About the OS/Wii U "software layer", its memory size, etc.
I got a confirmation from a different source that the ones i'm usually referring to since the start, that the data revealed 2 months and half ago (with other following messages, please search in speculation thread 2, 3 & 4) about the "OS" is right. Right on the "surprising" comment, right on the at the time expected amount. It's huge, surely never seen before on a normal home system.
Nota Bene:
- It's still on a v4 dev kit context, so relevant a few months from now, a big semester before the system launch, so it's likely to change.
- Cross-read/understood/analyzed with the info in regard to third-parties left in a roughly vague knowledge of the Wii U OS/Background status until recently (they don't know the "real" dashboard for example, etc.), it could hint toward:
---> Nintendo reserved a certain amount of memory (at least 512MB to be clear) without knowing the exact space that the Wii U OS will take once completed, they made a prevision of that with a noticeable additional room, in case it will occupy more place. In the end, it will be more reasonable size-wise than this locked space. Considering the OS size of the other systems, it's pretty sure that it will remain the biggest software layer seen on this kind of platform. This anticipated trimming could free up some memory for games. As projects are being developed with a limited amount of memory from the total pool (the rest is for the OS/background/system features), we could expect a 3DS situation where developers, once the OS is optimized and slimmed down, will be able to use more memory.
---> Or the software layer will indeed match the amount reserved for it in the dev kits. Then, we can really expect huge features, multi-tasking, etc, on the Wii U.
- More to come about that (especially on the OS "storage") soon.