[RUMOUR]Wii U Less Powerful than PS3 or 360

Otacon

Article [GamesIndustry International]

Sources say that Nintendo's new console is not even equal to the current generation

Nintendo's upcoming Wii U console may generate full HD graphics, but it's not up to the graphics power of the Xbox 360 or the PS3, according to developers familiar with the hardware who spoke on a condition of anonymity to GamesIndustry International.

"No, it's not up to the same level as the PS3 or the 360," said one developer who's been working with the Wii U. What does that mean? "The graphics are just not as powerful," reiterated the source.

This developer is not alone in their opinion. Another developer at a major company confirmed this point of view. "Yeah, that's true. It doesn't produce graphics as well as the PS3 or the 360," said the source. "There aren't as many shaders, it's not as capable. Sure, some things are better, mostly as a result of it being a more modern design. But overall the Wii U just can't quite keep up."

This would be very disappointing if true. While I was not expecting a powerhouse from Nintendo, it did expect it to at least beat 6-year old technology.

Myrddin

Looking at the [rumoured] specs, the Wii U is past its sell by date before it's even arrived. Specs don't speak for everything though, the real test will be how effective its control system is.

Brilliant/intuitive controls & immersive games > highly polished rubbish

RedXIV

Anyone else getting a bad vibe from the Wii U?

Don't get me wrong, I think Nintendo have done fantastic work with just about every console they released but I've never been more meh about a console pre-release. Perhaps I'm getting old and cynical but can't shake the feeling of impending disappointment here

Princess Peach

Don't care. When can I put my deposit down???!!!

Otacon

EnterNow wrote: »

Brilliant/intuitive controls & immersive games > highly polished rubbish

While I would agree with that, how many families and grandparents and young kids are going to see the tablet-controller and think 'that's for me!'?

I would be hesitant to say this is a mis-step from Nintendo after the success of the Wii and DS, but this may be a mis-step.

Myrddin

Otacon wrote: »

While I would agree with that, how many families and grandparents and young kids are going to see the tablet-controller and think 'that's for me!'?

I would be hesitant to say this is a mis-step from Nintendo after the success of the Wii and DS, but this may be a mis-step.

I don't think anyone yet is saying "Thats for me!", that's my point. It'll depend less on its technical specs & more on how effective its controls are.

If they're aiming it at families, grandparents & young kids...I'll be passing on it anyway

The Zelda tech demo is nice, I'd like a lot less shovelware for the system too.

Nollog

EnterNow wrote: »

I'd like a lot less shovelware for the system too.

Why, do you feel compelled to buy bad games?
How does the ability to buy horrible games effect your ability to play good ones?

Myrddin

/\/ollog wrote: »

Why, do you feel compelled to buy bad games?
How does the ability to buy horrible games effect your ability to play good ones?

Wow, someone who likes shovelware

Edit - To answer your question, it'd be nice to see retailers stocking a higher proportion of quality, core titles, as opposed to Feed My Beetle 2, Pony Antics, Jewel Master 23, etc etc. The shelves just seem to be riddled with Wii titles a primary school teacher would consider basic.

For the Wii U, I'd prefer to have a better balance of thrash to quality.

RedXIV

EnterNow wrote: »

Wow, someone who likes shovelware

Not a fan, but have seen how much crap nintendo are selling. Gotta remember, the wii has been promoted by pretty much every game store as the best console for kids and as such, the amount of shovelware skyrocketed. And not for no reason, it sells like crazy (at least it did when I worked for nintendo)

readyletsgo

Old old news people (about 3 days old)!

We have all seen the tech demo of Zelda and other stuff.
Ninty will NOT release another weak system as this time round they are trying to get the so called 'hardcore' crowd.

Just wait till E3 for christ sake.

Princess Peach

EnterNow wrote: »

I don't think anyone yet is saying "Thats for me!", that's my point. It'll depend less on its technical specs & more on how effective its controls are.

If they're aiming it at families, grandparents & young kids...I'll be passing on it anyway

The Zelda tech demo is nice, I'd like a lot less shovelware for the system too.

I'm saying its for me!

I am Nintendo's key consumer. A moron who couldn't care less about specs. It has a screen on the controller and it's Nintendo brand. I will be buying.

Myrddin

Princess Peach wrote: »

I'm saying its for me!

I am Nintendo's key consumer. A moron who couldn't care less about specs. It has a screen on the controller and it's Nintendo brand. I will be buying.

