Official 3DS Discussion Thread

[Zero]

Nothing about the Wii U seems "hardcore".

Except for the fact that you can now play console games on your toilet. Oh poop there you go kids, one reason to buy it.

[Neerb]

Nothing about the Wii U seems "hardcore".

YET; it's all in the software, and with actual 3rd party support and HD graphics, maybe it will be.

There's nothing "hardcore" about a console itself; the fact that the PS3 was gigantic and black with the Spider-man font didn't make it any more "hardcore" than the Gamecube.

[Zero]

Something you're overlooking is that Microsoft announced they're definitely working on a successor to the 360, Sony is probably doing the same for the PS3.

By the time those consoles are released the Wii U will be in the exact same position the Wii was and still is in this generation. Behind in terms of power.

[DededeCloneChris]

Something you're overlooking is that Microsoft announced they're definitely working on a successor to the 360, Sony is probably doing the same for the PS3.

By the time those consoles are released the Wii U will be in the exact same position the Wii was and still is in this generation. Behind in terms of power.

Your faith amazes me...

[Nayrman]

Ultimately it's a technological hole Nintendo will have to learn with, or take an extra two years and release with the others at similar power some generation and go a long time underpowered.

It's not surprising at all Microsoft is working on "Xbox 3" or whatever. Everyone begins working on the next console the instant one gets released. They're always tinkering and trying things in development on what they could do next. It's just a matter on what they decide on tech wise and when to release it. Is there a "PS4" in the works? Duh.

As far as "hardcore" goes, graphics wise it's better yes, and HD. However, it's missing some major things that we need to know about? Is there going to be a big HDD? If not, then there will barely be any DLC, add-ons, download games, and so forth, which is a good chunk of console games these days. What is the online plan going to be? We have no idea, but knowing Nintendo's track record, probably not good.

We'll probably have to wait til next year's E3 to figure out this "hardcore" status of the WiiU

[Zero]

Your faith amazes me...

I speak the unfortunate truth

[Kayo]

Nothing about the Wii U seems "hardcore".

Except for the fact that you can now play console games on your toilet. Oh poop there you go kids, one reason to buy it.

Due to wireless controllers this has always been possible.

But Nintendo has always seemed to prefer a more family-friendly approach in the past.

[Zero]

Due to wireless controllers this has always been possible.

But Nintendo has always seemed to prefer a more family-friendly approach in the past.

Even with wired controllers you could do it, but you get what I meant.

[Kayo]

Even with wired controllers you could do it, but you get what I meant.

You can play games without looking at a TV now!
[spoiler][/spoiler]

I see what you're saying, though.

[DededeCloneChris]

In other news besides bashing Nintendo in this innocent thread, we've got ourselves a rhythm gem from Sega. Rhythm Thief & The Emperor's Treasure.

[Hero_of_Darkness]

By the time those consoles are released the Wii U will be in the exact same position the Wii was and still is in this generation. Behind in terms of power.

That's highly unlikely. The gap between the Wii and the PS3/360 is astronomical both in terms of power and technology. Unless Sony and Microsoft wait until 2014 and release super consoles that cost them billions, We won't see a repeat of this gen. We're talking about them being 2-4x as powerful as Wii U (based on what's known about Wii U, Nintendo would have to actually try to make the Wii U as weak as possible for it to be noticeably less than twice as powerful as PS3/360) while using similar technology, compared to the 10x difference this gen combined with Wii having tech that was six years behind. This gen, it was a vastly different playing field. Next gen, it'll be more like a low- to mid-range PC vs. a high-end PC.

[Kayo]

It depends on HOW MUCH more power we can get. We've come a long way from 8-bit, remember. There's eventually going to be a limit.

[Zero]

That's highly unlikely. The gap between the Wii and the PS3/360 is astronomical both in terms of power and technology. Unless Sony and Microsoft wait until 2014 and release super consoles that cost them billions, We won't see a repeat of this gen. We're talking about them being 2-4x as powerful as Wii U (based on what's known about Wii U, Nintendo would have to actually try to make the Wii U as weak as possible for it to be noticeably less than twice as powerful as PS3/360) while using similar technology, compared to the 10x difference this gen combined with Wii having tech that was six years behind. This gen, it was a vastly different playing field. Next gen, it'll be more like a low- to mid-range PC vs. a high-end PC.

Have you been paying attention? Everything indicates a 2014-2015 launch, and you're fooling yourself if you really think that the gap won't be almost if not just as immense.

[Hero_of_Darkness]

Have you been paying attention? Everything indicates a 2014-2015 launch, and you're fooling yourself if you really think that the gap won't be almost if not just as immense.

Everything? Rumors of a 2012 or 2013 XBox 720 launch are everywhere, and do you really think they'll give this gen's market leader 2-3 years of breathing room? They'd have to be positive that it'll flop. We'll definitely see the new consoles at E3 next year. That "10 year plan" only means that they'll keep selling the console for 10 years, not that they'll wait 10 years to release a new console.

What you don't understand is that the gap can't be as big. We have to look to PC tech to see where console can go. This gen, PS3 and 360 used high-end GPUs to make a leap bigger than any we have ever seen in terms of power. Next gen, they can't do that due to high-end GPUs being too hot, power hungry, and expensive. The current top GPU offers 10x the power of the current consoles, but the graphics card alone actually uses more power than the PS3 and 360 did at launch! Unless something revolutionary suddenly appears, it'll take until 2014 at least just to get that amount of power into a console.

In addition, if this gap is going to be the same as others, that would imply 8GB of RAM in the next consoles. Console RAM is very expensive, however, and games using the power we have now wouldn't even need that much in a closed box. 4GB seems a lot more reasonable unless GDDR5 RAM prices suddenly plummet (assuming they both go with that instead of something even more expensive). Maybe even 6GB, but more than that is highly unlikely.  You probably disagree, but it's true. A large reason why we needed big jumps in RAM in the past was that the resolution increased each generation. Next gen, we're staying at 1080p. In fact, we're probably still going to see only 720p for most games due to devs wanting to throw pretty effects everywhere. So, in 99% of games, a lot of that 8GB would either be unused or filled by memory leaks.

And finally, my point about technology. Simply put, lack of power wasn't the Wii's biggest issue with getting games. Its GPU tech was outdated and lacked certain features (most notably, programmable shaders) required to run current-gen engines, so games had to be rebuilt from the ground up. This gen, while Wii U will likely be missing a few features, tech just hasn't advanced as much as it did from last-gen. DX11 engines can still be ported down to DX10 rather easily. So Wii U should be able to handle toned-down versions of next-gen engines; something Wii could not claim.

So, where does this leave us? A console 2x as powerful as PS3/360 in 2012 vs. a console 10x as powerful as them in 2014. That's a 5x difference. Half of what we saw this gen, and we don't have the problem if Wii U requiring new engines built from the ground up. And this is the worst case scenario. Wii U will miss out on some games, especially later in the generation, but it'll be nothing like Wii.

[Custom]

hero of darkness is like this guy with a ton of information that nobody else has and nobody has announced anything on but he talks about it anyway
who are you guy
bill gates