Reggie and insiders talk Wii U power, issues, UE4 capabil...

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Reggie and insiders talk Wii U power, issues, UE4 capabilities, future-proofing and more
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"After the next generation of machines comes out, Wii U will be a performance orphan. It will be closer in performance to the next iPad than the next-gen machines." - Insider source

- the Wii U could be viewed as up to four times as powerful as the Xbox 360
- 2GB of RAM compared to the 360's 512
- AMD Radeon-based graphics chip is off-set by a CPU that runs at low speeds
- it can do out-of-order processing but has fewer threads than the 360
- Wii U has the power to run Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 ports with little difficulty.Wii - Wii U close to a DX9-performance/DX11-capabilities combo
- could be hampered by its CPU
- UE4 requires Direct X 11 performance and capabilities, which is beyond Wii U

"as third-party publishers make their decisions somehow they're going to view competitive systems more favorably than the Wii U. What I would tell you is that, fundamentally, the reason certain games didn't make it to the Wii was because, first, the developer or publisher had invested in art at an HD level. For them to rework that art to an SD level was a cost they were unwilling to accept. Second, that the online capabilities especially for in-game purchase, or things of that nature, [were things] they viewed it as a key part of their business model, which the Wii didn't support. Looking to the future, both of those issues have been solved with the Wii U. All of [third-party game creators'] early-development engines [for the original Wii] were not compatible with where we were going. That is not the case today." - Reggie Fils-Aime

- Will have at least 8GB of on-board storage capacity

"I think to have the full discussion, we need to go back to 2004, 2005, 2006 [before the Wii was launched]. The fact of the matter was that, in 2004 and 2005 and early 2006, the vast majority of the publishing community did not see the Wii having the, dare I say, success in the marketplace that it did. So all of their early-development engines were not compatible with where we were going. That is not the case today." - Reggie Fils-Aime

Reggie on Unreal Engine 4: "they're not finished yet. There's still work they need to do to finish that engine."

Reggie's final words on Wii U and Wii: "I think with Wii we had a limited number of crayons. t's the 16-pack of crayons. This is the 128 pack. We've got a lot more options."

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[LegendofSantiago]

I call BS on the insider info.
I'm not saying that it's completely wrong but if he where to be right he would need to know the power of the wiiu's latest dev kit and the next Gen ipad which I don't think is the case. He also seems to be implying that the 720/ps4 are going to be leagues ahead. In terms of power but i doubt it. But he does seem to say it's 4x the 360 which is pretty good I guess if true
Also...is it me or does it sound like Reggie has been talking with the UE4 guys?

[Shaanyboi]

I wish I could say this seems unexpected, but sadly not the case. This is why you get more than one console... When Reggie says "This solves all the problems that people had with developing for Wii".... no. No it really doesn't. You're just walking into the same situation.

[MegaMan64]

So no UE4 then?

[gtt]

Same shovel, different day.

The wiiu is underpowered. We all knew it would be.

[chris_the_wing]

So no UE4 then?

No, this "insider" is referring to the full fledged PC build of UE4. The Console versions of UE4 will be rewritten for their systems strengths. Epic already stated that UE4 will be on every device from iPhone to high-end PC. Also this "insider" should look up the definition of the word orphan.

[shadowbuster]

Guess I'll just use the Wii U as a secondary console then...

[Maxram0]

"it can do out-of-order processing but has fewer threads than the 360"

cool, but how many core? unless they are saying it will be single core...which I REALLY hope is not the case

[zeeroid]

I really don't think Reggie gets it, but we'll have to wait and see until Sony and Microsoft play their hands before saying anything definitively.

[CrispyGoomba]

Okay if the Wii has 16 crayons and the Wii U is going to have 128 crayons, do a little math and presto. The Wii U will be 8x powerful than the Wii!

[LegendofZelda1996]

So, should I assume that the Wii U will have the exact same problems that the Wii has (power wise)?

[chris_the_wing]

"it can do out-of-order processing but has fewer threads than the 360"

cool, but how many core? unless they are saying it will be single core...which I REALLY hope is not the case

It has 3 cores, it's based on the Power 7 cpu, it runs somewhere between 2.4-3.4 GHZ. Rumor

[Shaanyboi]

Okay if the Wii has 16 crayons and the Wii U is going to have 128 crayons, do a little math and presto. The Wii U will be 8x powerful than the Wii!

