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Wii U Community Thread
- Thread starter Metroid Hunter
- Start date
- Status
The USB 2 spec details 4.75-5.25V for a maximum of 500mA per port, so your wattage per port should be no greater than 2.625W (to err on the safe side).
There is also the Kinect port, which has different power needs (not necessarily the full 12W specified by the external adapter).
Shin Johnpv
Member
So I just got back from NYC a little bit ago and got to play the Wii-U. Surprisingly the 5 - 7 time slot really wasn't very crowded at all, and I got to try out a bunch of titles and even got a long time with some of them. I have to say I'm even more excited for the Wii-U now. I knew I was going to get one, but now it's like OK the fucker needs to release tomorrow so I can play some more!
Just some comments on the Wii-U pad before the games. It was WAY WAY lighter than I expected it to be. I was actually really surprised how light it was. I was also surprised by just how crisp and bright the screen was. Not quite retina display, but still really nice and sharp. Colors were great on it. I don't know if it's just using motion sensing, or if there are small ir camera's on the sides of the Wii-U controller but you can turn it side was and aim at the screen with it.
New Super Mario Bros U - So this one I got A LOT of time with. They had two stations for this, and one of them was in like a room that no one seemed to notice. So I got to play each of the 3 levels with a full allotment of 5 people. Controls are spot on, as you would expect from the NSMB line, and the graphics were really nice. While it's the same NSMB style we've seen before, it was super crisp, bright, and very sharp and detailed. Who ever that pixel counter was that claimed it had no AA, they were so damn wrong. After playing all 3 levels I went out to try some other stuff. Then there was a moment when they were doing some competition thing on Wii-Fit U so I went back to the NSMBU room and had the game all to myself. This time I got to play using the Wii-U pad, and to confirm with the pad you don't have to use motion controls. If you press the left trigger it's the same as doing the motion controls with the Wii controllers.
Wario and Game - For this I played the Arrow game of it. Which you turn the Wii-U pad side ways to aim the arrows and draw your finger across the screen to shoot them. This was actually a lot of fun, and the aiming on it worked really well. Better than the Ninja game in Nintendo land, but more on that later. At one point I let the little Warios get close to me and they appear on the pad screen and you have to do a stomp the ant kind of little thing. It was fun, I thought it was a nice integration.
Zombi-U - This was my only annoyance during the whole thing, and it wasn't the game's fault. So the person ahead of me in line for this game got a good 15 - 20 minutes with the game, and the person standing there helping folks just let him go and do his thing with it. When it came to be my turn, things were a little different. I start going, and kill like 2/3 zombies with the hand gun, and then the guy basically manhandles the controller and forces me to equip the cricket racket or something like that, in an area where I'm surrounded by like 4 - 6 Zombies. Needless to say I was dead in no time, to which it now wasn't my turn any more..........So I waited 20 minutes to get to play for just shy of 3, thanks line guy. Anyway from the little bit I played, and more I watched of it, the game seems fun. It's all in real time so to speak, so if you're trying to loot a Zombie, or checking your inventory, other Zombies are all running around still and coming for you. The use of the Wii-U pad seemed interesting, and I was kind of on the fence with the title before but I think I'll get it at launch.
Luigi's Ghost House (mansion? forget what it was called) - This was pretty cool, and a lot of fun. I got to play like 3 rounds of it. I played two rounds as the folks with flashlights, and a round as the Ghost. The round with as the Ghost I took all 4 other people down in like less then a minute. This felt like an awesome party game. Playing as the regular people and, yelling out ohh I felt the ghost over here, or there in the lightning you can see him, was actually pretty fun. I could totally see this being a fun party game. Actually a lot of the Nintendo Land stuff I played felt that way.
Zelda Battle Something (sorry I totally forgot the names of the mini games) - So in this one, it's 3 players with 2 players acting as Swordsmen, and 1 player with the Wii-U pad acting as a bowman. I got to play this one twice, once as a swordsman and then once again as a bowman. I really liked the bowman part. This was the first time I got to use the umm looking at the Wii-u pad screen and aiming with it style game play. I was actually surprised how well it worked, and I don't think I looked at the main tv screen at all during that time.
