Topic: First-Party Wii U Games Running at 720p Natively

[NWR_DrewMG]

In addition, Pikmin 3 will run at 60 frames per second.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/30605

The first party Wii U games shown thus far at E3 will run natively at 720p. It is unknown if the games will upscale to 1080p. Speaking to Wii U Daily, a Nintendo representative on the show floor confirmed the native resolution of all games shown so far. The system supports video output at 1080p, but none of the first batch of games coming at launch will be running natively at that resolution.

The representative also made a point to note that Pikmin 3, and possibly other Wii U games, will run at 60 frames per second. 

[Pixelated Pixies]

I'm a Wii owner. What are these 720p and 1080p?

[Shaymin]

Small recent TV and big recent TV, respectively.

[Kairon]

I think I own a small recent tv.

[Mop it up]

It's to be expected that Nintendo's first HD games are 720p, but hopefully it won't be long before the average game is 1080p. 60 fps is nice though, that'll make it look nice and smooth.

[bhurak]

Ouch.  I really am surprised they can't* get 1080p out of this hardware.  This seems like a bad sign to me.  Pikmin especially would look great in full HD.

*won't?

[joshnickerson]

Nintendo is fully aware that if you were to view their games in full 1080p HD, you eyes would explode from the sheer awesomeness. This is just to head off the mountain of lawsuits that would ensue.

[GIkari]

720p = resolution of 1280 pixels x 720 pixels, drawn progressively. What all that mumbo-jumbo means is that the system can draw 1280 dots per line, 720 times, in one frame. The letter "i" is used when the system does not draw the screen all at once, but rather it draws every other line in 1 frame, and then the remaining lines in the next frame.


1080p = resolution of 1920x1080, same as above just change the numbers.


Personally, 720p is more than fine. I have played PC games in both resolutions and only a trained eye can really spot the difference.

[HaloEliteLEGEND]

720P? Not 1080P?
Nintendo really has some catching up to do!


I hope they get their game up and go to 1080p.


Maybe something like the HD cable for Wii, they could add that for Wii U or maybe the console has the power to go to 1080P on games if it wants to.

[Chozo Ghost]

Well, I guess they have to do this in baby steps. The HD thing is completely new to them, after all.

That said, 1st party games a few years from now hopefully will have moved up to 1080p by then. Its forgivable if the launch titles don't.

[Soren]

I wouldn't worry too much about this. How many current gen games run natively at 1080p? Most of them run 720p and I don't think that will change for a while.


No matter what, Nintendo games will look beautiful.

[nickmitch]

Of course the first batch of games won't run 1080p. The system is BRAND new. Go compare PS360 launch titles to the games coming out now. By the time Zelda hits the Wii U, 1080p will be the norm.

[ShyGuy]

I can't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p on my TV.

[Chozo Ghost]

How many current gen games run natively at 1080p?

Yeah, but its not the current gen systems that the Wii U will be competing with.

[HaloEliteLEGEND]

I never liked Pikmin all that much.
This trailer as well as the E3 presentation now punctured another hole in my wallet.

[bhurak]

Yeah, but its not the current gen systems that the Wii U will be competing with.

This is my point.  I would like the hardware to "effortlessly" do 1080p. 

The hardware keeps looking worse the more we hear.  Today they add limited battery life to the list.   Is there any good thing we've learned about the hardware?

I feel too negative about this and I'm sorry about that.  I just want nintendo to cater to whims.

[JRokujuushi]

Any word on if the Wii U can upscale Wii games, similar to how the Wii upscaled N64 VC games to 480p?

For that matter, since you can transfer downloaded software to the Wii U, does the Wii U upscale N64 VC games beyond 480p?

[broodwars]

To some extent, this news sounds worse than it really is.  I believe that every year the latest Call of Duty title only runs at something like 540p on the 360 and PS3, and those generally look alright upscaled to my TV's 1080p.  So long as Nintendo ensures that developers always have a 1080p output available, it's not the worst thing in the world for the native resolutions to be at only 720p.

That said, this news also just seems to be one more thing where it feels like Nintendo has to be dragged kicking and screaming into the gaming modern age, along with online play.  It would be a nice gesture from Nintendo to show that they're really serious about HD gaming now if at least their own 1st party titles ran at 1080p.  Also, Nintendo systems being what they historically are, if Nintendo doesn't do it chances are the 3rd parties won't either.

[TJ Spyke]

Today they add limited battery life to the list.   Is there any good thing we've learned about the hardware?

To be fair, the battery life is 3-5 hours (not bad for at home) and you can charge the controller while you are playing (like with the DualShock 3), so if you are playing and the battery is low you can just plug the controller in and keep playing.

[Adrock]

The battery life isn't a huge problem. It's just mildly inconvenient. The battery lasts slightly longer than it takes to charge. It's going to be the most wired wireless controller ever.

[KDR_11k]

This is my point.  I would like the hardware to "effortlessly" do 1080p.

That's a priority issue. Any HD console can do 1080p at 60FPS but game developers choose to sacrifice resolution for graphics quality so they demand so much from the systems that it can't handle anything more than 720p at 30FPS, if even that (many "HD" games actually run in a lower resolution and get upscaled to 720p). You can overload any system to the point where it can only do 30 FPS at 720p.

[Chozo Ghost]

I'll just leave my controller wired 100% of the time, just like I do right now with my dualshock3 controller. Why do I need wireless if I'm only a few feet away from the system anyway?

[Ceric]

I'm sad for not having 1080p3D 60FPS.  That was the Dream everyone.

[Ian Sane]

Just as long as the system itself can do 1080p.





... it CAN do that, can't it?

[TJ Spyke]

Just as long as the system itself can do 1080p.





... it CAN do that, can't it?

Yes, Nintendo confirmed on their officially-released spec sheet that it supports 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p, and 480i.