Wii U Gets Its Specs Leaked

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Well, folks, we’d heard about the Wii U system all through E3, with some of the biggest titles out there considering a possible jump to the system if the hardware was there. Thanks to a newly-discovered leak, though, we’ve found that the hardware may actually be there after all.

Specs have emerged for the Wii U, and looking at them, it’s actually somewhat clear why Nintendo’s been delaying a lot of their games to get this sucker in development. The leaked specs–which, naturally, may change ahead of release–suggest that the Wii U will pack in a PowerPC-based quad-core processor running at three GHz, as well as up to 768 megs of DRAM embedded in the CPU, a 40 nm AMD GPU with support for HD graphics.

Of course, some have already wondered about these leaked specs, with good reason. That kind of processing power would put the Wii U on par with the Xbox 360, so those thinking that this isn’t a truly next-gen system may have some points to consider. However, the GPU is looking impressively potent, which is a plus, and some have suspected that the DRAM in question is going to be split between the CPU and the GPU, which isn’t quite as good of news as might be hoped for, but still not exactly a bad thing, either.

The last word heard about release dates, meanwhile, suggested that the hardware itself wouldn’t be ready to go until summer of 2012, which from there suggests either a whole new system coming out in the midst of the big gaming drought, or a new system getting launched ahead of the biggest time of the year for game releases, the runup to Christmas shopping season.

Frankly, I’d say summer would be the time to launch this one, as they’d be assured plenty of gaming press being as summer’s typically a slow period for game releases anyway, and they can take advantage of E3 in June to get out one last big marketing blast.

But what do you guys think of this one? Think Nintendo will give us a shot with the Wii U in summer, or will they hold out for the various holidays at the end of the year? No matter what you think, the comments section below is just the place to tell us what that is.