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[BurntPork]

http://wii.ign.com/articles/121/1217360p1.html

I thought you might have meant that. Iwata didn't specifically say that they're not tied to the console. When I read what he said, it seemed more like Windows-style account switching.

Guesses on how big the HDD will be in the Wii U?

I was thinking about this last night and I would hope it's 250g, but I could see them putting in a HDD that's less than 100g.

None. Just 8GB of flash, but you can use any USB HDD.

Also, a <100GB HDD would actually be more expensive than a 250GB due to nobody making them anymore.

 

[Kacho]

It won't have one, at least not one usable by the players. You'll need to be an external.

What will they use to store data? SD cards again?

Edit: Thanks, BurntPork.

 

[EloquentM]

Zero GB!

I'll raise(?) you -2GB!

What will they use to store data? SD cards again?

Edit: Thanks, BurntPork.

Yes, you can also use SD cards.

 

[Jorok Goldblade]

I believe that could be a good seller if advertised right.

Announced for a Halloween release at Nintendo's September Wii U launch details conference. I'm calling it.

If I remember, the reason Fatal Frame 4 didn't come to the US was that NoA wanted another round of bug fixes and Tecmo wanted more money to go back and do more work on a game NCL had already signed off on.

 

[EloquentM]

After all the patch-steria from last night I'd be surprised if Mario kart Wii U didn't implement extra course dlc.

 

[rpmurphy]

I don't think Nintendo has gotten the main points down, and even Apple isn't a decade behind in anything. Just my opinion, though.

Apple products often launch without a lot of features that are common on competing platforms and play catch-up to incorporate those functions over multiple iterations of software or hardware. The iPhone is a prime example of that. Outside of OS functionality, Nintendo has pretty much most of the main points down in making games, which is why they had tremendous success with the DS and Wii (and now beginning with the 3DS). Increasing focus on backend infrastructure of online accounts, e-Shop, etc. is on top of a solidly-built foundation (i.e. where the prime value is).

 

[guek]

After all the patch-steria from last night I'd be surprised if Mario kart Wii U didn't implement extra course dlc.

I wonder how things would work out if nintendo had rolling waves of track DLC that's always free for the first week.

Would it encourage more people to pick up the game as soon as possible in order to take advantage of free DLC? Would that in turn push more people to buy the game as a whole due to the incentive of free content? Would it also encourage people to stay regularly up to date with the game, keeping the online community thriving for a much longer period of time?

Ultimately, I'd guess it'd result in less revenue overall but greater player satisfaction.

 

[BlackJace]

After all the patch-steria from last night I'd be surprised if Mario kart Wii U didn't implement extra course dlc.

You can be sure multiplayer-oriented games such as Mario Kart and Smash Bros Next will see DLC.

As for the patches, something tells me Nintendo won't use them expect for something REALLY big. Not like devs this gen that patch games consistently.

 

[IdeaMan]

I'm expecting officially branded Nintendo external hard drives. I'd probably go for a terabyte for starters.

The IdeaMan tidbit of today

At mid-april, third-parties weren't aware of such decision (an officially branded Nintendo external HDD, sold at launch).

More to come in a post dedicated to the storage situation of the Wii U, in a few weeks (following a little post about features on dev kits, scheduled for tomorrow or monday, on my mini-Wii U-revelations-calandar-until-E3-to-spice-up-the-thread).

 

[BlackJace]

An external hard drive? Interesting.

 

[BY2K]

The IdeaMan tidbit of today

At mid-april, third-parties weren't aware of such decision (an officially branded Nintendo external HDD, sold at launch).

What does it change? We knew since E3 we will be able to use external HHDs.

 

[Roo]

What does it change? We knew since E3 we will be able to use external HHDs.

Maybe that there will be Nintendo branded external HDD?
if it's not then yeah... I don't get it


btw..

BELIEVE!!

 

[BY2K]

Maybe that there will be Nintendo branded external HDD?
if it's not then yeah... I don't get it


btw..

BELIEVE!!

You know, it's Nintendo, they like doing it small, so I wouldn't be surprised if the official HDD were pretty small.

 

[IdeaMan]

What does it change? We knew since E3 we will be able to use external HHDs.

