I thought I would do a compilation of every quote I could find about the Wii U's graphics. Maybe it will give people a better idea of what to expect from this console. There's been so many quotes over the last year, and I wanted to compile a lot of them together. I didn't want to quote anyone who was an "unnamed source". These aren't in any particular order, but I tried to provide links and dates for most of them.
Shigeru Miyamoto - June 21, 2011
“We’re very sensitive, of course, to trying to do all of this at an appropriate price. So I don’t know that we would be able to sit here and say that it’s going to necessarily dramatically outperform the systems that are out now. It’s part of the balance that we strike in terms of trying to find entertainment that is new and unique.”
Link:
http://www.edge-online.com/news/miyamoto-price-may-limit-wii-u-power
Shigeru Miyamoto - January 30th, 2012
"Talking about the Wii U, it is going to be compatible with high-definition TV sets, which are now widespread and, with the graphics capabilities catching up to the general trend, some people consider it to be the ‘next-generation Wii.’ On the other hand, as far as graphics capabilities are concerned, there are already other hardware systems with similar functions. Therefore, we have designed the Wii U to be recognized as being different from any other hardware system."
Link:
http://nintendoeverything.com/81957...ext-gen-wii-hd-visuals-not-enough-uniqueness/
Shigeru Miyamoto - January 26th, 2012
"Miyamoto stressed that the company’s upcoming console won’t just be about improved visuals. However, he did seem to say that there will be some titles in which visuals will be important – including Zelda."
Link:
http://nintendoeverything.com/81779...als-but-graphics-will-be-important-for-zelda/
Satoru Iwata - Jan 30th, 2012
"As we will showcase the Wii U at E3 in June this year, the detailed announcements must wait until then, but we are aiming to make a system which shall not be forced into competing with the others where the contenders can fight only with massive developer resources and long development times as their weapons," he said.
"Looking at the software for home console systems, there are certainly the software titles for which very rich graphics must be reproduced on HD displays and which demand a large number of developers to spend a very long time to develop.
"It is one of the truths that a certain number of such software titles must be prepared, or the consumers will not be satisfied. But we do not think that any and all the software must be created in that fashion.
"When you look at Nintendo's software, extraordinary rich graphics, massive gameplay volume and astonishing rendition effects are not necessarily the appealing point. It is, in fact, important for us that our games are appealing in other ways as well."
He offered Nintendo's quirky Rhythm Heaven series as an example, insisting that, "if we had adopted rich photo-realistic graphics, it would have lost much of its appeal."
"It is not necessary for us to deploy a huge number of people in order to develop such games," he continued, stating that, more than ever, Nintendo is bringing in third parties when it does need to develop more graphically complex titles.
"When we need massive power and have a lack of internal resources, we collaborate with outside resources and pour necessary resources to where they are needed. We are increasing the frequency of working with outside developers where Mr. Miyamoto and our internal developers alone used to develop.
Link:
http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/...-satoru-iwata-makes-a-case-for-budget-gaming/
Katsuhiro Harada (Tekken Producer): -February 28, 2012
"According to the report, Harada doesn't think Nintendo is planning to enter the graphics race with the Wii U. Instead games will stand out courtesy of the touchscreen controller and the unique features it enables. "
Link:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-28-tekken-wii-u-60fps-low-image-latency
Ideaman (Neogaf) - May 2012
"Nowhere, i wrote i was disappointed by the hardware, nor my sources. But they aren't impressed either by the latest dev kits. It's not even "meh", it's "ok, it's an increase, but slight"."
Nintendo press release
"We do not focus on technology specs. We understand that people like to dissect graphics and processing power, but the experience of playing will always be more important than raw numbers."
Marvin Donald (Game Director - "Darksiders 2") - March 23, 2012
""So far the hardware's been on par with what we have with the current generations. Based on what I understand, the resolution and textures and polycounts and all that stuff, we're not going to being doing anything to up-rez the game, but we'll take advantage of the controller for sure."
Link:
http://www.gamereactor.se/nyheter/43021/GRTV:+Darksiders+II-intervju/
Han Randhawa (art director - Darksiders 2) - March 28, 2012
"There is not much I can really talk about right now, but I think that the Wii U is a pretty powerful machine, which obviously means more resources, and means you can do a lot more. So the Wii U team is doing very well, we've been working with Nintendo and I think it's going to be a very exciting version of Darksiders but we want to keep the overall theme relatively consistent."
