Fact: Nintendo to release HD console + controllers with built-in screen late 2012

[Rangers]

Newest rumors via Kotaku: http://kotaku.com/#!5797890/nintendos-next-console-will-enter-the-hd-era-but-not-the-hard+drive-era

No hard drive (called it earlier in thread) instead 8GB flash.

25 GB discs.

Nintendo is planning to enable the screen-controller to function in multiple ways, I've heard. It can serve simply as a standard game controller that imitates the posture of playing a game on a 360 or PS3. Its screen allows it to also present a supplemental, touch-sensitive viewing screen (for maps and inventory) that extends the game running on one's TV, an option that renders the controller as a plus-sized equivalent to the lower screen of a Nintendo DS, with the TV serving as the top screen, so to speak. A third option we've been hearing from several sources involves the new console streaming the same game that can be output onto a TV onto the controller screen, allowing high-end games to be played portably while within an unspecified range of the console. (Imagine, though it's crude, being able to take the game you were playing on your TV to the bathroom, via your screen-based controller.)

Can save to SD cards.

Unclear if the machines resolution is "capped" at 1080P or 1080i.

Nintendo has ample time to tweak the specs of its new machine and could increase or decrease the new system's storage capacity—or other parameters—prior to the machine's launch.

The disc size and the broad impression of graphical prowess is consistent with my and others' reports that the new console will at least equal the PS3 and Xbox 360 in horsepower, increasing the likelihood that games made for the current Sony and Microsoft consoles could also be made for Nintendo's next machine. The size of the new console's on-board storage signals that Nintendo isn't planning on turning its Wii successor into a device for downloading retail games and movies

The 25 GB disc thing is odd, as thats above DVD but below Blu Ray. Custom optical format? And if so, if it's that easy Microsoft will follow suit with a custom, non Blu Ray format next gen? Or does it just mean single layer Blu Ray?

 

[Brad Grenz]

25GB is a single layer Blu-ray, I'd guarantee it. They may not allow movie playback, the same way the Wii used DVD but didn't play DVD movies, but there's no sense in trying to roll your own optical format since you'd still be liable to pay royalties to any number of patent holders and you wouldn't be able to avail yourself of a mature replication and manufacturing infrastructure around an entrenched format.

 

[itch]

If Nintendo is announcing this at E3 what are the odds Sony and Microsoft start releasing info about their next consoles at E3 just to try and shift attention away from Nintendo?

 

[msia2k75]

If Nintendo is announcing this at E3 what are the odds Sony and Microsoft start releasing info about their next consoles at E3 just to try and shift attention away from Nintendo?

If Kotaku rumours about Sony and MS not releasing a new machine before 2014 are true, then the odds are nil.

 

[borowki]

If you mount a flexible e-ink screen over a button pad, you can get reconfigurability and the tactile feedback of physical buttons.

 

[Mendel]

The controller screens are going to be autostereoscopic 3d screens.

The reasoning is that Ninty is pushing their games to be stereoscopic 3d with the wii2.

"But I don´t have a 3d tv" - the crowds say. No problem, you have one 3d screen right there in your controller that you can use... Another in that other controller we package in with 3d wii sports HD that everyone will buy anyways (only comes with the system in Japan).

Then if you buy a new tv later, you might as well get a 3d capable one and presto, you have these same games running on big screen.

 

[AlphaWolf]

that seems a lot less compelling than just buying a 3ds, which doesn't seem all that compelling to a lot of people atm.

 

[Mendel]

I´d only buy 3ds in the XL screen size variety. Tried it and the screens were just too small for me. Maybe I´m too old.

One neat gimmick would be to have autostereoscopic screen coupled with front facing camera and then having the ability to manipulate the off screen objects by moving hand in front of the screen. Think of it like kinect but not with your whole body, just your hand.

 

[AlphaWolf]

I´d only buy 3ds in the XL screen size variety. Tried it and the screens were just too small for me. Maybe I´m too old.

One neat gimmick would be to have autostereoscopic screen coupled with front facing camera and then having the ability to manipulate the off screen objects by moving hand in front of the screen. Think of it like kinect but not with your whole body, just your hand.

and you're stuck holding the controller (and one that's probably double the weight of current controllers) in one hand to do it

all of what you're suggesting seems to me more like solutions looking for a problem than anything.

I expect Nintendo will have something clever, I just don't think anyone here has come close to hitting on what that might be.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

"But I don´t have a 3d tv" - the crowds say. No problem, you have one 3d screen right there in your controller that you can use... Another in that other controller we package in with 3d wii sports HD that everyone will buy anyways (only comes with the system in Japan).

Why will everyone buy 3D Wii Sports HD when that game was good because of its waggle, while NES6 is setting up to have the players sit down at a giant 3DS and whack buttons?

 

[liolio]

3D screen makes sense, too bad it hurts my eyesight so badly
I played the 3DS for a few minutes in a shop some days ago, I noticed a strain to my eyesight some minutes later. Bad as the effect is really convincing

 

[swym]

10 years ago, many gamers said the same thing. And look where we are now.

Exactly where those gamers predicted we will be?
Nintendo has a big new crowd, but at the same time became irrelevant to many gamers who used to be their core audience in the past.

