Ubisoft: Wii U is "Surprisingly Powerful"

[slacker2]

Vague anecdotes that don't mean anything.

Give us the specs an we'll decide weather or not it's "surprisingly powerful", ubisoft.

 

[Towowo]

So were comparing Wii U specs to theoretical consoles from Microsoft and Sony?
Do you all have a crystal ball I'm missing out on?

 

[NLS]

Soooo, whenever the next Xbox or Playstation is announced, everyone is gonna be like "Hey whatever man, anything is comparatively better than 7 year old tech, plus, the next console from Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo is gonna blow the shit out of [enter console] once it hits the market in the next 5-7 years or so."

Come on, give it a chance ffs.

 

[LostintheWick]

Powered by the souls of 14years old interns...
I sure hope it's "surprisingly powerful"

 

[AlwaysPractical]

Yes, let's compare something that comes out next month what might come out two-three years down the road and ask if it'll go toe-to-toe with it. Because that's terribly relevant.

Well no, the new xbox is announced for september 2013 and the ps4 is said by some sources to come in march 2014. Warren Spectre, who made Epic Mickey, says that smartphones will be more powerful than those two in a few years. It's not impossible that we see a smartphone that's more powerful than the WiiU before mid-2013. Which is pretty sad.

 

[slacker2]

Specs sure are the most important part of a console /Sarcasm/
OT: It's funny that console gamers call pc gamers graphics whores who only care about specs when the same thing is happening here the other way around.

The only thing that is funny is you berating people for talking about specs and graphics in a thread about specs and graphics based on an article that discusses specs and graphics.

 

[Shadowstar38]

Yes. The Wii-U sounds comparatively powerful.

...Until the other next-gen consoles come out and blow it out of the water as far as capabilities go.

1) We know exactly Jack and Shit about how powerful or non-powerful Sony and Microsoft are electing to go with their next consoles.

2) Considering just how much money was lost by both companies on production of their consoles, I'd be very surprised if either of them decide to go the uber-tech heavy route again next time round. Sure, they've been making a profit for the last year or two, but that's offset against the hundreds and millions, if not billions, they sank into R&D and selling at a loss at the start of the gen. The fact that Sony had to lay 10,000 staff off a while ago should tell you just how great their financials are. The fact that the Vita still hasn't taken off, despite all it's shiny high-end tech, will also be ringing warning sirens at Sony HQ. Quite simply, Sony cannot afford to lose money on another tech-heavy console. The PS3 nearly sank them at the start of the console race. The Vita is currently losing them money now. If they released another expensive, tech-heavy console now and it flopped, it would ruin them.

As for Microsoft, they've been pimping the 360 more as a Kinect machine and a media hub for the last few years. They're bound to go down this route even more.

Lesson number one in business: if you're selling consoles moderately well, but losing money on them, and your competitor is selling consoles like hot-cakes and making a profit from day one, which business strategy are your shareholders going to want you to take next time round?

In short, don't just assume that the PS4 and 360 are going to be gaming behemoths when it comes to specs. Both Sony and Microsoft have shown that they're incredibly desperate to break into Nintendo's casual-friendly demographic, and neither company is going to be particularly enamoured with the idea of losing yet more billions on loss-leader economic strategies. Not in the current economy, when most gamers have far less to spend than they once did. We've got next to nothing to go on, so there's no way you can say for sure that either company will 'blow the Wii U out of the water'. Will they be higher-spec? Probably. Will they be a quantum leap above the Wii U? I doubt it.

I simply followed a pattern. The Wii was the least powerful spec-wise this gen. Now the Wii-U is just catching up and Microsoft and Sony have had years to expand on their tech so it can surpass their own 6 year old machines. Business wise, it'd make sense to scale back on the hardware, but given all this, I'm fairly certain they'll still be leagues ahead of the Wii-U when they're released.

 

[Towowo]

I simply followed a pattern. The Wii was the least powerful spec-wise this gen. Now the Wii-U is just catching up and Microsoft and Sony have had years to expand on their tech so it can surpass their own 6 year old machines. Business wise, it'd make sense to scale back on the hardware, but given all this, I'm fairly certain they'll still be leagues ahead of the Wii-U when they're released.

Nintendo having weaker hardware than it's competitors isn't exactly a consistant thing. The N64 was arguably the most powerful of it's generation, The GameCube was maybe in the middle compared to the Xbox1 and PS2.

 

[Shadowstar38]

MotherofGod.jpeg

Well that effectivly /thread this thing.

From your enthusiasm, I'm guessing you'll be one of the people getting it at launch?

 

[klaynexas3]

Comparing a Nintendo product's hardware specs to most anything else is the dumbest idea ever for trying to sell the product. If you want to sell the Wii U, stop talking about how powerful it is, because it will be shit by the next month in terms of specs. Talk about its strengths, like how well they would be able to implement the touch screen, which was a hell of a lot more innovative than that last innovation they tried to pull. Seriously, I think the Wii U will be a damn good console, just not for making amazing games graphically speaking.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

Yes, let's compare something that comes out next month what might come out two-three years down the road and ask if it'll go toe-to-toe with it. Because that's terribly relevant.

Well no, the new xbox is announced for september 2013 and the ps4 is said by some sources to come in march 2014. Warren Spectre, who made Epic Mickey, says that smartphones will be more powerful than those two in a few years. It's not impossible that we see a smartphone that's more powerful than the WiiU before mid-2013. Which is pretty sad.

