Wii Hardware Only 1.5 Times More Powerful Than Gamecube

[Junaid Alam]

Wii Hardware Only 1.5 Times More Powerful Than Gamecube

Newsweek's gaming blog teamed up with a hardware review web site to analyze the Nintendo Wii's hardware capabilities and found it has made few strides since the Gamecube.

Beyond3D.com, which undertook the technical investigation, noted that Nintendo constantly downplayed the importance of system technical specifications. Nintendo has cast its product as virtually immune from such measurements by focusing attention on the extent to which the gaming experience depends on its software quality and its patented control scheme.

The analysis says Nintendo released scarce details on what kind of hardware really powers the Wii. It says the system "has no notable increases in programmability" with respect to its graphics processing unit - which in this case also houses the southbridge and audio processing. It is clocked 50 percent faster but employs the same memory and similar architecture.

The analysis concludes, in essence:

"To summarize, while the PS3 and the Xbox 360 are both at least an order of magnitude faster than their predecessors, the Wii has the processing power of one-and-a-half GameCubes with no noteworthy increases in functionality."

The report further says, "Developers have even told us that the transition guide (for GameCube developers moving to the Wii) is 10 pages long and contains only very minor changes."

While few gamers suspected the Wii was on par with the PS3 or 360 on a technical level, the decidedly limited technology of the Wii raises the question of its longevity when the prices of competing consoles will presumably fall - or if they release their own unique control schemes.

Source: Newsweek [http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/levelup/archive/2007/09/24/is-wii-really-gamecube-one-point-five-yes-says-beyond3d.aspx]

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[ZippyDSMlee]

And this is news? the system is a bit more powerful than the Xbox it also can do alil more with its hardware add some of the best dev kit support and you have the make up for great 2nd and 3rd party games at least when companies give a damn to make a solid title
>>

If anythign keeping the creation/programing "simple" devs er pubs will love the system from a dev time/launch perspective.

Which means more crappy mediocre games on the WII than any other system,kinda like the PS2 in that respect.

 

[Junaid Alam]

It's news because apparently no one had taken apart before and analyzed the internals from a reporting aspect.

It was also mentioned that it's actually problematic to do anti-aliasing on it so the shader/graphics prowess may be worse than the Xbox's.

 

[Goofonian]

Which means more crappy mediocre games on the WII than any other system,kinda like the PS2 in that respect.

From my experience in working video game retail, more shovelware also means more kids licences (movies, spongebob, bratz etc). Every christmas, the PS2 sold many many more units to parents that would buy a few crappy kids games, than to gamers looking to get god of war or GTA.

Couple this in with the fact that the wii is always going to be the cheapest console by a long shot and I reckon we've pretty much found this generations "winner", at least as far as raw sales numbers are concerned.

 

[Ajar]

Nintendo have got to be rolling in cash. Hardly any R&D on the actual console, just on the motion sensing controller, so they can probably sell the thing not just at a profit, but at a really good profit. It's a crazy mixed-up world when $30 more gets you an order of magnitude increase in processing power under the hood (in the form of an Xbox 360 Core), but it goes to show that horsepower just isn't what people care about, as long as it's "good enough."

 

[Stakker]

So, what do you think about Nintendo releasing a WiiToo? If the new Wii was significantly different, then that would present a problem with new Wii games not being compatible with the old Wii of course. But if they made a WiiPlus that could render in HD. Developers wouldn't have to go through much trouble to make the same game compatible with both. Or some solution in between these two... WiiDeluxe

Nintendo has traditionally had an upgrade path. SNES had the SuperFX carts and N64 had the RAM expansion, which enabled much better graphics. Cube had the expansion port below it, even though it was only used for the GBA player. It doesn't look like the Wii has an expansion port though.

But forward compatibility didn't work with different Game Boys and it didn't matter one bit. Neither did the fact that they were always underpowered compared to competitors.

 

[Lex Darko]

This webcomic [http://www.2pstart.com/2007/03/14/the-truth-is-revealed/] never stops being relevant. I think the last [http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/15/wii-manufacturing-costs-ring-up-to-just-158/] analysis of price of the manufacturing [http://kotaku.com/gaming/wii/wii-autopsy-discovers-manufacturing-cost-221736.php] of the Wii was around 160 dollars [http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20061215092033.html]. But everyone already knew the Wii was a gamecube [http://wii.ign.com/articles/771/771051p1.html], just that everyone who called it that was automatically just called a fanboy or said to insane and blown off I guess now it's safe to call it that now without having rabid nintendo fans over running you.

