With Wii U getting closer to release and with so many details yet to be revealed, the clamour for insight and opinion on the console is growing. At the recent Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco Eurogamer.net took the opportunity to discuss the console with Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games, a developer best known for the Gears of War series, Infinity Blade on iOS and the Unreal graphics engine.
Despite being a developer with strong ties to Xbox 360 in particular, Rein gave a strong endorsement to Wii U as a concept and in terms of its potential success. When discussing the system's graphical performance and its presentation of well known HD titles, there were some supportive comments.
I played Batman: Arkham City on the Wii U and they are doing some really cool stuff with the controller. 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.
Beyond technical specifications, Rein also believes that the concept and Nintendo's brands and software will draw consumers, particularly parents, to the console.
It's a great brand that a lot of parents really trust and they're probably ready to buy their kids an HD Wii that does that much more than just being an HD Wii. I'd love it if they'd done it last year, but I'm excited for them to do it this year. I'd be shocked if it doesn't do well.
Did you play that Battle Mii game? Two players would play with a Wii Remote and Nunchuk and one would play with the Wii U controller? I would buy a Wii U to play that game in a heartbeat. And I hope people make those kind of games with our technology. I think we've yet to really see what the Wii U can do and I think at E3 this year they're going to shock us.
The last line should be music to the ears of eager Nintendo gamers. There's little doubt that Nintendo is saving a lot of its big Wii U reveals for E3 2012: let's hope that it doesn't disappoint.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 40
if this keeps up i may actually buy one
I still don't like the fact the developers are simply re-releasing, what will be year old games by the time the Wii U is released.
Sure other people will now be able to play games like Arkham City, but they're not gonna draw in any gamers who can play the exact same game, for a cheaper price, on either 360, PS3 or PC.
I've been gaming since the 2600 days but I don't think I've ever anticipated a console as much as this,I hope they get it right!
Go Nintendo! ...Go Go...Nintendo be good
of course it's not always good to have ports of games from other systems for the wii U. however, good support meaning quality games is better than good support of the wii U by means of shovelware, which isn't good.
this sounds promising to me, even if this is the type of game i wouldn't play myself.
I can't wait for the Wii U to come out. I personally think it will do as well as the Wii! The only thing I'm waiting on is the final price. All of my friends think it will be $300 minimum. I think it could very well be about $450-$500. Only time will tell.
@Aviator Well, the thing is, they aren't trying to draw in gamers that play it on their 360s or PS3s. They are trying to cater to the people who love their Wiis and they are teling them "Look at this! Now you can play the PS3/360 games like Arkham City and Skyrim!" It may not make sense, but since I would rather have a next gen console with a last gen game. I ONLY have a Wii. If I ran out and bought the, now cheaper, PS3, I would only have it for a year TOPS. The last gen consoles are slowly going out to make way for the 720 and PS4. They may not be here right away, but I'd rather be ahead of the pack.
But if it's used to say "Hey, you can now play the games that everyone else has been able to play for 6 years", then how is that gonna convince those who have been playing those games to pick up the system?
And honestly, Nintendo can't be pulling old games and use it to show off what the Wii U is capable of. The 360 and PS3 are already capable of producing that, so the Wii U is just catching up. And you can bet my house on it, that when the 720 and down the line the PS4 is introduced, it will further increase the gap the Wii U has tried to close.
If Nintendo and developers released new games that show off the Wii U, rather than using the new controller as an add-on, then it may entice those gamers who aren't buying the console on day one.
Cool come Wii U launch day i'll be playing a host of exciting games already available for cheaper.
I don't remember the last time so many devs were actually praising Nintendo before a console launch. Feels weird.
