Satoru Iwata not concerned with the next-generation competition
Nintendo hasn’t been in a power war with its rivals since the GameCube days and it’s not going to start now. The Wii was severely underpowered and while it sold brilliantly, above and beyond the competition it really didn’t have the power to play anything that wasn’t specifically built for it. Ports of big games just didn’t happen.
However with the Wii U that’s changing and in a new interview, Satoru Iwata has revealed that they’ve made the Wii U around the same power as current generation consoles so that they don’t miss out on these games this time around. We doubt that’s the only reason however.
So what about when the next PlayStation and Xbox hit and possibly blow the Wii U out of the water again? Iwata isn’t worried “My impression is that the things that happened with Wii vs. 360 or Wii vs. PS3 won’t happen again. If they decide to increase the spec numbers, will the consumers be able to realise the difference from today so much that they can understand it’s much superior to today’s machine?”
Iwata is betting that whatever power the next consoles have won’t be too much above what’s out there now and that the Wii U will be able to keep up. It’s a big bet.
While I don’t think Iwata is right on this front (I mean we saw Star Wars and Watch_Dogs at E3 and I think those are next gen despite what they said), I think this is quite smart by Iwata, if he’s actually goading them to go nuts with specs again. I’m always thinking, surely Sony won’t go nuts on the specs again and bring out another $599USD debacle. But by the sounds of things, it looks like the other two are going down that path again. Only this time, they’re giving Nintendo a year headstart. If devs want to inflate their budgets yet again, it’s their money.
lol, remember this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH2w2l1JTs4
How could I forget it? đ I can’t believe I’m even considering that it might happen again. Even, if not I think anything about $300 USD for a video game console is not a console that will sell well. The PS1 and PS2 straddled this line and were successful. We’ll see what MS and Sony do next year. All Nintendo should worry about is bringing the games.
It won’t keep up that’s for sure, but with an ever segmenting market, and most betting on the next gen to be the last before streaming services become a cheaper and realistic alternative, with Nintendo on their own kind of generation the Wii U sits fairly pretty. It won’t be expensive when compared to the next gen if they are indeed going all out graphically, and will still keep up if not succeed the current gen consoles in their twilight years, the cost of AAA games are growing exponentially so some publishers might stick with the older but still graphically capable current gen tech. It’s a risky move but I think Nintendo will be able to pull it off, and might be able to launch another new console in 6-7 years that again will match or better that gen, and outlast them all as more games go into the streaming way of doing business while Nintendo has all their exclusive franchises that won’t be played that way. Or something like that.
I dunno.. I mean I can see the WiiU is cealry more powerful and capable than the 360/PS3 I think they should have given themselves some serious wiggle room.
I doubt its going to be as huge a difference as it is between Wii and the current gen hardware. Maybe more like the PS2 vs Xbox/Cube, the question is with all these new “engines” which company actually has the money and resources to pull out graphics that look that good and make money?
Soon see if this pays off.. can only hope the couple of years lead helps them out. Just get your games rolling in Nintendo.
I think that everyone here (including the author of the article) is mistaking whan Iwata is saying.
He is making NO assumptions about the power of rival next-gen consoles. What he is saying is he believes MOST CONSUMERS will not be able to appreciate the difference.
I for one think he is probably right.