Last week in an interview with eWeek, Microsoft's president of Entertainment and Devices division Robbie Bach made the claim that the Nintendo Wii "[doesn't] have the graphics horsepower that even Xbox 1 had." Is the Nintendo Wii, with or without duct tape, less powerful than the original Xbox? Newsweek's N'Gai Croal decided to investigate by talking to "two of our most reliable technical experts at third party publishers" speaking under the condition anonymity (given Croal's credibility, we trust him).
The article therein is a very technical discussion on fixed function shaders, pixels and vertexes, and ultimately concludes that the GameCube 1.5 moniker isn't far off from the truth, though said one source, "keep in mind that the Wii's GPU is not as fast or feature rich as the Xbox 360 or PS3, but that doesn't mean you can't get very close results." And of course, given the hardware sales we've seen since the console's launch, how much does supreme technical prowess really matter to Nintendo?












(Page 1) Reader Comments
We all know what's about to happen.
Grab your marshmallows guys!
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This ought to be good.
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man, even as a person who doesn't like fan, I find this article too harsh. ;)
But still, we all know it's true, xbox 1 was an fantastic powerhouse machine, too bad it got retired too early.
but look at the bright side, Wii's graphic right now isn't even as good as GameCube, let's not compare to xbox 1 JUST yet. :)
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I suppose they're talking about simply rendering a single effect on the Wii and other platforms, but the difference in speed would be hundreds of times (literally).
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I can only hope we're entering an era where graphics aren't the be-all end-all they've been since the post 16-bit era when 3D finally came to fruition. As little as I care about graphics in the long run it would be foolish to dismiss their importance outright - yet there *is* still way too much importance being put on them.
As for the Wii comparison to the original Xbox, it's never as simple as "one is just better than the other". Xbox's abilities on paper trashed Gamecube's abilities, yet when done right, the Gamecube could do many things comparable to the Xbox, and the system was built to be efficient when doing them. I hate to pull out the old cliche, but what's done with the power at hand is more important to what power there is.
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Well, let me grab the popcorn and watch the show.
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It said that similar shader effects to the competition can be achieved, its just harder, and it really didn't look at anything else. It didn't look at polygon count or a few other things
In the end, the articles conclusion seemed to be Wii=Xbox, as opposed to Bach statement of Wii
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It seems the added 0.5 only allows the games to be more stable in 480p.. so, we're still talking about sub-xbox graphics... take a look at Spiderman 3 Wii... its on the same level as Superman 64.
Seriously, God of War 2, a last gen game ... looks better than every single Wii game thats ever come out.. the one game that may approach it is RE4 Wii.. which also happens to be the best looking Wii game available.
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Anyone who did, is ignorant.
I have a friend who said he'll buy one when Super Smash Bros: Brawl comes out, another who said when the VC gets a few more titles, and another who said the controller is great.
It pretty much supplies all the people who drifted away from consoles over the years.
Oh, and I bought it because I knew it would be a great party machine. And it's not let me down yet. ;)
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It must eat at you to know that such a console is greatly outselling the one you "True HD" machine in nearly every region (latest Japanese numbers show Wii outselling PS3 about 9:1).
If you really want to make a point, post some actual facts with your claims.
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/popcorn
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you haven't looked at Sonic and the Secret Rings yet
seriously good looking game, and definitely a step above GC's level...
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Got that all jumbled.
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C'mon man. You know not to say anything to the troll. Just ignore him and he'll go away quietly. :)
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If you're referring to me, I'll just let you know that I play all three consoles on a daily basis.
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It seems pretty calm right now.
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I know, and i feel ashamed
Its just hard to fight the urge to descend to thier level and go flame crazy
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what make you think I care how much Nintendo's making? or PS3 and xbox for that matter, do you think I get a cut from that? and frankly, considering how often you bring that up, Obviously you get some kind of profit from it.
As gamers, it just PAINS me to see crappy games selling like hot cakes (on any console for that matter), It just encourage developers to rush games for a buck or two.
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I know the feeling. :) But that's what they want you to do!
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So, the Wii could very well be less powerful than the original XBox, but I promise you MS would sell their left nut to make the profits Nintendo is making.
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As a software developer (aspiring game programmer) it makes me feel good to know that the video game market has become as big as it has!
I'm glad the Wii's made this sort of impact; Gives me job security in the future. :)
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LOL you own a PS3 and a 360? Waste of money. Keep your 360, because almost every game coming out for the PS3 is coming out for the 360.
Well, nevermind, you own it already. You can't even make a profit on eBay for them anymore.
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It may sound a bit apologistic, and it does depend on a few factors, but...
More profit equals more money to put into R&D, which (might) make a better experience for gamers if they use that R&D to make something awesome (the next Nintendogs, the next LIVE-esque service, the next HOME)
Fanboyism can (although usually doesn't) have roots in self-interest other than winning pointless pissing contests. If Wii sells more, it will get more (and for god's sake, better) third party support, which will benefit me as a Wii owner
I'm not justifying a lot of the crap that goes on here, but there are advantages to seeing companies make mad profits
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Good point. Though I would also point out that Excite Truck looks great too, and, though this has been said a thousand times, Metroid Prime 3 and Mario Galaxy look damn, damn amazing.
And really, I don't care about tech specs, as long as I can get the sensation of rushing through the air (with a perfect framerate and nice lighting effects) 500 metres above the ground before crashing back down to earth, bashing another truck out of may way and sending their twisted, splintering wreckage over my head, that's good enough for me. So on a side note: if you own a Wii and don't own Excite truck. Buy it. Now.
