[Megadrive1988]

I'll be happy if Nintendo's console can do stuff like this in real-time @ 60fps 1080p


CG portions of Mixcore's "Rebirth" used to demo GameCube's FMV playback













Of course it'll look even better in HD resolution(s)

I am aware that some portions were done real-time on GameCube, so I selected the CG stuff as examples

[Dregun]

I agree that Nintendo's purpose of having a HD screen on a controller is to use it as an extension of the Wii2 as a mid-portable device. The console would just be able to stream the content to and from the controller freeing up the TV, basically a more closed version of On-Live.

HOWEVER,

Wouldn't have it been in Nintendos best interest to have included that functionality on the 3DS as a hidden feature? That way they would have had the possilbity of selling additional more expensive handhelds for future Wii2 owners who didn't have one at that time. Although I loved the VMU for the dreamcast I can't see this being that great of an idea for the company who wanted to "Free" the player from the controller.

This type of design is completely contrast to the Wii, the Wii sold because of its casual style of play and without it Nintendo would be a 3rd party studio as NOBODY would have bought such an underpowered piece of tech just to play a few first party games. Waggle made the Wii and unless Nintendo wants to compete with the big dogs on cutting edge tech they have to rely on what got them to this point... casual gamers.

[Rangers]

I dont see the screens and cpu's onto controllers adding anything compelling to the experience (just look at Kotaku speculating about game ideas using the controller screen, and they all sound terrible), but they will add a lot to the cost, which in turn will pull dollars out of the main console's graphics capability, which is always what needs to be focused on imo.

2012 release date means it's a guaranteed tweener system destined to be Dreamcasted.

To me the whole project seems terrible. I mean I'm interested to see details, glad Nintendo is kicking off next gen, etc, but Nintendo, and it seems Japan in general, has lost the plot.

[Refreshment]

Look what i dug up while surfing around:

http://www.businessweek.com/technolo...116_750580.htm

The DS handheld gaming console, released in 2004, is now the hottest-selling portable video game machine. Did the success of the DS influence your design decisions?

Ashida: The DS had a huge impact on the Wii's design. We had the DS on our minds as we worked on the Wii. We thought about copying the DS's touch-panel interface and even came up with a prototype. But then we rejected the idea, since the portable console and the living-room console would have been exactly the same.

Miyamoto: The DS prepared the way for the Wii. The DS's unique interface had traction with nongamers. That made us think we had a shot at reaching a broader audience. But if the DS had flopped, we might have taken the Wii back to the drawing board.

Its incredible that no gaming site picked this old gem

[Teasy]

Being able to play my console anywhere in the house sounds compelling to me, not to mention the extra control possibilities that will come from a touch screen on the controller. I've never understood why some people want all console makers to do the same old thing, diversity is a good thing.

[Refreshment]

Originally Posted by Teasy

Being able to play my console anywhere in the house sounds compelling to me, not to mention the extra control possibilities that will come from a touch screen on the controller. I've never understood why some people want all console makers to do the same old thing, diversity is a good thing.

Nintendo is so generous. This rumor is their way to give free demos of Brain Training to the masses. All this speculation is fortifying our frontal cortex Kawashima would say

[lwill]

Originally Posted by Refreshment

Look what i dug up while surfing around:

http://www.businessweek.com/technolo...116_750580.htm

The DS handheld gaming console, released in 2004, is now the hottest-selling portable video game machine. Did the success of the DS influence your design decisions?

Ashida: The DS had a huge impact on the Wii's design. We had the DS on our minds as we worked on the Wii. We thought about copying the DS's touch-panel interface and even came up with a prototype. But then we rejected the idea, since the portable console and the living-room console would have been exactly the same.

Miyamoto: The DS prepared the way for the Wii. The DS's unique interface had traction with nongamers. That made us think we had a shot at reaching a broader audience. But if the DS had flopped, we might have taken the Wii back to the drawing board.

Its incredible that no gaming site picked this old gem

Good find. I believe it does make sense for Nintendo to try this idea now since their true portable's more distinctive features will remain exclusive.

