Wii U Power Unlikely to Amaze, Says Miyamoto

[Logan Westbrook]

Wii U Power Unlikely to Amaze, Says Miyamoto

Finding the sweet spot between power and price is harder than it looks, says the Mario creator.

Shigeru Miyamoto says that while the Wii U's hardware will be more powerful than the Xbox 360 or PS3, it's unlikely to be that much more powerful. He says that Nintendo is trying very hard to strike a balance between the system's raw power and its price tag, perhaps more so than any other platform holder.

Miyamoto said that, as an entertainment company, Nintendo was very sensitive to pricing concerns, as consumers only had so much money to spend on entertainment products. He explained that cost was especially important with regard to parents buying things for their children, as there was a price threshold that they were reluctant to cross.

Nintendo's efforts to cut costs has already seen DVD and Blu-Ray playback nixed, and a limit [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111117-Wii-U-Controller-Limitations-to-Save-on-Costs-Says-Nintendo] of one touch screen controller per system imposed. "We're trying to do that by finding the right balance," he said. "Between the CPU and the GPU, the graphics processor, and bringing all of that together with the ability to take advantage of the HD capabilities of the system, and wanting to do the most that we can on that front as well."

"I don't know that we would be able to sit here and say that it's going to necessarily dramatically outperform the systems that are out now. It's part of the balance that we strike in terms of trying to find entertainment that is new and unique," he continued.

Keeping costs down is a sensible goal, but if it means that the Wii U only brings Nintendo level with its rivals, it may leave the company in a difficult position in the future. The company has already admitted that the Wii's lack of power made it hard to get third party titles onto the console, and Nintendo may find itself in that situation again if Sony and Microsoft's new consoles are a significant step up from current technology.

Source: Gamespot [http://e3.gamespot.com/story/6320234/e3-2011-miyamoto-speaks-his-mind]




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[therandombear]

I'll have to agree, better to have a balance between power and price tag then have another incident of "599 US dollars"

 

[Tom Hill]

Nintendo created its own product with the wii, it was not in direct competition with the 360 and ps3.

By making it in the same league it may backfire, as people stop seeing it as a family friendly toy and more like a console.

 

[XxSummonerxX]

I'm not looking forward to the Wii U. It seems to me to be another gimmick. Now that they're saying it's going to be hell expensive, or cutting down on production funding cost thingies... no.

 

[Smooth Operator]

And I have a 2 foot snake in my pants, really I do.

Until we get some hard specs on this WiiU or some proper benchmarks I believe nothing anymore.
And that single controller limit is still dumb, you crippled the console for it's entire lifespan with that.

 

[EvilRoy]

I don't think I will get it personally, but slowing down the technology I can really get behind. I often wonder if the reason videogames are so 'safe' these days is because the price to produce a AAA product these days is just too much to warrant the risk. Maybe letting game developers and producers catch up to dealing with current technology will let us see more unique ideas.

 

[hyzaku]

And I have a 2 foot snake in my pants, really I do.

Until we get some hard specs on this WiiU or some proper benchmarks I believe nothing anymore.
And that single controller limit is still dumb, you crippled the console for it's entire lifespan with that.

I have to agree. Any console should support at least two controllers and no fewer. Limiting to a single controller prevents any form of local multiplayer and that just seems the wrong direction for Nintendo of companies to take. Kind of hard to be family friendly when only one person can play at a time no matter what game you play.

 

[NightHawk21]

And I have a 2 foot snake in my pants, really I do.

Until we get some hard specs on this WiiU or some proper benchmarks I believe nothing anymore.
And that single controller limit is still dumb, you crippled the console for it's entire lifespan with that.

I'm pretty sure they released the specs a while ago. That being said, it may be more powerful but it has to run a bunch more shit between a whole different image process on the controller and whatnot.

 

[Dabono]

Hmmm.. although I quite liked the move to ensnare the casual gamer with the Wii, I think it's gonna bite them this time.

I mean, the hardcore gamer has disappointedly let his Wii gather dust. The casual gamer is still happily playing Kirby's Epic Yawn or whatever.

 

[The.Bard]

The more I hear about WiiU the more I question its existence. It really feels like Nintendo realized the Wii gold mine was completely depleted, and now it's just scrambling at ways to justify this slapdashed monstrosity of a console.

By weakening the power, you are removing a major reason for purchase. We own 360s and PS3s. You can't make a current gen competing product SIX YEARS INTO THE CYCLE unless you want to make it <$200, and even then, you're pushing it.

Instead of a $400-500(?) powerhouse that the hardcore gamer will jump on like a puma, you're delivering a $200-300(?) hardware redundancy.... with one ipad knockoff for everyone to fight over. Yay.

And since Nintendo hates $1 apps, I'm sure they won't sell anything for less than $30.

I will lose ALL faith in this industry if this PoS sells. At all. It has "bad idea" scribbled on it in crayon, scrawled upon it with a rusty nail, and finally dripped upon it in BLOOOOOOOOOOOOD.

 

[JoJo]

And I have a 2 foot snake in my pants, really I do.

Until we get some hard specs on this WiiU or some proper benchmarks I believe nothing anymore.
And that single controller limit is still dumb, you crippled the console for it's entire lifespan with that.

