8th Generation - Wii U

The successor of the Wii, the Wii U, is a video game console created by Nintendo and first released in November 2012. The Wii U was the first console to be in the eight generation of the gaming industry, and it competes with the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One.

The idea to create the Wii U began due to some limitations of the Wii console, such as limited network, and because Nintendo wanted to bring back the element of core gaming.

Figure 1 - Wii U game console 

The Wii U has a 1.24 GHz Tri-Core IBM PowerPC CPU, 2 GB DDR3 memory and a custom-designed AMD Radeon HD GPU at the speed of 550 MHz. This console has an output of up to 1080p and 1080i and as for audio it makes use of 5.1 Linear PCM, Analog stereo.

Some of the special features of the Wii U console are the built-in accelerometer, speakers, front-facing camera, and a 6.2 inch touchscreen. It also features a new controller that is compatible with all games, and which includes motion control and also enable video chat and internet browsing.

Since it came out the Wii U has sold about 9 million units, while its competitors, the PS4 and the Xbox One have each sold 20 million and 11 million units respectively.  One of the main reasons that the Wii U did not sell as well as the other consoles is because of the console’s low horsepower when compared to the other consoles that were capable of an output up to 4K.

One of the best-selling Wii U game is Mario Kart 8, with over 4.77 million copies sold, ad as of March 2014 about 32 million Wii U games has been sold worldwide.

Some of the many games that can be played on the Wii U include Mario Kart 8, Splatoon, Disney Infinity, Nintendo Land, Hyrule Warriors and Bayonetta 2. 

Bibliography:

Gaming.wikia.com, (2015). Wii U. [online] Available at: http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/Wii_U [Accessed 23 May 2015]

Wikipedia.org, (2015). Wii U. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii_U [Accessed 23 May 2015]