Official Wii U Discussion Thread

If Version 5 cannot run Unreal Engine 4, which will become the industry standard (3 has done in the last five years), I will have a hard time believing WiiU will be able to attract core gamers first and foremost. Most gamers will buy the better looking versions of multi-platform titles, how you control these games on WiiU will have little attractive impact, as Wii has proved.

Post-Wii Nintendo have turned specs into a vital factor for potential core buyers. If it's not adequately specced for the game engines of tomorrow, and not just those available today, I fear it will have an uphill struggle once we see what the others have in store, when stuff inevitably leaks.

x2-x3 more powerful is going to look feeble when Microsoft and Sony show us the next generation, of x10 more powerful consoles. Nintendo are not creating a level playing field with this strategy of being a generation behind, in terms of hardware architecture.

EA John Ricatello Interview:

There is some fear that Nintendo's Wii U platform will be stuck between the current generation and the next one. Is the console really a next-gen platform?

Absolutely. It's a [new] platform with a new controller input, so we'll do everything we can to deliver an experience that will take advantage of the hardware for that consumer.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/05/04/the-future-of-madden.aspx




Take note of his wording...it reminds me of what was said of the Wii. I have little hope.

My only hope comes in the form of recent rumours relating to Epic Games and Retro. I hope they are working on a joint project, and I hope they've created a custom WiiU-based UE4 for others to use also.

( Edited 09.05.2012 13:51 by Linkyshinks )

Linkyshinks said:
Most gamers will buy the better looking versions of multi-platform titles, how you control these games on WiiU will have little attractive impact, as Wii has proved.

If the difference in power isn't too big, then the difference in visuals shouldn't be too big either. The Gamecube was capable of all sorts of special effects that the PS2 couldn't handle in hardware, and yet the Gamecube versions of games never really looked better than their PS2 counterparts, because PS2 was the lead platform of the two (The XBox however was usually given a bit more effort).

If the games were to look about on par, or just slightly less good on Wii U but were cheaper on Nintendo's console, that could change things. Nintendo is the richest of the bunch, so they can definitely afford lowering their royalties a bit so that it's reflected on consumers.

Whether they'd be ready to do it though is another story... But personally, I wouldn't pay an additional 10€ per game just for a bunch of added polygons... And I'd consider anyone who does to be pretty stupid.

( Edited 09.05.2012 09:49 by RudyC3 )

RudyC3 said:

Linkyshinks said:
Most gamers will buy the better looking versions of multi-platform titles, how you control these games on WiiU will have little attractive impact, as Wii has proved.

This could change in face of the current economical crisis if the WiiU versions of these games were to be sold slightly cheaper.

If the difference in power isn't too big, then the difference in visuals shouldn't be too big either. The Gamecube was capable of all sorts of special effects that the PS2 couldn't handle in hardware, and yet the Gamecube versions of games never really looked better than their PS2 counterparts, because PS2 was the lead platform of the two (The XBox however was usually given a bit more effort).

If the games were to look about on par, or just slightly less good on Wii U but were cheaper on Nintendo's console, that could change things. Nintendo is the richest of the bunch, so they can definitely afford lowering their royalties a bit so that it's reflected on consumers.

Whether they'd be ready to do it though is another story... But personally, I wouldn't pay an additional 10€ per game just for a bunch of added polygons... And I'd consider anyone who does to be pretty stupid.

I think WiiU's games will be slightly cheaper at $60, $10 more than current new Wii games in NA. It's safe assumption to make.

I expect all software will rise in cost by £10/$10, across all the platforms. The very best NextXbox & PS4 games will cost considerably more to develop, pushing their prices up between $10-$15 ($70-75per game, maybe even $80 for the very best AAA titles with 4-year development cycles).

If Wii U games will be $60, it's probably to get it on par again with European prices. We've been paying €50 for our Wii games, which is $65.

UK gamers say they have it worse because of the weak pound... but when I import my games from the UK it's always much cheaper than what I'd pay here, so I don't really see how that works.

I don't see prices of $75 work out. Games are $60 max this generation? Players will just wait until the price drops.

The UK has probably the best games prices in the world from what I've seen of foreign costs. The majority drop right down after only a couple of months, too. I don't envy anyone else with the prices we get here. I do expect next gen games to rise, though.

Australia's probably the worst place in terms of expense, their games cost about AUS$100+ plus and the Australian Dollar is pretty strong against the USD.

