AMD thanks self for awesome Wii

Nathan Davis
24 November 2006, 12:39 AM


Apparently, Nintendo's Wii is silent and beautiful. Like a tiger. Meanwhile, AMD is prancing around like a school girl, taking all the credit by handing out backhanded compliments.


As if to dangle a gold medal of some sort in Intel's face, AMD is flaunting -- no, gloating over -- sorry, congratulating Nintendo on its release of the Wii console.

It would seem AMD is squeezing its acquisition of ATI for all the juice it's worth, as it is an ATI graphics chip that pumps-out Wii's adequate graphics. Although, no longer ATI, as AMD has imaginatively decided to name the Wii's GPU the 'AMD Hollywood' graphics processor.

One of the unique aspects about the Wii is its focus on fun and gameplay as opposed to the technology within the unit.

Not interested in emphasizing the highly-usable nature of its technology for the Wii, AMD is only too keen to pick up the bulk of the credit for the greater focus on game innovation. It confidently declared the sufficient Hollywood chip "... resulted in Nintendo delivering a brand new level of immersive gameplay and interaction ..."

Fans should be praising AMD for implementing such a reasonably-capable graphics chip into their Wii. Such a fine pedigree of gameplay, we hear, wouldn't have been possible with any other brand.

"Nintendo's vision is to do something radically new and different with Wii," AMD says el presidente of Nintendo America said, continuing "... the technology hidden in the system allows us to deliver an intuitive and fun gaming experience in a silent and beautiful form factor," wrestling back some credit for the Wii's gameplay.

Thanks to its unique controller, which we hear AMD had no part in, AMD says Nintendo's bigshot said the Wii "... not only changes how people play games, but redefines how they interact with both the system and their televisions." This goes against the norm of redefining how you don't play games.

Cementing its position as making superbly-existent graphics chips for Nintendo, AMD's Dave 'ATI-of-yore' Orton says "Having powered the graphics in the Nintendo GameCube, AMD is delighted to ..."

No, seriously, the rest of that quote will put you in a coma.

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bobpaul:

For what it's worth, ATI also provided the graphics for the XBox360, which aren't so run-of-the-mill. Also, remember that both Microsoft and Nintendo specifically laid out the requirements for their graphics processors. AMD should be happy. Their ATI division successfully completed chips to do exactly what the customers wanted and they stand to make some bank off of that.

Don't fault the architect because the customer asked for a boring house...

29 February 2008, 8:28 PM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

plootid:

This is funny. ArtX originally developed the graphics chip for the GameCube but were acquired by ATi right before launch (or at least way too late to have any impact on gamecube development). Now there's an ATi sticker on every gamecube.

29 February 2008, 8:28 PM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

tin:

The Wii may have a less powerful collection of processors, but as they say, it runs silent. I think Nintendo is onto something there by aiming for a different market to "the other 2". Why compete in a crowded market when there's a perfectly empty one to be filled?

29 February 2008, 8:28 PM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Nathan Davis:

Agreed. Personally, I'm excited about the Wii. I'm of the belief that lower end hardware forces developers to focus more on inventive gameplay ideas rather than just upping the graphics or AI.

It is amusing, however, to watch AMD make song and dance about a budget chip in a console whose maker and intended audience generally couldn't care less.



29 February 2008, 8:34 PM (4 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

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