A new rumor claims that Nintendo's Wii U will feature twice the graphical and processing power of the Xbox 360, far more than the incremental improvement most industry watchers currently expect.
An anonymous source, allegedly from a studio that's currently working with Nintendo's new console, told Develop that the Wii U features roughly twice the horsepower of Microsoft's current gen offering. Even still, the source went on to explain that the system was "underpowered compated to what Nintendo [initially] announced, resulting in people having to de-scale their plans."
This report conflicts somewhat with the other next-gen rumor of the day, which pegged Microsoft's next console at six times the processing power of the 360 but just 20% more powerful than the Wii U. In less convoluted terms, that means that the Wii U would be five times as powerful as the 360, more than double what we're hearing from Develop's source.
Determining the validity of these and other rumors surrounding the Wii U's technical capabilities is difficult, as Nintendo has kept nearly everything about the console a secret. We've yet to see footage from an actual game running on the device, though several tech demos were on display at E3 2011 and, more recently, CES. The company has announced that they'll be revealing new details about the system between now and E3, so expect the picture to clear up considerably in the coming months.
Nitnendo has stated that the Wii U will launch sometime between June and December of this year, with most speculation pointing to a holiday 2012 launch.
