Next-Gen Wii HD Due by 2011

[ziutek]

Hi,

What They Play has an article describing first impressions from a NDA'ed presentation by Nintendo:

http://www.whattheyplay.com/blog/2008/09/30/new-wii-due-by-2011/

I'm wondering why they are increasing the hardware capabilities. I think the Wii proved that the general public wants more immersion in the games and not better graphics.

 

[fehu]

this must be a wii2, not a redesign of the actual console
and improving the old hardware don't means that they will stop improving the experience

 

[kyleb]

I hope it will render previous generation Nintendo games in HD. I'm really dissapointed MS and Sony didn't build their consoles to do that, particularly after Bungie's claim that the 360 would render the previous Halo games at 720p,

 

[Mobius1aic]

Honestly if it's half as powerful as a 360 while still delivering native 720p rendering resolution, I'll be happy. The Wii is a great idea, but WAS underpowered for alot of different types of software that are important in the console arena, namely FPS.

Basically this is all they need in my book for me to be happy performance wise:

CPU: PowerPC based dual-core running @ 2.0 GHz @ 32 nm
GPU: equivalent power of a Radeon 3470 w/ 128 MB dedicated VRAM @ 32 nm
RAM: 256 MB GDDR3 @ 500 MHz
HDD: 100 GB SATA
Power draw: ~50 watts

Then I want BF2 PC port to the Wii, as well as the original PC Far Cry and FEAR

 

[knitecrow]

Nintendo will have a resigned Wii once sales of start dropping but it is going to disappoint many who are expecting more power. I expect the redesign to be akin to what DS was to DS lite or DSi. Nintendo isn't playing the same game as Sony or Microsoft.

This has been discussed before, but does rendering in 720P give the best experience? What if, the same power was used to render in 480p but spread in other departments like lighting etc?

 

[kyleb]

Then it would still look really soft on the big HDTVs which wind up in more and more homes every year. The lighting and such in Wii games is fine, the resolution isn't.

 

[assen]

This has been discussed before, but does rendering in 720P give the best experience? What if, the same power was used to render in 480p but spread in other departments like lighting etc?

Wii developers with a few notable exceptions (Galaxy, The Conduit, whatchamacallit-Mountain) are making games which are far from the system's graphics capabilities, you can't expect them to do anything special in 480p. It's easier to let them render the same plain-colored, rough figures in 720p.

The lighting and such in Wii games is fine, the resolution isn't.

Excuse me? Can you show me something other than SMG with "fine" lighting?

 

[kyleb]

"Fine" as in passable, I'd say evem Wii Sports lighting is acceptable, but not so much for the low resolution.

 

[pipo]

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1222878&postcount=1125

 

[ninzel]

Maybe some day we will look back at the Wii1 as a conservative approach experiment that was less about winning outright but more about testing the markets with ideas to see how the next next gen should play out. An experiment that went well mind you.

 

[ken_masters]

I hope it will render previous generation Nintendo games in HD. I'm really dissapointed MS and Sony didn't build their consoles to do that, particularly after Bungie's claim that the 360 would render the previous Halo games at 720p,

Yeah!!

I can imagine games like Rogue Squadron or Resident Evil saga at 720p. But I miss a lot a LAN multiplayer support for more games, only Mario Kart Double Dash and some other can be played in a local network. I love LAN party!! Imagine Goldeneye in full screen with 8 players. Awesome.

Honestly if it's half as powerful as a 360 while still delivering native 720p rendering resolution, I'll be happy. The Wii is a great idea, but WAS underpowered for alot of different types of software that are important in the console arena, namely FPS.

Basically this is all they need in my book for me to be happy performance wise:

CPU: PowerPC based dual-core running @ 2.0 GHz @ 32 nm
GPU: equivalent power of a Radeon 3470 w/ 128 MB dedicated VRAM @ 32 nm
RAM: 256 MB GDDR3 @ 500 MHz
HDD: 100 GB SATA
Power draw: ~50 watts

Then I want BF2 PC port to the Wii, as well as the original PC Far Cry and FEAR

But knowing the Nintendo policy that it's anti-HDD... I'll be happy too with these specs but honestly, it's difficult for me to imagine a Nintendo game console with crispy graphics again, like the Game Cube supose in the past gen.

Too, I think in wich optical support works Nintendo for the "Wii 2". DVD-DL??
DVD player capabilities? yes, please!!!

