While Nintendo's Wii U might be considered by most to be the first phase in the next generation of consoles, Sony Worldwide Studios' Shuhei Yoshida disagrees. Rather than looking at the Wii U as his company's biggest competition in the next-gen battle that is sure to heat up next year, Yoshida feels that the Wii U is in its own generation.

Sony's PS4, codenamed Orbis, and Microsoft's Xbox 720, codenamed Durango, are both meant to usher in a new phase of console gaming, commonly known as the next generation. Wii U, on the other hand, won't be incorporating new technology, or supporting the types of experiences that require Unreal Engine 4 or Cry Engine 3, instead it more closely mirrors a slightly more powerful Xbox 360.

Starting with the Wii, Nintendo, in Yoshida's mind, carved out their own niche, and the Wii U will occupy that same market space. His comments are not necessarily meant to badmouth the Nintendo, only saying that it shouldn't be considered a next-gen console.

It's hard to argue with the mammoth sales that Wii brought in for Nintendo, but looking at the console as being on equal footing with the 360 and PS3 is an entirely different thing. The console's inability to run comparable experiences to its biggest competition was a huge detractor for hardcore gamers, and one of the main reasons that the Nintendo's been stressing the hardcore during their Wii U presentations.

Unfortunately, after sitting through the Nintendo Press Conference at E3 2012, it's plain to see that the Wii U isn't trying to sidestep into the next-gen but wants to leapfrog off the success of the Wii into an entirely new space. The disappointment that goes with realizing that is tremendous, but it's hard to argue against all of those Wii sales.

In all reality, we wouldn't be surprised if in two or three years time Nintendo rolls out with another console — one that outperforms the new Xbox and PlayStation. Granted that is extremely wishful thinking, but it's what will be needed for Nintendo to truly compete.

Do you agree with Yoshida's claim that the Wii created its own generation? What will it take for the Wii U to complete with the PS4 and the Xbox 720?

Source: Eurogamer