Miyamoto: Console design not just about “a power competition”

Although Nintendo has refused to reveal the Wii U’s specifications, while speaking to IGN Miyamoto said it doesn’t matter; the Wii U can do what it needs to do.

[SaffronCurse]

The WiiU will be a flop

[stragomccloud]

Even Nintendo's "flops" were successes. ...save for the virtual boy. I hated that thing!

[Hisiru]

xbox1 is 4~5 times more powerful than PS2, if the WiiU is good enough to be the PS2 of it's generation (graphically speaking) then it will be fine.

[Abdou23]

"Console design not just about a power competition”
Yes,It is.

[attilayavuzer]

The last few years of Wii kind of prove that point.

[Nerdmaster]

I agree. It's a power competition. But in this case, the winners are the one with less power.

PSOne was weaker than N64 and arguably weaker than Saturn.
PS2 was the weakest console of its generation.
Wii was the weakest console of its generation.
DS was the weakest portable of its generation.
It's still early to tell which will be the winner, but seeing how Vita is selling, we can say the same for 3DS.

[Apex13]

That's they don't put special people like you in charge...of ANYTHING. The mind capacity is too primitive.

[AWBrawler]

and the first 2 comment are just garbage. I think I'll just go on back to Wiipals

[CLOUD1983]

When PS4/newbox launch all is going to return back to how it was all those years, with Nintendo to have the inferior console regarding power & 3rd party support but for Nintendo fan boys that's not a prob right? they r happy as long they can play Mario & Zelda so what's the prob? at least they can now port all the MP games only PS3/xbox owners could play till now, so Nintendo fans have a lot of catch up to do :P

[corrus]

It's only for Mario and Zelda that's want to say Miyamoto

[Hisiru]

How can you say it? Isn't Nintendo showing some third party respect this time? We should wait and see. Unless you have a crystal ball or a time machine.

[AWBrawler]

here is an example of what he means, for those who didn't read the article.
Compare Indigo Prophecy from last gen to Heavy Rain of this gen. Its not just the power that made Heavy Rain what it was.

Another example is compare Mario sunshine to Mario Galaxy. New ways of play that weren't possible on Cube unless you slowly down the game to accommodate for lack of a pointer and what not.

[corrus]

I am agreed about that gameplay and story are most important

[NobodyImportant]

Your Mario Sunshine to Mario Galaxy is a great example of why power is important.

After Nintendo realised that the first gen Wiimote only worked as a waggle controller they scaled back on motion in their games.
All motion got used for in Galaxy was the odd shake here for firing off into space (instead of a button press) and for collecting star bits. Seriously, star bits!
The game would've been just as good without star bits. Star bits aren't that awesome.

And if the Wii were more powerful think how much better Galaxy would have looked. Think how much more physics gameplay puzzles they could have programmed.
Think how much bigger the planets could have been. And how much cooler the baddies AI would've been.

Nintendo First Party devs are a talented bunch of people. Think what they could've created without being hobbled by a suped-up gamecube.

Mario Galaxy is the exact point in time that Nintendo realised that the Wiimote was garbage. They couldn't remove motion from their games without having egg on their faces so they used it as minimally as possible.

That is why you have Star bits in Galaxy. Not because they add anything at all to the gameplay, but because Nintendo had to use the controller somehow to try and prove to everyone that it wasn't really that rubbish.
The only problem was that in using it so minimally in Galaxy they did just that.

EDIT: Gameplay is MORE important than power (I agree), but with power comes new gameplay experiences.

NES - Basic 2D sprites
SNES - Beautiful 2D sprites and MODE7 graphics in FZero and Mario Kart
N64 - 3D Third person Mario.
Gamecube - More detailed 3D worlds, larger maps, the beginnings of some destructible elements.
Wii - Minimal advancement from gamecube, but with waggle instead of button pressing.
PS3 / 360 - Online gaming brought to the masses (I know we had it before on PC/PS3/Zbox/Dreamcast etc), but I'm talking about proper online as we have it now. Physics. AI. Destructibility. Huge openworld environments etc. etc.

Bring on the PS4 and 720. Let's see what new gameplay experiences will be possible from the next leap in power.

[Ju]

No it's not just the power, but without a game like Heavy Rain would have been a totally different game. Character expressing emotions requires some calculus. This would have been impossible with a "slower" machine. Heavy Rain is a cinematic experience. And, btw, so will be Beyond.

[stragomccloud]

It's too bad more gamers don't see it as a software competition. Though many gamers will argue that better hardware means more bigger better games. To that I say, compare the content of the average PS2 title to the average PS3 title. 'nuff said.

