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[bgassassin]

Some nice new tid-bits of info and speculation, but bgassassin, seeing as you're the most reliable in my eyes, what are you looking at for the Wii U's final specs, taking on board the alleged alpha kit specs?

Also, analogue triggers eff yeaaah. Also, these FPS games mentioned... new IP's? Regurgitated current gen ports? Future gen cross-platfrom titles?

Pretty much my first speculation just with some tweaks.

CPU
Tri-core (POWER7-based cores) @ 3+Ghz
3MB L2 cache (split 1.5MB:768KB:768KB; maybe they'll increase this before launch)

GPU
600-800Mhz
640-800 SPUs
(I really think Nintendo is trying for a 28nm GPU)

Memory
32MB of embedded 1T-SRAM-Q
1.5GB of GDDR5 memory

Misc
6x-10x slim optical drive
8-16GB Flash memory
~1 USB 3.0 port (for HDD, hopefully)

Anybody working in retail know how this works?



The came out on the 19th of November.
Are there any other times in the year that retailers prefer to receive new products?

Im still thinking Nintendo will repeat what they did with the Wii and release in November. maybe capitalizing on Black Friday to create scarcity hype.

I would assume it deals with allocating product space for the Holidays. They would want to have something like that in order before the shopping period officially starts which would be Black Friday.

And we don't really all know what they are talking about. Their press release is vague. They say merely that the CPU is "Power-based" and they never explicitly mention L3 cache. Now, even if you choose to ignore the rumors, common sense dictates that the chip IBM make for Wii U is going to be a "bastardization" of Power7. But compared to a bastardization of a Power6, that ain't bad. Some of Power7's features apparently have little benefit for gaming anyway.

Anyway, I did a little searching and came up with this:
http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2007/02/8842.ars



This describes eDRAM being used as L2 cache rather than L3 (it also seems to align with a quote from wsippel's source concerning a "metric ton" of L2 cache. The rumored 3 MB is quite a bit compared to the 360's 1 MB.)

This link also provides an interesting tidbit in that IBM claims its eDRAM is almost as fast as SRAM. The latency is also super-low at 1.5ns (the 1t-SRAM on flipper, for a comparison, has a latency of 6.2ns). So perhaps the 1t-SRAM has been surpassed on some fronts.

The PowerPC A2 has 8MB of L2 cache and I believe that is the same eDRAM that makes up the L3 cache in POWER7. And I hope that 1T-SRAM has improved since Gamecube (for Mosys' sake).

Thanks for your input. I don't think it's unnecessary, however, if it's being used as an I/O processor. The Playstation 2 did this with the PS1's cpu in order to achieve perfect BC while also performing a necessary function for the current system. The Wii U will need something like Starlet but probably much stronger. So they could choose a shrunken Broadway, which for this purpose is pretty powerful and also familiar, or they licence something from ARM, which will also come with a cost. Having Broadway on the GPU die also might line up with the rumors about a SoC from wsippel's source and would eliminate the need for some kind of bus which connects the Wii U cpu to the theoretical pool of eDRAM/1t-SRAM on the GPU for BC. When the system goes into Wii mode, it could pretty much shutdown the Wii U tri-core CPU completely and run everything off the GPU SoC. That's sheer speculation right there, but it seems to be a logical possibility.

Wsippel was told an ARM is being used for I/O again and that's why I've been linking to that rumor about Marvell's ARM processor being in Wii U. And I'm sure blu would be "happy" to hear that I'm jumping on the software emulation bandwagon.

Also I think the SoC wsippel's contact mentioned will be a GPU LSI/MCM like with Wii.

Yes. GDDR3 on a 256-bit bus makes no sense at all.

I really wonder if that RV770LE is still present in the current devkits. If final hardware isn't there yet, it means the Wii U announcement could've been a greater rush than expected...

All things considered I still believe there is merit to it being a 4870 that was severely underclocked in the beginning. Lherre said early on every time they would push the kit the GPU would freeze. I have a tough time now believing a GPU that is normally clocked at 575Mhz and downclocked to 500Mhz would cause the system to freeze when being pushed. Not saying it can't happen, just harder to believe. Then you have this old quote from ShockingAlberto.

