Sony: Wii U is in "Its Own Generation"

[The Wooster]

Sony: Wii U is in "Its Own Generation"

Much like the Wii before it, the Wii U will carve out its own niche, opines Sony boss, Shuhei Yoshida.

The Wii was very much the black sheep of the last console cycle. Despite technically being a part of the same generation as the PS3 and 360, the console more closely resembled the PS2 and original Xbox in terms of graphical power. Despite the hardware handicap - Chris Hecker famously described it as "Two Gamecubes duct taped together" - the Wii absolutely dominated the market thanks to an innovative, casual-friendly control scheme and lower price point. The Wii was the clear victor in the seventh generation console wars, but Sony Worldwide Studios president, Shuhei Yoshida, seems to be trying to get it excluded from the competition on a technicality.

"Personally, I have always thought Wii was in a generation of its own," he told Eurogamer ."I always thought PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 are in the same generation, but Wii was not the same."

"To me, the industry was growing really fast when those three platforms came up because the focus is so different. The PS3 and the 360 were the closest in terms of high definition and networked services. But Wii carved out a large niche to itself. To me, it was like two generations going at the same time."

"Wii U is the next generation of Wii," he added. "That I understand. To me, it's its own generation."

While the Wii U is supposedly slightly more capable than the Xbox 360 and PS3, it seems unlikely that it'll be able to match Microsoft and Sony's next-gen efforts in terms of hardware. Whether that actually matters remains to be seen.

Source:Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-06-14-sony-wii-u-is-its-own-generation]

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[Vault101]

oh...that explains everything

the Wii U is [i/]special[/i]

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I've always thought of the Wii as Nintendo being Nintendo....

But opinions, am I right?

 

[Fasckira]

Thats fine, Nintendo didnt want to be in their club anyway, hes going to start his own club and its going to be even better and super exclusive anyway.

 

[VanQ]

I still think the tablet controller looks awful and the XBox ripoff has the thumbsticks in the wrong places. This will probably be another Nintendo home console I won't give a damn about. Never was a fan of Nintendo's first party games anyway.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

Ah yes, Sony hates admitting they lost so they're just gonna say everybody else isn't actually competing with them so they always win. Unless Sony is beating them of course, then they're competing with them. Sony is such a sore loser.

 

[Vault101]

Thats fine, Nintendo didnt want to be in their club anyway, hes going to start his own club and its going to be even better and super exclusive anyway.

and Nintedo's [b/]mom[/b] says he's cool!....

 

[ima420r]

Ah yes, Sony hates admitting they lost so they're just gonna say everybody else isn't actually competing with them so they always win. Unless Sony is beating them of course, then they're competing with them. Sony is such a sore loser.

So true!

 

[Tanis]

Well at least Sony/Nintendo managed to suck at 'this generation' of handhelds.

I was hoping E3 would sell me on either a 3DS or PSV or both.

Turned out neither company wants my money.

 

[KeyMaster45]

*snip*

I've been meaning to ask, is your avatar of someone holding the decapitated head of an elf?

OT: I rather like that description of "two gamecubes taped together", though to be fair I think that's almost an insult to the gamecube. Nintendo is really gonna have to bring the razzle and dazzle with the WiiU if I'm ever going to buy it; thus far they've failed to produce either. Least they seem to be slowly moving away from that stupid waggle remote.

 

[Tanis]

*snip*

I've been meaning to ask, is your avatar of someone holding the decapitated head of an elf?

How does that look anything like a decapitation?


And, no, it's the main female lead from Crest/Banner of the Stars - an anime series.
Her name is Lafiel, and she's NOT an elf.

 

[Beautiful End]

Actually, that explanation makes a lot of sense. Nintendo's cool, i guess, but it cannot compare to Sony and MS in terms of power, graphics, online multiplayer, etc. So it is its own generation. Well said, sir.

The problem is that Nintendo has a specific market in mind. They try to keep a clean and family-friendly appearance for the most part. That's fine. But on the other hand, you have Sony and MS that attempts to draw everyone in: Casual gamers, hardcore gamers, kids, families, etc. They kinda horde the market. And that's actually pretty smart. It opens up doors for kids who will eventually grow up and might become more than casual gamers.

I see Nintendo as some sort of goody-two-shoes kid who refuses to admit that he needs to change and blames it on the world because they changed. Everything was fine before the cool kids started invading the playground. So THEY should change or gtfo, not Nintendo.

 

[Cy Seller]

I still think the tablet controller looks awful and the XBox ripoff has the thumbsticks in the wrong places.

With regard to thumbsticks....its because of patents.

Im buying it because its the newest thing out there and because black ops 2 is reportedly coming to it. Since it is a new console...im hoping not to see any hackers/cheaters/little weewees in online multiplaying. Then when new systems come out in a year or two...I can sell the wii u on ebay and buy again the newest thing out there.

True gamer here. Wanna play em all.

 

[weirdee]

well, they are changing, it's just really late to do so

frankly i'm tired of people saying "so what" when they are doing it now, as if saying that serves any particular purpose

if anything the other guys should be a little wary of what could happen given that they aren't really rolling in innovation right now and are at a low point in the cycle, and now that nintendo is ready to give it another shot, the cards are being held so close that nobody knows what's coming, and a possible victory for nintendo at their later press event could be very damaging to the holiday prospects for everybody else

nintendo's working their control freak angle to make sure that the goods are delivered on their terms, and even though that's hurt them before, now that they've got a bunch of big names back on their side, they're almost ready to go

let's just hope it was worth it

 

[BrotherRool]

Ah yes, Sony hates admitting they lost so they're just gonna say everybody else isn't actually competing with them so they always win. Unless Sony is beating them of course, then they're competing with them. Sony is such a sore loser.

it's true, but he's also completely right. I think most people compartmented the two things years ago.

I mean it doesn't feel like the Wii stole market share from the other two, because frankly no Wii games were ever released that even slightly interested the majority of 360, PS3 players except for the Nintendo fallbacks. Even then, there are lots of people who'd prefer to play Halo than Zelda. In contrast almost every game a 360 or PS3er plays is also played or wanted to be played by the people of the other console.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I can't wait to own a wii u

 

[Epona]

I still think the tablet controller looks awful and the XBox ripoff has the thumbsticks in the wrong places.

With regard to thumbsticks....its because of patents.

So are you saying that Microsoft stole the thumbstick placement from Nintendo (Gamecube controller) and then put a patent on it?

 

[Epona]

Ah yes, Sony hates admitting they lost so they're just gonna say everybody else isn't actually competing with them so they always win. Unless Sony is beating them of course, then they're competing with them. Sony is such a sore loser.

Then why didn't they say the same about the 360?