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[EviLore]

Nintendo should release a special partially complete version of the Wii U at a discount, with a fun retro-looking slot on top, that allows you to take one of your old, discarded featurephones from 2004 out of the closet and plug it in to become the system's CPU.

 

[RM8]

You would think WiiU being underpowered and potentially neglected for most multi-platform releases would bother the people who were planning to go WiiU-only this generation. But it infuriates people who don't even want one in the first place.

 

[metalslimer]

You would think WiiU being underpowered and potentially neglected for more multi-platform releases would bother the people who were planning to go WiiU-only this generation. But it infuriates people who don't even want one in the first place.

I think what people are actually scared of is this strategy actually being successful and proving Nintendo to be right. I can see why people wouldn't want that strategy to succeed but it is interesting to watch and so will next year.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

You would think WiiU being underpowered and potentially neglected for most multi-platform releases would bother the people who were planning to go WiiU-only this generation. But it infuriates people who don't even want one in the first place.

Because people interested on the subject were wary enough to wait for the specs, now that we know we can critizice Nintendo lies on the subject.

The other ones never cared in the first place. So they were ineterested on the console although some of them are performing a few gymnastics to try to assure themselves taht they will got 3rd party support despite the specs.

 

[Osiris]

Nintendo should release a special partially complete version of the Wii U at a discount, with a fun retro-looking slot on top, that allows you to take one of your old, discarded featurephones from 2004 out of the closet and plug it in to become the system's CPU.

Well, those old featurephones do have a more responsive OS

 

[mclem]

Nintendo should release a special partially complete version of the Wii U at a discount, with a fun retro-looking slot on top, that allows you to take one of your old, discarded featurephones from 2004 out of the closet and plug it in to become the system's CPU.

Doesn't even need to supply the GamePad, just use the phone's screen!

 

[ASIS]

You would think WiiU being underpowered and potentially neglected for most multi-platform releases would bother the people who were planning to go WiiU-only this generation. But it infuriates people who don't even want one in the first place.

Have you ever wondered why?

 

[Jacobi]

I definetly don't consider a Golf accesible to anyone...not when there are more feasible alternatives in the market that would reflect way better Nintendo strategy.

More like a Dacia

 

[Horse Armour]

Nintendo should release a special partially complete version of the Wii U at a discount, with a fun retro-looking slot on top, that allows you to take one of your old, discarded featurephones from 2004 out of the closet and plug it in to become the system's CPU.

A feature phone from 2004 would be selling the Wii U CPU too high. *A joke, in case it wasn't obvious*

 

[Kenka]

Nintendo should release a special partially complete version of the Wii U at a discount, with a fun retro-looking slot on top, that allows you to take one of your old, discarded featurephones from 2004 out of the closet and plug it in to become the system's CPU.

Well, the PS3 could cook steaks so why not.
By the way, Sony thought of transfering the computing power of all your Sony devices in to their gaming system. Reggie spoke briefly about it in 2004.

 

[Opus Angelorum]

A feature phone from 2004 would be selling the Wii U CPU too high.

Damn.

 

[thirty]

Maybe because that's what it was designed to be?

Bs. It was designed to keep people from buying their kids tablets. If you could use the gamepad totally independent of the WiiU then it would compete with tablets. As of now its just a toy. And yeah you could argue that consoles are toys but if you wanna go that route then don't even mention apple as a competitor.

 

[xxbrothawizxx63]

I'm still trying to figure out how ubisoft managed to get Assassins Creed 3 running as well as it did on something that seems to be significantly less powerful than its peers.

I always thought that game was heavily CPU limited

Honestly, ACIII is the only reason I still blame devs for underperforming games. With a CPU this shitty it really isn't surprising that ports from two consoles who rely on their CPUs as much as they do on their GPUs without significant work would run worse.

We can only hope Nintendo modified the GPU to handle DX11 equivalent compute shader functions or else the system will remain handicapped. I guess we'll see when next gen development begins. Supposedly, a next gen game is now running on Wii U that was previously thought to not have been possible so hopefully that is reflective of my hopes for the console.

 

[Kazuma Kiryu]

Well, those old featurephones do have a more responsive OS

god, the os in the wiiU is just so fucking slow, it's kind of annoying.

 

[Xdrive05]

Ok this isn't really relevant to the thread but I've seen it mentioned a few times in relation to CPU power. Why the hell would Skyrim be particularly CPU demanding? I haven't played it, but it seems close enough to oblivion or morrowind. A slow paced rpg with a handful of enemies/npcs at most active at once, with little other dynamic objects and awful animations (ok not really relevant, but I just can't mention the series without commenting on the animations). Other than a massive streaming world there doesn't seem to be anything particularly impressive from a technical point of view.

