April 7th, 2012

Nintendo still “has a lot to announce” for the Wii U, says Gearbox

40 Comments

Randy Pitchford of Gearbox, aside from saying he is “really excited” about the platform and the work they’re doing on Aliens: Colonial Marines, has said that “Nintendo still has a lot to announce with their platform, and it’s not up to us to go ahead of them.” He also shared that:

There’s a lot that we can do with that screen. It’s a really cool system — it’s pretty powerful. I want to be careful, because I don’t want to risk any sensitive information that Nintendo’s not ready to share yet, but in our experience it’s a great system. I think it’s a really nice bridge to the next generation. I think people will be surprised. I don’t know off the top of my head how many of the specs they’ve released, so I want to be very careful not to jump the gun, but we’re very pleased with the hardware.

And as always, it’s nice to hear the positive reactions to the platform, given that it’s the doom and gloom that can receive the most attention.

  • Grapefruit Assassin

    Enthusiasm is a great thing!

    Now change the name to Nintendo Touch or reuse the the name NES.

    • D2K

      I can get down with NES or some edit with NES in the title.

    • Craig

      I was thinking of name changes, which I think they will tweek to show it’s new… These are just random ones I’m throwing out here:

      Nintendo Wiivolution
      Nintendo Universal
      Nintendo Revolution
      Nintendo Stream
      Nintendo U-NES (Ultimate/Ultra Nintendo Entertainment System).

    • Grapefruit Assassin

      I wonder if the U stands for ultimate? They need a new name though…

    • Aanx

      @Craig

      I had previously thought of the name UNES.
      That seems like a good name. People would call it The Ultra, and Nintendo can stay with all of the already registered U-named things they have.

    • Wildman

      Now you’re playing with power!!
      ULTRA POWER!!

      The UNES from Nintendo.
      (Coming This Holiday Season)

    • Deadly Scream

      @Grapefruit Assassin what? R u just paying around or not knowing what the U stands for?

    • Deadly Scream

      I mean to say playing no paying!!! Gah they need edit buttons on this site!

    • Grapefruit Assassin

      @ Deadly Scream

      Nah, I’m not playing. What does it mean?

      If you say University I’m virtually slapping somebody.

    • Deadly Scream

      @Grapefruit Assassin well when then released the wii, the name meant “We” can all play this system. I think the U means there thinking in terms of you as in the gamer. But don’t quote me on that. Or something like that, anywho I hope they change the name, but have a feeling they wont.

  • pulgeezy

    I’d be down with either the name nintendo evolution or revolution.

    • Grapefruit Assassin

      Wii Evolution has a nice ring to it. :)

    • Trulaw

      @Grapefruit Assassin I’d prefer it to not have Wii in the name at all.

    • Grapefruit Assassin

      @Trulaw

      Me too but they are still using the Wiimotes for the Wii U… They can’t abandon the casual gamers to adopt the widespread minority hardcore gamers.

    • Trulaw

      @Grapefruit Assassin I get what you mean, but I don’t think what they need the Wii name to keep the casual crowd.

    • Trulaw

      @Grapefruit Assassin That*

  • SolxBurst

    I want to see Borderlands 2 on the Wii U

    • AquaFire

      Preaching from the quire on that one.

    • Grapefruit Assassin

      I’m onboard for that.

  • Nintendo Knight

    JUST NAME IT NINTENDO ULTIMA

  • Total911

    I love how one person makes one comment about the renaming and every other comment on the page is talking about it too.
    While we’re at it, though, I did love the rumored name “Nintendo Stream”. That would have been cool and rolled off the tongue.

    • Wildman

      I’d be very happy with the name “Nintendo Stream”.
      It makes sense. The console “streams” a video feed to the controller and opens up a quasi-nuclear wormhole to amazing game-play!

