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

[wco81]

For the Xbox business, it would make sense, as it would tap into more customers who own smart phones to stick with XBL.

But the Windows Phone business might object that an MS business isn't exclusively promoting synergy between MS products.

Not that people are going to choose smart phones just because of XBL integration. But a lot of XBL members wouldn't have to buy a WP smart phone instead of iPhone and Android, just to have XBL integration.

 

[sfried]

Coming back to Nintendo, MobiClip has apparently been aquired by them. Video codec for their controller streams?

 

[Teasy]

I thought the XB360 and WinPhone tie-in already included controlling the console to start up games.

When I said "just start the game there and then on the controller" I meant being able to start the game up and play it there and then on the controller, as in without having to go straight back to your TV.

 

[Rangers]

Randy Pitchford from Gearbox sounds like he's campaigning for more power:

http://www.nintendo-gamer.net/2012/02/22/aliens-colonial-marines-wii-u-randy-pitchford-interview/2/

Hardware heft is key to the modern first-person shooter. For better or worse, the genre has become the deciding ground for what’s graphically hot or shot. Aliens: Colonial Marines is no slouch: with multiple light sources illuminating complex sci-fi scenery (designed by Aliens’ visual genius Syd Mead) and oily black xenomorph skin, horsepower is essential. Hell, the static screens alone would melt the humble Wii. Is there enough power in that extra U? Alas, Pitchford falls victim to Nintendo’s non-disclosure agreement – a Murdoch-strength legal evil.

“Out of respect for our friends and partners at Nintendo, I think specific technical details regarding the hardware should come from them,” he says, adding that, “we’ve been intrigued by what we’ve seen so far and are encouraging Nintendo to go as aggressively as they can afford with the performance specifications. We imagine that performance specifications are within affordable reach that would provide undeniable performance advantages over competitive platforms. Nintendo have a lot more experience than we do in managing the balance between performance and cost with their hardware, of course, so I do not want to be presumptuous.”


Classic alien designs mix with new horrors, such as this bull xenomorph. Who’s wearing red?

Pitchford thinks muscle will be a, if not the, defining matter as far as gamers are concerned. “It’s natural for us to wish for the most power possible. I imagine that the extent to which the Wii U outperforms the PS3 and 360 is the extent to which Nintendo have an opportunity to motivate hardcore gamers to prefer their new platform over the existing ones. I believe that Nintendo are aware of this and it’s clear from certain aspects of the design that have already been made public that attracting the interest of the kinds of gamers that currently prefer the PS3 or 360 is likely part of their objective.”

Once again does not sound all that great as he's basically implying it's NOT drastically over the PS360 in it's current state.

Pitchford thinks muscle will be a, if not the, defining matter as far as gamers are concerned. “It’s natural for us to wish for the most power possible. I imagine that the extent to which the Wii U outperforms the PS3 and 360 is the extent to which Nintendo have an opportunity to motivate hardcore gamers to prefer their new platform over the existing ones

So incredibly true and concisely said...power is THE most important factor in hardcore gaming.

 

[Rodéric]

So incredibly true and concisely said...power is THE most important factor in hardcore gaming.

How many Watts would you want ?
;p

 

[AlNom]

1.21GW

 

[DuckThor Evil]

You can't have Gray's sport almanac it's mine!

 

[Shifty Geezer]

So incredibly true and concisely said...power is THE most important factor in hardcore gaming.

Why do soooo many gamers still buy outdated PS360 games when PC is sooo much better then?

Personally I don't think the tablet is going to contribute much by way of compelling, unique experience to COD and other major franchises or genres, but if it does then that in itself will be enough to sell the platform to core gamers. If it doesn't, then a hardware upgrade would be all Wuu has going for it and it'll be trounced by PC, so that path is a dead-end anyway. Who is really going to throw away their existing Live or PSN friend networks to buy a Wuu for better graphics who wouldn't also ditch those networks to change to PC? So Ninty have two choices: 1) Go for All Out Power at considerable expense, lose billions, but maybe secure the core gamers even if their tablet idea sucks. 2) Go for as cheap a system as possible, not winning anyone on account of power and win or lose entirely on the value of the tablet. I'd like to see a moderate compromise, but if its not necessary for the business plan than so be it. I'd have liked to have seen better innards in Wii than we got, but it worked.

