Launch Wii U Games to be 720p resolution
The Wii U has pushed Nintendo in the world of High Definition, the Wii U supports all resolutions from 1080p down, finally. However while the system can push out 1080p, Nintendo’s launch games will only be 720p.
This news comes from Wii U Daily who spoke to a Nintendo representative on the show floor. Nintendo Land, New Super Mario Bros and Pikmin 3 are the games confirmed to be 720p however screenshots for most other Wii U games have been 720p as well. It’s not yet known if you won’t be able to upscale these games to 1080p or will be forced to stay on 720p.
This news isn’t as terrible as it sounds, the Wii U is still new and it’s unlikely any of them are pushing the console to its limits, 720p with a steady, stable framerate sounds fine to us here. It’s not like other modern consoles have their games at full 1080p all the time either.
I find this news pretty troubling.
Bit sad really.. 360 and PS3 already suffer this fate. I was expecting with the power required to push out the controller and on screen graphics that it would be a much more powerful chip capable of doing 1080p.
That being said 360 on release couldnt do above 1080i either and nearly every single game was 720p. Still when you consider its doing the graphics for 2 screens its still slightly impressive.
Doesn’t really bother me but this is a little strange… and it’s the kind of thing Nintendo haters will eat up.
I smell a rumour and a false one at that. I find it impossible to believe that a Super Mario Bros. game with its minimalistic graphics (even by Gamecube-gen standards) couldn’t be displayed on the Wii U at 1080p. I refuse to believe it. If it were a 3rd party game, perhaps I’d understand the developer’s lack of experience with the dev kit, but not from a 1st party developer, and particularly not from a game with graphics that are by no means pushing the console.
I understand that some CPU intensive games will be displayed at 720p throughout the life of the console, but for a Nintendo game that is so heavily dependent on stylised graphics? No. That’s bull. Perhaps the versions on display were being screened at 720p, sure, but I very, very strongly doubt that the actual retail versions of the games will be restricted to that.
I apologise if I came across as being a bit abrasive =P, but these unsubstantiated rumours of 720p launch games are getting me a tad worked up. From a technical and marketing standpoint, it just doesn’t make sense to release such stylised games at what is IMO such a limited resolution by contemporary standards. Heck, I was even half-expecting 3D TV support from the Wii U (though not at launch, of course).
Unforgivable Nintendo. You system is twice as powerful as a 360 and uses highly refined hardware built ‘inhouse’ to run mainly ‘inhouse’ games, all of which feature cartoonish graphics. This isnt Crysis – Its Mario and Pikimin. This system should be able to run these games at 1920×1080 (1080p) @100 frames easily. Heck, it could probably run cryisis on ultra settings @1080p resolution at a respectable 20 or so frames.
Nintendo is simply being lazy here. Stupid Japanese idiots really think americans are going to pay next gen prices, for a system that runs as less frramerates and a lower resolution than their 7 year old Xbox 360 – which is already showing it’s age? Not to meantion most people don’t even own 720p TVs anymore (1080p all I see anymore). Seriously? They expect us to pay a small fortune for a system that is only about 50% higher resolution that a PS2 or a Wii? Honesty going from the Wii’s 480p – the Wii U’s 720p isnt even worth mentioning. Whoppie Nintendo: we gained 240 extra resolution. I just bought a 1920 x 1200 monitor (vs my old 1920 x 1080) – I gain just about that same bump in resolution just by purchasing a new monitor for my PC. My ipad has a 2500p resolution screen, that’s like 5 times that. What a joke. I certainly woulnt pay for this system until it can ‘atleast’ pull of 1440 x 1080 like some PS3 and XBOX 360 games.
Higher res = higher dev cost. Probably a business decision.
On the side, I wonder if WiiU will play Wii games in 720p, kinda like how 3DS can play Gameboy games in 2 different res. modes.