate leap, unless something disrupts the way things are going, and even then, Nintendo might actually catch up anyway by then.

The graphical arms race has been rather detrimental to this industry in a few ways, anyway.

Edited April 4, 2012 by Masaru Daimon

[Dobkeratops]

At worst, we'll have games that look like Uncharted 3. I'd like to think thats a pretty good baseline.

You wish

It's been seven years since last gen and the majority of releases still struggle to match Silent Hill 3's outstanding character models or ZOE2's blazing particles extravaganza. If the next hardware generation were close to current machines, besting this generation's most impressive titles would take talent, money and time - three commodities many studios lack.

i.e.: There's plenty of PS360 games that look worse than Mario Galaxy, despite the massive hardware leap. That is the worst case scenario.

Even if the neXtBox and PS4 are astronmically more powerful than the Wii U, I think most superficial differences would be hard to spot. A few particle effects and textures. Maybe the draw distance would be affected in some way.

Should that unlikely possibility become a reality, I'd bet some vital organs on differences being more than superficial: high stable framerates, image quality or post processing are pretty major factors to consider.

It's what makes people drop four hundred dollars on a goddamn videocard, after all.

edit: i wish i could murder emoticons forever

Edited April 4, 2012 by Dobkeratops

[Conando]

Why are people comparing it to the PS3 and 360? Being more powerful than the two of those really isn't an accomplishment, considering the hardware in those is incredibly old anyway. We need to wait to see the specs of the next Xbox and PS4 before comparisons are really going to matter.

Because that's not going to mean much either. Graphics have hit a brick wall, any real difference between Wii U and those 2 will be negligible, we will never again see a difference like this generation's. I say this because, it would be suicide for Sony and Microsoft to buy out the best GPUs when all it means is resolution TVs don't support and increased frame rate.

Edited April 5, 2012 by Crow T. Robot

[Sami]

I'm not saying it'll matter much; merely that at least there's more to a point in the comparisons for that scenario. Praising the Wii U for besting the PS3 and 360 makes about as much sense as praising the Dreamcast for being better than the PS1 (and even that example is a stretch, considering how much greater the leap in graphical capabilities was for the Dreamcast's over its original competition than the Wii U's).

I fail to see the point in comparing brand new technology to its competitor circa 2005.

[Tornado]

NextBox and PS4 will be targeting 1080p @ 60FPS, plus whatever advances in shaders and physics rendering have happened in the last 5 years and probably all sorts of AA. The Wii U will likely have been designed to target the same 1080p @ 60FPS, but maybe not the latter bits.

As far as what that requires, top of the line equipment it does not. You can do that with an upper-mid-range GPU from 2 years ago, nevermind the crazy shit available today. You don't need 3 GB of VRAM or anything like that to do 1080p @ 60FPS, so we shouldn't expect it.

Edited April 5, 2012 by Tornado

[Patticus]

I don't know if this has appeared here or anywhere else, but I diidn't think it was worth making a new topic fo it. It does, however, make for an interesting aside - an intriguing acquisition by Nintendo:

Hirokazu Yasuhara, the former Sega employee who directed the first four Sonic the Hedgehog games, has taken a job at one-time arch-rival Nintendo.

As reported by Gamasutra, Yasuhara now works at Nintendo NST in Redmond, Washington - the first party US studio responsible for Metroid Prime Hunters and the Mario vs Donkey Kong series among others.

Nintendo has confirmed the news but wouldn't divulge exactly what his new role will entail.

Yasuhara was most recently employed by Namco Bandai, but before that helped design the Jak & Daxter and Uncharted games at Naughty Dog.

Though Yuji Naka famously programmed the early demos for Sega's tentpole franchise and Naoto Ōshima was responsible for the character design, it was Yasuhara who directed Sonic the Hedgehog's 1991 Mega Drive debut, as well as Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles.

He's got a great track record, and could be working on some interesting stuff for the Wii U...

[Tornado]

I don't know if this has appeared here or anywhere else, but I diidn't think it was worth making a new topic fo it. It does, however, make for an interesting aside - an intriguing acquisition by Nintendo:

Er...

?

Edited April 5, 2012 by Tornado

[Conando]

Oh HERP A DERP. When I said "Resolutions TV support", I meant "Resolutions TVs DON'T support". I'll have to remedy that but, yeah. Sorry for the confusion.

[Scar]

I don't know if this has appeared here or anywhere else, but I diidn't think it was worth making a new topic fo it. It does, however, make for an interesting aside - an intriguing acquisition by Nintendo:

He's got a great track record, and could be working on some interesting stuff for the Wii U...

Or he could be doing what he's been doing for a while now, and making spinoffs or Wii/DSi/3DSWare games.

[Thigolf]

Do you guys remember the leaked games list? One of the games was "Pac-Man Battle Royale", which will be most likely a fighter. Why does that matter? Namco-Bandai filed a trademark named "Pac-Man Smash" which sounds like a fighting game as well. This makes the list sound a little bit more real, at least to me. What do you think?

(Source btw)

Edited April 10, 2012 by Thigolf

[Candescence]

And, according to sources within the manufacturing process, the Wii U will be priced at roughly $300.

Makes sense, really - it's mostly in-line with the other HD consoles.

[DGam'r]

Hmm....I dunno if I wanna get this for Christmas bc I was so happy with my Wii, then when Generations came out I was like, "NOOOO!"

[Tornado]

Do you guys remember the leaked games list? One of the games was "Pac-Man Battle Royale", which will be most likely a fighter. Why does that matter? Namco-Bandai filed a trademark named "Pac-Man Smash" which sounds like a fighting game as well. This makes the list sound a little bit more real, at least to me. What do you think?

(Source btw)

We already know what Pac-Man Battle Royale is:

Basically Pac-Man Vs. with a spin on it.

Edited April 10, 2012 by Tornado

[PSI Wind]

And, according to sources within the manufacturing process, the Wii U will be priced at roughly $300.

Makes sense, really - it's mostly in-line with the other HD consoles.

That's also only $50 more than the Wii at launch, which is really good considering how much more powerful this thing is compared to the Wii.

[Thigolf]

That's also only $50 more than the Wii at launch, which is really good considering how much more powerful this thing is compared to the Wii.

Which doesn't mean a lot. We got a five year old console with a special controller for $250 back when the Wii was released and now we could get a five year old console with a special controller for $300. It could be the same thing all over again.

Edited April 10, 2012 by Thigolf

[Candescence]

Which doesn't mean a lot. We got a five year old console with a special controller for $250 back when the Wii was released and now we could get a five year old console with a special controller for $300. It could be the same thing all over again.

I wouldn't use that kind of estimation, because if the more reliable reports are to be believed, the WiiU's hardware, compared to the PC, would probably be a couple of years old at most.

And if all the reports surrounding Sony and Microsoft's "next-gen" systems are true, their specs aren't gonna be much better. There is a very good chance that the next generation gap between their systems and the WiiU isn't going to be much, or, hell, even noticeable, as previously said.

Edited April 10, 2012 by Masaru Daimon

[Dummy Bear]

I remember when the Wii was announced, they were saying about how you wouldn't see much of a difference between Wii and 360 games ...on SD TV's(and even then...).

So yeah, I'm gonna have to see it before I believe it.

[Conando]

Except it's actually true this time. PCs have gotten better at running good looking games but, what they run still doesn't look a huge step ahead of what PS3 and 360 churn out. It's not the same, it will never be the same again.