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Darksiders Developer Says Wii U Hardware Is On Par With Xbox 360 And PlayStation 3

Vigil games, the development studio behind the Darksiders franchise has told Game Reactor that the Wii U hardware is on par with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Many of us were hoping that the Wii U would be slightly more powerful than either of these consoles, but it seems as though the graphical prowess behind the machine is similar to current generation consoles.

We have limitations based on Nintendo’s progress, but, you know, that really has, the only problem that’s been for us is, you know, not having an actual release date. But once we know when the Wii U has, when Nintendo has commited to a firm date, you know, we will be able to commit to a date for Darksiders II, but we’re planning on it being a launch title, and so far everything’s been smooth sailing.

We got the game running on their hardware pretty quickly, and the controller’s been great to work with, now it’s just down to deciding what we really want to do to make it a unique experience on the Wii U. You know, taking advantage of you know the extra screen and the touch capability and all that. So, you know, so we’ll have a few new feature for sure, but I think visually, for the most part, it’ll be pretty much the same.

You know, so far the hardware’s been on par with what we have with the current generation’s. Based on what I understand, the, you know, the resolution and textures and polycounts and all that stuff, we’re not going to being doing anything to uprez the game, but we’ll take advantage of the controller for sure.

– Darksiders 2 game director, Marvin Donald

170 thoughts on “Darksiders Developer Says Wii U Hardware Is On Par With Xbox 360 And PlayStation 3”

      1. about time someone agreed with me

        I said the same thing about the ps3/360 war

        I dont give two shits about graphics
        sure they are nice to look at and all but i find myself buying more ps2 games and N64 games more than ps3 games these days

        what you sacrifice development time for incorparating massive graphical detail you end up loosing out on story and sometimes gameplay the games end up more buggy and occasionaly with serious problems
        the ps3 version of Mass Effect 3 is a great exsample here or how about Skyrim too?

        When notch created Minecraft did he focus on making the game as graphically stunning as he could have? no he focused on gameplay and how fun and versatile the game could be
        it was fans who went out and made Texture packs to make the game look stunning

        why not do the same for consoles
        Make a game and focus on the gameplay and storyline then give it decent graphics and allow the consumer base to design and use thier own Texture packs
        just look how populer the Skyrim creation kit is

    1. Lol. Ok. I’ll play along.

      1. This is a re-worded quote from July. The editor just took articles from a bunch of different interviews, re-wrote them.
      2. He really said it’s “minimum on par”

      It should be really obvious this is a fake since for one, it sounds like it’s a fratboy talking, and it has this quote:

      “The last version of the controller we had was literally a giant Game Boy,”

      Which is an exact copy/paste from this interview written on July 19:
      http://gonintendo.com/?p=163612

      1. THANK YOU!! I can’t believe nobody remembers them saying this like right after E3. the second paragraph is pretty much exactly what they said in July. Sickr should know better

        1. phew :) for a second there I was worried the Wii U wasn’t as powerful as I expected it to be. Sickr should have done his research before posting this.

  1. considering we haven’t seen the final build for the console yet, it could mean it will still end up being slightly more powerful.

      1. that’s the problem
        they ARE improving their hardware
        remember, the Wii is quite behind the 360 and PS3 in capabilities
        so unfortunately, making their next console equal in power to the current generation, is an improvement on their part

        I think their new console is too premature
        Sony and Microsoft are doing the right thing by waiting, they wanna make sure they improve on all the gaming technology out there, not just their own

        1. microsoft and sony are the biggest thieve companies.thats all i know about them! i am sure that nintendo will solve the problem.anyway the wiiu will be more entertain console than the others.cant w8 :(

          1. M$ and $ony are waiting to steal Nintendo ideas for sure, they only research on power while inovation is leaved behind and they hope to stole any great idea from Big N or someone else.

            1. Please explain. You know Sony was working on PS move long before the wii came out, right? And kinect is a completely different experience, kinect sucks but it wasn’t stolen from Nintendo. So please tell me how they are “stealing” from Nintendo. God, I hate all you fan boys. I have no favorite so I’m unbiased.

              1. In turn Nintendo was working on motion gaming long before the wii. Power glove? But really when you think about it, isn’t it a GOOD thing that they would rip off nintendo? Makes it easier for 3rd parties to develop cross platform motion games, and it keeps Nintendo moving forward. Its kinda stupid when you think about it, its like saying everyone ripped of the PC engine cd for being disk based gaming systems. I love Nintendo guys, but let it go.

