Microsoft and Sony ‘need to react’ to Wii U with their own innovation, defends Fils-Aime

Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime has responded to critics claiming the Wii U will be outdated and irrelevant when the PlayStation 4 and next Xbox launch presumably in the near future.

While it's likely — although I can't say for certain — that the next PlayStation and Xbox will outperform the Wii U graphically, Reggie believes it's innovation that will move systems – not power.

"In the end, our competitors need to react to what we're doing in the marketplace and need to figure out what their innovation will be," he said in an interview with CNET.

“It's likely that faster processors and pretty pictures won't be enough to motivate consumers. They need to react to what we've done and we need to continue innovating with the Wii U and we will."

Many have criticized Nintendo for not significantly improving on the power of the PS3 and Xbox 360, especially since both are now over five years old. With the Xbox 720 (or Xbox Durango) and PlayStation 4 seemingly just around the corner, many believe that Nintendo's Wii U release lands in an awkward spot. Fils-Aime, however, disagrees.

"For us, launching new systems is about bringing new consumer experiences to the marketplace and we're doing that with Nintendo land and third-party publishers are doing it with games like ZombiU,” he defended.  “For us, now is the right time to launch new hardware."

So the big question remains, what do consumers really want: innovation or improved visuals?

The Wii U sold 400,000 units in the United States during launch week, so I'd say there's a decent amount of people interested in innovation.