 

[Teasy]

Randy Pitchford from Gearbox sounds like he's campaigning for more power:

http://www.nintendo-gamer.net/2012/02/22/aliens-colonial-marines-wii-u-randy-pitchford-interview/2/



Once again does not sound all that great as he's basically implying it's NOT drastically over the PS360 in it's current state.



So incredibly true and concisely said...power is THE most important factor in hardcore gaming.

Sounds like its an interview from nearly a year ago, something you could have found out first if you weren't so eager to post it.

 

[bgassassin]

I keep forgetting about this thread, but I thought I would add this here.

http://game0n.net/2012/02/25/dead-space-overstrike-timesplitters-4/

My friend told me that when Electronic Arts received the first and second versions of Wii U development kits, Nintendo wasn’t sure how powerful the console was going to be. All they cared about at that point was making a console that was easy to port 360/PS3 games. They had to keep the dev kits at 360/PS3 level in the beginning because it’s easy to start low on specs and go up in power, but it’s impossible to create a super powerful development kit and then downgrade it in power. I hear that the 5th and 6th versions of this development kit are pretty powerful, and Frostbite 2 has been seen running on the Wii U with very smooth results and a higher frame rate than the 360 version of Battlefield 3, that are superior to any PS3/360 game running Frostbite 2.


Again, take all of this as a grain of salt/rumor until its confirmed, but I felt the need to share some of this since people seem to want Wii U news.

If true, then that fits in with everything we've heard since the beginning and shows a normal hardware development process. It would also explain the vague target specs Nintendo gave in the beginning.

 

[Rangers]

It's funny how I get lambasted for "blindly believing" this or that but you just posted...that

At any rate, 360 version of BF3 with a better framerate wouldn't exactly be my idea of where I'd want Wii U to be...

 

[Rodéric]

It's funny how I get lambasted for "blindly believing" this or that but you just posted...that

At any rate, 360 version of BF3 with a better framerate wouldn't exactly be my idea of where I'd want Wii U to be...

And where would that be ?

 

[Rangers]

Well, as powerful as possible basically, if I wanted the Wii U to succeed.

As is I have no hope for a true next gen solution, but i would like to see something at least 50% faster than current gen to kickstart the other guys next gen plans, and get a early taste of beyond current gen graphics.

Just saying that "this gen slightly better" is I'm sure not what guys like bgassasin hope for.

Anyways the quote I was referring to is a bit unclear, seems a word or two is missing.

Frostbite 2 has been seen running on the Wii U with very smooth results and a higher frame rate than the 360 version of Battlefield 3, that are superior to any PS3/360 game running Frostbite 2.

 

[Teasy]

At any rate, 360 version of BF3 with a better framerate wouldn't exactly be my idea of where I'd want Wii U to be...

But what if the better framerate was 60fps?, that would put the system well above the 50% extra you're looking for.

Anyway it looks to me like its saying that Frostbite 2 looks better and runs faster then any Frostbite 2 game on 360 or PS3 (maybe a comma missing before the "and"?). How much better looking and how much faster is anyones guess, if its true to begin with.

 

[Kaotik]

The quote should probably read (added parts in brackets)
"Frostbite 2 has been seen running on the Wii U with very smooth results and a higher frame rate than the 360, on a version of Battlefield 3, that is superior to PS3/360 version of the game [running Frostbite 2.]"

 

[bgassassin]

It's funny how I get lambasted for "blindly believing" this or that but you just posted...that

At any rate, 360 version of BF3 with a better framerate wouldn't exactly be my idea of where I'd want Wii U to be...