It changes quite a bit.

An officially branded Nintendo HDD, that meets the install/data access/transfer rate supposed requirements of the company to play games in ideal and planned conditions, would show another policy in regard to the Wii U storage, than a jungle of external drives available on the market, with a lot of different performances. It's at mid-april, to big third-parties knowledge, so it's still a possibility for the launch though.

 

[Mithos]

am I the only one that wants Fatal Frame WiiU?

Nope I'd welcome that also, and a HD REmake of Haunted Grounds (Demento) would not be unwelcomed.

 

[Roo]

You know, it's Nintendo, they like doing it small, so I wouldn't be surprised if the official HDD were pretty small.

To be completely honest, more than the capacity I'm more concern about Nintendo being open enough to fix HDDs if something happens.

I don't see them doing it with third party HDD and they will be like.. "you know what? We're sorry, but all your data was lost and can't be replaced." and at least a Nintendo branded HDD will give you a chance to that possibility (to be repaired)

If they indeed release a Nintendo HDD I will buy it even if it's only 250 or 500GB
not gonna risk my gaming life :O

After all, they did it for my Wii and my DS

 

[BY2K]

Is there going to be a official HDD at launch?

 

[IdeaMan]

Is there going to be a official HDD at launch?

At mid-april, third-parties weren't aware of such decision (an officially branded Nintendo external HDD, sold at launch).

More to come in a post dedicated to the storage situation of the Wii U, in a few weeks (following a little post about features on dev kits, scheduled for tomorrow or monday, on my mini-Wii U-revelations-calandar-until-E3-to-spice-up-the-thread).

Worded differently: for the moment, no. Not to the knowledge of third-parties.

 

[Kacho]

btw..

BELIEVE!!

Beautiful.

 

[GameplayWhore]

You know that the + and - buttons were there initially? They were just not horizontally placed, but vertically.

Vertical is better because they'd be more accessible by the thumb. It'd be really awkward to hit the + button if they were horizontally arranged.

I know a number of people who regularly tell me they're waiting for the revision before buying a 3DS.

I would wager there is a significant number of extra sales waiting to be sold to a market waiting for a 3DS revision. It's just a case of when Nintendo decide to do it.

Yeah, I"m in that camp. I want them to get any kinks out of the way before I buy my first two screen Nintendo handheld. That, I'd I'm still hoping for integrated circle pad pro, larger batter, larger screen, and larger buttons.

I appreciate straightforward console names

DS - short for "dual screen"
3DS - It's a 3D, dual screen handheld.
GameCube - It is cube-shaped. It plays games.
PlayStation - station for playing things--games, music, and movies.

Further from that, you have the "Game Boy" line, which was a clear dig at Sony's "Walkman". The "Wii" references the emphasis on multiplayer.

Spoiler

And the phallic controller.

Wii U is a bit confusing, because like the DSi, it SOUNDS like an enhanced Wii instead of an entirely new system. I'm more concerned about the shape of the console unit than the name--as long as the main console LOOKS different enough from the Wii, they can put that on the box as well as the controller to emphasize the fact that you're buying new hardware.

"Wii U" applies directly to the asymmetric multiplayer. "Wii play against U". It also is about how the console is meant to appeal to both groups ("Wii") and individual gamers ("U"), the latter of which the "Wii" fell short on, in the opinion of many in the industry.

 

[GameplayWhore]

Beautiful.

USB 3, eh? Is that not quite optimistic given the specs that Nintendo has so far provided?

 

[DCKing]

Is there going to be a official HDD at launch?

The few specs that were announced showed that there is no USB 3.0 or eSATA on the Wii U, meaning that despite Nintendo supporting external HDDs they are definetely not a priority to them. I don't think we are going to see an official HDD at launch.

I do think that the Wii U will come equipped with 16GB of Flash at minimum. So that's something. I think 16GB will be enough for most of the market Nintendo's aiming for, and even more serious gamers will probably have all their storage needs if they add in an SDXC card. It's going to be such a pain for third party support though, both from indie developers as well as for devs that have to patch their games.

 

[test_account]

You know, it's Nintendo, they like doing it small, so I wouldn't be surprised if the official HDD were pretty small.

