Wii U Speculation Thread of Brains Beware: Wii U Re-Unveiling At E3 2012

Status
Not open for further replies.
radcliff said:
They are also working on Rythm Heaven for Wii.

Oh I forgot about Rhythm Heaven, I thought I was missing a Wii game somewhere.

Shiggy said:
Probably Mario Party 9 for 2012.

Oh, these guys are doing MP?

Worked on Wii Crush, which resulted in many departures. Therefore no more console games from them.
Shiggy said:
The NST guys? They worked on a real game, Project HAMMER, which was pretty far concepted. But then Nintendo went on the casual route and wanted Wii Crush, a casualised and cheap Project HAMMER knockoff. Thank goodness that game was never released, still, NST lost some really great folks (Colin Reed, Vivek Melwani, among many others).

Oh, that's what Wii Crush was. I thought their releases lately were quite weird. What a waste, especially considering the current 'we love U hardcore gamers' thing.

They had a Wii RPG until 2009 in development, which was canned. Since then, their employee count went down from 80 to 30 - expect handheld games only.

Genius Sonority? Really? I didn't know that at all. Who's handling the Pokemon console simulators then? (I heard that there was a Wii one coming this year, not who developed it, I just assumed it was these guys)

lunchwithyuzo said:
If you're including DD stuff, EAD3 has The Rolling Western and EAD Tokyo 2 has Flipnote Studio 3D.

Yeah, I did remember those, but I was focusing on retail games mainly because they generally require more development time and personnel, so the whole team may not be working on just the DD game at once. Rolling Western does look interesting, though I haven't focused on flipnote studio much.

I think EAD3 is also probably moving directly to Wii U Zelda, anything else we see on 3DS will be from Grezzo I bet.

After their work with OoT3D it's certainly possible, especially because moving to HD Zelda as well as developing for 3DS could easily take more time/money/people than developing for Wii/DS at the same time. Grezzo's only had two games published so far though (OoT and the WiiWare's Line Attack Heroes) neither of which look like they involved the complete planning and development an original Zelda title would require. I'm not saying they can't do it, but they may need some input from the EAD3 team to help out.
 
Shiggy said:
The NST guys? They worked on a real game, Project HAMMER, which was pretty far concepted. But then Nintendo went on the casual route and wanted Wii Crush, a casualised and cheap Project HAMMER knockoff. Thank goodness that game was never released, still, NST lost some really great folks (Colin Reed, Vivek Melwani, among many others).
The casualization was far from the only reason Nintendo canceled Project Hammer. It was shaping up as a really shoddy project with poor gesture recognition and a boring overall design.

From the time it was revealed in 2006 to the summer of 2007, it had made basically no progress as a game. Content was made, but none of it was fun. They were told to either fix it or work on an expanded audience game and they couldn't fix it.
 
ShockingAlberto said:
The casualization was far from the only reason Nintendo canceled Project Hammer. It was shaping up as a really shoddy project with poor gesture recognition and a boring overall design.

From the time it was revealed in 2006 to the summer of 2007, it had made basically no progress as a game. Content was made, but none of it was fun. They were told to either fix it or work on an expanded audience game and they couldn't fix it.

Yeah, pretty much this, I suppose. Given when it was developed it would have been a huge waggle fest, I don't imagine that would have been fun. And it did look pretty generic.
 
lunchwithyuzo said:
I think EAD3 is also probably moving directly to Wii U Zelda, anything else we see on 3DS will be from Grezzo I bet.


Good, I hope EAD3 has enough resources to handle Wii U Zelda, and in less than 5 years. Maybe 4 year, I hope.
 
herzogzwei1989 said:
Good, I hope EAD3 has enough resources to handle Wii U Zelda, and in less than 5 years. Maybe 4 year, I hope.

I don't see why they wouldn't.

If we assume that SS development is essentially done now and they're just sitting on it for a holiday release and the possibility that they'd outsource 3DS development for an original title as well there's no reason why in-house planning/early ideas/tech demos for the title couldn't begin soon.
Considering that Wii U is 8-15 months (made up numbers) away at this point the game could hit in the third or fourth year of the systems life, rather than the fifth or sixth.

