Wii U - Nintendo's Next Console

[gtt]

Their power may not be the only important factor in sales. There are a few things that, at least, are looking really bad, like no used games, no discs (xbox), cheap price but a mandatory 2 year contract (!). Despite my interest in either console, those points are pretty much killing it for me

why the sad face?
its all rumors take all of them with a grain of salt including Wii u rumors .

No Used Games
No Discs
No Backwards Compatability (Even for Downloadable Games)

Those are REALLY bad, anti-consumer measures. Anti-Used games is a Microsoft rumor while no BC is a Sony rumor. They are terrible ideas that will harm the future of the industry.

I don't see anyone going no disc for the next 20 years or so. especially with the way online infrastructure is in the US. and the only company I could see doing no BC for downloadable titles (aside from things like, digital versions of retail titles) is nintendo. however, I think this is probably the last generation where we will see a architecture shift. So we should be good for BC for everything going forward, as long as the companies keep their account systems active.

[Devil_Rising]

I think that the Wii U will have backwards compatibility, to a point. Though I'm not sure how they're going to implement it, given the different online system. The Wii U is going to play all Wii games though, and I have a feeling they'll find a way for you to transfer WiiWare and VC games. Even if they don't, they'd never be stupid enough to do a "no used games" feature, or a "no disc" feature.


As for downloading services...I suppose steam could be nice, but quite frankly, the eShop on 3DS already seems like a nice step in the right direction...I'm not sure they need to farm our their download service to someone else.

[LegendofZelda1996]

Here is some speculation on the GPU and the CPU of the Wii U from NeoGAF.

New tidbit about the CPU

It seems it's still 3 cores in the latest dev kits. No surprising fourth core added in the mass production kits.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... count=9317

They may have needed it for the amount of memory in the dev kit. And once again Donnie says what I would have said.

And I'm not saying it would be based on the 6670. Just that the final in my view would share similarities to it. Primarily the ALU count

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... count=9392

It seems like the CPU of the Wii U will only have 3 cores and the GPU of the Wii U will be similar to the Radeon HD 6670 GPU I think in terms of power if their speculations were proven correct, but I doubt it.

[big fat turtle]

Their power may not be the only important factor in sales. There are a few things that, at least, are looking really bad, like no used games, no discs (xbox), cheap price but a mandatory 2 year contract (!). Despite my interest in either console, those points are pretty much killing it for me

why the sad face?
its all rumors take all of them with a grain of salt including Wii u rumors .

No Used Games
No Discs
No Backwards Compatability (Even for Downloadable Games)

Those are REALLY bad, anti-consumer measures. Anti-Used games is a Microsoft rumor while no BC is a Sony rumor. They are terrible ideas that will harm the future of the industry.

and you really think Microsoft would do this??
they wouldn't even think of it after they just took third party's from Sony s party
and even more that's just stupid , you would say good bye for Microsoft in terms of the hard core with this move
as for the post above me^^
three cores or five or seven don't even matter in terms of power
the cores are for development that's why a lot of early reports said the Wii u is a souped up 360
because it had a tri-core CPU , it all matters with the clocks and bandwidth and the amount of silicon allocated .
as for dddddd
hmmmm?? perhaps i was mistaken but they say in this paragraph

Interfacing with Microsoft, Sony, and other providers about platform-specific services
we will see in the coming days.
EDIT: by the way i find it hilarious that there are a lot of people on neogaf speculating about the Wii u and this
place is a Nintendo fan site and there no sign of people even caring for it here
i think i can count the people here with my fingers.

[Little_Mac]

and you really think Microsoft would do this??
they wouldn't even think of it after they just took third party's from Sony s party
and even more that's just stupid , you would say good bye for Microsoft in terms of the hard core with this move
as for the post above me^^
three cores or five or seven don't even matter in terms of power
the cores are for development that's why a lot of early reports said the Wii u is a souped up 360
because it had a tri-core CPU , it all matters with the clocks and bandwidth and the amount of silicon allocated .
as for dddddd
hmmmm?? perhaps i was mistaken but they say in this paragraph

Interfacing with Microsoft, Sony, and other providers about platform-specific services
we will see in the coming days.
EDIT: by the way i find it hilarious that there are a lot of people on neogaf speculating about the Wii u and this
place is a Nintendo fan site and there no sign of people even caring for it here
i think i can count the people here with my fingers.

Unfortunately, these forums have never been really that active as this site is more about the news and the hits garnered than the community. Neogaf is a forum first, news second.

As for Microsoft and all the rumors about them I don't put much faith in any of the rumors but Microsoft's big plan for the Xbox 360 since its inception was to make it the central media hub for the living room. After the Metro update it's clear this is still their goal as the games tab is not first. The fact that games are the only medium on the Xbox that is not 100% digital (everything is either streamable or buyable digitally), makes me believe that it is Microsoft's main goal at this point as physical distribution cost a lot of money and is probably a major bullet point for them going into the future with their next console.

