After days of speculation about where Wii U's hardware capabilities stand, a new generation of development kits are to be circulated soon...

Ever since Wii U was officially revealed ten long days ago, much speculation has predictably been reserved for just how powerful the console will be. With Nintendo refusing to show off any full games, and third party representation being little more than confirmed PS3/Xbox 360 ports at this point, there have been various reports regarding the capabilities of the Wii U hardware.

For perspective, here's a nice, lengthy re-cap. We heard very recently that underclocked development kits were being used by third parties right up until E3. This was accompanied by chatter that Nintendo were not keen on third parties showing exactly what they had produced so far because their games hardly looked better than current PS3 and Xbox 360 software. We have also heard many sources claiming that current Wii U dev kits would only put the system at about 50% more powerful than the PS3. This would explain why Ubisoft's Michel Ancel didn't think the hardware was very "next gen", but reports about the very capable nature of the planned Wii U GPU and CPU suggest the final Wii U hardware will be quite a bigger leap over current-gen consoles than many publications are officially suggesting at the moment. This would cohere with the immediate commitment pledged by heavy-hitting engine developers Crytek and Epic Games.

Now you have your head wrapped around that, the story gets even more interesting. Speaking to Eurogamer, Sega Europe's Gary Dunn talked about his company's happiness with the ease of getting games onto the Wii U platform with the high-end visuals boasted by current HD consoles. But he also divulged that a new generation of Wii U dev kits would be made available to developers like Sega either this month or next. Dunn hinted that this would give Sega much more information regarding just how much developers will be able to get out of the hardware.

Just how long it will be before we see with our own eyes what finalized Wii U hardware will be capable of producing is any one's guess, so stay tuned.