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

[fehu]

the proble is how much time will developers need to make use of that 50%?
will they strech all the possible from ps3 and 360 to make the gap less noticeable?
and when the wii u will get better sdk and native project, will be dwarfed by next generation?

all the help is good, but even if is more than decent i think that graphic will never be a main selling point
estiqaatsi said

 

[patsu]

Sounds similar to what we hear from most sources.

The added memory may be for rendering to the additional pad in parallel rather than for more MP players.

Also in his blog, he mentioned that the pad needs to be in the same room as the console, but Iwata revealed more:
http://techland.time.com/2011/06/09...ndo-president-satoru-iwata-talks-about-wii-u/

So you're saying there needs to be an option to separate away from the living room, that it allows people to continue their game experience or have it on their own schedule on their own terms?

Iwata: Well, for example, we are not saying we can get away from the living room at all. What I'm saying is that we shall be less dependent on the home TV set; more specifically, the images and all the others are processed within the inside of the console of the Wii U, not in the controller. So, for example, you cannot just take away the controller and continue playing.

It'll have a range that it works within, then?

Iwata: Yes. A certain range. Also, it is possible for you to be in a separate room from the living room where the console of the Wii U will be located. However, dependent upon the thickness, for example, of the wall, we cannot tell if you will be able to smoothly play on that.

EDIT: Need to look at the architecture before the numbers.

 

[liolio]

^^ Wow, the most interesting stuff yet from someone who seems to know.

Once again we see more RAM mentioned, but maybe not a great deal. Is 768MB possible? Makes sense to help with the added burden of rendering the controller. Either 768 or 1GB I think.

Many of you are probably disappointed by those comments, but I'm coming from a more realistic perspective that it had looked exactly equal to PS360 after E3, it appears now it will possibly be a 33-50% step up, so that's actually a positive for me.

Will start to gently put a bit more pressure on Sony MS then, but it's clearly not a generation step either, which again I never expected.

1GB could be nice I'm more concerned with processing power and the leaks is not exactely reassuring. My belief is that Nintendo had to shoot for llano kind of performance with a "reverse" balance a bit less CPU power a bit more GPU power.
By the look of it, they might not match this level of performance while using multiple chips and a less functional GPU.
Honestky I hoped Nintendo would do the "right" thing but I'm less and less confident. Anyway the fact that you can have only one WiiU controlleer at a time pretty much convinced me that I won't buy the product. Future interactions with either PSV or windows mobile devices and the respective consoles are way more promising.

Nintendo has proven to be able to make real good technical choices, this time it looks like a hack job. Damned they release a handled some month ago now they announce this controller. Doesn't add up properly in the grand scheme of things. They came with a weird announcement where nobody know what to expect (with backslash on the stocks... so I4m not alone).

I would not be surprised if some execs lost their heads soon. Nintendo had shoot to take Ms and Sony their pant down by releasing something good enough (so far it's tough to be positive on the matter), they launched a handled that should have be part of the plan. Some people will lose their seats in the process imho.
Now it launchs next year, newer APU will be there in the PC market enabling gaming PC for anyone, I can't see core gamers biting in something that can be provide by your standard PC. I've an odds feeling for them, next E3 I can easily them get killed by either Sony or MS announcements backed up by some CGI. WiiU brings nothing new to casuals (or few) it ain't Kinect, if they don't attract core gamers... end of the line. They would better push back the release, EOL the 3DS and push something more compliant using the same system. They have a really strong brand, they have money they should stop competing for cheap.

 

[poopypoo]

Also, what with all of this "Wu" mess that sprouted up? I sounds lame to me when I see it. That may be just me though. Wouldn't it be a lot more simple to just call it the U. Ucon sound a lot less...silly. When I see the word Wu I think of Dynasty Warriors. Also, what does the U stand for? It is Universe? Ultimate? Unity?Ultra?

I also think of the Wu faction! But the funny thing is that there's already a ripoff product, available in any city in China, called the "Wü". Certainly N is well within their rights to use the name, but it would seem to create confusion in a number of people's minds. Plus it sounds retarded. Anyway, the way the Chinese knockoff writes the ü makes it look more like a conjoined "ii". So perhaps that is their idea? Definitely weird.

 

[Kaotik]

Also, what does the U stand for? It is Universe? Ultimate? Unity?Ultra?

It stands for "You", they made it quite clear at E3

 

[pc999]

So 50%+ of GPU should be capable of some interesting stuff, things like free MLAA ( for every PS360), and a few extra effects, add tessellation like some others rumors said it have a strong unit for that and I am really cool with that. Extra RAM will help in things like deferred lightning too and even better textures.

