Wii U announced.

[ambershee]

From what I gather, the hardware should actually be leaps and bounds ove the 360 and the Ps3 - and because they're releasing it now (two years ahead of the competition), they'll be keeping themselves in a prime position to release their next set of hardware in between Sony and MSs next set. Essentially it lets them produce a 'mid-generation' console and not suffer the same 'loss-leader' that their rivals do.

 

[dragonfliet]

From what I gather, the hardware should actually be leaps and bounds ove the 360 and the Ps3 - and because they're releasing it now (two years ahead of the competition), they'll be keeping themselves in a prime position to release their next set of hardware in between Sony and MSs next set. Essentially it lets them produce a 'mid-generation' console and not suffer the same 'loss-leader' that their rivals do.

Not a single screen or video indicates it will be any more powerful than a 360 or ps3. It looks like it can compete with the current gen, but is in no way a step forward. Further, no dev is going to put more work into the weeooo version of the game with no install base and a non-hardcore audience, especially with a new gen being probably two years or so away

 

[KillerSkaarj]

Not a single screen or video indicates it will be any more powerful than a 360 or ps3. It looks like it can compete with the current gen, but is in no way a step forward.

It might not surpass it, but it sure as hell looks just as good. Remember this is a Nintendo system we're talking about. Ninty's consoles aren't known for being graphically impressive, and yet here we have such a system. Besides, the console was only just revealed, so naturally the graphics capabilities at the moment are not representative of the true graphical potential of the system.

Further, no dev is going to put more work into the weeooo version of the game with no install base and a non-hardcore audience, especially with a new gen being probably two years or so away

Non-hardcore audience? Seriously? Why so quick to make a judgement like that?

 

[Darkdrium]

Because "hardcore" people either have a 360 or PS3 already (Or they are significantly behind), and the controller gimmick is utterly uninteresting for that type of person anyways.

 

[KillerSkaarj]

Because "hardcore" people either have a 360 or PS3 already

And.... your point? This isn't for the people who already have 360s and PS3s, its for the people that Nintendo has almost completely neglected for the past 5 years.

and the controller gimmick is utterly uninteresting for that type of person anyways.

I dunno, people seemed to accept the HD gimmick pretty quickly so why not this?

 

[ambershee]

It's already in the open that it's carrying IBMs new 45nm cell processor and a 40nm AMD GPU (HD5000/HD6000 series have this, so it's a reasonable assumption to assume it's similar to these).

Common sense also dictates that it will as a bare minimum have more memory available to it than the 360 and Ps3. Memory was at a premium in the previous generation due to a variety of factors that limited the supply of memory (such as major earthquakes damaging production).

The 360 has 512mb of memory shared between the system and GPU, and the Ps3 has 256mb dedicated to the GPU with 256mb shared between the system and GPU. The cost of purchasing 512mb of PC3200 memory as a consumer would have been in the region of $80 in 2005. The Wii had 128mb shared between CPU and GPU.

These days you can pick up 1Gb of PC3-10600 for about $10. If Nintendo didn't capitalise on that and only used as much system memory as the 360/ps3, they'd be incredibly foolish - and I don't believe that they are.

A console manufactured now could easy have 4Gb or more of total memory with a fraction of the release cost of the 360/ps3. This will help them keep in the running as a viable platform for multiplatform games when the MS/Sony do make their new hardware available, even if the CPU/GPU is less up to par.

 

[Darkdrium]

And.... your point?

Well if these neglected people don't already have a PS3 or 360 then they are sheep.

I dunno, people seemed to accept the HD gimmick pretty quickly so why not this?

I'm not saying it won't be accepted, I'm saying it's uninteresting. There's a difference.
Motion control is a gimmick as well. Widely accepted, but still uninteresting to hardcore gamers.
Finally, HD resolutions and quality are an important upgrade. It benefits everything from music to video-games. I hardly see how this satisfies the definition of gimmick (Unique or quirky feature to stand out from the competition.)

 

[ambershee]

I've just heard that you won't be able to buy the controllers separately from the console, and you get one controller per console. Apparently for multiplayer games other players have to use Wiimotes. All the strength of the additional screen of the controller has pretty much fizzled, as IMHO, use in multiplayer to hide player critical info from other players just got lost.