*Looks at the WiiU controller*

Seriously though, you get external 2.5" drives today that are pretty small, so it will most likely be small.

 

[GameplayWhore]

The few specs that were announced showed that there is no USB 3.0 or eSATA on the Wii U, meaning that despite Nintendo supporting external HDDs they are definetely not a priority to them. I don't think we are going to see an official HDD at launch.

If they're selling the systems at a loss, it would be a simply smart business move to have a branded hard drive being sold at a

Spoiler

n unfairly high

profit to help balance the losses out a bit. We already know that they support external drives, so I don't think the generation of USB in the device really affects whether or not they'll have their own branded drive at launch.

 

[Penguin]

Just had a random idea
But its within the realm of reason for Nintendo to try
Since they had "Stamps" in Wii Sports Resort as their sort of achievements. Wouldn't it be cool if you earned real stamps or stickers for their "Achievement" system?

 

[HylianTom]

The few specs that were announced showed that there is no USB 3.0 or eSATA on the Wii U, meaning that despite Nintendo supporting external HDDs they are definetely not a priority to them. I don't think we are going to see an official HDD at launch.

I do think that the Wii U will come equipped with 16GB of Flash at minimum. So that's something. I think 16GB will be enough for most of the market Nintendo's aiming for, and even more serious gamers will probably have all their storage needs if they add in an SDXC card. It's going to be such a pain for third party support though, both from indie developers as well as for devs that have to patch their games.

I'd love for them to launch with an HDD immediately available, but something tells me it Isn't happening. Nintendo seems to like holding-off on this type of thing so that they can make a "look what we did!"-type announcement months later.

 

[TheCongressman1]

I like where the +- buttons are. I don't think there's really any need to have instant access to them anymore. If you want to pause it, it won't take much to just reach over and do it. It's not like you'll have to constantly use them.

 

[Oddduck]

To be completely honest, more than the capacity I'm more concern about Nintendo being open enough to fix HDDs if something happens.

I don't see them doing it with third party HDD and they will be like.. "you know what? We're sorry, but all your data was lost and can't be replaced." and at least a Nintendo branded HDD will give you a chance to that possibility (to be repaired)

If they indeed release a Nintendo HDD I will buy it even if it's only 250 or 500GB
not gonna risk my gaming life :O

After all, they did it for my Wii and my DS

I didn't even think about this, but this makes complete sense. I agree with this fully.

Nintendo wouldn't want to deal with people sending in third party HDD's for fixing and lost data issues.

 

[GameplayWhore]

Just had a random idea
But its within the realm of reason for Nintendo to try
Since they had "Stamps" in Wii Sports Resort as their sort of achievements. Wouldn't it be cool if you earned real stamps or stickers for their "Achievement" system?

It's kinda bad to translate playing actions with real life rewards. People tend to game the system more aggressively, imho.

 

[HylianTom]

Just had a random idea
But its within the realm of reason for Nintendo to try
Since they had "Stamps" in Wii Sports Resort as their sort of achievements. Wouldn't it be cool if you earned real stamps or stickers for their "Achievement" system?

I'd love a stickerbook, but I can hear the immature brigade on its way.

Fuckit.. i like!

 

[BlackJace]

I'd love for them to launch with an HDD immediately available, but something tells me it Isn't happening. Nintendo seems to like holding-off on this type of thing so that they can make a "look what we did!"-type announcement months later.

But that's the thing. Nintendo can't afford to do what the did with they 3DS initially. They need to launch the Wii U with EVERYTHING available day one. This year's E3 needs to be an all-out deluge of details about what we're getting this fall.

The more bullet points they have about the system at E3, the more incentive people have to buy. An external HDD available at launch would be a hell of a bullet point.

By the way, has any other console had an external HDD? My memory's a bit foggy.

 

[GameplayWhore]

I like where the +- buttons are. I don't think there's really any need to have instant access to them anymore. If you want to pause it, it won't take much to just reach over and do it. It's not like you'll have to constantly use them.

If they were rather strategic about the location (edit: and size!) of the + and - buttons, they'd have a much better controller for Saturn and late-gen Genesis Virtual Console support.

