the indie games are pretty good for the wii u. i ddnt care for the gameplay for the cave much but the naration was good and chasing auroa is a coplete wase of money. if it was only a few dollars then it would be better but its 15 normally and i got if for 8 and it sucks bc there isnt anything to do besides fly around in circles. waiting for mighty switch force 2 to be ported to wii u. these games are much better than the indie games for the 360.

wait. what barriers? i hope it isnt the ones that seem to be making them good games like having to have a studio dedicated to the game or having to be able to have at least one game out. i really dont want games that the 360 had to infect the wiiu.

• MSF is already on eShop.
• eShop is miles ahead of WiiWare, but the content is still not as robust as XBLA which has great games such as Braid, Outland, Dust, ShadowComplex, Limbo, and Bastion.  But it's getting there and has the potential to be better seeing how competitve the price Nintendo is charging for the eShop  in comparison to XBLA, PSN, iOS, and even Android.
• I really believe that Nintendo should either partner with Unity to make their engine the preferred engine for Wii U developers (1/4-1/8 the cost of UE4 from what I heard) and purchase the company and gain access to a wider market by having indies develop games using the engine.  Unity is going to be really big!!!

 

It seems like most western big publishers (sans Ubisoft) have abandoned the Wii U.  That should not come as a surprise as Nintendo's systems are usually devoid of third party support regardless of success. One just has to look at the Wii and in some cases the 3DS compared to the lackluster Vita (which still garners much exclusives despite it's pathetic sales).  With the current situation, Nintendo cannot be the sole bearer to support the system.  I believe that in order to remain relevant, Nintendo should start courting the independent developing community especially the ones using Unity.  There are a number of games out there that uses Unity that would or could be a great fit for the Wii U.  Since, the many of these developers are making iOS, Android, etc games the Wii U gamepad would make a great match when developing Wii U games in concurence to those platforms!!! I believe Nintendo should heavily invest in a partnership with Unity; as that platform has the highest potential growth for independent developers.

 

A few games I like using Unity are:

 

BladeSlinger

 

Pid:

 

 

max curse of the brotherhood:

 

Oliver and Spike (confirmed for Wii U)

 

The environments in Killzone looked great, yeah, but the character models and lighting were marginally improved from current gen, if even that. Watch Dogs looked very current-gen, and inFamous looked very similar to the second game. I'm fairly sure games like Drive Club and Deep Down were prerendered cinematics, since they looked about a thousand times better than anything else on show.

If you watch the Jimmy Fallon show, some of the background textures didn't look that hot either!!!

You can't tell from a press conference streamed over the Internet or You Tube videos the actual quality of the graphics. Going by the hardware specs of the PS4 it has the potential to produce far better graphics then the Wii U.

Good point. Which should also be given to the Wii U seeing how young the system is at this stage. I however still believe that that the PS4, despite being a step or two beyond current gen systems hardly made them look ready to be set to pasteur. It would be truly disappointing for Sony to ask people to fork over $400 on a system with no BC and only a modest boost visually as it's main selling point.

The reflections in the Killzone vid far exceed what the wiiU has shown itself to be able to do and in all likelihood is more then the wiiU will be able to do. Is that a problem, well yes and no. Nintendo have once again not backed power, rather a gimmick, which we have yet to see how much that will entice people.

I actually love the 'gimmicks' Nintendo creates (obviously Sony does too with the rampant imitations they do) and gives me a reason to pick up their systems. I love how the X360 trumps the PS3 not only in visuals but innovation as well (Kinect is 10x better than MOVE).

Yeah just trying to point out that the killzone shot is nothing new. And the Killzone models do look very much like ACIII character models.

THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN SAYING ALL THIS TIME!!! I don't know what all the hype is over the PS4 as they have shown nothing to say they are leagues apart from the current-gen systems (let alone the Wii U). It's obvious that the system is a step or two above the PS360; but I don't see it lapping those systems either. If the PS4 sells for anything above $400, it would be a massive waste as the PS360 at their current price point offer similar visual effect with identical ways to play. The PS4 aside from great visuals have not shown an evolution for gameplay.

Mkay, but your are incorrect. My pc isn't strained when streaming, in demanding games like crysis 3 I see maybe a two or three frame rate drop (around a 5% performance drop and that is for a program that isn't optimized for my specific system).



We didn't see anything in that demo that we haven't seen done better on the pc platform, so why would you think it isn't real time?

