Nintendo Wii U Won't Be 'Transitional' Platform, says Peter MooreNintendo won't launch its new Wii U console until sometime next year (probably holiday 2012 if we had to guess), but given that the system will only be marginally more powerful than the current PS3 and Xbox 360, some would argue that Nintendo's caught in between and will be leapfrogged not long after launch by a faster PS4 or Xbox 720. EA COO Peter Moore (former EA Sports head) doesn't see that as a problem for Nintendo at all, however.
"People will start talking about it being a transitional platform. And I don’t think that’s going to be the case, and here’s why," Moore told IndustryGamers. "I think the [tablet] controller [is huge]. This is not about specs anymore... This is about, as it was with the Wii, is the controller a unique way of enjoying a game experience, regardless of what the graphic fidelity is?"
Moore just doesn't see the importance of big graphical leaps anymore. Consumers are less likely to care the way they did about the big graphics bump say, between SNES and N64.
"I don’t know what Xbox and PlayStation’s plans for their next platforms are, but it’s not going to be hanging on graphic fidelity. I guarantee you that."
"Look, you saw Battlefield - how much better could this stuff look at some point? There’s a point of diminishing returns... I don’t even know if there’s anything better than 1080p. In the early days of our industry, this stuff was absolutely about how much better the games looked - shinier helmets, greener grass – but I’ve been around long enough to know that seeing your breath in a football game is a huge deal. But that’s no longer the case any more," he said. "Now it’s about interfaces. Now it’s about building a community in a rich, powerful,way. And now it’s about, 'What is the way we can control the game?' You’ve seen that with Move, you’ve seen it with Wii MotionPlus more recently, and you’ve certainly seen it with Kinect."
"And Nintendo’s job, quite frankly, is to build a better mousetrap with regards to the way that we use the controller. So I don’t know what Xbox and PlayStation’s plans for their next platforms are, but it’s not going to be hanging on graphic fidelity. I guarantee you that."
Besides interfaces, as Moore alluded to, online and communities is vastly important, and he believes Nintendo's taking the online challenge seriously.
"It’s critically important to us and we are relieved, if anything else, that they have made a huge commitment that they have presented to us... Online certainly was not a factor with the Wii, as you know; although they had capabilities, it just wasn’t there at the level that both Xbox Live and PlayStation had," he said. "But I think Nintendo totally gets that multi-player, building community, co-op play, having the ability to bring games that are deeper - all of these things are now very important."
