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

[babybumb]

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/ces-2012-nintendo/725600

So Nintendo does not care if their hardware is competive with Sony/MS next consoles. The main selling point is the controller and the only thing they care about HW is it to be cheap as possible.

It´s funny to watch hardcore Nintendo fans wanting this company to be something it hasnt been sine Iwata took over..

 

[patsu]

Does it have to be hollow (in a fragile way) ? Without the help of a Golf game, kids already leave their stuff all over the floor everyday. ^_^

I suspect they will drop, throw, hit and spill on the controller too, just like how my son treat the DS3 controller.

 

[AlNom]

Does it have to be hollow ?

I don't know, haven't seen the inside or the PCB. There is also the fact that the WiiU pad will be resting on an incline due to the triggers at the top end. It'll just make it worse if there's an applied pressure towards the middle, otherwise, it'd probably be fine. *shrug* I'm sure the hardware designer will be looking at QA and making sure the thing isn't fragile by any means.

 

[pc999]

New gfx demo

http://www.eurogamer.pt/articles/2012-01-12-uma-nova-demo-da-wii-u-no-ces-2012

 

[patsu]

Cool ! City view reminds me of BF3. Zelda map + TPS view should be useful for tactical shooters too. Independent camera would be great for

Spoiler

pr0n games

 

[-tkf-]

More stuff from CES, and some high quality demo video..

http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/11/2700613/nintendo-wii-u-video-walkthrough

EDIT: Ehmm seems the video is above in the Euro link, but on YT and without the original Story so i am gonna let this post live.

 

[patsu]

Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with Nintendo (updated: video embedded)
http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/12/live-from-the-engadget-ces-stage-an-interview-with-nintendo/

After a long week of CES craziness, we're ready to get our game face on for some serious talk about the business of fun as we meet up with Cindy Gordon, VP of corporate affairs for Nintendo of America.

 

[patsu]

Wii U Ships Worldwide This Holiday Season
http://andriasang.com/comzrq/

Bloomberg Japan reports that Nintendo will release the Wii U this holiday season in North America, Japan, Europe and Australia. CEO Satoru Iwata announced the more specific time period during an earnings conference in Osaka today.

 

[patsu]

Nintendo Details Nintendo Network
http://andriasang.com/comzsb/nintendo_network/

Nintendo Network is the name of Nintendo's new network platform. It will be used on 3DS and Wii U.

Different from the current Wi-Fi Connection service, Nintendo Network is a wholly inclusive network platform that will offer such things as communication amongst users and sales of digital content.

We already saw some elements of Nintendo Network in Mario Kart 7's "Communities."

Nintendo's Tobidasu Purikura photo decoration app, released as a 3DS download on December 27, will be the first title that will offer paid add-on content. Paid content will be available for this title in the near future, Iwata said.

For package software, Square Enix's Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, due for release on February 16, is expected be the first game to offer download content sales. Players will be able to purchase music tracks.

Nintendo is also considering digital distribution for package software. This concept was built into the design 3DS, said Iwata, and the infrastructure is already in place. The same infrastructure will be prepared for the Wii U.

Iwata stressed, however, that Nintendo has not decided on concrete timing for starting digital download sales for package software. The decision will be made by taking into consideration the relationship with retailers and wholesalers, and consumer concerns regarding memory card capacity.

Wii U will have a personal account system that will be compatible with Nintendo Network, Iwata also announced.

...

 

[patsu]

Nintendo Shares Wii U Bits at Earnings Briefing
http://andriasang.com/comzsc/wii_u_bits/

...

"For the launch of new hardware, it is regarded as a sort of requisite not to miss the critical year-end sales season," said Iwata. "The company is aiming to firmly complete the development of the entire system and prepare sufficient software so that the Wii U will be at its best at the time of the launch." He repeated a past statement that Nintendo has "learned a bitter lesson from the launch of the Nintendo 3DS."

The Wii U will be shown in final form at E3 2012, which will be held in Los Angeles in June. Nintendo also hopes to have an event in Tokyo to showcase the system to wholesalers and analysts who cannot attend E3.

...

As detailed in our story from earlier in the day, Wii U will support the new Nintendo Network platform. The system will offer personal accounts, which Nintendo feels will improve the ease with which multiple family members can use the system together. These accounts will work with the Nintendo Network service.

Nintendo is adding NFC functionality to the Wii U controller. Short for Near Field Communication, NFC is a radio communication standard that's used in smart card systems like FeliCa and Mifare. Regarding what the NFC functionality will bring to the Wii U, Iwata said, "It will become possible to create cards and figurines that can electronically read and write data via noncontact NFC and to expand the new play format in the video game world. Adoption of this functionality will enable various other possibilities such as using it as a means of making micropayments."

...

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Nintendo is implementing an actually trending and recent I/O technology into the Wii U?!?

Wow.
And here I thought we'd be seeing another comeback of the infra-red.

 

[patsu]

Yeah, using it for toy interaction seems interesting. Opens up new ways to play with consoles. I don't want NFC payment though.

 

[Kaotik]

Yeah, using it for toy interaction seems interesting. Opens up new ways to play with consoles. I don't want NFC payment though.

