Ubisoft casts doubt on Wii U’s next-gen grunt

Beyond Good & Evil and Rayman creator Michael Ancel has said the Wii U is not a next-gen console, while the publisher refuses to comment on the new tech’s capacity to stand against current consoles.

The Ubisoft designer asnwered VideoGamer‘s query as to whether the new console is next-gen with “Not really.”

“I think Wii U is next-gen in terms of interface,” he conceded.

“People are going to copy it, because you’ve got this mix between tablet, touch screen and big screen – big screen and little screen – there are a lot of possibilities.”

Ancel speculated that other platform holders might feel threatened enough by the new system to emulate it with its own hardware.

“I don’t know if Sony will do it, or Microsoft – but yes, I think it’s a possibility. But I think the main thing is to have this – offering new ways to play is very interesting.”

Ubisoft, along with THQ, was one of the first third-party publishers to get its hands on the Wii U tech, but is playing cagey about the hardware’s potential.

Speaking at the second Nintendo E3 roundtable event, as reported by Kotaku, Ubisoft Quebec’s senior technical architect Marc Parenteau couldn’t commit to a comparison with current consoles.

“It’s too early to make comparisons with that sort of thing,” he said.

“We’re still learning how to maximize the usage of the hardware. The hardware is evolving a bit also. The dev kits are not final, so there’s still some before the actual… uh… before we can make comparisons.

“And you have to understand, we’ve been working on other engines for a long time so we need some time to catch up and get up to date on what we can do with the hardware. So to compare now wouldn’t be fair.”

Wedbush Morgan analysts have said that Nintendo’s leap on the HD bandwagon is at least two years too late.

Thanks, GoNintendo. & http://www.videogamer.com/news/wii_u_is_not_next-gen_says_michel_ancel.html &  http://www.vg247.com/2011/06/14/ubisoft-casts-doubt-on-wii-us-next-gen-grunt/

The Zelda Wii U tech demo certainly looks next gen to me.

Translation: Nintendo forced us to adapt to make our shovelware, and now they're going to force us again to adapt for our shovelware? However shall we pay for our multi-million dollar money sinks?

wow... talk about completely misrepresenting what was said.

I encourage any of you to watch Ubisoft's actual presentation and Q&A.

This article is putting a huge slant on what was said and not even quoting the actual questions.

If you watch just the Q&A you can see that what is presented here is false. Ubisoft was completely dodging any questions that could pin the hardware obviously because they were under scrutiny by Nintendo and the fact that WiiU is not 100% final.

However, they also said that what they've done so far was on par with PS360 even if was not refined simply because they have not optimized the code for the new console. Pointing out that it will be much better as they get past the learning curve.

I can't believe how much Nintendo hate exists among the core media.... I can't wait until ported games look noticeably better and then a game like Zelda or Metroid (which would both be amazing in realistic HD visuals) completely stops anything from any other dev.

But then that won't be "worthy" news.

the dev kits aren't even using finalized specs yet. And despite that Bilsons over at THQ still claimed that Darksiders II (a game that is roughly 6 years into the 360 and PS3's lifespans) is working on the Wii U. Kotaku did almost the exact same article and it made me want to slap the guy who wrote it.

Even if the journalist was being fair (I have not doubt he wasn't) there is nothing saying that Sony or Microsoft will be able to produce a system that some people would define as "Next Generation" for quite some time ...

Crysis 2 at its highest detail settings running at 1080p is a very impressive game and is far beyond what the HD consoles can do technically, but when you look at the HD console versions of the same game the graphical leap is far smaller than the leap from the PS2 to the PS3; which itself was a much smaller difference than the leap from the Playstation to the PS2.

To get the visual jump that many people associate with a generational jump Sony and Microsoft may need hardware that doesn't exist and may not be available for several years.

people have unreasonable expectations.  hell even if wii u was showing battlefield 3 in full maximum settings they would still expect the ps4 to look way better than that.

they think the new ps4 is going to have games that look better than any game that has been made today.  its just stupid.  the pc's are already stronger than the ps4 will most likely be, so why would the ps4 have better looking games than a pc can do?

I agree.  And that was precisely my response to another poster who said the WiiU is underpowered.  The technological jump from PS3 to PS4 and 360 to NextBox will truly underwhelm a lot of people who are expecting consoles three to four times as powerful.

And in response to superchunk's post, it seems the media still has an axe to grind with Nintendo.

I don't know anything about what the PS4 or next XBox will be, I'm just talking about where we are on the current technology curve ...

The jump in perceived quality from Crysis 2 on the consoles to Crysis 2 at high detail on the PC is similar to the perceived quality difference in the PC and console versions of Half-Life 2 or Doom 3; and these PC games ran as well on hardware that was released 2/3 years after the previous generation consoles as Crysis 2 does on hardware that is 5/6 years newer than the HD consoles.

Ubisoft can just stick to making Assassin's Creed, cuz that statement is a lie!!!