Wii U

[Don Carlos]

Nintendo has announced it will launch a new version of its Wii console in 2012.

No technical details about the machine have been revealed, but gamers will get an early preview at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles in June.

The original Wii proved a runaway hit for Nintendo when it launched five years ago.

However, sales have been gradually declining in the face of tough competition from PlayStation, XBox 360 and mobile gaming platforms.

Wii was the first console of the current generation to offer motion controlled gameplay.

In the past year, Microsoft has introduced its Kinect system for XBox, while Sony launched PlayStation Move.

Nintendo's chief executive, Satoru Iwata suggested that his company was preparing a fresh innovation.

"It will offer a new way of playing games within the home," he said.

Gameplay

Some observers had speculated that the Wii 2 would simply update the existing machine, adding a handful of features such as high definition graphics.

However Johnny Minkley, an editor at Eurogamer.net, believes that Nintendo could be planning a broader redesign.

"The talk was about Wii HD, but I do not see Nintendo doing that. It will do something more innovative," he told BBC News.

Mr Minkley noted that Nintendo marketed the original Wii around its motion-sensing handset, rather than technical specifications - something he expects to see repeated.

"PlayStation 3 and XBox 360 were part of the graphics arms race.

"Nintendo would never launch a console based on the strength of hardware. Theirs has to have a gameplay point to it," he said.

Sales slump

The Wii took an early lead in the battle of the consoles soon after it launched in late 2006.

A combination of its relatively low price and its appeal to non-traditional gamers - including women and older players - helped the company sell 20m units in the first year.

In the financial year 2009/10, Nintendo shipped 20.1m Wii consoles. However, that fell to 15.1m in 2010/11.

Nintendo's profits for the same period slipped by 66% from 228bn yen (£1.6bn) to 77bn yen (£570m)

Market data suggested that Wii's share of new console sales have now slipped to second place behind Sony's PS3

In the first three months of 2011, PS3 held a 36% share, compared with 32% for the Wii and 31% for XBox 360

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13186597

[Tsakali]

on a related note:

(No new PlayStation, Xbox until 2014?)
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gad ... tion.xbox/

[bitWISE]

Augmented reality like the 3DS? Perhaps using wireless glasses.

[Scarface]

Additionally, IGN has learned that the system will be based on a revamped version of AMD's R700 GPU architecture, not AMD's Fusion technology as previously believed, which will, as previously reported, out perform the PlayStation 3's NVIDIA 7800GTX-based processor. Like the Xbox 360, the system's CPU will be a custom-built triple-core IBM PowerPC chipset, but the clocking speeds will be faster. The system will support 1080p output with the potential for stereoscopic 3D as well, though it has not been determined whether that will be a staple feature

http://wii.ign.com/articles/116/1163362p1.html

[bitWISE]

The design for the 360 cpu is actually the same as the PS3 too. IBM sold it to MS while they were still developing the idea with Sony.

[nbohr1more]

The Wii GPU is still considered to be a mystery to hardware mavens over at Beyond3D. The best guess is that it some of the functional units were doubled from Gamecube (mostly texture pipeline stuff) but there are those who feel that the other special-purpose units were beefed-up too... Without Factor-5 around to push the system, it's hard to see what it's potential is...

Moving to something with programmable shaders would ease development for the system but would also drive cross-platform porting so Nintendo exclusives would be more rare. If they make their development pipeline pure OpenGL 4.0 (or equivalent) then they could still retain some lock-in against the current consoles I suppose.

The Xbox360 CPU is actually a dirty-trick played on Sony. IBM was co-financed to develop the Power series portion of the Cell. What was learned about the performance needs from Sony was passed to the team who worked on the Xbox360. Though, the Toshiba SPU's in Sony's Cell have no equivalent in the Xbox360's CPU...

I don't think Wii 2 will be a graphical power-house but I think it will be able to push 720P so it won't be a blur-fest on HD sets.

I see Nintendo doing something more with voice or gesture recognition. Maybe a dedicated visual detection processor rather than the Kinect software solution.

If they did something daring like include a 3D display with the console (maybe a small DLP projector? ...or even VR Goggles?) that would be pretty groovy. But I put that in the .000001% probability bucket.

I wish they would go out on a limb and make something like a hardware dedicated ray-tracer or voxel GPU but they seem to have abandoned that approach.

Another cool possibility would be a dedicated AI processor. Something that would grant NPC's in open-world RPG's (etc) the ability to better track and react to story changes and player behavior. That is probably one of the most neglected tech development areas but I doubt Nintendo would touch it either.

[bitWISE]

Moving to something with programmable shaders would ease development for the system but would also drive cross-platform porting so Nintendo exclusives would be more rare. If they make their development pipeline pure OpenGL 4.0 (or equivalent) then they could still retain some lock-in against the current consoles I suppose.

I don't really think that factors into any AAA studio's decision process. The underlying graphics engine is a small part of the puzzle that just takes a simple abstraction layer to marry the game logic to any platform you like. Any team with the skills and resources to target more than one platform won't be held up it.

And even if you ignore that, your argument also implies it would be harder to port games onto the system.

