Sony and Microsoft have a considerable amount to reveal about their next consoles, but one thing does seem likely - given the fact that they will debut at least a year after Wii U, they'll be more powerful than Nintendo's new dual-screen home console.
Nintendo's own investors seem concerned about this issue as well. In a recent Q&A session, global company president Satoru Iwata was asked if Wii U would be able to compete with its rivals, and whether a lack of power would once again cause the system to lose out on multi-platform games.
"Other companies might launch a next-generation console with more power, but we don't necessarily think that the difference between the Wii U and such console will be as drastic as what you felt it was between the Wii and the other consoles because there will be fewer and fewer differentiators in graphics," Iwata said. "Naturally some consumers are very sensitive about such a small difference in graphics so that we will make efforts to make the most of the performance of the Wii U to keep up with technological innovations and not to make the system out-of-date soon."
One issue confronting Nintendo was that its latest product consisted of two distinct components, the GamePad controller and the Wii U console itself, each of which could easily be regarded as its own games system - if development were left unchecked. "If we were not careful about how luxurious both of them were, we could end up having to offer the price of the two hardware systems combined," Iwata said, noting that finding an appropriate next-gen price point was extremely important. Attempting to max out Wii U hardware to the point where it effectively would offer two distinct systems was simply unacceptable to the publisher. "We had to design it by balancing the performance and the costs."
Iwata noted that Wii has struggled for "about the last two years." During that time, third parties have skewed heavily in favor of the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC platforms. That trend, combined with Nintendo's need to invest heavily in Wii U and 3DS development, meant that Wii was left to its existing library, finding new consumers through discounts and special bundles.
If Nintendo's gambles pay off, the publisher will not only minimize the graphical difference between Wii U and its future competition, but have a unique advantage through its dual-screen design. Iwata likened contemporary (and even historical) consoles to "parasites," needing an existing screen in order to function at all. Wii U will break that trend, allowing a console to not only add to a television experience, but stand separate from it as well.
"Not only by competing with other platforms only in regard to the machines' spec. figures but proposing various ways of using the Wii U, we would like to create a future so even family members who have never touched any video game systems will consider the Wii U something that is convenient to use so that we can maintain its competitiveness for a long time," Iwata said.