              2. Oooookay, sure. Still though, if Sony was working on the Move long before the Wii came out, wouldn’t Nintendo have worked on the Wii Remote since maybe 2 years after the GC launched? I mean, it’s not like they instantly came up with the idea on release day… Also, that argument is invalid for the single reason that the Wii launched first. Use some goddamned common sense when posting stuff on the webz please. Remember, what you post will be there for ever! :)

    1. That wouldn’t make sense. The developers have been making the game for a long time, and if Nintendo decided to change the specs they would have to start over.

      1. No. They announced this game was complete 2 months after e3 2011, and that it only took 2 lines of code to develop.

    2. It’s important to remember that there were under-clocked dev kits in circulation, to help devs make ps3/360 quality games, before unlocking the extra to throw the other manufacturers off the scent! Release games from 3rd parties probably will be 360/ps3 quality, but later titles COULD surpass them IF it’s due to early dev kits :D

  2. Well obviously. They ported this game with 2 lines of code, and announced it was finished, like, a month after e3 2011.

      1. Oh right, you guys have Dev kits and he’s just some guy who doesn’t know shit even though he happens to be working a multi-million dollar game. Yup, he’s obviously talking out of his ass.

  3. I think he is more referring to what THEY have done with the platform, because he says that “we’re not going to be doing anything to uprez the game” He would only say that if there was the ability to “uprez”, and instead it has been their choice to NOT do this, rather than the hardware

  4. Pretty sad. I guess Nintendo doesn’t want third party support when Durango/PS4 come out. Looks like the Wii situation all over again. Wii U will get 360/PS3 ports and then companies will switch over to next gen consoles, and WIi U will get software droughts.

    1. If you’d take the time to read the entire quote (bear through the brospeak) you’ll see that, while it’s possible for them to make things look better, they aren’t focused on doing that. They want to optimize controls and little else; the game hasn’t been released yet, so taking the time to redo almost all of the models and textures would eat into what little time they have left.

      “Up to par” does not mean “no better.”

  5. It will take a while to unlock the full graphical capabilities of the Wii u. Look at the first year of xbox 360 games and tell me they haven’t doubled in quality since then?

      1. Keep in mind how much Nintendo’s games will improve. They get to immediately release some of the top 360 and PS3 games right off the bat, and then still bring Zelda, Metroid, Mario, 3 new IPs and more to HD.
        I’ll be thrilled if the hardware remains highly competitive. But I’m hardly into other developers. I’ll pick up only what looks great.

    1. It’s all the developer. They could’ve made amazing games in the beginning, but the reason they get better isn’t that the hardware gets more powerful or is more powerful, it’s that they learn the architecture.

  6. is he mad? nintendo clearly stated that this a next gen console! i know the next xbox or ps4 ill not have a huge leap such as the ps1 to ps2 or p2 to ps3, but cmon…. having a 360’s hardware?? hopefully this is bull…. i know it will be more powerful, if not only by a bit!
    and as we all say in this site, as it has become a meme here:
    leave luck to heaven

    1. i kindda call bull on your statement…. when they announce the specs, you can either
      1. laugh at me for being wrong
      2. accept that you were wrong, and that the wii u is indeed an 8th gen console.

        1. They do use new technology…like a little something called the 3DS? 3D is still very new and current technology, and not only that, but when the DS has the touchscreen on it, that wasn’t really new, but it was current. It took Sony quite a while to decide to copy that idea…

          1. Thank you. Can other systems stream to another device for each game’s gameplay?
            Well,no, not until they steal Nintendo’s tech.
            I don’t have a 3DS, but the games so far are really above par and the 3D function is unlike anything else. It’s an entertainment system, like every other Nintendo product- not a way to get more advertising revenue.

    2. A tradition all gaming consoles hold when they are released. This isn’t new but it is annoying.
      Im not expecting a super computer, thats the SteamBox, but I expect something with at least 20% grunt over current generation (ps3/xbox360) consoles. Even will not stand for long.

    3. 6 year old technology? dearest… do remember Wii sold the most consoles. Goes to show you dont need just power but also FUN! I dont want just graphics but also substance…YES I PLAY PC (microsoft) GAMES which i can Mod!

        1. and great exclusives which Nintendo have. Whether you love them or not it has a legacy and a huge fanbase and ultimately sells by the bucketloads.

    4. The truth of the reality is the Wii U is way beyond Xbox 360… by 500%. Marvin Donald is just teasing the editors about Nintendo’s new console to be on par with current generation consoles. When this June comes, the Wii U version of Darksiders II will blow both X360 and PS3 version out of the water in supreme victory.

