Gearbox: Wii U a "stop-gap" between current and next-generations

Gearbox co-founder Brian Martel has said Wii U is a "cool" intermission between the current and next-gen cycles of hardware.

In an interview with IGN AU, Martel, who's company is working on a Wii U version of Aliens: Colonial Marines, called the introduction of the hardware a "stop gap."

"Right now we're still finding out what kind of final tech specs the Wii U is going to have," he said.

"But we like the system a lot; we think it's going to be a really cool stop-gap in between this generation and the next generation. We think it's really smart of Nintendo, and the fact that as a platform it's a lot more capable for hardcore first-person shooter-style gaming – for us that's fantastic."

Martel said that the developer was most excited about what it could do with the tablet controller.

"So the obvious thing for us is that we can do the motion tracker [on the controller screen], or the sentry gun information – all that kind of stuff. That stuff is really sexy for us. Getting the information off the screen and onto this device is a fantastic idea, right? So can we have a HUD-less environment? Yeah, probably. That would be fantastic, right?"

Colonial Marines launches in 2012.