Well, supposedly there is some regularly occurring inefficient coding... something to do with carriage returns or extra unnecessary lines, or maybe it was the way it was compiled. Can't remember the specifics... No disrespect to SteveMeister if he coded on this game.

There was a fan made patch for the PC version that cleaned this up and resulted in some 20% better performance on CPU bound machines, especially in cities. At the time I was on AMD so the patch made a big difference. Not sure if the official updates/patches ever addressed this.

 

[Anustart]

Probably already mentioned, but obligatory good thing it can fall back on the eDRAM!

 

[radioheadrule83]

That remains to be seen. I would say it's a red ocean filled with the blood of Apple's conquered.

dat blood of Apple's conquered

Samsung shares

Android hitting 75% marketshare for Q3

 

[SmokyDave]

Nintendo should release a special partially complete version of the Wii U at a discount, with a fun retro-looking slot on top, that allows you to take one of your old, discarded featurephones from 2004 out of the closet and plug it in to become the system's CPU.

I actually have a Nokia 6630 from 2004 in my draw next to me. I'd be up for this.

 

[Lambtron]

A feature phone from 2004 would be selling the Wii U CPU too high.

Good lord.

 

[metalslimer]

Good lord.

It's hyperbole.

 

[Horse Armour]

It's hyperbole.

It is, I thought that was obvious. The Wii U CPU destroys a 2004 feature phone, doesn't mean it isn't massively disappointing though.

 

[Lambtron]

It's hyperbole.

I'm aware. As are most reactions about the Wii U's system power from folks on both sides of the argument.

 

[Kenka]

This is a good thread to test your sarcasm-meter.

 

[lherre]

Exactly this. Trying to present this (or the RAM bandwidth for that matter) as something everyone "expected" is completely surreal to anyone who followed the pre-release speculation. As you say, "on par" was once considered blasphemous, and now it's being used in some of the components' defense.

This is why I make both questions before.

 

[Mastperf]

I see "on par" is now what was expected all along despite the majority opinion in the speculation thread saying otherwise. They also speculated that PS4/720 ports would be no problem. I'm eager to see if their Pachter-level prediction ratio improves.

 

[darkistheway]

You answer that question yourself: because Nintendo talked about third parties and Wii U, and implied that getting them on board is an important goal for them (compared to Wii).

Oh, I get it. I just don't really understand why people believed that Nintendo would alter their stated strategies to cater to the (seemingly) fickle third parties.

That remains to be seen. I would say it's a red ocean filled with the blood of Apple's conquered.

Haha, you may be right. My feeling is that Apple doesn't really own the living room. we will see. Personally, I think the tablet/smartphone market and videogame console markets are not mutually exclusive.

 

[Linkhero1]

Homebrew!!! Here we come

 

[PhoenixDark]

It's hyperbole.

Not by much

I don't see how this will work in terms of next gen ports/multi console.

 

[Drinky Crow]

I definetly don't consider a Golf accesible to anyone...not when there are more feasible alternatives in the market that would reflect way better Nintendo strategy.

specifically, the kia soul

 

[metalslimer]

Not by much

I don't see how this will work in terms of next gen ports/multi console.

Yes, by much. Might as well claim it's as weaker than the PS2 CPU.

 

[shinra-bansho]

dat blood of Apple's conquered

Samsung shares

Android hitting 75% marketshare for Q3

Substitute Android for Apple if you like. The resultant point is the same.

A touchscreen controller doesn't strike one as "disruptive" and "blue ocean" it seems much more reactionary/following the leader.

 

[prag16]

It may be easier to get good utilization out of the Wii U architecture that way, but better utilization alone won't gap a 5x+ performance difference.

True, but diminishing returns say hello. Those expecting another PS2 -> PS3 sized jump are still setting themselves up for massive disappointment.

 

[Tagg9]

Homebrew!!! Here we come

May be a little early for that. I think Nintendo did indeed learn a lesson with the DS/Wii (as demonstrated by the 3DS's multiple security checks) so I'd be very surprised if homebrew and subsequently piracy are on their way right now.

 

[beast786]

You would think WiiU being underpowered and potentially neglected for most multi-platform releases would bother the people who were planning to go WiiU-only this generation. But it infuriates people who don't even want one in the first place.

I own wii U and this news infuriates me. Its not just 3rd party to benefit from more powerful system but also Nintendo themselves.

Why anyone who owns a wiiu wont be bother by this baffles me.

 

[Plinko]

I see "on par" is now what was expected all along despite the majority opinion in the speculation thread saying otherwise. They also speculated that PS4/720 ports would be no problem. I'm eager to see if their Pachter-level prediction ratio improves.

For posters who keep bashing the WUST thread and the expectations, I'll say this again:

How can you blame ANYONE in those threads for expecting a CPU less than today's standards? It's illogical. Unfortunately, Nintendo went with the illogical method.

Just don't bash the people who actually expected something logical to happen. It's asinine.

