GameplayWhore
Member
Official Wii U Speculation Thread VI Theme Song - "♫The very thought of U and I forget to do the little ordinary things that everyone ought to do The mere idea of U, the longing here for U. You never know how slow the moments go 'til I'm near to U.♫"
"The Body"
Who? Reggie Fils-aime, the president at Nintendo of America. He kicks ass, takes names, and prevents localization of cool games.
The massive cult of personality that he's spawned on the Internet makes it a lot more fun to watch Nintendo in action. He's a fantastic quote machine, and he is generally very good at getting the company's philosophy across without saying much at all.
In just a couple weeks, get ready to "tick that box"!
"The Mind"
(just kidding here's a nicer quote)
"It isn't about 'games', for me, personally, and it never really was. It was about creating something- anything- far bigger than yourself."
Who? Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Donkey Kong. And Mario. And Zelda. And Pikmin. Also instrumental to some degree in the design or implementation of Excitebike, Ice Climber, Kid Icarus, Mother, Pilotwings, Mario Kart, Mario Paint, Wave Race, Star Fox, Kirby, Pokémon, Yoshi's Island, Killer Instinct, 1080° Snowboarding, F-Zero, Mario Party, Super Smash Bros., Luigi's Mansion, Paper Mario, Wario Land, Eternal Darkness, Pac Man Vs., DKC, Metroid Prime, Geist okay, maybe ignore that one, Chibi-Robo!, Nintendogs, Wii Sports, and Wii Fit, among others.
The personal deity of many a Nintendo fan, he makes fun worth having. He's likely at least partly responsible for the popularity explosion of the meme that led to this thread's subject line (assuming it hasn't been changed by the mods yet).
He could have made Halo if he wanted to, but he decided to throw Microsoft a bone.
"The Heart"
"I have a question for you. Who's your daddy?"
Who? Satoru Iwata. He has great hair. And he has shown rather legendary business acumen for much of his time as the President of Nintendo. But now that times are tough, we ask ourselves: Was he merely a three hit wonder, or is he simply playing around before going in for an explosive kill?
"The Hand of Death"
If you thought I was going to say "The Soul" here
you don't know Him very well, do you?
We know that deep down inside, Hiroshi Yamauchi loves us. But we also know that deeper down inside, we are his mere pawns. We accept this, because ninjas.
Masahiro Sakurai
"lots of people have to give their all to make a game, but some people think the sequel process happens naturally"
Eiji Aonuma
Member of the band "The Wind Wakers". Also makes Zelda games between gigs.
Kazumi Totaka
♫ Doot doo doo doot do doot dee ♫
Ryuta Kawashima
Honorary member of RadioloGAF
Note: PM me some of your favourite Nintendo little guys (who are still at it, that is) that I can add to here (preferably with an amusing factoid or really cool quote)!
Multiple sources suggest that Google is working with Nintendo in some way, possibly in regards to their software layer (but nothing to do with Android). There is already a known, non-secret operating system which has been co-copyrighted by both Google and Nintendo for years. This OS might have absolutely nothing to do with any partnership, but there definitely seems to be something going on here.
Sony
Currently in a difficult place right now. Sales of their current gen console are going well, but after over five years of its existence, financial losses have been massive and generally continue to be so. This is desperation time for the former industry behemoth. And, as this past generation taught us, scrappy desperation is the most dangerous tool against a console maker's competition.
Microsoft
Currently enjoying strong sales in the current generation, partly due to a well executed networked community plan and a willingness to occasionally go on its own branch instead of copying the competition. They achieved profitability on their influential Xbox 360 line in the fourth calendar quarter of 2011, a mere six years after the line was unveiled, but it looks like they'll be able to keep this going. As the past two generations taught us, an excessively healthy bank account is the most dangerous tool against a console maker's competition.
Pachter's Angels
Currently laughing more than Iwata.
Our vast array of hard working posters have typed their butts off to give you, the lurker, one hundred thousand posts of pure intellectual* speculation in merely one year. We aim to double that in the next six months.
