Nintendo announced its next console, the Wii U, earlier today at its E3 press conference. During the show, the company aired a three-minute montage of upcoming third-party PS3/360/PC titles -- core games/franchises such as Darksiders II, Ninja Gaiden 3, and DiRT -- in a move that was clearly meant to prove that it's serious about third-party support for the Wii U (which was sorely lacking from the Wii).
But the video probably should've included a prominent asterisk somewhere, with a major caveat: the footage being shown wasn't actually taken from Wii U games. Instead, as Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime later confirmed in a post-conference interview (the relevant clip begins at 4:33) with Spike's Geoff Keighley, the video featured gameplay from the PS3/360/PC versions of the games in question, because we're "a year away from when the console will launch."
The Wii U won't be out until sometime between April and December 2012 -- it's pretty far off. And accordingly, none of the Wii U software that Nintendo is showing at E3 is intended to be taken as indicative of retail Wii U games; they're mostly tech demos and proof-of-concept software at this point. So it's not surprising that third-party developers haven't had enough time with the Wii U to actually have games that are in a demo-able state.
Even so, Nintendo's failure to clearly mark PS3/360/PC gameplay as such has the connotation of an attempt at a nefarious bait-and-switch that Keighley forced Fils-Aime to own up to, especially since showing the footage implies that that's the level of visuals that the console will produce. The Wii U is capable of 1080p output, so presumably, developers won't even have a tough time matching the PS3/360/PC footage that Nintendo showed. But at least admit that they're not there yet, and don't try to pass off other consoles' gameplay as your own system's video.
E3 2011: Reggie Interview, Part I [GameTrailers via This is my next]
Samit Sarkar is a founding Destructoid editor and go-to Sports guy. Samit was the son of the Duke of Knees, rescued from a burning village in the afghan desert by a golden condor. He is an ace Backgammon player and lost both legs in a whaling tour. He lives for free in a nursery in Scotland where he teaches monks how to capture butterflies without hurting them.
Likes
Confuse Ray,
Feel My Blade
A Mabari War Hound,
Snot,
Spiral Arrow,
Argo,
Dan Smith's critical hit bark,
Rolling things up into my life
Meet the rest of the team
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
80 comments | showing # 1 to 50
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
8:42 PM on 06.07.2011 | 
More gimmicks, less software innovation. Where is the next-gen software?
Am I wrong?
Frankly, I think I'll stick with the PS360 until a pricedrop on Nintendo's ridiculously large/guaranteed-expensive tablet and box combo.
I will say that I watched this interview earlier and Geoff did a nice job questioning some of Reggie's PR nonsense (and that is coming from a Nintendo fan).
Still, as Arttemis said, it's onpar.
The thing comes out in a year, get a frikken grip.
Reggie was REALLY evasive in the GameTrailers interview, but seriously, guys? Not cool, and I AM hyped for the Wii U.
LOL! No it wasn't obvious to a lot of trolling fanboys, who were saying "these games don't look at good as 360/PS3 game." Really? Well they are 360/PS3 games, so good eye. Just goes to show you, or stupid some so called graphics whores can be!
and it makes ense that they used footage from other consoles, since the Wii u is completely new.
im sure we'll see more footage as time goes by.
"So it's okay if Nintendo does this but I bet if any other gaming company did people would fucking rage."
I know, right? It's not like people threw a sissy fit with the Killzone 2 announcement...
...oh, wait.
Everyone gets called for this. The difference is Nintendo didn't make a big deal of the graphics; all they did was say they were in HD.
Plus, did you not see the clip of Link fighting the giant spider? That definitely wasn't footage from another console...
Notice where the title of the article says *third* party. ;)
Actually, you're wrong. In the "hardcore" online community, Nintendo DOESN'T get a pass. For anything. They've only made the exact same Mario and Zelda games for 25 years now, you know.
But ofcourse, because they are the great Nintendo, many will look the other way.
They lied to/deceived us. Not acceptable. They should have said, not WiiU footage ontheir vids.
I'm really hoping you're wrong but it's leaning more towards gimmick, i absolutely loved Gamecube but it wasn't a bestseller like the wii was maybe that's why? i just hope the graphics are on par if not better then the current gen consoles, is that so much to ask? come on ninty!
1) It's not a big deal at all. I'm sure plenty of footage for 360/PS3 games in pressers is taken from PC builds, or builds from the opposing console.
2) The implication here and in the comments seems to be that WiiU won't be able to match this graphic fidelity, and is thus dishonest of Nintendo.
If anyone here has actually looked at the announced specs, WiiU leapfrogs the PS3/360. It'd be like claiming Sony was being dishonest if they showed Rayman 2 footage for the PS2 that was taken from the Dreamcast or even N64.
Most likely, the software simply isn't in a state from which a trailer could be made. Why bother when there's already a generic cross-platform trailer that could be shown instead? There's no need, it has nothing to do with honesty.
OKAY. WE GET IT. YOU THINK NINTENDO IS DEVIL SPAWN. You don't need to say this in every Nintendo article where you can state how out of touch/terrible/whatever.
I will just note that Nintendo never lied to us regarding those games. They never said that that was how the games would look (they would look better, as they'd be rendered in 1080p), they simply said that they were the games that would show up for the WiiU. Should they have added a disclaimer? Of course, but trying to paint it out like Nintendo was pulling some ridiculous ruse to cheat all us gamers is absurd.
Honestly, out of all the tech demos shown (The LoZ one being especially indicative), I don't think the Wii-U matching or exceeding what had been shown is any problem. They knew that they'd look on par and decided to throw it out.
I don't see the big issue here.
oh, wait, apparently a lot of people do
hahahahaha
I wouldn't be surprised if the Wii U Zelda footage was fake. Nintendo did similar with its "realistic Link" E3 trailer before Wind Waker was announced.
Considering Nintendo is still working on Skyward Sword, I really doubt that they've got a Wii U Zelda already to the point of that video, if they've even started work on a Wii U Zelda at all.