Retr0gamer would love you!

I'm not biased by specs either, but if the controls are clunky & cumbersome given the size of the tablet, I'd be really disappointed. If however, it's refined & intuitive, I'd find that more appealing than a highly specced system with mediocre games.

Nollog

EnterNow wrote: »

Wow, someone who likes shovelware

Edit - To answer your question, it'd be nice to see retailers stocking a higher proportion of quality, core titles, as opposed to Feed My Beetle 2, Pony Antics, Jewel Master 23, etc etc. The shelves just seem to be riddled with Wii titles a primary school teacher would consider basic.

For the Wii U, I'd prefer to have a better balance of thrash to quality.

You could ask at the counter for games like madworld, conduit, batilion wars, epic mickey, day of crisis, no more heroes etc.
I tried to stay away from first party games but day of crisis is so overlooked.
The games on the shelves are the ones that sell well, gamers are a minority, compared to children.

Myrddin

/\/ollog wrote: »

You could ask at the counter for games like madworld, conduit, batilion wars, epic mickey, day of crisis, no more heroes etc.
I tried to stay away from first party games but day of crisis is so overlooked.
The games on the shelves are the ones that sell well, gamers are a minority, compared to children.

There is no way in hell I'm asking someone for Epic Mickey

Well yeah the games on the shelves are the ones that make the stores money, & tend to be targeted mainstream rubbish. However, all I'm saying is it'd be nice to have a better balance on the shelves. Surely your not denying that the Wii is swamped with crap, & crap is all you can usually find on the shelves?

Princess Peach

EnterNow wrote: »

Retr0gamer would love you!

I'm not biased by specs either, but if the controls are clunky & cumbersome given the size of the tablet, I'd be really disappointed. If however, it's refined & intuitive, I'd find that more appealing than a highly specced system with mediocre games.

I kinda have faith in the hardware side of Nintendo in that respect. I do think the tablet controller will be very easy to use when it is released. I know they upgraded the wii remotes to motion plus but the style of it hasn't changed cause it was fairly perfect to use.

There's some smart fellows working there I feel.

Star Lord

EnterNow wrote: »

Retr0gamer would love you!

I'm not biased by specs either, but if the controls are clunky & cumbersome given the size of the tablet, I'd be really disappointed. If however, it's refined & intuitive, I'd find that more appealing than a highly specced system with mediocre games.

The specs won't swing it for me either. If I'm so inclined, I can update my PC hardware and beat any of the consoles. Nintendo haven't taken any controller mis-steps so far (I've never played the Virtual Boy...), quite the opposite, their controllers tend to be better than those of the competition. I've no doubt I'll have my money in for a pre-order as soon as we hear more.

Star Lord

EnterNow wrote: »

There is no way in hell I'm asking someone for Epic Mickey

Then just grab it with both hands and tell them you want it bad...

Or maybe not... :pac:

Nollog

EnterNow wrote: »

There is no way in hell I'm asking someone for Epic Mickey

Well yeah the games on the shelves are the ones that make the stores money, & tend to be targeted mainstream rubbish. However, all I'm saying is it'd be nice to have a better balance on the shelves. Surely your not denying that the Wii is swamped with crap, & crap is all you can usually find on the shelves?

Every console has crap. I got fed up with people thinking the Wii is alone in that about 5 years ago.
There being a lot of crap you don't want to buy doesn't stop you buying what you want.

I don't like cauliflower, but that doesn't stop me buying biscuits.

Myrddin

DamoElDiablo wrote: »

(I've never played the Virtual Boy...)

Actually, the VB has a damned good controller. It's implementation though was wasted

DamoElDiablo wrote: »

Then just grab it with both hands and tell them you want it bad...

Or maybe not... :pac:

Lol, definitely not

Myrddin

/\/ollog wrote: »

Every console has crap. I got fed up with people thinking the Wii is alone in that about 5 years ago.
There being a lot of crap you don't want to buy doesn't stop you buying what you want.

I don't like cauliflower, but that doesn't stop me buying biscuits.

That's not what I was hinting at though. I was perusing the 360 catalogue in GAME there before it closed, my god there's some rubbish out there. PS3 the same.

It's hard to find biscuits when there's so much damned cauliflower taking up all the space

Nollog

EnterNow wrote: »

That's not what I was hinting at though. I was perusing the 360 catalogue in GAME there before it closed, my god there's some rubbish out there. PS3 the same.

