Report: Wii U has twice Xbox 360's power, still not enough

A Develop source has claimed Wii U has twice the processing and graphical power of Xbox 360, but it still contains less than some studios expected.

According to a developer speaking under the condition of anonymity, some designers have complained the new console is still a bit "underpowered compared to what Nintendo announced," which has resulted in some studios having to "de-scale" current plans.

Rumors over the processing power of the device have been rampant since before E3 2011, when the console was known as Project Cafe.

Various sources claimed the new console would be "significantly" more powerful than both PS3 and Xbox 360, and that it would contain a minimum 512Mb of RAM, an R700 AMD GPU, and contain a TriCore PPC similar to the one in used in 360.

However, it's impossible at this point to know exactly what kind of hardware is inside the system, as Nintendo's lording an iron-clad NDA over developers' heads. Until someone is able to speak freely regarding specs, anything relating to Wii U's performance will remain speculative.

If the rumors regarding its processing power are to be believed, it will still fall short of the next-gen Xbox rumored to also be in development - reportedly.

Yesterday, IGN quoted a source as saying Microsoft's next system will be “six times as powerful” as 360 with performance power 20% greater than that of Wii U.

Meanwhile, rumors that Sony are working on PS4 are also all over the net. While the firm maintains it is not ready to contemplate discussing a PS3 successor, it has acknowledged the fact it would be “undesirable” for PS4 to launch later than its competition.