 

[DCKing]

If they're selling the systems at a loss, it would be a simply smart business move to have a branded hard drive being sold at a

Spoiler

n unfairly high

profit to help balance the losses out a bit. We already know that they support external drives, so I don't think the generation of USB in the device really affects whether or not they'll have their own branded drive at launch.

Well sure. But HDDs aren't really going to rake in the profit for them, and the Wii U isn't likely to sell for a loss. Furthermore, if Nintendo would have seen the HDD as 'standard equipment' for the Wii U now or in the near future, they would have added USB 3.0 or eSATA ports.

 

[TheCongressman1]

If they were rather strategic about the location (edit: and size!) of the + and - buttons, they'd have a much better controller for Saturn and late-gen Genesis Virtual Console support.

I don't understand. There are plenty of other buttons to use.

 

[GameplayWhore]

Well sure. But HDDs aren't really going to rake in the profit for them, and the Wii U isn't likely to sell for a loss. Furthermore, if Nintendo would have seen the HDD as 'standard equipment' for the Wii U now or in the near future, they would have added USB 3.0 or eSATA ports.

Interesting. That's just a difference of speculation, then, in that I believe that Nintendo will sell the Wii U at an initial hardware loss, and you do not. It will be interesting to see what happens there, and I hope they're straightforward when people ask about that in interviews.

 

[DCKing]

I used to think they'd sell it at a slight loss, but a recent rumour that said they weren't going to sounded rather plausible. $299 for profit is my guess.

 

[Fourth Storm]

To be completely honest, more than the capacity I'm more concern about Nintendo being open enough to fix HDDs if something happens.

I don't see them doing it with third party HDD and they will be like.. "you know what? We're sorry, but all your data was lost and can't be replaced." and at least a Nintendo branded HDD will give you a chance to that possibility (to be repaired)

If they indeed release a Nintendo HDD I will buy it even if it's only 250 or 500GB
not gonna risk my gaming life :O

After all, they did it for my Wii and my DS

I see them using cloud storage as a backup. Other than that, save games will be on the fairly reliable flash/SD storage. Having an HDD is just a convenient way to have a bunch of dowloaded content on hand for immediate use, but if it's lost, it can always be redownloaded seeing as it will be tied to a user account.

The worst part, in my eyes, of not having an official HDD is the lack of game installs, but perhaps they can use some of the flash memory as a buffer of sorts. I've heard murmurs which seemed to indicate they were exploring that possibility.

 

[GameplayWhore]

I don't understand. There are plenty of other buttons to use.

The buttons would have the same layout. They'd also be the same layout for many arcade fighters. This isn't a critical thing, of course, and it does represent the continuation of button creep we've seen over the past few generations, but I thought it was interesting that they have this extra row of useful buttons that they could put in a convenient place instead of in a weird, slightly out of the way location.

(of course, the buttons being where I'm suggesting would interfere with the screen, which is why I'm not straightforwardly suggesting that this is what Nintendo will do)

 

[AceBandage]

I think the Wii U will be sold at a break even price.
In that, they'll sell it for what it costs them (in total) to make a unit (which includes shipping and marketing and all that jazz).
That way they aren't really losing money and can quickly hit a profitable point.
And if they have a good lineup at launch, they'll start out making money on it, with the licensing fees and what not.

 

[GameplayWhore]

I think the Wii U will be sold at a break even price.
In that, they'll sell it for what it costs them (in total) to make a unit (which includes shipping and marketing and all that jazz).
That way they aren't really losing money and can quickly hit a profitable point.
And if they have a good lineup at launch, they'll start out making money on it, with the licensing fees and what not.

I was going for "slight loss in hardware, overall profit with sales of other stuff (including games)", which is not too different from what you are saying here.

 

[TheCongressman1]

The buttons would have the same layout. They'd also be the same layout for many arcade fighters. This isn't a critical thing, of course, and it does represent the continuation of button creep we've seen over the past few generations, but I thought it was interesting that they have this extra row of useful buttons that they could put in a convenient place instead of in a weird, slightly out of the way location.

Yeah, I guess it would have been nice for old fighting game support, but other than that, I see no reason.

 

[Penguin]

It's kinda bad to translate playing actions with real life rewards. People tend to game the system more aggressively, imho.