 

[Capt.Toilet]

I've just heard that you won't be able to buy the controllers separately from the console, and you get one controller per console. Apparently for multiplayer games other players have to use Wiimotes. All the strength of the additional screen of the controller has pretty much fizzled, as IMHO, use in multiplayer to hide player critical info from other players just got lost.

Well with a controller like that, I would be expecting close to a $100 dollars a pop. That wouldn't fly for anyone I would think.

Also I can not understand all the hate Nintendo is getting over the new console. God forbid if they try to be unique over everyone else instead of just making an HD box.

 

[ambershee]

I think it may be a technical limitation; the main console does all the hard rendering and streams the video to the controller. Bandwidth might be only able to really support one controller (but then do all displays really need to be updated like video in a multiplayer game?).

 

[BillyBadAss]

Also I can not understand all the hate Nintendo is getting over the new console. God forbid if they try to be unique over everyone else instead of just making an HD box.

Agreed. Why there is so much butt hurt for Nintendo is beyond me. If anything they have helped bring in a whole new audience into gaming. Thus further preventing a 1984 scenario again. I have no hate for them. The motion controllers are fun for when you have friends over and are drinking. Stupid fun gaming happens at that point.

 

[dragonfliet]

And.... your point? This isn't for the people who already have 360s and PS3s, its for the people that Nintendo has almost completely neglected for the past 5 years.

But the only people that nintendoo has neglected are the 360/ps3 owners. There already have the wii, which appeals to the casual audience, and that's what this system is going to do as well. No one has really been neglecte (unless you are assuming that less pretty games is neglect) and nothing is really going to change. They're bringing games like bf3 to the system, but by the time it launches they'll be old and stale comparatively.

While nintendo is bringing an upgrade to the market, there is no reason to believe they'll be investing in anything other than the casual market that has brought them all of their success in the last few hardware generations. This means no real push for harcore games, an emphasis on the hardware gimmicks, overpriced hardware and a system that will be outdated tech the year after it launches. If they aren't showing anything that is graphically interesting now, when every system reveal (including nintendo) does so, you can bet that nothing is really going to change.

So yeah, ambershee, hardware is cheaper now, but don't expect anything beyond current hardware specs, but rather something that will be comparable--something where third parties can put out games for all 3 systems at the same time (and again, they aren't going to spend more time and money on the concole with the smallest install base by some fifty million units that will soon be left in the dust when sony and ms launch their sucessors in 2013 or 2014) and will allow them to profit off of the hardware (something that is important to nintendo, unlike the competitors at launch).

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Agreed. Why there is so much butt hurt for Nintendo is beyond me. If anything they have helped bring in a whole new audience into gaming. Thus further preventing a 1984 scenario again. I have no hate for them. The motion controllers are fun for when you have friends over and are drinking. Stupid fun gaming happens at that point.

Even Nintendo has admitted, though , that that didn't translate into the expected amount of software sales. So, obviously, plenty of people bought their Wii and then lost interest in it fairly quickly.

The real problem is that it's hard to have a device that caters to the casual and then charge $50 for each game. Whether the games are worth that price or not, casual gamers probably aren't nearly as likely to pay it.

 

[KillerSkaarj]

I've just heard that you won't be able to buy the controllers separately from the console, and you get one controller per console. Apparently for multiplayer games other players have to use Wiimotes. All the strength of the additional screen of the controller has pretty much fizzled, as IMHO, use in multiplayer to hide player critical info from other players just got lost.

That makes sense though because with such an expensive controller nobody would want to buy extras for friends that don't have a WiiU. As for friends that do have one, well, I get the feeling Nintendo has that covered with vastly improved online functionality akin to that of Xbox Live. Knowing Nintendo, it'll probably be free, with an option for a "Plus" version coming later on.

But the only people that nintendoo has neglected are the 360/ps3 owners. There already have the wii, which appeals to the casual audience, and that's what this system is going to do as well. No one has really been neglecte (unless you are assuming that less pretty games is neglect) and nothing is really going to change.