That probably helps cause the hard-locks, now that I think about it.

On the positive side, I have heard that (aside from the above mentioned issues), the new kits are a decent bump from the early summer ones.

Increasing a 4830 75Mhz doesn't sound like a decent bump since lherre said nothing has changed. Increasing a 4870 (or 4770) 250Mhz would be a decent bump IMO. So for me looking at the dev kit, if we're looking at 640 ALUs, then I give more credence to a 4770 than a 4830. If we're looking at beyond 1TFLOP then it's got to be a 4870.

 

[outunderthestars]

Dumb question from someone who doesn't follow hardware specs well: From what we know about the Wii U, could it run the PC version of Battlefield 3 at 1080p and 60fps?

 

[BurntPork]

Taking what I said into account, we're looking at an RV740 if it's 640SPs, and probably Juniper if it's 720 or 800.

 

[BurntPork]

Dumb question from someone who doesn't follow hardware specs well: From what we know about the Wii U, could it run the PC version of Battlefield 3 at 1080p and 60fps?

Impossible to know, since there's a huge difference between a PC and a console. That said, a PC built with specs similar to Wii U would struggle.

 

[ClovingWestbrook]

Hmm,

Just watched the E3 videos of Mario Wii U, Zelda Wii U, Ghost Recon, etc. I actually am impressed with the Nintendo 1st party games. They look visually fantastic, though thats to be expected. Ghost Recon didn't look great visually and unlike Gaborn I am not too sure what type of potential is offered with the Wii U controller in such games. Gaborn, would you mind offering me some ideas of the potential ideas that excite you?

 

[bgassassin]

^ You didn't like it being used as a spy cam from the drone? I liked that idea.

Dumb question from someone who doesn't follow hardware specs well: From what we know about the Wii U, could it run the PC version of Battlefield 3 at 1080p and 60fps?

I'm with BP on this. Plus that's kind of a general question. Are we talking max settings? If so I'd lean towards no so far.

 

[outunderthestars]

I'm with BP on this. Plus that's kind of a general question. Are we talking max settings? If so I'd lean towards no so far.

I've never played it on PC, so I don't know what the settings do, I just was just trying to have a visual reference for what kind of visuals the system could theoretically produce.

 

[The M.O.B]

Hmm,

Just watched the E3 videos of Mario Wii U, Zelda Wii U, Ghost Recon, etc. I actually am impressed with the Nintendo 1st party games. They look visually fantastic, though thats to be expected. Ghost Recon didn't look great visually and unlike Gaborn I am not too sure what type of potential is offered with the Wii U controller in such games. Gaborn, would you mind offering me some ideas of the potential ideas that excite you?

This old thread has some.

 

[Gaborn]

Hmm,

Just watched the E3 videos of Mario Wii U, Zelda Wii U, Ghost Recon, etc. I actually am impressed with the Nintendo 1st party games. They look visually fantastic, though thats to be expected. Ghost Recon didn't look great visually and unlike Gaborn I am not too sure what type of potential is offered with the Wii U controller in such games. Gaborn, would you mind offering me some ideas of the potential ideas that excite you?

sure, first the ease of use of the inventory system was nice. I was also impressed by the interactive map system, I thought that was very cleverly done having the drone "paint" the enemy and then using the map to set a rally point for the team was an amazing concept. It just seems like it takes everything good about FPS - and then enhances it in a manner that would not be NEARLY as intuitive on a traditional controller like the 360 or PS3 has.

Really, for me that's the key. I like nice graphics as much as the next person - but I've never understood how Sony can offer basically the same controller for 3 generations. I like having new experiences and new ways of playing and that's what this is. It's very similar to the original concept, just greatly enhanced by the controller.

edit: also, that old thread has some good ideas too. Another point, I'm really excited by asymmetric gameplay in general. With previous consoles it's always been about doing the same thing but using different controllers and control schemes. With the Wii U you're literally opening up entirely different experiences within the same game play. That could also be a real game changer as the killer freaks multiplayer showed.

 

[Massa]

sure, first the ease of use of the inventory system was nice. I was also impressed by the interactive map system, I thought that was very cleverly done having the drone "paint" the enemy and then using the map to set a rally point for the team was an amazing concept. It just seems like it takes everything good about FPS - and then enhances it in a manner that would not be NEARLY as intuitive on a traditional controller like the 360 or PS3 has.

