Report: Nintendo Struggling with Wii U Development

[JMcEntegart]

Nintendo is having a lot of trouble getting the Wii U to work the way that it should.

Report: Nintendo Struggling with Wii U Development : Read more

 

[Thunderfox]

It likely won't launch with any important first party titles anyway, so I doubt anyone will care. Nobody cares about the screen gimmick anyway. People are just anxious for an HD Zelda that doesn't require one to flail around like an epileptic.

 

[aaron88_7]

Developers are also having issues with game testers falling asleep due to lack of interest with games that have no graphical polish whatsoever.

 

[Goldengoose]

[citation][nom]aaron88_7[/nom]Developers are also having issues with game testers falling asleep due to lack of interest with games that have no graphical polish whatsoever.[/citation]
I think the Wii is a classic example of graphics not being the sole selling point of games. I mean look at PS3+360 hardware vs the Wii's and then look at the sales; stats don't lie - alot of people must be enjoying it for it to get so popular even under the shadow of the two console giants.

 

[madjedi]

Last line "We'll keep you posted." should really have been "Wii'll keep U posted."

 

[kbarber29]

I've tried wirelessly audio video technology in the past at my work site. The degrade in video quality is why the screen on the controller stays small (and rightfully works), but I think the main problem is loss of signal to the controller of video and audio and possibly lots of static at even the slightest of moves of either the controller or people just walking by. If it is using say 2.4 ghz technology, they may be coming across a lot of interference and may have to increase it to a frequency no is using. It was rather cool technology when we tried it at my work site, but unreliable, especially when the video degrade made it hard to read text on the screen, that may be the final problem they are experiencing.

 

[mikeadelic]

Wii U has an identity crisis... that's the problem. It isn't mobile enough to be played anywhere like the NDS, nor integrated enough to be a true enhancement to the Wii philosophy. That philosophy I'm talking about is the Wii as a social system - Wii U takes the complete opposite step by only allowing one Wii U tablet per system.

I'm curious to see what developers come up with, but I don't expect much. IMO the Wii U's confusion with what it wants to be will only make the languishing 3rd-party development situation even worse.

 

[southernshark]

Well the tablet is just one aspect of the system. As I understand, and I may be wrong, there will still be other controllers. So I don't think its the end of the world or anything that there is only one tablet. The tablet strikes me more as a gimmick anyway. The important thing is that the WII will finally have better hardware and graphics than the competition and that alone should sell it.

 

[rantoc]

Wii U as in Wii Uups!?

 

[CaedenV]

[citation][nom]kbarber29[/nom]I've tried wirelessly audio video technology in the past at my work site. The degrade in video quality is why the screen on the controller stays small (and rightfully works), but I think the main problem is loss of signal to the controller of video and audio and possibly lots of static at even the slightest of moves of either the controller or people just walking by. If it is using say 2.4 ghz technology, they may be coming across a lot of interference and may have to increase it to a frequency no is using. It was rather cool technology when we tried it at my work site, but unreliable, especially when the video degrade made it hard to read text on the screen, that may be the final problem they are experiencing.[/citation]
Welcome to the digital age. the tablet is it's own computing device, it is not just a display. You easily get around most of the problems you mention by switching from compressed analog to a less compressed digital signal. Then you pump the video through as a file instead of as a real time broadcast.
Next year we will begin to see many new wireless video devices as Atom processors add another die shrink supposedly making them viable in the tablet market (Intel's word, not mine lol) which will have wireless display capability. As well as integration of this technology in laptops. The idea of the Wii having some implementation of this is not that far fetched.
My bet is that the real problem lies in the balance of cheap hardware doing relatively monumental tasks, and finding the balance between usefulness/customer experience, with getting every last speck of unnecessary plastic and metal out of the system to keep costs down.
Either way we are all tired of the same 3-4 first party games being re-hashed, and with no solid 3rd party games. Until they get that fixed I think many will stick with the good ol wii/xbox/PS

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]aaron88_7[/nom]Developers are also having issues with game testers falling asleep due to lack of interest with games that have no graphical polish whatsoever.[/citation]
Those are some incompetent developers then because the majority of people out there aren't like that.

 

[Miharu]

What's is the point of this article?
Ok they could have hard time but they still have 7 months to make it done.
7 MONTHS!!!
Comeback with this article when they'll be at the same point and they'll have just 1-2 months before the milestone to done the job.

 

[retrig]

As someone with a best friend who makes games for a major developer, I can say that other than the controller, don't get your hopes up. The Wii U is far inferior hardware wise to the XBox 360 and PS3 and will not be the more powerful machine that it was hyped up to be. This major developer has come to the conclusion that they won't be able to port any of their games to the Wii U as it is simply under powered. The PS3 used to be the joke of their offices. Walk into random office, say "PS3" and people would laugh. Now, sadly, it's going to be "Wii U".