@Aviator You speak as if the only games being released alongside the WiiU are ports. Pikmin 3 is supposed to be launch window and so is Killer Freaks and Assassin's Creed 3. Those last three are frosting on the cake while the ports are like sprinkles and candy on the frosting. The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of people out there that only had a Wii for the last five years (not including myself) and I'm sure they wouldn't mind having some of those cool game they heard of on their new console that they've been saving up for. Furthermore, even if the graphics of these games are taken straight from the 360 or PS3, they will still be in native 1080p. The resolution is crap on the latter two consoles when they make graphics intensive games. Also, the argument that 720 and PS4 are going to blow WiiU out of the water in a few years is absolute nonsense. IF these consoles release with graphics far superior to WiiU, then they will also be far more expensive. No, the next line of consoles from MS and Sony will be slightly better than their previous versions and slightly better than WiiU in terms of graphics. They will also be priced to compete with Nintendo. It isn't Nintendo who is playing catch-up, don't you see that?
I doubt the X720 and PS4 will be much more powerful than the Wii U. Nintendo wouldn't throw away the possibility for being the most powerful console on the market, for a couple months lead on the competition.
Hopefully we see many epic games franchises on the wii u then!!!
^ this. All these words are nice and stuff but mean nothing as long as they don't bring their best games to the Wii.
"they are doing some really cool stuff with the controller. Do you remember the Zelda demo they had on it? Would you not buy a Wii U just to play that?" No, i wouldn't. I expect more from the console than just doing the touch controls that the DS did since it launched and adding some fancy HD graphics.
^ what they need is a Mario title at launch. The NES? bought it for SMB. SNES? came packaged with SMW, and that's all i played for a straight month. N64? besides Shadows of the Empire, SM64 was all I played, and it was mindblowing at the time. What happened with the Wii? SMG was released like a year in, and I didn't even get really interested in wanting one until Super Paper Mario was announced anyway. Same for the DS; I remember only getting interested in wanting a Lite when they started running commercials for NSMB. holy hell was I stoked for that, and the 3DS didn't get SM3DL until late last year... to be honest I hadn't played mine much until that point. Hell, if they were to announce they were working on a version of Luigi's Mansion 2 for Wii U, that might actually be a system seller for me. :3
@Alienfish Most 3rd party games run in 720, not 1080p.
"Also, the argument that 720 and PS4 are going to blow WiiU out of the water in a few years is absolute nonsense."
How so? The Wii U is catching up to what the 360 did at release and what the PS3 did at release. It's going to take a few years for Wii U games to reach the same standard that PS3 games are getting released at now. HD games take longer to make, and if all the Wii U is capable of is what has already been released, then why should I deviate from playing my PS3? I can get the same experience, without having to buy a new console.
David Cage (a few days ago) said that "we're very far from seeing everything the PS3 can do, it's very powerful hardware." If the Wii is capable of just now running games that were released in October 2011, it shows that Nintendo are still not making strong progress.
Show me that the console is able to compete with other consoles, because at the moment, the home console race is solely between 360 and PS3, and the PS3 is hindered due to the fact that the 360 is holding it back. Why can't the PS3 hold the Wii U back? If the technology was available in late 2006, then why is the Wii U only catching up to what was capable 6 months ago?
Yes, as the console develops and grows, developers will be able to produce more from the system, but that is years away. And by that stage, nobody will drastically jump ship because other consoles will be doing much more than it.
Definetly they need better games at launch, maybe 2-3 built in games, or maybe even a game that comes with it. It needs at least a Mario game at launch at the eShop fully functional in a few months. Finally, it has to have a good price tag.
Yet another big-time 3rd party throws their support behind the Wii U. It would be pretty awesome to see a new Epic game exclusively on Nintendo's newest console. Maybe a new Unreal Tournament?
Price it right and get a Mario platformer or Mario Kart out at launch and yeah, it should do well.
"Gears of War....more like Tears of War." lol
Fun fact: Most PS3 and 360 games are not really HD. cough 480-720p cough
But HD Mario! Make it happen!!
@Aviator FYI there's gonna be other games at Wii U launch other than the ports too.
new xbox and ps4 will blow the wii-u out of the water graphically, but is that detail really significant in the scheme of things? just means the people that buy games and games machines based on how good the graphics look will be all over them. doesn't effect me in the least.
the wii-u will still have gorgeous HD nintendo games, not to mention the new controller innovations. day 1 buy for me regardless of the price. microsoft and sony will copy the controller concept, perhaps a dual shock 4 for sony, which will still be fundamentally the same as the PS1 analogue pad.
