Wii U ‘can compete with more powerful consoles’

The difference in graphical power between the Wii U and other next-gen consoles will not be as drastic as with the Wii, Nintendo’s CEO has claimed.

Speaking at a recent shareholder meeting, Satoru Iwata said that whilst some consumers would be concerned by a potential lack of power compared to other consoles, Nintendo would try and make the most out of the performance of the Wii U to keep up with other tech.

He also said that the Wii U would have more multi-platform titles than the Wii, although admitted he could not promise this would last in the long-term

“We can at least assure you that the Wii U will not have such a big difference as the Wii had in comparison to how, on other platforms, developers could expect very different graphic capabilities of generating HD-applicable high-resolution graphics,” said Iwata.

“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.

“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to make the most of the performance of the Wii U to keep up with technological innovations and not to make the system out-of-date soon.”

Nintendo has yet to reveal the full specifications of the Wii U, expected to release later this year, but it is reported to offer similar power and performance to the PS3 and Xbox 360.