Ninja Something - This was the only single player game from Nintendo Land I played. Similar to the Wario one, you turn the Wii-U pad side ways and flick over the touch screen to throw throwing stars, and you turn/tilt the wii-u pad to aim. For some reason this felt, almost TOO sensitive to me. I almost think it would have felt/worked better if I was sitting down, because then I would be resting my hand holding the Wii-U pad in my lap, and there would be far far less tiny little movements. I'm guessing the Wario game is being less precise and not using every tiny movement, the way this one is. I mean just every tiny little motion was read in my aiming. It was ok, but it was a little frustrating in how accurate it was. Like I said, maybe if I was sitting down and therefor had far less little movements for it to read I would have liked this better.
Rayman Legends - There isn't much to say. It played like Rayman Origins and looked absolutely beautiful on the screen. The two player stuff seemed interesting, it was a real team work kind of thing. Like with the person having the pad able to tell you, or this invisible ledge has spikes, but this one doesn't so jump to this one sort of thing.
Pikmin 3 - I only watched folks play this one, because 1 I'm a bad Pikmin player, and 2 the line was kind of long at the time. Looked good, and I think fans of the series are going to really dig it. It seemed like people had no problem with the controls, and visually it looked pretty nice.
P-100 - This is another one I only watched, again because the line for this was always HUGE. It looked a lot more fun in person than the trailer made it out to be. This has gone from a hmmm maybe to an almost definite for me.
I'd just like to add a comment on Nintendo Land in general. I really, REALLY hope that Nintendo is smart and makes this a pack in. My experience with Nintendo Land echos Wii Sports in eerie ways. During both of their E3's when they were shown I was totally Meh to them. Watched half a trailer and called it a day. Then at pre-launch events where I got to play both of them, I became totally sucked in and had crazy amounts of fun with them. Both are easily party games, specially drinking party games. I really think Nintendo has a possible chance of lightning striking twice with Nintendo Land. I just hope they're smart and get it into enough people's hands in a social setting like they did with Wii Sports.
Also sorry Ghahiggidy (spelling?) I didn't see any power bricks left out to take pictures of.
Ohh I also noticed that there were just as many black Wii-Us as there were white ones, hopefully black will be a launch color!
This also took way longer to type up than I thought it would.
Just some comments on the Wii-U pad before the games. It was WAY WAY lighter than I expected it to be. I was actually really surprised how light it was. I was also surprised by just how crisp and bright the screen was. Not quite retina display, but still really nice and sharp. Colors were great on it. I don't know if it's just using motion sensing, or if there are small ir camera's on the sides of the Wii-U controller but you can turn it side was and aim at the screen with it.
New Super Mario Bros U - So this one I got A LOT of time with. They had two stations for this, and one of them was in like a room that no one seemed to notice. So I got to play each of the 3 levels with a full allotment of 5 people. Controls are spot on, as you would expect from the NSMB line, and the graphics were really nice. While it's the same NSMB style we've seen before, it was super crisp, bright, and very sharp and detailed. Who ever that pixel counter was that claimed it had no AA, they were so damn wrong. After playing all 3 levels I went out to try some other stuff. Then there was a moment when they were doing some competition thing on Wii-Fit U so I went back to the NSMBU room and had the game all to myself. This time I got to play using the Wii-U pad, and to confirm with the pad you don't have to use motion controls. If you press the left trigger it's the same as doing the motion controls with the Wii controllers.
Wario and Game - For this I played the Arrow game of it. Which you turn the Wii-U pad side ways to aim the arrows and draw your finger across the screen to shoot them. This was actually a lot of fun, and the aiming on it worked really well. Better than the Ninja game in Nintendo land, but more on that later. At one point I let the little Warios get close to me and they appear on the pad screen and you have to do a stomp the ant kind of little thing. It was fun, I thought it was a nice integration.
