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[Gahiggidy]

Ok i see where i went wrong lol .

Does anyone still think that the OS will use 512MB's of the consoles 1.5GB Ram tho ?, Miiverse doesn't look to be the most technically demanding thing in the world.

Or is Miiverse not the OS ? and will we get a main menu system similar to XBL where we can browse games, demos, videos ect or will those things just be options from a Miiverse window.

I would prefer a 360 like menu with Miiverse as an 'app' kind of like PS Home, i play most console games SP so having all those Twitter like comments pop up all the time would get annoying really fast for me.

Don't know if anyone has this info so apologies if Nintendo have not talked about it yet.

Cheers.

Miiverse is one-half of the OS. It will always be visible on either the tv screen or on he gamepad. There is a bubble switch on the corners of each screen to flip the views. We have yet to see the second half of he OS.

 

[thegodsend]

German Amazon Pre Orders Top 10 (14.06.-20.06):
6/10 games are for Wii U!


1. (NEW) New Super Mario Bros U (Wii U, Nintendo)
2. ( 1 ) FIFA 13 (PS3, EA)
3. (NEW) Pikmin 3 (Wii U, Nintendo)
4. (NEW) ZombiU (Wii U, Ubisoft)
5. (NEW) Nintendo Land (Wii U, Nintendo)
6. ( 5 ) Halo 4 Limited Edition (Xbox 360, Rockstar)
7. ( 7 ) Assassin's Creed 3 - Join or Die Edition (PS3, Ubisoft)
8. (NEW) Assassin's Creed 3 (Wii U, Ubisoft)
9. (NEW) Rayman Legends (Wii U, Ubisoft)
10.( 8 ) Assassin's Creed 3 (PS3, Ubisoft)

this doesn't mean to much of course, especially since the other games already moved a few units in the last couple of weeks. but it's still kind of cool to see.
also I'm sure that NSMB U will be one of the best selling games Christmas with a attach rate close to 1:1 on Wii U...

 

[Effect]

I really hope this new Nintendo Direct will have somthing new and not just be a recap of what happen at E3.

 

[Red UFO]

I really hope this new Nintendo Direct will have somthing new and not just be a recap of what happen at E3.

It's focusing on Wii and 3DS. I don't think it will have anything Wii U related.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Approximately 3.41 pounds (1.5 kg).

Is there anything we can learn from that? For reference, the original Wii is 2.65 pounds.

Wii would work out to 0.030 lbs/in^3, while Wii U would work out to 0.027 lbs/in^3. We learn that in a sea of Wiis, Wii U would float to the top.

 

[fabricated backlash]

It's focusing on Wii and 3DS. I don't think it will have anything Wii U related.

They will push Spirit Camera and Project Zero 2 as both are coming out in Europe soon. Then there will be talk about Mario Tennis, as well as the Patch for Mario Kart 7.

I don't expect a single new announcement at this time.

 

[Agent Unknown]

Is Giant Bomb even worth listening to in general? Oh noes at "assymetric-gate," as Terrell said you'd think these guys had never heard of Rock Band or party games around since the dawn of time. And who on earth was expecting a retina level screen or capacitive touch?

From what I've tested two days ago: I disagree with both the statement. It's not a multitouch OLED screen. That said, graphics on it look very sharp (it depends also from game to game: does this make sense? because I've got this impression) and the responsivness (tested especially in the Castle minigame of Land) is very good.

It doesn't look something cheap, also if it is not OLED multitouch, as I said before.

Thanks, glad to hear the touchscreen visuals look good. They've always looked nice in all the close up videos I've seen and also glad to hear responsiveness is solid.

 

[nordique]

Let's be quite honest here, though--the "gaming media" right now hasn't been enamored with Nintendo since the Gamecube and felt slighted when the Wii came out and started to appeal to more people than just hardcore gamers.

