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Iwata Asks: Wii U

peakish said:
Man are optical drives huge. Can't wait to get rid of them forever.
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I am with you. Someone can use a pixel ruler on that picture, but it looks like that optical drive is taking up a little more than 50% of that case space. You could probably cut the space the optical drive takes up in half with a 2.5" HDD if they had gone all digital.
 
Oersted said:
spending less money on a electric bill isn´t that bad. less energy consuming isn´t such a bad thing. there are weird things like an enviroment surrounding us.
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Yea, I just love saving $5 PER YEAR on my game console power bill. I mean it's not like I could save 500x that (both environmentally and monetarily) by changing my climate control to be 1 degree less comfortable, making it a point to put my PC's to sleep, or being more mindful about turning off lights. Good thing Nintendo are look out for us, right?
 
Nintendo's consoles are always such impressively compact and attractive designs, at least on the inside. Very cool.

Reallink said:
Yea, I just love saving $5 PER YEAR on my game console power bill. I mean it's not like I could save 500x that (both environmentally and monetarily) by changing my climate control to be 1 degree less comfortable, making it a point to put my PC's to sleep, or being more mindful about turning off lights. Good thing Nintendo are look out for us, right?
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Well, since they're going to sell millions of these things, those energy savings do add up if you look at their effect on society/the environment as a whole.
 
Reallink said:
Yea, I just love saving $5 PER YEAR on my game console power bill. I mean it's not like I could save 500x that (both environmentally and monetarily) by changing my climate control to be 1 degree less comfortable, making it a point to put my PC's to sleep, or being more mindful about turning off lights. Good thing Nintendo are look out for us, right?
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Brought some points up, others mentioned some like rrds. But you only picked mine up to make some points up for your own (Good thing Nintendo are look out for us, right?). I hate to say it, but that looks more like a attemp of trolling than a relevant point in a discussion.
 
Reallink said:
Yea, I just love saving $5 PER YEAR on my game console power bill. I mean it's not like I could save 500x that (both environmentally and monetarily) by changing my climate control to be 1 degree less comfortable, making it a point to put my PC's to sleep, or being more mindful about turning off lights. Good thing Nintendo are look out for us, right?
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Would you rather have a console that overheats and stops working after a while like the original 360?
 
Reallink said:
Yea, I just love saving $5 PER YEAR on my game console power bill. I mean it's not like I could save 500x that (both environmentally and monetarily) by changing my climate control to be 1 degree less comfortable, making it a point to put my PC's to sleep, or being more mindful about turning off lights. Good thing Nintendo are look out for us, right?
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Every little bit helps, this console was designed with Japan in mind compared to the current consoles.
 
Every little bit helps, this console was designed with Japan in mind compared to the current consoles.
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FUCKING STOP IT with this horseshit

the machine was build with Nintendo's bottom line in mind, stop this "oh but in Japan..." fucking NONSENSE
 
Actually Nintendo always seemed to have been against making large consoles. None of them had a bigger footprint than the NES or N64.
 
I love reading these and I love the care that Nintendo put's into it's hardware. It's all extremely considered and I like the intentions of the people and the company.

Little things like how the buckle on the wrist strap is shaped like the Wii console. Even the plugs in the back are all that same shape. The blue glow of the Wii. The thoughtful but mocked handle on the Gamecube. The idea of having a handle on your system to carry it to a friends house (Im assuming this was because it had a LAN card). And on and on.

It will be fun to read about the Gamepad. That's where a lot of the hard work goes every generation. The Wiimote and Gamecube controllers are little works of art. The N64 controller (and console design) seemed rawly ambitious. Snes and NES before that both had considered design. Loved the push to eject switch on the SNES. Love the whole color and design scheme of the NES.

I remember reading this one about the 3DS (http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/3ds/how-nintendo-3ds-made/2/1) before I got the system and not thinking much about it, but now after owning the hardware for awhile, Im really pleased with it. All the little touches of sliders, indentations, a lid based on the concept of simply touching and opening the system more, all so cool.
 