Zombi-U - This was my only annoyance during the whole thing, and it wasn't the game's fault. So the person ahead of me in line for this game got a good 15 - 20 minutes with the game, and the person standing there helping folks just let him go and do his thing with it. When it came to be my turn, things were a little different. I start going, and kill like 2/3 zombies with the hand gun, and then the guy basically manhandles the controller and forces me to equip the cricket racket or something like that, in an area where I'm surrounded by like 4 - 6 Zombies. Needless to say I was dead in no time, to which it now wasn't my turn any more..........So I waited 20 minutes to get to play for just shy of 3, thanks line guy. Anyway from the little bit I played, and more I watched of it, the game seems fun. It's all in real time so to speak, so if you're trying to loot a Zombie, or checking your inventory, other Zombies are all running around still and coming for you. The use of the Wii-U pad seemed interesting, and I was kind of on the fence with the title before but I think I'll get it at launch.
Luigi's Ghost House (mansion? forget what it was called) - This was pretty cool, and a lot of fun. I got to play like 3 rounds of it. I played two rounds as the folks with flashlights, and a round as the Ghost. The round with as the Ghost I took all 4 other people down in like less then a minute. This felt like an awesome party game. Playing as the regular people and, yelling out ohh I felt the ghost over here, or there in the lightning you can see him, was actually pretty fun. I could totally see this being a fun party game. Actually a lot of the Nintendo Land stuff I played felt that way.
Zelda Battle Something (sorry I totally forgot the names of the mini games) - So in this one, it's 3 players with 2 players acting as Swordsmen, and 1 player with the Wii-U pad acting as a bowman. I got to play this one twice, once as a swordsman and then once again as a bowman. I really liked the bowman part. This was the first time I got to use the umm looking at the Wii-u pad screen and aiming with it style game play. I was actually surprised how well it worked, and I don't think I looked at the main tv screen at all during that time.
Ninja Something - This was the only single player game from Nintendo Land I played. Similar to the Wario one, you turn the Wii-U pad side ways and flick over the touch screen to throw throwing stars, and you turn/tilt the wii-u pad to aim. For some reason this felt, almost TOO sensitive to me. I almost think it would have felt/worked better if I was sitting down, because then I would be resting my hand holding the Wii-U pad in my lap, and there would be far far less tiny little movements. I'm guessing the Wario game is being less precise and not using every tiny movement, the way this one is. I mean just every tiny little motion was read in my aiming. It was ok, but it was a little frustrating in how accurate it was. Like I said, maybe if I was sitting down and therefor had far less little movements for it to read I would have liked this better.
Rayman Legends - There isn't much to say. It played like Rayman Origins and looked absolutely beautiful on the screen. The two player stuff seemed interesting, it was a real team work kind of thing. Like with the person having the pad able to tell you, or this invisible ledge has spikes, but this one doesn't so jump to this one sort of thing.
Pikmin 3 - I only watched folks play this one, because 1 I'm a bad Pikmin player, and 2 the line was kind of long at the time. Looked good, and I think fans of the series are going to really dig it. It seemed like people had no problem with the controls, and visually it looked pretty nice.
P-100 - This is another one I only watched, again because the line for this was always HUGE. It looked a lot more fun in person than the trailer made it out to be. This has gone from a hmmm maybe to an almost definite for me.
I'd just like to add a comment on Nintendo Land in general. I really, REALLY hope that Nintendo is smart and makes this a pack in. My experience with Nintendo Land echos Wii Sports in eerie ways. During both of their E3's when they were shown I was totally Meh to them. Watched half a trailer and called it a day. Then at pre-launch events where I got to play both of them, I became totally sucked in and had crazy amounts of fun with them. Both are easily party games, specially drinking party games. I really think Nintendo has a possible chance of lightning striking twice with Nintendo Land. I just hope they're smart and get it into enough people's hands in a social setting like they did with Wii Sports.
Also sorry Ghahiggidy (spelling?) I didn't see any power bricks left out to take pictures of.
Ohh I also noticed that there were just as many black Wii-Us as there were white ones, hopefully black will be a launch color!
This also took way longer to type up than I thought it would.
Shin Johnpv
Member
I don't care what IGN said, the bolded two barely looked better than upressed Xbox games for the most part. There was a spot here and there that Kameo stood out slightly, but for the most part Conkers Bad Fur Day looked just as good.
JordanN
Banned
Yeah, that's not true. In fact, I believe Rare actually showed what Kameo would of looked like on Xbox and compared it the the 360 build.
As for PDZ, it was using parallax maps and HDR not possible on the previous gen.