I always thought the Wii garnered better press than the Gamecube did

 

[nordique]

Wii would work out to 0.030 lbs/in^3, while Wii U would work out to 0.027 lbs/in^3. We learn that in a sea of Wiis, Wii U would float to the top.

haha man you are awesome.

+1

 

[nordique]

The 512MB of separated flash memory (let's called it X) dedicated to the storage of the OS (+ system updates, etc.) isn't the same than the RAM memory reserved for the same OS and the system services (it's Y). Once you boot up your Wii U, it will load several files from X to Y. It's a strong, additional clue, than Y will be big, but not necessarily as much as X for the retail console (it was at least 512MB of ram for the "OS" a few months ago). And a lot of this room, in the storage and in the RAM, is just reserved, it's not filled with data. It's more a space planned in advance for system features like multi-tasking, pausing your game, saving your progression, etc, it requires to cache a lot of data, hence this reservation.

Think of your windows files stored in your hard-drive, and loaded in the memory when you turn on your PC. Don't hesitate to search for some of my posts in the speculation thread 6 i think, where i tried to be the more thorough possible for this subject to avoid any confusion.

That makes sense, but the general question is:
Is the Wii U 1.5 GB of ram, with only 1 GB ram for games + 512 for OS

or

is it 2GB ram, with 1.5 for games + 512 for OS


pas de inclus le 512 MB de flash memory

 

[Lonely1]

I'm surprised someone hasn't tried to argue the GPU uses a larger node.

We all know that Nintendo is stuck in the GC/Ps2 era tech. The most we can expect is 180nm from them.

 

[Lyude77]

Is Giant Bomb even worth listening to in general?

As long as they aren't talking about Nintendo, they're fine. Heck, most of the DS/3DS quick looks are fine, too.

 

[Gahiggidy]

Wii would work out to 0.030 lbs/in^3, while Wii U would work out to 0.027 lbs/in^3. We learn that in a sea of Wiis, Wii U would float to the top.

Thanks! That's exactly the info I was looking for.

 

[Apophis2036]

The 512MB of separated flash memory (let's called it X) dedicated to the storage of the OS (+ system updates, etc.) isn't the same than the RAM memory reserved for the same OS and the system services (it's Y). Once you boot up your Wii U, it will load several files from X to Y. It's a strong, additional clue, than Y will be big, but not necessarily as much as X for the retail console (it was at least 512MB of ram for the "OS" a few months ago). And a lot of this room, in the storage and in the RAM, is just reserved, it's not filled with data. It's more a space planned in advance for system features like multi-tasking, pausing your game, saving your progression, etc, it requires to cache a lot of data, hence this reservation.

Think of your windows files stored in your hard-drive, and loaded in the memory when you turn on your PC. Don't hesitate to search for some of my posts in the speculation thread 6 i think, where i tried to be the more thorough possible for this subject to avoid any confusion.

Thanks for the explanation Ideaman.

Is the console still under NDA from Nintendo or can you tell us the specs yet ? .

 

[Apophis2036]

Miiverse is one-half of the OS. It will always be visible on either the tv screen or on he gamepad. There is a bubble switch on the corners of each screen to flip the views. We have yet to see the second half of he OS.

Very interesting, will be really interested to see the other half .

Cheers.

 

[jacksrb]

Is Giant Bomb even worth listening to in general?

I think so. I really enjoy their camaraderie and transparency. The quick looks they do are the most exciting thing (outside of podcasts) to come to games journalism in a long while. They are also just really honest in a non-trolling way most of the time.

However, they are interested in what they are interested in. Which is not necessarily Nintendo stuff. Only 2 of the 5 main guys even played Skyward Sword, so they are not in-step with many big Nintendo fans.

Example, I finished listening to the E3 podcasts yesterday and none of them played Project P-100 because the line was long. I don't mean to pass judgement on where they spend their time, but again, they are not looking for a reason to love Wii U.

 

[Lonely1]

The coverage of Sony's stuff isn't that great either.