@Hanks #24
I don't think that our resolution will pass 1080p for a while. So if Sony and Microsoft want to blow the Wii U out of the water, they will probably have to wait a couple years, and by then it will be to late for them because the Wii U popularity would most likely skyrocket.
There goes most of the excuses "Hardcore Gamers" have so they can down talk Nintendo. You know what's hardcore? Lasting 25 yrs and beating the competition, where's your 2006 Sega home console at?
@grimbldoo i think it's fair to assume they will do a lot more polygons and effects @ 1080p, but the new xbox might be graphically quite a bit closer to the Wii-U than most people thought. especially if it's launching with a high price tag and the xblox is dropping within 12 months of it.
i think the wii-u has the potential to be a huge home run...kids, casual audience and once again the more core gaming audience. whether they can nail the online network will be important there. personally i think i will be very happy with a wii-u and PC (and 3ds) for all my gaming needs in the next several years.
@Aviator
Meh, I still believe the WiiU surpasses PS3 in power, if the information I gathered is correct. And I disagree with this whole "catch up" people keep throwing around, when Nintendo is going in a new direction with WiiU.
No ones going to get a system based on power, at least, not me and the loads of people I know. Because Nintendo has a strong 1st party line up, plus 3rd party support that was lacking, it looks to me that WiiU will be successful. Also, WiiU is using graphics technology based on an AMD chip released Octoberr 2011. Its not using dated technology in the least. And the gap between WiiU vs 720 and PS4 will most likely be miniscule anyways.
Somehow I find it hard to believe that the PS3 is "just getting started" as far as graphical capability...
As time goes on and games are made for the consoles, it takes alot of work to make them playable at the framerates the devs want.
Take a look at some of the PC companions for the same games.
Alot of you can say you can't tell a difference but the truth is, textures and other graphical tech definitions take a hit from being on a console.
Sure the games look prettier because of new and revised engines, but I can still play today's gorgeous games with my 8800 GT a fairly old card...it'll look great still but if you ever play on maximum settings, you'll notice just how much of a hit you took.
The PS3 has frequent graphical issues, could be just me but for some games textures sometimes just won't load all the way and sometimes there are texture pop ins. Some games.
Sure it can happen on a PC, texture pop ins, but it all depends on your system.
My one defense for PS3 graphics though is Naughty Dog. The Uncharted games just look absolutely awesome. I've had no problems or glitches or hiccups with those games, ever.
And the Wii U? That real time zelda demo, and the EARLY example of that bird tech demo showed at E3.
We all remember how the 360 and PS3 looked when they first came out.
Compare Resistance 1 to Uncharted 3...just absolutely amazing.
The Wii U has time to grow graphically...nobody is just sure how far it will go.
The graphical gap between the Wii U and the next Sony and Microsoft systems won't be anywhere near as large as the gap between the Wii and the PS3 and 360. The huge gap that exists now is because Nintendo purposefully chose to limit the Wii's power and they used technology that was already dated for the time while Microsoft and Sony used state-of-the-art technology. But this time Nintendo is using state-of-the-art technology for the Wii U so the next systems from Microsoft and Sony in a year or two won't be that dramatically more powerful than Nintendo's system. Plus, they'll all have the same resolutions.
I agree with Epic Games here. The Wii U should have come out in 2011, but it'll be worth the wait. The more I hear about it the better it gets.
@Aviator Maybe you're unaware but the Xbox 360 launched with last generation ports like Burnout Revenge, and it didn't stop there. Gamers still bought it. Last gen ports won't stop anyone from buying a Wii U.
Considering what Epic Games, and Mark Rein in particular, said about the Wii this represents a significant shift. If Wii U runs Unreal Engine 3, and rumours that Nintendo are willing to tweak the specs so that it can run Unreal Engine 4 are true, we might finally see decent third party support again.
