Wii U Has "Horrible, Slow CPU" According To Metro Devs

[Hadrian]

4A Games Chief technical officer, Oles Shishkovtsov has said that the reason they cancelled the Wii U version of Metro: Last Light (sequel to mediocre Metro: 2033) was because the Wii U has "horrible, slow CPU".

However Huw Beynon from the same developer said:

We had an early look at it, we thought we could probably do it, but in terms of the impact we would make on the overall quality of the game – potentially to its detriment – we just figured it wasn’t worth pursuing at this time. It’s something we might return to. I really couldn’t make any promises, though. We had an initial look at the Wii U, but given the size of the team and compared to where we were last time, just developing for the Playstation 3 is a significant addition.

We've heard that the launch day ports aren't holding up as well but then other developers like Gearbox say the Wii U versions of their games are the best looking and even Trine 2 developer stated that the advancements they did to their Wii U version could not be done on 360 or PS3.

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1687689/wii_u_has_a_horrible_slow_cpu_says_metro_last_light_dev.html

 

[Elrinth]

Let's hope it's true.
@Nintendo: Don't mess with your consumers / developers!

 

[Lanlan]

I believe Nintendo and AMD are pushing for more programs to utilize the GPU, making it less about the CPU. More people just need to get on board and realize this.

 

[Gahars]

Considering how everyone and their dog has has a conflicting opinion on the potential strength of the Wii U hardware, it's probably best not to worry about it too much at the moment.

It could be weaker than expected, or maybe just under-U-tilized; it'll take some time before we know for sure.

 

[Eerpow]

GPGPU functionality will fix that according to Nintendo. Plus it's a question about clockspeed and not overall CPU performance since it's impossible to get a worse CPU than current gen for a gaming console in 2012. Most of these games are developed in a current gen environment which relies heavily on the CPU. A direct port won't cut it, the game must be developed with the newer GPU centric architecture in mind. The clockspeed is lower because of more power efficient hardware which is less prone to overheating.

These news reports we've been seeing lately are so horribly wrong, just look at the RAM one, where it supposedly operated at around 12.8 GB/s, in reality there are four RAM chips (4x512MB) each operating at 12.8 GB/s.

 

[omgpwn666]

Never know what to believe. Seeing mixed statements about the Wii U hardware.

 

[Gnargle]

Nintendo are pushing for GPU use, like they did with the GC. Might actually work this time since PC games nowadays utilise the GPU much more heavily. We might even see some nice basic PhysX.
If a dev is too shitty to utilise hardware properly, then they haven't got a leg to stand on when they come to complain. probably explains why the Metro PC port was so shitty.

 

[AlanJohn]

I trust these guys, they really know their stuff about optimization good looking games.
Also Hadrian you can shove up your shitty opinions up your fucking ass. Metro 2033 was fucking awesome and if you agree otherwise then you either have a terrible taste or trust american gaming journalists.

 

[Lanlan]

Remember, Nintendo is selling this $350 piece of hardware at a loss so you know there's some power in there.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

The USN has become 200% more amusing since the Wii U launch.

Thank you Nintendo, you have made this week awesome.

 

[Hadrian]

I trust these guys, they really know their stuff about optimization good looking games.
Also Hadrian you can shove up your shitty opinions up your fucking ass. Metro 2033 was fucking awesome and if you agree otherwise then you either have a terrible taste or trust american gaming journalists.

No it was a fairly bland, mediocre title. While I am more harder to please with modern gaming, I am confident that the error is with the game and not me.

However your "they really know their stuff about optimization good looking games." makes me think that you are being sarcastic.

 

[AlanJohn]

No it was a fairly bland game

However your "they really know their stuff about optimization good looking games." makes me think that you are being sarcastic.

I really can't tell which one of us are being sarcastic right now myself (obviously it's not me).

 

[Eerpow]

I trust these guys, they really know their stuff about optimization good looking games.

Except that porting it to a system and taking advantage of that new system's feature costs money and may not be worth it if the install base isn't huge enough.
GPGPU means that the GPU is capable of doing many of the task a CPU normally would struggle with, like floating point operations.
It isn't a question about the Wii U not capable of running that game, it's just that it isn't worth pouring resources into optimizing it for the newer hardware which since it's 6 years later isn't relying on CPU speed.

There's a reason why the Wii U is small compared to PS360.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Metro 2033 was an alright game until the fucking stealth. Fucking awful. I mean otherwise it's STALKER for Kids basically. Not nearly as difficult and more streamlined but a ton of the same themes.

 

[Eerpow]

The USN has become 200% more amusing since the Wii U launch.

Thank you Nintendo, you have made this week awesome.

More like thanking people for not knowing what the fuck they're talking about.

 

[DiscostewSM]

They found out how poor of a job they did with the PC port, so they figured not to port it anymore, and blame the hardware for their "laziness".

 

[EnigmaXtreme]

The CPU is like 3GHZ with a Render Thread of 16, for comparison the 360 has a 3.2 Ghz processor with only 6 threads. Put that with triple the RAM of the PS3 and GPGPU we don't even know the specs for

I mean seriously what else does this guy need!!! The Wii U is on par if not better then the 360, this is just him saying he don't like new consoles!

 

[Eerpow]

They found out how poor of a job they did with the PC port, so they figured not to port it anymore, and blame the hardware for their "laziness".

Except that it's actually true that they can't port it due to the lower clock speeds. And the rest of the comment is also true for them since they don't want to gamble their money on making a port for the Wii U which would involve completely rewriting the code for the different architecture. That's why they're saying that they don't have any plans currently.

So it's actually a legit statement, it's just that people like to read it as "OMG WiiU is underpowered" and completely ignores the reason why they won't port it.

 

[BORTZ]

Difficult to work with shiz is what got the Saturn killed lol. Don't fop with us Nintendo.

 

[Elrinth]

Hope the devs of Batman will fix their texture pop-in problems on the Wii-U in a soon-to-come patch.