 

[EloquentM]

Grain of salt

As someone who is familiar with the CPU architecture in the Wii U, I can tell you that from a computational standpoint, it is a bit faster and far more efficient than what is in the current Playstation and XBOX. It all depends on what clocks Nintendo decide to run the CPU at.

I don't think CPU specifications will change much next gen, I can see them sticking with similar architectures, but will probably focus on throwing in a far superior GPU. I think people are expecting a far greater evolutionary leap than we're going to get, as I personally see the platform holders focusing on services over specifications.

 

[Grampa Simpson]

The 512MB of separated flash memory (let's called it X) dedicated to the storage of the OS (+ system updates, etc.) isn't the same than the RAM memory reserved for the same OS and the system services (it's Y). Once you boot up your Wii U, it will load several files from X to Y. It's a strong, additional clue, than Y will be big, but not necessarily as much as X for the retail console (it was at least 512MB of ram for the "OS" a few months ago). And a lot of this room, in the storage and in the RAM, is just reserved, it's not filled with data. It's more a space planned in advance for system features like multi-tasking, pausing your game, saving your progression, etc, it requires to cache a lot of data, hence this reservation.

I wonder if they'll be treating this like a NVDIMM. Power down by writing the contents of that RAM to a bit of flash supported by a supercapacitor. Boot back up by rereading that back into ram and just continuing from there. Do a special sequence to do a full reboot - probably something hidden in settings or if that fails a 3 finger salute of sorts. Could lead to very rapid-fire boot times and very low power standby states.

 

[Agent Unknown]

As long as they aren't talking about Nintendo, they're fine. Heck, most of the DS/3DS quick looks are fine, too.

I think so. I really enjoy their camaraderie and transparency. The quick looks they do are the most exciting thing (outside of podcasts) to come to games journalism in a long while. They are also just really honest in a non-trolling way most of the time.

However, they are interested in what they are interested in. Which is not necessarily Nintendo stuff. Only 2 of the 5 main guys even played Skyward Sword, so they are not in-step with many big Nintendo fans.

Example, I finished listening to the E3 podcasts yesterday and none of them played Project P-100 because the line was long. I don't mean to pass judgement on where they spend their time, but again, they are not looking for a reason to love Wii U.

Thanks, I like Patrick and am looking for a new podcast to listen to so will give them a try. At least I know where they stand and as long as they're honest I'll give 'em a shot.

 

[Sadist]

They will push Spirit Camera and Project Zero 2 as both are coming out in Europe soon. Then there will be talk about Mario Tennis, as well as the Patch for Mario Kart 7.

I don't expect a single new announcement at this time.

Really? It's been out for a month and a half or so.

 

[Rösti]

I found this document from Chinese security company Yuanta Financial Holdings. While its content has been published before, this is the most recent comment (dated today). Since I don't know Chinese, I resorted to Google Translate which did not provide something much more understandable:

獨家供應新一代 Wii U 感測IC 模組,單價優於上一代產品

Exclusive provider of a new generation of the Wii-U-sensing IC module, priced better than the previous generation

Hon Hai is mentioned in the document, but I don't know if that is related to this.

The document doesn't come directly from Yuanta, but from here: http://www.ezway.tw/wp-content/uplo...;會重點摘要.pdf

I didn't find it on Yuanta's page, but it looks legit: http://www.yuanta.com/chinese/

It has been rumored that Foxconn will exclusively assemble Wii U, maybe this puts a bit more weight on that.

 

[IdeaMan]

Thanks for the explanation Ideaman.

Is the console still under NDA from Nintendo or can you tell us the specs yet ? .

Under heavy NDA, not much changed since E3 actually. Third-parties are unaware (or left in a vague state i would say, with info, but not precise and definite) of a lot of important things about the system (not hardware/component related). Nintendo are hard at work at the moment to prepare all for launch.

