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Nintendo: Wii U Is Not a "Brute Force" Console [Writer speculation]

Nintendo Admits: Wii U Will Not Compete Against PlayStation 4, Xbox Next
[01/31/2012 08:50 PM]
by Anton Shilov

Nintendo has admitted that while its forthcoming Wii U game console will support high-definition graphics and will be rather powerful, it will not be able to compete with the next-generation systems from Microsoft Corp. or Sony Corp. in terms of performance as they will be ultra-powerful. Instead, Nintendo calls its approach balanced as it features both improvements and exclusive technologies.

"There are a variety of different ways to show the unique appeal of software. What’s important here is not to narrow down what we can do. Rather, we have to create the dynamic range of appeals that the consumers can appreciate. We decided to make a proposal of an additional screen into the Wii U controller because developers could think of a variety of different possibilities here and there of using both a big TV screen and a screen in a player’s hand," said Satoru Iwata, the president of Nintendo, during a conference call with investors.



Nintendo's approach with the original Wii was similar: to make a unique game system that would be not directly competing with more powerful devices by companies with a lot more financial and other resources. Nintendo did succeed in that, but had to sacrifice product cycle comparable to PlayStation and Xbox as well as the market of hardcore games. With Wii U, Nintendo hopes to regain core gamers thanks to improved performance and slightly different approach of work with game designers that is projected to yield into higher amount of titles for the new console. What Nintendo clearly did not want to do was to create a competitor for the next breed of systems: PlayStation 4 and Xbox Loop.



"We are aiming to make a system which shall not be forced into competing with the others where the contenders can fight only with massive developer resources and long development times as their weapons. Having said that, however, as I mentioned, it is true that, in some software areas, we need to be engaged in the power games. Take The Legend of Zelda franchise, for example, the fans must be looking for the graphic representations that they do not see as cheap at all when the title is released for the Wii U," added Mr. Iwata.

A third-party game developer has confirmed that Nintendo's approach for working with third-parties has changed dramatically. Apparently, Nintendo is constantly adjusting firmware and hardware of Wii U in accordance with demands from game designers.

"They asked us what we would want from the hardware, and when we give them feedback we can see that they have definitely listened and making changes. The hardware is still changing constantly," said Yosuke Hayashi from Team Ninja, in an interview with Eurogamer web-site.


http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multim...tendo_Wii_U_Is_Not_a_Brute_Force_Console.html
 
Nintendo has admitted that while its forthcoming Wii U game console will support high-definition graphics and will be rather powerful, it will not be able to compete with the next-generation systems from Microsoft Corp. or Sony Corp. in terms of performance as they will be ultra-powerful.

Reading comprehension fail.
 
I don't see where they are getting Nintendo's admittance that the Wii U won't be able to compete graphically, just that it has a focus other than graphics, which has been obvious for a while now.
 
No to big a deal. Zelda WiiU graphics work just fine and I'm really interested in the use of the touchpad in games.

Hopefully it doesn't turn out to be another Wii though. I never got it because it sucked.
 
It doesn't have to be either. Even if its 2x more powerful then the current HD systems, you will see impressive looking games on it. I just hope they don't skimp on the RAM.
 
Uh...this website just took some stuff Iwata said in the investor meeting and then did some invention / editorializing to make it sound like something else.

By the way, even though the headline is:

Nintendo: Wii U Is Not a "Brute Force" Console

with "Brute Force" in quotes it's not an actual quote from Nintendo that appears in the article.
 
Well, that still doesn't really say anything considering we don't really know what MS or Sony will do. Also, we haven't seen the guts of the Wii U either. Everything's still up in the air.
 
Wait a minute, what are they basing this on. That's not Iwata said in the Investor Q&A.

"We are aiming to make a system which shall not be forced into competing with the others where the contenders can fight only with massive developer resources and long development times as their weapons. Having said that, however, as I mentioned, it is true that, in some software areas, we need to be engaged in the power games. Take The Legend of Zelda franchise, for example, the fans must be looking for the graphic representations that they do not see as cheap at all when the title is released for the Wii U," added Mr. Iwata.
The context of this quote for instance was rather saying that the WiiU shouldn't only have blockbuster games with huge budgets, but should also be able to support cheap and low-cost games. I think he brought up the Rhythm Tengoku franchise as an example of such a low-cost game. What Nintendo wants is a versatile and flexible market (like PC perhaps?).
 
News at 11.

Nintendo's probably also overestimating the next Xbox and PS4, but that hardly matters anyway.

EDIT: It's probably also good to see what Iwata has said and what seems to be inferred in this article.
 
Not surprised. Nintendo is going to try for another megahit with Wii U. I don't doubt they will get people to commit again with the tablet design but what's going to be interesting to see is how well they go after the hardcore group again. Nintendo needs third party support and after the investors meeting where they said they plan on announcing partnerships with people they never have done business with before, I'm thinking Nintendo is going in the right direction.
 
Uh...this website just took some stuff Iwata said in the investor meeting and then did some invention / editorializing to make it sound like something else.
Yup, I agree. Also, I've never heard of this website before.

"Ultra-powerful" lol.
 