Agreed...nothing shown on the PS4 made my X360S (Valhalla ver) look dated; let alone the Wii U!!! The only ones thinking those wouldn't be in-game are those who haven't played HD games long enough and just recently updated. C'mon the grfx on the PS4 while great was not really blowing away current gen systems. Wii U will be all right, and shouldn't have a problem creating visually appealing games despite the PS4's arrival.

also dreamcast had the vmu which was well sort of a mix of both but interesting and the powerglove was complete junk it didn't work at all.

Just because the Power Glove didn't work as well didn't mean it doesn't count though. Another way of looking at it is Nintendo does things for gaming wayyy before Sony and MS ever does. This is coming from a guy who loves his X360 too!!!

Nintendo just needs to focus on creating games optimized for their console. TBH, there was nothing shown on the PS4 demonstrations to indicate a massive leap compared to Nintendo's Wii U. I believe that when E3 2013 comes, Zelda, Bayonetta2, and 'X' will hold their own to whatever PS4 will have. PS4, will definitely be more expensive than the Wii U. Also, by the time the system releases the Wii U, will be able to attain a price-cut if Nintendo so wishes.

I hate to say it but with the exception of seconds of bayonnetta 2 and xenoblade game in progress I havent seen much to suggest that the wiiu is capable of those type of graphics.Killzones graphics last night were amazing textures,water,mirror effect and smoke all looked markedly better than anything console based I have seen to date.Oh and if the ps4 can produce graphics like that now pre launch what will it be capable of later?I mean these boards are full of people saying it ill take time for devs to produce better graphics.With the exception of monster hunter I dont see any other games for pre e3 that are going to help the wiiu sell millions of consoles in year where january saw 57k sales.

Yeah, but those games showcased by Sony hardly made Wii U games look like the Wii either. The graphical difference I've seen so far (main pt: SO FAR) are so minimal that it hardly warrants me to pick-up a PS4 to replace my X360 as my second console!!! I was expecting PS4 to make the Wii U look like the Dreamcast game compared to the original Xbox and they fell flat on that expectations in my opinion. Speaking of Jan2013 sales, the Wii U still managed to sell above the PSV if I remember correctly; and that system is still not doomed after nearly a year of release. A price cut will most definitely happen sometime this year (probably a unified SKU to $299.99 w/NintendoLand) to combat the release of PS4 and X720 this November. I want to know how those systems will fare when they release this November with a price tag of $400 or more!!!

Graphics wise the diffrence between Wii U and PS4 (with what we have seen so far) is not the gulf that was between Wii and PS360. The closest comparison I could probably say is the diffrence between 3DS and PSV. PSV definitely the more superior hardware with 10x the RAM and double the cores; yet the 3DS doesn't look to shabby with similar textures and effects (despite not having superior/equal AA and polygon push). It will definitely come out to creativity and how much investment 3rd parties are willing to invest in games. Clearly the current gen could still hold it's own compared to launch titles for PS4(maybe 720); and the diffrence won't be apparent until 2nd or 3rd gen of games from those systems. The Wii U, being a step up to those systems (like 3DS to PSP) would probably hold it's own for a while and would still have beautiful games using art direction instead of polys. My 2 cents.

It is true they didn't start branding the GPU's with AMD until the 6000Series, but I would assume any GPU produced from that time forward would carry AMD branding regardless of the base family from which its derived. I believe it is an e6760 as well, though if it were they have removed one of the SIMD engines. the e6760 has 6 SIMD engines, Latte has 4 (2 SIMD cores = 1 SIMD engine @ 80ALU/engine). Thats just the programmable shader piece. You also have a crapton of logic all over that GPU that could be fixed shaders, asymmetric shaders, who knows!

Also, it would still be 320 ALU's even if they went with e6760 SIMD engines, because there are two missing.

It's almost blatantly obvious that it isn't based on the RV7xx series and that Latte uses the e6760 as it's baseline foundation. This might help a bit:http://www.nintengen.com/2012/07/speculation-wii-us-gpu-based-on-amd.html
AFAIK after seeing the die shots; Latte cannot be based on the RV7xxx series.

your fighting for no prics cut?
i work hard for my money and i save every dollar i can and ur trying to find ways for them not to price cut??? you sir are an idiot!!

First of all..please don't call me an idiot. You know nothing about me to even imply that. You could call my post dumb...even idiotic; but personal remarks are unwarranted. Second, the post says alternative ways because Iwata stated that the Wii U was not going to get a price cut. I merely presented an 'ALTERNATIVE' to a price cut that would/could appease both early adopters and incite new buyers to the console (no need to get personal; we all work hard for our money).

