Sony says Wii U is in a generation of its own
Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida considers the Wii U – as well as its predecessor – to be “in a generation of its own.”
Yoshida told Eurogamer that he believes the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 existed in one generation, while the Wii lived on in another. That’s because the PS3 and 360 are comparable in a number of areas while Nintendo’s console “carved out a large niche to itself.”
Sony’s Worldwide Studios boss closed by saying that the “Wii U is the next generation of Wii” and “it’s its own generation”.
“Personally, I have always thought Wii was in a generation of its own.
“I always thought PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 are in the same generation, but Wii was not the same. To me, the industry was growing really fast when those three platforms came up because the focus is so different. The PS3 and the 360 were the closest in terms of high definition and networked services. But Wii carved out a large niche to itself. To me, it was like two generations going at the same time.”
“Wii U is the next generation of Wii. That I understand. To me, it’s its own generation.”
Yoshida was later asked if Wii U is a competitor to the PlayStation 3 successor, knowing it’ll have at least a year’s head start.
His response:
“That’s a trick question! We are not talking about future PlayStation platforms at this E3. But everything competes for consumers’ time and money and attention.
“When you talk about the gaming industry today, it’s a lot bigger than five years ago – there are a lot more people playing games, on a smartphone, on Facebook, in addition to PC and consoles. It’s already multi-platform, way beyond the three – Sony and Microsoft and Nintendo.
“So we are competing with everyone for consumers’ attention, not just Nintendo and Microsoft.”
