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[KingHippo1967]

I think announcing the Wii U at last E3 was actually a smart move by Nintendo. The total time between the first reveal of the 3DS (15 June 2010) and the system's release (Feb/Mar 2011) was only around eight/nine months, meaning many developers who had only found out about 3DS shortly before/during the announcement weren't able to get games ready in time for launch. And we all know what happened then.

This time, come E3 Nintendo should in theory have a bunch of devs ready to show Wii U games that have already been in development for up to a year and, crucially, are more likely to be ready in time for launch, especially if the release is October/November. If it's released then that would make it 16/17 months from announcement to system launch, rather than the 3DS's 8/9 months. In theory, given the extra dev time, the Wii U library could be as big as the 3DS's library was as of seven/eight months after its release (i.e. last October/November).

 

[Ithil]

The Wii U wasn't really ready to be shown last year, but it certainly will make a lot of anticipation for this year. We know the basics and what the machine will be like, but we've seen literally nothing of the final machine or any Nintendo games for it.

Wonder if Killer Freaks or whatever it was called will be shown off. That seemed to be in very early development and on an unfinished dev kit, a year of development should have done wonders for it.

 

[DCKing]

Ehh, the GPU's are probably equally diverse in all three.

The CPU's are a lot different.

Why are you even arguing this? If you want to compare with a PS3 go ahead, but we prefer to speak in terms that make more sense to us.

 

[Donnie]

Please don't tell me that this is an official image published by Videogameszone.de... please tell me they didn't fall to this level of retardation. Their users, yeah, they are mostly a bunch of fanboyish kids (at least in tone) but now even the outlet is on this level of bullshit?

wow

Edit:

I just looked it up... what has happened to this site... hell when you make the Bild Zeitung look like the epitome of serious journalism, with dedicated and fair articles, then you know something's up. Now that I think about it, didn't they start doing advertisement for phone (soft)porn sites in their publications as well?

They're so thick they're taking one rumour from Develop (2x = WiiU), one rumour from IGN (6x = 720) yet ignoring the second half of the same rumour from IGN which says WiiU is 5x 360. They couldn't make a worse comparison if they tried.

 

[Flame Lord]

I wonder if there is any chance that we might get any HD ports on the WiiU. SMW HD would be awesome...

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

I'm expecting a surprise from Nintendo at E3. I'd love if the final model controller had a 3D screen like the 3DS or something unexpected like that.

I'm very much a pro-3D guy, but considering the "sweet spot" issue, I think it would be a bit of a pain for what's a secondary screen. Glance down at your controller to see some extra info, but get a doubled image because it's not centered perfectly.

 

[KingHippo1967]

I wonder if there is any chance that we might get any HD ports on the WiiU. SMW HD would be awesome...

You know for a fact that Ubisoft will crap out all of its PS360 offerings over the past five years as Wii U special editions. Assassin's Creed Quadrilogy, Far Cry Trilogy (if the third one is out in time), Prince Of Persia HD Trilogy, Ghost Recon Collection, Rainbow Six Vegas 1 & 2...

Hmmm. Actually, I wouldn't mind all that if they added new stuff and made good use of the controller screen somehow. Would essentially be all new games to the Nintendo die-hards too.

As for HD ports of Wii games, if they released an HD version of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories I would die happy.

 

[blu]

Ehh, the GPU's are probably equally diverse in all three.

They are not equally diverse. One of them is from the pre-unified-shaders era, and that makes for a heck of a difference from the other two when trying to compare raw performance figures.

The CPU's are a lot different.

Again, one of them was the odd-ball. What does symmetrical architecture and cache coherency speak to you?

 

[Jorok Goldblade]

I don't want any NOA employee on the stage although I know Reggie is going to speak. The guy has never given anything resembling a motivational speech since his introduction.

Iwata is much better.

Bill Trinen is also a good bet to be on stage for NOA employees, although usually half of his stage time is translating for Miyamoto.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

I had a dream that Nintendo's E3 conference was 5 minutes long and it consisted of, "We'll have unified accounts, and all your Wii downloads are transferable."

And the audience started clapping and never stopped.

 

[Cmd. Pishad'aç]

Bill Trinen is also a good bet to be on stage for NOA employees, although usually half of his stage time is translating for Miyamoto.

Bill Trinen speaks japanese ?

How awesome.

 

[ClovingWestbrook]

I had a dream that Nintendo's E3 conference was 5 minutes long and it consisted of, "We'll have unified accounts, and all your Wii downloads are transferable."

And the audience started clapping and never stopped.

Thats a dream alright.

 

[snesfreak]

Thats a dream alright.

Yeah, it'll probably be more like:
"You'll need a new friend code every time you go online, per game."

 

[Thraktor]

I had a dream that Nintendo's E3 conference was 5 minutes long and it consisted of, "We'll have unified accounts, and all your Wii downloads are transferable."

And the audience started clapping and never stopped.