The above Kameo screenshot seems hard to believe honestly, here's what Conker Live and Reloaded! looked like.
Yeah, that's not true. In fact, I believe Rare actually showed what Kameo would of looked like on Xbox and compared it the the 360 build.
As for PDZ, it was using parallax maps and HDR not possible on the previous gen.
Is that a legit picture? (left side), the GameCube version looked much better and I know the Xbox could do much better than that.
^Thoughts so.
bgassassin
Member
You're twisting my posts through this whole post.
First I never said they would have a 75-100W system. I said I believe the case can handle up 100W and that the max they would go with is probably 80W. You asked me that directly so you should know that.
How can you say it's not a given when middleware providers are saying otherwise? And of course I'm focused on the GPU side because that's the most important part right now. And I've said something similar in that Wii U getting ports will depend on developer (publisher) effort
No, you don't have proof. And I don't claim them as fact. I use "ifs" and "IMOs" as much as possible. And I give reasons as to why it's possible. People will tell you even when I passed along things I heard I didn't say them in a matter-of-fact manner.
Selective reading is what you are doing. You take what fits your view and write-off or ignore anything that says otherwise. It's what you are doing in this section as well. I've never said they were dropping the early specs. I said it only shows the base architecture. I don't even know where you got that from.
My points are fine because I don't treat them as absolutes so I'm far from being on a last point. You on the other hand treat your two(?) points as absolutes and as total confirmation of everything to know about the console when others say and show otherwise. If anyone is grasping to a last point it's you with the case size.
Faber College
Banned
Dude, its pretty low to come on Nintendo thread and bash the very good-looking Pikmin 3 cos it doesnt live up to your geeky expectations. Whats your agenda, boy?
Honestly, to me those games still looked obviously superior to anything on PS2 or the original Xbox. Still a far cry from what we're playing now, but also a far cry from last gen. Same goes for Kameo and Project Gotham 3.
With the Wii U at E3 we really didn't see much from Nintendo themselves that demanded high-end graphics. Pikmin 3 compared to Pikmin 2 was about the only first party thing that showed an obvious leap. This is part of the reason why I'm waiting to see the next 3D Mario and whatever Retro has cooking. I still think Galaxy is one of the most impressive-looking console games right now.
shinra-bansho
Member
RE: Wii lifespan, I don't think they anticipated such a steep rise (outpacing PS2) but similarly when that occurred, they didnt expect such a rapid fall. They seem to lack readiness for this product launch, imo.
Thunder Monkey
Banned
It just looks like Rare BSed a bit and acted like it would have ended up much uglier than it would have realistically.
Conker seriously looked great on the Xbox. Kameo was beautiful on the 360, but I'd seen Rare do something almost as good looking on the Xbox.
medicalmidget
Banned
Finally got registered. Now I can start posting instead of lurking, haha.
Anyways, anyone get the feeling that even if the Wii U did like 500,000 sales in the first twelve days people would still be screaming "LOL NINTENDOOMED!!!"? Looking at Wikipedia (not the most reliable source I know) and CNN on the Wii sales back in 2006, it supposedly did 600,000 within the first eight days of launch. Sure it's a 100,000 sales less than the Wii, with the inclusion of more days on sale, but I just have a feeling that unless it eclipses the Wii by like double, people are going to claim doom and gloom. We'll see though.
Also after watching a bunch more videos on Nintendoland, I am starting to think that it will be a lot better than Wii Sports. Honestly, the only games in Wii Sports that I played regularly were Tennis and Bowling. With Nintendoland I see myself playing way more than I once previously thought.
Anyways, anyone get the feeling that even if the Wii U did like 500,000 sales in the first twelve days people would still be screaming "LOL NINTENDOOMED!!!"? Looking at Wikipedia (not the most reliable source I know) and CNN on the Wii sales back in 2006, it supposedly did 600,000 within the first eight days of launch. Sure it's a 100,000 sales less than the Wii, with the inclusion of more days on sale, but I just have a feeling that unless it eclipses the Wii by like double, people are going to claim doom and gloom. We'll see though.
Also after watching a bunch more videos on Nintendoland, I am starting to think that it will be a lot better than Wii Sports. Honestly, the only games in Wii Sports that I played regularly were Tennis and Bowling. With Nintendoland I see myself playing way more than I once previously thought.
