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Forums - Gaming Discussion - UNITY - Nintendo & Wii U Finish The REVOLUTION

Dr.EisDrachenJaeger said:

Oh god, what is with this reahashing crap? Just because they release a 3DS and WiiU game does NOT mean they're rehashing their ips. ANYONE who plays their games, will tell you otherwise. (but seriously guys, enough Zelda and Mario for a good while okay)

Gamers are fickle, NINTENDO FANS are fickle. Nintendo needs to up the install base, so they're gonna put out games until they have that base of 3 games that get people to buy the system.

Look at what they did with the 3DS man.

That didn't work with Virtual Boy.  Nintendo's magic on the software end doesn't always work, if the software isn't appealing enough.  And failing to even keep up with this generation's version of Black Ops 2, isn't a good sign either.

The thing with Nintendo now is they aren't coming out with new IP.  They are rereleasing the same franchises over and over and over. Yes, they have a fairly large collection, but it is the same stuff.  And what people are banking on turning it around are the same old franchises.  Like hover Mario Kart is supposed to make a difference here.



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You keep talking about the virtual boy, but did you have one? You're making an incomplete argument and case here.

NIntendo made some mistakes with the virtual boy. Namely releasing it too soon. Or the tech not being there yet, I dunno, wasnt paying attention to it back then.

Perhaps people just arent fond of black and red 3D.

Not the case with the WiiU. People just need to buy the games for the damn thing.

I like how you love to cherry pick at Nintendo's line up with the WiiU ,its quite funny;look just play the damn games see what they're like, how they play and what they're doing. They're not only banking on their stable of franchises you know? Watch 2014. Watch 2015. Nintendo always pulls out something interesting when they get desperate.

IF they dont take advantage of the boon and variety of titles they have and really push the WiiU, then I say sure they got 99 problems but a handheld isnt one. Nintendo is an old dragon one that sleeps, in a dark cave, hoarding its treasure. Underestimate them at you're own peril.

I just hope they use TW101 , X and their other slew of enthusiast focused titles to push the WiiU as the "Japanese Console" like the 3DS is turning into

 

 

When it comes to Valve, I think they can co-exist. They're the innovators in the PC space, Nintendo are the innovators in the console space. Valve can offer a low end streaming solution and a higher end solution,supporting whatever niche they have there in this console wide industry fallout JL predicts.

Its not like a 3D0, the philosphy is too different.

I'd advise you to fully flesh out your arguements rather than just diverging into picking at the dish you're presented with and acting like baby Muriel from Courage the Cowardly Dog



richardhutnik said:
johnlucas said:

1. *You say "Linux based". I say "OK nice. What does that have to do with being a competitive console?".

2. *You say "No licensing fees". I say "Then how is Valve going to make their money from this console?".

3. *You say "Building in market with tons of programs". I say "This is a CONSOLE. And CONSOLES are supposed to market GAMES not programs".

4. You say "Support by a top player in the videogame industry". I say "Just one guy? Just one company? That's it?".

5. *You say "Owner of a number of wanted IPs". I say "OK good. But how wanted? And how many people outside & oblivious to the Steam Community will want them?".

One doesn't read johnlucas's flood of text, one survives it.  This being said, I will end up having tocut down and answer each point.  I will do that.  But, johnlucas's arguments never come down to what Nintendo is doing now that shows they have what the market wants on the console front, but rather tear down the competition and presume they will survive than the world will have no choice but bow to Nintendo.  On the mertis of wht Nintendo will have what people wants, the answer is silent.  One can't answer this, because Nintendo is rehasing old IPs that are getting long in the tooth.  Survivor bias is NOT how you argue that something in the future will come out on top.  

Onto the points:

1. Android is Linux based.  Linux is the top OS at this point, and growing larger and larger, and building up a pretty huge base of coders.

2. If you don't understand how Google makes its money from Android, then there is little hope for you.  And you apparently don't have a clue as to how Steam works.  The level of ignorance is pretty astonishing here.

3. Steam has LOTS of games for it.  It is the TOP distribution channel for PC software.  Steam is going to push that SteamOS versions be done.  But, the distribution channel is there.