1: ... I googled that; I can't find any information on the Nextbox that isn't a rumor. Odds are, the Nextbox won't come out until the same time the PS4 does, and the odds are that would come out late 2014-2015. So, unless you can find me some concrete evidence of the September 2013 Nextbox, I will simply say your wrong.

2: I also googled that, and the only things I can find about Warren Spector and Smart Phones is that the future of gaming relies on connectivity between them and Consoles [http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/13/spector-believes-the-future-of-games-lies-in-connectivity-between-consoles-and-smartphones/], not that Smartphones are gonna surpass Consoles. Plus, a Smartphone > Console? Laughable for 2013. I bet it they won't get there till 2020.

All around, I think your pretty wrong.

OT: So excited for the WiiU. I really hope it's not a repeat of the Wii. Graphic Wise, I don't think it will be, but game wise, it all depends on the Hardcore market buying the WiiU.

 

[Fireprufe15]

Yes, let's compare something that comes out next month what might come out two-three years down the road and ask if it'll go toe-to-toe with it. Because that's terribly relevant.

Well no, the new xbox is announced for september 2013 and the ps4 is said by some sources to come in march 2014. Warren Spectre, who made Epic Mickey, says that smartphones will be more powerful than those two in a few years. It's not impossible that we see a smartphone that's more powerful than the WiiU before mid-2013. Which is pretty sad.

Duuudee, just no.
1) There is no new xbox announced yet, and definitely not for a date so specific.
2) The way it's going over at Sony, I highly doubt that they will have a new console by 2014.
3) There are not going to be smartphones more powerfull than the WiiU by mid-2013. That's a pretty bold statement to make. It's getting there, but I'd say maybe we will have smartphones on the spec level of today's console by 2015 at the earliest.

 

[Vigormortis]

snip

Finally! Someone looking at this from an informed and (mostly) objective point-of-view. It really chaps my hide to see so many people just dismissing the Wii-U because of their distaste for the Wii.

Also, there's one thing about this whole discussion, in this very thread in fact, that makes me laugh. And I'm talking teary-eyed, full-hearted guffawing.

Many of the people you'll see dismissing and deriding the Wii-U, based on it's graphical "inferiority", are the same people who will go into a console-vs-PC discussion and say, "Graphics don't matter. Having the best tech isn't important."

The hypocrisy is so thick it's a wonder they aren't drowning.

 

[Baresark]

I think this is an interesting subject. People are expecting a big jump in the next generation, but I don't think it's gonna happen. The DX11 features that come out with the next PS and XBOX will be a fraction of what my computer can do now. There isn't a huge jump in the works like people think.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Yes, let's compare something that comes out next month what might come out two-three years down the road and ask if it'll go toe-to-toe with it. Because that's terribly relevant.

But.. but.. it's more powerful than things that came out 4/5 years ago too!

Yeah, sorry Ubisoft. It's always good to play nice and make smart PR statements so I'll give you that, but this is hardly convincing.

 

[BloodRed Pixel]

At least the Wii U will be a REAL gaming console and not the next best "PC in a box with TV" spin-off wannabe.

Heck, my Laptop is more powerful than anything MS or Sony has put up. Plus the games are cheaper and I don't have to cope with fragging online passes, beached user interfaces and oppressive firmware updates, uncensord internet access and it's portable, thanks.

360 and PS3/ VITA did not revolutionize the console market or games for that matter, they drove the truck off the cliff.

 

[Saegrim]

Even if we don't know how well the Wii U does with 3D games, we can at least rest in the knowledge that the 2D games will look and run great. Perhaps it might end up allowing 2D games to take up a sizeable chunk of the AAA game lineup.
On the Wii U, at least. If they're quality, it'll likely influence me to become more interested in the system. I'm personally thinking optimistically regarding the system in general, but I don't have an interest in purchasing one meself. Too many titles to go through for the current gen.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Yes, let's compare something that comes out next month what might come out two-three years down the road and ask if it'll go toe-to-toe with it. Because that's terribly relevant.

Considering it will have to go toe-to-toe with it for several years, yeah, it is kinda relevant. If the WiiU will be obsolete the day the Ps4 and Xbox 720 come out, thats a problem.

That's what I was thinking. It'll probably grab most of the cross-platform games released in its first year, and hopefully manage to hold on to those franchises, but any new IPs after that may be Xbox/PlayStation only.

It depends on just how far behind they end up being and how ambitious developers get. Anything that players can't discern on a 1080p screen from several feet away won't matter, so having to pack lower resolution textures onto the WiiU version of a game compared to the others probably won't be a huge deal. But then you get into other advancements like draw distance and progressive loading, and those are mostly heavy on RAM. Which unfortunately is where the WiiU falls short with its puny one gigabyte. Once you take system software into account, that's probably less than triple what the Xbox 360 has, and less than a third of what even a low-end PC has to spare.

 

[Sylveria]

Wasn't Ubisoft the one who was bitching not too long ago about how we need a new console gen because we need consoles that are even better than current top-end PCs? And now they're singing the praises of something that's only slightly more powerful than the existing big boys?

 

[Fireprufe15]

Definitely want a Wii-U (Won't get one till Christmas) and I am considering Assassins Creed III for it! I love AC and I want to play the best version of 3 possible! I am also stoked about Zombi-U and other games!

Then get it on PC. (If it's optimised well, it will be the best)