I have to agree. Any console should support at least two controllers and no fewer. Limiting to a single controller prevents any form of local multiplayer and that just seems the wrong direction for Nintendo of companies to take. Kind of hard to be family friendly when only one person can play at a time no matter what game you play.

Apparently a second player can still play, but they have to use a regular wii-mote rather than a touchscreen controller.

 

[Sneaky-Pie]

The success of this system comes down to the games and how the new features are implemented in them.

In the end, gameplay will decide who is king.

 

[The Lugz]

I'll have to agree, better to have a balance between power and price tag then have another incident of "599 US dollars"

wait, wait... so you mean this

'will not be 599 us dollars' ? where did we hear that one before

anyway, as long as it's at least as powerful as the other current consoles it should be able to play the games ( and really more importantly make good use of the game engines ) that are currently around so i don't see an issue, in fact if m$$$ and sony update their consoles, and Nintendo continue to support the same software comparabilities the wii-u may become MORE popular as a platform for developers ( and thus have allot more titles to choose from, and encourage indie development ) because it will hit the price sweet-spot and they wont have to re-tool for new platforms ( or create horribly optimised games )

my advice is invest in Nintendo, right now while prices are cheap.

 

[Cursed Frogurt]

After all the cost-cutting they are doing, I'm going to be pissed if this thing sells for more than $250.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

makes sense; Nintendo is far more concerned with making sure people can afford the damn thing over jerking off graphical quality that, let's face it, is swiftly hitting its ceiling. I don't see Sony and MS' next offerings looking THAT much better than the current generation and I wonder if by the time they DO come out with the PS4 and NextBox that Nintendo won't already have their next system ready for launch.

 

[KeyMaster45]

As has been said multiple times by Nintendo, and even showed at their E3 conference, the WiiU will support multiple Wiimotes/Classic controllers, as well as the WiiU controller. Meaning local multiplayer will still be an option for anyone who wishes to play HD Super Smash Bros.

But it's only going to support ONE WiiU controller. That right there nixes an entire world of local multiplayer possibilities. The single biggest draw of the console is made ineffective and pointless; it turns it into a solo play gimmick. When you put out a console it should be able to support local multiplayer for it's own controller. This business of telling players to just use the older generation controllers is ridiculous and is nothing more than poor design on Nintendo's part. It acts as something of an admission that they know their older stuff is better than the newer. It would be okay to support the older controllers if it were only for the purpose of backwards compatibility with other systems but what they're doing is using old controllers to play games for the new system.

As for this announcement by Miyamoto, I think it only serves to lower any confidence I may have had that the system won't be a poorly made pile of crap like the Wii was.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

After all the cost-cutting they are doing, I'm going to be pissed if this thing sells for more than $250.

It'll probably be 300-400 so prepared to be 'pissed'.

As for the limited controllers, the only thing limited is the number of WiiU special controllers, which function more as a peripheral then an actual controller. Frankly i'd rather have ninteno being honest about their specs and situation than to blow it out of proportion like ..oh...everyone else did about theirs.

Personally I think this is a very good move by Nintendo. The WiiU is just different enough and comes with enough core games to justify purchasing it at a somewhat higher price. Meanwhile, if the other big two launch new consoles, unless they proceed very carefully Nintendo will once again be the cheapest alternative (as I doubt their launch prices will be lower than the WiiU launch price, or at least not it's price at the point they launch their Ps4's and Xbox1080's and what have you), meaning people on a budget will go for the WiiU- which will have a built in/much stronger support of games with Nintendo Exsclusives as well as the 3rd party games that are coming out for it.

Besides, the other Big 2, or at least Sony, took such a hit on production cost that they aren't launching new consoles any time soon, and even if they did, where could they really go from here in hardware terms? The console graphics/arms race is drawing to a close, thank god, because i'm tired of all the initial generation games on every console being shitty tech demo's. It's only now, later in their lifecycles, that boundaries of what the systems can handle are being pushed.

As for this announcement by Miyamoto, I think it only serves to lower any confidence I may have had that the system won't be a poorly made pile of crap like the Wii was.

A poorly made pile of crap that made them b-b-b-billions. Deride it if you like, everyones entitled to an opinion and yours isn't necessarily wrong, but money talks and bullshit walks.

Anyway, at least Nintendo is looking at different angles for innovation, even if they're the WRONG ones (controls)

 

[GonzoGamer]

I don't think I will get it personally, but slowing down the technology I can really get behind. I often wonder if the reason videogames are so 'safe' these days is because the price to produce a AAA product these days is just too much to warrant the risk. Maybe letting game developers and producers catch up to dealing with current technology will let us see more unique ideas.

I'm with you there.
The games seem to have gone up in price and down in content. If you do want a lot of content for your game, you need to spend another $50 in dlc. Another jump in tech will only make it worse.
Consoles are supposed to be cheaper than gaming rigs. That's one of the main points. I'm glad at least one console developer is keeping that in mind.

 

[Scrustle]

Not surprising, it was expected. It runs games that run on the PS3 and 360 so it's going to be on the same level as them.