 

[Arbre]

Hecker was wrong. The Wii is not "two GameCubes stuck together with duct tape".
Only one and a half.

Nintendo have got to be rolling in cash. Hardly any R&D on the actual console, just on the motion sensing controller, so they can probably sell the thing not just at a profit, but at a really good profit. It's a crazy mixed-up world when $30 more gets you an order of magnitude increase in processing power under the hood (in the form of an Xbox 360 Core), but it goes to show that horsepower just isn't what people care about, as long as it's "good enough."

You have to count the amount of bucks they put into the ads, though.
It's no surprise though. We've seen lots of not that top notch products which sold well because of a strong marketing support, and the buzz machine doing the rest of the work.

So, what do you think about Nintendo releasing a WiiToo? If the new Wii was significantly different, then that would present a problem with new Wii games not being compatible with the old Wii of course. But if they made a WiiPlus that could render in HD. Developers wouldn't have to go through much trouble to make the same game compatible with both. Or some solution in between these two... WiiDeluxe

Nintendo has traditionally had an upgrade path. SNES had the SuperFX carts and N64 had the RAM expansion, which enabled much better graphics. Cube had the expansion port below it, even though it was only used for the GBA player. It doesn't look like the Wii has an expansion port though.

But forward compatibility didn't work with different Game Boys and it didn't matter one bit. Neither did the fact that they were always underpowered compared to competitors.

I can see the next Wii DVDs coming with Super FX chipsets fused onto them.
Oh my god! Starfox with a wiimote!
*drools*

Anyway, the Wii doesn't sell for graphics, does it?

There are interesting ideas to exploit with the wiimote, but I'm not sure they're worth millions of bucks though.

 

[Stakker]

Wii is a brand. The balance board proved that for good. What's inside the box is quite irrelevant for the main target market. The Wiimote is also irrelevant in itself. Brand is what matters. Nintendo has stepped outside of the gaming industry into the entertainment industry.

How much Nintendo will be investing resources into pleasing us gamer types is still the big mystery (at least to me). I would definitely love to play Metroid Prime 3 (when it finally comes out in PAL-land...) with PS3 horsepower, but with Wii controls. It's that kind of a game. Mario Galaxy, on the other hand, looks so good that I don't think more GFX power would do it much good. With the exception of better resolution.

You can make good looking games on the Wii, but you are limited in the palette of styles and things like realtime physics etc. Then again, visual style and genre experimentation has been very rare in the game industry so far, so there's lots to still explore out there.

 

[Arbre]

Yes, Galaxy looks nice, with the sort of Fresnel effect.
There are many styles which can be explored, however they don't make games. It's not like your were making flyers, video clips for artists or TV show openings.

How far can the 2D be pushed on the Wii?

There's a sad part, in that if you want to play the old games that you downloaded, notably play with 3 or 4 people, you're bound to buy a classic controller ($20) and a wiimote ($40) for each extra player.

With 4 players, you get a total of $200. Just to play a GC/N64 multiplayer game with your pals.
They need to do something about that, because it's horribly expensive, especially for a console that aims at community experiences.

 

[imcaseyimhott [deprecated]]

If you are buying the Wii for its graphics you have been misled. Nintendo OPENLY admitted the system was just a little stronger than the gamecube, yet the system is loads of fun, and I had a choice between the 3 systems as first purchase, and picked the Wii on release date. I was not disappointed at all. My next purchase will definitely be a PS3, I know it received a lot of hard press, even from me, but after playing a multitude of games at a friend's house, I must say it blows the 360 out of the water.

 

[Goofonian]

My next purchase will definitely be a PS3, I know it received a lot of hard press, even from me, but after playing a multitude of games at a friend's house, I must say it blows the 360 out of the water.

This is not the first time I've heard someone say this. And I just don't understand it.
The PS3 has good games, yes. But so does the 360. And at this point in time the 360 has a whole boat load more because its been around for a lot longer. When I go down to EB I see the PS3 sitting on the shelf for AUD$1000 and all the games are $90 and up, then I see the 360 for $600 with games as cheap as $30 brand new (Kameo, PD0 and viva pinata) and quite a few AAA games for $50. Even ignoring the larger library I can't see that any supposed increase in quality is worth the extra cost. Unless your out to get a bluray player of course.