Wii U Speculation Thread 2: Can't take anymore of this!!!

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I think "significant" is stretching things. The thing is, we don't really know where the improvements were. All we know is that some devs had set target expectations for the Wii U and the last batch of dev kits a week or so ago surprised them by exceeding some of those expectations.

Ok thanks Guek!
 
I kinda want to know whether gaming sites have been reporting about the recent boost in dev kits based on their own sources or if they just saw it on gaf and wisppel's post and took that as a credible source :-/
 
Ok, I wasn't here since thursday last week and have had to read a lot....

Hmm, can someone update me on the latest rumors?!
There are (again) new devkits out?
Anything specific about them (like ram 2.5 or 3 gigs / or even the specs from gpu can now be compared with a HD 7xxx series *dreaming*)?

Thanks!!
 
I would be shocked if they bumped up the RAM to 2 GB. A good sort of shock naturally. I'm guessing it has slightly more shader units and higher speed GPU. This of course is coming out of my ass.

I worry that this system will only get straight ports from the current HD twins (not even resolution bumps) and really crappy down ports from 720 and PS4. Well, at least we are guaranteed some titles from Retro pushing the system.
 
I have the impression that there has been no real dramatic increase recently, only standard narrowing in on exact specs. I'd be shocked at a RAM increase.
 
I would be shocked if they bumped up the RAM to 2 GB. A good sort of shock naturally. I'm guessing it has slightly more shader units and higher speed GPU. This of course is coming out of my ass.

I worry that this system will only get straight ports from the current HD twins (not even resolution bumps) and really crappy down ports from 720 and PS4. Well, at least we are guaranteed some titles from Retro pushing the system.

Day one purchase for me allready.
 
I would be shocked if they bumped up the RAM to 2 GB. A good sort of shock naturally. I'm guessing it has slightly more shader units and higher speed GPU. This of course is coming out of my ass.

I worry that this system will only get straight ports from the current HD twins (not even resolution bumps) and really crappy down ports from 720 and PS4. Well, at least we are guaranteed some titles from Retro pushing the system.

I thought a lot of the latest Xbox rumors were leaning it towards it not being that much more powerful than the Wii u?
 
I thought a lot of the latest Xbox rumors were leaning it towards it not being that much more powerful than the Wii u?

That rumor stated that Wii U was likely 5 x the 360 and the 720 being 20% greater than that. I'm assuming the latter part of the rumor is true (in the sense that the 720 is 6x the 360), but I'm sticking with the Wii U being only 2 x the 360. I do this so I am not disappointed.
 
Yeah, he got in a heated argument in that "CEO says MonHun coming for Vita" thread and went a bit too far, calling other people "illiterate ass*****". It's really a shame he got so upset over something so unimportant, especially since he didn't even disagree with the actual interpretation.

:( Hope he'll be back soon.

Speaking of, does ANYONE know what happened to Nuclear Muffin? He's been banned for a long while, I fear the worst. :(
 
E3 seems late for a rereveal considering the console will be out by the year's end, and it will face some tough competition.

I woul be surprised if we don't have some very solid rumors on power and games right after GDC.
 
Time for some HERESY. I hope that IF the Wii U is nearer 2 x the 360 that Retro stick to 720 P and 30 FPS for the sake of IQ and lighting. Give me super clean bullshot IQ at a solid 30 FPS, no dips. This coupled with high res textures (hey its gonna have at least twice the 360's ram) will make me one happy dude.

Skin me later.
 
tumblr_lmt5bgxYyh1qlvb12o1_500.png

"Just in case Guek was watching over us"
 
It's crystal clear why Nintendo decided to make the Wii something very different from the traditional definition of what next-gen has meant to the industry and to consumers. Fortunately, it was a big hit , but Nintendo was really the only winner, leaving third-parties to figure out what software to make and for which of the two type of gamers. I'm not saying third-parties are innocent or anything,as they have a lot to be blamed for. It's just that when Nintendo designed the Wii, it did it in a way that made it more about the kind of console Nintendo wanted it to be and did less so for what third-parties wanted from it.