Really, for me that's the key. I like nice graphics as much as the next person - but I've never understood how Sony can offer basically the same controller for 3 generations. I like having new experiences and new ways of playing and that's what this is. It's very similar to the original concept, just greatly enhanced by the controller.

edit: also, that old thread has some good ideas too. Another point, I'm really excited by asymmetric gameplay in general. With previous consoles it's always been about doing the same thing but using different controllers and control schemes. With the Wii U you're literally opening up entirely different experiences within the same game play. That could also be a real game changer as the killer freaks multiplayer showed.

New experiences come from software design, not new controllers. To say the difference between a PS3 and PS2 is "pretty graphics" just because it's using a similar controller is a major oversight imo. Just the added online functionality already changed how most people play their consoles quite significantly.

Hardware power also enables much more than pretty graphics. A game like Assassin's Creed just could not be done on older hardware, not for its graphics but mostly all the AI systems it runs simultaneously. LA Noire is also a fantastic concept enabled by new tech... there are countless examples.

 

[MidnightCowboy]

What IP is most likely going to be Nintendo's big launch title?

 

[Shanadeus]

.

 

[Fourth Storm]

Regarding backward compatibility, how did the PS2 utilize upscaling in older games with its chip? I assume the other functions were present while in BC mode. Seeing how Wii did it's BC (relying completely on-chip and no high-level emulation and the fact you cannot even access the Wii's home menu), it seems at first WiiU won't probably upscale Wii games when in BC mode. Then again, the 3DS did have it's home menu available while playing DS games, so I'd reasonably assume they'd want some high-level emulation in there for sake of console accessibility considering one of the big draws for WiiU is being able to keep playing on the U Controller when the TV gets occupied.

AFAIK the PS2 used the PSX's CPU as the I/O controller and the GPU was similar enough in design (both being developed internally at Sony) that emulation was achievable. The fact that there was the texture smoothing option seems to indicate that it was software emulation on the GPU side at least. I think Wii U could utilize a similar solution, but other sources point to an ARM chip once again performing I/O and other duties to take the load off the CPU.

The only thing which lead me to believe that Broadway might be on the GPU was that I believe blu or someone stated that the CPU would need access to some low-latency RAM, such as Wii's 1t-SRAM for Wii emulation. Wii's CPU could not execute code from the GDDR3 because its latency was too high or whatnot. However, I suppose as Dolphin proves, with enough horsepower, you can make up for the increased latency.

I think blu mentioned somewhere that Hollywood's TEV units might not be completely emulatable (is that a word?) by shaders, because the TEV units do particular stuff more quickly than conventional shaders do. There's also some other hardwired effects in the Hollywood unit that might be hard to pull of in the exact same way using just shaders. Maybe the Wii U GPU has some modifications to its shader architecture that could make this work though. The original TEV designers work for AMD and Nintendo's R&D department.

Nintendo's approach to backwards compatibility has always been to just include the old hardware (GBC -> GBA, GBA->DS, GC->Wii) and I think it's because software emulation is never 100% perfect and a pain in the ass to maintain. Look at how MS did it with the 360 or the Sony mess with the PS3. Considering there's 80 million people that have bought all sorts of Wii games, much of it probably obscure crapware, that's consumer dissatisfaction they'll most likely want to avoid. I mean, even with the Game Boy Player they went the complex route and included the GBA chipset, even though the GBA is easy to emulate and the GameCube had plenty power to do it.

I remember he or someone else saying that the key to emulating Flipper was some very low-latency texture reads or whatnot, which the eDRAM on the GPU of Wii U (supposedly 32 MB, perhaps 1t-SRAM - the performances are most likely very similar, as I've read some manufacturing companies use eDRAM and 1t-SRAM interchangeably.) TEV itself should not be a problem to emulate with a modern GPU. Also, look at the 3DS to understand Nintendo's current hardware mindset. Info is scarce, but I have heard that it achieved DS emulation via the ARM 11 being able to read the DS' ARM 9 code natively and the DS' GPU being emulated via software.