If developers optimise their games to take full use of the controller, and ensure that the Wii U version is the version to buy it can only mean good things for the future.
@minimario
I wasnt sure what you were talking about but then i got the reference and i laughed.reading this article made me so excited.
@retro_player_22 Then lets see those games? All I have heard about is 3rd party ports and announcements. Announcements don't make me spend money.
@Hanks In my post I never talked about the graphics, I talked about experience. I judge my games on the overall experience that they create in me. All factors work together in creating this experience. I don't 100% believe that a person would enjoy a game that has great gameplay, great sound, great everything, and horrible graphics. Not in this day an age at least.
@KoMiCtUrTlE How are they going in a new direction? 'Oh look, a new controller! NINTENDO ARE INNOVATORS!! F*** SONY AND MICROSOFT THEY CAN NEVER THINK ABOUT SOMETHING LIKE THIS. WE ARE SO ORIGINAL!!'
@Malkeor I never said it was getting started. And thank you for bringing up Uncharted as an example. You'll find that games developed for PS3 only perform much better, rather than games developed for all systems.
@Gamesake But this isn't last generation.
@Aviator
Defending retro_player_22:
The Announcements are talking about non-ported games aren't they? Just to name two, we have Super Smash Bros. and Zelda Wii U. Bam. Also, you aren't the only consumer on the market.
Defending KoMiCtUrTlE:
Well, have Microsoft and Sony made a tablet controller? Also, what was that that happened a while back? Sony and Microsoft suddenly liked motion controls, was it? And Sony's looked EXACTLY like the Wii's Wii Remote?
Defending Malkeor:
Well, the same goes for any system. A game originally made for the 360 would perform better on the 360 than any other. The same will go for the Wii U.
Defending Gamesake:
The Wii wasn't able to do this last generation. If the Wii U can do this, why would you gripe about it? It just makes multiplatform games even more popular.
@Aviator Clearly, you aren't buying a Wii U and you would rather play your PS3 until the PS4 comes out. Why not enjoy the PS3 instead of hating on the Wii U? Don't say you aren't because you ARE. You are saying that you could just play the ports' "original" version on your PS3. FINE. Do that. The rest of us will finally be happy to play Batman: Arkham City on our Wii U game systems.
@Aviator
I'm not refering to just to just the controller. Cool your jets. And writing in CAPS doesn't help you.
If you can't think beyond and get what I'm trying to say without being disrespectful, then I cannot be bothered with you.
Come on, let's chill, please... the Wii U is still quite a ways off, and we've got at least one solid E3 between us and it. In terms of game announcements, I'd wait for E3 before writing it off completely.
/me is still hoping for a Mario launch title :3
@theblackdragon Yes mister blackdragon, sir! As you can probably tell, I am thoroughly excited for the launch of the Wii U. I've nearly gotten so fond of the system that I have entered "Attack Dog" mode on anyone not praising it.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion.
@Aviator The PS3 and Xbox 360 aren't last generation consoles yet. But after the Wii U launches this year, both the PS3 and Xbox 360 will be last gen and so will their games.
Great time to be poor!
Epic Games supporting Wii U.
You know what game I want to see on the Wii U from Epic? TYRIAN! Just imagine the possibilities of an updated TYRIAN (or a sequel) on the Wii U. That would be mind boggling.
Speaking of Batman: Arkham City, idk how many of u visit other nintendo sites but theres and other article on Wii U blog about Batman: AC. I hope nintendo life doesnt get mad at me for posting the link but here you go:
<a rel="external" href="http://wiiublog.com/batman-arkham-city-makes-fantastic-use-of-the-wii-us-controller-says-mark-rein/#comment-16667">http://wiiublog.com/batman-arkham-city-makes-fantastic-use-of-the-wii-us-controller-says-mark-rein/#comment-16667</a>
I know its the same article about Mark Rein but it also mention something about the game itself!
@kyuubikid213 I like your "Attack Dog" mode lol!
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