 

[ltcommander.data]

If Kotaku rumours about Sony and MS not releasing a new machine before 2014 are true, then the odds are nil.

If Sony and MS aren't going to launch their next gen consoles until 2014, do people really need to be concerned about Nintendo not providing a huge jump in graphical performance compared to the 360 and PS3 and therefore not being graphically competitive with Sony and MS next gen consoles? If the Wii2 turns out to only be an incremental improvement in graphical power vs the PS3 and 360 and launches in say H1 2012 in Japan and H2 2012 in the rest of the world and Sony and MS next gen consoles don't launch until 2014, that gives the Wii2 2 years as the top graphical dog (2012-2014), 1 year where it'll still be very viable as cross-platform games will still support the 360 and PS3 even after next gen consoles launch (2014-2015), 1 year where the Wii2 may not attract attention, but can still hold attention due to a presumably significantly larger installed base than next gen consoles at that time (2015-2016), and a final year where things really start to decline but seeing Nintendo's ~5 year refresh cycle rather than 10 year they'll be looking for the next big thing anyways (2016-2017).

 

[Dregun]

10 years ago, many gamers said the same thing. And look where we are now.

Nintendo will always remain relevant. Love it or hate it, their "out of touchness" is what makes them distinct from other companies. It's what makes them Nintendo for crying out loud.

I wouldn't count hardware sales as all that relevant to be honest. Do you know how many Wiis are currently collecting dust? Its huge, probably the most I've ever seen in my gaming life besides the atari 2600 after the NES came out!

I've made no effort to hide my utter dislike for the Wii, it in my opinion brought the entire industry backwards!! The motion controls that it used were more gesture based than anything else and its implementation did nothing more in most games then make you wish it was something else.

I could care less that my Mom plays the Wii, shes not a gamer and her gaming habits prove that people like her do not support this industry. (Sorry ma, I know its close to mothers day).

This is just another gimmick and I for one will not fall for the hype again and buy one even after my gut was telling me it was a waste of money.

 

[Dregun]

If Sony and MS aren't going to launch their next gen consoles until 2014, do people really need to be concerned about Nintendo not providing a huge jump in graphical performance compared to the 360 and PS3 and therefore not being graphically competitive with Sony and MS next gen consoles? If the Wii2 turns out to only be an incremental improvement in graphical power vs the PS3 and 360 and launches in say H1 2012 in Japan and H2 2012 in the rest of the world and Sony and MS next gen consoles don't launch until 2014, that gives the Wii2 2 years as the top graphical dog (2012-2014), 1 year where it'll still be very viable as cross-platform games will still support the 360 and PS3 even after next gen consoles launch (2014-2015), 1 year where the Wii2 may not attract attention, but can still hold attention due to a presumably significantly larger installed base than next gen consoles at that time (2015-2016), and a final year where things really start to decline but seeing Nintendo's ~5 year refresh cycle rather than 10 year they'll be looking for the next big thing anyways (2016-2017).

See I think that IS a problem, the machine will be lucky to be on par with the PS3 and 360 and for all of us who have either the 360 and/or PS3 why would we upgrade to Nintendo's offering? It sounds to me that as of this moment Waggle is out of the console so they can't really go for the same market they had before. That leaves them trying to find a new market that I just don't see existing ..ever!. Let alone the machine could be as capable or even slightly more capable then either the PS3 or 360 and that doesn't mean developers are going to flock to it for exclusives gamers typically go for.

Then you have the people who are interested, with such minor performance increases are these people actually going to buy this machine when 2 years from now something 2x - 5x better is going to come from MS and Sony but not from Nintendo?

Yeah and not supported dual layer blu-rays so it can play movies, and no internal HDD? The performance of the machine is going to suffer being SD only and not playing Blu-Ray movies out the gate considering they just paid for the hardware is ..is..just..I don't even know the word for it!

 

[Kaotik]

Why do you think it's "lucky to be on par with PS3/360"?

Even 4770-based gfx would be probably around twice as fast as Xenos in worst case scenario for the former, in reality the difference would probably be 4-5x.
As for the CPU, it could be any one of IBM's PPC's, nothing says it's Xenon-based or even in-order execution CPU

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Why do you think it's "lucky to be on par with PS3/360"?

Because all the rumours are converging to Nintendo targetting a similar performance to PS360, nothing more.

 

[Kaotik]

Because all the rumours are converging to Nintendo targetting a similar performance to PS360, nothing more.

Not the ones I've heard, that's for sure. Even the "worst" rumor was IIRC 1080p with PS3/XB360 level games

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Not the ones I've heard, that's for sure. Even the "worst" rumor was IIRC 1080p with PS3/XB360 level games

Head on to the original neogaf post that started this thread.

There are reports like "performance just a notch above X360".

Sure, it'll be able to do 1080p, so does the X360 in some games through tiling, and so could the Wii if they used the 24MB 1T-SRAM as framebuffer (and if Nintendo hadn't capped the component output to 480p).

 

[Rangers]

I thought the performance rumors remained all over the map, from "way more powerful than Ps360" to just comparable.

I would expect a growing consensus that it's the latter though, simply because it's Nintendo. Also I imagine the "truth" though never explicitly revealed, may be guiding the consensus of "similar to PS360" behind the scenes, since some devs surely have the details.

I'm still betting on 320 SP's.