One of the things Nintendo could definitely do to increase sales without a price-cut is bundling Re-bundling the systems by having the 'basic' white with a pre-loaded NintendoLand @ $299.99; while the 'Deluxe' would be re-bundled with a pro-controller along with NintendoLand and Trine 2/Nano Assault or even NSMBU pre-loaded on the system for $349.99 would really boost sales. Until the inevitable price cut following the release of PS4/720 this winter holiday.($249.99 for Basic no game and $299.99 for Deluxe as is now) This would help alleviate the financial burden of a price-cut and would be a more acceptable alternative that early adopters may tolerate.

This is one of the things Nintendo could definitely do to increase sales without a price-cut. Re-bundling the systems by having the 'basic' white with a pre-loaded NintendoLand @ $299.99 and the 'Deluxe' would be re-bundled with a pro-controller along with NintendoLand and Trine 2/Nano Assault or even NSMBU pre-loaded on the system for $349.99 would really boost sales. Until the inevitable price cut following the release of PS4/720 this winter holiday. This would help alleviate the financial burden of a price-cut and would be more acceptable alternative that early adopters may tolerate.

Someone responded on twitter that GAF members were ignored when they did ask him.

If WiiU is using Cayman based SIMD cores it would be 8*64*2*.55=563GFLOPS. Everyone assumes that the SPUs in Espresso are based on R7XX VLIW5 cores rather than SIMD. Assuming Nintendo used SIMD cores, we are looking at somewhere between 563-704 GFLOPS. If they went with the older architecture at 40ALU's per SPU (which I'm reading was unorthodox for VLIW cores) we're looking at 352GFLOPS. Either way there is still nearly 50% of the die that can't currently be identified that could be additional asymmetric SIMD or SPU cores, or fixed function logic.

Yeah...I followed his twitters too!!! All I can derive from them were he was blowing a lot of smoke and mirrors on his "supposed" hack. So far 3 months in, and nothing to show for the hack (probably still trying to break into it if you ask me) with only saying that he will release something when he has something creative to do about it. LOL...c'mon unicorn tongue!!! I wish another hacker calls him on it actually or an engineer who designed the new chip. lol

The GPU is completely custom.

It may have started as a R6xx series GPU during the first stages of development, but that alone means almost nothing in terms of power and efficiency.

Also, he said nothing about it being " ~175 gflops" in theoretical power peak.

This whole discussion is pretty much useless.

Yeah, I am beginning to think that the Wii U hack is all smoke and air from his recent comments as of late. Especially when he said I could have provided Gaf with the details before Chipworks released the photo. So if he had the info all this time then why all the secrecy until today? He knew people wanted the information yet he decided to stay quite. Has anyone else tried to authenticate his claims about the CPU by chance?

Hello cannonshane,

I am glad, and I will try to be more careful next time. This is a great community though and I hope it continues to grow.



Hello ElderKnight77,

I might have to agree with you, although Nintendo's E3 2012 was really good too. To me, I just felt like it was one thing after another - responding to fans' requests in-part, improving services, partially revealing the new HD Zelda (that was surprising to me!), and more. If we all somehow could let Nintendo know how great this Nintendo Direct was.

Take care both of you.

Sincerely, NintendoFan

thanks maybe we could write it on MiiVerse somehow to let them know. I know that's what I will be doing to ask Nintendo to buy the Darksider's IP!!!

http://kotaku.com/59...ve-specs-so-far

LOL...sure and the system will cost $600 again. C'mon 2.2GB seperate video memory (256MB embeded according to someone hyping this up...lol) and 8GB GDDR5 system RAM is not gonna come from Sony. The company right now is in financial turmoil; and doubt they could afford to out do MS in the specs dept. I will believe it when I see it is my motto for Sony and MS's new systems. Rumors for them are just a joke.

This Nintendo Direct was better than their E3 2012; just sums up my reaction. The games are really showcasing what the system can really do (I love how they made their hybrid CPU play nice with AMD's e6760 to get those visuals). I'm really excited over the future of the console!

