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Iwata Asks: Wii U

Why do you think 3rd parties stopped supporting it? It wasn't because of the 3ds or wii u. If it had similar power to the ps3 or 360 things would have been different.

Significant power difference between that and the HD twins has always been my assumption.
 
Why do you think 3rd parties stopped supporting it?

Stop supporting it? That would imply they started supporting it in the first place. As to why they never started? Idiocy pretty much, an absurd focus on pushing tech they can't really afford, exploding development costs despite not expanding the market, and making games into blockbusters that has been financially disastrous and put the whole industry in a tight spot? Maybe they'll learn for next time, but you never know.
 
Hasn't this been established since the GameCube generation, the generation that caused them to stop revealing specs because they wouldn't bullshit the numbers with raw statistics like their competitors, leading to a well-held misconception in that gen that GameCube was the weakest console?

The truth is somewhere in the middle - Iwata stood on a stage at TGS prior to the Wii launch and explained why it wasn't viable to chase ever growing technical prowess and how the majority of users didn't care about the specs.

A great speech and , as it turned out, right on the money and the Wii sold insanely well.

However, the idea that this is some "well we aren't going to bullshit the numbers" line isn't something i'd swallow so readily : Nintendo don't want to compare on those terms - it's not on their agenda, it's an unfavourable comparison for them -regardless- of what you may think of what other manufacturers are doing/why they do it/etc.

I also notice that they've been quick with the "1080P HD!" like as long as it's 1080P HD that <reggie>"ticks that box" and all other related things are equal - so if they're interest is not befuddling competitors then seems they want to only play that angle when it suits.
 
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Useless. we can't even see how many Gamecubes are duct taped together. Now we'll NEVER know how powerful the Wii U is.
 
Stop supporting it? That would imply they started supporting it in the first place. As to why they never started? Idiocy pretty much, an absurd focus on pushing tech they can't really afford, exploding development costs despite not expanding the market, and making games into blockbusters that has been financially disastrous and put the whole industry in a tight spot? Maybe they'll learn for next time, but you never know.

Surely it had nothing to do with Nintendo's shitty technology
 
Surely it had nothing to do with Nintendo's shitty technology

That was a reason, but it was a bad one. Some devs might not have died, and many others would be doing far better perhaps if they hadn't held such a myopic view on tech and the Wii's userbase. That attitude is the very thing that is biting devs in the ass.
 
Hasn't this been established since the GameCube generation, the generation that caused them to stop revealing specs because they wouldn't bullshit the numbers with raw statistics like their competitors, leading to a well-held misconception in that gen that GameCube was the weakest console?

Isn't heavily rumored that Microsoft is hiding the Xbox 720 specs just like Nintendo is doing?
 
Stop supporting it? That would imply they started supporting it in the first place. As to why they never started? Idiocy pretty much, an absurd focus on pushing tech they can't really afford, exploding development costs despite not expanding the market, and making games into blockbusters that has been financially disastrous and put the whole industry in a tight spot? Maybe they'll learn for next time, but you never know.

With Kinect, Sony buying Gakai and more and more F2P-games and DLC stuff, I guess they learned their lesson, but we most probably won´t like it.
 
Iwata said:
I hope that the people, especially those who bother themselves to read this interview to know that in order to make this hardware at this size, with this performance, while also suppressing power consumption—and all at this price—a lot of people had to work awfully hard. That is my candid wish.
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"GAF doesn't care about hard working people"
 
That was a reason, but it was a bad one. Some devs might not have died, and many others would be doing far better perhaps if they hadn't held such a myopic view on tech and the Wii's userbase. That attitude is the very thing that is biting devs in the ass.

So true! So much money left on the table. That said, many devs wanted to move on from the last generation tech wise. Devs like playing with new toys as well and quite frankly wii just wasn't as sexy as the hd twins.
 
That was a reason, but it was a bad one. Some devs might not have died, and many others would be doing far better perhaps if they hadn't held such a myopic view on tech and the Wii's userbase. That attitude is the very thing that is biting devs in the ass.

And many companies seem to be succeeding because of what they can do with the increase in technology(and an audience that buys them). Even having a half-way decent online system that would allow smaller companies that develop XBLA/PSN indie games could help.
 
The CPU/GPU may be small but it's architecture that rules the day. And since the Wii U is built from the ground up versus recycling old parts (i.e Wii) there's alot of potential to be had here.

I think it's best to wait for the teardown/reverse engineering to gain a proper understanding of what that piece of silicon can do.
 
The truth of the matter that seems difficult for some to accept is that even as Nintendo "courts" the so-called hardcore gamer again, that doesn't mean they're suddenly not supposed to be Nintendo. They still straddle the line. Remain inclusive of the mainstream. Japan is just a little bit important to them, as well.

All the effort put into things like low power consumption, low heat, testing and reliability - all very Nintendo-esque things. Also, those seem to be things that are surprisingly important in the Japanese market.

This in addition to, as has already been reminded upthread, the fact that Nintendo long ago more or less formally bowed out of chasing the leading edge of technology as measured in raw hardware power.

So everything in this Asks makes perfect sense... for them. Also a good reminder of, despite constant snipes about their "cheapness" and "laziness", the work they do put into their design and construction.
 
The CPU/GPU may be small but it's architecture that rules the day. And since the Wii U is built from the ground up versus recycling old parts (i.e Wii) there's alot of potential to be had here.

Is it built from the ground up, though? Heard a lot of devs say it's (the CPU at least) based on the same architecture from broadway.
 
