In addition to pricing and launch details, Nintendo (NTDOY) revealed a few key hardware specs for its upcoming Wii U on Thursday echoing earlier rumors that the console would be more than capable of competing with Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox 360 and Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation 3. In terms of disc-storage, Wii U games come on proprietary optical discs that can store up to 25GB of data — more than enough to store rich 1080p HD games. Even more impressive is that the Wii U can read discs at a 22MB/s compared to the 360’s 15.85 MB/s (DVD) and the PS3’s 9MB/s (Blu-ray) speeds, which means game loading times should be significantly reduced.
On the memory front, the Wii U boasts 1GB of RAM for game access and 1GB of RAM for the console’s operating system for a total of 2GB. Again, the Wii U’s 1GB of accessible game RAM is almost double that of the 360 and Ps3, which both include 512MB of RAM — meaning Nintendo’s new box should be able to easily handle the strain of streaming a video signal to the Wii U GamePad’s display.
Finally, Nintendo will sell the Wii U with two internal storage options: 8GB and 32GB. Gamers looking for more storage can also expand the Wii U using SD cards and external USB drives. Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime said that the company didn’t want to profit off declining storage memory prices. Instead, gamers can decide for themselves how much or little storage they need with third-party storage solutions, according to Engadget.