Which means both sides of the equation horribly screwed up, though I'd say 3rd parties suffered more for it based on their own decisions. They left a vast market to Nintendo to play around in, and that's not a wise thing to do. As opposed to Sony and MS, Nintendo can make a system at least reasonably successful all on its own power.
 
If Nintendo had room to further upgrade the WiiU,
where would you guys rather they put their resources?

In the controller?

or

the console?



.
 
Time for some HERESY. I hope that IF the Wii U is nearer 2 x the 360 that Retro stick to 720 P and 30 FPS for the sake of IQ and lighting. Give me super clean bullshot IQ at a solid 30 FPS, no dips. This coupled with high res textures (hey its gonna have at least twice the 360's ram) will make me one happy dude.

Skin me later.

2x would be a disaster. Who would want a console which would only have ports from the current gen and pretty huge downports next gen assuming the 720 will be 6x360?

And no please, 60fps silky smooth.


If Nintendo had room to further upgrade the WiiU,
where would you guys rather they put their resources?

In the controller?

or

the console?



.

Console, please. I want a true next gen system.
 
If Nintendo had room to further upgrade the WiiU,
where would you guys rather they put their resources?

In the controller?

or

the console?



.

The console. The controller is fine as it is based on what we've seen and heard at any rate; hell, I think it's lovely. Investing into upgrades for the console would mitigate some of the excuses for 3rd parties to focus heavily on it - or at least those excuses would ring false to gamers' ears. Of course they'd still have the, "There's no audience there but Nintendo fans" and "The controller is so odd that, in order to optimize the experience of playing our game, we had to stick with something more traditional. We love the controller, though, as gamers."
 
*looks at Wii sales*

The wii is a different thing.

As it was very underpowered, developers had to re-imagine their games and most of them couldn't do a direct port as will happen with the wiiu.

Consumers had different games to choose from for each platform and the wii ones were always pretty different. PES playmaker opposed to the more traditional PES could be an example.

If the Wii U is only 2x the current gen, but in a range were it can get all the ports from the other two, there won't be any differentiation in the software as developers would try to only adapt the controller, thus being in a very bad position from the consumer point of view.

Wii U needs to be close in power to the other two, so the difference in graphics won't be noticeable in the general consumer eyes and also try to differentiate the gaming experience.
 
The wii is a different thing.

As it was very underpowered, developers had to re-imagine their games and most of them couldn't do a direct port as will happen with the wiiu.

Consumers had different games to choose from for each platform and the wii ones were always pretty different. PES playmaker opposed to the more traditional PES could be an example.

If the Wii U is only 2x the current gen, but in a range were it can get all the ports from the other two, there won't be any differentiation in the software as developers would try to only adapt the controller, thus being in a very bad position from the consumer point of view.

Wii U needs to be close in power to the other two, so the difference in graphics won't be noticeable in the general consumer eyes and also try to differentiate the gaming experience.

I can just say that the Wii U being able to get any sort of down-ports would be a huge improvement to the Wii situation and it features a controller that any game could benefit from, hence many people will be willing to buy it. You can't sugarcoat the fact that the Wii is a gussied up gamecube.
 
That rumor stated that Wii U was likely 5 x the 360 and the 720 being 20% greater than that. I'm assuming the latter part of the rumor is true (in the sense that the 720 is 6x the 360), but I'm sticking with the Wii U being only 2 x the 360. I do this so I am not disappointed.

You're missing the point of that article then. The writer is saying that the 2x he was told is essentially the same as the 5x he was told by IGN. That's why he was saying he wrote the article despite the algebra not adding up. Because one this is certain in algebra 2x will never equal 5x, but he's saying the opposite is true in this case.
 
Sorry if the info was already posted.

From www.3.nhk.or.jp via www.nintendo-master.com > according to a NTT report Nintendo is working on a vocale speech recognition tool with some partners. The thing is tested in some schools (ottori & Okinanawa) and run on a DS. Datas/records are cloud saved. Below in the link a video.

Fench news > http://www.nintendo-master.com/xtnews/news-29541_nintendo_travaille_sur_la_reconnaissance_vocale.htm

Jp link > http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20120130/t10015625431000.html

I think it's something which could be used on the Wii U (& on 3DS, obviously).
 
