Report: Wii U dev kits "underclocked"

Developers working on titles for Wii U are reportedly using development kits which have been underclocked, meaning that the graphics they produce are almost indistinguishable from a PS3 or 360.

A report from consulting firm Hit Detection has suggested that Nintendo chose to show tech demos at it's E3 reveal "due to titles not looking much better than what is currently available on Xbox 360 and the PS3, Nintendo decided late in the game to not show those titles."

"Developers have underclocked development kits, and worked hard to deliver titles running on that hardware to demonstrate live at E3," reads the report.

"THQ stated that Darksiders II was running on development hardware and could have been shown. Also, Epic vice president Mark Rein tweeted during E3 that Gearbox's Aliens: Colonial Marines was being made for Wii U with Unreal Engine 3, showing that Epic is bringing its tech to Wii U."

However, third party developers have told GI that the Wii U is expected to exceed current consoles. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said that visual quality should be "at least" that of the 360.

"It should be even superior for some of the games. We don't know everything, so we have a few things Nintendo is telling us that will have such and such powers."

Hit Detection was founded by influential games journalist N'Gai Croal.