 

[eastmen]

I would think that simply liscensing the xbox 360 hardware would be enough for Nintendo. I'm sure microsoft wouldn't mind making money on either. in 2011 we should be on 45nm process so the 360 would be cool running. They can double the ram to a gig and they would have a great system that already has a ton of gaming support that can easily be released on the new wii hd . who knows the 360 gpu and cpu may already bee on 1 chip at that point in time.

 

[ken_masters]

Nintendo ever prefers a custom made hw.

 

[eastmen]

Nintendo ever prefers a custom made hw.

Well remember , they could basicly get with the xbox 360 hardware , very stable and well understood dev tools , mature hardware that has been through many revisions. They would also get an instant library of titles and game engines. I'm sure devs would love to port over xbox 360 games and if the ps3 is still getting new games by that point they can port those over also. By adding the extra ram they can take the 360 further than devs were able to do with the limited 512 megs.

Who knows what nintendo will do , but if I was in their postions where its my controllers and content that sells my system and not the hardware , i would look else where for hardware and software tools.

 

[Freak'n Big Panda]

There's no way nintendo will use x360 hardware for the next wii. It's not even possible, m$ would never allow it and if they did it would cost a fortune. Wii will probably go through a bunch of redesigns in it's lifetime without any major changes to the underlying hardware. I doubt we will see a real Wii 2 (upgraded hw) until at least 2012 or something, judging from the life span of their hand held devices like gbc and ds something around this time would make sense. The Wii borrows heavily from the strategies that made the ds so successful.

 

[Skrying]

The Wii will get a real redesign when Microsoft and Sony release their true next generation consoles. Until then at most we'll get is a form factor redesign with the same underlying hardware. Potentially a DSi like remake with additional functions built on top of the basic system at a premium cost.

 

[eastmen]

There's no way nintendo will use x360 hardware for the next wii. It's not even possible, m$ would never allow it and if they did it would cost a fortune. Wii will probably go through a bunch of redesigns in it's lifetime without any major changes to the underlying hardware. I doubt we will see a real Wii 2 (upgraded hw) until at least 2012 or something, judging from the life span of their hand held devices like gbc and ds something around this time would make sense. The Wii borrows heavily from the strategies that made the ds so successful.

I don't see why ms wouldn't allow it. At some point producing 360s themselves wont be worth while , but if you still have a party willing to pay liscensing fees for both the hardware and software tools then why not. If MS and Nintendo reached a deal that would mean at least another 5 years of xbox 360 royalitys for ms. They could even release their older xbox 360 games on the nintendo version of it. THe wii 1 is at what 30m or so units now. You think MS wouldn't want to get in on that action by just liscensing the system to them.

As for when a wii 2 releases , I highly doubt that they will wait for after the next gen systems. The wii will look even more dated compared to a 2011 high end console and at that point many consumers will have high def tvs and will want something to take advantage of it.

 

[Freak'n Big Panda]

It would cost Nintendo money to do that as opposed to just using their own hardware. The contract wouldn't be favorable in the slightest, that's even if MS would allow something like this to happen at all (I highly doubt they would.... if the 360 hardware and games were still profitable they would just keep selling the 360).

And why would Nintendo want to do it anyways? The Wii and 360 occupy different parts of the market. Wii gamers aren't looking for fps' and sports games (the traditional 360 staples) so any money spent on supporting these games would be largely wasted. It just makes no sense. Nintendo is far better off ocing the current hardware, adding some ram and a small ssd and calling it a day.

 

[Carl B]

Not only would MS allow it, they would love it; MS was trying to get Nintendo and Sony onboard their API's and dev tools before this gen even began. But as for Nintendo, there would be essentially no benefit whatsoever - to me it is pretty much an impossibility. As for an HD Wii 2, I mean... duh! Going SD in 2006, yes, they could easily get away with it. In 2011, pushing out a 720p res on 2011 hardware will be plenty cheap for Nintendo to manage in silicon terms; I don't assume eye-candy galore, but I do think it'll go up a notch in "eye-pleasing."

 

[Flux]

There's no way nintendo will use x360 hardware for the next wii. It's not even possible, m$ would never allow it and if they did it would cost a fortune. Wii will probably go through a bunch of redesigns in it's lifetime without any major changes to the underlying hardware. I doubt we will see a real Wii 2 (upgraded hw) until at least 2012 or something, judging from the life span of their hand held devices like gbc and ds something around this time would make sense. The Wii borrows heavily from the strategies that made the ds so successful.

Seeing on how nintendo opted for a single core design with the Wii. Ati is bought out by AMD. Nintendo could use....

(modified)PowerPC 970FX 2ghz
(modified)Hollywood GPU 500Mhz(With shader support)