The wii is a different thing.

As it was very underpowered, developers had to re-imagine their games and most of them couldn't do a direct port as will happen with the wiiu.

Consumers had different games to choose from for each platform and the wii ones were always pretty different. PES playmaker opposed to the more traditional PES could be an example.

If the Wii U is only 2x the current gen, but in a range were it can get all the ports from the other two, there won't be any differentiation in the software as developers would try to only adapt the controller, thus being in a very bad position from the consumer point of view.

Wii U needs to be close in power to the other two, so the difference in graphics won't be noticeable in the general consumer eyes and also try to differentiate the gaming experience.

Considering the fact that the specs for the new Xbox are not not as significant as once thought and are comparable to Wii U, I don't think this will be a problem for Nintendo.
 
Considering the fact that the specs for the new Xbox are not not as significant as once thought and are comparable to Wii U, I don't think this will be a problem for Nintendo.

Yep. I think the gap between the Wii U and the others will be similar to the gap the PS2 had with the GC and XBox. Significant, noticeable on exclusives but still powerful enough to get every single multi-platform game. And I would tend to think the Wii U gap could be smaller simply because of diminishing returns.
 
As long as the Wii U is capable of running all the engines (unreal 4, luminous, cryengine, fox, etc...), I expect 90% of games to look just about the same on the consoles. Obviously though Sony first party games will shit on everything, but that's how it'll work and it should be pretty good. I expect Nintendo's first party to do some crazy things as well.
 
I still hold the opinion that a big difference in power between the systems will mean almost nothing to 99% of games, because it costs too much money to make a game that even pushes current-gen systems. To take advantage of that power you have to spend a lot more time (and thus money) making, animating and lighting super-detailed 3D models. This is why most current-gen games don't look as good as Gears of War or Uncharted. And the GPU effects that require the most power, tend to actually be rather subtle.

As long as the Wii-U is capable of games that look a bit better than Xbox 360/PS3, but at 1080p and 60fps (an early rumor), no consumer will look at its games and think it is underpowered.
 
As long as the Wii U is capable of running all the engines (unreal 4, luminous, cryengine, fox, etc...), I expect 90% of games to look just about the same on the consoles. Obviously though Sony first party games will shit on everything, but that's how it'll work and it should be pretty good. I expect Nintendo's first party to do some crazy things as well.

Massive subjectivity note there. You're free to feel that way, though.
 
The console. The controller is fine as it is based on what we've seen and heard at any rate; hell, I think it's lovely. Investing into upgrades for the console would mitigate some of the excuses for 3rd parties to focus heavily on it - or at least those excuses would ring false to gamers' ears. Of course they'd still have the, "There's no audience there but Nintendo fans" and "The controller is so odd that, in order to optimize the experience of playing our game, we had to stick with something more traditional. We love the controller, though, as gamers."

You are correct.
Putting resources in a device that possibly some developers might
be lazy to support, or make use of in an interesting manner, will be a waste.
 
My first post! Yay!

Ok, I just gotta say that I am insanely excited for the Wii U. The mere thought of playing HD Nintendo titles makes my brain want to implode.

In regards to the general discussion of hardware power, it is obvious that the Wii U is going to be a bigger jump from the Wii than it was from the Gamecube to the Wii. I am just really hoping that that jump in power will be enough to keep 3rd party developers on the Wii U when we are truly into next-gen. All this talk about the next generation of consoles and handhelds being the last makes me think Nintendo is in a critical position right now. With the Wii U, I see two possible outcomes for Nintendo. 1: The Wii U will be, in some form, successful and it will prove that the company has what it takes to continue making consoles or 2: The Wii U will be, in some form, unsuccessful and Nintendo will have to adapt (make games for other hardware such as phones, tablets, or other consoles or just plain drop out entirely but I doubt they would do this with their high calabre IP's). I don't want #2 to happen; that is why Nintendo needs all the support they can get for the Wii U!

I was also thinking/imagining: What if Nintendo really did happen to lose it next-gen? Who would be the first to snatch the company up? Microsoft? Sony? Apple? Samsung? What other company would tailor to it's business models (gameplay first, hardware second)? Would it go the Sega way and make games for everything?
But those questions are for another discussion entirely
 
Watching the production values of Nintendo games potentially jump two full generations is going to be very odd indeed.

