Microsoft Thinks The Wii U Is Pretty Much An Xbox 360

58 responses to “Microsoft Thinks The Wii U Is Pretty Much An Xbox 360”

1. 

   dmag87

   July 5, 2012 at 2:55 pm

   It’ll be just like a 360, only with original games you can’t get on PS3.

   Reply
   1. 

      Inkk la

      July 5, 2012 at 4:28 pm

      Yeah… like a 360.

      Reply
      1. 

         Rob

         July 10, 2012 at 10:28 pm

         Whoosh!

         Reply
2. 

   Jordaan Mylonas

   July 5, 2012 at 3:10 pm

   As much as I like MS, I really cannot stand how smug their representatives come across as.

   Reply
   1. 

      Braaains

      July 5, 2012 at 4:28 pm

      These days they’re definitely giving off a vibe not unlike that emanating from Sony’s reps around the time of the PS2-PS3 transition. They may yet end up getting a similar lesson in humility, too.

      Reply
3. 

   Samurai

   July 5, 2012 at 3:16 pm

   Wii U is more powerful than ps3, and ps3 is more powerful than Xbox 360.
   I really don’t understand this line: “They are building a platform that is effectively a 360 when you think of graphical capability.”

   Reply
   1. 

      Korwin

      July 5, 2012 at 3:20 pm

      Eh, it’s not like the PS3 is leaps and bounds more powerful than a 360, it’s got a chunk of extra CPU grunt but it’s pretty hamstrung by the split memory pool.

      This thing isn’t exactly streets ahead of the PS3 in the horse power department so odds are you’ll probably just see some of that extra left over horse power go towards smoothing out some frame rate hitches and increasing some small things like shadow resolution.

      Reply
      1. 

         PiratePete

         July 5, 2012 at 3:47 pm

         I still think the Wii U is going to end up being streets behind.

         Reply
         1. 

            Quirkhall

            July 5, 2012 at 3:55 pm

            Of course it will. Every single console generation that Nintendo has been a part of, they have been behind the competition in terms of technology. The difference was in the 80s and 90s they had the better marketing and Sega couldn’t keep up with them.

            Reply
            1. 

               Bucky

               July 5, 2012 at 4:05 pm

               Your kidding right?if not I think you need to look into your video game history a bit better!!!

            2. 

               Jake

               July 5, 2012 at 4:22 pm

               NES. SNES. 64. Gamecube. Wii. And soon the Wii U.

            3. 

               Ian

               July 5, 2012 at 4:42 pm

               Gamecube was way ahead of PS2 as was Snes versus Megadrive. N64 was also ahead of Playstation and saturn, with the exception being it had some small concessions when it came to textures.

            4. 

               Johnnyy

               July 5, 2012 at 7:52 pm

               Dude, the playstation 1 beat out all it competition by selling over 100 million copies and the Ps2 sold 150 million copies while the xbox 1 sold nearly 50 million and gamecube sold around the same as xbox. Get ur facts straight.

            5. 

               Gustavo

               July 8, 2012 at 1:31 pm

               They’re talking about technological capability, genius. Not sales.

            6. 

               dablaster

               July 5, 2012 at 6:37 pm

               Last gen the ps2 was behind the xbox and gamecube

            7. 

               Johnnyy

               July 5, 2012 at 8:01 pm

               U idiot, the last 2 generations Sony has owned it.

               Playstation 1 sold 105 million copies while the N64 only sold 32.4 million and was weaker because it was still using the cartridge. Then the sega only sold 9.8 million copies.

               Then the PS2 did better.
               The PS2 sold 154 million copies while the xbox sold 24 million, the Gamecube sold 21 million.

               Get ur facts straight mate cause everyone knows the PS2 is the best selling console of all time. Everyone had a ps2 when it came out and i mean everyone

            8. 

               adam

               July 5, 2012 at 7:14 pm

               lol typical 12 year old logic, I bet you read it off some other fanboy and just blindly started saying that Nintendo has always been the weakest? N64 was stronger than PS1, Gamecube was stronger than PS2

         2. 

            Samurai

            July 5, 2012 at 4:01 pm

            The current generation, no. The Wii U will be great for a couple years technologically speaking. But after a year or so, Microsoft or Sony are going to have their next gen console out, and they will be ahead massively. I don’t mind though, I only get Nintendo for their specific IP’s and if I want graphics and third party, PC FTW.

            Reply
      2. 

         DeeDub

         July 5, 2012 at 7:25 pm

         It may have slightly more grunt than the current gen, but it’s looking like that extra horsepower will need to be used to render the 2nd display out to the controller, depending on how extensively it’s used of course…

         Reply
4. 

   NoTheMama

   July 5, 2012 at 3:22 pm

   So the one time Nintendo borrows one of their ideas…..they turn bitch mode on?
   Tsk tsk….you’d think they’d know better than to underestimate Nintendo by now……wat a bunch of smartglasses……er asses lol

   Reply
   1. 

      TDark

      July 5, 2012 at 3:32 pm

      Haha well played sir.

      Completely agree.

      Reply
      1. 