 

[lpedraja2002]

@ retrig. I don't know about the CPU architecture they'll use but the GPU, according to most tech sites is based on the R700 architecture which is substantially faster than that used in the Xbox360 and PS3, although what worries me is that Nintendo stated the console will be "slightly" faster than the current ones, so I'm thinking they may be going down the cheap path and will use something in the mid-range performance thus making it just slightly faster but almost the same. Still the cpu and the gpu's die size will be in the 55nm to 40nm range so that's a plus in therms of cooling. Also, I don't own any of the newer consoles but every friend I have that has had one since it came out has needed to replace both the PS3 due to the Yellow light of dead and the Xbox360 due to the Red ring of death, lol @ cheap ass consoles these days.

 

[jacobdrj]

[citation][nom]aaron88_7[/nom]Developers are also having issues with game testers falling asleep due to lack of interest with games that have no graphical polish whatsoever.[/citation]
I'd take a 2D game with good gameplay over a 3D monstrosity with no creativity or thought or plot/content any day of the week, and twice on Sunday...

Graphics, in the hands of real artists, will be visually stunning no matter if SD, HD or UHD... It is about how well thought out the game is...

 

[kinggraves]

[citation][nom]Thunderfox[/nom]It likely won't launch with any important first party titles anyway, so I doubt anyone will care. Nobody cares about the screen gimmick anyway. People are just anxious for an HD Zelda that doesn't require one to flail around like an epileptic.[/citation]

What facts are you basing that on that brings you to a conclusion there is no way that Nintendo hasn't gone back to the way they used to do things and will not release solid launch titles?

[citation][nom]retrig[/nom]As someone with a best friend who makes games for a major developer, I can say that other than the controller, don't get your hopes up. The Wii U is far inferior hardware wise to the XBox 360 and PS3 and will not be the more powerful machine that it was hyped up to be. This major developer has come to the conclusion that they won't be able to port any of their games to the Wii U as it is simply under powered. The PS3 used to be the joke of their offices. Walk into random office, say "PS3" and people would laugh. Now, sadly, it's going to be "Wii U".[/citation]

If the "major developer" your friend works for is only concerned with the graphics the hardware can pump out and isn't concerned at all about the kind of gameplay they can achieve, then it isn't a developer I particularly care about. Developers that only want to toss out pretty pictures with no substance and only want to port that garbage to as many platforms as possible to shake as many people as they can for money are the cancer killing the industry. Gamers buy consoles for the exclusive titles, not the ports on every system out there.

 

[slabbo]

[citation][nom]retrig[/nom]As someone with a best friend who makes games for a major developer, I can say that other than the controller, don't get your hopes up. The Wii U is far inferior hardware wise to the XBox 360 and PS3 and will not be the more powerful machine that it was hyped up to be. This major developer has come to the conclusion that they won't be able to port any of their games to the Wii U as it is simply under powered. The PS3 used to be the joke of their offices. Walk into random office, say "PS3" and people would laugh. Now, sadly, it's going to be "Wii U".[/citation]
you do know the development kits they gave out currently don't reflect the actual performance/power of the console when it comes out. it's known the Wii U can push native 1080p, but it's up to the developers to do it. the new HD Zelda is going to be 1080p. Japanese websites rumored it to be from the Radeon 4890 line. but who knows.

 

[Guest]

"a source from within the company that says Nintendo rushed to complete the Wii U"

What? Why? they'll doubtless get it done long before a PS4 or Xbox 720. No one expects opposition within that time frame. What's your hurry Satoru? Oh I see... 3DS sales got you down.

 

[notuptome2004]

[citation][nom]retrig[/nom]As someone with a best friend who makes games for a major developer, I can say that other than the controller, don't get your hopes up. The Wii U is far inferior hardware wise to the XBox 360 and PS3 and will not be the more powerful machine that it was hyped up to be. This major developer has come to the conclusion that they won't be able to port any of their games to the Wii U as it is simply under powered. The PS3 used to be the joke of their offices. Walk into random office, say "PS3" and people would laugh. Now, sadly, it's going to be "Wii U".[/citation]





I Call Major BS . the reason i say this is 1. the unites they have now are not finale production quality development units and are maby 2 months away from being finale on the hardware

2. the Wii U is using and would be using a current IBM Multi-core based Power 7 architecture where as the Xbox 360 for example uses Power 4/5 based tech the very first IBM chip to be Multi-core/ threaded chip from IBM wich is 6 years dated or slightly more depending how ya look at its development .


So even if the Wii Us CPU was only clocked @ 1.8ghz it still outperform the power of the 360 by a huge leap because of the newer architecture is far more efficient and can do massive workloads faster and has better Threading and prediction pipelines


now the GPU wich is siad to based on the R700 chip would be 2x to 4x more powerful then the one on the 360 wich is based on the R500 design and even so the R700 while 2 generation up in 3s made huge leaps over the first unifead shader architecture designs ATI well AMd made at that time in 2004/5




So in no Way even on finale quality units would the Wii U be slower then the 360 and or PS3 for that matter in no way is it inferior in the CPU and GPU unless ya Nintendo does clock down the CPU speed to lower then 3.2ghz but like i siad before because of the newer architecture it still outperform the crap out of the one in the 360

 

[MrBig55]

It'll be so long beofre it actually launch that it'll be a lot slower than even a iPad3 ^^