Did you think this through? Just think of the possibilities! Others get their phone out to pay via NFC, and you can draw WiiU "pad" instead!

 

[babybumb]

The PAD cant act as an payment terminal for NFC credit cards.. not nearly enough security

 

[patsu]

Did you think this through? Just think of the possibilities! Others get their phone out to pay via NFC, and you can draw WiiU "pad" instead!

In this scenario, it would be sitting on the coffee table to accept payment for Nintendo Network DLC, or other eCommerce (Living room shopping after weighing yourself on the balance board ! )

The PAD cant act as an payment terminal for NFC credit cards.. not nearly enough security

Yes, most likely. Companies like Hypercom and Verifone need to go through stringent security clearance by the financial sector regulators.

 

[Rangers]

A new rumor about the Wii U's power that doesn't sound very good:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=34909953&postcount=5407

Fair enough. Not sure what I can say that will back my claims up without getting my self in trouble. But I will try to clarify a bit without getting too specific.

The current Wii U dev kit i am talking about (not this supposed new one in the last few weeks) Is slightly LESS powerful than the Xbox 360. What I mean by that is that we would have to scale back/change our Xbox/PS3 games to run on the console. Its a tri core out of order cpu with 1GB of pretty slow ram and a decently featured gpu that lacks raw muscle. Its good and efficient, just not that powerful. As we all know they can change it and according to rumors they have. But nothing they can do this late in the game is going to dramatically change its performance. When it ships it will be in the ball park of the Xbox 360/PS3 (give or take a little). But in no way will it be 2x or more powerful then the HD twins. Just not happening.

I am a huge Nintendo fanboy, so I am disappointed that they are not putting more power in the box. Nintendo will have no problem making great looking games on it, and 3rd party studios will be able to port games from 360/ps3. But when ever MS/Sony show their next consoles it might not be so true.

So believe it or not. Either way is cool by me.

 

[AlNom]

Any idea who it is?

The only ways any of that could make sense are if the GPU were clocked low (<500MHz) and had around 8ROPs and 16-20TMUs. He doesn't mention eDRAM either unless that's what he meant by efficient. Early kits wouldn't have had eDRAM, so it's easy enough to see why a DDR3/GDDR3 128-bit bus would be shit compared to current gen, but that doesn't jive with the kit of his being not too old. The comment's too vague to tell if it's just an old kit he's talking about or if it's more recent but not the latest...

We've seen aggressive changes in dev kits before, but it's also hard to believe Nintendo would be so incompetent or rushed or desperate as Microsoft was back in 2005.

Is he also not considering that WiiU has extra work to do on the game pad?

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Well, that certainly looks like something the Nintendo of 2005->2011 would launch..
I guess I was just hoping the Nintendo of 2012 would be different (still am, though).

Maybe some underground developers will find a way to connect the tablet-mote to PCs and emulate the console within a year or two..
Then I'd just buy the games/tablet-mote and play them in my HTPC, like I do with my Wii games right now.


However, some things in those statements don't really make much sense..
Why would Nintendo spend more resources in an OoO CPU than in a more powerful GPU than X360's?
He spoke about the slow 1GB RAM, but why didn't he mention the "large" (and confirmed) eDRAM?
Could it be that the eDRAM plays a very important part in the console's performance, and not having access to it would diminish the perceived potential?

By "raw" power, could he be talking about ROPs, TMUs or ALUs?
Regarding the "nothing they can do this late in the game is going to dramatically change its performance" statement, how could he know for sure?
If the GPU clocks were doubled from an early engineering sample to final samples (assuming it was on something like 267MHz, it'd go to 533MHz), would that be too much of a lonshot?

 

[Squilliam]

So essentially the performance rests now on clock speed and the presence or lack-thereof embedded RAM of some description? If I had been forced to assume anything at minimum I would have staked a claim to the idea that the Wii U would be at least slightly faster than the Xbox 360 in order for games to be ported with no troubles even if the architecture differed slightly. Why make a system which is slightly less powerful when that'd represent a significant increase in development effort, I.E. from about zero to some.

 

[AlNom]

Why would Nintendo spend more resources in an OoO CPU than in a more powerful GPU than X360's?

hm... it's possible you might be overestimating how much work it would be to come up with a Power chip with OOOE. The 360's core is pretty ancient too. Slapping together three general purpose cores of a more recent design would seem trivial compared to managing all aspects of the GPU components. *shrug* Unlike a CPU, you can't just fill in the blank with more cache and call it a day (for example). I'm not sure there'd be a whole lot to customize.

It's hard to say what it is exactly that Nintendo wants out of a GPU, but I presume they want a tight balance over RBEs vs memory bandwidth vs expected game resolution (1080p wishes aside). The RBEs of the rv7xx line also don't hook into a crossbar, so there might be some issue there when figuring out that number in conjunction with the memory configuration when we are also having to hook into the eDRAM (however that may be). The SIMDs (ALUs+TMUs+L2) are not particularly small either, so there'll need to be some consideration for the die layout. I'm not sure if double precision support is significant for die space.

Anyways, you see what I'm getting at.