Personally if they said that all VC games would be associated with your Nintendo Network account and could be downloaded on both Wii U and 3DS*, with cloud saves syncing between the two, I'd be pretty damn happy. I'd also buy a hell of a lot more VC games than I do now. Hear that, Nintendo?

*Well, all except N64 and Gamecube, given the control limitations on the 3DS.

 

[ClovingWestbrook]

Personally if they said that all* VC games would be associated with your Nintendo Network account and could be downloaded on both Wii U and 3DS, with cloud saves syncing between the two, I'd be pretty damn happy. I'd also buy a hell of a lot more VC games than I do now. Hear that, Nintendo?

*Well, all except N64 and Gamecube, given the control limitations on the 3DS.

They're not even going to say all of your NES games can be downloaded to your 3DS.

 

[wsippel]

Bill Trinen speaks japanese ?

How awesome.

He used to work at Treehouse and studied in Tokyo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Trinen

 

[Thraktor]

They're not even going to say all of your NES games can be downloaded to your 3DS.

Shows what you know, all of my NES games are already on my 3DS!

Spoiler

Have the ambassador 3DS downloads, but haven't bought any NES VC games on the Wii.

Anyway, I'd expect at least VC games bought on Wii will transfer over, given than Nintendo gave DSi owners the ability to transfer their purchases over to the 3DS.

 

[Demoncarnotaur]

Im finding this console a little harder to follow.. What do people know about it and what is rumored? Specs, etc.

 

[HeySeuss]

Why are people saying November would be a horrible launch month? The Wii launched on November and it seemed to do ok.

IMO, I think November is is the best time for a console launch. With the start of xmas shopping and black Friday, limited quantities and sell outs would happen naturally, giving it the positive word of mouth and the hard to find, must have gift of the year.

 

[guek]

Why are people saying November would be a horrible launch month? The Wii launched on November and it seemed to do ok.

IMO, I think November is is the best time for a console launch. With the start of xmas shopping and black Friday, limited quantities and sell outs would happen naturally, giving it the positive word of mouth and the hard to find, must have gift of the year.

partly because nintendo is going to be bleeding money for awhile and they need the wii U to become establish to offset recent losses. It's in their best interest to launch asap since the wii is on the endangered list.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Yeah, it'll probably be more like:
"You'll need a new friend code every time you go online, per game."

Per session.

 

[HeySeuss]

partly because nintendo is going to be bleeding money for awhile and they need the wii U to become establish to offset recent losses. It's in their best interest to launch asap since the wii is on the endangered list.

Well considering that's what they did with the 3DS, I doubt they will make that mistake again. The software wasn't ready and the console launched too soon. Combine that will poor product differentiation to the average consumer and it sold like a steaming turd, before the price drop.

I don't think they will launch it earlier than October. The software needs to be there day 1, and I think they will spend a couple months at least building consumer awareness.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

When was the last time a Nintendo console didn't launch in November? The N64? Even still, that was September.

 

[bgassassin]

When was the last time a Nintendo console didn't launch in November? The N64? Even still, that was September.

In NA? Yes.

 

[MushroomSamba]

You know for a fact that Ubisoft will crap out all of its PS360 offerings over the past five years as Wii U special editions. Assassin's Creed Quadrilogy, Far Cry Trilogy (if the third one is out in time), Prince Of Persia HD Trilogy, Ghost Recon Collection, Rainbow Six Vegas 1 & 2...

Hmmm. Actually, I wouldn't mind all that if they added new stuff and made good use of the controller screen somehow. Would essentially be all new games to the Nintendo die-hards too.

As for HD ports of Wii games, if they released an HD version of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories I would die happy.

So it's confirmed that it won't be backwards compatible with old Wii games? I was sorta hoping I'd get to play my current collection with Dolphin-esque quality without having to repurchase the games all over again.

Sorry if it's a dumb question, but I haven't been following up on WiiU news.

 

[HeySeuss]

So it's confirmed that it won't be backwards compatible with old Wii games? I was sorta hoping I'd get to play my current collection with Dolphin-esque quality without having to repurchase the games all over again.

Sorry if it's a dumb question, but I haven't been following up on WiiU news.

It's backwards compatible with Wii, but not gamecube. But I would be surprised if they didn't do HD remakes of some of the popular titles.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

In NA? Yes.

I think Nintendo's settled comfortably into launching in November. They deviated with the 3DS and where did that get them?

 

[snesfreak]

It's BC with Wii games, just not GC games.
And it (as far as we know, though I doubt it'll change) won't upscale Wii games.
edit: Damn you Shick.

 

[effzee]

I have stayed away from this or any other WiiU thread since E3 simply because of the lack of information and long release time in between, but now with 5 months till E3 I am getting pretty excited again.

Hate to ask but really its more for confirmation, there hasn't been any major revelation since e3 right? Just some hype pieces here and there about some developer working on a game, how promising it is, and how they have learned their lessons from the botched 3DS launch?

I know I always get disappointed with E3 presentations, because in my head I just envision so much more but this E3 they can really actually pack the conference with tons of information without filler or lesser games. There is so much they haven't shown or revealed.

