Wii U ‘twice as powerful as Xbox 360’

Nintendo’s next generation hardware will be roughly twice as powerful as Microsoft’s current system, the Xbox 360, according to a studio source speaking to Develop.

The person, communicating anonymously from a studio currently building a Wii U title, said the new Nintendo console could achieve roughly twice the processing and graphical potential of Microsoft’s current generation machine.

While twice the power of an Xbox 360 is broadly above market expectations, Develop’s source claimed this is in fact less than some studios had expected.

“I’ve heard [a project designer] complain it’s underpowered compared to what Nintendo announced, resulting in people having to de-scale their plans,” the source added.

Nintendo’s persistence with non-disclosure agreements means that it has been difficult for Develop to cross-examine the source’s claim, which was made late last year.

However, yesterday a separate insider source told IGN that the next generation Xbox will be “six times as powerful” as its predecessor – the key addition being that this will mean it yields a “20 per cent greater performance than Wii U”.

That unverified calculation, if true, echoes claims from the Develop source who claims the Wii U is far more powerful than current expectations.

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Develop also understands that a prominent UK racing studio has committed to support Wii U with one project each year.