It is likely that, since the Wii U is a new console released by a company that has de-emphasized graphics, near launch games that are being produced on a tight budget and timeline do not represent the pinnacle of graphical quality for the system ...

How much graphics improve will depend on how much effort developers put into improving graphics, which depends on how well the system sells and how powerful other next generation systems are. If the Wii U sells moderately well, and the next generation consoles are more powerful, developers will put a greater effort into producing improved visuals on the Wii U (possibly just to make developing games for all platforms easier)

"Looks at 4th poll option"

Why indeed I am a _crazy_man_.

Yes, it does.

You shaould all be aware that the gameplay footage in the story trailer and the off-screen footage at Gamescom is of an old build of a new demo. When the game is released you'll have a similar difference in qualty between the Gamescom footage and the RC as there was between the E3 2012 Nursery demo and the Comic Con Nursery demo. I don't think we'll have a similar difference with the dynamic lighting and shadows because that already looks on par, but we will see improvements to textures, AA and ansiotropic filtering.

And funnily enough ZombiU is showing next gen quality visuals. The dynamic lighting and shadows are beyond anything that the PS3 and 360 are capable of in 720p, as is the AA and ansiotropic filtering from the Nursey demo. It also has v-synch enabled so no annoying screen tearing whenever you move the camera. V-synch is quite a big deal and is probably the main reason why Shane Satterfield thought the Wii U SKU of Assassin's Creed 3 was better looking than the PS3 and 360 SKUs.

I fully agree with you Danne. Even if they are releasing many games on WiiU, they are all low-risk games.

We will not see more than 3 to 5 high-grade exclusives on the WiiU until, and only if, it becomes the undisputed market leader. Until then, enjoy them multiplats and low-risk new IPs.

Great article DS.

That's the main reason I'm not getting a Wii U anytime soon. I'll wait at least for a year after its release.

I can't imagine anyone could be happy with the wii's graphics, unless they still own a CRT, Did you ever play the wii on a large HDTV, it's low resoltuion looks like utter crap.

"Well, first of; PS360 games weren't all that pretty back in 2005/2006 because developers had never developed games in HD. And now, in 2012, we can't simply blame the graphics on that any more; Ubisoft have developed lots of games in HD, so they're not inexperienced. It's true that the hardware is still new - but I'm sure they could have gotten better graphics."

This part has always bugged me, why are people always comparing Wii U to PS360, those are different machines from different companies, why not compare Wii U to actual Ninty systems? And going of that it seems that from N64 on up they really havent pushed the graphics for those libraries. N64, you had Mario 64, probably the best looking game at the time, but as the years went on was there really a game that top it? GC all games looked about on par for the most part, starting from the first year of the cube to the last. Wii, can anyone really point out a bunch of games that have released this year or last that look significantly better than the ones in the first 2 years, and im not talking about the PS2 ports.

IMHO, I dont think you will be seeing games looking that much better on Wii U, maybe a bit better, but not alot. Im simply going by the history of Ninty's own systems. BUT i could be wrong, they could pull a SNES on me, which is what im hoping but im not optimistic.

all you have to do is get the component cables for your HD TV, it doesnt look as good as the HDs, but it looks a hell of alot better otherwise

From a technical perspective there was significant steady improvement in game visuals on the N64 ... As far as poligon counts, texture detail, and lighting effects Mario 64 < Banjo Kazooie < Donkey Kong 64

Given a fixed functionality system, as long as there is quality development happening graphics will see improvements. The first big jump for the Wii U will probably be the result of developers producing advanced LOD systems that take advantage of tessellation which will result in the system producing similar graphical results while using less processing power; and this will be followed by improvements over time as the artists learn to develop graphical assets which take real advantage of this.

Even though the systems may have very different architectures, the same basic technologies and approaches will be viable across all next generation systems, and it is likely that in improving graphics for one of the systems developers will improve it for others.