Wii U is "effectively a 360" says Microsoft

[Adinnieken]

archbrix said:

Adinnieken said:

archbrix said:
Well, it's PR talk so it's no surprise to hear this, but I just don't get the general consensus behind this opinion. Games like Pikmin 3 and Project P-100 (in addition to Assassin's Creed 3, Aliens, Darksiders, etc) would be right at home visually on the 360 or PS3 RIGHT NOW in their matured lifespan... and WiiU hasn't even been released yet.

Gears of War handily dwarfed the 360's launch games just a year later, so saying that WiiU is "basically on par with Xbox 360" based solely on what we've seen so far is quite premature; particularly considering what we know/have heard concerning specs.

The Wii U has a quad-core processor based on the Power7 processor running at 3GHz.  The Xbox 360 has a tri-core based on the Power5+ processor running at 3.2GHz.

The challenge is this.  If we look at the specs, there is an improvement over the Xbox 360, but the problem is one report has suggested that the processor in the Wii U is nerfed at 2 hardware threads per core, rather than 4 hardware threads.  Thus the improvement in processing power over the 360 is significantly less.

I don't think Microsoft is arguing that the power of the Wii U is a 1:1 facsimile of the Xbox 360.  However, so far I don't think any of the reports that have come out have suggested that it is so significantly better than the Xbox 360 that a developer couldn't easily develop a game for both the 360 and the Wii U given the similarity in hardware and controller scheme with the Pro controller.

In other words, I think Microsoft is trying to suggest to developers.  Hey, if you have something you're doing specifically for the Wii U, you can probably make it work just as easily on the Xbox 360.  The flip side of that possibly being just as true.

 

While I certainly don't expect the WiiU's POWER7 to be "Watson" powerful, neither Nintendo nor IBM have confirmed the number of active cores, threads per core, clock rate, amount of cache, etc.  So while there is that report that you speak of, there are also other opinions (such as Gearbox's Randy Pitchford) that indicate the CPU is more powerful than the Xenon.  And with the strongly rumored GPU (R700 family) and the all-but-confirmed increase in RAM (nearly 3 times as much), making WiiU games a year or so down the road work on 360 may not be as easy as you think; especially when regarding simultaneously active screens in use.  In any case, saying WiiU is basically on par with 360, as Spencer suggests, is what I was contesting since I believe it's too early to declare that.

Incidentally, is it just me or does anyone else find it strange that it's almost always GamesIndustry.biz where these reports of WiiU's "underpowered" hardware emanate from?

Let's start with a correction, the Wii U's processor is a tri-core as well.  I keep making the mistake of remembering the original specs that were going around.  But the specs on Nintendo's web site are that it is a Power-based tri-core processor.  So you would be mistaken there.  Since the Power7 is the only current Power processor, I'm going to assume that the Wii U is using the Power 7 as the basis of the CPU.  You are correct, Nintendo has not come out said how many threads per core are available, however they have also not refuted the assertion by a developer that the Wii U's CPU is limited to two hardware threads per core.  I would think, with the Wii U releasing shortly, that Nintendo would be going to the press with specs to counter any argument thaat the Wii U isn't powerful.  But they aren't.

Just as an fyi, even the Xbox 360's processor is a nerfed Power5+ CPU.  So it wouldn't be unexpected for the Wii U's processor to be nerfed as well.  The fully functioning processor is a bit expensive, so in both cases a less powerful version of the commercial CPU is used.

I'm less concerned about the memory and the GPU because any modern GPU will be significantly more capable than any GPU available in any current console.  As well, the rumors of 1.5GB or more of memory seems acceptable.  Memory will only be an issue if the CPU is powerful and there isn't enough memory to do more with the console.  Having a ton of memory but a CPU that can't take advantage of it would be pretty worthless.

Nothing I have said suggests that the Wii U is less powerful than the Xbox 360, and I would think it would be ridiculous to assert that it is functionally the same when considering it likely uses a Power7 CPU, a modern GPU, and includes more memory.  Having said that, I think many third-party games will be just as do-able on the 360 as they are on the Wii U.  Would the Wii U version be graphically better, most likely yes.  Could it offer a better AI and draw distance?   Sure.  None of that stops an easy port from the Wii U to the Xbox 360.