According to wsippel, the dev kits are using an RV770LE and GDDR3 memory. That chip has a 256-bit bus. If both of you are correct, then it's safe to assume that the final unit will have a GPU with a 128-bit bus and GDDR5, wouldn't you agree?

Also, it should be noted that Nintendo rarely, if ever, takes advantage of die shrinks with consoles.

Hmmmm. Yeah, I'm on board with that. With a 256-bit bus being apparently too complex, having the same amount of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus would be roughly equivalent. The increased latency will likely be masked by all the eDRAM.

The PowerPC A2 has 8MB of L2 cache and I believe that is the same eDRAM that makes up the L3 cache in POWER7. And I hope that 1T-SRAM has improved since Gamecube (for Mosys' sake).

Wsippel was told an ARM is being used for I/O again and that's why I've been linking to that rumor about Marvell's ARM processor being in Wii U. And I'm sure blu would be "happy" to hear that I'm jumping on the software emulation bandwagon.

Also I think the SoC wsippel's contact mentioned will be a GPU LSI/MCM like with Wii.

All things considered I still believe there is merit to it being a 4870 that was severely underclocked in the beginning. Lherre said early on every time they would push the kit the GPU would freeze. I have a tough time now believing a GPU that is normally clocked at 575Mhz and downclocked to 500Mhz would cause the system to freeze when being pushed. Not saying it can't happen, just harder to believe. Then you have this old quote from ShockingAlberto.

Increasing a 4830 75Mhz doesn't sound like a decent bump since lherre said nothing has changed. Increasing a 4870 (or 4770) 250Mhz would be a decent bump IMO. So for me looking at the dev kit, if we're looking at 640 ALUs, then I give more credence to a 4770 than a 4830. If we're looking at beyond 1TFLOP then it's got to be a 4870.

Ah, thanks for reminding me of certain rumors I hadn't heard or forgotten. Your specs seem to match mine for the most part, although I think you are being a bit optimistic on the GPU. I think it will stay at 640 sp and it definitely won't be a 4870 because of the 256-bit bus. However, the 4770 approaches 1 TFlop, so something resembling that with a souped-up tessalelator as part of a 28nm SoC or MCM is something I would expect.

 

[Boney]

What IP is most likely going to be Nintendo's big launch title?

pikmin 3

Spoiler

lol

 

[BurntPork]

We won't get a 28nm SoC. The CPU is confirmed to be 45nm.

 

[Gaborn]

New experiences come from software design, not new controllers. To say the difference between a PS3 and PS2 is "pretty graphics" just because it's using a similar controller is a major oversight imo. Just the added online functionality already changed how most people play their consoles quite significantly.

I'm not saying that's the only reason, but I find a basically identical controller limiting. I'm not even questioning the console's abilities expanding what developers can do. But from a feel perspective games seem too similar in my view. A new control scheme can refresh things.

Hardware power also enables much more than pretty graphics. A game like Assassin's Creed just could not be done on older hardware, not for its graphics but mostly all the AI systems it runs simultaneously. LA Noire is also a fantastic concept enabled by new tech... there are countless examples.

Also a good point but missing the point. The variability offered by a more powerful system is less than that offered by a controller with more options for input capability. With the Wii U you have all the basic buttons you could want, plus a touch screen. Added functionality is a good thing. There is nothing that Dual Shock 3 does that the Wii U Pad cannot do, and yet the U Pad can do things that the DS3 cannot do. That's good.

 

[sphagnum]

What IP is most likely going to be Nintendo's big launch title?

Pikmin 3, Wii Sports U, maybe some half-hearted spinoff of Mario.

 

[Gaborn]

Pikmin 3, Wii Sports U, maybe some half-hearted spinoff of Mario.

Wii Fit U. You KNOW it's coming. Might as well make it at launch so it's there for the holidays.

 

[Shanadeus]

.

 

[bgassassin]

I've never played it on PC, so I don't know what the settings do, I just was just trying to have a visual reference for what kind of visuals the system could theoretically produce.

I understand. But it's really a tough call right now. 720p/60 seems more obtainable from what we know so far.

That sounds about right.
Now let's wait and see how long it takes for IGN or Kotaku to steal this.