[Colonel_Dante]

Mr Miyamoto, with all due respect.. It might not be about power, but innovation also.

So, theres innovation in Pikmin,Pokemon,Mario,Metroid,D onkey Kong? Quit kidding yourself.

Nintendo, say its "not about power" but new "ideas and innovaion" then spend the next six years making sequels.

[tehpees3]

Whenever more powerful consoles have come out since PS1, they have never sold as well as the weaker system that has been out longer on the market. Wii U will have strong third party support because it has advantages people don't even consider.

The argument that third parties will just jump ship when the new systems come out is extremely flawed. Very badly. That goes by the assumption that every single gamer in the world will suddenly drop Wii U and move on to PS4 and 720 (or whatever they'll call it).

Did N64 coming out make everyone jump ship from PS1? No. Did xbox and gamecube coming out make people jump ship from PS2? No. Provided Wii U gets enough games by the time the other two come out then thats it. People keep wii u and third parties can't ignore it. Its too expensive to ignore Nintendo now. Thats the bottom line.

[NobodyImportant]

I jumped to the N64, because it was a much better console. It had mip mapping, AA. Games were way better looking than the PS1 and with those better looking games came Goldeneye, Ocarina of Time, Mario64, Turok 2, Rage Wars, Banjo Kazooie (when it used to be an awesome game)
I had a Gamecube last gen too with the best looking version on RE4.
This gen I got a Wii. I played Twilight Princess, Metroid 3 and Galaxy, but saw all the experiences I was missing on the 360 and PS3 (At that time it was all about COD4: Modern Warfare) Uncharted had just come out. I looked at Metroid 3 and then COD (which had pretty decent graphics for 2007) and I never looked back. I'd already played through Metroid Prime on the gamecube - it was the same game, but with a slightly better control scheme.
Now I play Killzone 3 with move controller.
So I have the best of both worlds (decent graphics and gameplay - and decent motion control)

Am I going to upgrade to Wii U for 1 year before the big two come out? Maybe who knows.

[NobodyImportant]

The thing about third parties is that they want to maximise profits.

This gen we had two similar consoles and one weak console that couldn't handle ports.
In that situation you're going to go for the majority.
PS3 and 360.
Wii had ports from last gen like RE4

I see next gen possibly going to same way.
Unless either Sony or Microsoft don't take the power leap. If one of them does a Wii and only doubles the power then maybe third parties will develop for the weak two consoles. Instead of the one powerful one.

If all 3 consoles go weak - I'm shifting to PC.

[Ju]

But the WiiU is late not early. What you say also applies to the WiiU. Are you saying all PS3/360 gamers will drop their consoles and flock to the WiiU?

[Colonel_Dante]

tehpees3

Ever heard of The Dreamcast?
Launched a year before the PS2.
Sega promised consumers the system would have legs.
Consumers were unsure and decided to wait for the Ps2 which ended up being much more powerful.
In the end, Sega had to quit the console business.
Remember??

[metroid32]

he and iwata are talking down power in general because power doesnt equal better graphics in modern day technology its not like the old days you can get a single core cpu that is much better and faster than a dual core its as simple as that and you can get a 750mhz gpu that is more powerful and has more graphical features than a 900mhz gpu its true he is saying don't think power which is raw GHZ/MHZ=better graphics and games as the 360 shows the ps3 how its done in frame rates and graphics if you ask me Gears of war is better looking by far than Unchartered easy and the 360 had 5mb/10mb of EDRAM which made frame rates better than ps3.

[Knushwood Butt]

Correct Shiggy. That's the most sensible thing you've said for a while.

However, if you don't have power, you have to have some kind of hook, and the Wii U doesn't have that either.....

[AWBrawler]

N4G won't let me reply for some reason so I'll have to reply here.

Galaxy used the wii remote for more than just collecting starbits.

[DivineAssault]

DUH! of course its not about power! The real nx gen systems are gonna wipe the floor with it (power wise) everyone thinks their wont be much of a change in graphical power but im sure that there will be games that nx gen consoles get that arent possible on wii u.. They invested resources into that ds like tablet instead of power while the competition will do the opposite.. Its very possible that they release controllers with a screen too & just take a hit on system sales just to render wii u useless... But nintendo is crafty & they can survive on 1st party games alone.. Theyre very talented devs but im not into the cutesy things they do.. i want it when zelda & metroid drop.(IF THEIR GAMES ARE EVOLVED & NOT JUST PRETTIER GRAPHICS)