The Wii U has taken a cost balanced approach to the design of the console, according to Shieru Miyamoto in a discussion with GameSpot. The rumors that have been circulating that the Wii U is over 50% more powerful than the current generation of consoles seems to be something that everyone is downplaying; in fact, we believe that it is a statement that they are running away from.
Balancing cost is something that Sony really seems to have learned the hard way with the launch of the PlayStation 3; but over time, though a number of cost reduction measures, the company has been able to get costs under control. In fact, some decisions such as the Blu-ray drive (which at the time was a very expensive choice) are now an advantage because of the space that it affords developers to work with.
Developers that we have spoken with are still very excited about the possibilities of the platform and what the hardware of the Wii U offers. Of course, the bigger question is how companies who bring their more hard core titles to a Nintendo platform will play out. We have already heard that Epic will be bringing their engine to the platform and so will Crytek. It is clear that this makes it very easy for a number of games to be able to make their way to the Wii U quickly.
Will third party publishers be able to find the elusive success on the Wii U platform that they were not able to find in many cases with hardcore titles on the Wii? That is a question for another day, but developers we have spoken with seem to think that the Wii U is a new ball game; and offers third party developers their best chance to get a bigger slice of the Nintendo pie.
Read the GameSpot Miyamoto interview here.