Ah, thanks for reminding me of certain rumors I hadn't heard or forgotten. Your specs seem to match mine for the most part, although I think you are being a bit optimistic on the GPU. I think it will stay at 640 sp and it definitely won't be a 4870 because of the 256-bit bus. However, the 4770 approaches 1 TFlop, so something resembling that with a souped-up tessalelator as part of a 28nm SoC or MCM is something I would expect.

I ended up forgetting those don't have a GDDR3 variant. I don't see us being able to properly translate what's in the dev kit to what the final GPU will look like. What I mean by that is when you say it won't be 4870 due to the bus size. That's why I keep my final specs general. Based on the fact the GPU will have Eyefinity, that would eliminate all R700s.

 

[watershed]

I'm confused about why the Upad doesn't have an outward facing camera like the 3ds and dsi. I guess Nintendo doesn't want to explore any AR functions with the wii u? It seems like a natural fit given the screen on the controller and with how they could use the tv to project what the outward camera sees for the whole family. Also I imagine the beefier tech of the wii u could allow for better AR stuff. Seems like a huge missed opportunity.

 

[Shanadeus]

.

 

[FyreWulff]

I'm confused about why the Upad doesn't have an outward facing camera like the 3ds and dsi. I guess Nintendo doesn't want to explore any AR functions with the wii u? It seems like a natural fit given the screen on the controller and with how they could use the tv to project what the outward camera sees for the whole family. Also I imagine the beefier tech of the wii u could allow for better AR stuff. Seems like a huge missed opportunity.

I wouldn't be surprised if they added one in the re-reveal, but there could also be latency concerns. they're already stuffing video down the link, in addition to the front camera's video up (and down) the link, then you'd have to add another one.

There's also the fact that the controller will be set down a lot, so you may not want an unprotected camera lens on the bottom on a device intended to be robust against hard usage.

 

[watershed]

My gut is telling me that the revised Upad will have an outward facing camera as well.
Didn't the Wiimote get a speaker between the first reveal and the final version?

I don't know but adding a speaker is quick and easy and wasn't essential to many games. But adding a second camera and creating all new AR opportunities would probably be far more consequential and take more development time to do right. I hope it makes it in there, it should have been there from the start.

 

[CoffeeJanitor]

Not being able to run BF3 is slightly disconcerting. for a non-tech person like myself. That game released a year or two before the Wii U will release and it might not be able to run it....

 

[Shanadeus]

.

 

[bgassassin]

Not being able to run BF3 is slightly disconcerting. for a non-tech person like myself. That game released a year or two before the Wii U will release and it might not be able to run it....

PS360 can run BF3. Wii U just probably wouldn't run it at max with 1080p and 60FPS.

 

[CoffeeJanitor]

PS360 can run BF3. Wii U just probably wouldn't run it at max with 1080p and 60FPS.

Right, sorry, that's what I meant.

 

[Boards of Canada]

We will all be disappointed by Wii U specs.

 

[bgassassin]

^ Nah. I'm pleased with what we know so far.

Right, sorry, that's what I meant.

No prob. But let's put things into context. DICE said to look at BF3 on PC as what to expect from next gen consoles. I don't think any of us expect Wii U to be equal to Xbox3 or PS4. So that's part of why I would rule that level out for a Wii U version of Battlefield. It really depends on how negligible the difference is though.

 

[Log4Girlz]

Pretty much my first speculation just with some tweaks.

CPU
Tri-core (POWER7-based cores) @ 3+Ghz
3MB L2 cache (split 1.5MB:768KB:768KB; maybe they'll increase this before launch)

GPU
600-800Mhz
640-800 SPUs
(I really think Nintendo is trying for a 28nm GPU)

Memory
32MB of embedded 1T-SRAM-Q
1.5GB of GDDR5 memory

Misc
6x-10x slim optical drive
8-16GB Flash memory
~1 USB 3.0 port (for HDD)

I think the cores will clock under 3GHZ and it will have closer to 640 SPU's. Monstrous improvement over the original Wii.

 

[guek]

I think the cores will clock under 3GHZ and it will have closer to 640 SPU's. Monstrous improvement over the original Wii.

I'm expecting that and slightly more than 1gb of ram. Keeping them expectations in check!