4. if you fail to see Valve as a top player, then there is really nothing we have to discuss here.  Your repeated ignoring of reality makes things impossible to discuss.  In this context here, "videogames" also refers to the computer games industry.  All it is now lumped under "videogames".  PC sales show up on here, for a reason.

5. If you fail to be able to grasp the IP's Valve owns personally: Half-Life, Counterstrike, Portal, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, Day of Defeat, and DOTA 2, then we really seriously have nothing else to talk about.  Seriously here, we don't.

The level you are clowing here is proving to be a big waste of time.  And I am seriously looking to leave VGChartz and get myself permabanned.  Individuals such as yourself, with your lack of respect where it is needed, and sheer unadulterated ignorance, are not things I have time for.  You can feel free to clown around here, but I am not.  I am getting sickened by all this, seriously sickened.  

Well, time I sleep on this.  I am probably going to request a permaban early in the coming week.


Before you go, Richard. Here's a parting rebuttal.

1. Having Linux means jack in the world of consoles. So what? This is not the PC world. This is the console world. This is where Valve wants to compete.
And Valve having Linux doesn't give them some magical advantage when EVERY console has customized OS's INCLUDING Linux-based systems.

 

2. How Google makes money from Android? Look at what I found.
Why Google isn't worried about Android revenue
Excerpt:

For some reason, the Guardian (a partial investor in GigaOM, mind you) ran a story last Thursday purporting to have discovered how much revenue Google has earned from Android since its launch in 2008: $550 million. It derived that number from documents filed as part of Google’s legal battle with Oracle over Oracle’s claim that Android infringes patents related to Java, taking Google’s proposed royalty payments to Oracle should it lose the case as a baseline. Google declined to comment on the numbers and Danny Sullivan at Marketing Land quickly challenged the reasoning behind the Guardian’s figures, but he admitted there’s no way to know for sure when Google refuses to provide its own numbers.

If that number is true, then that's chump change. The article was written on April 1, 2012 & Android came out on September 23, 2008.
3 1/2 years & that's ALL the money Android made for Google???
And we're just talking revenue not profits which is the most important.
Google's a giant no doubt & the small money won't matter to them.
But don't use Android as some invincible force that Nintendo can't handle.
They're about to be done with one or two giants this generation. They can handle another. Google's not a game company.

Valve's secrecy about Steam is fine since they're a private company but Google's public & they won't talk about what this platform is bringing in.
But back to Steam if they had the big bucks from Steam like you say they wouldn't enlist outside partners to put the Steam Machines together for them.
They would finance the building of the machines all by themselves.
Steam's vaunted financial success could be more smoke & mirrors, more vapors than you think.
And they SHO'NUFF finna take a hit trying to mix it up in this console business.
Gabe better not get in too deep. He might not come out.

 

3. This is the console world not the PC world. Remember that.
The PC games market makes MUCH less money than the console games market.
If he makes the Steam Machines all-digital he runs the risk of ending up like the PSPgo.
Apple could play that route with their iTunes store because people initially came for the music. Steam is only hot to the PC guys mainly.
How is Valve gonna compel the uninitiated to Steam's library of games?
They have to buy the console first but what if doesn't get through the retail channels?
Can't get that green if you can't be seen.

There's a market cap on viable competitors & we're currently at our breaking point with 3.
The way Valve is ushering in this set of systems is not looking good & I'm not the only one saying it.
My cousin who has morphed from a console gamer to a full-fledged PC gamer over the years (just sold his PS3 to my shock & surprise) is not impressed at all with the Steam Machine. Talked to him today about it as a matter of fact. He talks about the difficulty in certain PC games not being available on Steam & not having ability to play PC game discs which discourages adoption. So Valve BETTER push for SteamOS versions to be done.
I have been reading the feedback in the stories posted about the Steam Machine unveiling & many talk about most games being built off the Windows platform not the Linux platform & the conflict that would create.
Some talk about the unnecessariness of the Steam Machine when people can already hook an HDMI cable to their TVs now & play Steam.
A person on this thread even talked about wireless HDMI eliminating the problem altogether!

