Nintendo simply doesn't care about 'more beef' consoles from Sony and Microsoft

Concentrating on making Wii U different from others.

Nintendo simply doesn't take any notice of what Microsoft and Sony have planned for what it calls "more beef" consoles, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has told Gamasutra.

"Even when we were going to launch the Wii system, there were a lot of voices saying 'Nintendo should stop making hardware'," he said. "The reasoning behind that was Nintendo would not have any chance against Microsoft and Sony. The fact of the matter was: I did not think Nintendo should compete against these companies with the same message and same entertainment options for people.

"We have not changed our strategy. In other words, we just do not care what kind of 'more beef' console Microsoft and Sony might produce in 2013. Our focus is on how we can make our new console different than [others]."

That may be true, but Iwata's comments don't seem to match up to more bullish claims from earlier this month.

"Other companies might launch a next-generation console with more power, but we don't necessarily think that the difference between the Wii U and such console will be as drastic as what you felt it was between the Wii and the other consoles because there will be fewer and fewer differentiators in graphics," said Iwata.

"Naturally some consumers are very sensitive about such a small difference in graphics so that we will make efforts to make the most of the performance of the Wii U to keep up with technological innovations and not to make the system out-of-date soon."

Early Wii U developers seem to believe the Wii U is more powerful than the current consoles, but the jury is still out on exactly what the imminent platform will be able to produce.