Reallink said:
Yea, I just love saving $5 PER YEAR on my game console power bill. I mean it's not like I could save 500x that (both environmentally and monetarily) by changing my climate control to be 1 degree less comfortable, making it a point to put my PC's to sleep, or being more mindful about turning off lights. Good thing Nintendo are look out for us, right?
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How did you calculate $5 per year? If we calculate a savings per kwh compared to a 360 of say the minimum 50 watts at a rate of 25 cents per kwh it would take 20 hours to save $1. Compare it to launch 360 or ps3 and you are looking at about $3 per 20 hours usage. if you use the machine on average 500 hours a year or less than 10 hours a week the saving could be a minimum $25 per year to $75 per year. The money that you save over the course of a 6 year generation would be enough to buy you a new console and a game if compared to a launch ps3 or 360 console. I dont know what the power envelope of a ps4 or 720 will be but i hope it wont be more than a launch 360 or ps3, though at the same time there are those who would hope it won't be less than that for other reasons.
 
Eaten By A Grue said:
I am with you. Someone can use a pixel ruler on that picture, but it looks like that optical drive is taking up a little more than 50% of that case space. You could probably cut the space the optical drive takes up in half with a 2.5" HDD if they had gone all digital.
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Oh man, I can just see Iwata demanding that the next console be the size of a deck of cards. Or a box of cigs.
 
DCharlie said:
FUCKING STOP IT with this horseshit

the machine was build with Nintendo's bottom line in mind, stop this "oh but in Japan..." fucking NONSENSE
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bet you wouldn't feel that same way if you had to ride an exercise bike to generate the energy necessary to power the console while playing. then the energy consumption wouldn't be so trifling to you.
 
All some people see from this is, Nintendo was too cheap to put in powerful components to give them their next-gen graphical goodness... let them worry about the electric bill later
 
DCharlie said:
FUCKING STOP IT with this horseshit

the machine was build with Nintendo's bottom line in mind, stop this "oh but in Japan..." fucking NONSENSE
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DC Charlie going mad with the Caps again.

You know they could have cared for bottom line even more. Small is beautiful but expensive to design.
 
Josh7289 said:
Since they're going to sell millions of these things, those energy savings do add up if you look at their effect on society/the environment as a whole.
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An intelligently designed console should have several power states to the point that peak power draw is irrelevant. They could create a console that sucked 400W during gameplay, but only used 30W for video/basic apps, and had an undefeatable sub-1W sleep mechanism that kicked in after 30 minutes idle. Such a device would still be a 70-90% improvement over the societal/environmental impact of current gen hardware (primarily PS360, particularly the earlier models).

I Stalk Alone said:
How did you calculate $5 per year? If we calculate a savings per kwh compared to a 360 of say the minimum 50 watts at a rate of 25 cents per kwh it would take 20 hours to save $1. Compare it to launch 360 or ps3 and you are looking at about $3 per 20 hours usage. if you use the machine on average 500 hours a year or less than 10 hours a week the saving could be a minimum $25 per year to $75 per year. The money that you save over the course of a 6 year generation would be enough to buy you a new console and a game if compared to a launch ps3 or 360 console. I dont know what the power envelope of a ps4 or 720 will be but i hope it wont be more than a launch 360 or ps3, though at the same time there are those who would hope it won't be less than that for other reasons.
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I carried the 1kWh up my ass, multiplied by 5, and pulled out an obviously hyperbolic $5.
 
Reallink said:
An intelligently designed console should have several power states to the point that peak power draw is irrelevant. They could create a console that sucked 400W during gameplay, but only used 30W for video/basic apps, and had an undefeatable sub-1W sleep mechanism that kicked in after 30 minutes idle. Such a device would still be a 70-90% improvement over the societal/environmental impact of current gen hardware (primarily PS360, particularly the earlier models).
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I don't believe any of their arguments about energy consumption other than it's a marketting point and enables them to keep other things cheaper like cooling. I'm with the "Who really gives a fuck about another 10-20W" crowd. I'd rather have the power.

That said, I don't give much of a shit anymore about the "power" of the Wii U. It is what it is and I want to play games and use that GamePad.
 
All that rambling aside, I do wish they were a little more will to expend on better things at times. For me it's weird things though, like better cameras in the 3DS and a better speaker in the Wiimote.

Graphics haven't been a concern for me. Nintendo developed games have seemed to always get across what they wanted just fine, so I've never cared about the power race. Plus I can afford other systems if I want specific games.

It's like when Pixar needed to step up and do decent humans with the Incredibles... well, that was when they stepped up and got it done. When they had an idea that needed it, they figured out the backend tech and the artistic skill to create nice cartoony humans with good hair and mass. I feel like first party Nintendo games do that. They are all at the service of the idea and the right idea comes along and it pushes them to execute it and they do. Hardware cycles might impede that a tiny bit, but I would guess it is just a tiny bit.

Love fest.
 
marc^o^ said:
DC Charlie going mad with the Caps again.

