Five Ways the Wii U Can Compete (and Three Reasons It Can’t)

Brian Shea from VGW discusses the reasons why the Wii-U may not be as dead in the water as we'd like to think...and a few reasons why the console may have already failed.

[thomasmiller]

Boy bill gates is at it again!! I wonder if he ever gets hand cramps by writing all these so called FAIR articles on the wii u, I cannot wait to see all the articles on how the ps4 can fail, OH WAIT, THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE RIGHT??? just garbage and now the doom and gloomers are trying to play both sides, like the wii u could, COULD, survive, but really it's already doomed!! WOW! the wii u is going to last, but hey, what ever helps the delusional trolls sleep at night!

[Yep]

The three reasons it can't are a bit weak as they are dynamic, in that the current situation can change in regards to third party and sales, with the last one being unconfirmed. Nobody knows how powerful the Wii U is. All we know is that it was capable of running PC assets of a late 2012 game with incredible ease (See Need For Speed Most Wanted U).

We also know that developers are only using a 1 out of 3 of the cores with their games (See Project Cars & Nano Assault Neo). Project Cars is a 2014 game that looks gorgeous. At the very least, we know that the system hasn't maxed it's full potential.

Other than that though, nice article.

[deafdani]

Regarding Project Cars... you seriously expect the Wii U version to look anywhere close to how it did in the numerous trailers and videos and screenshots they've posted so far?

Not a chance. All of these images and videos were taken straight from the PC build, with maximum settings.

The Wii U version will probably look pretty nice, but expect graphics closer to those of Gran Turismo 5, not the ones we've been shown so far.

I'm a big Nintendo fan and I love my Wii U, but I'm not deluded about the capacity of its hardware. Graphically speaking, the Wii U is, at most, a teeny bit more powerful than the PS3, and that's it. It's not coming anywhere close to Xbox One / PS4 visuals, let alone high-end PC settings.

[Yep]

Hey man, I'm grounded in reality. Everything I said was a fact and I didn't say Wii U was getting the PC version of Project Cars, in fact it's already confirmed that it won't because the developers were only able to tap into 1 out of the 3 available cores (meaning there's a lot of juice still left). And before you say PS4 and Xbox One have 8 cores, they're Jaguar cores meaning each individual core is weak (That's why the need so many).

You can dodge these facts any way you want, but it won't change the reality that the Wii U isn't underpowered like the Wii was. You're pretty deluded if you think the PS4 and Xbox One are going to be beasts. This generation's power race is more akin to 6th.

[deafdani]

I remember the guys from Nano Assault stating that they only used one of the Wii U's cores. That's true. But did the guys from Project Cars say the same? If so, that's news to me, could you kindly point me to an article stating this?

And I didn't say anywhere that the PS4 and Xbox One will be "beasts", but they will definitely be much, much more powerful to the Wii U. So, what is exactly your point here?

I'm not dodging any facts here, and I happen to play primarily on Nintendo consoles.

[Yep]

My point is that they only look to be more powerful on paper. Real world performance is what I'm talking about here. Aside from being able to handle more objects on screen, particle effects, and being slightly easier to develop for (slightly more RAM), there's not much more they could have over the Wii U. Don't get me wrong though, I think more power on the PS4 and Xbox One is great, but Battlefield 4 does exist on the PS3 albeit scaled down.

But yeah, it is news that the development team is only using a single core: http://www.pcars-forum.com/...

"Set main thread to (normal priority + 1) so that normal pri threads get
cpu time as WiiU threads don't time slice. This is a temp solution until
proper thread balancing and core affinity is set"

Also, I realize you enjoy Nintendo. I'm not saying you have to enjoy Nintendo to know what I'm talking about.

[deafdani]

Ok, got your points now. Cool. Thanks for the article, I take back what I said.

:)

[Yep]

Sorry if I came off as aggressive, but yeah, nice chat. :D

[deafdani]

Nah, to be fair, I started it. XD

Peace.

[etownone]

WiiU

Such a disappointment.

[3-4-5]

Reasons for Success:

* Super Mario 3D World

* Mario Kart 8

* DK: Tropical Freeze

* Pikmin 3

* Sonic Lost World

* Pokemon Rumble

* Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD

* Super Smash Brothers

* Bayonetta 2

* Legend of Zelda U

* X

*FExSMT

* Rayman Legends

* COD: Ghosts

* The Wonderful 101

Reasons for failure:

People don't realize the games I listed above actually exist.

[Yep]

Marketing is pretty much the only issue they need to remedy at the moment.

[PopRocks359]

In all fairness, it seems Nintendo finally got their heads into the game in that regard. Someone was kind enough to show me that eastern regions are already receiving hefty advertisement for Wonderful 101, not to mention the Nintendo Direct they did for the game today.

[TheLastVoiceOFsanity]

the only thing nintendo needs to do is get there big name first party games out, and advertise for them. it might be a long short , but they should also take a chance by advertising there games during the super bowl, and show off a lot of the controllers practical functions without the distraction of blaring electronic music, and a over enthusiastic family. i think nintendo really has to paint the picture for the average consumer, they should just make a commercial that shows how people will use the console, like laying on your bed or couch while playing a wii u game, or watching netflix while someone is watching a television program, and switching to the big screen when there done.

[MadMen]

WiiU is dead, 186k sold for the quarter, i put them at 35-50mil total lifetime and thats generous, and a failure still.

stick a fork in the WiiU its dead.

Now the handheld market is where they should concentrate, they are losing market share but the unit is sound.