Nintendo Passes Off PS3 & 360 Game Footage as Wii U

Nintendo’s newly announced “Wii U” console is already the subject of controversy – the company has admitted using footage from the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of games in its promotional material, and when confronted over the swindle they lamely point to their discrete “all gameplay images are intended only as illustrations” disclaimer.

Nintendo claims it had no choice as the system and games are still in development, and asserts the actual Wii U versions will be “comparable,” which could well be a roundabout way of saying “worse.”

Various hard to find disclaimers indicate the images Nintendo has been using to illustrate the graphical capabilities of the Wii U are complete fiction, although without saying that it has gone so far as to use footage of its competitors’ products.

The quality of the graphics shown in Nintendo’s first party exclusive titles varied wildly (several being barely Wii level), and the “they are only intended as an image” disclaimer rather casts doubt on whether the more impressive titles (such as Zelda, above) will look anywhere near as good as Nintendo would like people to believe.

Indeed, the only real assurance Nintendo has given as to the power of the Wii U is to say that it supports full HD output – but whether it can actually output any graphics worth viewing in HD is another matter.

In their defence however, they did display the rather impressive rendering demo below, although it may or may not be anything like what can expected in real games:

The usual sad disclaimer that official preview images of games are never, ever to be believed is unfortunately as accurate as ever.

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