[Eraser]

As long as we're not going to see any decent games other than yet another incarnation of Zelda and Mario, I think I'll pass this time.

[MKJ]

unimpressed.

[Eraser]

I read somewhere that Nintendo is trying to get GTA 5 to this new console. Then again, Nintendo have been trying ever since GTA 3 or Vice City to get a GTA game to Nintendo consoles.

[nbohr1more]

Moving to something with programmable shaders would ease development for the system but would also drive cross-platform porting so Nintendo exclusives would be more rare. If they make their development pipeline pure OpenGL 4.0 (or equivalent) then they could still retain some lock-in against the current consoles I suppose.

I don't really think that factors into any AAA studio's decision process. The underlying graphics engine is a small part of the puzzle that just takes a simple abstraction layer to marry the game logic to any platform you like. Any team with the skills and resources to target more than one platform won't be held up it.

And even if you ignore that, your argument also implies it would be harder to port games onto the system.

This has nothing to do with logic. It's all about Nintendo's irrational devotion to making their hardware hard to cross-develop for. They feel it's a good piracy deterrent and keeps unique titles trapped by the encumbrance of having to mitigate the differences. Yes, it's a completely stupid way of doing business, but it's Nintendo's modus operandi. I would not be shocked to see the next GPU be yet another weirdo DirectX 8 on steroids style chip. Maybe ATI will bastardize the R700 and make it act like a beefed-up "Hollywood GPU" by tinkering with the pipes. I would not be surprised to see developers swearing about fighting against the ancient fixed function style hardware for the Wii 2 like they did for the Wii.

[Eraser]

Uh, I dunno, but I have a hard time believing that cross platform software is influenced by the ease of developing for the console. Business decisions and marketing are far, far greater influences on this. If EA or Activision want a game on all three major console manufacturers' systems, then it damn well is released on all three. In fact, I always understood that the PS3's Cell processor is incredibly hard to develop for and is a completely different architecture from the XBox 360 architecture or x86/x64, yet there's countless of games released on all three platforms.

The reason why we see few games on PS3/XBox 360/PC as well as Wii is more likely due to the difference in performance levels and the Wii marketability of a good number of games. If mindblowing HD graphics is one of the selling points of your game, then having to port that to Wii, tack on motion control and get that to sell on there, then maybe it just isn't worth it. It's not so much a software development decision as it is a business decision.

[Eraser]

rofl

[nbohr1more]

This forum rocks

[Plan B]

Better believe it, bitch.

[Eraser]

"Q3W will make you it's bitch" sounds like an awesome slogan. Hmm, it does sound kind of familiar though...

[nbohr1more]

8GB storage and 25GB Optical.

Gamecube reborn? (back in the traditional races?)

[fKd]

one step forward, 2 steps back.

[nbohr1more]

Ninty haven't taken a step forward with hardware since the SNES, handhelds excluded.

I dunno...

Gamecube definitely could out-muscle the PS2 hardware (which nobody could properly code for except perhaps Tim Moss of GoW fame)...

It was competitive with the Xbox with much less silicon.

The Gamecube's biggest failing (which carried over to the Wii) is that developers ported games from the PS2 to it and thus it's hardware advantages were rarely ever seen except in the Factor 5 "Rogue Squadron" titles.

The Wii, even though financially successful, was a foolish regression. The appeal is superficial. Game designers have been shoehorning all game genres into Dual Analog control and ignoring the natural control offered by custom controller options. The Wii offered the promise of being able to play a driving game with a real steering motion and an FPS with a real gun pointer without having to shell-out for tons of cumbersome or expensive peripherals. Of course it didn't live-up to these potentials and neither do the competitor's new motion controllers.

The game company that really "gets it" will include:

1) A dual analog pad
2) A steering wheel
3) A mouse and keyboard
4) A Light Gun
5) A Motion wand
6) A Trackball
7) An Arcade Stick
8) A Flight Yolk

There are game genres which simply fail to entertain when played on a Dual Analog pad. The only way to offer a premium experience is to make sure that the correct controls are available to the client base and thus the developers target the BEST option for the genre they choose.

Or to put another way:

No matter how great such and such console FPS looks, you will be aggravated by the sloppy analog stick camera and thus it won't be fun.

Yet you could play blocky ole Doom II with it's God-given Mouse\Keyboard PC FPS glory and have too much fun to explain.

Game design has long become something to overcome the problems of the standard console mold. Now we've got games like the new "Prince of Persia" title that has your player auto-climb surfaces (etc). They are spoon feeding the controls or playing long animation sequences to hide the fact that you can't control the game with the precision you could if given the correct controller for the job.

The Wii promised to give these correct control choices back.

But it lied

[nbohr1more]

Duplicate post...

[Eraser]

The Wii, even though financially successful, was a foolish regression.

Regression in terms of CPU/GPU power sure, but in what other ways? I'm pretty sure it was a very smart move of Nintendo to not directly compete with Sony/MS in terms of muscle power.

[DooMer]

http://www.1up.com/news/nintendo-stream-console

[Don Carlos]

Wii U to be priced and release date given tomorrow morning....

[MKJ]

lol nobody cares

[Don Carlos]

It's true...and it's fucking expensive