 

[Captain Smoker]

Grain of salt

As someone who is familiar with the CPU architecture in the Wii U, I can tell you that from a computational standpoint, it is a bit faster and far more efficient than what is in the current Playstation and XBOX. It all depends on what clocks Nintendo decide to run the CPU at.

I don't think CPU specifications will change much next gen, I can see them sticking with similar architectures, but will probably focus on throwing in a far superior GPU. I think people are expecting a far greater evolutionary leap than we're going to get, as I personally see the platform holders focusing on services over specifications.

This should match with bgassassins & wsippels assumptions in the past?

Diabhal is a software engineer according to his NeoGAF-profile.

 

[Gahiggidy]

Hey IdeaMan,

What about the games? Are any 3rd party Wii U projects still under NDA? Before E3 many of us assumed Wii U games were under NDA. But very few new games were announced at the show.

Was there ever an NDA covering games? Are developers free to announce Wii U games without Nintendo's blessing?

 

[schuelma]

This should match with bgassassins & wsippels assumptions in the past?

I believe this matches up almost perfectly with their theories.

 

[AzaK]

Is Giant Bomb even worth listening to in general? Oh noes at "assymetric-gate," as Terrell said you'd think these guys had never heard of Rock Band or party games around since the dawn of time. And who on earth was expecting a retina level screen or capacitive touch?

Yeah it's a bit strange that they seem to have that view of Nintendo's home consoles because I actually think they are one of the few sites/podcasts that really discuss gaming with Ny sort of depth.

I think that this generation has been so much about pure power, and the Wii disenfranchised a tonne of gamers, and gaming media that it's going to take awhile to undo. It's almost understandable too. Imagine being in the media with 3 consoles on the market. All these extravagant, rich games are coming through all the time, along with really interesting Indy games and with Wii, you get the odd first party title to talk about, a shit e shop and almost non existent third party support of any quality.

Still, it is their job to be able to look through that and I do think that the Wii U is not getting the coverage it deserves.

Edit: I was pleasantly surprised to listen to the latest Shacknews podcast and Garnett was actually trying to be objective which really didn't happen with the Wii.

 

[Effect]

It's focusing on Wii and 3DS. I don't think it will have anything Wii U related.

Gotcha. Thanks. Then no need to stay up late for it then. Now Animal Crossing news would be great. I'm really looking forward to playing that on the 3DS.

 

[Apophis2036]

Under heavy NDA, not much changed since E3 actually. Third-parties are unaware (or left in a vague state i would say, with info, but not precise and definite) of a lot of important things about the system (not hardware/component related). Nintendo are hard at work at the moment to prepare all for launch.

Ok cheers, be sure and let us know anything more you can find out .

Thanks !.

 

[japtor]

I always thought the Wii garnered better press than the Gamecube did

It did in the mainstream press at least, just cause the motion control stuff was crazy new.

IIRC the power connect will be on the bottom edge on final retail version. I'll have to find that quote.

I'm glad the screen looks great! Is there any word on how far of a viewing angle the screen will have? will I have to view it head on?

I think there's a charging port on top with "accessory" port or something on the bottom for other stuff, but it looked like there were charging contacts there too, wouldn't be surprised to see a charger dock.

I vaguely remember reports that the viewing angle is poor (like most TN displays) but not an issue while playing, I guess with the way you generally hold a controller you're usually going to be within the sweet spot.

Thanks for the explanation Ideaman.

Is the console still under NDA from Nintendo or can you tell us the specs yet ? .

I could see the specs being under NDA indefinitely, albeit with no one really caring about it once it's released and leaking info or something. Like some site does a teardown and sees mystery chips, then some anonymous tipster tells them the specs.

This should match with bgassassins & wsippels assumptions in the past?

Diabhal is a software engineer according to his NeoGAF-profile.

Yeah that's pretty much what those guys said, enough so that I have no clue if he's saying that from his own knowledge or just regurgitating info.

 

[USC-fan]

This should match with bgassassins & wsippels assumptions in the past?

Diabhal is a software engineer according to his NeoGAF-profile.