So apparently people that have been with Nintendo most of their lives that were cast aside by the recent generation are not hardcore gamers, huh? The people that have enjoyed hardcore 3rd-party titles on a Nintendo system in the past but were not able to because the Wii was a casual system? That really hit a nerve with the long-time Nintendo fan in me. PS3/360 is not the only hardcore fanbase, Nintendo has one too, and those same people are whom Nintendo is targeting the new system to AS WELL AS casuals. They want to appeal to the crowd that they neglected while still tapping the casual market. Kinda like Sony and Microsoft are doing with Move and Kinect.

The technology is outdated? By whose standards? How do you know the system is targeted specifically towards casuals when it's clearly also getting hardcore titles like the other two bloody systems? How do you know it's overpriced when it hasn't even been priced yet?

F**king videogames man, Srs bznz.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

I would like to point out that the Wii got "hardcore" games, too. There have been several Call of Duty games and lots of other games from series' that are considered hardcore... but the Wii games were not.

 

[KillerSkaarj]

I would like to point out that the Wii got "hardcore" games, too. There have been several Call of Duty games and lots of other games from series' that are considered hardcore... but the Wii games were not.

Because 1) Those games were usually god-awful, lazy ports, and 2) The Wii was a casual system and most of the cool features that the other versions had were stripped away because of the Wii's limited capabilities. WiiU on the other hand is supposed to be Nintendo's answer to the 360 and PS3, thus you could consider it hardcore because it most likely will not get limited ports like Wii did.

 

[Capt.Toilet]

Even Nintendo has admitted, though , that that didn't translate into the expected amount of software sales. So, obviously, plenty of people bought their Wii and then lost interest in it fairly quickly.

The real problem is that it's hard to have a device that caters to the casual and then charge $50 for each game. Whether the games are worth that price or not, casual gamers probably aren't nearly as likely to pay it.

Well when an incompetent developer releases shovelware constantly and doesn't think of new and interesting ways to develop for the system, you are going to see a decrease in software sales.

In other news

http://www.geek.com/articles/games/nintendo-admits-wii-u-footage-was-from-ps3360-games-2011068/

 

[ambershee]

Well, that'll shut all those people up who were claiming that the videos displayed had worse visuals than the 360/Ps3.

 

[N1ghtmare]

Hardcore/non hardcore, there still l is no point in me getting a PS3-4 or a XBox because I have a PC that is 4 times as powerful. Games that come out on the Wii/Nintendo platform are not the same things I could be getting on the PC, thus it has a more appealing purpose to me.

 

[dragonfliet]

So apparently people that have been with Nintendo most of their lives that were cast aside by the recent generation are not hardcore gamers, huh? The people that have enjoyed hardcore 3rd-party titles on a Nintendo system in the past but were not able to because the Wii was a casual system? That really hit a nerve with the long-time Nintendo fan in me. PS3/360 is not the only hardcore fanbase, Nintendo has one too, and those same people are whom Nintendo is targeting the new system to AS WELL AS casuals. They want to appeal to the crowd that they neglected while still tapping the casual market. Kinda like Sony and Microsoft are doing with Move and Kinect.

The technology is outdated? By whose standards? How do you know the system is targeted specifically towards casuals when it's clearly also getting hardcore titles like the other two bloody systems? How do you know it's overpriced when it hasn't even been priced yet?

F**king videogames man, Srs bznz.

You are completely missing the point. The hardcore gamer market has more than a single console and the major third party titles come to all the major consoles, so those games like COD are going to hit on multiple platforms, meaning that the hardcore audience didn't actually lose out from Nintendo's decision.

Further, by this time, anyone that would be interested in playing a realistic multiplatform game bought a PS3 or a 360 YEARS ago (I mean, come on, the 360 is 6 years old), so Nintendo isn't exactly going to be serving that market with their new console. They have missed that boat entirely. The only thing this new system will do is make Zelda and Metroid look decent, rather than passed their prime.

By my comment about the tech being outdated, the few things that they showed where either 1) 360 or PS3 videos or 2) looked exactly like 360/ps3 levels of detail. So they are able to do in 2012 what has been done since 2005. That is outdated. Further, within a few years Sony and MS will launch their new consoles which are going to absolutely leave the Weeooo in the dust. It will be fun and a good system, as Nintendo makes great games, but it simply will not fill in the hardcore niche, nor will it really compete, and will be left in the same squalor as before.