    5. As far as I know, most PS3 and 360 games doesn’t run in 1080p at 60fps but run at 720p and 30fps instead.

      Plus the Wii U is streaming information on TV and on the controller.
      It got power to do so.

      It doesn’t matter what technology they are using (remember the DS with the old touch screen?), it is HOW they use it.

      Between you and many of us, we are already glad about 720p games, heck even 540p native Halo3 doesn’t bother me at all.

  7. READ THE QUOTE.

    The guy says hardware is “up to par” with current gen consoles “so far.” Nintendo is constantly changing and improving things — not even developers know when the final kit will ship. He goes on to say one sentence later that they aren’t going to “uprez” the game in any way, even though it’s possible to improve polygon count and textures.

    Vigil Games has better things to do than remaster a game that hasn’t even been released yet.

  8. i am sure that nintendo is trying to improve the console,they said 50% more powerfull so let it write so let it BE! just w8 until e3 dont be mad cause of rumors or developers said!

  9. Darksiders II really isn’t a powerhouse, so I’m not too sure how accurate of a comparison they can make. I’d rather hear it from Crytek, or Epic.

  10. complete contradiction of what all the other developers have said, im not basing my opinion on the console just from these guys

    1. yep,the guys doing colonial marines said we were going to see textures on the u version that we hadn’t seen from the current gen and that was ages ago. looks like vigil are just doing a port with added controller features,you can’t blame them for that and it will be the version i pick-up at launch if the extra features look good at e3. i wish people would relax and not worry about the specs. mark rein has said it’s a “powerful box” and he’s hard to please!

  11. NO WIIU WILL BE 100% MORE POWERFULL THAN THE CURENT CONSOLES.JUST WAIT UNTILL E3 WHEN WIIU IS FINISHED!

      1. Ah so the wii u will be running at the specs of a 2000+ dollar gaming PC. Yea let’s see how many people spend 2000$ on a wii u or will Nintendo sell it for 250$ and eat the 1750$

        Oh wait this is the real world.

      2. no.

        The back in E3 nintendo, Gearbox & Sega confirmed the Wii U will be 50% more powerful then 2 current consoles.

        That could be the prototype however and nintendo could have changed it. They will announce more specs next E3.

  12. emily rogers: your statement is bullshit. simple as that. Please read what EPIC said and other THIRD PARTY DEVELOPERS said

      1. Wow now your blaming Lady GaGa now for this.

        You blamed me and also Anonymous recently also.

        Go find evidence before posting.

    1. trololololo what ps4? it hasnt even been announced yet! They made a huge loss espec with the vita… what makes you think they are gonna create the ps4 anytime soon?

      1. ^^^ this guy knows.
        I’m wondering if they ever will make it. It hasn’t been confirmed. The PS3 and Vita’s power haven’t earned them any real strides.

  13. Graphics for me have reached a pinnacle and don’t really need to improve that much, the only hardware aspect I want see an improvement for is maybe RAM just so it can handle each consoles Dashboard/Menu/UI especially for the next xbox (I know this is a Nintendo article but I’ll end up buying all 3 anyway) If the next xbox has enough RAM to support its Dashboard then I should be fine with as the 360 takes its sweet time loading everything up as they keep adding new things without testing to see if it can handle it properly.

    1. The Smaritan Demo says you’re wrong.

      Granted, we won’t see that on consoles until current $1000+ PC graphics cards drop down to $100 but there is still a lot of room to improve graphics.

      The problem is price

  14. IBM Power Architecture-based multi-core 45 nm microprocessor based on the POWER7 architecture found in the Watson supercomputer.
    how can that be on paer with those consoles…..just cause their too lazy to learn new things doesn’t mean its not more powerful

  15. “You know, SO FAR the hardware’s been on par with what we have with the current generation’s.” We will see everything that the Wii U is capable of doing at E3.

  16. Because, you know, HD is like, you know, not, you know, good enough anymore, you know, so, like, if you ain’t, you know, happy with current, you know, graphical, um, capabilities then, you know, watch a movie or something because, you know, they can’t make better games without, um, you know, graphics and stuff? You know?

      1. Like, totally. Like you know, whatever! Kidding aside, he’s right. I think they are starting to reach limits on what they can do with current technology. I remember reading an article from intel stating that they cannot raise the clock speed of processors at this current time, so the opted for tighter pipelines, multi-cores, and new features (sse4 and such). Sony and Microsoft are likely waiting for some of these limits to be broken, as they want to have an incredible update in graphics rather than just a barely noticible one. Nintendo has it right by concentrating on gameplay and control.