That's not saying a hell of a lot...

[Maxram0]

"it can do out-of-order processing but has fewer threads than the 360"

cool, but how many core? unless they are saying it will be single core...which I REALLY hope is not the case

It has 3 cores, it's based on the Power 7 cpu, it runs somewhere between 2.4-3.4 GHZ. Rumor

yeah, I read it might have 3 core a while back too, which would be good if the rumour proves to be true, do you happen to know if it's 3 separate single cores processor (like the PS3 which has 6?) or an actual 3 core in a single processor?

[Hawk]

@LegendofZelda1996

From the sounds of it, we'll have at least a year or two where it won't matter. The new Playstation and Xbox won't be out yet and the WiiU will be easy to port games to. But when those new consoles come out, I fully expect Nintendo to be in the same situation... having the wimpier console that people don't want to work with.

It might not be so bad, though. From the looks of it, technological between PS4 and WiiU might be more scalable than the gap between PS3 and Wii. However, I don't think the WiiU is going to be the same runaway hit with casuals that the Wii was, and I don't think many developers will be very willing to try.

[AmicableWalrus]

Be patient, after E3 we'll have a better idea of what it can...wait.

[Gummbah]

Be patient, after E3 we'll have a better idea of what it can...wait.

Whahaha, so true....

Either way, we havent heard that many if any rumors that it will be that much more powerful than the ps360. Could possibly be troublesome for when the next ps360 come out. Eitherway the wiiu better be cheap!

[The_King_Up_North]

Eh, as long as the Wii U gets plenty of third-party support I'm not too worried about its power. It's not like graphics can get significantly better than what's on the 360/PS3 anyway.

[Autosaver]

So like, if Unreal Engine 4 is working on the iPad.... Why wouldn't it work on Wii U again?

Their conference said that the engine is scaleable.

[gtt]

Eh, as long as the Wii U gets plenty of third-party support I'm not too worried about its power. It's not like graphics can get significantly better than what's on the 360/PS3 anyway.

Lol, yes, yes they can. Look at even pc ports of 360 games. There is tons of room for for improvement past 360/ps3

[The_King_Up_North]

Eh, as long as the Wii U gets plenty of third-party support I'm not too worried about its power. It's not like graphics can get significantly better than what's on the 360/PS3 anyway.

Lol, yes, yes they can. Look at even pc ports of 360 games. There is tons of room for for improvement past 360/ps3

Maybe I'm just jaded, but even the Unreal Engine 4 tech demo doesn't look that much more impressive to me than regular 360/PS3 games. I'm sure there are a bunch of new shaders, effects, mapping techniques, etc included in UE4, but I don't see any significant improvement from this gen's games.

It's just going to be subtle improvements from here on out, and then there's the uncanny valley, which I don't see the game industry getting across any time soon.

[KevinSays]

You're kinda nuts if you think Unreal Engine 4 isn't a "significant improvement".

[LegendofSantiago]

@gtt I don't see it :/ I played for a couple weeks on my friend's gaming PC and although it looked smoother and was displaying at a higher resolution the difference wasn't that massive. It certainly didn't make them better

[Shaanyboi]

Eh, as long as the Wii U gets plenty of third-party support I'm not too worried about its power. It's not like graphics can get significantly better than what's on the 360/PS3 anyway.

Seeing the stuff going on in that Star Wars 1313 demo, I respectfully disagree.

[ddddd]

"it can do out-of-order processing but has fewer threads than the 360"

cool, but how many core? unless they are saying it will be single core...which I REALLY hope is not the case

It has 3 cores, it's based on the Power 7 cpu, it runs somewhere between 2.4-3.4 GHZ. Rumor

yeah, I read it might have 3 core a while back too, which would be good if the rumour proves to be true, do you happen to know if it's 3 separate single cores processor (like the PS3 which has 6?) or an actual 3 core in a single processor?

1cpu with 3 cores, but only one of them has 2 threads . Nintendo did the impossible, make hardware that is weaker than 7 year old consoles.

Eh, as long as the Wii U gets plenty of third-party support I'm not too worried about its power. It's not like graphics can get significantly better than what's on the 360/PS3 anyway.

It wont get much third party support. Everything points to another wii generation.