It's hard to find biscuits when there's so much damned cauliflower taking up all the space

Nintendo can't pay gamestop to put good games on display, that's illegal here.

Myrddin

/\/ollog wrote: »

Nintendo can't pay gamestop to put good games on display, that's illegal here.

Yeah, because that was my point :rolleyes: I never said Nintendo are the only ones who can/could make good game either.

richymcdermott

terrible article , from sources anonymous ? , funny cause developers like crytek and thq with darksiders and gearbox have all said wii u is impressive and as powerful as current gen systems

http://www.zeldainformer.com/2011/09/wii-u-developer-quote-of-the-day-thq-on-power-and-graphics.html

http://www.technobuffalo.com/gaming/platform-gaming/epic-games-vp-will-be-shocked-if-wii-u-not-a-success/

http://hearmiii.blogspot.ca/2011/09/according-to-crytek-wii-u-is-very.html

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/06/07/could-project-caf-233-be-the-best-platform-for-darksiders-ii.aspx

http://www.gigwise.com/news/65744/Wii-U-Not-A-Transitional-Platform-EA-Boss-Says

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/06/gabe-newell-and-valve-interested-in-the-wii-u/

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/04/funcom_wii_u_could_do_mmos_without_compromise

theres enough articles out their from developers themselves prove different

and even if it was as princess peach says , ya know what your getting with nintendo console , brilliant games so allow me to laugh at loud at this article :pac::pac:

Otacon

richymcdermott wrote: »

terrible article , from sources anonymous ? , funny cause developers like crytek and thq with darksiders and gearbox have all said wii u is impressive and as powerful as current gen systems

As I put in the title, this is just a rumour.

However, the released specs are not overly impressive and of course companies are going to say its great when on the record. They want to actually sell games on the system.

richymcdermott

Otacon wrote: »

As I put in the title, this is just a rumour.

However, the released specs are not overly impressive and of course companies are going to say its great when on the record. They want to actually sell games on the system.

Oh no im not saying about you just the article itself

Nollog

EnterNow wrote: »

Yeah, because that was my point :rolleyes: I never said Nintendo are the only ones who can/could make good game either.

They're not the only console manufacturers that have shovelware on their console platform either.
And look at the 360 and PS3's spec sheet.

Star Lord

Otacon wrote: »

As I put in the title, this is just a rumour.

However, the released specs are not overly impressive and of course companies are going to say its great when on the record. They want to actually sell games on the system.

They also want to actually sell games on the other platforms, so why would the Darksiders II devs (for example) say that the Wii-U version could prove to be the definitive one?

Myrddin

EnterNow wrote: »

That's not what I was hinting at though. I was perusing the 360 catalogue in GAME there before it closed, my god there's some rubbish out there. PS3 the same.

It's hard to find biscuits when there's so much damned cauliflower taking up all the space

/\/ollog wrote: »

They're not the only console manufacturers that have shovelware on their console platform either.
And look at the 360 and PS3's spec sheet.

Are you reading before posting?

Sparks43

I'm waiting for E3 before i decide what to do.


If Ninty were to announce a brand new Retro Boulder Dash i'd preorder in a shot

Nollog

EnterNow wrote: »

Are you reading before posting?

Yupp.
But as I said, I got tired of the "hardcore" saying everything on Wii is shovelware 5 years ago.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/342718/wii-u-games-look-just-as-good-as-ps3-but-its-still-not-as-capable
This one, I believe.
The rumours about the CPU have always been pretty grounded.
It's rumoured clock speed will be around the 360's and since IBM merged the Cell(360 and PS3 use this series) and Power(Nintendo usually use these) series together a few years back, the architecture is pretty similar among them.

Myrddin

/\/ollog wrote: »

Yupp.
But as I said, I got tired of the "hardcore" saying everything on Wii is shovelware 5 years ago.

I must be missing something, I can't see that said here?

Anyway

Nollog

EnterNow wrote: »

I must be missing something, I can't see that said here?

Anyway

/\/ollog wrote: »

Every console has crap. I got fed up with people thinking the Wii is alone in that about 5 years ago.
There being a lot of crap you don't want to buy doesn't stop you buying what you want.

I don't like cauliflower, but that doesn't stop me buying biscuits.