I've always paid my new Wii games 44~45€ in average personally (less in case there's a price drop of course, or more in the case of bundles)

Am I the only one who really doesn't like where this is going? The price of current new games is more than enough and I really don't want even more insane production values. Games are going to become even bigger risks, especially new franchises, so sequels and re-used ideas are most likely going to become even more common than they already are because publishers can't afford to take risks with really high production values for their games. It's even worse for smaller companies, whose games don't sell well enough for them to afford that. It's really no surprise that many smaller, mostly Japanese, companies are fleeing to handhelds in a situation like this. I honestly don't know what many gamers expect from game companies. They want original games, with better graphics, at the same price and they don't want to wait those years it takes to develop them either. It just doesn't magically work like that. Of course, when these things don't happen then it's automatically the game companies' fault and not at all the fault of gamers with ridiculous and unrealistic expectations. People can say about Nintendo what they want, but at least they understand that this mad graphics race isn't a good thing for both developers/publishers and gamers.

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to buy even less games at launch in the future.

Don't think anyone wants prices to go up, but it's inevitable for some of the massive popular games. Games should be sold based on how much it cost to make them. Smaller teams making less expensive-costing games should sell them cheaper. I can't justify £40 or even £30 being worth the price of almost every new game today, so if it bumps up to £50, fuck that. I don't care much because there're very few games I buy at launch anyway - always wait for price drops. Companies can still make the games they want and whack them up for download if they think it'll hurt going to retail. Some of the most original games to come out this generation are download-only titles.

You can avoid paying high prices for most games if you just wait a while.

Wait for obvious price drops (you can smell some games bombing miles away, most recently: Rayman Orgins) and buying preowned is also good for buying on the cheap.

That and there is quite alot of great XBLA/PSN type games out there now with pretty low price enteries.

The only games I will buy at £40-£45 are games I am really looking forward too and Nintendo games (because their popular games tend to stay at a high price point anyway)

( Edited 09.05.2012 20:40 by Mr James2t3 )

Mr James2t3 said:
You can avoid paying high prices for most games if you just wait a while.

Wait for obvious price drops (you can smell some games bombing miles away, most recently: Rayman Orgins) and buying preowned is also good for buying on the cheap.

That and there is quite alot of great XBLA/PSN type games out there now with pretty low price enteries.

The only games I will buy at £40-£45 are games I am really looking forward too and Nintendo games (because their popular games tend to stay at a high price point anyway)

Seventy-five percent of “current gamers” are not interested in purchasing Wii U, according to a recent survey:

http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/09/who-wants-a-wii/

Hmm, should do the survey after this year's E3, too, then. Bit hard to determine if you want a console we know very little about.

One thing I should mention, is that the real value of products changes little over time. While the dollar value may go from 50 to 60, it could also mean that in the last ten years or so, the dollar's value went up as well. That's why the real value of milk has been the same, even though it went from like 5 cents to a couple dollars.

But then again, it has only been ten years or so.

Coming from the latest Runner 2 dev blog update...

"Wii have a few fun little updates coming for U, so keep your EYES out!!!"

- Runner 2 practically confirmed for WiiU.

edit:

Coming from a Nyko email...

Not only will we have new peripherals, but Nyko’s first entry into whole product categories. ...A handheld peripheral to overcome a blatant Nintendo oversight

Any guesses?


( Edited 09.05.2012 23:13 by Linkyshinks )

wouldn't it be roughly the same price?

I mean... if prices of things go down, naturally. It will mean that game's prices should go down, in general. and if there isn't much of a huge jump, in tech offering from this gen, to next. then wouldn't we just be doing Minor updates on a game's engine? the next gen (Wii U and others) wouldn't be as mind blowing, as then gen was. unless they wait for a life-time, to release a new console, "Skip a Generation", then I don't see how the Wii U will do to bad. Power 7 chips were proven to be quite powerful and high possibilities.

You also have to remember, the Wii was really the only console Nintendo ever released to be a power slugger (animal not hitting). Even if Nintendo did only focus on gameplay, next gen. How far can they go? lets look back at generations. they've always been within some limit, that could be another reason why Nintendo won this gen. Because they were right, HDTVs were not a common thing, yet.

(Generation: CPU, GPU, RAM (Nintendo's)

Generation 2: CPU between 1 MHz - 2 MHz, RAM 64b to 128b

Generation 3: 1MHz - 3.6MHz, RAM 2kB - 4KB (CPU 1.79 MHz (1.66 MHz PAL), RAM 2MB)

Generation 4: CPU 3.55 MHz - 12MHz, RAM 64KiB to 128 KiB (CPU 3.58 MHz (3.55 MHz PAL), RAM 128 KiB main RAM)

Generation 5: CPU 38MHz - 93MHz, GPU 28MHz - 62Mhz, RAM 3/4MB - 4/8MB (CPU NEC VR4300 64-bit at 93.75 MHz, GPU Reality Co-Processor: MIPS R4000-based 8-bit integer vector processor at 62.5 MHz, RAM 4MB (8MB with Expansion Pak))

Generation 6: CPU 200MHz - 733MHz, GPU 100MHz - 233MHz, RAM 26MB - 64MB (CPU 485MHz, GPU 162 MHz, RAM 40MB)

Generation 7: sick of typing so you look it up. XD

EDIT:

And even then IBM did say a lot of interesting things too.

