Reggie Fils-Aime: "Not About Power," Fires Back at Competition's Console Lifecycle

Yesterday, it was Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata who spoke out in regards to the Wii U's graphical horsepower — or lack thereof — in comparison to Sony and Microsoft's next-gen systems.

Now it's Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime who's got a few things on his mind.

In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Fils-Aime was asked that with Sony and Microsoft opting for a longer console cycle this generation, wouldm't the Wii U look dated once the other two platform makers release their own next-gen consoles?

Three comments. First, it’s not about power. If it was about power, then the GameCube would have been the number one system in its generation and the Wii wouldn’t have been the number one system in this last generation. It is not about power. It is about fun, it is about the experience.

Second. Our competitors can say what they want about some super long cycle, but let’s see what their behaviours are.

Thirdly, the way development works is that the longer developers work with a system, the better they can tune performance. Case in point: Look at the very first GameCube games, and compare them to a game like Resident Evil 4. It was graphically beautiful, and demonstrably more advanced than the first GameCube games.

The same was true for Wii. A great example is Super Mario Galaxy 2. The graphics are just beautiful. And look at the motion control we were able to achieve in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

The longer developers work on a system the more they tune it, the more they push the system, the more they learn tricks to really optimize performance. I share this because what you see here at E3 are games that represent a relatively short amount of development time. Imagine what we’ll see two years from now when developers have been working with Wii U longer and learn how to push everything out of the system.

Our competitors will do what they want. From our perspective, this is the right time to launch a new piece of hardware. And, the fun, the capabilities, and the experiences that we’re offering today with a second screen are demonstrably better than what can be done today on other platforms.

While Reggie makes a very compelling case, it's also worth noting that according to developers, the Wii U is "about par" with what we have now (PS3 & Xbox 360). The difference between the GameCube and the PS2 could be argued as significant, but not as significant as say, PS1 graphics to PS2, right?

I know gaming shouldn't just be about all the pretty things we see on-screen and should be more about the gameplay, but one can argue that we need more horsepower to tell more compelling, immersive games.

Do you agree with Reggie's statements or should Nintendo already be thinking of a Wii U add-on to spruce the console's graphics up once the competition arrives?