With sony going with a amd apu solution. It will not be like anything in the current consoles. Then you add amd new HSA support and it get crazy.

 

[Plinko]

Under heavy NDA, not much changed since E3 actually. Third-parties are unaware (or left in a vague state i would say, with info, but not precise and definite) of a lot of important things about the system (not hardware/component related). Nintendo are hard at work at the moment to prepare all for launch.

Is this normal less than 6 months from a launch?

 

[schuelma]

Is this normal less than 6 months from a launch?

I cannot imagine it is, though I'm far from an expert. I thought Nintendo would have everything nailed down by now, honestly. Cannot be helping 3rd party development.

 

[Anth0ny]

Under heavy NDA, not much changed since E3 actually. Third-parties are unaware (or left in a vague state i would say, with info, but not precise and definite) of a lot of important things about the system (not hardware/component related). Nintendo are hard at work at the moment to prepare all for launch.

Sounds promising.

 

[DaSorcerer7]

I cannot imagine it is, though I'm far from an expert. I thought Nintendo would have everything nailed down by now, honestly. Cannot be helping 3rd party development.

Hardware launches, new console development cycles hardly ever run smoothly.

 

[Gahiggidy]

With sony going with a amd apu solution. It will not be like anything in the current consoles. Then you add amd new HSA support and it get crazy.

Health Savings Accounts?

 

[USC-fan]

Health Savings Accounts?

Heterogeneous System Architecture

http://www.extremetech.com/computin...ith-arm-while-intel-designs-a-brain-on-a-chip

In the past week, both AMD and Intel have given us a tantalizing peek at their next-generation neuromorphic (brain-like) computer chips. These chips, it is hoped, will provide brain-like performance (i.e. processing power and massive parallelism way beyond current CPUs) while consuming minimal amounts of power.

It isn’t too crazy to think that a future AMD (or Texas Instruments) chip might have a few GPU cores, a few x86 CPU cores, and thousands of tiny ARM cores, all working in perfect, parallel, neuromorphic harmony — as long as the software toolchain is good enough that you don’t have to be some kind of autist to use all of those resources efficiently.

The leak early ps4 dev kits use apu and gpu that are early version of HSA. The full blown apu/gpu with full HSA support launch at the end of this year or early next year.

Here is an article on HSA support from AMD in chips coming out soon.
http://www.extremetech.com/computin...i-will-fully-share-memory-between-cpu-and-gpu

One of the slides she presented showed off the company’s Fusion APU roadmap which included the Trinity APU’s successor — known as Kaveri. Kaveri will be able to deliver up to 1TFLOPS of (likely single precision) compute performance, thanks to its Graphics Core Next (GCN) GPU and a Steamroller-based CPU. The really interesting reveal, though, is that Kaveri will feature fully shared memory between the GPU and CPU.

For example the 95w amd apu that is coming out in 2013 is 1 tflops in performance. This uses the same power as cell in ps3. If they put the rumor 1.8 tflop gpu with it. You have 2.8 tflop of power. Just crazy.

 

[schuelma]

Go go nintendo has scans of a Nintendo interview from a UK magazine. Some interesting stuff, including confirmation of 3rd parties holding back titles and Nintendo holding back on online plans and multi game pad functionality.

Edit- here is a link to the magazine available online

 

[Anth0ny]

Go go nintendo has scans of a Nintendo interview from a UK magazine. Some interesting stuff, including confirmation of 3rd parties holding back titles and Nintendo holding back on online plans and multi game pad functionality.

All this holding back of information just has me giddy for the new console! This seems to be the consensus after their splendid E3 showing.

Spoiler

I'm still fucking salty

 

[AzaK]

Is this normal less than 6 months from a launch?

Do you mean the heavy NDA's (Which honestly are just getting comical right now) or the rushing this close to the end.

I'm sure we heard at E3 about some features that some third party games were using so they must have something. ready right?

