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Wii U continues to be a major talking point among the biggest names in the development community with a few more icons throwing in their two cents recently. Peter Moore has had quite the career (worked at Sega for the launch of Dreamcast, became the tattoo toting spokesman for Xbox, and was recently promoted to the position of COO of EA( so when he talks, people tend to listen. In an interview with Industry Gamer, Moore was questioned about Wii U’s position as being more powerful than Sony and Microsoft’s current offerings, but most likely less powerful than their next round of consoles.
“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?” Moore said. “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.”
Of course there is such thing as Ultra Hi-Def, but I don’t really think that’s the point. Moore pointed out Wii’s success at putting controllers over power and seems to think that Wii U’s innovations will be more significant than simple power increases. Moore also seems to think the competition will follow suit, “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.”
On the more ambiguous side of things are the comments from id Software’s president, Todd Hollenshead. “I haven’t really had a chance to sit down with [John] Carmack about it, because it’s his opinion that matters,” said Hollenshead, “from what Nintendo is saying, [the Wii U] looks interesting, but it still remains to be seen how it fits within how id Tech 5 would run on it, is the audience right for us to develop games on that platform.”
id Tech 5 on Wii U? Maybe. Wii? Definitely no!
At the moment id seems to be a little hesitant, Hollenshead didn’t mince words with regards to Wii’s inability to handle id’s demanding software when he explicitly stated, “We’re not doing a crappy version of Rage on the Wii.”
Obviously the entire industry hasn’t reached a consensus on what Wii U has to offer; Peter Moore is interested in how the tablet controller will change gaming while id is sticking to their strength and waiting to see how the system will handle their hardware intensive architecture. Regardless of what all the developers are saying, the sheer volume of talk is great evidence of how Wii U is on the mind of developers, including many who have rarely given Nintendo platforms the time of day.
And of course there are other issues of note this week including early 3DS price drops and the obligatory stock market doom and gloom demanded of all news providers.