Imagine if the first 6 months of the system saw Wii U Sports, Pikmin 3, New Super Mario Bros. Mii, Wii U Fit, Retro's next game, WarioWare and a new Miyamoto IP. That's not a bad line up and should be enough to tide me over until the other big franchises show up.
 
Shiggy said:
The NST guys? They worked on a real game, Project HAMMER, which was pretty far concepted. But then Nintendo went on the casual route and wanted Wii Crush, a casualised and cheap Project HAMMER knockoff. Thank goodness that game was never released, still, NST lost some really great folks (Colin Reed, Vivek Melwani, among many others).

I thought NST made Wave Race Blue Storm too (although that was a freakin' GC launch game).
 
Question on page 3 of the article.

http://wii.ign.com/articles/118/1181645p1.html

IGN: Do you have a reaction to Nintendo's announcement, about the Wii U? I saw you were in the video they rolled.

Ken Levine: Just to be clear, there are no plans. I'm not saying it can't happen, but we have no plans to do any games for that platform. There are things about it that, as a core gamer, really appeal to me, that have nothing to do with Fruit Ninja. I have nothing against Fruit Ninja, I respect all kinds of games, I love all kinds of games, there are just certain kinds of things that are more suited to my taste. There are some things, as a core gamer, as a guy who likes lying in bed playing... I've always had to sacrifice that core gaming experience when I lie in bed playing games. We're now getting to a place with Vita and what Nintendo's doing where that's not necessarily going to be the case, where you can play full-on hardcore games in bed with the lights out while your wife's asleep. I like that a lot. That means a lot to me. On the airplane? That means a lot to me as a core gamer, that you've got two sticks. That's so important to me. The fact that the Wii U has got two sticks... I feel it's like... It's a great year for the core coming back and saying, okay, have your touch screens, have your motion control, we'll try to make that work, and if you can pull that off it'll be really good. But I want to have my cake and eat it too. I think these experiences are starting to allow that to happen. I love my iPad, but I mostly work on it, I don't play a lot of games on it, because I'm not into that style or form factor, that three-minute experience.

I'm disappointed he couldn't find more places to say "core".

EDIT: Changed due to wording of answer.
 
lwilliams3 said:
It seems that he may have been referring to developing games on the iPad. IGN may have messed up on the answer placement.

It does look like they have, otherwise the first couple of sentences don't really make any sense in the context.
 
lwilliams3 said:
It seems that he may have been referring to developing games on the iPad. IGN may have messed up on the answer placement.

That's makes sense because I had no idea what Fruit Ninja was and what it had to do with Wii U.
 
StreetsAhead said:
So, I was very bored at work (I'm finishing up tomorrow and can't be bothered doing any more real work for them) and was thinking about first party games for Wii U. Yeah. That bored......

.........

At present that's,
3DS/Wii Project: 9 studios (3 Wii, 6 3DS)
Wii-U Project: 2 studios (Monolith, EAD 4)
Unnanounced: 14 studios (9 1st Party, 5 2nd party)
It'd be cool to get like a Google Docs document of this kinda information, with different columns like release date, etc, so that you can sort the information in various ways, and have like different colors for confirmed information and reasonable speculation.

And update it as we get more information down the line; I mean, already it needs updating :P
 
beside few developers, which irrational games isn't one of them, it is the publisher that says a game should go on which platform. Since T2 has said they don't have any plans for the moment, we won't see any of their games on the Wii U, including games from bioshock series.

their line of reasoning was that they only make games that play to the strengths of the platform they are published for, so if they make a Wii U game, they should make sure that it is fully using the controller, etc. So they will wait and see whether the demographics and installed based are enough interested in their games and then bother developing games for the platform.

I believe how many publishers jump on board, depends on the marketing strategy of the Nintendo. If they only focus on casual gamers, again, then 2K won't greenlit development at least after the console is launched and they are given the chance to observe the core gamers response.
 
walking fiend said:
beside few developers, which irrational games isn't one of them, it is the publisher that says a game should go on which platform. Since T2 has said they don't have any plans for the moment, we won't see any of their games on the Wii U, including games from bioshock series.

their line of reasoning was that they only make games that play to the strengths of the platform they are published for, so if they make a Wii U game, they should make sure that it is fully using the controller, etc. So they will wait and see whether the demographics and installed based are enough interested in their games and then bother developing games for the platform.