You know they could have cared for bottom line even more. Small is beautiful but expensive to design.
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i'm allergic to bullshit - it brings me out in CAPSLOCK , what can i say?
 
What do you know about living in Japan?
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um.... now here's the thing.

i'm going to preempt my own response by saying "-yes- but that doesn't make you the fucking oracle of everything Japan", but anyways.

I've lived in Japan for 13 years.

The crux of my CAPSRAGE is simply the whole "Well, in Japan..." and a spluttered set of reasoning that i don't think holds and whilst circa 3/11 it became an issue for Japan with setsuden on the decline it's just not that big of a deal. The Wii U draws the power it does because that's the power it needs - and that's it.
 
The console was built to sell at an international level. This is why there is such a thing is Nintendo TVii. Anyone who says that the console was made with Japan as the main focus is utterly mistaken. Most of the sales happen outside of Japan. This is not to say that the Japanese culture did not influence certain aspects of the system. But it is made for a world-wide consumer-base.
 
I enjoy the fallouts every few years from those who either forgot what Nintendo's philosophy is, or never knew it in the first place.

Wii U is looking sexy.
 
Ryoku said:
The console was built to sell at an international level. This is why there is such a thing is Nintendo TVii. Anyone who says that the console was made with Japan as the main focus is utterly mistaken. Most of the sales happen outside of Japan. This is not to say that the Japanese culture did not influence certain aspects of the system. But it is made for a world-wide consumer-base.
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Yeah but it's not inconceivable that Nintendo TV is for the US Market and the low power consumption is for the Japanese market, isn't it?
 
Has low energy consumption all the sudden became a bad thing or why have we discussed it that long? Or is it just a " Oh, Nintendo did it"-thingie?
 
DCharlie said:
um.... now here's the thing.

i'm going to preempt my own response by saying "-yes- but that doesn't make you the fucking oracle of everything Japan", but anyways.

I've lived in Japan for 13 years.

The crux of my CAPSRAGE is simply the whole "Well, in Japan..." and a spluttered set of reasoning that i don't think holds and whilst circa 3/11 it became an issue for Japan with setsuden on the decline it's just not that big of a deal. The Wii U draws the power it does because that's the power it needs - and that's it.
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I was fucking around.
 
I enjoy the fallouts every few years from those who either forgot what Nintendo's philosophy is, or never knew it in the first place.
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you talk as if their philosophy has remained static since their inception - nothing could be futher from the truth and that's why they are exceptionally good at what they do.
 
CrunchinJelly said:
The Wii went out into the world with a mainly vertical design, so in order to create a distinction, we went with a mainly horizontal design for the Wii U.

A slightly more unique console design for Wii U would have achieved this more than just changing the primary orientation.
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It sounds like a cheap excuse to not include a vertical stand in the basic SKU to me
 
AzaK said:
Yeah but it's not inconceivable that Nintendo TV is for the US Market and the low power consumption is for the Japanese market, isn't it?
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Yeah, of course. Like I mentioned, it's not out of the question for aspects of the console to be influenced by Japanese culture (and international cultures, as well). Just saying that the idea that the console itself was designed for the Japanese market is ridiculous.
 
AzaK said:
Yeah but it's not inconceivable that Nintendo TV is for the US Market and the low power consumption is for the Japanese market, isn't it?
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Since when is the lower power consumption only a thing Japan or the Japanese market care about?

The lower power consumption is a side effect of one of the Wii U's design philosophies, namely to provide a fairly small, quiet and reliable system. That is something that is GENERALLY favorable! Especially for a system with a good chunk of performance/innovation that's still afordable.
 
I expect great things from the gamepad Iwata Asks, designing that thing probably took more than a few experiments.
 
All I have to say about Nintendo's low power design philosophy is the following...

After 6+ years of faithful service from my PS3, Nintendo's launching a console that:

Has a much more modest footprint
Doesn't sound like a jet engine taking off
Has significant hardware spec advantages
Costs half what I paid for Sony's last system

...yeah, sign me up for that shit.
 
Shalashaska161 said:
Why is low power consumption such a big selling point in Japan? Is power super expensive there or something compared to NA?
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Well, after they shut down a large number of nuclear reactors, yes electricity is a bit pricey, and there's been a campaign to teach people to use less power. And the government voted to remove ALL nuclear reactors by 2030.

But also, in regards to electronics, the less power that is being used, the less heat that is generated, and the less powerful fans are needed. Optimizing electronics is a very worthy thing to do.
 
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