  • StarTropics

    With the exception of Nintendo’s games, I think its pretty clear that for the first little while 3rd party games on Wii U are going to look pretty similar to the 360/PS3 games with some added lighting effects and shaders just like how most of the 360s launch games looked like PS2/GC/Xbox games with added shaders. From what I gather from what Vigil is saying is that they’re focusing more on the controller than pushing the Wii U’s power with the Wii U version of Darksiders II

    The Wii U is a whole generation more powerful than the 360/PS3 but it may be a little while till everyone starts tapping into the systems full visual potential

    • uriel

      they said its a bridge to next gen …..interprit as you like but for me i think they already know its future cometitor will be reasonably better and true next gen but i do aggree that it may have some hidden potential graphically but im not getting my hopes high …no one should everyone should just cross there fingers and wait till e3 were they better reveal everything! this wait sucks ..they should rename it i hate wii u it sounds wierd

    • Wildman

      @ uriel
      When they said a “bridge to the next generation”, I think they were saying that the Wii U (Nintendo Stream please) is leading the way to the next generation just like the XBOX 360 did back in 2005.

    • D2K

      Agreed. Excellent post. There is only so much you can do with a port. Financially it doesn’t make since to spend the time and money on building a game from the ground up for a launch title when you can take the extra RAM and more powerful processor the Wii U has to make the game you already have done look really nice, and spend the majority of your time working on the Wii U controller game mechanics which is going to be the selling point of the system.

      It will be awhile before we see ground up 3rd party titles on the Wii U. Right they are excited about the system, yet cautious. They are just testing the waters at this point. Once the Wii U takes off, you’ll see 3rd party companies in DROVES coming to Nintendo. I honestly feel that the Wii U has the potential of having the same level of 3rd party support that the NES and SNES had.

  • jobro

    And again , very goood hardware…So noone believes it will be lower than 360/ps3.And this developer tells his name^^

  • Pleasant

    You guys miss the point. It’s not about just having a cool name simply just to be cool. It’s about having a name that says something, is simple, and doesn’t have to try to be cool. You’ll notice that the real cool people never have to prove anything; it’s always the pitiful ones that do.

    On another note, I like what Pitchford says specifically about how “it’s not up to [them] to go ahead of [Nintendo]“. This quote could justify why some developers are holding off on tapping into greater power with the Wii U for now, simply because Nintendo doesn’t want them to…yet.

    • leo

      maybe Nintendo has some tricks up there sleeves.

  • Deadly Scream

    I mean to say playing no paying!!! Gah they need edit buttons on this site!

  • a gamer apart

    lol at the fanboys and there 1980s console name fanboying

    wiiU is a million times more marketable than revolution or stream or any silly turbo charged its 1986 silly name

    Dmeggadrive nes snes the turbo graph PLEASE INFORM REALITY OF THESE OPINIONS AND GET THEM CHECKED

    its 2012 not 1983 ffs

    • Pleasant

      Seriously.

    • uriel

      yeah these names they picked wii evolution / revolution sound really really -__- dumb much worse then wii u[really really bad]……im not worried by the name so much i just got used too it …i wouldnt adapt to revolution/evolution it sound like a codename for a hidden project… And UNES isnt much better……

    • Csaw

      Ya Im glad these guys aren’t the ones picking out the names. Something simple like Stream wouldn’t be bad, but I don’t want to be saying revolution or UNES.

  • http://nintendo3dsbloglatino.blogspot.com AceNinty

    I´m still worried about the quote “Bridge to the next generation” which might mean either way, similar to another quote from the same developer “late in the cycle”. Someone please tell me what these quotes really mean!

    • Grapefruit Assassin

      You have to be patient! If the system is 50-80% more powerful than current Gen that would be perfect. That would give the Wii U a long shelf life.

  • http://MacroManJr.blogspot.com/ Brian L.

    I don’t believe the negative rumors coming from “anonymous” sources–Gearbox’s public comments blows them all out the water.

  • leo

    very excited for the wii u ! i hope colonial marines will be available at launch or very soon after the launch.I also wonder what games they will have in the Wii u Eshop. Will it have games that have wii graphics or will those games have wii u graphics? I think Moh warfighter would be awesome on U.

  • Myk

    Wonder if they will bring over borderlands2

  • Wolfy

    @ assassin, and deadly

    Yes The “U” stands for “You”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKwldXyhSzU&feature=related

    Back on topic: I am going to throw a Wiimote at the next developer who “teases” the wii U systems ability.