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

[Shifty Geezer]

Or sour at the timing and business proposition, not seeing viable business coming from Wuu. But the demographics of Wii must also be a turn-off. The core gamers are MS and Sony gamers. Without a reason to think Wuu will draw them away from XB and PS, the only reason to put core games on Wuu is a belief Wii gamers will migrate, or new gamers who missed PS360 will get a Wuu for COD and friends.

 

[fearsomepirate]

Also, Nintendo always puts some weird constraints on developers that makes some people say, "Eh, not worth the trouble." On the Wii, you had friend codes and not being able to directly access the SD card. I've also heard they're fairly restrictive in not letting you release a game at the same time it might compete with one of their core IPs. For all we know, Crytek was interested until Nintendo explained the hoops they'd have to jump through to publish a game, and they said, "Forget it."

Or maybe they're looking at sales projections and are expecting this thing to bomb harder than the 3DS did. I know I am. Nintendo itself doesn't seem to have any idea who this product is for or what its purpose is, unlike the Wii. They've trashed their new core by abandoning them midway through the Wii's life to pursue vanity projects, and they're not really offering any kind of fundamentally new proposition to 360/PS3 gamers, so I have no idea who they're expecting to buy this thing.

 

[Squilliam]

In many ways I feel one big problem with the Wii was that they never seemed to have expected it to succeed like it did. Because of the Wii they then seemed to believe that it didn't matter what the Wii U was or when the Wii U would arrive. They couldn't/wouldn't evolve the experience of the Wii beyond what it was when it was released as and their competitors did, then they failed to anticipate falling demand and release something new to revitalize their market before it collapsed.

Now developers and publishers are at a similar crossroads to where they were in 2005 when deciding how to support various console hardware from different manufacturers. How should they support hardware which is more expensive but similarly capable as cheaper consoles from Sony and Microsoft? How should they support it in light of new consoles with new capabilities which are expected in 2013/14?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

In many ways I feel one big problem with the Wii was that they never seemed to have expected it to succeed like it did. Because of the Wii they then seemed to believe that it didn't matter what the Wii U was or when the Wii U would arrive.

I think it's more a acse of they didn't know what Wii would do, and they don't know what Wii U will do. It's like Nintendo have ideas that they think are cool and throw them out there and see what sticks almost. Which I think is the mentality of a toy manufacturer. The difference between developing a console and a toy is you can't really focus-group test a console as you need hardware and software. I guess they could have tried the tablet and a load of simple games, but that's not very indiciative of the final product.

 

[Squilliam]

I think it's more a acse of they didn't know what Wii would do, and they don't know what Wii U will do. It's like Nintendo have ideas that they think are cool and throw them out there and see what sticks almost. Which I think is the mentality of a toy manufacturer. The difference between developing a console and a toy is you can't really focus-group test a console as you need hardware and software. I guess they could have tried the tablet and a load of simple games, but that's not very indiciative of the final product.

I believe the idea behind the Wii and the Wii U is really about reducing 'abstraction' in the mind of the user. The thing which seems to get some people about consoles is that whilst they may be familiar with the controller itself they trip over the idea that A or X means different things in different contexts. When you're able to see a button which says 'play' you don't need the same kind of abstraction. Maybe people put up with learning curves like this because they have to put up with them, if they had another option entirely then maybe their attitudes would change?

 

[babybumb]

Analysts and almost every tech site on the internet is calling for Nintendo to move Mario to IOS.

This is a few years too early and probably never happens under current CEO. IOS will support even those huge games sold at $30-40 but not yet.

Nintendo needs to prove they can still make good profit on HW in the current market after r&d. That was too easy with Wii and DS

 

[orangpelupa]

wondering if WiiU will have WiiMote+ included in the box.

so it will still be an awesome platform for games like
- FPS (aiming is great with wiiremote)
- Swordplay (on Skyward sword its great, on no more heroes its silly but fun)
- RTS (use it like a mouse)


if they dont, then its shame... because what they achieve in Skyward Sword swordplay is great.

 

[AlphaWolf]

If you find yourself preferring to use the wiimote, doesn't that make the wii:u a failure?

 

[Kaotik]

If you find yourself preferring to use the wiimote, doesn't that make the wii:u a failure?

Yes, just like PS3 was a failure if you watched DVDs with it instead of BluRays.. oh wait

 

[Shifty Geezer]

First Wii U game trailer:
http://www.gamekult.com/actu/rayman-legends-premiere-video-wii-u-A101141.html

Shows coop gameplay on Wiimotes held like controllers, and a player using touch interaction to influence the whole level like LBP2's Move levels (ie - can be done with existing motion tracking). Also shows NFC integration with the Wuupad so objects can be placed on it to activate in-game stuff like Skylanders. Graphics are 2D, so not much to go on for evaluating the hardware.

 

[Rangers]

It does look at least on PS360 level graphically. That may not be much but it's a little bit. OTOH, it doesn;t look ABOVE PS360 either, but as you say it's 2D and multiplatform both. STILL, if the machine was some huge beast, I expect they would make it look better than other console versions.

But the actual Wii U functions look pretty stupid to me.

Like this one

Ugh.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

It does look at least on PS360 level graphically. That may not be much but it's a little bit. OTOH, it doesn;t look ABOVE PS360 either, but as you say it's 2D and multiplatform both. STILL, if the machine was some huge beast, I expect they would make it look better than other console versions.