         That Teemo

         July 5, 2012 at 3:38 pm

         I didn’t get any bitching from them at all.

         Sound like he knew Nintendo’s strengths is it’s first party catalogue of IPs and having those types of games matched with power equal to the 360 (in terms of grunt and architecture) will result in 3rd party developers having a much easier time porting to the Wii U, resulting in more sales of the device.

         He knows the Wii U could potentially pull 360 gamers away from the console due to Nintendo making it feel familiar. He’s commending Nintendo for playing smart.

         Reply
   2. 

      Samurai

      July 5, 2012 at 3:36 pm

      You can almost always backtrack any controller idea back to a Nintendo design. I admit, Microsoft got the controller design right, its just perfect to handle, and the Nintendo isn’t going to downgrade to a sub par design just because someone has reached it.

      Reply
   3. 

      Robert

      July 5, 2012 at 5:11 pm

      First time? could have sworn the whole online content thing was borrowed from MS as well.

      Reply
      1. 

         Letrico

         July 5, 2012 at 6:25 pm

         Huh what? Wii came out before Xbox which already had online content just pretty bad compare to current generation online content.

         Reply
         1. 

            That Teemo

            July 5, 2012 at 7:00 pm

            Nope. Xbox live came into existence on November 15, 2002 for the original Xbox

            Reply
         2. 

            adam

            July 5, 2012 at 7:13 pm

            You are wrong on two accounts, First of all online gaming was around before the Original Xbox and a long long time before the Wii and also the 360 came out before the Wii.

            Reply
5. 

   sad

   July 5, 2012 at 3:25 pm

   I only like the WiiU’s controller just because the D-Pad isn’t stupid.

   Reply
6. 

   TheLastQuestion

   July 5, 2012 at 3:37 pm

   That’s a bit rich, considering how similar the Xbox 360 controllers are to Nintendo Gamecube controllers.

   Reply
   1. 

      DogMan

      July 5, 2012 at 3:47 pm

      Man I wish the 360 had GameCube triggers. I love those things.

      Reply
   2. 

      NegativeZero

      July 5, 2012 at 4:36 pm

      There’s an extremely obvious and direct lineage for the Xbox 360 controller, via the Xbox Controller S, then the original Xbox controller (the ‘duke’), to the Dreamcast and before that the Saturn 3D Pad.

      If there’s similarity in the Gamecube and 360 controllers it’s because all controller design has basically converged to the same basic concepts – four face buttons, two sticks, a d-pad and shoulder buttons.

      Reply
      1. 

         Ian

         July 5, 2012 at 4:45 pm

         What?? The xbox 360 controller is a Wavebird with a second anlog stick instead of the sticky digital c stick, and the face buttons aranged in a cross instead of the superior “mash A to play” design. 😉

         Reply
         1. 

            NegativeZero

            July 5, 2012 at 4:49 pm

            The Xbox guys have specifically said they aped the Dreamcast’s controllers. Among other things, actually. Remember Microsoft’s first foray into consoles wasn’t the Xbox, it was developing a version of Windows CE for the Dreamcast. Only used in like three games in the end because it was too slow, but that’s still where it began.

            Reply
            1. 

               NegativeZero

               July 5, 2012 at 4:50 pm

               (Also if they were copying the Wavebird/GC controller and not the Dreamcast the original Xbox controller wouldn’t have been such an enormous unwieldy brick)

            2. 

               Ian

               July 5, 2012 at 4:57 pm

               Oh I see the confusion…you’re talking about xbox 1 controller I’m talking about the 360 controller.

         2. 

            Jk

            July 5, 2012 at 11:33 pm

            Not to mention the Wavebird was the first real successful wireless controller, but it would be unfair to say that Mircosoft “borrowed” from NIntendo, right?

            Reply
7. 

   Kung Fu Kai

   July 5, 2012 at 3:57 pm

   Pretty much every modern controller knocks off the SNES controller (including the 360’s), and dual-analog sticks weren’t Microsoft’s idea either, they were Sony’s.

   Yet they feel so smug about themselves…its pathetic.

   Reply
   1. 

      Lone Wolf

      July 5, 2012 at 4:01 pm

      Yet Nintendo were the first to put an actual anaolgue stick in their controller, ala the N64 controller.

      Reply
      1. 

         NegativeZero

         July 5, 2012 at 4:46 pm

         Actually that’s not true at all. Atari had analog control sticks on the controller for the 5200 in 1982. Vetrex had one too. Sony had an analog flight stick for the playstation (The ‘Analog Joystick’) which was released in Japan in 1995, more than a year before the N64. Sega also had an analog stick on the 3D Pad for the Saturn and that was released only a couple of months after the N64 as well. And it makes no sense to claim that it was a fundamentally new concept either, there were analog joysticks for PCs available for years as well.

         Reply
         1. 

            Ian

            July 5, 2012 at 4:56 pm

            I guess it’s fair to say that they were the first to use an analogue thumb stick though right?

            Reply
            1. 

               James

               July 5, 2012 at 6:04 pm

               Note that there were controllers with thumb sticks before the N64. For instance, some versions of the Sega Master System controller had a screw-on thumb stick for the D-pad.