  17. Well this game is a port so it’s not going to look much better even if the wii u was twice as powerful so I wouldn’t really take this seriously.

  18. Super Train Station H

    I don’t know why people would take this quote from Vigil as an indication that the “PlayStation 4” is going to blow Wii U away in terms of visuals.

    When asked about the potential graphics improvement on PlayStation 4 soon after E3 2011, SCEE VP James Armstrong said:

    “I do not think we’ll have a console with a lot better graphics than the PS3 currently offered.”

      1. ps4 will fail of its high price.just think the begining price of ps3=700 euros.plus whethever shit theyll put it will cost 1000 euros.sony doesnt care about players or gamers.they care to steal money

        1. Umm…

          Sony does care more for it’s consumers over Microsoft…

          Microsoft charges people just to use online.

  19. This means nothing. Vigil is making a multi-platform game and they probably don’t want to take the time to tap into the maximum potential of the Wii U. They’ve probably been working with an old dev kit, they did say they had the game ready forE3 last year. We have to wait to see the final product.

    Leave luck to heaven.

  20. I could care less! Games look good enough, who cares if the shadows are more detailed, it doesn’t make the difference between good and bad games, and customers won’t see the difference either, Nintendo proved that with the Wii.

    1. You “couldn’t” care less. Sorry , I don’t mean to be a jerk; but, hey now you probably won’t make that mistake again. :)

  21. The title takes what this guy said out of context. He didn’t say that they couldn’t get a prettier running game, he said they decided not too. “Based on what I understand, the, you know, the resolution and textures and polycounts and all that stuff, we’re not going to being doing anything to uprez the game, but we’ll take advantage of the controller for sure.” That doesn’t say if the Wii U is more powerful or not. I highly doubt it since other third parties have said that the Wii U is indeed more powerful.

  22. I think as they have had for a while their game in development they didn’t get the new SDK so they could not change it to the newer kits and actually deliver it in the launch window period. I could be mistook but i think for sure that their SDK is old as their statement clearly contradicts other which said that the newer SDK are very powerful.

  23. I will be very disappointed if the Wii U is just “on par” with consoles that came out almost 7 YEARS ago.

    There is no excuse for this. If the Wii U is not significantly more powerful than the current gen then they will be left in the dust once again when it comes to 3rd parties. Developers will switch over to the new Xbox and the new PlayStation and the Wii U will have nothing but first party games.

    Beef it up Nintendo!

  24. I guess the bottom line is.

    Nintendo – makes profit on consoles. Stays in business.

    Microsoft & Sony – lose billions on consoles and depend on the rest of their company to keep them in business.

    1. Except that right now, Sony isn’t doing too hot for the last 5 years in the other department.

      Add to the fact they don’t have 3rd party monopoly like on PS1-2.

      MS on the other hand still have their other business which are doing just fine.

  25. What Nintendo could do is make the Wii U like the N64 with an expansion pak port where you could upgrade the system in the future without having to release another console. But I really think that we hit a graphical barrier and any more improvements would be unnecessarily expensive and relatively unnoticeable.

    1. if is that so then it will be the same with the other consoles (ps4 and xxxbox 720) too expensive!

  26. well guys i ve just know a video (its trolled with 1 asshole fat boy and i have comment it too) so enjoy! (i am with nintendo i am just showing this video for some stupit kids which they are in this site!

  27. You know, like, you know, we’re just, you know, getting ready for, you KNOW… ALRIGHT WE GET IT!!

  28. You know I think they could have, you know, taken liberties to, you know, paraphraze/edit certain parts of, you know, that quote, you know. :)

  29. Didn’t the guys making Aliens: Colonial Marines already confirm that the Wii U version has higher textures than the PS3/360 versions?

    1. Yep,months ago. Mark Rein has said the U is “a powerful box”. Darksiders 2 is just a port with added controller features,it’s a shame they aren’t putting the extra effort in but i think it’ll be the version to get.

    2. The showoff of Unreal 3 Engine did show in-game Aliens: Colonial Marines gameplay, and it did seem like more streamlined play and higher textures.

  30. sickr if you read this please read through todays comments. there is a guy called peteriuss original and he has been putting up extremely offensive comments all day, including two extremely racist comments. as a black man myself im very offended, please ban this boy so i can enjoy your site in the future and keep up the good work sickr.

  31. See misleading titles like these are the reason I stop following IGN. Don’t insult our intelligence as if we can’t read. U make it sound as if he was saying the system won’t be more powerful then current Gen…….that’s totally misleading to get more comments and flame wars. (STOP) u keep quoting Micheal Pacther for the sane reason…..smh…..are you a child with no understanding of your viewer base? we come here for new and most i say “accurate” news on WII U! This is clearly not that.