Every comment about shovelware is annoying to me now, that's why I replied.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/342718/wii-u-games-look-just-as-good-as-ps3-but-its-still-not-as-capable
This one, I believe.
The rumours about the CPU have always been pretty grounded.
It's rumoured clock speed will be around the 360's and since IBM merged the Cell(360 and PS3 use this series) and Power(Nintendo usually use these) series together a few years back, the architecture is pretty similar among them.

Myrddin

/\/ollog wrote: »

Every comment about shovelware is annoying to me now, that's why I replied.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/342718/wii-u-games-look-just-as-good-as-ps3-but-its-still-not-as-capable
This one, I believe.
The rumours about the CPU have always been pretty grounded.
It's rumoured clock speed will be around the 360's and since IBM merged the Cell(360 and PS3 use this series) and Power(Nintendo usually use these) series together a few years back, the architecture is pretty similar among them.

I never said the Wii is alone in having bad games, far from it. As I said, the recent sale in GAME had some corkers of bad games for all systems. Nevertheless, I still think the Wii has a higher ratio of rubbish to quality over the other systems. And that was my original point, I'd love to see the balance a bit more even for the Wii U. Be it less rubbish, or even more quality titles.

Simply my opinion, I wasn't saying it to troll or annoy you. But again, I never said the Wii is alone in having a lot of shovelware so don't make it out like I did

Interesting link btw, a falloff in number crunching as opposed to graphical prowess.

Retr0gamer

/\/ollog wrote: »

Every comment about shovelware is annoying to me now, that's why I replied.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/342718/wii-u-games-look-just-as-good-as-ps3-but-its-still-not-as-capable
This one, I believe.
The rumours about the CPU have always been pretty grounded.
It's rumoured clock speed will be around the 360's and since IBM merged the Cell(360 and PS3 use this series) and Power(Nintendo usually use these) series together a few years back, the architecture is pretty similar among them.

That article seems to be the most believable one. In terms of CPU power, to be honest the CPU really isn't as important as other factors like the GPU and RAM. If they can beat the 360 and PS3 in those areas it will match or better than. A better GPU and good architecture will after all take the workload off the CPU.

As for the Cell and Power PC architecture being combined, that didn't happen, the Cell processor line and development of cell processors ceased a while ago.

Nollog

Oh I didn't mean to make it look like you were saying wii is all shovelware and 360 is for pros.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

That article seems to be the most believable one. In terms of CPU power, to be honest the CPU really isn't as important as other factors like the GPU and RAM. If they can beat the 360 and PS3 in those areas it will match or better than. A better GPU and good architecture will after all take the workload off the CPU.

Indeed!
Also, insiders at neogaf are talking about ARM cpu's in the controllers, and another chip handling sound, etc. etc.
It looks like there's going to be small chips to handle very specialised stuff to take the load off the CPU, meaning if the CPU is a 1:1 copy of the 360, and has all those extra little chips, there'll be more room in the CPU for the game code.
If anything, it should be interesting.
Still, everything's still just a rumour right now.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

As for the Cell and Power PC architecture being combined, that didn't happen, the Cell processor line and development of cell processors ceased a while ago.

They merged them, they said they did.
I dunno what that entails, maybe they just took on the staff from the cell project.

Myrddin

/\/ollog wrote: »

Oh I didn't mean to make it look like you were saying wii is all shovelware and 360 is for pros.

Ah grand, I thought you were one of those people who would argue all night rather than admit being wrong

Nollog

EnterNow wrote: »

Ah grand, I thought you were one of those people who would argue all night rather than admit being wrong

HOW DARE YOU! :pac:

CiDeRmAn

The Wii wound up suffering from mini-game shovel ware, but there were plenty of great titles in there to warrant picking the console up.
From a collectors point of view, in five years time, when the markets are flooded with preowned Wii games, it'll be a fantastic, with the determined game fan able to pick up a dream selection of Wii games for shag all.
Of course, this doesn't help the fact that the machine became the definition for casual gaming amongst the great unwashed.

The WiiU's power, well, we should be wise enough not to sucked into some childish specs comparison, lets wait until the E3 when we'll see some actual software and hear some unguarded comments from developers throughout the industry.
The new console is, more than likely, going to suffer in some sort of specs comparison with the new offerings from MS and Sony, but this is not where the Ninty experience is born, no it is from the games on offer, and that is why it is the console I will have under the tree this Xmas!
As a Ninty fanboy I will probably by horse crap with a Ninty logo on it!

