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[AceBandage]

Countdown to E3 2012 and the Destruction of Mankind:

Welcome to the third installment of the Wii U Speculation thread. On our way to E3, you may see and hear some things that befuddle, bemuse and bewitch you.
Please, at all times, remain calm, don't panic, and whatever you do, don't exit the train.

This thread is a collection of rumors, facts, hype, teases and all sorts of things that would kill a normal person. But fear not. We have brave souls here to guide us towards E3. Listen closely, and you just might learn something.

Have fun, and as always, watch out for the Ninjas.


The players:

bgassassin: The ever watchful. His posts are the grounding for much of the speculation in the thread.

lherre: A developer actually working on the Wii U. He'll tease. He'll taunt. And most of all, he'll say nothing. Yet, he's already said more than anyone dared hope.

IdeaMan: The crazy French Journalist. Careful, his teases may excite you, but his quips will leave you cold.


The Rumors (AKA NOT FACT):

Nintendo is targeting, at a bare minimum, 1GB of RAM.
Nintendo is working to optimize popular third party engines.
The amount of RAM used for the OS is "surprising". Could change with optimization.
UE4 is "working" on the Wii

This is the 2011 list
But all links link back to a post on that forum which will then provide a link to the source
Rumor Consolidation 2011

and this is the 2012 list so far
Rumor Consolidation 2012


p.s. There are 2 rumors sourced back to members of that forum
1 is to me, and the other is another member that I know in real life.

Spoiler

(I vetted both sources before posting them on here)

Original Thread

The Two: Electric Boogaloo


Nintendo Licenses Autodesk and Havok for third parties:

Nintendo announced today that it has entered agreements with the physics and animation engine Havok, and Autodesk Gameware for a variety of under-the-hood tools. Both of these agreements allow Nintendo to provide the engines to third-party developers for use in Wii U games.

Havok was used in games like BioShock, and to make Stormtroopers hilariously cling on for dear life in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. The Autodesk agreement includes a suite of Gameware tools: Scaleform for user interface, Kynapse for artificial intelligence, and HumanIK for character animation. Autodesk tools have been used in over 1,000 games to date, including Batman: Arkham City and The Witcher 2.

Nintendo has been positioning the Wii U as the answer to criticisms about its failure to appease the hardcore. With these licensing deals, we can at least be assured that third parties will have access to the tools needed to support recent franchises. Whether they hop on-board and commit development resources to take advantage of the unique controller, on the other hand, remains to be seen.

Nintendo no longer using 1t-SRAM. Puts how BC is achieved in question.

Information on Nintendo Network:

Wii U:

• User accounts: Wii U will have individual user accounts, rather than one system-wide account.
• NFC: Near Field Communication ("touch" data transmission from accessories, credit cards, etc... sort of like QR/Streetpass combined) will be built-in.
• Online: Miyamoto: "Network has to have a totally new concept to be different."

General:

• Third parties: Several new, previously unconsidered alliances/partnerships with third parties.
• Communities: You haven't seen the last of them!
• Retail title downloads: 3DS and Wii U both support digital download of retail titles, but... they still aren't quite sure how to implement it just yet.
• Item billing: "We should not decline third parties if they want to offer item billing" (paying to unlock content).
• DLC: Still planning to offer DLC (possibly talking about their own software), but needs more time to complete its feasibility study on the market and its needs.
• More sharing: "Digital will include user to user communications and sharing" (More social networking integration? More Swapnote-like apps? More emphasis on Streetpass/Spotpass?).
• Better-paced software + DLC: Nintendo has learnt that it shouldn't have stagnant periods between software launches: can fill the gap, and DLC can extend the life of a title.
• Asia: Planning products for Asia, local partners (WiiQue U?) yet to be announced; still issues of copyright.
• Miyamoto still around, Iwata angry at Wired. "Miyamoto is saying his basic work is to create a big hit."