Just like the N64, where everything was new, I imagine the first few Nintendo games in HD will not be at their total potential, as they get used to working with HD assets.

Obviously it's standard for the first games and last games for a console to have a vast gap in their visuals, but Nintendo have extra hurdles to leap in that they are having a truly huge graphical leap (assuming it's going from Wii levels to a leap beyond 360/PS3 levels).

Just look at SM64 to OOT, there's a gigantic difference even though OOT was out less than halfway through the N64's lifespan.
 
Massive subjectivity note there. You're free to feel that way, though.
I just feel they have the most talented developers in terms of squeezing a lot out of hardware. Obviously it's all subjective because not everyone likes every type of game but who are we kidding here, Naughty Dog + Santa Monica = none better at making games with incredible graphics. That's also ignoring the fact that it will be the last console out, and likely to be able to do a bit more.

I still hold the opinion that a big difference in power between the systems will mean almost nothing to 99% of games, because it costs too much money to make a game that even pushes current-gen systems. To take advantage of that power you have to spend a lot more time (and thus money) making, animating and lighting super-detailed 3D models. This is why most current-gen games don't look as good as Gears of War or Uncharted. And the GPU effects that require the most power, tend to actually be rather subtle.

As long as the Wii-U is capable of games that look a bit better than Xbox 360/PS3, but at 1080p and 60fps (an early rumor), no consumer will look at its games and think it is underpowered.
I agree except I said 90% instead of 99% but it's all the same. I only separated Sony first party studios from the percentage, which really isn't that much since it's only 2ish studios so I'll go with 97% :P
 
My first post! Yay!

Welcome.

In regards to the general discussion of hardware power, it is obvious that the Wii U is going to be a bigger jump from the Wii than it was from the Gamecube to the Wii. I am just really hoping that that jump in power will be enough to keep 3rd party developers on the Wii U when we are truly into next-gen.

It should be enough. However, that doesn't necessarily guarantee 3rd party support. There are still a number of areas in which Nintendo could screw up and lose support from the get-go, and there is also the strong possibility that 3rd parties will adopt a similar 'Nintendo games only sell on Nintendo consoles' stance after a couple of dud performances.

All this talk about the next generation of consoles and handhelds being the last makes me think Nintendo is in a critical position right now.

Wait. Who is saying it will be the last? The number of consoles and handhelds sold this generation dwarfed the amount sold the generation before... So, that seems like a strange estimate.

With the Wii U, I see two possible outcomes for Nintendo. 1: The Wii U will be, in some form, successful and it will prove that the company has what it takes to continue making consoles or 2: The Wii U will be, in some form, unsuccessful and Nintendo will have to adapt (make games for other hardware such as phones, tablets, or other consoles or just plain drop out entirely but I doubt they would do this with their high calabre IP's). I don't want #2 to happen; that is why Nintendo needs all the support they can get for the Wii U!

Rest easy: It is very, very close to impossible for #2 to happen. In fact, the gaming industry as a whole should be terrified if that were to occur. Nintendo has enough money to survive at least two or three botched generations. They're a very conservative company after all.

I was also thinking/imagining: What if Nintendo really did happen to lose it next-gen? Who would be the first to snatch the company up? Microsoft? Sony? Apple? Samsung? What other company would tailor to it's business models (gameplay first, hardware second)? Would it go the Sega way and make games for everything?
But those questions are for another discussion entirely

No one would buy Nintendo. Should it fail entirely in the console market the next two generations, it might focus entirely on its own handheld hardware. It has made it clear that it feels its strength is in the combination of software and hardware development. In that sense, it's very similar to Apple and remains the strongest company in gaming.

I just feel they have the most talented developers in terms of squeezing a lot out of hardware. Obviously it's all subjective because not everyone likes every type of game but who are we kidding here, Naughty Dog + Santa Monica = none better at making games with incredible graphics. That's also ignoring the fact that it will be the last console out, and likely to be able to do a bit more.