So Battlefield 3/Rage/Killzone3/UC3/... level gfx with MLAA, a few extras and players with a slight better rez/framerate.That is so good . That is assuming that it is only RAW power and dont have any new features (DX11 like)

Add the same for CPU and I am OK with that too (although is the best they could invest IMO). It is a GC->Wii jump. 50%+ guys and explosions and building falling in CoD (like) would be a monster .

With comes down to price this one, IMO, everything else seems in place. (I hope it brings WiiMote too, so it can be properly supported and for asymmetric gameplay)

http://www.industrygamers.com/news/wii-u-is-actually-50-more-powerful-than-ps3---report/

And here are some pretty interesting news from Gustav Halling:

http://www.gustavhalling.com/2011/06/08/wiiu-thoughts-nintendos-new-console/

Those Zelda videos are real time rendered, not offline, they could even be controlled to a certain extent.







It will be interesting to see if core gamers buy it for exclusives, and then start to buy third party games for it too, because of the little "improvements".

 

[Teasy]

Even IGN are complaining about the lack of proper thumbsticks - it turns out the triggers are digital not analog as well, so so much for any proper driving games on Wuu
http://au.wii.ign.com/articles/117/1175666p1.html

Every other article I've seen had no problem at all with the sliders, I'm sure some do, but you make it sound like everyone does "even IGN", which isn't true at all.

Let's hope this thing is still a prototype, like they are speculating. Otherwise if this type of controller does become popular, what's stopping both Sony and Microsoft from coming in and doing a proper version. One that has all the usual analog sticks and buttons, and a better touchscreen.

What is it with Nintendo and placing weird limitations on their own products.

Did you ever consider the amazing idea that for this kind of controller those kind of sliders are the correct choice? Did you consider that maybe, just maybe Nintendo have included them for a reason?..

 

[ninelven]

I'd say he considered it about as much as you consider Nintendo to be fallible.

 

[AlNom]

It stands for "You", they made it quite clear at E3

Is it Unique, Unifying, maybe even Utopian?

What a great presentation.

 

[Teasy]

Honestky I hoped Nintendo would do the "right" thing but I'm less and less confident. Anyway the fact that you can have only one WiiU controlleer at a time pretty much convinced me that I won't buy the product.

Actually AFAIR Nintendo (Iwata?) have said that they'll look into using more then one WiiU controller for games, so it seems its not a hardware limitation.

 

[Arwin]

I'm kinda confused by that. Digital cameras can manage face and smile recognition no worries. Triangulating a position from eyes and mouth is easy, and in something like head-tracking where you don't need fine-grained particularly sensitivity, there shouldn't be any issues with resolution limits. I don't understand how they can be struggling and unable to use PSEye in a meaningful way due to technical limits. If so, I guess it means all that Sony PR about possible PSEye uses was all make-believe...

Hang on, I wasn't ever saying WuCon won't see good use. I only said it won't see good use in all the conventional titles that get Wuu ports. Sixaxis may have some examples of great games, but the core games of COD, FIFA, et al, never made use of it. Likewise use of WiCon will be as a DS3 with a screen in the middle by my reckoning. Games developed for Wuu should make good use of WuuCon, but the migration of existing and potential future PS360 owners to Wuu won't be facilitated by an amazingly superior game experience, IMHO. Wuu won't be making headlines with it's amazing FIFA experience because it has a touch screen, any more than PS3 was the platform of choice of FIFA because it enabled you to use natural motions to help with the complex interface. If 3rd parties do embrace WuuCon and actively implement novel and useful systems on it, then Sony is doing something wrong in promoting its own technologies for failing to get same said developers making the most of PS3's input options. EA have announced support for Kinect in four upcoming titles - it'll be interesting to see if that's anything more than the most mundane implementation like voice commands for navigating the menus.

I reckon the issue is the limited quality and resolution of the PS Eye camera. A Move game context is probably even worse with the lighting optimised for Move tracking.

I wanna bet that FIFA for Wu will at least allow something like a playbook interface. It is incredibly easy to just use that screen as a dynamic touch interface for selecting stuff without having to go into menus, showing overhead maps, selecting players not on camera and what-not. At the minimum we'll see touch for menu options and such like for calling a substitute or changing to 4-4-2 whatever without needing a main menu on the main screen, keyboards to type or write/draw things, etc. Their are plenty of generic applications I can see that are easy to program. Sixaxis in that respect simply does not compare.

 

[patsu]

What a great presentation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72uHjSaPF-Q#t=19m0s

Unique and Unified are probably true. The system is designed to consolidate Nintendo's offerings (Wii + DSs). We are having a hard time deciding what it is.

Utopia... (ack !) Italian Plumber Utopia game incoming !

 

[Teasy]

I'd say he considered it about as much as you consider Nintendo to be fallible.