* ymmv
Nibel: Speculative interface designer. Other sites like to steal his awesome controller mockups.
HylianTom: Star player. Keeper of the memory of the bestest dog ever. Gave us a running history for a while of what happened on each day in 2006 as we went along. Top tier taste in films.
IceDoesntHelp: Wants you to love him. Now upgraded with the power of animated gifs.
ColdBlooder, Linkhero1: They like Day of Reckoning, if my sources are right. That puts them at the highest level of discerning Wrasslin' gamer fan.
Cabbie: When E3 mania finally takes down NeoGAF.com, Nintendo GAF still has a home, thanks to this enterprising soul.
lednerg: Brave adventurer who digitally traveled to Spain to find our vandalous brethren.
EatChildren: His name is red. This probably means that he has the "Hate Plague" from Transformers. Approach with caution and do not offer him pirated warez.
AniHawk: A New Hype.
Discomurf, Disorientator: Helpful Patent gnomes
wsippel, Refreshment.01: The best flame wars are when both parties have some genuine technical acumen in the field.
And that is merely a taste of our list! It goes on ad infinitum with the greatest of all Ninthings and other denizens of GAF.
BY2K and jump_button, have returned, but: axisofweevils, BurntPork, DefectiveReject, guek, Strife91, Truth101, and Yaceka are lost souls for now, some for ever.
Forever stalkers from the "other" forum? I Like Feet, Stuntman, DrGAKMAN, Cookychan
Here are a list of common things you can do if you wish to join them
A) initiate a "ban bet"
B) embed or link illegal or sexy content in a post
C) troll
D) portbeg
Or we can all take the high road and show the rest of GAF that it's possible to be mega-hyped without descending quite that far into madness. Come on, we can do it, people!
lherre: Has much to say about secret Nintendo plans but is apparently busy with "a life". We're not sure what that is, but it must be a really fun game, because he's hardly ever here!
John Harker: True master of the hit and run
IdeaMan: Often leads the charge towards actual speculation in this speculation thread. Probably the most frequent poster of breaking news bits found on news sites out there. A very small percentage of his posts also proffer small but interesting tidbits not heard elsewhere. By far, the most controversial topic of discussion in these threads, which is rather shocking, because this is a thread about Nintendo.
ShockingAlberto: That rare Real-GAF member who occasionally knows things.
Rösti: Really impressive data miner, capable of extracting secrets hidden in plain sight then explaining highly technical info to us plebs in an acceptably plebic manner.
RawmeatCowboy: He secretly feeds us clandestine information about Nintendo in a back room. Sadly, we cannot tell you where to go to find him.
There are others who have not been listed here. Represented above or not, they all make it easier to obtain or understand the finer points of what information is hiding around out there.
(as in, time to become privy to the information at hand about the thing that will be in your hand; the other possible meaning, the one you were probably thinking about, you sick sick person, likely applies as well)
DRC - Display Remote Controller
Official Aliases: "Subscreen", "The New Controller"
GAF Aliases: Wii U Tablet ("WUT", the most common thing people said when they first saw it), uTab, uPad, WiiPad, padlet, UC (pronounced "uicy", but only likely to happen if HylianTom stages a takeover of NCL), "The Wii U's Controller", "SubCon"
Capable of delivering fully-rendered, 480p images to your hands at 60fps. The system's gpu technically supports simultaneous output to four of them, but there are roadblocks on the way to making this happen for the end user. Has a sixth gen like layout with the following differences:
* triggers not confirmed to be analog
* face buttons likely not analog
* analog directionals have just recently been confirmed to be actual analog sticks
* A speaker and headphone port
* accelerometer, gyrometer and magnetometer for orientation and motion sensing
* That big honking resistive touch screen and a stylus
* What is partly confirmed to be a TV remote style IR transmitter
* A camera facing you which should have the capability of face tracking
* A built-in sensor bar
* A stand for when you use it as a sensor bar or as an accessory screen when using other controllers.