Still at the end of the day what is this appeal of Steam's games to the larger audience? This is not the PC game world anymore. You have to have a broader appeal in the world of consoles. Valve would have been better off just leaving it as a Steam Client for the smartphones & tablets like they already got. That would have been his best bet.

 

4. You think Valve by itself can hold that console together in the face of all that competition??? COME ON!
They ain't Nintendo, brother.
Their games don't have that power to go it alone. In the barren PC world, yeah, they can hang. But now you're fighting Nintendo & the lesser but still mighty challengers Sony & Microsoft.
Is Valve coming here to be a bit player or a REAL player? If they're coming here to be a real player, they're gonna need some heavy guns.
Don't get fooled into thinking indies can hold a system together by itself. Don't get fooled into think Valve's titles can hold a system together by itself.
In the PC world where competition is sparse, yeah, have at it. But now you're in the console world & the playing field is much more brutal.
You think the 3rd parties are willing to undercut themselves by pricing their games lower on Valve's console in comparison to the margins they receive from Sony & Microsoft's platforms?
It was one thing when Steam pretty much stayed on PCs & it was an extra revenue stream but now the Steam Machine can threaten their consoles.
NEC/Husdon Soft's TurboGrafx-16 got starved from major 3rd party support & couldn't survive the onslaught of the Sega Genesis & Super Nintendo Entertainment System in its day.
No console maker has proven to survive without major 3rd party support except the titan Nintendo.
Valve's gonna need more than itself & the indies to make it in the console world & you can take that to the bank.

 

5. I have already broken down the financial viability of games like Dota 2 with Pemalite in this post.
They don't have enough selling power to hold a console together. Sorry.
Using VGChartz's Game Database I see that the original Half-Life sold 4.12 million on the PC. I double-checked this figure with Wikipedia & they say by 2008 the game had sold 9.3 million at retail. Not a bad number at all.
The game came out on November 19, 1998 on the PC so that's 10 years of sales to 2008.
You know what 2006's New Super Mario Bros. sold in 7 years? 29.27 million. Over 3 times as much in about 2/3 the time.
No, I'll use a better closer-in-comparison example.
You know what 2004's Super Mario 64 DS sold in 9 years? 10.03 million. A million more in a year less.
Both of these games are STILL full price on the shelves nearly a decade later & they STILL sell. They STILL sell at price points of $34.99 bringing constant revenue to Nintendo.
VGChartz's numbers for Half-Life 2 look off with its 2.36 million on PC figure so I went to Wikipedia again. Said the game sold 12 million by 2011.
Very Impressive.
But Nintendo regularly sells 10 million sellers in its mega-powered catalog. Handheld games alone can match up to & embarrass anything Valve puts out.
Home console games regularly hit those high marks too. Nintendo has TEAMS of mega-selling monsters.
So Valve is already facing this from Nintendo alone & then wants to battle it out with Microsoft & Sony on top of this???
Half-Life 3 would be a boon since so many people are waiting for it but you're gonna need more than that to survive the console battlefield.

 

So if I'm your clown then call me Homey the Clown 'cause Homey don't play that. *sock smack*
Like Seece, you will have to see the aftermath in time. So you just watch & see who read it right & who read it wrong.
And if you want to return to discuss this aftermath, you are welcome with open arms.
I look forward to the resolution as time reveals all.
Take care, Richard. it's been fun.
John Lucas



Words from the Official VGChartz Idiot

WE ARE THE NATION...OF DOMINATION!

 

What if Valve plans to release HL3 as their console exclusive? lol



how do you embed on here?



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nin10do said:
how do you embed on here?


A video?

Use

<$p>
<$object width="425" height="350" data="youtube link here" type="application/x-shockwave-flash">
<$param name="src" value="youtube link here" />
<$/object>
<$/p>

Just remove those dollar signs.