[DeadlyNinja]

Ok, here's the latest info from IGN. They swear up and down their sources are reliable.

http://gear.ign.com/articles/116/1163325p1.html

- retail cost of anywhere between $350 and $400
- will ship from Taiwanese manufacturer, Foxconn, this October
- earliest possible retail release anywhere between mid-October and early November
- built on revamped version of AMD's R700 GPU architecture
- will out perform the PlayStation 3's NVIDIA 7800GTX-based processor
- CPU will be a custom-built triple-core IBM PowerPC chipset
- clocking speeds will be faster
- 1080p output with the potential for stereoscopic 3D as well
- overall size will be comparable to that of the original Xbox 360
- likely to resemble a modernized version of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System
- utilize controllers with integrated touchscreens and be capable of streaming games to each controller
- could feasibly provide a virtualized console for each individual unit
- considering naming the platform Stream, but there are several other names being considered

I really hope they fix the R7xx power problem. I know the 4770 provided great performance along with low power usage. It'll probably a custom version of that sucker. Maybe with GDDR5? Wait, did the 4770 come with GDDR5?

[Rangers]

R700 GPU could be a wide range, tells us little.

I find it odd they're touting an X360 like triple core with increased clock speeds. Clocks ramp heat exponentially and 3.2 ghz is already fast. What are they aiming for 4ghz??

My guess is if that parts true at all, it's more like 3.6ghz, a small bump enabled by mature manufacturing.

I really need the RAM figure, more than anything else it gives you a range of the system's power.

The triple core CPU points to it not being a great jump over PS360, though.

[DeadlyNinja]

Originally Posted by Rangers

R700 GPU could be a wide range, tells us little.

The reason I keep thinking it's a modified 4770 is power usage. Then again, maybe AMD has gotten the other R7xx cards to stop being such power hogs.

[joker454]

Originally Posted by DeadlyNinja

Ok, here's the latest info from IGN. They swear up and down their sources are reliable.

http://gear.ign.com/articles/116/1163325p1.html

Wait, they are saying it's shipping this year? Very interesting if true, that will give them three years of head start on MS and Sony, and porting all current games to it should be easy. Would be hilarious to have MS and Sony suddenly become old gen consoles overnight when the family friendly Nintendo box can play better versions of all the popular games. E3 is gonna be interesting.

[Rangers]

Originally Posted by joker454

Wait, they are saying it's shipping this year? Very interesting if true, that will give them three years of head start on MS and Sony, and porting all current games to it should be easy. Would be hilarious to have MS and Sony suddenly become old gen consoles overnight when the family friendly Nintendo box can play better versions of all the popular games. E3 is gonna be interesting.

Staggered generations, like I fear...

That's just gonna be ugly, "Stream" takes off for 3 years, only to then get dreamcasted.

Hypothetically PS4 and Xbox 3 roll along a couple years, Oops wii3 is here, and better!

Going to confuse and anger obsoleted consumers I'd guess.

Anyways the IGN article says Nintendo may choose to stockpile and launch in 2012. That's my guess.

There's also the issue of Japan vs USA. One assumes Japan might well get it 6 months before. Earlier that was assumed to be mid 12 Japan, holiday 12 USA. But this new timeline could mean holiday 11 Japan, early-mid 12 USA imo.

[Refreshment]

@Shifttygeazer:

Check this youtube video as it illustrates what i was trying to say in regards to local finger tracking close to the touch screen. Not talking exactly in terms of the technology but in function as it illustrates the idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTLEJ50VEdA



Its worth checking for the ULPP tech which is really cool.

[fehu]

huge expensive box?
and why a reenginered r700 and not a fresher efficient ready r900 derived with the 4way simd?

[Squilliam]

So:

Nintendo = This is an Xbox 360 with better GPU, Blu Ray and funny controllers.

Audince = Ahhh

Profit = ????

[lwill]

Originally Posted by Rangers

Staggered generations, like I fear...

That's just gonna be ugly, "Stream" takes off for 3 years, only to then get dreamcasted.

Hypothetically PS4 and Xbox 3 roll along a couple years, Oops wii3 is here, and better!

Going to confuse and anger obsoleted consumers I'd guess.

Anyways the IGN article says Nintendo may choose to stockpile and launch in 2012. That's my guess.

There's also the issue of Japan vs USA. One assumes Japan might well get it 6 months before. Earlier that was assumed to be mid 12 Japan, holiday 12 USA. But this new timeline could mean holiday 11 Japan, early-mid 12 USA imo.

I don't understand the term "dreamcasted?" There was other factors besides launch timing and power that killed the Dreamcast. In fact, it probably would have been ok if Sega wasn't already in financial peril when it launched.

[Laa-Yosh]

Originally Posted by Squilliam

Nintendo = This is an Xbox 360 with better GPU, Blu Ray and funny controllers.

Audince = Ahhh

Profit = ????

Absolutely appropriate image, I'd say

[Shifty Geezer]

Originally Posted by Rangers

Staggered generations, like I fear...

