Braid's creator Jonathan Blow is currently promoting his upcoming game The Witness, but it sounds like current-gen consoles can't handle his new game as well as he'd like. What about the Wii U, some of you may ask?.

"For this type of game, I do wish the new generation of consoles had come out by now. Even if it only meant slightly faster graphics processor and a lot more RAM. Because having more memory would make a huge difference to being able to bring a game like this to a console. It makes it much easier. When you look at the Wii U, I'm told it has a lot more RAM - that would be wonderful, although I'm unsure about that platform for other reasons, especially in light of the iPad. If that console succeeds, it would be a nicer place to bring the game than the 360, if only because it has more RAM."

- Jonathan Blow

EDGE: http://www.next-gen.biz/features/jonathan-blow-interview?page=5

It says something about the state of Nintendo if people are genuinely surprised about this.

More RAM solves everything!!!

I can't imagine anyone actually looking forward to the Wii U because it has more RAM...

Just buy a PC, the consoles are so gimped at this point what is there to be excited about in that regard?

Good, cause both the 360 and PS3 had piss poor amount of ram even back when they first came out.

Why can't they make a memory expansion pack for the 360 like they did for the N64?

but really it's about how you manage with what you have. Gears of War 3 managed to improve on GoW2 just as that improved on GoW1, proving that we still get better and better looking games even after all these years.

@Doctorchimp said:

I can't imagine anyone actually looking forward to the Wii U because it has more RAM...

Just buy a PC, the consoles are so gimped at this point what is there to be excited about in that regard?

No, I imagine those that do are far more likely to be looking forward to it for other reasons. Although significantly increased RAM will alleviate fears of it simply being on par with PS3 or 360.

One is of course the possibilities the new controller brings. Two, is finally seeing High Definition games from Nintendo, a company which has been consistently squeezing out some of the best graphics seen in Standard Definition.

The common consensus is that Nintendo's restrictions in having to use Standard Definition output for so long, will hold them in good stead going into HD production. The self imposed restriction has forced them to be a lot more creative technically, it's forced them to experiment and develop new techniques far more than they would have otherwise, that's why you see some very cool graphical effects in Wii games. A great example is the Super Mario Galaxy games (how awesome is that fur, I wish my GF had a patch of that stuff!) but I expect to see a lot more in their upcoming Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

@dagas: It has nothing to do with looking better. It has to do with what you can actually do with routines especially AI. Real AI (not following a certain set of programmed guides) eats up RAM. You can't sell RAM expansions because the console makers don't want to segment the base.

@dagas said:

Why can't they make a memory expansion pack for the 360 like they did for the N64?

but really it's about how you manage with what you have. Gears of War 3 managed to improve on GoW2 just as that improved on GoW1, proving that we still get better and better looking games even after all these years.

Well the N64 was a different time, I don't think you'll be getting any sort of game requiring an extra module containing additional RAM in this day age. Limits the amount of sales too much, the casual market own't buy such a thing.

A lot of games are bending over backwards to improve sales and have longevity. Just look at what they did to Splinter Cell and Dead Space. Splinter Cell got dumbed down massively (still good, but a shadow of its former self) and they tacked on terrible multiplayer to Dead Space.

@Contro said:

No, I imagine those that do are far more likely to be looking forward to it for other reasons. Although significantly increased RAM will alleviate fears of it simply being on par with PS3 or 360.

Oh awesome then I wonder how those multiplatforms will look....probably around the same cause honestly how many Wii Us do you see sold to people who have a 360 or a PS3 already? How much more effort is Infinity Ward going to put in a game that won't sell nearly as well as the other versions?

One is of course the possibilities the new controller brings

Sounds great which is what I want to see, but yo dawg you made a topic about the Wii U having more RAM.

@dagas said:

Why can't they make a memory expansion pack for the 360 like they did for the N64?

The Nintendo 64 had an easily accessible port for the RAM expansion. No such port exists on the 360.

Forgive me for being a total idiot but I didn't even know consoles had RAM.

@Hailinel said:

@dagas said:

Why can't they make a memory expansion pack for the 360 like they did for the N64?

The Nintendo 64 had an easily accessible port for the RAM expansion. No such port exists on the 360.

@Contro said:

@Doctorchimp said:

I can't imagine anyone actually looking forward to the Wii U because it has more RAM...

Just buy a PC, the consoles are so gimped at this point what is there to be excited about in that regard?

One is of course the possibilities the new controller brings. Two, is finally seeing High Definition games from Nintendo, a company which has been consistently squeezing out some of the best graphics the industry has seen in Standard Definition, mainly because of the belief that Nintendo's restrictions in having to use Standard Definition output for so long will hold them in good stead going going into HD production. Restriction has certainly forced them to be a lot more creative technically, which is exactly why you see some very cool graphical effects in the likes of Super Mario Galaxy games (how awesome is that fur..), and the upcoming Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

The Wii is the only console with games intended for 480i/p aside from the very PS2 games still being released. It's not like they have anybody to compete with, although Okami on Wii is vastly superior to anything Nintendo have done in some time.

and if you ran a PS3 or 360 at 480P, Nintendo games aren't going to hold up very well in comparison. I'm sure Bastion and Uncharted 2 will look pretty great, 480P isn't even that bad if you're using digital cables on a TV that can handle standard definition content well. (like a plasma)

@OllyOxenFree said:

More RAM solves everything!!!

In terms of games where assets are defined by resolution and shader precision data, it does.

@endaround said:

@dagas: It has nothing to do with looking better. It has to do with what you can actually do with routines especially AI. Real AI (not following a certain set of programmed guides) eats up RAM. You can't sell RAM expansions because the console makers don't want to segment the base.

AI doesn't eat much RAM at all, it eats clock cycles. Even the most complex iterative AI routines convey to some of the simplest, most RAM starved devices as with the Sims on mobile devices such as Java phones, DS and the PSP.

WRT to segmented bases the SEGA CD and Kinect both say hi as did the N64 RAM expansion. MS doesn't want to add RAM to the 360 because they don't want to, because it's cheaper and unnecessary and noobs get easily confused.

It says something about the state of Nintendo if people are genuinely surprised about this.

I was really hoping that this was being posted by Jonathan Blow, and he was talking about himself in the third person.