Looking at the software for home console systems, there are certainly the software titles for which very rich graphics must be reproduced on HD displays and which demand a large number of developers to spend a very long time to develop. It is one of the truths that a certain number of such software titles must be prepared, or the consumers will not be satisfied. But we do not think that any and all the software must be created in that fashion. When you look at Nintendo’s software, extraordinary rich graphics, massive gameplay volume and astonishing rendition effects are not necessarily the appealing point. It is, in fact, important for us that our games are appealing in other ways as well. An example of this is the Wii software, "RHYTHM HEAVEN FEVER," that we released last year in Japan. It became one of the hits, but if we had adopted rich photo-realistic graphics, it would have lost much of its appeal rather than improving its appeal. Similarly, about the Japanese title "Tomodachi Collection" for Nintendo DS, the developers themselves confirmed that this software is based upon the "cheap concept." It is not necessary for us to deploy a huge number of people in order to develop such games. When we need massive power and have a lack of internal resources, we collaborate with outside resources and pour necessary resources to where they are needed. We are increasing the frequency of working with outside developers where Mr. Miyamoto and our internal developers alone used to develop. At the same time, however, we do not forget to ask ourselves in each such opportunity, "Isn’t this something our internal resources alone could sufficiently deal with?" Also, when we have such a doubt in the development as, "Will such cheap pictures do in terms of today’s home console graphics’ standard?," sometimes we conclude that "showing such pictures are unique and rather appealing, so it’s OK." So, there are a variety of different ways to show the unique appeal of software. What’s important here is not to narrow down what we can do. Rather, we have to create the dynamic range of appeals that the consumers can appreciate. We decided to make a proposal of an additional screen into the Wii U controller because developers could think of a variety of different possibilities here and there of using both a big TV screen and a screen in a player’s hand. As we will showcase the Wii U at E3 in June this year, the detailed announcements must wait until then, but we are aiming to make a system which shall not be forced into competing with the others where the contenders can fight only with massive developer resources and long development times as their weapons. Having said that, however, as I mentioned, it is true that, in some software areas, we need to be engaged in the power games. Take The Legend of Zelda franchise, for example, the fans must be looking for the graphic representations that they do not see as cheap at all when the title is released for the Wii U. When it is necessary, we do not hesitate to role out our resources.

Full Iwata quote. Not saying anything like what the 'journalists' are trying to make it say.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/120127qa/04.html
 
But where does Iwata say that?
There's not a quote to see what he actually said.

They apparently got it from this.

"We are aiming to make a system which shall not be forced into competing with the others where the contenders can fight only with massive developer resources and long development times as their weapons. Having said that, however, as I mentioned, it is true that, in some software areas, we need to be engaged in the power games. Take The Legend of Zelda franchise, for example, the fans must be looking for the graphic representations that they do not see as cheap at all when the title is released for the Wii U"
 
Damn.

You expect it and yet you can't help but feel crushing disappointment.

Cutting edge graphics Zelda and Metroid hope deeeeesssstroyed.
 
i don't get it, they listen to game designers... but you're damn sure gonna get requests like this: "gimme more processing power" "gimme more RAM".


Every day I hear programmers say:"we're gonna have an issue with the RAM" Ram is damn expensive, so I'm pretty sure they don't listen to every requests.
 
I wonder how many more complete misinterpretations of the Investor Q&A we're going to get...
Iwata said:
Follow-up articles were created one after another on the Internet. Before we knew it, articles containing completely different messages from Mr. Miyamoto’s original message were circulated, which once again reminded us how scary the Internet can be.
.
 
Quote is about the software, not the hardware

Sounds like he is saying that their first party games are not all going to have a ton of resources behind them but some will.
 
Uh...this website just took some stuff Iwata said in the investor meeting and then did some invention / editorializing to make it sound like something else.

Exactly.

I think when all is said and done, we'll find out very shortly that Wii-U(name subject to change) is actually pretty powerful.
 
This FUCKING company will never learn...

So you want Nintendo to crash and burn if the Wii U fails to sell and they lose tons of money on it? More than they do with the 3DS? Look, 3:rd party devs didn't care for either the N64 or gC. What makes you think they will start to care now?
 
No surprise here, we already know that.
That's said, it's the whole point of next generation and maybe what will cause sony and MS problems. Things will be very different from what they were with the Wii.

Wii U is doing HD, and even without being "ultra powerfull", Nintendo is going to drastically reduce the power gap with its competitors. I don't think most of the people (and me) will see the difference between RE6 Wii U and RE6 720 (randomly bad example). Remember "the people" is not GAF. And this will particularly true if multi-support games are based on the Wii U hardware to better fetch the 3 systems at once.
 
I'm trying to find the logic behind these conclusions and can't find any. All their Iwata quotes just tell us that Nintendo doesn't count on power solely to compet in the future but are ready to enter into the graphical HD struggle depending the game.
 
Yet another article where the writer completely misinterprets a statement.

These are becoming too frequent.
 
but can it play

rkZBy.png
?
 
Not surprised. Nintendo is going to try for another megahit with Wii U. I don't doubt they will get people to commit again with the tablet design but what's going to be interesting to see is how well they go after the hardcore group again. Nintendo needs third party support and after the investors meeting where they said they plan on announcing partnerships with people they never have done business with before, I'm thinking Nintendo is going in the right direction.

I'm sure they'll get ports of 360/ps3 games until the next consoles come out. After that, who knows?
 
As long as games can look like the Garden and Zelda demos, I think that's enough. However, I do want some games running at 1080p 60fps with 'great' graphics. I cannot wait to see what SEGA, Retro and EAD Tokyo does with Wii U.
 
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