* An NFC receiver to interact with properly chipped real world objects (apparently represented by a small square below the d-pad)
* An unconfirmed small square next to the power button which could be a toggle to switch a one-display game from TV to controller
Note: Highly respected sources on this website claim that the analog directionals are "clicky".
Wii Remote Plus - You can use it to play virtual drums! Expected to be unchanged from the previous generation.
Nunchuk - Makes the classic Wii a split controller system, something we need more of for our aging, aching arms. Expected to be unchanged from the previous generation
Classic Controller Pro - Arguably the best sixth gen style controller, but here's hoping that it'll go truly wireless this time around
Expected to be unchanged from the previous generation D:
StreetPass device - You carry around this rumoured NFC-based "avatar" of your Wii U in your pocket, which allows the network to magically and dynamically interact with you as a player somehow. Also could potentially be used for buy-and-run at retail stores, if Nintendo's clever enough.
Wii U - An external drive with some added circuitry, from the looks of it. Rumoured to contain:
* Tri-core IBM "Power Architecture" processor, likely much more capable than that on the Xbox 360 but unlikely to ≥2x as fast in real world benchmarks. :O
* Pretty impressive AMD gpu, though within a power and cost envelope suitable for smallish embedded devices. Early rumour suggested ≥ 1 TFLOPS performance, but this was based on poorly mistranslated speculation. Mid-to-high triple digit GFLOPS are now generally expected. BS Xbox 360 multiplier factor could be as high as π.
* Memory, based on leaks, expected to be at least 1.5GB. Roughly 0.5GB is said to be reserved for the system's OS functions (an astonishingly high number, one never heard before for a home console), but this limiting number will likely decrease.
* A small amount of internal flash, rumoured to be split between a ~512MB, purely system-accessed chip and a far larger chunk of hardware for storing saves and other digital content.
* Expected capability for unlimited USB external hard drive expansion
* Support for Blu-ray media (sans the license)
* Also possible is the ability for games to run off of an SD card. This was reportedly used for systems at E3'11 and CES, but whether or not it becomes available for consumers is unknown.
Click for a compilation of (mostly developer) quotes found about the Wii U's graphics
Operating System: It's going to be quite impressive, with perhaps a ton of social features. We know little about it but have heard some very impressive murmurs from industry insiders
There may be some sort of Video on Demand, Pay Per View service
Retro's title? Probably not Zelda, probably not Metroid, certainly not Donkey Kong, probably not their own thing given the company's M.O. The only conclusion we can reach here is that Nintendo's just paying them to eat donuts.
Crytek UK? Damnit you guys, I'm all out of soul to sell, but you know what I want, and you know what I'd do for it! Anyway, one recent crazytown rumour suggested they were making a demo for the system but not a full-on game.
Confirmed titles (initially stolen from somebody I forgot, probably Rösti, list to be updated as we go forward):
1001 Spikes (developed by Nicalis, publisher unknown)
Aliens Colonial Marines (developed by Gearbox Software, published by Sega)
Assassins Creed III (developed by Ubisoft Montrea, published by Ubisoft)
Avengers: Battle for the Earth (developed by Ubisoft Quebec, published by Ubisoft) - Might have been a slip in a press release
Batman Arkham City (developed by Rocksteady Studios, published by Warner Bros. Interactive)
Cloudberry Kingdom (developed by pwnee Studios)
Darksiders II (developed by Vigil Games, published by THQ)
DiRT (developed and published by Codemasters)
Dragon Quest X Online (developed by Armor Project and Square Enix, published by Square Enix)
F1 (developed and published by Codemasters)
Ghost Recon Online (developed by Ubisoft Singapore, published by Ubisoft)
Killer Freaks from Outer Space (developed by Ubisoft Montpellier, published by Ubisoft)
Lego City Stories (developed by Traveller's Tales, published by Nintendo)
Marvel Pinball (developed by Zen Studios, publisher unclear)
Metro: Last Light (developed by 4A Games, published by THQ)
Ninja Gaiden 3: Razors Edge (developed by Team Ninja, published by Tecmo-Koei)
Pikmin 3 (developed by Nintendo EAD, published by Nintendo)
