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

[Rangers]

The battery life is a bad joke, but surely it will have a play and charge kit, which should almost cure that problem.

For me, my couch is farther away from the TV than even 9+ feet X360 style controller cords, and the play n charge kit cord as well.

Mainly I just buy Best Buy store brand alkaline AA's in bulk on the cheap for my 360 wireless controllers, they last a good while, are cheap (something like $15 for a 48 pack that will last halfway to forever) and it works great. Of course that wont work for Wii U.

Not that I'm buying a Wii U but it would be an annoyance.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

The battery life is a bad joke, but surely it will have a play and charge kit, which should almost cure that problem.

Why the need for a play and charge kit?

The tablet controller recharges through a mini-USB port and can be used to play while recharging, just like the dualshock3.

 

[Rangers]

Why the need for a play and charge kit?

The tablet controller recharges through a mini-USB port and can be used to play while recharging, just like the dualshock3.

Well that is solid, though necessary I guess if you think about it. Just hope they give you a good long cord. One of the dumbest things about the PS3 imo is the 2 foot USB controller recharge cable they give you...

My first experience with PS3, I did not know the console is set by default to leave the controller on when the console was powered off (dunno if it's still that way, but terrible idea). This led to every time I came back to it after a day or two the controller was dead (and I wasn't really sure why). So I'd always end up playing practically with my face smushed against the TV glass while recharging via that 1.5 foot cable they give you...a very good example of the little things in bad design.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Why the need for a play and charge kit?

The "play and charge kit" was just a placeholder for anything that allows easy charging while playing. USB-cord with the ability to connect it to different devices and into the wall socket with long enough cord would be great.

 

[Rangers]

Here's a couple Wii U footages recorded

Zombie U gameplay demo

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2012-zombiu/731417?

Batman Arkham Armored Edition (Wii U) (Offscreen)

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2012-batman-arkham/731453?

There's implications on GAF that based on that footage Arkham may look worse than the 360 version, if anybody wants to take a look at it.

 

[Strange]

Here's a couple Wii U footages recorded

Zombie U gameplay demo

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2012-zombiu/731417?

Batman Arkham Armored Edition (Wii U) (Offscreen)

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2012-batman-arkham/731453?

There's implications on GAF that based on that footage Arkham may look worse than the 360 version, if anybody wants to take a look at it.

Based on gametrailers' footage of Wii U's Assassin's Creed 3 I'm not terribly surprised. If I'm not mistaken that footage seems to indicate that it's run at 720P with no AA.

Hate to say this but the WiiU feels like it's inching bit by bit closer to the PS3/360s in terms of graphics from what I've seen in the past two days.

 

[Arwin]

The announced price of 250 whatever suggests that the difference can't be too big either way, imho. There's just no budget.

 

[Rangers]

The announced price of 250 whatever suggests that the difference can't be too big either way, imho. There's just no budget.

Ehh, there was a nikkei report of 30,000 yen price, which I believe Nintendo denied, which translates to $383.

But usually Nintendo doesn't do a direct conversion, it was suggested 30k yen might be perhaps $300 stateside.

$50 less than I expected if true.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

I don't believe that. The other page said 300 euro - 380 dollars so I think we can forget about 250. So 300 it is. Cut out 100 for the tablet, which its never going to cost btw, you can buy complete tablets for less than that at retail, never mind actual production costs, and you got 200 left for the hardware. Even a 6570, which has more than 3 times as much transistors as Xenos, is only 55 euro's at retail. And that including all the extra stuff like a passive heatsink, pcb, 1gb memory etc. The chip alone can't be more than 20 euro's right?

I refuse to believe they can't spend 10% of the budget on the gpu. Even if they'd only 100 euro's for the console hardware, that's still only 20% of the budget.

 

[Rangers]

Well in their defense, an X360 with a hard drive is 299.

Sub tablet for HDD...

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

But MS is probably making money on that.

 

[pc999]

The announced price of 250 whatever suggests that the difference can't be too big either way, imho. There's just no budget.