You won't waste money beefing up a game for one platform unless you think you'll get returns. So Wuu could be significantly more powerful (like a PC) yet get no improvements, especially as this is a 2D game, if Wuu isn't going to get more sales as a result. We can't really guage anything on peformance from this clip.

 

[Rodéric]

A tablet with proper controls and good gfx doesn't sound that bad or strange to me, and that's what the WiiU will provide..
And you can hook it on your HDTV too (like some tablets), plus local multiplayer & Nintendo's franchises...

It might be used like that using embedded SRAM, and it can also be used like a home console with disks.

 

[Rangers]

You won't waste money beefing up a game for one platform unless you think you'll get returns. So Wuu could be significantly more powerful (like a PC) yet get no improvements, especially as this is a 2D game, if Wuu isn't going to get more sales as a result. We can't really guage anything on peformance from this clip.

Then again, "because they dont do it on PC" (which is even kind of arguable, as usually they upres textures and the like) does not mean they wouldn't on "Wuu". Each has different revenue and development considerations.

If Rayman Legends was simultaneously releasing for PS4, XB3, and current gen wouldn't you think they'd make the next gen version look better?

All that said I agree somewhat as well, this clearly is far from the best game to be judging Wii U hardware on. But I'm here to grasp at straws considering we have months of Wii U speculation, and this is the most we've had to speculate on in weeks.

But we can also say the machine looks at least PS360 level for this type of game, from this clip, too. Which is also something.

Also, Nintendo fans are yelling down anybody who brings this up, but I do wonder if the corded controllers in the trailer mean anything, as far as Nintendo possibly switching from wireless to wired tech, or maybe at least partly so. It's entirely possible, even likely, they dont, but I'm not so quick to dismiss them either. And yes I'm familiar with all the arguments against.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

If you find yourself preferring to use the wiimote, doesn't that make the wii:u a failure?

If you find yourself preferring to play a racing game with a X360 gamepad instead of Kinect, does that make the X360+Kinect bundle a failure?


So I went to and saw this interview. The Wii U thing is mentioned at about 5m30s.
After the infamous "fat chance" answer, he says:

I don't think it's going to be possible. right now the launch platforms are the PC, X360 and PS3 and I don't think a Wii U version is in the "cart".

And this talk is preceded by a discussion about how they still have tons of things to decide so it seems they're a bit tight on the schedule.

Looking at his reaction, it seems that the lack of a Wii U version at launch is exclusively related to time budget, and not to performance by any means.
I'd say that Crysis 3's development started somewhere in late 2010 and they projected their resources and time schedules based on those three platforms.

Nintendo said they have consulted lots of 3rd party developers during the making of the Wii U's internals, but the fact is that until Crysis 2's launch (March 2011) Crytek was only a PC developer so they may have been left out.
It's possible that Crytek didn't have access to the Wii U's development kits until recently, leaving the developer with no choice but to postpone the development on the Wii U's version until the game is launched for the other platforms.

Still, it's a bit of a let-down that there won't be a Crysis 3's version for the Wii U on launch day.

 

[GBPack]

Then again, "because they dont do it on PC" (which is even kind of arguable, as usually they upres textures and the like) does not mean they wouldn't on "Wuu". Each has different revenue and development considerations.

If Rayman Legends was simultaneously releasing for PS4, XB3, and current gen wouldn't you think they'd make the next gen version look better?

All that said I agree somewhat as well, this clearly is far from the best game to be judging Wii U hardware on. But I'm here to grasp at straws considering we have months of Wii U speculation, and this is the most we've had to speculate on in weeks.

But we can also say the machine looks at least PS360 level for this type of game, from this clip, too. Which is also something.

Also, Nintendo fans are yelling down anybody who brings this up, but I do wonder if the corded controllers in the trailer mean anything, as far as Nintendo possibly switching from wireless to wired tech, or maybe at least partly so. It's entirely possible, even likely, they dont, but I'm not so quick to dismiss them either. And yes I'm familiar with all the arguments against.

It was already confirmed what's in the trailer is not the final form of the controller, the Wii U, or the game at all.

Also, it's pretty pointless to try to gauge the Wii U's power based on a single video of a launch, multiplatform, 2-D platformer. We already knew the Wii U would be more powerful than the 360/PS3, so it really doesn't tell us much.

 

[pc999]

wondering if WiiU will have WiiMote+ included in the box.

so it will still be an awesome platform for games like
- FPS (aiming is great with wiiremote)
- Swordplay (on Skyward sword its great, on no more heroes its silly but fun)
- RTS (use it like a mouse)


if they dont, then its shame... because what they achieve in Skyward Sword swordplay is great.

I really hope it does have, it give a good reason for devs support it

 

[Gitaroo]

I say probably not to keep the price as low as possible and I think Nintendo is also trying to make money from the start like always.

 

[Kaotik]

. We already knew the Wii U would be more powerful than the 360/PS3, so it really doesn't tell us much.

No no, going by the few here it has to be less powerfull than wii, probably less powefull than gamecube!

 

[AlphaWolf]

If you find yourself preferring to play a racing game with a X360 gamepad instead of Kinect, does that make the X360+Kinect bundle a failure?

So the tablet controller is optional? I'd expect Nintendo demands developers make use of it. If people were playing kinect games without using kinect you'd have a point, but Kinect is an optional addon, kinect games require it's use, better with kinect games do not.