Naughty Dog + Santa Monica are both very technically skilled graphically, but I don't care for the art styles they employ overly much. So technically, you may be right, but there's more to graphics production than just the technical side. I still believe that Mario Galaxy and Rayman Origins are two of the best looking games of this generation, bar none.
 
If Nintendo had room to further upgrade the WiiU,
where would you guys rather they put their resources?

In the controller?

or

the console?
The controller, by far. Or at least, controller-centric enhancements in the console.

For a starter, I want a steady 1080p@60 broadcast, thus up to 4 current 854x480 uTabs. Then, for a main course, I want a uTab+ with bigger screen diagonal (eg. 7") and 720 res. Last but not least, I want all games that support uTab output to also take advantage of the uTab+'s native res. Oh, and I want non-shitty uTab cameras. As in, Nokia-N-series non-shitty.
 
Has this been posted?

Iwata: Nintendo won't be drawn into expensive tech race with Wii U

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ace-with-wii-u
yeah it was mentioned in the investors meeting but it's better explained in the Q&A. Makes sense for Nintendo anyway, most of their games don't really require super high end visuals. Makes no sense for the likes of Animal Crossing, Mario (for the most part), and so on. And like he goes on to say, where it does make sense like a Zelda game, they'll do it.
 
I was also thinking/imagining: What if Nintendo really did happen to lose it next-gen? Who would be the first to snatch the company up? Microsoft? Sony? Apple? Samsung? What other company would tailor to it's business models (gameplay first, hardware second)? Would it go the Sega way and make games for everything?
But those questions are for another discussion entirely
No need to worry about that, with all their money Nintendo could probably do an epic fail launch and have enough money to try again 3 years later with a new console.
 
Just like the N64, where everything was new, I imagine the first few Nintendo games in HD will not be at their total potential, as they get used to working with HD assets.

This kind of thinking is naive imo. There's no way their artists haven't been playing with meshes and techniques way beyond what Nintendo's systems were capable of for the last 6 years, it's what all artists have to do to stay at the top of their game, and its what they have to do to provide high quality CG art/renders to print publications. Where its called for, they'll show what they know -- they busted out some gorgeous techniques on Super Mario Galaxy (procedural texturing, rim lighting emulating global illumination etc), and the Zelda tech demo is gorgeous too. Whatever they've had teams working on for the last 2 years will look great / contemporary for 2012.
 
This kind of thinking is naive imo. There's no way their artists haven't been playing with meshes and techniques way beyond what Nintendo's systems were capable of for the last 6 years, it's what all artists have to do to stay at the top of their game, and its what they have to do to provide high quality CG art/renders to print publications. Where its called for, they'll show what they know -- they busted out some gorgeous techniques on Super Mario Galaxy (procedural texturing, rim lighting emulating global illumination etc), and the Zelda tech demo is gorgeous too. Whatever they've had teams working on for the last 2 years will look great / contemporary for 2012.

Yeah, that's what I think
didn't somebody or themselves said all the games are in HD but scaled down to fit Wii's resolution? I think I read it somewhere and that's why they look so beautiful in Dolphin.
 
Has this been posted?

Iwata: Nintendo won't be drawn into expensive tech race with Wii U

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...-be-drawn-into-expensive-tech-race-with-wii-u

That headline is fairly misleading. He's clearly talking about not spending a lot of money on developing Nintendo's own games output unless it's deemed necessary on a title. Not the horsepower of the Wii U hardware itself. The headline should say, "Iwata: Nintendo won't be drawn into expensive tech race with future games."
 
Oh, and I want non-shitty uTab cameras. As in, Nokia-N-series non-shitty.

This is one of my top demands. I'm so disappointed with the 3DS cameras -- at even slightly higher resolution, with even just an LED for illumination, they would have been so much better. They perform horribly in low light, and the resolution seriously sucks the awesomeness out of the things you can do with AR photos etc. They look fine on the device, and super crappy when you put them onto anything else.

I want an outer-facing camera as well as an inner-facing one on the tablet (or one that rotates, one image sensor if they want to save money - with some kind of concealed prism inside redirecting depending on which one is active). They both need to be higher than 1MP. If they want video chat to not look like complete ass.
 
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