 

[NateDrake]

^ Nah. I'm pleased with what we know so far.



No prob. But let's put things into context. DICE said to look at BF3 on PC as what to expect from next gen consoles. I don't think any of us expect Wii U to be equal to Xbox3 or PS4. So that's part of why I would rule that level out for a Wii U version of Battlefield. It really depends on how negligible the difference is though.

If PS4/Xbox720 can run BF3 at PC Max settings at 1080/60FPS and Wii U is 720/60FPS, then I'll be pleased with that. It's close enough that Wii U won't miss out on any games from third party devs. Or I hope....

 

[ShockingAlberto]

If PS4/Xbox720 can run BF3 at PC Max settings at 1080/60FPS and Wii U is 720/60FPS, then I'll be pleased with that. It's close enough that Wii U won't miss out on any games from third party devs. Or I hope....

Wii U will miss plenty of games by virtue of being a Nintendo system.

But I do agree that its power discrepancy will determine just how many.

 

[guek]

Wii U will miss plenty of games by virtue of being a Nintendo system.

But I do agree that its power discrepancy will determine just how many.

I'm expecting somewhere between (early)gamecube and wii levels of 3rd party mulit-plat support. Devs might not be enthusiastic about it, but with rising costs, most wont be able to ignore the installed base if porting is feasible (whereas it wasn't with the wii).

 

[ClovingWestbrook]

I think the cores will clock under 3GHZ and it will have closer to 640 SPU's. Monstrous improvement over the original Wii.

The PS3/360 is a monstrous increase over the Wii. Wii U being a huge improvement over its predecessor isn't anything to write home about.

 

[BY2K]

The PS3/360 is a monstrous increase over the Wii. Wii U being a huge improvement over its predecessor isn't anything to write home about.

Going from Wii to Wii U will feel more of an upgrade than from PS3 to PS4.

It's like having the same PC since 2001 and and finally buying a new one in 2011.

 

[Lupin the Third]

Wii U will miss plenty of games by virtue of being a Nintendo system.

But I do agree that its power discrepancy will determine just how many.

Sad truth is sad.

 

[ClovingWestbrook]

Going from Wii to Wii U will feel more of an upgrade than from PS3 to PS4.

It's like having the same PC since 2001 and and finally buying a new one in 2011.

Yes but again, in comparison to the competition its not saying much. People who are on a flip old school razor phone and buy an iphone 2g (if they were still being sold) are in store for a huge upgrade but compared to competition? No.

 

[BY2K]

Yes but again, in comparison to the competition its not saying much. People who are on a flip old school razor phone and buy an iphone 2g (if they were still being sold) are in store for a huge upgrade but compared to competition? No.

I agree with this.

But really, the reason I want a Wii U is not for the Third Parties (even if they do get it, there will be exclusive that I want on PS4 anyway, so I'll end up buying both one way or another.) It's the first parties that I want. Zelda, Mario, Metroid, F-Zero, Smash Bros, Star Fox, all in glorious HD. Just imagining what Nintendo can do with that kind of graphical power makes me drool.

 

[ClovingWestbrook]

I agree with this.

But really, the reason I want a Wii U is not for the Third Parties (even if they do get it, there will be exclusive that I want on PS4 anyway, so I'll end up buying both one way or another.) It's the first parties that I want. Zelda, Mario, Metroid, F-Zero, Smash Bros, Star Fox, all in glorious HD. Just imagining what Nintendo can do with that kind of graphical power makes me drool.

Oh, I'm right there with you.

 

[Nin_Fan]

I agree with this.

But really, the reason I want a Wii U is not for the Third Parties (even if they do get it, there will be exclusive that I want on PS4 anyway, so I'll end up buying both one way or another.) It's the first parties that I want. Zelda, Mario, Metroid, F-Zero, Smash Bros, Star Fox, all in glorious HD. Just imagining what Nintendo can do with that kind of graphical power makes me drool.

I also feel the same way. I guess this is the problem the 3rd parties have. Once the PS4 comes out and we have RE6 on all 3 systems what version will most people buy? It might be the same situation like it was during the gamecube generation. Though I think in the beginning the wii u will get better support. It may trail off again. I wouldn't be surprised if later they port games to ps3, ps4, Xbox 360 ,nextbox and skip Wii u altogether. It just depends if they can keep the momentum going after launch and people hold off jumping to ps4 and nextbox. So much depends on launch.