I consider Nintendo to be as fallible as anyone else. However, they design extremely comfortable and functional controllers. So I'm not going to just assume that they're using sliders instead of analogue sticks for no good reason. The size of the controller, and the fact that you have a large touch screen there may make those sliders the better choice.

If you disagree feel free to actually add to the discussion..

 

[nintenho]

One that that really bothers me about the sliders is the position of the right one above the face buttons. I can see why they might do that so you can more easily use the touch screen+face buttons with your right thumb for some games but multiplatform games that are designed to also work well with the DS3 and 360 controller probably won't feel as comfortable using the Utablet. At least for any game that uses dual analog sticks to control the character like first and third person shooters.

That design choice is probably a worse decision than the shape of the face buttons on the gamecube controller. It was ideal for a few games but made a lot of multiplatform games awkward.

 

[lilbroK]

Unique and Unified are probably true. The system is designed to consolidate Nintendo's offerings (Wii + DSs). We are having a hard time deciding what it is.

Utopia... (ack !) Italian Plumber Utopia game incoming !

I can't be ultra because the N64 was actually the Ultra 64 or Ultra NES in other words. Unity is what is will most likely stand for. Either that or Universe.

It would fit with the games as well. Super Mario Bros. < Super Mario Land < Super Mario World < Super Mario Galaxy < Super Mario Universe

 

[Teasy]

One that that really bothers me about the sliders is the position of the right one above the face buttons. I can see why they might do that so you can more easily use the touch screen+face buttons with your right thumb for some games but multiplatform games that are designed to also work well with the DS3 and 360 controller probably won't feel as comfortable using the Utablet. At least for any game that uses dual analog sticks to control the character like first and third person shooters.

That design choice is probably a worse decision than the shape of the face buttons on the gamecube controller. It was ideal for a few games but made a lot of multiplatform games awkward.

When I first saw the controller my first thought was that the position of the sliders looked uncomfortable, thankfully the hands on impressions I've read have allayed that fear. Now I just need to try the thing for myself to be sure

 

[Refreshment]

When I first saw the controller my first thought was that the position of the sliders looked uncomfortable, thankfully the hands on impressions I've read have allayed that fear. Now I just need to try the thing for myself to be sure

Yes, looks like comfort won't be a problem with the controller. In fact im quiet surprised that the circle pad positioning seems very optimal, looks like everything has quick access.

I was expecting a substantially more capable console hardware wise, maybe not in the realms of what we get with generation transitions but not a marginal improvement either. The PR statement in the conference seem to comunicate that a special focus will now be given to the more "traditional" gamer, so its funny to see Nintendo downplay the importance of processing muscle in yet another round. They lost the opportunity to amuse this "new" targeted audience by calling the console something more proper like: "Wii FU" (yet again)

Speaking of clever names, the logo would have been sweet if the 2 "ii" were united in the botton forming an "ü" but differentiation would be harder this way.

 

[Teasy]

I'm hoping its more then a marginal improvement over 360/PS3, that developer quoted earlier in the thread says it will be the most powerful system by far on release, which suggests more then just marginal. But then another recent comment from an analyst suggested he'd heard it was only 50% more powerful, so who knows at this stage? Still at least its basically confirmed that its more powerful, we'll have to wait and see by just how much.

 

[Refreshment]

Well Teasy is not that complicated. For some masochistic reason the gaming audience likes to fall in the same trap time and time again, comenting, interpretating, disecting every small drop of information these people emanate from the mouth, like if some sort of biblical character is talking.

Some times things don't need to be so convulted. If Wii U was substantially more powerful, Nintendo and its partners wouldn't be so ambiguos about it and just would call it as it is. The Wii U has more juice than the 2 old men we have now, but just a pinch much looks like... depressing, considering 7 years will pass since the present generation started up to the release of Nintendo's new system.

 

[pc999]

I'm hoping its more then a marginal improvement over 360/PS3, that developer quoted earlier in the thread says it will be the most powerful system by far on release, which suggests more then just marginal. But then another recent comment from an analyst suggested he'd heard it was only 50% more powerful, so who knows at this stage? Still at least its basically confirmed that its more powerful, we'll have to wait and see by just how much.

Maybe it is marginally better (50%) for multiplatforms.

And it is significantly better for exclusives!


I saw somewhere (a link in these thread?*) that it would bring a custom/exclusive tessellation unit, maybe that is the kind can make significantly improvements for a exclusive that bothers to use it, but in raw power it is only marginal better.

If there is a few more features that are only good for exclusive only games, it can be significantly better and marginally better at the same time, depending of the dev working in a exclusive or a in multiplatform game.


IIRC GC/Wii had plenty of those features in its custom HW, that is why you got beautiful exclusives but marginally better ports from PS2.

Edit * in that Japanese thing a few pages ago