As for Nintendo, I wouldn't believe half of what Idea Man says on Neogaf. His comments are way too vague for someone who claims to be in the know.

[Waluigi]

Ah. So this thread is neogaf 2 now? lol

I dont know much about specs... as long as Nintendo gets online right, gets 3rd part support, and can run UE4, I'm good. Games look good enough for me as they are, unless next gen blows those out of the water... dont think it'll be too much of a bump.

[Devil_Rising]

oh nom nom lookie here
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=474265
another game delayed for Q1
and as for neo gaf 2 this place is really slow i need discussion here maybe i should relocate hmmmmm?

No offense, but if you want a place like NeoGAF, go to NeoGAF. Go Nintendo isn't a forum for uber-core gamers and tech geeks. It's a place for, more than anything, Nintendo fans to talk about Nintendo and gaming news in general. Not trying to be mean, but seriously. There's no point coming here and say that it should be more like some other site. It is what it is, and most of us like it that way.

[cortjezter]

oh nom nom lookie here
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=474265
another game delayed for Q1
and as for neo gaf 2 this place is really slow i need discussion here maybe i should relocate hmmmmm?

No offense, but if you want a place like NeoGAF, go to NeoGAF. Go Nintendo isn't a forum for uber-core gamers and tech geeks. It's a place for, more than anything, Nintendo fans to talk about Nintendo and gaming news in general. Not trying to be mean, but seriously. There's no point coming here and say that it should be more like some other site. It is what it is, and most of us like it that way.

well put.

also, the spamming of neogaf links is getting old. not really against any rules per se. just annoying.

[Broken_Cartridge]

on second thought i was linking to news why are you calling it spam when its different news and not spam!!
i didn't know this site associates news with spam if you even click the links you would know what i mean
really not even bothering with the links and calling it spam sheesh!!
as for devil rising where did i say i want this place to become neo gaf
i simply stated that there are more Nintendo fans there discussing the Wii u then here
i say i want discussion you say go to uber core and nerds
no offense you lack reading comprehension and where did i say i want it become more neo gaf ??
i don't have a gaf account and i wont have one i just wanted more people to talk about the system
sorry i sometimes get pissed off when people just go of my original post and twist it.

Every other thing that is discussed here is discussed based off of a link that was supplied from Neogaf. This "news" about games getting delayed really has nothing to do with Wii U whatsoever in my opinion, and going like "hey look at these games being cancelled that people are talking about over at neogaf" and things like "oh hey look at these rumors that are going down over at neogaf" (not saying you did the latter) for every other thing discussed here is kind of annoying. I can get past the "look at this rumor at neogaf", but there is no basis in "GAME POST PONED*. THUS WII U WOOOOOOOO"

[Devil_Rising]

Apparently. I've got "reading comprehension" problems.

I'll admit, I DO have problems comprehending things when they're so incredibly poorly written.



So...about that Wii U.

[ddddd]

If you guys are so tired of gaf, then get some actual sources for this site and if there are users with credible info, then some tips would be apretiated so we can discuss that. That is pretty much the reason why rumors from that forum are posted so much here and by rmc, because it has trusted users with info (and those who make false news get banned). Is not much different than linking to an ordinary news site.

On topic: I know people hate to see this kind of message, but sometimes there is no mighty NDA, or ninjas, or parallel development, or a conspiracy. Sometimes, when third parties say there is no wiiu version, is because there is no wiiu version, either never or maybe a goty edition at best.
Thinking that every third party game, clearly not coming to wiiu, is actually coming to wiiu will only lead to disappointment.

[LegendofZelda1996]

Here is some speculation about the CPU of the Wii U in NeoGAF.

As it came up, I feel something needs clarifying:

The Wii U's CPU is not a modified Waternoose/Xenon.

We have a considerable number of sources pointing out that the CPU is capable of out of order execution. This isn't something you can just "add-in" to a chip, it requires a completely different instruction pipeline, and for all intents and purposes, the instruction pipeline is the CPU. All the other specs, like number of cores, cache size, etc. are superficial; a CPU is defined by the way it handles instructions, and the Wii U CPU handles instructions in a fundamentally different way than Xenon.

The CPU will be, by any reasonable criteria, a completely custom chip. The instruction pipeline is probably going to be very loosely based on the Power7's, and the AltiVec unit will probably be a heavily modified variant on the VSX, but it's a whole new CPU, and not a "modified" anything.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... ount=11735

If this speculation is proven true, is it good news? Bad news? Or both?

[ddddd]

Bad because its on par with the 360, good because it is better at running codes and has a DSP (practicaly an "extra core" only for audio).