I can't see this being good for the NES6. Games will most likely be upscaled ports of PS360, holding them back, and then the machine will be underspec'd compared to next-gen. Are developers really wanting a new generation mid-way? Will they really get behind the machine? Does that really amtter in the case of a Nintendo console that only really has Nintendo developing for it?

Originally Posted by Refreshment

@Shifttygeazer:

Check this youtube video as it illustrates what i was trying to say in regards to local finger tracking close to the touch screen.

Yeah. That's not gonna be achieved with a camera tracking the fingers, unless the camera is slap-bang in the middle of the screen! Or if it can be angled inwards. But I don't see the value of that, and my expectation is that, if the controller has a camera, it'll be a basic player-watching webcam, for things like face-tracking.

What sort of wireless technology will be used to transmit video to and from the controllers?

[Tchock]

Originally Posted by joker454

Wait, they are saying it's shipping this year? Very interesting if true, that will give them three years of head start on MS and Sony, and porting all current games to it should be easy. Would be hilarious to have MS and Sony suddenly become old gen consoles overnight when the family friendly Nintendo box can play better versions of all the popular games. E3 is gonna be interesting.

If Ninty does a console this year, expect a retaliation from both parties by 2012 then!

The 360 (and to a smaller extent PS3) are in a riper position for being "legacy" units that sell a lot more with reduced pricing come next year. $350 for awesome touchscreen goodness or $150 to play MW3?

Personally I'm interested in what MS is going to respond with- out of the 3 they're the only one left that is interested immensely in SOC expertise, they should be able to out-engineer Ninty in terms of costing and evidently software.

As for the increased hardware capabilities, they'd be great, but it'll pose the same questions for devs again who aren't even having art direction/production that leverages current-gen hardware. How'd you expect High Voltage to suddenly ditch their lowpoly pipeline and apply bloom filters over everything?

[Svensk Viking]

For you who know tech, if the rumors about the hardware is true(R700, triple core powerpc) is it reasonable that Nintendo can allow emulating GC/Wii BC and have the games upscaling?

[zed]

CPU will be a custom-built triple-core IBM PowerPC chipset

They'ld be better gettingan updated cell in there (8 enabled SPE & increased memory and a better PPE), prolly twice or more the power of the ps3

A/ itll very likely be faster than the above
B/ its quite well known now to programmers

though I dont know how happy sony would be with this, they actually may welcome it

though the (relative) failure of the 3ds may cause them to pause about releasing this year (3d stuff and all)
esp in light of this quote

Miyamoto: The DS prepared the way for the Wii. The DS's unique interface had traction with nongamers. That made us think we had a shot at reaching a broader audience. But if the DS had flopped, we might have taken the Wii back to the drawing board.

[Tchock]

Upscaling yes, but R600 took a big break from the previous archs (R520 broke it too), so it might be more soft-based than we think.

[Squilliam]

Originally Posted by Laa-Yosh

Absolutely appropriate image, I'd say

Absolutely appropriate.

Anyway does anyone think the image of 'everything is possible' that Apple uses with their iPad/iTouch/iPhone ranges and the software available could be the draw card for their next generation system? Consoles could do significantly more things if the console makers themselves opened them up to outside parties so maybe the idea of the touch screen comes from the idea of Nintendo having an application store such as the one Apple has?

[V3]

This is an Xbox540

I think Nintendo went with R700 because it is quite small, remember the 4850 was really a breakthrough in price/performance back then. But I find it quite hard to play console port at 1080p. SFIV and Lost Planet the frame rate was quite unstable. But this is console so they'll probably get lots of extra performance from optimization. And who knows it could be the 4890 in there. I think they would be better off going with the current 6870 and re-engineer it for console IMO, 6970 is probably too big for the size of the console Nintendo is aiming for.

I am suprise if they abandoned the Wiimote, they really need to bundle 3D motion sensing camera with it like Kinect IMO, that's really the future direction things are going.

I wonder if the screen on the controller is going to be 3D like 3DS. But without other gimmick this thing is going to fail so hard in this bad economic conditions of today. I'll be getting one at launched if it can do Wii HD, I need to play some games that I missed on Wii.

[Squilliam]

Originally Posted by V3

This is an Xbox540

I think Nintendo went with R700 because it is quite small, remember the 4850 was really a breakthrough in price/performance back then. .

The RV740 is already 40nm and provides the same basic performance of the 4850 on a 130mm^2 package which already has an appropriately sized bus for a console. I would assume at this point that the chip they are basing the design upon if these rumours are true is the RV740. Essentially the RV740 is the breakthrough of the 4850 with the appropriate console sized chip and thermal envelope.