Link:
http://www.nintengen.com/2012/03/darksiders-2-interview-wii-u-is-pretty.html
Colin Bonstead (Technical director - Darksiders 2) - June 7th, 2012
"When we asked Bonstead if he thought it was possible that the Wii U version of Darksiders II would be the best version of the game, he said, "Yeah, just because the hardware is more powerful and it will have some extra features that I think will actually be useful to people playing the game. With it’s controller, [the Wii U version of Darksiders II] might be the best version of the game."
Link:
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/...3-be-the-best-platform-for-darksiders-ii.aspx
Brian Martel (Gearbox co-founder and chief creative officer)
""We've got the [Aliens: Colonial Marines] engine running on the Wii U, and as far as the console goes, you're going to see textures at a resolution that you haven't seen on [the current] generation," said Martel.
http://wii.ign.com/articles/118/1180954p1.html
Brian Martel (Gearbox co-founder and chief creative officer) - April 4, 2012
Things like the Wii U are becoming very sexy with what you can do with the controller, especially with what you're able to do with the motion tracker or whatever the sub gameplay you'd get to see on there. I think the machine itself will have one of the best looking versions of the game because they've got more RAM [and] they're late in the cycle so they've got this really great processor.
Link:
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/04/gearbox_wii_u_out_rams_xbox_360_and_ps3
Randy Prichard (Gearbox president) - Feb 27th, 2012
"We’ve been intrigued by what we’ve seen so far and are encouraging Nintendo to go as aggressively as they can afford with the performance specifications. We imagine that performance specifications are within affordable reach that would provide undeniable performance advantages over competitive platforms. Nintendo have a lot more experience than we do in managing the balance between performance and cost with their hardware, of course, so I do not want to be presumptuous."
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/02/gearbox_wants_as_much_wii_u_power_as_possible
April 4th, 2012
""It's a really cool system -- it's pretty powerful. I want to be careful, because I don't want to risk any sensitive information that Nintendo's not ready to share yet, but in our experience it's a great system. I think it's a really nice bridge to the next generation. I think people will be surprised. I don't know off the top of my head how many of the specs they've released, so I want to be very careful not to jump the gun, but we're very pleased with the hardware. And even since they gave us our first alpha kit, our very first 'pre-prototype' development hardware that they kind of let us play around with, they've done so many things to make the platform better. So it's getting better for us as developers."
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/04/04/gearbox-boss-says-impressive-wii-u-a-really-nice-bridge-to-the/
Fumihiko Yasuda and Yosuke Hayshi (Team Ninja) - Jan 31st, 2012
"Team Ninja's Fumihiko Yasuda and Yosuke Hayashi broke the industry-wide silence on Nintendo's next-gen console, claiming its "very easy to develop for... We're finding it very similar to develop for Wii U as for Xbox 360 and PS3."
"They've asked us what we would want from the hardware, and when we give them feedback we can see that they're definitely listening to it and making changes," said Hayashi. "The hardware is still constantly changing."
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/333935/wii-u-hardware-changing-constantly-claims-team-ninja/
Mark Rein (Epic) - March 12, 2012
"Do you remember the Zelda demo they had on it? Would you not buy a Wii U just to play that? Of course you would. That's what Nintendo is all about. Their hardware is the software delivery service for their great content. That Zelda demo was gorgeous and we can do even more than that with Unreal Engine 3. I think it will do great."
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-03-12-epic-vp-id-be-shocked-if-wii-u-doesnt-do-well
Crytek founder Avni Yerli - September 20, 2011
That's the question we're asking now that Crytek founder Avni Yerli has confessed his love for the Nintendo Wii U's specs. That's right: he's actually excited over the hardware list, calling it "very good." That's excellent news from a development team whose notorious for bringing PC systems to their knees.\
"It's a challenge for designers, but once thought through it can add value, and that's what ultimately important," he told GamesIndustry in an interview. "Our guys in Nottingham, they are very happy with their tests on the dev kits and they're excited about it."