***k that's overly complicated. 

Part 1/2
Time for a refresher:

 

I've been doublechecking numbers, and verifying my theories with something much more knowledgeable in computers than myself, and I think I'll get to posting what I sent you in the PMs, with more data to support it and even an irrelevant video that just so happened to get uploaded a few hours ago talking about the Xbox One and PS4's power, by 2 more people with technical prowess that just happily coincides with me getting the info ready. Be warned, you'll be here for a while (Why not listen to this while you read) So let's begin, I'll start with the contents of the PM:

 

http://pastebin.com/27gQNwGQ

 

That was a few weeks back now, and at the time was more of a theory, now it's more than that. First off, let's talk about the XBO/PS4. No doubt you've seen the mentions of Battlefield 4 on the PS4, but there's also Killer Instinct on the Xbox One, a fighting game runnng at 720p. Here's that video I mentioned, you could watch the first 10 minutes, it gets the main point across:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdaCxtDg1qA 

 

So if you watched all the way you'll see what was mentioned, if not I'll summarize. It quotes a KI developer talking about the game, and when asked about the resolution he says it technically runs at 720p 60FPS and anything that drops the framerate or resolution is removed or optimized. This is a launch downloadable title. Even if it was retail, w/e they are hitting walls. He goes on to mention what I've been saying for the longest, there's no progression with these systems. Bare in mind this dude is unbiased and knows his stuff. Moreso than I can say. He also mentions that it's incredibly bad that they are hitting walls before launch and the results aren't that great, and maybe the Wii U isn't that far behind as everyone expects, despite the RAM. 

Now there's the CPU. So on the discussion of power someone with more technical prowess gave their thoughts:

 

The Wii U's CPU has a 4-stage pipeline. Running above 1 GHz with a 4-stage pipeline is very impressive. The Jaguar CPU has up to a 14-stage pipeline. These Jaguar CPUs are capable of a much higher clock rate than 1.5 GHz. Each core in the Wii U's CPU is at least twice as powerful as each Jaguar core due to being far more efficient with clock rates. The only difference here is that the PS4 and XB1 have 8 cores and not 6.

 


Trying to put the 4-stage to 14-stage pipeline into simple comparison. Saying the Wii U's CPU runs at 1.2GHz, it takes 3 nanoseconds for an operation to complete. Using the figure of the XB1 CPU running at 1.75GHz, it takes 8 nanoseconds for an operation to complete.The reason for more stages in a pipeline is that the next operation typically completes .87 nanoseconds later for the Wii U and .57 nanoseconds later for the XB1. The problem is that there are these conditional branch operations, all of the flow control and logic functions. If the next operation in the pipeline is not the correct operation, the next operation starts at stage 1 on the next clock cycle, leaving the next 13 hertz wasted. It doesn't sound like much, but these are among the most common statements handled in a CPU. 

As far as RAM, the Jaguar cores use an x86 based instruction set. It needs 8GB of RAM because x86 is not as efficient as newer instruction sets. The engineers can't fix this because it would break backwards compatibility on PCs.

 

Then I presented this article I had found, talking about the PS4's 8 core processor and how it only uses 4: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/ps4-and-xbox-one-s-amd-jaguar-cpu-examined/0116297


Here's the response:

My opinion is that the Wii U is more efficient with its resources than the XB1 and PS4. That bandwidth the Wii U has will have smaller objects passed across it than what the XB1 will have, permitting more objects to move on the Wii U. The Wii U's CPU will have very few wasted clock cycles compared the the PS4/XB1 CPUs.

 


Just because the PS4/XB1 CPUs are 8 core and run 1.5~1.75 GHz does not mean that every hertz will be fully used. Even with multi-threading and multi-tasking, all 8 cores will never be used to max capabilities. That is functionally impossible. The reason for 8 cores, and the GDDR5 RAM on the PS4, is to provide enough slack to compensate for performance impacts. The GDDR5 RAM may have the capability of transferring X GB/s of data, but the real numbers the engineers want is the quantity of times per second the RAM is accessed and how large of an object can be sent in one transfer. Something extra, that 0.3 TFLOPS rating for the Wii U's GPU is likely the GPGPU's performance, not the graphics rendering performance.