Congrats on finally getting in (today is my first day too).
People would still say the Wii U is doomed even if it sold 100 billion consoles at launch lol.
medicalmidget
Banned
Thanks, and congrats to you as well.
About the sales issue, yeah people are going to bash Nintendo no matter how good they do. But speaking of sales, how much you guys expecting it to sell within, say, a week?
I'm putting my money on 350,000 units if priced at $350, 415,000 units at $300, and I'll predict high for the last one, 510,000 if priced at $250. I estimated way too high for the 3DS (think I thought like 4 million total within a week). As for Nintendo's first fiscal year, Ubisoft says 6 million, I'm going with 5.2 million by end of March. Hopefully Nintendo proves me wrong though.
For the U.S., 360 launched in November 2005 with 326K amidst sellouts and tard-pack hullabaloo, for reference.
Huh I don't think I ever watched a gameplay video of Lair before now...was it basically Rogue Squadron with dragons?
medicalmidget
Banned
Good point, totally forgot about the 360 launch. Well, I'll stick with my numbers for now. 2005/2006 are not 2012, consumers' taste change, so it'll be interesting to see if Nintendo can woo over the Apple crowd (doubt somewhat because no multi-touch). And didn't the GameCube do like 195,000 or something (going by memory)? I'm just comparing the Wii U to previously released Nintendo consoles right now.
medicalmidget
Banned
Well the Wii U is all the hype right now. New console in a couple months and surely games Nintendo has kept secret from us, not surprised to see other members and I storm this thread. Though I do have to agree that it is interesting.
GC did 500k first week according to this: http://news.cnet.com/2100-1040-276374.html
Then Wii 600k as you said.
Obviously it means Wii U is headed for 700k.
medicalmidget
Banned
Ah, well I should have clarified for the GameCube, I was thinking 195k on first day sales, I probably was thinking 350,000 first week sales. Anyways, Wii U going for 700k, don't know about that, but lets hope. I'll probably push my sales for Wii U up to 620,000 if the hype is there by the price announcement ($250 it'll have to be).
people really should drop this already.. it won't happen.
as underpowered as the Wii was, it was priced at $250
the Wii U Gamepad alone will be reason enough to price it higher and I'm not just talking about a few bucks
they're both underpowered consoles with gimmick controllers
$250 sounds about right
I don't quite agree with this.
Obviously, Nintendo did not expect the Wii to shoot to heaven the way that it did. If they had known that the Wii would be so successful, they would had sold it for more to keep the two year system shortage from happening. At the same time, I do think they expected the Wii to run its course in 5 to 6 years because of the lack of third-party support. If you look at Nintendo's history with their consoles, they have always pull majority within a year or more of a new console release. They may still be major games release within that time period, but those are mostly games that had long development timeframes.
Nintendo really stopped supported the Wii majorly around mid to late 2010, which goes in hand when the Wii started to go down. They all but abandon the system in 2011 to focus on the 3DS and the WiiU. The did much the same thing to the DS, stopping major support in later 2009, but what kept the DS alive even now is the strong third-party support. The Wii did not have that same support which is why it collapsed.
Nintendo knew this was going to happen which is why they did not go out of their way to save the Wii like they did with the 3DS. They don't see unprepared with the WiiU, but more secretive. Since they are coming out first Microsoft and Sony will be watching them and will most likely copy or undermine anything new Nintendo brings to the table. So, they are keeping their cards close and revealing things slowly.
Yeah I was just joking there, realistically I'd be surprised if anything* topped the Wii (just cause its gimmick was so universal) but who knows. I think the Wii U's gimmick has a lot of potential but I figure it might start out slower and build momentum, just cause it seems like it'd be harder to immediately get without playing yourself (whether at a demo station or friend's place).
*...not counting crazy Apple stuff, iPhone 4S did 4M in a week and last iPad 3M in 4 days. I'm not sure how many other companies can even pull that off from a logistics standpoint.
Even though the Wii was underpowered, Nintendo still only mage a seven dollar profit off the Wii. Not to mention if the WiiU is only as strong as the PS3 or the 360, those system still cost over 250 dollars to make and that is not even including the WiiU controller that most likely cost over 100 dollars on its own. So, it is extremely unlikely that the WiiU would cost only 250 dollars. At best, the lowest price could easily be 350 to 400 dollars.
