Posted on Tuesday 31-Jan-2012 11:33 AM

Wii U hardware 'changing constantly', claims Team Ninja

Next-gen development 'very easy' and 'like PS3/360'

The Wii U hardware is currently changing "constantly," Ninja Gaiden 3 developer, Team Ninja has claimed.

Wii U Screenshot
Speaking in an interview with Nintendo Gamer, Team Ninja's Fumihiko Yasuda and Yosuke Hayashi broke the industry-wide silence on Nintendo's next-gen console, claiming its "very easy to develop for... We're finding it very similar to develop for Wii U as for Xbox 360 and PS3."

"They've asked us what we would want from the hardware, and when we give them feedback we can see that they're definitely listening to it and making changes," said Hayashi. "The hardware is still constantly changing."

Yasuda added: "The Wii U's touch control is like the Nintendo DS's. We released a Ninja Gaiden game, Dragon Sword, on DS, so we want to introduce some elements from that into the Wii U version [of Ninja Gaiden 3]."

Team Ninja's comments of course back up those of Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono, who claimed earlier this month that the Wii U hardware has 'advanced since E3'.

He said: "What we saw last E3 is not a reflection of everything this console is able to offer. We have been trying the development kits and some of its new characteristics will improve its possibilities. It isn't something like Kinect or similar accessories, it's something different."

Recent reports claimed the Wii U hardware is twice as powerful as the Xbox 360.

One new feature already revealed for the console is NFC technology, which allows users to read and write data wirelessly, in a similar way to how Activision's Skylanders action figures interact with the 'Portal of Power' reading device.

Order issue 71 of Nintendo Gamer here and have it delivered straight to your door.

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Comments

38 comments so far...

  1. gearyboy on 31 Jan '12 said:

    Ooer, not sure if I like the sound of this 'constantly changing hardware'.

    Just picture it, you're just about to finish off an end of level boss/guardian when your Wii-U controller turns into a big cabbage...

  2. Agent75 on 31 Jan '12 said:

    If the Wii U is twice as powerful than the Xbox 360, I wonder how powerful the Xbox 720 will be? Some reports suggest six times the power. Not that I'm bothered. But the Wii U will be underpowered once the Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4 are released.

  3. justforkicks101 on 31 Jan '12 said:

    at this point noone knows s**t, it seems.

    cept our ste :D

  4. me4pd on 31 Jan '12 said:

    "The hardware is currently changing constantly."

    That could mean any one of ten-hundred-thousand things. Form factor? Performance? Features? Existence even? I'm personally none the wiser so I don't think any particular industry-wide silence has been broken.

    I'm beginning actually to have more respect for "Unfortunately it is not Nintendo's practice to comment on rumour and speculation." than the reports we get out of people on the other side of the planet.

    Aaaaahhhh: the good old days when you had to remember to buy a magazine to find out what was going on and if you left it for months you'd come back and find everything had changed. Back then, reading the news on a new machine really was exciting and the writers had to pick up the phone and do more themselves. Nowadays the news outlets don't seem to realise the one thing that everyone else does: news doesn't come out fast. But we all gotta make a living. Cgv has gotta get its hits so I don't blame them. In fact. By posting at 12:06, I'm encouraging them. But suffice it to say. I did not look for 1 trillionth of a second at the ads the articles are supposed to be drawing my attention to. SO THERE! :twisted:

  5. El Mag on 31 Jan '12 said:

    Tomorrow's headline.

    WII U is a Transformer. It remains to be seen if it's an Autobot or Decepticon - report.

  6. XypherCode on 31 Jan '12 said:

    If the Wii U is twice as powerful than the Xbox 360, I wonder how powerful the Xbox 720 will be? Some reports suggest six times the power. Not that I'm bothered. But the Wii U will be underpowered once the Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4 are released.