Go go nintendo has scans of a Nintendo interview from a UK magazine. Some interesting stuff, including confirmation of 3rd parties holding back titles and Nintendo holding back on online plans and multi game pad functionality.

Edit- here is a link to the magazine available online

Those scans didn't fill me with great feelings to be honest. The big players like EA, Activition and Ubi didn't really talk about any of their upcoming stuff or real "mature" games coming. They all just talked about the "new opportunities" in gameplay that it offers. And if this generation is anything to go by, that will mean special games for Wii U.

 

[Donnie]

Even if you remove the ram from the gpu tdp you still have edram and ram in the console. So it really a wash. I dont see why they wouldnt move to a new design sooner but maybe they did. The r700 has been around for over 4 years. It not like they havent had time to upgrade.

Well the gpgpu started with r700. Not sure that really tells us anything. Going by the released dev specs. They match perfectly with r700 feature set not evergreen.

What I meant was if you're asking me what I think the GPU alone could consume I'd say around 40-45 watts. But if you're asking me how much power the GPU woud consume as it would compare to a full graphics card I'd have to include RAM ect and would then say 50+ Also its not really going to be a case of moving to a new design. I'm not suggesting they've started with a R700 and then moved to a R800 ect. They'll have started with a R700 and then developed that into a different GPU, something that fits the design they wanted.

As far as GPGPU's, I'm referring specifically to the claim that Nintendo are designing WiiU with the intention of physics operations being processed on the GPU rather than the CPU. Something I don't believe R700 was strong at (did it even support real physics processing?)

Finally, the released specs alone aren't specific enough to be compared to any level of DirectX. I mean they say it has tessellation support, but how do you compare that to DX10.1 or DX11 if you don't know what kind of tessellation it is? I just think that specific mention of compute shaders in the specs together with the claim we've heard about focusing on GPU physics processing sounds like the GPU its much more advanced in that area than R700.

 

[10k]

WOOOT! I have been approved! It only took 3 months, I don't know where wikipedia got its 6 months-2 year timeframe!

Now that I got that out of the way....

Been lurking NintendoGAF since WUST #1 and would like to say I love you all. I love all consoles and PC btw, but Nintendo has the most exclusives that I enjoy (Zelda, Metroid, Mario, Donkey Kong, and Smash Bros are my top 5).

E3 dampened my spirits for Wii U but I know the Nintendo whore in me will pick this up day 1 (if it's in black).

I look forward to posting with you all!

 

[Plinko]

Do you mean the heavy NDA's (Which honestly are just getting comical right now) or the rushing this close to the end.

Both.

 

[AzaK]

WOOOT! I have been approved! It only took 3 months, I don't know where wikipedia got its 6 months-2 year timeframe!

Now that I got that out of the way....

Been lurking NintendoGAF since WUST #1 and would like to say I love you all. I love all consoles and PC btw, but Nintendo has the most exclusives that I enjoy (Zelda, Metroid, Mario, Donkey Kong, and Smash Bros are my top 5).

E3 dampened my spirits for Wii U but I know the Nintendo whore in me will pick this up day 1 (if it's in black).

I look forward to posting with you all!

Welcome!

Both.

I don't work for a console maker but I'd think that by now all the console side stuff would be pretty much done because they must be in manufacture by now. For that to be done they have to have some sort of framework up and running so it could just be a manner of tightening that up and getting all their SDK's ready for developers.

Regarding NDAs I just can't fathom it at all other than they have a lot of good announcements coming from first and third parties and they want to do a blowout close to launch. But then, I was sure they'd do a blowout of some sort at E3 and look how that turned out.

 

[Agent Unknown]

WOOOT! I have been approved! It only took 3 months, I don't know where wikipedia got its 6 months-2 year timeframe!

Now that I got that out of the way....

Been lurking NintendoGAF since WUST #1 and would like to say I love you all. I love all consoles and PC btw, but Nintendo has the most exclusives that I enjoy (Zelda, Metroid, Mario, Donkey Kong, and Smash Bros are my top 5).