 

[BY2K]

I also feel the same way. I guess this is the problem the 3rd parties have. Once the PS4 comes out and we have RE6 on all 3 systems what version will most people buy? It might be the same situation like it was during the gamecube generation. Though I think in the beginning the wii u will get better support. It may trail off again. I wouldn't be surprised if later they port games to ps3, ps4, Xbox 360 ,nextbox and skip Wii u altogether. It just depends if they can keep the momentum going after launch and people hold off jumping to ps4 and nextbox. So much depends on launch.

If the power range of the PS4-Xbox Next-Wii U is the same as the Gamecube-PS2-Xbox was, things should look VERY similar. But there's one place Nintendo CAN'T drop the ball in, and that's online. For God's sake Nintendo, the 3DS is a step in the right direction, just keep going that way with the Wii U.

 

[mrklaw]

My gut is telling me that the revised Upad will have an outward facing camera as well.
Didn't the Wiimote get a speaker between the first reveal and the final version?

have nintendo said that the controller can upload video to the wiiu?

 

[Nin_Fan]

have nintendo said that the controller can upload video to the wiiu?

It has to , remember the video chat feature.

 

[mrklaw]

Wii U will miss plenty of games by virtue of being a Nintendo system.

But I do agree that its power discrepancy will determine just how many.

its power will basically determine if it gets PS4 ports, or PS3 ports.

if the latter, then it'll risk being slowly made irrelevant as third parties move to the new platforms and ps3/360 turn into shovelware/port machines

 

[mrklaw]

I personally don't give a flying fuck about ever streaming my game onto my goddamn controller but the other applications are pretty interesting. Would love if Resident Evil 6 which will inevitably come out for PS3/360/Wii-U(I hope) would let you manage your inventory on the screen and whatnot.

i'm the exact opposite. I hope nintendo support this heavily, as it would give me much mire opportunity to play while at home when the tv is being used.

seems to clash with using the controller screen for 'innovation' though, i'm curious how nintendo deal with that

 

[Nin_Fan]

If the power range of the PS4-Xbox Next-Wii U is the same as the Gamecube-PS2-Xbox was, things should look VERY similar. But there's one place Nintendo CAN'T drop the ball in, and that's online. For God's sake Nintendo, the 3DS is a step in the right direction, just keep going that way with the Wii U.

So true their online needs to at least match Sony. If Microsoft would just put blu-ray I think it will be a just Xbox and Wii u future for me. Otherwise I might have to get all 3 again. But I think this time around I may wait a bit getting a new console after wii u .

 

[FyreWulff]

its power will basically determine if it gets PS4 ports, or PS3 ports.

if the latter, then it'll risk being slowly made irrelevant as third parties move to the new platforms and ps3/360 turn into shovelware/port machines

This totally stopped developers from doing this to the PS2 when the Xbox/GC came out...

They'll develop for the lowest common denominator that the market will let them get away with. Same reason publishers developed a PS2 version and then just ported that up to the Wii instead of making a Wii native version, because it's cheaper. Call of Duty 3 Wii got two guys on it's team and they were only given a DVD of the assets for the PS2 version. Similiar story for CoD4.

If the Wii U is comparable enough to the PS4 and Xbox 3, then you're going to see third parties develop with the Wii U as the general bar for graphics, and as always only the first party titles for each system will actually push the hardware. If the PS4 and Xbox 3 have some sort of huge gap over it (which I doubt), then their version will just have a higher texture resolution and the LOD horizon pushed out farther. But this generation was more of the exception in that we got two consoles extremely close together in power. The norm has been that they all have gaps.

 

[Nin_Fan]

i'm the exact opposite. I hope nintendo support this heavily, as it would give me much mire opportunity to play while at home when the tv is being used.

seems to clash with using the controller screen for 'innovation' though, i'm curious how nintendo deal with that

I think the most we will get is DS type stuff. I think the potential for innovation wil come from multiplayer. What I wonder is will all games support tablet only play? If so will the gameplay change when u only play on the tablet?