Yes.
medicalmidget
Banned
I suspected you were, but hey, that's why it's fun to speculate, cause you can try and aim for unrealistic numbers. And as awesome as 510,000, 610,000 sales would be, I'm kidding myself if I wanted to predict realistically. As for your comment, possibly, but the ability to use Wiimotes also might have some incentive purchases when people ask if it is compatible with their Wii console controllers.
We don't really know if the Wii U is underpowered until we see the official specs or when we know the PS4 and 720 specs.
medicalmidget
Banned
True, but with Iwata saying that it will be priced reasonably and all that, it makes us think that it will be in the $250-$300 dollar range. And sure the Wii U is expensive to make. I'm sure all together it is (speculating) something around $230, and if that is the case, then of course Nintendo will price it at $350, maybe $300 if they feel bold enough. $400, I don't see that happening when people can buy a 360 or PS3 for that price and a game or three.
JordanN
Banned
How can the Wii U even be underpowered if it's launching first?
It's like saying PS2 is underpowered because it didn't match the Xbox 1 year later. No matter what Sony would of done, they couldn't predict the future. =/
I mean I was telling Anth0ny that we don't know how much weaker the Wii U is compared to the PS4/720, of course the Wii U can't really be underpowered because it is launching first and that helps the Wii U.
lwilliams3
Member
Agree with the first points. I think, however, that Nintendo will not sell it at that price due to the problems with the 3DS launch. Iwata already stated that the system will retail at a reasonable price.
Wasn't Wii going to be $199 but retailers forced Nintendo to raise the price, so they did $249.99 with WiiSports in North America?
No it doesn't and Nintendo already stated that Wii U will be more expensive than Wii so $250 is just out of the question
I'm sure Nintendo is taking notes about pricing Wii U after the 3DS fiasco but it's not fair to compare both the console and handheld markets. The way they work is not the same.
You have to use some logic... pricing their home console the same as their newest handheld at launch.
Yeah...I don't think so.
I'm not sure about this.
afaik, Nintendo was making $6-8 profit on every Wii console sold at $250.
Do you really believe they would take almost $50 at loss per console if that $199 price was even remotely true?
They have undoubtably learned from the 3DS, but I personally think what got the 3DS in trouble was not the price. If Nintendo had a strong line-up at the start of the 3DS's life, launching with 3D Land, Mario Kart, or Monster Hunter, it may had justified the high price point to buyers. The 3DS going months without any real worthwhile games is what really hurt it.
The WiiU does not have that same problem given that it is launching with two games that are sequels that sold over 20 million, Mario Brothers U and Wii Fit. The only thing missing from the launch window are 'hardcore' games if you don't include Pikiman and ZombiU. The thing is the hardcore are willing to make an early investment more so than a casual person so Nintendo can afford to make the hardcore wait a little.
Dreamwriter
Member
So you're saying that every review site in that era was lying? That what they *really* thought about those games was that their graphics didn't look any better than the previous generation? BTW, the IGN review was the HARDEST on the visuals from what I can find, no other review I've read says anything bad about the visuals at all. Do those visuals look worse than what we have now? Yes, of course. But at the time these launch titles (among others) were clearly seen as very next-gen looking. Being a launch title is no excuse for looking last-gen.
Gamespot said:
Eurogamer said:
NewYorkTimes said:
1Up said:
GamesRadar said:
Haha, thanks.
A couple things I feel should be pointed out about the Wii U spec conversation.
GPU:
1. http://www.amd.com/us/press-releases/Pages/embedded-gpu-2011may02.aspx e6760 the embedded 35watt GPU built on 40nm process with 576GFLOPs of processing power, was released in 2011, not this year as was mentioned earlier.
