Wii U: It’s Not A Threat To 360
Nintendo’s Wii U is taking a new approach, but so is the 360′s SmartGlass. Can the Wii U compete with the Xbox 360 when Microsoft’s console is so flexible?
How Nintendo’s new console may not live up to its own hype
Another E3 has come and gone without so much as a whisper of the number 720 and at first glace, it did look as though Microsoft could have kindly offered Nintendo a head-start in the next-gen race.
But the more we learn about Wii U, the more it seems like the Xbox 360 will have little to fear from the inventive new hardware. For starters, questions hang over the power of the console itself.
Now suspected to have only slightly more technical muscle than the 360, promises of 1080p, 60FPS gaming were shot down when it came to light that all first-party launch titles would only run at 720p.
Granted, that’s no better than the majority of 360 titles (only a handful boast a native 1080p resolution, after all), but it’s a pretty clear indication that Wii U won’t be the powerhouse many expected.
If Wii U really is the best way to play games like Assassin’s Creed III, you’d think Nintendo would make with the hyperbole and tell us so directly.
Then there’s the controller. Keeping costs down is key, hence why the main controller is basically a Fisher Price iPad with no multi-touch functionality and a measly three to five hour battery life.
This seriously harms the platform’s core gimmick, as too does Microsoft’s announcement of SmartGlass – a clever new connectivity method that will let 360 gamers enjoy similar experiences to those that Wii U will offer and often without even having to invest in any new hardware.
Add in the fact that many of its launch window titles will be ports of games we all played months ago (re-releasing Mass Effect 3 and Arkham City is hardly going to win over the hardcore) and it’s clear that this isn’t something that’s going to take the market by storm overnight.
In fact, by the time it hits its stride and starts to deliver on its additional power – assuming that ever happens – there’s a very real chance that Microsoft will already be talking up the next Xbox. And you just /know/ that’s going to be a leap rather than a step in terms of pure power.
The Nintendo Graveyard
How the Japanese firm’s previous consoles met their ends
SNES
1992-1995
Arrived late in a Mega Drive-dominated market, then tragically murdered by PlayStation amid the 3D Revolution.
N64
1997-2001
Ailed by expensive cartridge media and storage limitations and never really recovered from the loss of Nintendo’s beloved Final Fantasy franchise.
GameCube
2002-2005
Crippled by proprietary tiny discs in place of DVDs and a lack of publisher support. Will be fondly remembered as ‘the only console that ever had a handle’, though.
Wii
2006-2012
Drowned in shovelware and choked by dust, Wii saw far too few core titles and quickly became your mum’s gaming console.
Related Articles
- Will GTA V Delay The Next-Gen?
- Phil Harrison To Head Microsoft’s European Game Studios – Who Is This Impostor?
- The Curious Case Of Kinect Vs. The Hardcore Gamer
- 360 Exclusives Out-perform PS3 Exclusives
Check out the latest issue of X360 for all the big news as well as exclusive content on all the biggest Xbox 360 games. Available on iPad and other digital devices and at all good newsagents!
to find out about all the
latest XBOX 360 news, reviews, previews, interviews, features and a whole more.
First off…Nintendo has quite a few games that are new wether they are multiplats or a few ips…second nobody said anything when Sony ps3 was getting a shit full of ports from xbox360.. and when Sony boasted that their cell chip was supposed surpass the xbox360
..when it just ended up being slightly above par on some games but on par with all the others… many high profile developers have already said that ay minimum the Wii u is on par with xbox360 and ps3…at minimum.. people are trying to speculate that the Wii u wont be able to keep up with the ps4 or the next Xbox when we don’t even know the specs of any of the three systems…why not just wait until it actually releases in stores first review the completed games on the completed system and then make judgment from there…
A “core gimmick” from Nintendo vs “a clever new connectivity method” from Microsoft?…
This writer is so clearly biased it’s painful…
I would like to respond to two of the claims that were made:
” Keeping costs down is key, hence why the main controller is basically a Fisher Price iPad with no multi-touch functionality and a measly three to five hour battery life.”
Then I suppose, since keeping costs down was key, the 360 is ‘basically’ a Fisher Price gaming laptop with fewer buttons, no portability, and requiring the investment of an external screen…there will ALWAYS be a higher quality (and thus more expensive) toy that does something better than whatever it is you are talking about, but that makes for a pretty poor argument against it.
“SmartGlass – a clever new connectivity method that will let 360 gamers enjoy similar experiences to those that Wii U will offer and often without even having to invest in any new hardware.”
SmartGlass is NOTHING like the WiiU Gamepad and will offer very limited experiences. It has no hard buttons, and requires constant swapping between a tablet and the 360 controller. Also, it is much more of a media display than an actual input device. And sure, there is no need to invest in new hardware–assuming you already own a ~$300 tablet…
Hmm… imagine a 360 with most of that machines cross-platform games and all of Nintendo’s exclusives? Just on that level the Wii U seems like a pretty good proposition, but add in the second screens unique gameplay, something “smartglass” cannot rival. Why? Because the Wii U comes with a second screen as part of the package, not as an optional extra, lacking the basic buttons and sticks. This is assuming that the Wii U is no better than the 360 in power and ability. Well that is hard to say, certainly it will be somewhat better, but I doubt whether such differences will be the major selling point that they once were.
It is a gamble for Nintendo, is the Wii U powerful enough to stay in touch with the “next-gen”? Given that newer game engines are more and more scalable and, with the massive investment it takes to make a AAA game today, publishers would be dumb to ignore a major machine that is easy to port to, Nintendo might well be on to another contender.