 

[bgassassin]

I think Nintendo's settled comfortably into launching in November. They deviated with the 3DS and where did that get them?

Launching without first-party support to let third parties shine and they in turn dropped the ball?

 

[Penguin]

Seems like Nintendo may be consider changing the name?

http://www.computerandvideogames.co...endo-considering-wii-u-rebrand-sources-claim/

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Launching without first-party support to let third parties shine and they in turn dropped the ball?

I just think waiting would allow them to have a great, original first party game at launch, as well as build up enough supplies for the mad Christmas rush. It also lets them get as many devkits out to third parties as possible, which according to 01net in August was still an issue with 3DS. Seems like win-win-win to me.

Seems like Nintendo may be consider changing the name?

http://www.computerandvideogames.co...endo-considering-wii-u-rebrand-sources-claim/

We can only hope.

Would make sense with all the secrecy and whatnot, making CARS take down the Wii U logo, etc.

 

[snesfreak]

Seems like Nintendo may be consider changing the name?

http://www.computerandvideogames.co...endo-considering-wii-u-rebrand-sources-claim/

So there is still hope for The GODDAMN Nintendo!?
You know what you have to do Nintendo.

 

[effzee]

I think anytime between September to early November (like the first week) gives them plenty of time to take advantage of the Holiday season.

Ideally a September launch would be boss.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

The Nintendo Mombanger.

.

 

[DCKing]

I think that a September launch might be better for the festival of ports there's inevitably going to be later this year. Given the time developers could work on the Wii U, I think it's quite realistic as well.

 

[woo and indeed hoo]

Launching without first-party support to let third parties shine and they in turn dropped the ball?

Heh, that was just the positive spin they put on the fact that they didn't have their own killer software ready in time because they rushed the launch to steal a march on the PSV.

[/cynicism]

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

I think they should have just gone with Wii 2. Retain the branding and get rid of the confusion. The whole U thing was always weird.

 

[snesfreak]

They should rename it Sporgenborg.
It will be sold out worldwide for the next 10 years.

 

[Bumhead]

Wii 2 would be a pretty bland name, but if that's what it takes to avoid any potential confusion over the brand then so be it.

 

[kizmah]

Dolphin

 

[Hiltz]

What are the chances that Nintendo may come out with an even worse name?

 

[Anth0ny]

Nintendo U

Drop the Wii, it's... cleaner.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

Only 130 more days until E3!

 

[Log4Girlz]

Revolution had such a nice ring to it.

 

[Fourth Storm]

but the Wii U is not simply a Wii with a different user interface and we are not proposing to society a performance-enhanced Wii, rather we are proposing hardware with a totally different concept and vision.

Since the other thread closed...

The problem of naming the cosole "Wii Anything" is that the concept and philosophy behind the Wii U is fundamentally different from the Wii. I'm paraphrasing Iwata when I say that they are not intending Wii U to just be an upgraded Wii w/ a new controller. They want to change the way we think about gaming and television as just being relegated to a single television screen.

Having the system called Wii U really goes against that statement though, as it emphasizes its connection to the Wii. I'd say that there's more risk in the "Wii" name turning off core gamers than a non-Wii name turning off casual gamers.

There will be mainstream market awareness of the product no-matter what, just as w/ Wii and Kinect before it, because it is offering a unique experience. The information that all Wii shit works on the system is not assumed just because "Wii" is part of the name (see PS3, 360, etc). Those specifics regarding BC will be delivered to consumers via the usual channels. It does not require the system be stamped w/ the Wii brand.

 

[civilstrife]

Why was the other thread closed? Was the rumor not credible?

 

[Brickhunt]

I understand their reluctance to drop the Wii brand. Since it's the name of a console that put Nintendo back to the top. But the "U" thing doesn't have any excuse, it doesn't even imply a successor and more like an accessory. If they are going to keep it Wii, at least give it a "2". Not even a word play with "too", it needs to be very clear for the consumers that it is a successor and a simply 2 can solve most of their name problems.

Personally, I would drop "Wii" too. Wii's run did leave a certain bitter taste in the mouths of traditional core gamers and there is no guarantee that the casual public has a attachment to the "Wii" name like core gamers have to the "Nintendo" name. I do think Wii's success with the casual public had more to do with their marketing efforts and the concept of motion controls, something that was rare to see in homes even outside video game, than it's simple name.

 

[Sadist]

Only 130 more days until E3!

Oh time why do you torment me

 

[Hiltz]

So if a few third-party developers received dev kits before June 2011, then they'll have like 19-20 months to begin developing projects for Wii U if the console comes out in November. Most games take like what, 2 years to develop (and not just mere current-gen ports and rushed out new IPs like Red Steel)? Then we'll have to wait at least another 5-6 months to probably have some of the more promising games to start being released unless of course they get delayed or cancelled (which happened with some Wii titles in its first year). Nintendo should have at least two big games planned for a 2013 release with one of them being saved for a holidays.