CPU:
2. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=38737799&postcount=463 probably the best thought out post about the CPU on neogaf, 476fp core is an evolution of the Wii cpu core, but it doesn't mean that they wouldn't evolve it further, whether this means paired cores, to offer 6 threads (1 tied to the controller for streaming, possibly another for the second controller, and current devs not using the DSP and just feeding sound through the CPU being the main cause for "less threads than xenon")
What you will get out of these two very important points is that the GPU is very much inside BG's range, I've personally heard it's around 600GFLOPs from someone who should know, and he wasn't considering fixed functions, since he has no idea how to even estimate that... AND the CPU is reported to have SMT functionality (it's in the link of Thraktor's post) When comparing that to PS4's specs, well 4 cores if they are jaguar (right now they are steamroller) leaves the PS4 with 4 threads, which might be a hurdle for ports, but can certainly be worked around as long as PS4 has a DSP)
Now I'm going to move away from tech talk and just give a simple comparison.
Wii U will end up somewhere inside 1/3rd of PS4's power, this is smaller than PS2 to Xbox, to further drive this point home, Wii U will have DX11 feature sets by all reports, I know there are people in this thread who don't understand that and think somehow that DX11 capabilities means DX10.1, but all DX11 is, is a feature set, so this is simply what we are told. Wii U's GPU is something custom, not overly powerful, but enough of a move forward that it will be noticeable to just about everyone when next year's games start showing up with ground up efforts.
The real problem for next gen consoles is not how powerful they are, but will customers find value in them, I think Wii U will receive an easier purchase from customers than either other system because people can see the difference between Wii and Wii U more clearly, also I expect Wii U and XB720 to sell at ~$300 (Microsoft is targeting this price point in their documents, and Wii U likely won't try to push the price considering 3DS's price drop) That means customers walk into the store and look at these two systems side by side, 360 already offers everything the XB720 does, except for the slight enhancement of visuals (which is what they can see on the box, remember we are talking about your average customer) Wii U comes with a tablet and is clearly a nice upgrade for every Wii owner, which is the majority of the gaming market thanks to Microsoft and Sony's campaign of Wii60s or PSWii's.
Some people of course will see the benefit of the XB720, and XB360 has sold something like 1million consoles so far this year, well it's July, and that means 360 looks just about as dead as Wii looked last year, so that could in fact help XB720 get off the ground. I'm not going to go too far into PS4's problem, but they really need to make sure they are competitive in price, if Playstation was the brand it was in 2006, maybe $400 wouldn't be a problem, but I don't think it's realistic to compete with XB3 if that is it's price.
GPU:
1. http://www.amd.com/us/press-releases/Pages/embedded-gpu-2011may02.aspx e6760 the embedded 35watt GPU built on 40nm process with 576GFLOPs of processing power, was released in 2011, not this year as was mentioned earlier.
CPU:
2. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=38737799&postcount=463 probably the best thought out post about the CPU on neogaf, 476fp core is an evolution of the Wii cpu core, but it doesn't mean that they wouldn't evolve it further, whether this means paired cores, to offer 6 threads (1 tied to the controller for streaming, possibly another for the second controller, and current devs not using the DSP and just feeding sound through the CPU being the main cause for "less threads than xenon")
What you will get out of these two very important points is that the GPU is very much inside BG's range, I've personally heard it's around 600GFLOPs from someone who should know, and he wasn't considering fixed functions, since he has no idea how to even estimate that... AND the CPU is reported to have SMT functionality (it's in the link of Thraktor's post) When comparing that to PS4's specs, well 4 cores if they are jaguar (right now they are steamroller) leaves the PS4 with 4 threads, which might be a hurdle for ports, but can certainly be worked around as long as PS4 has a DSP)
Now I'm going to move away from tech talk and just give a simple comparison.
Wii U will end up somewhere inside 1/3rd of PS4's power, this is smaller than PS2 to Xbox, to further drive this point home, Wii U will have DX11 feature sets by all reports, I know there are people in this thread who don't understand that and think somehow that DX11 capabilities means DX10.1, but all DX11 is, is a feature set, so this is simply what we are told. Wii U's GPU is something custom, not overly powerful, but enough of a move forward that it will be noticeable to just about everyone when next year's games start showing up with ground up efforts.