I'm all for multiplats, but there is something about exclusive games that just makes a system special. Xboxs have Halo and Gears, Playstation has there LBPs and GoWs, Nintendo has their Marios and Zeldas. Recently there are industry shake ups that allowed Nintendo to exapand their exclusive IP base for their systems. These expansions include funding of Bayonetta 2, a deal with Capcom regarding MH, the buyout by Nintendo to own FatalFrame, Nintendo purchasing MonnolithSoft and the dissolving of Silicon Knights to obscurity leading to Nintendo as the sole owner of Eternal Darkness. Now more than ever he field is right for Nintendo to expand their audience by acquiring certain IPs or even their publishing rights. THQ is on the brink of self-immolation and has a huge number of IPs that would fit and expand Nintendo's audience. (Darksiders, deBlob, Deadly Creatures are some IPs that seem to have done ok on Nintendo systems). Bonk brink of extinction is a cancelled(but already complete) game by Hudson and Konami that Nintendo could grab the publishing rights to; just like Bayonetta. The game looks solid and since it's already completed should have little effort in the development department in contrast to Bayonette. Now is there any other games or IPs out there that you personally think realisticly that Nintendo would/could pick up? Seeing how THQ was willing to sell off all their franchise for $60mil and the Bonk situation, these might be good candidates for Nintendo to seize and expand their exclusive lineup.

Agreed, I don't think Nintendo ever will release specs for Wii U. They would rather amaze us with graphics in future games that will really show what Wii U can do.

Fair enough, but I am not asking for a full blow-out of the systems specs; just enough to shut up all the mis-information that's out there slamming the Wii U. I do agree that games like NanoAssult, Trine 2, and maybe the Cave shows how a proper port should be on the Wii U and highlights the advancement the system has over the legacy consoles like PS360.

My other screens are all fine too. I have an ipod for over 2 years now, no scratches, 3DS no scratches and so on. But I let other people play with my Wii U gamepad, too and I have the suspicion that the scratches started then.

Light scratches usually don't show up when the screen is on. If they do then it is a deeper problem that could haunt you in the future. I know people (especially PS360 fans...esp PS3) that are pretty rough on the system and a screen protector should have been your first priority of protection. Heck, even Nintendo knew this looking at all the demo Wii U and 3DS's currently having SP.

That's a terrible idea.
Nintendo aren't Sony.

1080p in a 4 or 5 inch screen is as pointless as dressing a duck up in a dress to lay eggs.
The DPI is already higher than a 40 inch TV at 480p

agreed not to mention it will eat more memory and CPU (like we need anymore reason to bog it down) power. It's fine for what it does.

the wii U gamepad screen is good enough hell it looks better than my tv in most cases.

I know...sometimes I think the colors look better than my Sharp 46" LED!!!

Nintendo should just alleviate all this crap and release the system's specs this E3. Honestly, they should realize that the silence is killing them!

512 MB to run W8 is bull$hit started by M$ fanboys who would like to bloat the systems specs. (I have a x360 mind you and love the system) The very, bare minimum to run W8 is about a Gig or RAM. Want proof? Just look at the systems requirements here :http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/system-requirements and that doesn't take into account other things MS will add to customize the user experience for gaming. At min it will be a 1GB just like the Wii U. The PS4 on the otherhand may getaway with half that but highly doubt it.

I think it was the orbis rumour that put out the 512 MB for the os. But I cant remember for sure.

The Orbis will need more than 512MB since Android's latest version 4.1 won't run with systems having 512 MB of RAM or less. http://htcsource.com...to-android-4-1/

Evergreen cards are the 5000 series e6760 Is turks. (which, admittedly, is just a barely tweaked e5760 evergreen).

People arent saying its a 7xx chip, just that its a custom made derivitive (just like evergreen and turks are) of the chip line. With as much time spent in development for nintendo as it has, no one really expects it to resemble a baseline r7xx, or the 4xxx card series. That just takes too long to say.



You might as well be asking the difference in goku vs freiza levels.

There is SOOOOO much going on between ps2 and xbox that you cant even begin to use them as a baseline for anything else.

Thanks, but I already know the diff between the turks and evergreen gpu's;and though I'm not a very tech savyy person I could see it more in line with the turks for the features it shows. I wasn't refering to anyone here on the forums regarding the r7xxx series. I was talking about fanboys in GAF and VGC etc spouting all this bull$hit about the Wii U only having an R7xxx series GPU (still better than 360's R5xxx but that's not the point) when all facts points to a more advanced and newer GPU like the turks or even evergreen. I'm glad I had met you, since you understand that the 750 found on the Wii U is not the typical ppc750 but a highly modified one. People can't seem to understand that!!! I am pretty sure that Nintendo planned to use the PWR7 CPU; but saw that they could get near the results they wanted by implementing GPGPU on a highly modified 750 design with PWR7 featured architecture. I really wish that Nintendo made it a quad-core though and boosted the RAM to at least 3GB but that ship has sailed. Regardless games like NanoAssult and Trine2 looks great on the Wii U and really showcases what the system can do this early of a stage.