I personally think that the WiiU is an absolute hunk of junk im afraid. To me, its one generation behind just like the Wii was. The Wii was a fair bit better than a PS2, but Id say only slightly better than the original XBOX.
The WiiU is absolute rubbish for 2012. You can say that its early doors so games are going to look a bit ropey but i disagree, they should STILL have a marked improvement from a 7 year old 360 or PS3.
And on the other point, if sony have the PS4 down as only "marginally" being better than the WIIU, which would only put it "slightly" higher than the current PS3, why on earth would they bother?
Can you imagine it "heres the latest call of duty running on PS3, and here it is side by side on the PS4. As you can see, its marginally better. Now, do you want to play it on PS3, or spend hundreds of dollars to play this slightly better game on a new console." It wont happen. When they new systems hit the shelves, if there isnt a massive improvement over what we already have, who on earth is going to buy it?
The Wii U is a big jump from the Wii, which is solely what Nintendo wanted. They dont care about competing for grunt. The PS3 was a massive improvement from PS2, and the 360 the same over the Xbox.
So why all of a sudden do we think the trend will buck? Ive been in and around consoles, PCs, since the early 80s, and these new microsoft and sony consoles will not come out without a massive increase in graphics, performance. If there isnt that hike, whats the point in bringing something new out?
The WiiU has a very radical (did I just use that word?) architecture compared to the last gen consoles. And you simply cannot compare a system that many developers know how to squeeze every last bit out of, to a system that's barely a year old. The devs are experienced with the PS360, much more so than the WiiU, and know how to exploit it.
As for "massive improvements", I'm not saying that they're going to release a marginally better system compared to the PS3, I'm saying that they're going to release a marginally better system compared to the WiiU. The WiiU is not an underpowered piece of crap (I use this term figuratively, the Wii is a great console) like the Wii. It is a very powerful system that devs just don't know yet how to push it the same way they do with the PS360.
As well, the Sony, cannot afford to create that much of a "massive improvement". They're bleeding cash as we speak! They need to turn a profit, and fast, and again, creating an extremely expensive, but powerful console, when you're that close to bankruptcy, is a great way to dig yourself in a ditch even further. The PS360, as Foxi4 pointed out, is very underpowered, perhaps not so much as the Wii, but still underpowered, and they have to keep up somehow. Soon, the WiiU will be pushed to the envelop, and if MS and Sony can't catch up, they'll fall way behind. They need to make a new console with more resources than the last gen ones to keep up with the times. Again, the only reason PS360 games look so good is because the devs know how to exploit it to it's full potential. The WiiU has yet to reach this, and when it does, the other next gen consoles have to reach it with the WiiU.
Also, "If there isnt that hike, whats the point in bringing something new out?"
Well, there's one very, very solid answer to that. Profit. Money. Cash. Get the idea? The PS360 is getting old, and gradually, devs are getting tired of it. Lack of resources just don't allow games to look as good as they can, so you make a console with more resources, but not necessarily that much of a difference from the last gen, to draw in devs, and therefore, customers.
Well in all honesty, the graphics on the Wii weren't as bad as people say. I mean, games like Metroid Prime 3 could stand up to something on other consoles. It's just most developers were too lazy to figure out how to find shortcuts like they are doing on other consoles.
I agree with most of this.
To be honest, the Wii could have stood up to the other consoles, if Nintendo had bothered to put 1080p support into it. Wii Games look like a blocky mess with even Component cables on my TV, and a CRT just doesn't cut it for the Wii. If you want to truly see how Wii games could look, play with Dolphin. No AA or AF, and just 1x internal res, but 1080p window res. This is how it would have looked on the Wii, had Nintendo took a gamble and allow HD gamng. It just looks so much better