Nintendo posts job listing for next-gen console engineer

[foxtail]

curl-6 said:

foxtail said:

curl-6 said:

Low power goals is one of the main reasons Wii U ended up underpowered.

Backwards compatibility was another reason it was underpowered compared to the competition.

True as far the CPU goes but with a higher power ceiling they could have included a much beefier GPU.

If they didn't have to choose the IBM CPU for backwards compatibility they could have chosen an APU from AMD (another long standing Nintendo partner).

IBM also makes all the Wii U CPU chips in factories in the USA, so they're probably more expensive to produce.  IBM also produced all the CPU chips for the Gamecube, Wii and Wii U in USA factories, so they might receive a loyalty and scale discount ..but still how much of a discount?

IBM also announced yesterday that it sold it's chip business to GlobalFoundries for $1.5 billion, but the factory in East Fishkil-New York where the Wii U CPU is made will remain open and fully staffed. - source 

I think it would be better for them to go the x86 route next gen, because they'd save on R&D and per unit costs.