So true! So much money left on the table. That said, many devs wanted to move on from the last generation tech wise. Devs like playing with new toys as well and quite frankly wii just wasn't as sexy as the hd twins.

No they don't. Last generation one of the few times where devs were caught red handed in this bullshit thinking. some of those same devs wanting to play with new toys and powers were the same ones bitching it costs a lot money to push pc games and going to the hd twins.
 
And many companies seem to be succeeding because of what they can do with the increase in technology(and an audience that buys them). Even having a half-way decent online system that would allow smaller companies that develop XBLA/PSN indie games could help.

What games/companies are succeeding because of the technology? Online, i'll give, that is true, although as Treyarch is shown you can still even on Wii do most of the stuff the big brother game can in most instances, and E-shop supports indie games. But I can't really think of a significant number of games that sell because of what the tech boost allowed them to do. GTA III san andreas cost much less to develop than GTA IV and iirc sold better too. Halo was huge before HD, COD could be done without it, atmospheric games were popular before HD...

I mean, I like HD, but these companies should have at least been supporting the wii concurrently with the HD audience.
 
No dev said that.

Do you not read the WiiU spec topic that's been discussed quite a bit or the potential. Considering what Iwata and others said in this interview we can easily confirm that lineage wise the broadway, gekko, and this ibm cpu are linked in order to do bc the way nintendo wants.
 
I fucking LOVE Iwata asks...and we get to see the internals, something everyone was dying to see.

Yeah, no one saw this coming. That's why I'm usually not hasty to jump on the "Nintendo ought to do X/Y NOW" bandwagon. It's obvious that they have their own sense of timing for most matters. That's also why I'm not stressing about the preceived lack of Wii U marketing, though the console is launching little over a month from now. I expect them to handle things properly and in their own time.

Iwata: I hope that the people, especially those who bother themselves to read this interview to know that in order to make this hardware at this size, with this performance, while also suppressing power consumption—and all at this price—a lot of people had to work awfully hard. That is my candid wish.

Unfortunately, that probably won't stop the know-it-alls, with their all-knowing wisdom, from claiming how Nintendo could have easily used X GPU for X price, at X size, and still meet their goals from a performance-size-power-price perspective. Hopefully those images and details puts these things into perspective.
 
Also a good reminder of, despite constant snipes about their "cheapness" and "laziness", the work they do put into their design and construction.
The funny thing about "cheapness and laziness" about Nintendo hardware design is that all of my Nintendo consoles and handhelds (I could say the same for Sega as well) from my NES onwards still function like the day I first powered them on. I've had to replace one PS1, one PS2, and two Xbox 360's because of hardware problems. I would not be surprised if my current Xbox 360 or PS3 does not survive the next 5 years. Cheap and lazy, at least Nintendo's damn things survive over time.
 
Do you not read the WiiU spec topic that's been discussed quite a bit or the potential. Considering what Iwata and others said in this interview we can easily confirm that lineage wise the broadway, gekko, and this ibm cpu are linked in order to do bc the way nintendo wants.

Not the way I meant.
 
Do you not read the WiiU spec topic that's been discussed quite a bit or the potential. Considering what Iwata and others said in this interview we can easily confirm that lineage wise the broadway, gekko, and this ibm cpu are linked in order to do bc the way nintendo wants.

Linked in what sense is the question, at least in my mind.
 
Who cares about the power consumption of their consoles? Since when has that been a problem?

Since the Xbox 360 and its overheating issues. The thing would literally act like a heater with the heat coming out of that thing and it would still overheat. Design when it comes to power consumption in today's hardware should be a major consideration.
 
Yeah, no one saw this coming. That's why I'm usually not hasty to jump on the "Nintendo ought to do X/Y NOW" bandwagon. It's obvious that they have their own sense of timing for most matters. That's also why I'm not stressing about the preceived lack of Wii U marketing, though the console is launching little over a month from now. I expect them to handle things properly and in their own time.



Unfortunately, that probably won't stop the know-it-alls, with their all-knowing wisdom, from claiming how Nintendo could have easily used X GPU for X price, at X size, and still meet their goals from a performance-size-power-price perspective. Hopefully those images and details puts these things into perspective.

Listening to online-posters, the financial crisis would have never happened, Wii would have been a powerhouse and Obama would have won the last debate.

you see what it did there
 
Red Ring of Death and overheat.

This.

Amd and Nvidia have been working on power to performance as well. Wasted power means a lot when trying push cards. This isn't a bad thing in one generation we have had massive power jumps and are doing them with less power than what we typically have been using before.
 
Who cares about the power consumption of their consoles? Since when has that been a problem?

Apparently, Microsoft does since they had such high failure rates and over heating consoles. Compare a launch Xbox 360 to an Xbox 360 S. Its far quieter, cooler and uses far less juice.
 
"thermal test it thousands of times and revise the test patterns hundreds of times and perform defect analysis."

Another Nintendo launch system which I expect to last me through the full duration of the platform's life, and beyond.
 
Sony & Microsoft have actually worked hard to get the power consumption of their consoles down throughout this gen.
 
Yeah. I remember bringing Renesas up because they had the capacity to make 32nm eDRAM and LSI as well I believe and they were also purchased by NEC awhile back if I remember correctly.

I was wrong. Looking back I talked about Renesas dealing with 28nm, not 32nm.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=33222455&postcount=14045

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=33227894&postcount=14071

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=33233098&postcount=14122
 
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