LOL. I guess the if true in bold meant I blindly believed it.

Well, as powerful as possible basically, if I wanted the Wii U to succeed.

As is I have no hope for a true next gen solution, but i would like to see something at least 50% faster than current gen to kickstart the other guys next gen plans, and get a early taste of beyond current gen graphics.

Just saying that "this gen slightly better" is I'm sure not what guys like bgassasin hope for.

Anyways the quote I was referring to is a bit unclear, seems a word or two is missing.

Well we don't know if it will be slightly better, but the indications of what it looks like still comes short of what I would have liked to see. Barts Pro equivalent is the minimum GPU I would like to have seen in all consoles.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

As is I have no hope for a true next gen solution, but i would like to see something at least 50% faster than current gen to kickstart the other guys next gen plans, and get a early taste of beyond current gen graphics.

Then look at PC. BF3 on a monster rig is a good start.

 

[babybumb]

At any rate, 360 version of BF3 with a better framerate wouldn't exactly be my idea of where I'd want Wii U to be...

Wii U will bring slightly better IQ, textures and framerates. Expect around 50-100% better GPU performance.

But if you can get a 360 with a huge library for 149 and Wii U costs 299 then Nintendo is in some big trouble after launch when it has done selling to hardcores. I dont see it outselling existing consoles this holiday or 2013

 

[bgassassin]

Then look at PC. BF3 on a monster rig is a good start.

This. That's why even though I'm not expecting the same huge leaps some people do, it doesn't matter since I'd just build a PC to achieve the power I want.

Wii U will bring slightly better IQ, textures and framerates. Expect around 50-100% better GPU performance.

But if you can get a 360 with a huge library for 149 and Wii U costs 299 then Nintendo is in some big trouble after launch when it has done selling to hardcores. I dont see it outselling existing consoles this holiday or 2013

If that happens I would expect it to be due to supply constraints. PS3 is already a non-factor so Wii U should outsell it. And the main ones buying Xbox 360 at $149 aren't going to be that concerned about a huge library. I believe the next consoles from MS and Sony are going to be a bigger problem for Wii U than what's out now.

 

[TheChefO]

Then look at PC. BF3 on a monster rig is a good start.

The problem with the Hardcore=PC_Gamer argument is that PC games until BF3 were essentially console games. Slightly better textures, better render resolution, better filtering, better AA (sometimes), but overall, roughly the same poly counts, the same shaders, the same lighting, the same physics, the same interactivity (or lack of), the same AI... etc


The hope of pushing console hardware spec is to not only want a more powerful wii/ps3/xb360, but to also push developers in producing BETTER PC games as well.

As is, PC games are roughly console+ experiences.

As far as how many are actually on the pc gaming bandwagon, I think only AMD and Nvidia have that info with their graphic card sales ... we certainly won't find out a real number by looking at pc game sales.

___________

I'm 100% with Rangers here. If Nintendo wishes to compete and lure any core gamers to their platform, it won't be due to a tablet controller. They will have to pony up on the hardware. Otherwise they'll be left trying to collect the casual gamer scraps of whatever is left from IOS taking their chunk, android taking their chunk, PC (web/facebook) taking their chunk, and Kinect taking their chunk.

There isn't much left for Nintendo to grab from going forward as nearly everyone is after the casual gamer and with new and compelling offerings appearing nearly daily, It is a highly competitive market to try and compete in.

Conversely, the hardcore gamer hasn't been served anything new since 2005 (all PC games still use this as a baseline for their design).

The last time Nintendo tried to go down this route (n64) the reason it failed had nothing to do with spec and everything to do with dev/pub relations and the game delivery medium.

It's about time Nintendo joined back into the fray here and offered up something truly nextgen. If not, I fear the chunk left for their wares will be far too use to paying little to nothing for software and hardware that can do far more than just play games.

In other words, Skate or Die!