    They say it's 20% more powerful (in terms of GPU) and 6 times powerful than the 360 but that's actually nothing. It's already a given that at least 1 console will be underpowered by the other. The 360 already has impressive visuals and they say the Wii U is twice as powerful so that's already impressive for a "next gen" console. Truth be told developers doesn't really use all the juice consoles have especially if the game they're making doesn't really need it but the games are still very good visually. If you compare the PS3 and Xbox 360 in terms of graphical power then the PS3 takes the cake, BUT developers are still releasing games on the Xbox that is also for the PS3. Even though it's 20% or 6 times powerful, that number isn't really that big and it's really not a number to be fascinated about. In the end the important thing is that they can output beautiful graphics in 1080p even if home PCs can do more like more textures and lighting effects. I was already impressed with the PS3 and 360's visuals even if they're only "last generation" consoles with lesser power. So power isn't really the thing here. :)) But I'm still excited what the other next gen consoles can also offer :D

  7. ste hicky on 31 Jan '12 said:

    If the Wii U is twice as powerful than the Xbox 360, I wonder how powerful the Xbox 720 will be? Some reports suggest six times the power. Not that I'm bothered. But the Wii U will be underpowered once the Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4 are released.

    nope.

    Wii U : 50% Increase over PS3/360

    720: 60% increase over PS3/360, kinect 2.0 with on board processor.

    pretty much the same ball park. The Develop story that did the rounds last week is actually from before the 50% story and was doing the rounds late last year but was dismissed as vapour until someone needed to dig a counter claim up about the machine's power last week.

    I've said for close to a year that the devs kits were not complete and constantly evolving. See people, I'm not mad after all? :)

    Glad to see it confirmed that Nintendo are listening to Devs too and trying to give them what they want.

  8. Weezer on 31 Jan '12 said:

    I don't see how it can be like both the Xbox360 and the PS3, which have radically different architectures and CPU configurations. Unless they mean it has a processor and a GPU and some RAM just like any game console...

  9. ste hicky on 31 Jan '12 said:

    Programming techniques are similar to the other consoles/pc.

    not architecture.

  10. corkscru74 on 31 Jan '12 said:

    If the Wii U is twice as powerful than the Xbox 360, I wonder how powerful the Xbox 720 will be? Some reports suggest six times the power. Not that I'm bothered. But the Wii U will be underpowered once the Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4 are released.


    The original Wii was underpowered when it was released...didn't stop them from catching Microsoft and Sony with their pants down! :lol:

    Size doesn't matter, it's what you do with it that counts (I hope :shock: )

  11. Agent75 on 31 Jan '12 said:

    If the Wii U is twice as powerful than the Xbox 360, I wonder how powerful the Xbox 720 will be? Some reports suggest six times the power. Not that I'm bothered. But the Wii U will be underpowered once the Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4 are released.

    nope.

    Wii U : 50% Increase over PS3/360

    720: 60% increase over PS3/360, kinect 2.0 with on board processor.

    pretty much the same ball park. The Develop story that did the rounds last week is actually from before the 50% story and was doing the rounds late last year but was dismissed as vapour until someone needed to dig a counter claim up about the machine's power last week.

    I've said for close to a year that the devs kits were not complete and constantly evolving. See people, I'm not mad after all? :)

    Glad to see it confirmed that Nintendo are listening to Devs too and trying to give them what they want.

    Nintendo has given devs what they want, based on tech close to the 360 and PS3. But things will change once the 720 and PS4 are out. Got a feeling devs will do what they did with the Wii. Just left it to die like the GameCube.

  12. ffcoppolla on 31 Jan '12 said:

    nope.

    Wii U : 50% Increase over PS3/360

    720: 60% increase over PS3/360, kinect 2.0 with on board processor.

    You sure about? Because a 50% increase isn't an awful lot...

  13. ste hicky on 31 Jan '12 said:

    Nintendo has given devs what they want, based on tech close to the 360 and PS3. But things will change once the 720 and PS4 are out. Got a feeling devs will do what they did with the Wii. Just left it to die like the GameCube.

    The Wii U tech is anything but close to PS3/360 in terms of power. Not sure where everyone gets that one from when devs have said it is far superior.

    You're all in for a nice surprise.

    FF: Am i sure? pretty much. 720/Wii U will operate around the same level. PS4 is up for debate but given the s**t SCE are in after the PS3 crippled them financially (and Vita's DOA performance in Japan so far) i'll be surprised to see them come back with much more than either format.

    Next gen isn't going to be the jump you all want.

  14. gillri on 31 Jan '12 said:

    I hope its about as twice as powerful as the PS3, imagine a Zelda or Metroid on that................

    We really dont need uber PC, we will leave that to the PC lackeys who are being milked by graphics card and tech companies when there is just no need for that power yet, especially when developers wont take advantage of it until there is the revenue to do so (i.e. when the next gen of console arrive) I haven't upgraded in over 3 years now

    Just looks at the juice Naughty dog are getting out of the PS3, if we could get a Zelda or metroid that looks twice as good as UC3? would be amazing

  15. ricflair on 31 Jan '12 said:

    Well ste, when devs come out and say it's "like 360/PS3" people will assume that.

    Also people have this idea that Nintendo consoles have been massively underpowered since the year dot, even though the SNES, N64 and GC were not underpowered at all.

    Now get back to the Nintendo forums!

  16. ste hicky on 31 Jan '12 said:

    :lol:

    I know Ric. Just tryin to educate a little.

    Got an hour to kill. :)

  17. Balladeer on 31 Jan '12 said:

    Read yer own signature and sod off, ya know-it-all! :P

    Aaaaanyway, I've long since stopped caring about these sorts of rumours. I'll care when something concrete is announced. Or will I? The Wii had some perfectly good-looking games, so I'll probably be more than happy with PS3 power levels. The screen brings something new to the tablet - er, I mean table, anyway.

  18. ste hicky on 31 Jan '12 said:

    ok.

    You'll all be f**ked without me. :lol: (JOKE)

  19. steven_h1 on 31 Jan '12 said:

    Wii U hardware 'changing constantly', claims Team Ninja
    Next-gen development 'very easy'


    Well there's two comments that contradict each other. As a developer I can tell you that developing for something that is constantly changing would be a nightmare.

  20. Balladeer on 31 Jan '12 said:

    Also, wasn't the PS3 originally meant to be a bit of a struggle to develop for? Admittedly developers have had six-odd years to get their heads around it now, but still.

    ok.

    You'll all be f**ked without me. :lol: (JOKE)

    If it's between you and Katy Perry, then my sentiment still stands. If it's between you and Maggie Thatcher, then get back here at once!

  21. Izo on 31 Jan '12 said:

    PS3 was hard to develop for because of the split ram and different type of architecture, the latter is what makes development across different platforms easier, changing hardware is not really an issue if handled well, the development kits for U had a cap at a minimum performance level for developers to still work with which lead to last years and funny enough weeks false rumours about it only being twice as powerful as 360. No matter what the changes developers can still work with out hassle.

  22. Chris_Shanahan87 on 31 Jan '12 said:

    none of this makes sense. Over the last few months we've been told

    a) the Wii U is twice as powerful as the Xbox 360

    b) the Xbox 720 is 20% more powerful than Wii U

    c) the Xbox 720 is 6 times as powerful as the Xbox 360


    I think the truth is we know nothing, the gaming press know the way to get hits from now until E3 is to publish articles about the next-gen consoles which no one really has a clue about. Fun to speculate but getting annoying now. In any case we all know how it will end up. Wii U being the least powerful and the PS4 being the most, but their popularity will be the complete backward opposite of that because power isn't everything.

    I don't really know why i'm bothered either, i've been playing BF3 on Xbox 360 all morning and it looks outstanding to me

  23. djreplay on 31 Jan '12 said:

    Surely this 50% more powerful stuff is b*****ks, if the Wii U was twice as powerful as a PS3 then there would be games running at 3840 X 2160p @ 120 fps because there are a couple of games on ps3 running at 1920 X 1080 60 fps. Or am I confused? :?

  24. bjjcjc on 31 Jan '12 said:

    Surely this 50% more powerful stuff is b*****ks, if the Wii U was twice as powerful as a PS3 then there would be games running at 3840 X 2160p @ 120 fps because there are a couple of games on ps3 running at 1920 X 1080 60 fps. Or am I confused? :?

    Is that native resolution though? Games like Halo 3, Call of Duty series ect are upscaled to 1080p but run at a much lower native resolution, in some cases sub HD

  25. svd_grasshopper on 31 Jan '12 said:

    these '% more powerful' claims are pointless... what does that mean anyway?!

    can it even be properly defined in technical terms? let alone in end-result graphics...