Lets hope so, that way they can get the rest of the 10 lifecicle of PS360


Anyway it is quite hard to see value in this, no new, original and challenging games.

No know franchises, but 3(!!!!!) marios in the same day...

No gfx...

That being said a 3DS level catalog/price and I would probably buy it and play multiplatforms on it !

 

[(((interference)))]

HOWEVER, that said, fixing all of those things; capacitive screen, big battery, and IPS LCD, it would probably have driven up the price of the wuupad too high.

Forget about the IPS screen (which is a luxury) but you get tablets for around $100 that include capacitive touch. The battery issue might not be so bad if there's some sort of play & charge kit.

And, it's not as if pennypinching is solely a Nintendo shortcoming. Pennypinching cost Microsoft over a billion dollars this generation alone... You may also recall original Xbox sparking power plugs and fire-prone power supplies, and the weak-ish GPU in the PS3 was entriely a cost-cutting measure when the rest of the hardware turned out to be so damn expensive.

I thought the RROD was more due to the introduction of lead free solder than anything else. Was a similar issue to the overheating problems that plagued many of Nvidia's mobile GPUs in 2008.

And the weak-ish PS3 GPU was still quite a high end Nvidia part for the time (albeit largely off the shelf and not custom like Xenos). Which is quite reasonable considering the expense of cutting edge tech like Cell, the Bluray drive (as well as extras like the standard HDD and built in wifi). It's certainly not like they put in a budget GPU - which is what Nintendo seems to have done with the Wii U.

 

[Ryan Smith]

Nintendo doesn't seem interested in utilizing it as a BR movie player, which I think is a mistake, just as the Wii really should have played DVDs.

If it's anything like the Wii, even thinking about making it capable of reading standard discs is going to open a can of worms. One of Nintendo's bigger security blunders was leaving the necessary commands for regular DVD access in the Wii.

 

[Grall]

It's Nintendo's job to make their security work; PS3 wasn't cracked through its ability to read BR movies. I hate having duplicate hardware to perform different tasks when one device could have done it all. Wuu would make an ideal movie playback device, it's small, elegant, undoubtedly going to be exceedingly quiet in operation, and it has its own remote control...

Nintendo just has to get on with the fucking times and actually take that ONE final step. I'd be happy with buying the player through their online store if they don't want to burden the purchase price of the console with the extra licensing cost. Just do it already, thank you...

 

[Rodéric]

I hate having duplicate hardware to perform different tasks when one device could have done it all.

So that when that device fails you can't do anything anymore ?
No way.
Specialized devices ftw.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Chances hardware fails you are so small these days I dont see the point in having 3 or more seperate devices when one can do it all. Even if that one device would fail, in case of a game/media console you could easily hook up a pc or laptop (or even a modern smartphone) to your tv and still get your media/gaming shot.

Hell, chances are your probably off better (and cheaper) if you just buy the same console twice than when you buy seperate devices.

Anyway currently I'm carrying around a smartphone, pocket wifi and crappy Japanese phone and I can tell you, 1 device that does it all is much bettter than having to carry around 3 different devices to get exact same functionality.

 

[Grall]

Specialized devices ftw.

I don't have infinite room for specialized devices.

Not infinite money either for that matter...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

It depends on the similarity between devices. Adding movie playback to a console is an obvious bonus considering the console shares all the same components as a disc player. Similarly there's little point in having separate portable music players and mobile phones where they share the same components - may as well combine music playback with the mobile. Where combining devices is a bad idea is where you squidge unrelated devices together at added cost, such as embedding a DVD player in a TV. You pay the DVD player and the TV components but they are dependent on the correct functioning of the other. If the TV dies, the DVD has to be replaced too, and if you want to upgrade the DVD player, you can't pass/sell it on.

As consoles are capable of doing all entertainment tasks, it makes sense to me to include them.

 

[wco81]

Blu Ray players are affordable now , quite a different situation than back in 2006.

Blu Ray playback for a console is probably no longer a factor either way.