  32. Keep in mind that this is only a launch title so who knows what kind of presentation the Wii U could pull off later. Remember launch games for the Wii? Compare Red Steel to a game such as Conduit 2 or The Last Story. See what I mean? With time improvement comes. Anyways why does he talk like we already know everything? No I don’t know!

  33. At the very least, Vigil believes that gamers can look forward to ports to Nintendo’s new console that are not inferior to every other version of the game. When we asked Bonstead This a direct quote from DarkSiders developers 2011 E3 We asked if he thought it was possible that the Wii U version of Darksiders II would be the best version of the game, he said, “Yeah, just because the hardware is more powerful and it will have some extra features that I think will actually be useful to people playing the game. With it’s controller, [the Wii U version of Darksiders II] might be the best version of the game.” WOW…. So basically this prove that this Title is Misleading…….if it was more powerful last yr then ever more powerful now!!!! “Case Closed”

  34. Wow, he really does say you know a lot.

    Worst comes to worst with Wii U, I still won’t have to buy a 360 anymore. Wow, that’s like, not a bad worst case scenario.

    You know?

  35. I think he means that the system is similar to the others in terms of how you develop for it. Right after the word in black, he says”

    ” Based on what I understand, the, you know, the resolution and textures and polycounts and all that stuff, we’re not going to being doing anything to uprez the game, but we’ll take advantage of the controller for sure.”

    If it was on “par,” then there would be no reason for him to comment on upping the resolution of the game. Their target is to release the game at launch, and this would push it back.

    1. Exactly! He’s talking about the game specifically as in they aren’t making any graphical changes for Wii U.

  36. These days for gaming it’s more about the innovation. Course graphics should be good to, but what people like is the game play. I play old/retro games from time to time, but that’s because i like the gameplay and innovation in them.

    Not quite sure why some people are saying the Wii U is going to have the same hardware as the Xbox 360. I mean come on, this is Nintendo we’re on about, and they don’t really fail at bringing something truly revolutionary do they?

    Although I would say that only Sony copied Nintendo, for the PS Move. The controller chassis is of the same style. All it is is a Wii Remote with extra things e.g. Six axis, gyro and so for.

    If anything MS copied Sony with the Eye Toy. Essentially the Eye Toy is controller-less gaming. MS went and made something that is rather accurate (down to the devs for this). But looking at the figures, Kinect has done really well as well. I think Move is failing.

    As per usual Nintendo will deliver something groundbreaking.

  37. Here we go with the uncertainty again. This type of news will make me change my mind on even getting a system. Because devs. Are starting to comme up with these lame excuses. Dude (@vigil) were the first ones “promising” a launch title last week now its “we don’t know” and “planning on” I smell a cop-out. Ijs

  38. Well, Epic games already said they’ve been pushing Nintendo and are currently pleased with the hardware’s capabilities.. Plus, once again, look at the E3 2011 tech demos. 360 and PS3 can’t hold their own against that. And according to epic, the Wii U can even do better than the gorgeous Zelda tech demo

    1. soo…yeah ill tell u something the wii u will come early april or in late april *reggie says it* and e3 will come on june 5-7 2012, i dont GET THIS!!!!!! will wii u have much power than we expected or we will get an update when e3 comes out?

  39. I fear the WiiU will be another Gamecube.

    Too little too late.

    Nintendo should have pushed beyond the current generation.

    1. That’s what you think. The Wii U will surpass the GameCube when it comes to HD graphics and unique play control.

  40. I see that everyone’s freaking out because the Wii U’s power might not be amazing.
    But wasn’t there an article that said only 10% of its power has been shown?
    Also, specs aren’t out yet, so we don’t know for sure.
    Nintendo may amp it up before release.

  41. Well, If the Wii U is priced as a ps3 at launch, I mean, $300, I would love it, It will be as powerful as the 360 and the ps3, but with 3rd party titles as first party titles, not forgetting that It will have a really nice gampelay.

  42. Well… Dozens of other more reliable sources have said otherwise that it’ll be more powerfull than them so I don’t really belive them.

  43. This is the opposite of what the technical director of Darksiders2 said a few month before. I think he is more knowledge about hardware than the “game director”.

  44. Pingback: Darksiders Art Director Says That “Wii U Is Pretty Powerful” | My Nintendo News

  45. Pingback: Darksiders Art Director Says “Wii U Is Pretty Powerful” | Gaming RSS

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