[KingBroly]

How is it bad exactly when the quote doesn't point to anything in regards to a power comparison? It's just discussing how the CPU will operate differently from Xenon.

[ddddd]

After seeing the screens of the legendary UE4, I have a hard time believing it wont be possible on wii u, or that blows the latest UE3 out of the water.

[gtt]

After seeing the screens of the legendary UE4, I have a hard time believing it wont be possible on wii u, or that blows the latest UE3 out of the water.

UE4 puts a bunch of stuff in the engine that before you had to do 'after the fact' and it requires a GTX680 to run, I have zero doubt in my mind that the stock UE4 engine will not run on a wiiu. does that mean we won't get a version of it? not at all.

[KingBroly]

From what I saw of UE4, it doesn't seem impossible for Wii U to run it. It looks...eh...

[gtt]

From what I saw of UE4, it doesn't seem impossible for Wii U to run it. It looks...eh...

I'm basing 'impossible' on the lack of dx11 features in the wiiu. you and I both know they aren't putting anything in the wiiu close to a 680. but, they could easily put out a version of ue4 that is feature specific for the wiiu (they will anyway, they have to make a power7 version)

[KingBroly]

From what I saw of UE4, it doesn't seem impossible for Wii U to run it. It looks...eh...

I'm basing 'impossible' on the lack of dx11 features in the wiiu. you and I both know they aren't putting anything in the wiiu close to a 680. but, they could easily put out a version of ue4 that is feature specific for the wiiu (they will anyway, they have to make a power7 version)

Based on those screenshots of UE4, that's not a full generational leap in horse power.

[ddddd]

The kits at E3 2011 lacked dx11, but the final gpu will likely have those features. It just wont have the horsepower of a modern pc card or PS4720's gpu.

[motherbra1n]

From what I saw of UE4, it doesn't seem impossible for Wii U to run it. It looks...eh...

I'm basing 'impossible' on the lack of dx11 features in the wiiu. you and I both know they aren't putting anything in the wiiu close to a 680. but, they could easily put out a version of ue4 that is feature specific for the wiiu (they will anyway, they have to make a power7 version)

Based on those screenshots of UE4, that's not a full generational leap in horse power.

That's exactly what I was thinking, but I fear that they'll improve it if the PS4 and xbox 720 are a full generation in terms of horse power, they'll improve it enough for the Wii U to not handle it, leaving us in the dark once again.

[KingBroly]

Well, given Epic's comments about 'actively lobbying' for more powerful hardware, I have to imagine they're less powerful than imagined. If 720/PS4 start out at $600+ like the PS3, there's no amount of powerful hardware in the world that would get developers to develop for it since consumers can't afford that much, especially given the fragile state of the economy at the moment. This is one thing I believe the mighty GAF Hivemind tends to overlook either because they're unaware of the situation or are just inept about it.

You also have to realize that Sony can't afford to put out the PS4 at a loss. If they do, they're done. They're absolutely done. So you're either going to have it be mid-range at $400 or high end at $600+ again to make a profit. Microsoft could afford to lose $200+ on each console, but I doubt they would.

[gtt]

Well, given Epic's comments about 'actively lobbying' for more powerful hardware, I have to imagine they're less powerful than imagined. If 720/PS4 start out at $600+ like the PS3, there's no amount of powerful hardware in the world that would get developers to develop for it since consumers can't afford that much, especially given the fragile state of the economy at the moment. This is one thing I believe the mighty GAF Hivemind tends to overlook either because they're unaware of the situation or are just inept about it.

You also have to realize that Sony can't afford to put out the PS4 at a loss. If they do, they're done. They're absolutely done. So you're either going to have it be mid-range at $400 or high end at $600+ again to make a profit. Microsoft could afford to lose $200+ on each console, but I doubt they would.

they aren't gonna do that again. they will be going with either basically stock x86 or powerpc hardware and a amd gpu. and the bluray drive wont' be nearly as expensive as it was in 2006.

[KingBroly]

That really doesn't explain how much it'll cost though. Saying 'it uses a different architecture type from PS3' means nothing since you don't know how much it would cost to drop Cell development and start X86 or Power PC development. Also, PS3 had an Nvidia GPU, so I imagine the PS4 will use an Nvidia GPU as well.

[gtt]

That really doesn't explain how much it'll cost though. Saying 'it uses a different architecture type from PS3' means nothing since you don't know how much it would cost to drop Cell development and start X86 or Power PC development. Also, PS3 had an Nvidia GPU, so I imagine the PS4 will use an Nvidia GPU as well.

well, the leg work is already done on making x86 and power chips, they don't have the cost sink of developing a whole new chip line. and the bulk of the ps3's cost was in the blu-ray drive. stand alone bluray players at the time were something like 1000$.