I believe how many publishers jump on board, depends on the marketing strategy of the Nintendo. If they only focus on casual gamers, again, then 2K won't greenlit development at least after the console is launched and they are given the chance to observe the core gamers response.

What gets me is that they're going to jump on the Vita even though the PSP market was all but dead in the west. Yet, the Wii was a huge seller and it's real downfall was always that it wasn't powerful enough. Now they're saying there's more to it than that? It's crazy. The Vita hasn't proven anything like the Wii U, yet it's a better gamble than the Wii U? Based on what history? Anyway, I'm sure Take 2 will jump on the Wii U and I'm sure if Ken wanted Bioshock to appear on the system, they'd do it.
 
EDarkness said:
What gets me is that they're going to jump on the Vita even though the PSP market was all but dead in the west. Yet, the Wii was a huge seller and it's real downfall was always that it wasn't powerful enough. Now they're saying there's more to it than that? It's crazy. The Vita hasn't proven anything like the Wii U, yet it's a better gamble than the Wii U? Based on what history? Anyway, I'm sure Take 2 will jump on the Wii U and I'm sure if Ken wanted Bioshock to appear on the system, they'd do it.
I believe it has to do with the marketing, they probably don't expect Nintendo to stand up for M rated games. I mean, look at the teaser for Wii U, beside few moments of Zelda, everything else was Wii style games; while sony has made a very powerful handheld, which is practically a portable PS3, and they are developing a brand new Uncharted for launch.

Even here, the reaction toward PSV has been much more positive that that toward the Wii U.

and we know previous success doesn't amount to anything for a new system. When 3DS was released, DS was in a much better shape than Wii is at the moment, but 3DS isn't doing good now at all.
 
EDarkness said:
What gets me is that they're going to jump on the Vita even though the PSP market was all but dead in the west. Yet, the Wii was a huge seller and it's real downfall was always that it wasn't powerful enough. Now they're saying there's more to it than that? It's crazy. The Vita hasn't proven anything like the Wii U, yet it's a better gamble than the Wii U? Based on what history? Anyway, I'm sure Take 2 will jump on the Wii U and I'm sure if Ken wanted Bioshock to appear on the system, they'd do it.

In the end it all really revolves around hardware power, and the visuals provided by it. And since the controls offer to more closely match a traditional console setup, asset and overall design wise...they see it as a better gamble. I don't think Irrational believes they've got the chops to "think outside the box" and really leverage the 3DS/WiiU's unique technologies as it pertains to their goals/strengths as a developer. We see even more proof of this as Levine continually mentions "I want a traditional controller setup etc etc", and his stance on motion in general.

Saying that, I do believe Irrational's strengths as a developer will always be better suited to a "mainstream aggressively visual platform". So maybe it is a good gamble.
 
TheExplodingHead said:
In the end it all really revolves around hardware power, and the visuals provided by it. And since the controls offer to more closely match a traditional console setup, asset and overall design wise...they see it as a better gamble. I don't think Irrational believes they've got the chops to "think outside the box" and really leverage the 3DS/WiiU's unique technologies as it pertains to their goals/strengths as a developer. We see even more proof of this as Levine continually mentions "I want a traditional controller setup etc etc", and his stance on motion in general.

Saying that, I do believe Irrational's strengths as a developer will always be better suited to a "mainstream aggressively visual platform". So maybe it is a good gamble.
Maybe he doesn't want, but we can't be sure that he can't. GTA: Chinatown Wars on the DS, played the hardware potential to the fullest and was a great game in general, but it didn't sell.
 
walking fiend said:
Maybe he doesn't want, but we can't be sure that he can't. GTA: Chinatown Wars on the DS, played the hardware potential to the fullest and was a great game in general, but it didn't sell.