Pinball Arcade (developed by FarSight Studios)
Project CARS (developed by Slightly Mad Studios, publisher unknown)
Rayman Legends (developed by Ubisoft Montpellier, published by Ubisoft)
Super Smash Bros (developed by Project Sora probably with help from other teams, published by Nintendo)
Untitled project by Monolith Software
Untitled Rabbids project (developed and published by Ubisoft)
Hinted/Rumored:
Activision (Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Treyarch, Vicarious Visions, James Bond 007 game)
Bandai-Namco (Ridge Racer, Tekken)
Bloober Team (multiple titles)
Capcom (Action game listing)
Crytek (Nottingham team has Wii U SDK, and and they're excited about it)
Deep Silver Inc. (multiple titles)
EA (Sports titles, Medal of Honor Warfighter, Overstrike, Visceral Games)
Funbox Media Ltd (multiple titles)
LucasArts (action/adventure title, MMO)
Maximum Family Games, LLC. (racing title)
Reflections Ubisoft (several linkedln profiles hinting at Wii U project)
Rebellion (multiple titles)
Retro Studios (Nintendo)
Sega (Sonic, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed)
Shin'en (has Wii U SDK)
E3 '11 Demos which could become titles:
New Super Mario Bros. Mii
Drawing app
Othello
Baseball
Golf
Wii Fit followup
Apartment Creeper spying game
Ninja star game
Videophone app
Web Browser
Photo/video viewer
Zelda
Yka's very well put together argument why Retro's game could very likely be be a Zelda title
And recent hubbub from folks such as Shane Satterfield (Editor in Chief from GameTrailers) as well as a few insiders here suggest that there is a very impressive number of yet-to-be-announced games coming for E3.
What is Nintendo Doing to Win the World?
* Matching marketing dollars for third party software
* Providing free middleware from Havok, Autodesk and Green Hills
* Dramatically loosening restrictions on developers for digital content (no ridiculously small size limit!)
* Account-based online multiplayer
* Using modern graphics architecture in a package designed to reach early profitability: The Garden Demo, made on development hardware reportedly not as powerful as what is being used today, displayed usage of modern shaders which were absent from Nintendo's arsenal until the 3DS, as well as other current gpu features considered necessary for easy development of graphically rich titles. Lack of a modern gpu architecture was perhaps the most substantial roadblock for development on Nintendo platforms in the last generation. The nice bonus is that the low hanging fruit has already been plucked, and there is no large shift in gpu feature set on the horizon for upcoming systems.
* For excitable Internet fans of E3 videos, Nintendo will be delivering four important items to your PC: Their E3 conference; a Software Showcase; the low-key megaton producing round table which previously had only been available via media report; and a developer dicussion with a Wii U hardware producer. (keep watch here)
The Road to Online
UncleSporky's list of online features which Nintendo has supported at various stages of the last decade, has recently introduced, and is hoped to improve in the near future
Nintendo's "Wild West" philosophy promises to allow third parties as much leverage as possible in the development of their online communities. Hopefully, everything will still be tied together in a way that makes life easier for everybody.
No, not those Links. These links:
Los banditos de nuestro tren
for use if GAF goes down hard during E3
VGSalez ← infrequently updated, but a good source for reliable (when sourced) sale information for video game consoles.
Nintendo's rundown of officially announced Wii U info, in addition to some material on 3DS and Wii.
A list of Nintendo Development Teams. Can you guess which group is making your favourite game?
Iwata Asks
Nintendo's English Language Investor Relations page; may contain some relevant, forward looking projections
E3 2012 Exhibitor Search
E3 2012 Floor Map
VGMaps, a great source for making retro-themed gifs for these threads.
A little fun for the Wrassle-GAFfers out there: Nintendo:gaming::Cena:wrestling
Now unleash your true nature of crazy! Wii U Speculation Thread SEVEN is merely around the corner! And remember:
And remember: A leak or rumour that you do not like is not automatically false, and a leak or rumour that you do like is not automatically true.
I hope you take all the above content lightly
anything that might seem bashy is meant in a sporting manner.