 

 

This was the beginning. The biggest question is x86 vs PowerPC. He gave me some insight on that: 

 

x86

 

 

The x86 instruction code was designed back in the 1970s when RAM was very limited, 1024 to like 4086 bytes of RAM. It used variable length instruction code to be space efficient in RAM. This was fine when the CPU was 8 bit. Going into 16 bit and 32 bit, the RAM size moved up to 65,536 bytes and then 2 million bytes. Further, the first chip did not have expansion libraries, but only restricted to a library of 127 functions on the CPU, because one bit in the first byte on x86 (the operation to perform) was 0 if in the primary 127 functions or 1 if it wasn't. When the 286 came out, extended functions required a second byte to fetch for operation code.

Intel never intended for x86 to live past the 1990s. They developed the Itanium instruction code to replace it. When I get to megahertz myth, I will explain that. x86 was designed for small systems, which today are appliances. It was efficient in early models, but not these advanced systems of today.

 

 

PowerPC

 

IBM developed POWERPC in the 1990s, 2 decades after x86. Systems have evolved, and this newer architecture takes advantage of it. The reason why I put POWERPC in caps here is because it really is an acronym. To be short, POWERPC is RISC design, Reduced Instruction Set Computer, built for performance. 

 


For POWERPC, instruction code is fixed width, 32bit for most POWERPC CPUs, like the Wii U. This takes less clock cycles to fetch instructions. It requires less memory usage. Overall, requires less power for the CPU and cooler temperatures. This gives room for higher clock speeds and allowing multiple instruction operations per clock cycle.

Another part with POWERPC CPUs, many are not backwards compatible because IBM's engineers may adjust the instruction library to be more efficient to process in the CPU.

Overall, POWERPC is more powerful than x86 with current systems by a long shot by not requiring as much resources per instruction to perform operations.

 

 

 

So I presented him with my theory from the PM, and well:

 

 

 

Developers, like managers, can exaggerate. They do so to justify a budget and the need of so many employees. Using multiple speed RAM is a matter of resource allocation, which is not that hard to handle.


The Wii U follows the design of the Gamecube. It is not as hard to develop as said.

x86 is very inefficient today. It was efficient back when it was made for cheap 4-bit and 8-bit systems.

The Wii U uses less RAM and loses less cycles than the XB1 and PS4. Smaller is better, as clock rate is govern by speed of light.

The overclocking statement is a misunderstanding. If the Wii U CPU is able to reach higher clock rates, it is really underclocked, not overclocked. The CPU may have power states that reduce the clock rate and shut down extra units when not needed. The guy who said the clock rate is 1.2 GHz may not have pushed the system to go to full power or did not know the instruction to force full power state. He was probing around, not working with a manual.

 

 

All of this supports my admittedly originally half baked theory, well not anymore. Of course my word isn't everything, just watch that video I linked, the caps are being hit on the PS4/XBO. Bayonetta, the first obviously graphically intenstive game coming out of Nintendo is going to be at 1080p 60FPS. There's no dicking around on that one. It's not a racer or a fighter or with simple textures/models. It's a full blown game with great performance at year 2, with the consoles shipping at their max potential what excuse is there for Killer Instinct? For Knack at 720p, and Killzone at 30FPS with dips, Ryse looking like a buggy mess with dips as well. AC4 at 30FPS aiming for 1080p. At stated before, graphics don't matter too much, neither does power in general, but let's put that aside since you are all so insistent. What does this show? This is year 2, hell I wouldn't even say that since the devs had pushbacks due to understaffing, even then what's Mario Kart, at just over a year with 1080p 60FPS with 2 player Split screen ready at e3, and with them aiming for 4 player splitscreen 60FPS native 1080p. Battlefield struggling to do 720p and with unsatisfactory visuals. What say you of this?


Here's my theory, one that will never be confirmed of course because this information will never be public but regardless. My thoughts are that Sony and MS saw Nintendo put their system on the market, and they got flustered and rushed to designing a new system. 2011 was right when they started profiting on the PS3/360 with no signs of sales faltering, had it gone their way they would have kept it up for another 3-5 years. It didn't go their way, and 3 months after that inspiring speech of continuing to make the impossible possible, they did, by revealing the Wii U and throwing their competition a curveball out of nowhere. Sure Cerny said they've been planning it since 08 but I don't buy that and there's a difference between the conceptual stage and actually starting R&D, something tells me that bit began for both MS and Sony in 2011. They rushed to not let themselves get beaten to the market badly and both designed something easy for them, a laptop/budget pc with their firmware and sent it through testing. These consoles are clearly rushed, as has been the software. Looking at their displays this year objectively. These surprise announcements 6 months before release, last second hardware changes (not policies), nothing ready for e3. News of Xbox One cases MELTING! and them having to underclock the CPU and that's why they've been slowly increasing it bit by bit. 