In terms of sales, going back to Irrational's central rational for "liking" the WiiU/Move was a more traditional control setup (at least from Levine's mouth) and power. After all eye candy sells to Levine's "core crowd" moreso than a outside-the-box use for a unique technology. It's a lot easier to sell a game (especially when your core strength as a dev is unique worlds and aesthetic) on visuals than it is to champion a risky project on 3DS/WiiU at least at launch. It's also cheaper too, as well as easier to get funding and media support building on the back of what made Irrational successful to begin with. That, and the western Nintendo relationship leaves a lot to be desired. It's really no surprise Irrational is taking a wait and see approach to the WiiU, while outright supporting the Vita already.
 
walking fiend said:
I believe it has to do with the marketing, they probably don't expect Nintendo to stand up for M rated games. I mean, look at the teaser for Wii U, beside few moments of Zelda, everything else was Wii style games; while sony has made a very powerful handheld, which is practically a portable PS3, and they are developing a brand new Uncharted for launch.

Even here, the reaction toward PSV has been much more positive that that toward the Wii U.

and we know previous success doesn't amount to anything for a new system. When 3DS was released, DS was in a much better shape than Wii is at the moment, but 3DS isn't doing good now at all.

I don't believe this to be true this time around. At least with the e3 showing they showed a multitude of 3rd party hardcore M rated titles albeit(ps360 footage) which are more or less confirmed for the systems's launch. More than enough to at least create a foundation as far userbase is concerned early on in the system's life.

As for the comparison in reception, the reveal for the psv was far more concrete in terms of solid info, high spec, great price , games, online plan, alot more detail, of course it would have been better received, hardly anything for the wii u was revealed and speculation even at this point is still running rampant.
 
Anybody get the feeling that there's still something Nintendo isn't letting on about WiiU? Sort of like the "Nintendo Revolution reveal where they didn't show the controller".

I'm waiting for Reggie to pop-up and say "you know candidly, we still haven't really shown the full console for a reason." At this point they need some hype like that, or they need a bombastic E3 2012 to quell the nay-sayers and regain some momentum.
 
TheExplodingHead said:
Anybody get the feeling that there's still something Nintendo isn't letting on about WiiU? Sort of like the "Nintendo Revolution reveal where they didn't show the controller".

I'm waiting for Reggie to pop-up and say "you know candidly, we still haven't really shown the full console for a reason." At this point they need some hype like that, or they need a bombastic E3 2012 to quell the nay-sayers and regain some momentum.
I don't see what they could do since people have already seen the console and controller up close.
 
TheExplodingHead said:
Anybody get the feeling that there's still something Nintendo isn't letting on about WiiU?
Yeah 3:rd party games, all I hear is we like the new console and its controller, but no one announce an actual game or support for it. ;P ;P
 
TheExplodingHead said:
Anybody get the feeling that there's still something Nintendo isn't letting on about WiiU? Sort of like the "Nintendo Revolution reveal where they didn't show the controller".
No, I think the tablet controller is it. They've shown a vision of how to capture both the 'casual' and 'core' segments of the market. Now they just need to back it up with games.
 
ShockingAlberto said:
The casualization was far from the only reason Nintendo canceled Project Hammer. It was shaping up as a really shoddy project with poor gesture recognition and a boring overall design.

From the time it was revealed in 2006 to the summer of 2007, it had made basically no progress as a game. Content was made, but none of it was fun. They were told to either fix it or work on an expanded audience game and they couldn't fix it.

And yet the game was shown in a playable state at various shows, and feedback from the public and the press was always very positive.
 
Boerseun said:
And yet the game was shown in a playable state at various shows, and feedback from the public and the press was always very positive.
I would say that was mostly because of the novelty of Wii at that point.
 
VOOK said:
Whats the orange port for though?
Wii-U-Back-Ports-hdmi-usb-video-out-power-sensor-bar.jpg
 
Monolith Software discusses Wii U title.

Monolith Software has posted a three page interview with its core programming staff. The topic: the company's new Wii U title. While the interview doesn't offer any specifics on the game, the staff did share some broad technical goals.

The interview was conducted by Monolith CEO Hirohide Sugiura. Responded to the boss's questions were Toshiaki Yajima (main programmer on Xenosaga and Dragon Ball Kai), Katsunori Sakai (main programmer on Xenoblade, event system programmer on Disaster) and Michihiko Inaba (Xenosaga, Soma Bringer).


Sugiura began by noting that the Monolith programming staff has been continually doing research and development on other company's products, including HD machines. With the release of the Wii U, they'll at last be able to show the fruits of their work, he said.