Yeah, but if you don't attach a "Score" to it, and just unlocks stickers.. it only really helps/hurts the person playing the game.

 

[BY2K]

There you have it, my Shane thread turned to shit.

 

[AceBandage]

There you have it, my Shane thread turned to shit.

Positive news about Nintendo?
MUST BE A LIE!

 

[Oddduck]

There you have it, my Shane thread turned to shit.

I really can't wait till Nintendo's E3 conference. All of Neogaf will turn into shit.

 

[DCKing]

I think the Wii U will be sold at a break even price.
In that, they'll sell it for what it costs them (in total) to make a unit (which includes shipping and marketing and all that jazz).
That way they aren't really losing money and can quickly hit a profitable point.
And if they have a good lineup at launch, they'll start out making money on it, with the licensing fees and what not.

Something like that.

$299 + New Super Mario Bros. U pack-in at launch, mark my words. Maybe $5-10 profit for them for launch units or so.

I really wonder what kind of hardware you could get for a ~$130-180 base unit right now (let's substract controller + BD drive + packaging/marketing etc). My guess is a really small CPU and quite a big GPU, like the GameCube had.

 

[lednerg]

Even if it supported USB3, eShop content creators have to assume the user has a USB2 drive attached. Or a really slow SD card for that matter.

 

[invaderzim69]

am I the only one that wants Fatal Frame WiiU?

have yet to play anything from this series but the videos I've seen on youtube but Nintendo seem to have had it exclude for a full generation now right?

damn NoA

I still hopefully waiting for NOA to release Fatal Frame for the Wii. It would be nice to see a Wii U version as well. Sigh...

 

[AceBandage]

Something like that.

$299 + New Super Mario Bros. U pack-in at launch, mark my words. Maybe $5-10 profit for them for launch units or so.

I really wonder what kind of hardware you could get for a ~$130-180 base unit right now (let's substract controller + BD drive + packaging/marketing etc). My guess is a really small CPU and quite a big GPU, like the GameCube had.

From what we're hearing, it's pretty close to that.
The CPU, while more efficient and ultimately better than the 360's, isn't exactly cutting edge.
While the GPU is capable of quite a lot more.
It's impossible to judge exactly what they can afford, since these are all custom parts and we don't know what kind of prices Nintendo can get, but for about $200, it certainly would destroy the 360/PS3.

 

[Rösti]

Now, this is nothing big, I saw it in a job listing:

PEOPLE-PLACE-PURPOSE-POTENTIAL

Position Summary
We are looking for a knowledgeable PC, Console and cooperative team gamer. Needs to be proficient with the gaming industry, new gaming titles and products (headsets, consoles, glasses, etc) and well plugged into the gaming community.

Responsibilities:
A product management intern supporting Plantronics gaming initiatives would:
• Compile product research about product features and gaming use cases, identifying trends and opportunities for Plantronics
- Work with internal Gaming community and outside vendors
• Project deliverable: PowerPoint presentation that communicates opportunities.
- Trends, New console information, Wii U, "Xbox 720", PS4, PC, Cloud Gaming, Mobile Gaming/Platforms
• SWOT and feature analysis of competitors product and vision for the gaming Market
- Analysis of gamer forums, Social Media on Audio and communication pain points
- Be exposed to learn about the process for defining new products and product opportunities
• Project deliverable: Engagement with gamers at PAX Prime for product ideas and use cases
- Build surveys and instruments to validate and extract key customer issues and opportunities

Source: https://plantronics.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobdetail.ftl?lang=en&job=31942

Plantronics creates high quality headsets and other communication tools for both consumers and industrial use. The company has been around for fifty years and has partnered with Avaya, Cisco, IBM and Microsoft. For gaming, PC is the prioritized platform, but three headsets are available for Xbox 360 and one headset is available for PlayStation 3.

The job listing apparently concerns gathering information about new consoles. Wii U and PlayStation 4 are mentioned, while Xbox 720 is between quotation marks. They have Microsoft as a partner, so maybe they know the real name?

But anyway, this is nothing big but perhaps Plantronics is looking into developing a headset for Wii U. It's been a slow day.