Speaking with The Globe and Mail, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime has taken criticism of Nintendo's lack of next-gen oomph by the horns. When it was suggested that the Wii U would be underpowered compared to the inevitable PS4 and Next Xbox, Reggie responded strongly:
It's not about power. If it was about power, then the GameCube would have been the number one system in its generation and the Wii wouldn't have been the number one system in this last generation. It is not about power. It is about fun, it is about the experience.
Why is everyone always dogging Nintendo? The fact is, the Wii U WILL look dated next to the next generation Sony and Microsoft hardware. Unfortunately for everyone setting bags of dog shit aflame on Nintendo's door step, the last time they went with power first, they landed in last place.
Reggie continued:
The way development works is that the longer developers work with a system, the better they can tune performance…. the more they push the system, the more they learn tricks to really optimize performance.
Just remember how quickly the support for those "late-in-the-generation" quality games fled when the 360 and PS3 became the standard for blockbuster third-party titles. If there is a true leap in graphical fidelity from Sony and Microsoft, the Wii U will again be at a loss when hardware and software sales ultimately come down to the latest Call of Duty.
One question I have that hasn't been answered (and I never got an opportunity to ask) is how powerful is the Wii U when a game isn't sending visuals to the tablet controller? What's the machine capable of if you're only playing with the Pro controller?