Sounding a similar note, Yajima assured that although this is Monolith's first HD game, because they've been doing R&D for some time now, they're having no problems on the technical front. He also feels that because they can now use physics and shaders, the potential expressive ability of the game has gone up, so this is where they can show their skills as programmers.

Inaba expressed interest in the Wii U's special controller, saying that it seems like it could be interesting to play on the TV and the second screen, showing different things on each screen. He'd like to try it out quickly, he said.

Inaba also added that as this is Monolith's first HD title, he hopes to make something that surprises everyone. He wants to make something that shows Japanese technology does not lose out to America. His target is to be at the level of Fallout maker Bethesda Softworks, although he joked that maybe he's going too far.

Whatever the mystery game is, it looks like there's already a design document floating about. Sakai said that he was a quite excited after seeing the design document, as he felt that it would require a high level from the staff.


One of the main reasons this interview was posted was to attract applicants for Monolith's staff search. Yajima said that he wants many people with specific knowledge in such areas as Havok and Shaders. Sakai noted that when trying to portray realistic expressions on the screen, you end up needing to use external programming libraries. He wants people who are interested in using such libraries for game development.

This is just the first in a series of staff interviews discussing the Wii U game. Even if everyone speaks as broadly as the three programmers, at the very least we should be able to piece together who's working on the project.

Nirolak found it first, just thought I'd include it in this thread.
 
So, have we found out what the codename of the U is? With the shell having "WS" on it, it's possible it was Wii Stream but I suppose that's unlikely.
 
Gravijah said:
So, have we found out what the codename of the U is? With the shell having "WS" on it, it's possible it was Wii Stream but I suppose that's unlikely.

Wii Stream was the original rumor. I don't see why it's unlikely.
 
bgassassin said:
Question on page 3 of the article.

http://wii.ign.com/articles/118/1181645p1.html
Ken Levine: Just to be clear, there are no plans. I'm not saying it can't happen, but we have no plans to do any games for that platform. There are things about it that, as a core gamer, really appeal to me, that have nothing to do with Fruit Ninja. I have nothing against Fruit Ninja, I respect all kinds of games, I love all kinds of games, there are just certain kinds of things that are more suited to my taste. There are some things, as a core gamer, as a guy who likes lying in bed playing... I've always had to sacrifice that core gaming experience when I lie in bed playing games. We're now getting to a place with Vita and what Nintendo's doing where that's not necessarily going to be the case, where you can play full-on hardcore games in bed with the lights out while your wife's asleep. I like that a lot. That means a lot to me. On the airplane? That means a lot to me as a core gamer, that you've got two sticks. That's so important to me. The fact that the Wii U has got two sticks... I feel it's like... It's a great year for the core coming back and saying, okay, have your touch screens, have your motion control, we'll try to make that work, and if you can pull that off it'll be really good. But I want to have my cake and eat it too. I think these experiences are starting to allow that to happen. I love my iPad, but I mostly work on it, I don't play a lot of games on it, because I'm not into that style or form factor, that three-minute experience.


I'm disappointed he couldn't find more places to say "core".

EDIT: Changed due to wording of answer.

"I seem to have snorted a lot of something prior to this interview. Also, 2 analog sticks = core gaming, because, you know... it's so much more accurate than IR/mouse. Good for Nintendo for capitulating to us developers for that very reason. Lastly, don't expect any of my games on the Wii U. Core core."
 
StevieP said:
"I seem to have snorted a lot of something prior to this interview. Also, 2 analog sticks = core gaming, because, you know... it's so much more accurate than IR/mouse. Good for Nintendo for capitulating to us developers for that very reason. Lastly, don't expect any of my games on the Wii U. Core core."
Motion controls/wiimote/nunchuck setup is terrible for a whole bunch of games. I'm not even sure if the wii u's dual analog controller is up to par with ps3/360.
 
Plinko said:
Wii Stream was the original rumor. I don't see why it's unlikely.
The original rumor was "Project Cafe." "Stream" was one of the suggestions being thrown around as a final name, according to IGN. "Wii Stream" was just made up by fans based on the IGN rumor.
 