"IBM plans to produce millions of chips for Nintendo featuring IBM Silicon on Insulator (SOI) technology at 45 nanometers (45 billionths of a meter). The custom-designed chips will be made at IBM's state-of-the-art 300mm semiconductor development and manufacturing facility in East Fishkill, N.Y.
The relationship between IBM and Nintendo dates to May 1999, when IBM was selected to design and manufacture the central microprocessor for the Nintendo GameCube™ system. Since 2006, IBM has shipped more than 90 million chips for Nintendo Wii systems.
"IBM has been a terrific partner for many years. We truly value IBM's commitment to support Nintendo in delivering an entirely new kind of gaming and entertainment experience for consumers around the world," said Genyo Takeda, Senior Managing Director, Integrated Research and Development, at Nintendo Co., Ltd.
"We're very proud to have delivered to Nintendo consistent technology advancements for three generations of entertainment consoles," said Elmer Corbin, director, IBM's custom chip business. "Our relationship with Nintendo underscores our unique position in the industry -- how we work together with clients to help them leverage IBM technology, intellectual property and research to drive innovation into their own core products."
Built on the open, scalable Power Architecture base, IBM custom processors exploit the performance and power advantages of proven silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. The inherent advantages of the technology make it a superior choice for performance-driven applications that demand exceptional, power-efficient processing capability ��" from entertainment consoles to supercomputers."

(Bottom portion of: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/34683.wss)

And even:

"IBM's embedded dynamic random access memory (test chip shown here) will help deliver a thrilling new game experience to Nintendo fans. The new memory technology, a key element of the new Power microprocessor that IBM is building for the Nintendo Wii U console, can triple the amount of memory contained on a single chip, making for extreme game play."

"IBM's state-of-the-art 300mm chip plant in East Fishkill, N.Y., will be the manufacturing facility for the new game chip the company is building for Nintendo's new game console due to hit store shelves in 2012."

(both from same website just a bit more down: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/34683.wss)

P.S. Edit:

If you ask me, that seems to me that IBM is quite peepee happy on what Nintendo choose.



( Edited 10.05.2012 13:18 by wolfy )

Cloudberry Kingdom's apparently coming to the Wii U, here's the Trailer.

Only if they can get enough funding from kickstarter!

It looks fun, but all the obstacles seem to be running the same pattern. If it doesn't change it up like super meat boy or contra, then I'm sure it'll be pretty manageable.

This crossed my mind also...

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/30063

Thanks for the link, Linkyshinks. Now I'm all hyped for E3 again

Guest said:
I don't think the ambassador games have any meaning to their releases or future influences. But I would say that games like, F-Zero, Mario Kart, Metroid, Yoshi's island, Zelda all are plausible to appear on the WiiU. As for the name WiiU, I think Nintendo will ditch the name Wii and stick with it just being U, calling it the Nintendo U or something like that. Name will definitely have a bigger part to player in successor to the Wii console. If they stick with the WiiU and a console that looks like the Wii, well people think its going to be the same old Wii with a new name. Nintendo need to step away from Wii, the whole Wii(we) gimmick crap didn't work.

Other than that I can't say anything else about the current state of the WiiU, too confused as were are Nintendo are headed with this. Are they going for the ambitious approach and go all out and release a proper Next Generation console that surpasses the PS3/Xbox 360 or release a budget friendly HD console on the par with the PS3/Xbox 360. But knowing Nintendo they will choose the budget friendly option whilst quietly giving the rest of us a middle finger. You wanted HD, well here it is. Now as for the controller, do you even need a TV to play on the next console when you have the console streaming directly onto the touch screen? That idea is cool and all but if we have that option majority of the time will be us playing the console whilst we lay in bed, the whole purpose of the HD nose dives out the window.

I'm not very optimistic about E3, something just tells me Nintendo haven't got a clue what they got themselves into.

Thought I was logged in, I wrote that.

Nintendo employee Tadashi Sugiyama is supposedly working on a title for Wii U that will be shown at E3.

Guest said:
Now as for the controller, do you even need a TV to play on the next console when you have the console streaming directly onto the touch screen?

Isn't the screen on the Upad also pretty high res? And how can you complain about an extra option that you don't have to use? If you want 1080p, you can play it on your big ass TV.

And I think Nintendo knows pretty well what they're doing. They'v been succesful with the DS, Wii and 3DS. The 3DS was a lot more expensive than the other consoles at launch; it does pretty graphics even in 3D.

Most people think that the screen is 854x480, but Nintendo haven't ever released the specs, still, it's not a bad DPi if it is that resolution.