               If the N64 was the first with an analogue thumb stick, then that sounds a lot like a synthesis of the existing analogue joystick and digital thumb stick ideas that already existed. Don’t get me wrong: it is a cool feature, but I doubt it was invented in a vacuum.

               I’m not really sure what is so bad about copying and extending good ideas though. Would you really prefer for developers to do things different solely to be different even if it made their products worse?

         2. 

            MrTaco

            July 5, 2012 at 5:01 pm

            I thought the thing about the earlier analogue sticks was that they wouldn’t necessarily return to a neutral position like the 64 stick did? I vaguely remember reading that in an article a while back.

            Either way, as with most of Nintendo’s “innovations” – the tech existed beforehand, but they were pretty much the first to make it a standard, ie not an optional extra that wouldn’t receive much support because most people probably wouldn’t have one.

            Reply
8. 

   jack

   July 5, 2012 at 4:46 pm

   it is so like the Xbox controller

   Reply
9. 

   Tom

   July 5, 2012 at 5:35 pm

   I see the Wii U failing in comparison to the next Sony and Microsoft. Why would people fork out more money for a system which will get games which are just coming to current gen consoles? It’s like the original Wii is one big joke, and the Wii U is the real current gen console.

   Reply
   1. 

      Blackhawks

      July 5, 2012 at 5:42 pm

      I don’t think hardcore gamers will be rushing out to buy a wii u. I’ll probably get it, but only to play Mario games and the like. For the more hardcore games like gta and battlefield, I’ll stick with whatever MS come out with next.

      Reply
      1. 

         Him

         July 5, 2012 at 8:32 pm

         I’ve got a feeling plenty of people are overestimating the grunt that the next gen of Xbox and PS consoles will have.

         Due to an overenthusiastic approach to the last generation, Sony managed to lose more money in the PS3 then they’d gained through the original PlayStation and the PS2 combined.
         Similarly, Microsoft was losing money by the bucketful until it started re-marketing it’s console as a home media device, with Netflix in the US and an array of casual gamer titles.
         Now the Wii on the other hand has been without a doubt the biggest cash cow of any console Nintendo’s ever had.
         Now whatever actions Microsoft and Sony decide to take this gen, I’m sure they’ll keep those losses in mind as a stinging reminder concerning the dangers of overreaching.

         So I’d say there’s a good chance that while there will be a power divide between the WiiU and ‘Xbox720/PS4’, it’ll be shallow enough that the wii will be able to run a slightly graphically trimmed down version of the same games as it’s more powerful competitors.

         Reply
         1. 

            DeeDub

            July 6, 2012 at 8:32 am

            But if Sony & MS release a system that is not much more powerful than the current gen

            Reply
10. 

    Cupcake

    July 5, 2012 at 5:38 pm

    This comment has been deemed inappropriate and has been deleted.

    Reply
11. 

    jjason

    July 5, 2012 at 6:48 pm

    Ha! I bet the wii U’s D pad is actually usable!!

    Reply
12. 

    Ben J

    July 5, 2012 at 7:20 pm

    I don’t think he’s really bitching in this. He actually said in the same conversation that he was disappointed that Nintendo didn’t announce a new Metroid or Zelda, because he was looking forward to them. He does at least have some respect for them.

    Reply
13. 

    Johnnyy

    July 5, 2012 at 8:50 pm

    Microsoft are just a bunch of morons that will say anything to get the xbox brand more known.

    Microsoft have been known to do some very dodgy things since its start up.

    Reply
14. 

    p tear griffin

    July 5, 2012 at 9:29 pm

    WINNER PS3

    Reply
15. 

    Sam

    July 5, 2012 at 11:01 pm

    Will it get Tales of Vesperia? That’s literally the only Xbox exclusive I’ve ever wanted.

    Reply
    1. 

       Scott

       July 6, 2012 at 9:32 am

       Same.

       Reply
16. 

    Moloko

    July 6, 2012 at 12:27 am

    It’s like that time that Microsoft ripped of Avatars and motion controls.

    Reply
17. 

    shaun

    July 7, 2012 at 2:54 pm

    and the 360 controller is pretty much the same as the gamecube controller……

    Reply
    1. 

       LaSqueeesha

       July 11, 2012 at 12:11 am

       The gamecube controller is my definite favourite. I loved those triggers that pushed all the way in, pity they were never on any other console.

       Reply
18. 

    Mr. Resetti

    August 5, 2012 at 11:06 pm

    Why do MS always try to put down Nintendo? they shamelessly tried to copy the gamepad with smartglass (Don’t get me started) and treat them like dirt when they’d be nowhere without them. Now they’re hating on the Wii U’s power, this is stupid the Wii U’s specs having been fully revealed yet and it has been confirmed to run 1080p. Ports 360/PS3 games look noticeably better on Wii U even when they were only shown in 720p EAT THAT YOU ARROGANT MORONS. And didn’t anyone see the Zelda tech demo? Nothing on 360 compares to it and it was apparently a rushed video made using underpowered dev kits.

    Reply