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Wii-U-Avni-Yerli-Minecraft-Crysis-FPS,news-12580.html
Cevat Yerli - (CEO of Crytek) - January 14, 2012
"Crytek's support for Wii U is definitely going to happen. We aren't showing it but we are pretty much running it already. We are expanding in many ways, and some of that is more announced than others.Kinect is major driver for future platforms as well, so Kinect support is important. Having basic Kinect support in the CryEngine is one thing, but I'm talking about really supporting it deeply. CryEngine is going to have deep support.
"Then there are other efforts towards supporting mobile and tablets, which we can only say we are working on. How far we have gone and what we mean is something I can't say more about now.""
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/307061/wii-u-gets-crytek-support-with-cryengine/
Rasmus Højengaard - Crytek Director of Creative Development - April 25th, 2012
"Fat chance," developer Crytek said.
Speaking to Destructoid, director of creative development Rasmus Højengaard said a Wii U release was "not on the cards". "I don't think it's going to be possible," he said. "Right now the launch platforms are PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, and I don't think it's on the cards to do a Wii U version."
Link:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-04-25-crytek-fat-chance-of-crysis-3-wii-u
EA Sports - Vice president Andrew Wilson - July 27, 2011
"The short answer is yes [we have a better idea of Wii U's power]; the longer answer is not quite," said Wilson. "As every new piece of hardware and every new development library comes through we get a greater understanding of the power. With our early research we had been very happy with the output of the box and we expect that that will only go up moving forward.
"There are added challenges for us as developers when you think about rendering on two screens and what that might mean, but we're looking forward to that challenge.
"It's still moving," he added, "but I think we'll be able to do anything that we can do on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on the Wii U."
Xbox 360 launched in late 2005, and PS3 launched in late 2006 (March 2007 in Europe). More than five years on, can Wii U not go beyond what PS3 and 360 are capable of?
"I think that's our hope," answered Wilson, "but again we're still in the early stages."
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-07-27-ea-wii-u-can-do-anything-ps3-360-can
Peter Moore (COO of EA) - August 8, 2011
""People will start talking about it being a transitional platform. And I don’t think that’s going to be the case, and here’s why," Moore told IndustryGamers. "I think the [tablet] controller [is huge]. This is not about specs anymore... This is about, as it was with the Wii, is the controller a unique way of enjoying a game experience, regardless of what the graphic fidelity is?"
""Look, you saw Battlefield - how much better could this stuff look at some point? There’s a point of diminishing returns... I don’t even know if there’s anything better than 1080p. In the early days of our industry, this stuff was absolutely about how much better the games looked - shinier helmets, greener grass – but I’ve been around long enough to know that seeing your breath in a football game is a huge deal. But that’s no longer the case any more," he said. "Now it’s about interfaces. Now it’s about building a community in a rich, powerful,way. And now it’s about, 'What is the way we can control the game?' You’ve seen that with Move, you’ve seen it with Wii MotionPlus more recently, and you’ve certainly seen it with Kinect."
"And Nintendo’s job, quite frankly, is to build a better mousetrap with regards to the way that we use the controller. So I don’t know what Xbox and PlayStation’s plans for their next platforms are, but it’s not going to be hanging on graphic fidelity. I guarantee you that."
http://www.industrygamers.com/news/nintendo-wii-u-wont-be-transitional-platform-says-peter-moore/
Tyrone Rodriquez, Nicalis
"Sadly, the original quote was taken a bit out of context. Here's exactly what I meant: for what we need, and maybe for other developers, the Wii U's [capabilities] are more than sufficient for five to ten years. We're not making AAA games or using a crazy insane 3D engine, but the Wii U can definitely do both." - Tyrone Rodriguez, Nicalis
http://wiiugo.com/nicalis-talks-about-comments-regarding-wii-u-power/
Hip Hop Gamer interview with Darksiders II dev: - April 16, 2012
"Wii U is next gen hardware"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LyZaZhhA_A&feature=youtu.be
IGN/Fudzilla Report - Jan 24, 2012
"In real terms, the Xbox 720's raw graphics processing power is expected to be six times that of the Xbox 360 and will yield 20-percent greater performance than Nintendo's forthcoming console, the Wii U."
http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/01/24/xbox-720-will-be-six-times-as-powerful-as-current-gen