Star Lord

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

As a Ninty fanboy I will probably by horse crap with a Ninty logo on it!

So, I'm not the only one looking forward to the party game title for the launch:

Wii-crap-on-U

Retr0gamer

/\/ollog wrote: »

They merged them, they said they did.
I dunno what that entails, maybe they just took on the staff from the cell project.

The only articles I saw said that all further Cell development had stopped.

mangsta

Wii U Will Be More Powerful Than Current Consoles But The Gap Will Be Similar (But Not As Apparent) To The Next Generation Of Sony And Microsoft Consoles (Who, Themselves, Will Not Take As Long A Jump As They Have Taken More Than Half A Decade Ago)

Banjo

mangsta wrote: »

Wii U Will Be More Powerful Than Current Consoles But The Gap Will Be Similar (But Not As Apparent) To The Next Generation Of Sony And Microsoft Consoles (Who, Themselves, Will Not Take As Long A Jump As They Have Taken More Than Half A Decade Ago)

Based on.....?

Though that makes sense, given Sony's roughly 10 year plan for the ps3 versus the 3-5year plan we all assumed Nintendo had for the Wii. If memory serves, the point of the Wii was always to be cheap to build and therefore less traumatic to replace while always staying profitable

Mr E

$300 rumoured launch price... (which will probably mean €300 here!)

http://ie.wii.ign.com/articles/122/1222560p1.html

CiDeRmAn

I have to say, I'm not sure if improvements in graphical power are going to be terribly noticeable on the next-gen consoles.
And, due to that, I'm not sure that Nintendo have to shoot that high to be a must have.
If the Wii-U can be that bit more powerful than the PS3 I'll be made up!
I mean, I don't think the PS3, as it stands, has been pushed, certainly not creatively at least, with the "games by committee" award going to Sony in 2012, yet again.

Given the well trod dev path for current gen consoles, it'll be cheaper and quicker to develop for the WiiU than for the brand new silicon of the fresh consoles from Sony and MS.
Hopefully that'll spur on third parties to produce for the new Ninty machine.

Lets hope "Barbies Adventures in mini-game land" isn't amongst the launch games....

richymcdermott

I wanna see hyrule more life like ,

What we seen that zelda demo last year was brilliant

Nintendo art games have being great so with more power i love to be greater scale and really bring games to a whole other world im looking at you

Mario
Metroid
Zelda

Hope they bring more xenoblade , last story and pandora tower

Retr0gamer

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I have to say, I'm not sure if improvements in graphical power are going to be terribly noticeable on the next-gen consoles.

Good point. I have been following Digital Foundry quite a bit and they often talk about how amazing games like BF3 and the Witcher 2 are graphically on a top end PC. However when I see the videos they don't exactly look like a generational leap, they just have minor improvements. Next Gen technology will be based on current PC graphical trends but currently outside of hardware tesselation there really isn't that big of difference between current gen and top end PC. There's no push at the moment to make PC GPU cards any better than DX11.

richymcdermott wrote: »

I wanna see hyrule more life like

Why? People went mad about wind waker not being lifelike and yet it's one of the most beautiful games ever made. I'd much rather a more stylistic approach. Videogames as a medium allows the creation and exploration of amazing and imaginative worlds, why the hell do we need things closer to boring reality?

richymcdermott wrote: »

Hope they bring more xenoblade , last story and pandora tower

Nintendo owns Monolith so hopefully there's more RPG's from them. They started shaky with Xenogears but have since become a great RPG maker with Xenoblade being far and away the best RPG since Persona 4.

Nollog

Banjo wrote: »

Based on.....?

Though that makes sense, given Sony's roughly 10 year plan for the ps3 versus the 3-5year plan we all assumed Nintendo had for the Wii. If memory serves, the point of the Wii was always to be cheap to build and therefore less traumatic to replace while always staying profitable

This
And this:

Mr.Saturn

readyletsgo wrote: »

Old old news people (about 3 days old)!

We have all seen the tech demo of Zelda and other stuff.
Ninty will NOT release another weak system as this time round they are trying to get the so called 'hardcore' crowd.

Just wait till E3 for christ sake.

They went for the 'core crowd with the Gamecube, look how well that went down with Joe Gamer.

Nollog

It's my personal opinion that Nintendo don't need superduper specs to get real gamer's interested, they need an online system, and ramming home the idea that games should be played for fun, rather than calling other people racist things over an internet connection.