 

[QaaQer]

I own wii U and this news infuriates me. Its not just 3rd party to benefit from more powerful system but also Nintendo themselves.

Why anyone who owns a wiiu wont be bother by this baffles me.

love is blind.

 

[Plinko]

I own wii U and this news infuriates me. Its not just 3rd party to benefit from more powerful system but also Nintendo themselves.

Why anyone who owns a wiiu wont be bother by this baffles me.

I own a Wii U and I'm not bothered by this very much...because I already planned on getting at least one of the other two consoles.

Do I get HD versions of Nintendo games? Yes.

Do I have the system that will play the next iteration of Nintendo series? Yes.

Do I now have a system that my 5-year old son and I can play together regularly with him actually being able to control it pretty well? Yes.

I'll get my sports/racing/adventure games I like on the other, higher-powered consoles.

But let's not keep pretending that people buy Nintendo consoles for anything other than Nintendo's IPs.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

Just for the fuck of it, whats the rough estimate of what these parts would cost?

Made a few modification for some out of production parts, and some slight upgrades for the better/realistic solution:

CPU: 3.2GHz Triple Core AMD Athlon II X3 450 - $65
GPU: XFX Radeon HD 6570 GPU with 1GBs of VRAM - $45
Motherboard: BIOSTAR A780L3B Micro ATX - $45
RAM: 2GB of Kingston DDR3 - $10
Power Supply: Athena Power 400W PSU - $20
Hard Drive: 250GB WD Caviar Blue 7200RPM - $50

TOTAL: $235

Add a cheap $15 case and you got yourself one of the best budget gaming PC!

 

[Horse Armour]

For posters who keep bashing the WUST thread and the expectations, I'll say this again:

How can you blame ANYONE in those threads for expecting a CPU less than today's standards? It's illogical. Unfortunately, Nintendo went with the illogical method.

Just don't bash the people who actually expected something logical to happen. It's asinine.

A lot of people in those threads *cough, BGassassin, cough* tried to shut down those who said it was possible by saying they had 'sources' and getting the rest of the thread to gang up on them so you can't blame those people for being a little bit salty when they were treated that way and ended up right.

 

[polyh3dron]

Well I guess this explains the framerate hiccups even while playing YouTube video or even trying to navigate the Hulu Plus or YouTube UIs

 

[Fried Food]

Welp, nintendo can forget about getting my credit card number.

 

[Jackben]

Nintendo should release a special partially complete version of the Wii U at a discount, with a fun retro-looking slot on top, that allows you to take one of your old, discarded featurephones from 2004 out of the closet and plug it in to become the system's CPU.

.

 

[LeleSocho]

I own wii U and this news infuriates me.

uuuuh why you bought the wiiu without being sure what was inside then?

 

[Absinthe]

It's pretty bad. Somewhat significantly worse than either the PS3 or 360. :\

https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/274182672652308480

 

[RM8]

I own wii U and this news infuriates me. Its not just 3rd party to benefit from more powerful system but also Nintendo themselves.

Why anyone who owns a wiiu wont be bother by this baffles me.

Fair enough. I don't want one, but I always assumed this was going to be roughly a PS360 system with an added tablet-controller, so I guess expectations play a big role.

 

[metalslimer]

A lot of people in those threads *cough, BGassassin, cough* tried to shut down those who said it was possible by saying they had 'sources' and getting the rest of the thread to gang up on them so you can't blame those people for being a little bit salty when they were treated that way and ended up right.

Let this be a lesson to future technical discussion then.

 

[Ryoku]

I assume we don't know the IPC yet :/

 

[boiled goose]

The only thing I don't understand behind this decision is this:

Nintendo has been stating all along that the WiiU was aimed at recapturing the core market by making it an attractive system for third party developers.

The CPU has been giving many devs issues (with current gen ports!!)

There seems to be a clear mismatch of what Iwata said about the goals of the system and what they actually delivered.

Sure companies say crap all the time, but this was about the vision for the console, not just a simple PR statement.

 

[Drinky Crow]

the problem is that y'all keep expecting rational behavior from nintendo, even after the wii -- which was a total engineering and API clusterfuck on top of being underpowered. we saw, what, three games that started to approach its theoretical abilities -- smg, smg2, and skyward sword -- and all from nintendo? the rest were by-and-large ps2-grade efforts. why do you expect different from the wii u? even that zelda demo is doable on a 360, albeit with lower fidelity shadowing.

nintendo makes great games in SPITE of their absurd hardware priorities. third parties -- well, how much do they enjoy martyrdom?

 

[beast786]

But let's not keep pretending that people buy Nintendo consoles for anything other than Nintendo's IPs.

I am also not pretending that Nintendo games cant benefit from more powerful system either. Its amazing to see people accept the fact that its OK because Nintendo games don't need it.

Bullshit.