The real problem for next gen consoles is not how powerful they are, but will customers find value in them, I think Wii U will receive an easier purchase from customers than either other system because people can see the difference between Wii and Wii U more clearly, also I expect Wii U and XB720 to sell at ~$300 (Microsoft is targeting this price point in their documents, and Wii U likely won't try to push the price considering 3DS's price drop) That means customers walk into the store and look at these two systems side by side, 360 already offers everything the XB720 does, except for the slight enhancement of visuals (which is what they can see on the box, remember we are talking about your average customer) Wii U comes with a tablet and is clearly a nice upgrade for every Wii owner, which is the majority of the gaming market thanks to Microsoft and Sony's campaign of Wii60s or PSWii's.
Some people of course will see the benefit of the XB720, and XB360 has sold something like 1million consoles so far this year, well it's July, and that means 360 looks just about as dead as Wii looked last year, so that could in fact help XB720 get off the ground. I'm not going to go too far into PS4's problem, but they really need to make sure they are competitive in price, if Playstation was the brand it was in 2006, maybe $400 wouldn't be a problem, but I don't think it's realistic to compete with XB3 if that is it's price.
shinra-bansho
Member
Doesn't that mean they didn't expect to see the Wii collapse...?
2010 had Donkey Kong Country Returns and Kirby's Epic Yarn. It had Wii Party, Epic Mickey and uDraw.
There are two schools of thought on the Wii's rapid decline - one is that it was purely a lack of software support; the other is the launch of Kinect coupled with a rise in HDTV adoption negatively affected Wii sales. I would say the answer is a mix of the two.
I'm not just saying they seem unprepared now, I mean the whole scenario seems like they were caught unawares by how rapidly the Wii lost favor i.e. if they had really predicted it, they would have been ready to launch in 2011 - rather than dragging it out to the end of this year.
It could be as you say, simply Nintendo being Nintendo. But it's a strange strategy. Lack of disclosure always begs the question "What are you hiding and why?"
It makes one think that it has nothing to with fear of being copied and rather a fear of being marginalised.
But you also have to take into account that there were a lot more obvious bells and whistles to throw at a first-gen HD game than there are right now when basically anything looks great and we've gotten used to awesome details and whatnot for 6+ years. Last gen games often looked quite bland with very very simple lighting and simple particle effects a lot of the time. The jump to HD in terms of sharpness and all the new shiny surfaces and shadows and better particles really stood out immediately.
That said I would still love it if there was simply more stuff happening on the ground in Pikmin 3. Like actual grass leafs or dirt or something.
z0m3le you are posting a best case scenario.
Wiiu is dx11 by "all report", where are all these reports? The only one I saw was a click bait article on how under power the wiiu was.
Like posted earlier the whole wiiu console could be uses 35-50w. You have a gpu taking up 100-70% of the power. That leave no room for anything else.
Wiiu is dx11 by "all report", where are all these reports? The only one I saw was a click bait article on how under power the wiiu was.
Like posted earlier the whole wiiu console could be uses 35-50w. You have a gpu taking up 100-70% of the power. That leave no room for anything else.
shinra-bansho
Member
To the average customer, so is the 360 or PS3. The long story short is that they're banking on the tablet; whether the Wii U is a success hinges on whether it resonates with the market that bought the Wii because of motion controls, and whether they're convinced enough that they'll even buy another console at all.
What market are you referring to here? The US? EU? WW? Because it doesn't add up in any event. The US market has collapsed; but the EU market was holding relatively well, as at the end of last quarter. JPN as well, at least for the PS3.
That 35watt GPU is on a 40nm process, Wii U's GPU is likely Oban, meaning it's 32nm, and SoC designs also shave wattage, not to mention that the CPU we are talking about is less than 2watts a core @ 45nm. Give the wattage talk a break, 50-60watts is the likely usage if we are talking about 2012 PSUs and their relatively standard 80% efficiency.
No, that is only part of Wii U's target audience, obviously a lot of gamers own a Wii, you just can't hit 8+ games per console sold, if your audience is just playing Wii Sports, Wii Fit and Wii Play. Also as I mention Wii U is an upgrade for those people who bought Wii as a second console too, people who own both a Wii and 360 or PS3, and there are still gamers who don't own PS360s, so they have a very clear path from their Wii to Wii U, as it's a similar jump from Xbox to 360.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=479901
I read it somewhere else, but this will do, the first 5 months Xbox 360 has sold ~1m units, that isn't a very good number...
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