It's completely ridiculous to even codename a console 'Wii Stream'.
Seriously, 'Wii Stream'.
Even Nintendo would be aware of the implications.
H_Prestige said:
Motion controls/wiimote/nunchuck setup is terrible for a whole bunch of games. I'm not even sure if the wii u's dual analog controller is up to par with ps3/360.
The best solution is still a split motion controller set-up like the Wiimote/nunchuk and Move, but with an analog stick or slider on both sides.
 
H_Prestige said:
Motion controls/wiimote/nunchuck setup is terrible for a whole bunch of games. I'm not even sure if the wii u's dual analog controller is up to par with ps3/360.

The only games that I can even fathom where it's "terrible" for is fighting games and racing games if you don't use tilt. Everything else that I can think of works better with a split controller that has a pointer (WM+/Move).

Wii U's dual-analog probably won't be as good as the 360's, but the DualShock? That design, with the awful staggered analog sticks, has been outdated for a decade. Shame on Nintendo for staggering the analog sticks as well. Here's hoping they change their mind. It made sense on the CC/CC Pro because the D-Pad is supposed to be the focus of classic games, but on a new system? It's terrible.
 
StevieP said:
The only games that I can even fathom where it's "terrible" for is fighting games and racing games if you don't use tilt. Everything else that I can think of works better with a split controller that has a pointer (WM+/Move).
It's less than ideal for third person adventures, or any game where external camera movement is important.

StevieP said:
Wii U's dual-analog probably won't be as good as the 360's, but the DualShock? That design, with the awful staggered analog sticks, has been outdated for a decade. Shame on Nintendo for staggering the analog sticks as well. Here's hoping they change their mind. It made sense on the CC/CC Pro because the D-Pad is supposed to be the focus of classic games, but on a new system? It's terrible.
Nintendo probably want the 'non-threatening' D-pad control to take precedent so as not to scare off casuals. 'New Super Mario Bros. Mii' (god, what a terrible name) seems like it will be their big launch hook, after all.
They probably figured that dedicated gamers would just accept the non-staggered analogs since things have worked out pretty well for Sony over the years.
BurntPork said:
It's one thing to name a system after the sound a police siren makes, and another thing entirely to call it 'Wii Stream'.
 
Krev said:
It's less than ideal for third person adventures, or any game where external camera movement is important.

Resident Evil 4 plays much better with the Wii Remote. If you've played any GTA-style games (Godfather Blackhand edition) - it is way way way better than playing with dual-analog. Sure, you have to use the d-pad to manipulate the camera but it wasn't awful. The amazing motion control in that game far outweighed the annoyance of slightly less precise camera movement. It actually made playing GTA4 less enjoyable for me when I had to go back to dual-analog.

Nintendo probably want the 'non-threatening' D-pad control to take precedent so as not to scare off casuals. 'New Super Mario Bros. Mii' (god, what a terrible name) seems like it will be their big launch hook, after all.
They probably figured that dedicated gamers would just accept the non-staggered analogs since things have worked out pretty well for Sony over the years.

"Accept"? Yeah, I won't be accepting it. It sucks, and should be changed before launch. It's one thing the Gamecube and 360S controllers got right.
 
StevieP said:
"I seem to have snorted a lot of something prior to this interview. Also, 2 analog sticks = core gaming, because, you know... it's so much more accurate than IR/mouse. Good for Nintendo for capitulating to us developers for that very reason. Lastly, don't expect any of my games on the Wii U. Core core."

Wow. You guys... just kill me sometimes. What Levine said was totally reasonable.

The guy can't commit right now and you're ready to take a dump on him already. If he announced a "core" Wii U game in 2 weeks he'd be your best friend.
 
BurntPork said:
The original rumor was "Project Cafe." "Stream" was one of the suggestions being thrown around as a final name, according to IGN. "Wii Stream" was just made up by fans based on the IGN rumor.

You're right--my mistake--I believe the French site said the final name of the system may be "Wii Stream."
 
PortTwo said:
Wow. You guys... just kill me sometimes. What Levine said was totally reasonable.

The guy can't commit right now and you're ready to take a dump on him already. If he announced a "core" Wii U game in 2 weeks he'd be your best friend.

My only problem with his statement was that IGN was connecting it with the Wii U when he was clearly talking about the iPad.

Fruit Ninja is a popular game for the iPad.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom