Sony puts Wii U in "its own generation"

Sony puts Wii U in "its own generation"

Thu 14 Jun 2012 9:38pm GMT / 5:38pm EDT / 2:38pm PDT
Hardware

Sony's Shuhei Yoshida believes the Wii U will stand away from Sony and Microsoft's next consoles

Nintendo's Wii U is in its own special console generation, according to Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida. He told Eurogamer that - like the Wii before it - the Wii U will stand alone compared to Sony and Microsoft's next console offerings.

"Personally, I have always thought Wii was in a generation of its own," Yoshida told Eurogamer ."I always thought PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 are in the same generation, but Wii was not the same."

"To me, the industry was growing really fast when those three platforms came up because the focus is so different. The PS3 and the 360 were the closest in terms of high definition and networked services. But Wii carved out a large niche to itself. To me, it was like two generations going at the same time."

"Wii U is the next generation of Wii. That I understand. To me, it's its own generation," he insisted.

Do you agree that the Wii U sits by itself in the console cycle?

9 Comments

Daniel Hughes
Studying MA English

Bangor University

"But Wii carved out a large niche to itself. To me, it was like two generations going at the same time."

Ha, a large niche? Something of a contradiction, I think...

Posted:11 months ago

#1

James Brightman
US Editor

GamesIndustry International

Ha, indeed, that would appear to be an oxymoron!

Posted:11 months ago

#2

kevin williams

KWP Limited

The frustrated toy manufacturer that is Nintendo has always seen its business as unique to the conventional consumer game scene - it is the need to approach secondary content to stay relevant and protect their bottom line that flames the company.

I would not be surprised if they push the third parties forward to test the subscription online service. I just wonder if Sony and Microsoft can hope to marginalize Nintendo and grab the middle ground after trailing the Wii?

Posted:11 months ago

#3

Benjamin Crause
Supervisor Central Support

Nintendo of Europe

Well, if the Wii was a generation of its own and a niche why did they bring in "Playstation Move" to begin with? ;-)
I am really interested to see wha will hapen on Sony and MS side when WiiU lifts off.

Posted:11 months ago

#4

Curt Sampson
Sofware Developer

While the Wii certainly did sit alone in that it attracted a large number of people who would never have bought a PS3 or Xbox 360, I'm not so sure the Wii U will do the same. Those people tend to be moving on to other things (mostly mobile), and the Wii U, with its much stronger emphasis on third-party multi-platform games such as Assassin's Creed and so on, is attempting to compete with Sony and Microsoft in the core gamer market.

So in short, no, I don't think that the Wii U is anywhere near as much a "separate generation" as the Wii was. If Nintendo gets aggressive with their pricing, I think that Sony and MS will find themselves in a bit of a pickle come the 8th generation release. The PS3 and Xbox 360 can easily compete with the Wii U on price and features, but would Sony and MS really want to be pushing those to the forefront when they've just released a next-generation console?


Benjamin, the Playstation Move had been under development for a long time before the Wii came out. The research projects within Sony that eventually resulted in the EyeToy and the Move were started in the '90s.

Posted:11 months ago

#5

Rick Lopez
illustrator, designer, DJ

Yeah... well... that was a rather huge Niche Wii carved out for itself... bet SONY would have loved the level of success and profit the Wii had...

Posted:11 months ago

#6

Thomas Dolby
Programmer

Ai Solve

I guess I can't really comment on how the Wii U will fare against the next gen consoles seeing as they haven't really had any official details, but if they're anything like as powerful as they're rumoured to be I can see there being a divide again.

If the Wii U is only capable of playing the high end games of the 360 and PS3 at the moment, are developers really going to hold back their games to that level when the possibilities open up with MS and Sony's new offerings? I think the Wii U will have its moment when it's just competing against the 360 and PS3 but I'm not so sure how things will work out when the new consoles are released if Nintendo is focusing more on core gamers this time around.

Posted:11 months ago

#7

Jim Webb
Executive Editor/Community Director

E-mpire Ltd. Co.

Thomas, the problem between Wii and X360/PS3 was that game engines, code and game assets had to be recreated for Wii due to such vastly different architecture and capabilities. With Wii U, that's not likely to be as much of a problem even after the PS4 and Next X are leased.

Modern shaders along with game engines that scale well mean porting down to the Wii U will be a fairly simple process.

Posted:11 months ago

#8

Rick Lopez
illustrator, designer, DJ

Plus Nintendo has great IP thats worth noting and if they can get a Xenoblade 2 or Last Story 2 exclusives that would be a system seller. i am enjoying the hell out of Xenoblade. Again, i think having solid IP exclusives sells more than overpowered hardware.

Posted:11 months ago

#9

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