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Thats great that you're in it for the money and it doesn't matter if its a crappy/rushed/thrown together mess as long as it sales a billion copies and lines your pockets full of money right?! The reason I hate the Wii so much is because the games are BULLSHIT put out to make a quick buck off the casual consumer and I don't buy BULLSHIT. Maybe if developers actually made decent games for the system MAYBE I would buy it, but hey when you can SELL loads of copies of BULLSHIT for little cost to the developer, why not keep releasing SHIT! It makes sense.
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Just another piece of flame bait apparently.
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Micro$oft doesn't care about PS3 anymore. PS3 is too expensive and the adoption rate has slowed due to price.
M$ is going to go after Nintendo trying to eat their lunch. Microsoft obviously feels threatened.
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AHH, and there lies the difference of opinions between you and me.
see, you think just because Wii's hot now, they'd be more development for Wii.
but the way I see it, this will ONLY need to more CRAPPILY made games for Wii because everyone is trying to make a quick buck. Sure, you get all sorts of games coming to Wii, but how many are those are really good ones? (outside of Nintendo's first party games?)
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@ #17 Next-gen... I believe they were speaking to us.
Lets form Nintentron;
Ken, Rubang, you form the legs,
Jody, Will, you form hands and arms,
I'll form the head.
Mega-thrusters are go...
Other hyper-sounding commands.
[yes Nintendo = Voltron and Sony = power rangers.]
FORM BLAZING SWORD!
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You're a troll. In other words, yes.
"and frankly, considering how often you bring that up, Obviously you get some kind of profit from it."
Notice I only say something after you start trolling? It has nothing to do with what I think, and everything to do with you constantly being wrong. If you're not going to stop trolling and use facts, then I'm going to keep going. You make it too easy.
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How many of you work for nintendo again?
I mean its not like you have a seamless online environment were all those users can play some good games together is it?
And its not like third parties are jumping to wii and brining all their big guns either are they? I mean the big third party games are still not on the wii...
So what beneft is nintendo success to you as a consumer. I mean with sony era i could kinda see how thier is an advantage with the more consumers and such, but all i see here is Nintendo getting richer, and the game situation and console services stays the same. funny hey.
Lets face it. Ninetndo took away graphics this generation because they wanted to make a good profit from the hardware from the get go. And Nintendo fans have let them do that.
If you think consoles are expensive now tho, wait till all manufacturers decide they should make money from hardware from day one as well. Either that, or enjoy the graphics you are getting now, because the nintendo philosphy is they ain't gonna get better if you still want to make a killing!
Say what you want about sony and ms but you get value for money, more bang for buck. But these days people would be happy just watching another man get take thier cash. Ninetndo is getting a way with murder and some people are actually gloating on message boards about it.
Im an xbox fanboy tho, so you know, my opinion is useless, right? go play some generic halo right? hey as long as you don't answer the claims its all good with you.
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We should make a boicot against the fucking lazy developers...
Fuck... the Wii have a lot, and I mean, a lot of potential... just imagine that all the good developers start making reals good FPS (not like the most lazy and unprossefional Ubisoft)
We need to send some menacing letters to some developers (maybe with a little anthrax)
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OMG TEH FLAMEBAIT
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HAHAHA oh my god, thats fucking gold!
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Don't confuse fanboyism with attacking a troll (kingofwale). Most of what I've said isn't even relevant to what you're talking about. It should be, however, relevant to kow, who has done nothing but troll.
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You made me laugh so hard, I cried. LOL!
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I have to say though, I do love seeing me some frustrated hi-def console fanboys who are busting hernias over how big a travesty wii's success is. hahaha
*grabs popcorn, sits down with the rest of the gallery*
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Hey, check it out, we're having more fun with game console than we would with yours.
The relevance of your entire little rant just got flushed down the drain.
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Click the image guys, and have a hearty laugh. It's a friend of mine, trying to do the most awkward pose in Wii Bowling.
If you can't laugh at that; You have no soul.
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Now, do you NintenBots really think that Wii is going to be pushing 280-300k units a month in SEVEN FREAKIN' years like the PS2? .. you can do that if you start with barely last gen hardware.
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I think you go it spot on FrankTheCrank.
If you look at it from a numbers point of view there's a good chance that the PS3 will outsell the 360 over the life of the console purely becaus eof the poor 360 sales in Japan, and the Wii looks like trashing the 10million MS have shipped/sold pretty quickly.
That leaves MS in third place.
The original Xbox came in 2nd against Sony/Nintendo - to come in third this time would be a serious defeat.
If MS can sway any of those potential customers who are sat on the fence regarding their next console purchase they will do anything they can to tarnish the competition.
Not that it should matter to any of us GAMERS though. I'll continue to play my Wii and 360, and when the PS3 becomes better value for money and if their exclusives look good I'll pick one of those up.
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wait til the devs make some good FPS for the wii...but i thought FPS were bad? rmember the xbox is all about FPS.
Sit and wait, Miyamoto will say he could have made a powerful system like PS3 and all you fudge packing Nintendorks cant jerk off at playing Mario with 4xAA now instead of waiting til next gen(post PS3/360).
now run along and go to the voting the channel and vote the wii as being more powerful. meanwhile ill go play some games online(dont worry you guys will get online next gen after wii)
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