These aren't consoles, they are laptops chopped in half and put in custom boxes. They push and push to make things seem better for them than they really are, and again Sony is offering false promises. Does nobody remember PS3 launch or the PS2 with Toy Story Graphics? Deep Down has since been confirmed to have been a CG render, despite them saying on stage it was running in real time on the PS4, when they didn't even have devkits ready until Gamescom! As well as everything at e3 running on PCs with higher graphical fidelity than the systems themselves. They are throwing a whole bunch of CG at us and hoping we don't notice again when the console comes out. It'll bite them in the ass though. Early adopters will be fooled, but that's only 2 million or so users.

These systems are static, but Wii U is growing, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year. Sure, 2013 they'll have the upper hand, but what about next year? Wii U will intensify while the others stay in the same spot. Maybe they'll take holiday 2014 graphics as well, but after that? No I think that's when it's going to be an issue for them. By holiday 2014 it'll be clear to the general public the Wii U is taking the lead through performance in games, but in 2015 it will be known to everyone which system is on top. The Wii U is the only true console in the 8th gen, but not only that it is the perfect console by design. It follows the greatness of the Wii, and expands on that with the ultimate peripheral, the U pad. Build for the so called "hardcore" gamer. Rather, the core gamer. Sure you can say other systems can do it, but technically an SNES controller can do anything current systems can do, just use the bumpers to cycle between what the buttons can do. It just wouldn't be very efficient. That's what the Wii U is all about, from the software, to the hardware, and most importantly the peripheral, the U pad. Dual screens were the same thing, why do I need them? Well after you use them on a DS it becomes clear, it makes games a lot better to have that dual screen. Even if it's a simple thing like a mini map in Kart. No, not all games require it, a Platformer won't make much use of it, but now with the gamepad you aren't being held back, so you can still do anything other controllers can do and then some. Sure, Wonderful 101 could be done on a standard controller, but as reviews have stated, the stick isn't as good as using the gamepad. That style of game wouldn't have been made for regular controllers because they don't offer the complete functionality of the pad. Mario games won't need the  gamepad but Zelda games gain a lot out of it. As does Pikmin and so will Metroid. 


The Gamepad makes the system what it is, and without it, it'd just be another HD box to join the fray. With it, you can play games like never before. That's what will lead it to victory, it truly is Unique, while PS4/XBO are more of the same, without reason to buy it. Their online isn't any better, that's a misconception. It's simply a matter of features, the XBO won't offer anything that the 360 doesn't, it's the same Xbox LIVE, same with PSN, the only difference is an OS improvement. You can't say the Wii U is lacking online  because it doesn't have some of the social features, which is something we know Nintendo is fixing and the unified account system for the Wii U and 3DS will likely drop before the WWHD bundle or in early October, the second update. The Wii U has just as capable online infastructure, thanks to the help of EA, which goes against the naysay from a certain completely irrelevant company, in which Nintendo had EA help them with the online infrastucture. 

 

This system is not only plenty powerful for the average consumer (about 99% of us), it's much more efficient than the PS4 and Xbox One and it will blow them away, not for the superior power, but for the unique exclusive gameplay experiences while still offering what you already love. 



Um, you already said that on page 33, didn't you? This just looks like copy & paste...
Now, where's the NEW part?

Besides...a new Nintendo Direct has been announced for tomorrow, Oct 1st.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/431341/new-nintendo-direct-tomorrow-october-1/?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-General-RSS



There is some new stuff in there lol, he's just organizing it^

 

You should read more closely.



Nice. When you have finished part 2, you should have someone who's proficient in embedding youtube vids and such and have him make a new thread:)

Maybe you should talk to Tbone about it?