Wednesday, April 4th 2012
Nintendo WiiU Hardware Less Powerful Than Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3: Developers
Although Nintendo's next-generation WiiU game console can drive 1080p graphics, developers familiar with its hardware specifications say its hardware is not even as powerful as that of current-generation Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. "No, it's not up to the same level as the PS3 or the 360," one of the developers who spoke with GamesIndustry Internation said "The graphics are just not as powerful," they reiterated. Another developer, working for another company backed this view. "Yeah, that's true. It doesn't produce graphics as well as the PS3 or the 360," said the source. This should let us in on Nintendo's focus with the WiiU: gameplay mechanics over visual details.
Source:
GamesIndustry.biz
61 Comments on Nintendo WiiU Hardware Less Powerful Than Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3: Developers
Or why do people still play minecraft?
There's also always the huge question of RAM\VRAM, which is proving to be the current bottleneck in consoles. The problem I have, is that Nintendo is doing neither. Motion controls only get you so far, and when you have basically the worst imaginable hardware to work with, and an entire costumer base that ignores your product despite having one, it's hard to get developers interested in developing for it. Having better hardware means more 3rd Party games, which for the Wii are non-existant. You have more companies porting their games to your console and spending money on dev kits to do just that, as well as more interest from companies that do want to make high quality highly detailed games.
Like HL2 when it came out.
And rumors are still rumors, the sources are anonymous. Hypothetically, the GamesIndustry.biz article could just as good as fabricated just for the sake of creating gaming news in a slow news-week, since no-one can ever verify the sources simply because there are none.
Good games are the games that have great gameplay not games that just look good.
Nintendo games have always looked fine (nothing wrong with how Mario Kart, Galaxy etc looked not to mention Metroid Prime was amazing looking on the cube) but the thing that makes these games so great is the gameplay.
Gameplay will always go MILES before graphics, hell just look at WoW, Minecraft or CoD.
Even if the WiiU will not be as good (or bad depending on how you look at it) as the PS3 or 360 it does not matter, as long as most 3rd party titles (Darksiders 2 has already been announced) make it to the WiiU then they did for the Wii then Nintendo is in good water and will have a killer console.
PS
Seriously who the fuck buys a console anyway when he/she is that obsessed with good graphics? :confused:
And really, I highly doubt a Gamecube came would look better than my SGS2, considering the hardware advantage my phone has over a GC. It has a dual-core CPU @ 1.2GHz, and a 267MHz (I think) GPU with 4 cores, all of which are much more advanced and more capable than a crappy old Gamecube.
And as for price, yeah sure it make have costed $1000NZD brand new, but didn't the PS3, and the PS3 was a lot bigger...
I don't understand why people always insist WoW looks like crap. If you crank WoW up it looks really clean, and pretty damn good. The only thing I can think of is because of the non-realistic feel the game is purposely going for. The game looks sleek, plays well on a variety of hardware, has very detailed environments, and excellent textures. What more can you really ask for? It might not look like TERA, but that's exactly where the gameplay makes up for it. As for Minecraft, it is and always will be a niche title, it's not something that can be marketed to the masses, and will always remain the kind of nerdy Indie Game PC Gamers love.
I don't think anyone is outright saying "GRAFX IZ ALL DAT MATTAS!?!", all people are saying is that they are sick of playing games that have decent gameplay and look like vomit. There are just not a lot of quality games on the Wii. It basically boils down to Zelda, Mario, Monster Hunter, and soon Xenoblade. The quality games on the Wii are primarily Nintendo-developed, and are so few and far between, most people have just given up on the system.
Smartphones aren't the only ones "pushing" boundaries or whatever is it that you're trying to say. We're getting new models of CPU's and GPU's every single year. Consoles are only upgraded about once a lustrum. Back in 2006 when the Wii was released, most people could hardly play pac-man on their Motorola RAZR. So how about we actually wait for this next gen of consoles to get started before starting to compare phones to consoles?
If true, how is that even technically possible? :banghead:
EDIT: I'm not a console gamer, but I would buy one of those for my daughter and play it with her any day.. And get some of those graphics on the PC. Just think the PC makes the already current PS3 and XBOX 360 games look better.. I can't wait for my PC to make those better! :toast:
even the wii U having a 4870 equiv gpu was a rumor
But if say it has something on the order of a 6450 which uses oodles less power that would make more sense and those pictures don't mean much when talking of consoles, you can't tell anything by them.
this also isn't the first time developers have come out and said this either, If I remember correctly the darksiders developers said it also(maybe this is it) and some others also.
Consoles are advancing way too slow.
People don't play the wii for it's graphics anyway so even if this is true as long as they have a half decent collection of games with good immersive gameplay then it will most likely sell like hot cakes as long as it's not priced a lot higher than the original wii
We all know gameplay matters more, but that is no reason to cheap out so severly on graphics. An HD 4850 in large quantities would be very inexpensive. If it is truly less than current gen, that is unacceptable! I doubt big name developers will even waste there time developing for such a neutered system. Zelda, Mario, and shovelware : Here we come!!