  26. ffcoppolla on 31 Jan '12 said:

    Surely this 50% more powerful stuff is b*****ks, if the Wii U was twice as powerful as a PS3 then there would be games running at 3840 X 2160p @ 120 fps because there are a couple of games on ps3 running at 1920 X 1080 60 fps. Or am I confused? :?

    You're confused, because twice as powerful wouldn't mean four times the resolution and double the framerate.

  27. Izo on 31 Jan '12 said:

    Surely this 50% more powerful stuff is b*****ks, if the Wii U was twice as powerful as a PS3 then there would be games running at 3840 X 2160p @ 120 fps because there are a couple of games on ps3 running at 1920 X 1080 60 fps. Or am I confused? :?


    Doesn't work that way power doesn't mean resolution gets doubled and fps for one it takes four times as much power to run something at 60fps then it would normally and 1080p requires something similar which is why most games this gen don't have a native HD resoultion. 50% is the performance that was given to one of the development kits and equals much more then twice the power which is a given as U is 1080p native, it's not easy to define % in regards to performance but twice the power is around 20% or so.

  28. panantukan on 31 Jan '12 said:

    I'm actually quite interested in the Wii U.

    I predict that it'll give me a good year of prime gaming before the PS4/720 come out - and even when they do I think it''ll hold it's ground with the ability to produce Mario games in HD. I think with Ninty's graphical style they don't always neeed a lot of ridiculous detail, just nice clean sharp edges and bright colours will go a long way.

    Oh yes, and a next-gen Metroid game in the vein of Prime. :)

  29. Imaduck on 31 Jan '12 said:

    The title pretty much explains in one line why the endless talk of how powerful this supposedly is, is pointless and annoying. We'll see what it can do when it's finished, until then it's all just marketing and hype.

  30. laughing-gravy on 31 Jan '12 said:

    The industry always releases nonsense like this before new hardware announcements. We will only learn the real truth once we see software running on them. Then we'll be able to decide for ourselves.

  31. djreplay on 31 Jan '12 said:

    God I'm s**t at Mathis.

  32. alan666 on 31 Jan '12 said:

    :lol: probably trying to make sure they don't miss something out like they did when designing the 3DS !

  33. TheCrippledNewt on 31 Jan '12 said:

    Ooer, not sure if I like the sound of this 'constantly changing hardware'.

    Just picture it, you're just about to finish off an end of level boss/guardian when your Wii-U controller turns into a big cabbage...


    That made me laugh more than it should have.

  34. ShadowAviation on 31 Jan '12 said:

    Why are 'unknown sources' getting more than one mention now? Also, an awful lot of chat about Wii-U's (or whatever the hell it's going to be called) power. Nice to see that Ninty's being taken a bit seriously in that regard.

  35. SavageEvil on 31 Jan '12 said:

    If the Wii U can handle 1080p@60fps then it's pretty jacked in the GPU department. Which means we can get games that look just like the stuff out now and better, with good AI and intelligent game design(hopefully). Doesn't matter what the PS4 or 720 has in terms of raw power, fact is you will barely notice it. Why, unless GPU manufacturers have figured out a way to get multi GPU performance out of a solitary GPU then PS4/720 won't be leaps and bounds(visually) above their predecessors and definitely not that far above the Wii U. Assuming these guys can stomach another two years of trying to recoup R&D costs on a system that sells at a loss...I can't say I will see this happening not in this crappy economic climate. Savage just said that! Take it home with ya!

  36. panantukan on 31 Jan '12 said:

    The title pretty much explains in one line why the endless talk of how powerful this supposedly is, is pointless and annoying. We'll see what it can do when it's finished, until then it's all just marketing and hype.


    Either way, it's bound to be a significant leap in processing power over what we have today. When the GC came out it was surprisingly powerful for its time...

  37. thelazyone on 31 Jan '12 said:

    if the wiiu is only marginally weaker than the others, then...... nah you know what i just can't see that happening. lol

  38. Fr33Kye on 1 Feb '12 said:

    Wiiu's a slut.