E3 dampened my spirits for Wii U but I know the Nintendo whore in me will pick this up day 1 (if it's in black).

I look forward to posting with you all!

Welcome to the craziness!

 

[Agent Unknown]

Welcome!



I don't work for a console maker but I'd think that by now all the console side stuff would be pretty much done because they must be in manufacture by now. For that to be done they have to have some sort of framework up and running so it could just be a manner of tightening that up and getting all their SDK's ready for developers.

Regarding NDAs I just can't fathom it at all other than they have a lot of good announcements coming from first and third parties and they want to do a blowout close to launch. But then, I was sure they'd do a blowout of some sort at E3 and look how that turned out.

This. I'd love to be proven wrong but I'm definitely not in the "Ohhhh, maybe there's some killer NDAs waiting to be unleashed!" camp. That ship sailed a loooooong time ago.

 

[10k]

These heavy NDA's are ridiculous. Apparently Nintendo's NDA's are so strict that if your a third party developing for Wii U but your game won't be out at launch window, you can't talk about it (I read this somewhere earlier in the thread). I could understand the NDA's up until E3, but now this is getting ridiculous. I mean, gamers like me want to see what games are coming out in the future, not just launch window, so that we have a reason to purchase the console at full price day 1.

Pikmin 3, NSMB U, NintendoLand, and ZombiU won't keep me entertained for four months. Two months max of entertainment from those games (Reggie says launch window is approx four months for Nintendo).

All I needed from E3 was a 30 second trailer of cgi or alpha footage of a Retro, Monolith, or Tokyo EAD#1 game.

 

[10k]

Welcome!



I don't work for a console maker but I'd think that by now all the console side stuff would be pretty much done because they must be in manufacture by now. For that to be done they have to have some sort of framework up and running so it could just be a manner of tightening that up and getting all their SDK's ready for developers.

Regarding NDAs I just can't fathom it at all other than they have a lot of good announcements coming from first and third parties and they want to do a blowout close to launch. But then, I was sure they'd do a blowout of some sort at E3 and look how that turned out.

Agreed. If IdeaMan was correct (and I do believe him as he pretty much proved himself over the last month) devkit v5 is mass produced. Any changes to the Wii U at launch will be purely software based (GUI update, firmware, security, extra functionality, streaming TV to the tablet, etc.)

 

[schuelma]

This. I'd love to be proven wrong but I'm definitely not in the "Ohhhh, maybe there's some killer NDAs waiting to be unleashed!" camp. That ship sailed a loooooong time ago.

Yeah I agree. I think it is reasonable to assume that CoD and a few EA titles will be announced, and Japanese stuff. But nothing crazy.

 

[AzaK]

These heavy NDA's are ridiculous. Apparently Nintendo's NDA's are so strict that if your a third party developing for Wii U but your game won't be out at launch window, you can't talk about it (I read this somewhere earlier in the thread). I could understand the NDA's up until E3, but now this is getting ridiculous. I mean, gamers like me want to see what games are coming out in the future, not just launch window, so that we have a reason to purchase the console at full price day 1.

I just don't agree with Nintendo's "NDA unless launching soon" mantra. A console is not like any other piece of electronics you buy. With other electronics you know what you're getting before you buy it. You need a toaster, you check it out. You need a DVD player, you check out the features. Same with TV's (Although this is changing slowly with Smart TVs). So when you get it home it's going to do exactly what it does from now until it stops working. Game consoles are the anti-thesis of this, especially now in this online world.

Consoles have new software coming out all the time over its life-span not to mention firmware updates for new features. These are the things we need to know about before putting our money down. Unfortunately Nintendo still seems to treat their consoles as appliances which might work for the mass consumer, but not for me.

Yeah I agree. I think it is reasonable to assume that CoD and a few EA titles will be announced, and Japanese stuff. But nothing crazy.

This would at least be something.