The Games:

Confirmed Games In Development-

- Exclusives -

Killer Freaks From Outer Space
Lego City Stories
Dragon Quest X
Pikmin 3
Smash Bros

- Multiplatforms -

Aliens: Colonial Marines
Assassin's Creed 3
Darksiders 2
Ghost Recon Online
Metro: Last Light
Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge
Project Cars
Batman: Arkham City

Rumored Games -

- Announced -

Devil's Third
Dirt 3
Epic Mickey 2
Homefront 2
Medal of Honor: Warfighter
Overstrike
Ridge Racer
Tekken

- Unannounced -

Crytek
EA Sports
Monolith
Retro Studios
Shin'en
Visceral Games

Anything important revealed between now and E3 will be put into the update. For older information, please visit the other threads. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask!

Thanks to Nibel, ElTopo and TheCongressman1 for providing the images!

 

[Nibel]

ALL ABOAAAAAARD

 

[ReyVGM]

I sure hope the Wii U finally gets all the 3rd party games (or at least the best ones) right there with the PS360. Whenever a 3rd party game is announced, everyone assumes it will come to both PS3 and 360. Well, I want to feel that way with the Wii U too.

With the GC we kind had that, but only with western games (which still weren't all that) because the Japanese were still stuck in their "one console only" mentality.

 

[BlackJace]

LET IT BEGIN!

 

[ClovingWestbrook]

Awesome. And here we go.

 

[JordanLMiller]

Maybe there will be new info in this one...

 

[Kjellson]

Gimme dat E3.

 

[tkscz]

You forgot the picture of the hype train.

 

[HylianTom]

Let's do this. Start walking!

 

[AceBandage]

You forgot the picture of the hype train.

Too much controversy with the train.
Besides, the OT is cluttered enough as it is, I'm hoping to flesh out the actual content more.

 

[Shin Johnpv]

and so it begins anew.

 

[NeoRausch]

THERE WILL BE ACTUAL NEWS IN THIS THREAD!

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

 

[bgassassin]

ALL ABOAAAAAARD

http://i.imgur.com/Blir5.gif

I did not expect this. XD

I'm still coughing from laughing.

 

[-PXG-]

What in the world....

 

[Wiz]

Let's get it!

 

[HylianTom]

Has anyone ever seen if the disc drive lights-up like the Wii's does? I loved that feature.

I'd send myself emails just to make it light-up.

 

[Rösti]

ALL ABOAAAAAARD

You might wanna decrease the speed on that one, to prevent it from triggering seizures with epileptic and photosensitive people.

 

[Federico_612]

Yay for |ST|, I am important in this place!!

Also, from where is tha pic?

 

[ffdgh]

onward to number e3...or discussion number 4 XD

 

[Nibel]

Has anyone ever seen if the disc drive lights-up like the Wii's does? I loved that feature.

Yeah, especially when an update awaits you. It looked cool and had a purpose.

 

[z0m3le]

I did not expect this. XD

I'm still coughing from laughing.

lol Only Nibel. Hope he keeps us entertained with is awesome edits.

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

Has anyone ever seen if the disc drive lights-up like the Wii's does? I loved that feature.

nopeeee but no one knows if that box is actually final or not, could be in the final design.

 

[Log4Girlz]

I'm on the Hype TRAIN

All aboard! Ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaa!

Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay

Crazy, but that's how it goes
Millions of people living as foes
Maybe it's not too late
To learn how to love
And forget how to hate

Mental wounds not healing
Life's a bitter shame
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train

 

[CoffeeJanitor]

What? Is this an inside joke or something?

 

[Instro]

The timing of the Lupin themed title and banner is rather appropriate considering a new Lupin TV series was announced the other day.

 

[Shin Johnpv]

To carry the discussion over from the previous thread.

Adding to this, having a feature to search your games would also be nice.
When you have over 100 vc games on your wii, it becomes tedious to scroll through all of them. Plus, the touchscreen could act as a much better keyboard than the point and click one on the wii.

Edit: Its over, on to thread thr-wii!

That would be nice as well. I'd also like the channels umm look coming back. I kind of liked that about the Wii OS. How it would turn to static, had the shape and look of an old tube tv. I actually found that little touch really nice, much more appealing than a static box, or just generic shape with a logo on it.

 

[Disguises]

And here we go .

 

[AceBandage]

What? Is this an inside joke or something?

The timing of the Lupin themed title and banner is rather appropriate considering a new Lupin TV series was announced the other day.

That, mostly.
Plus, it's better than just some boring old topic title.


Awww, guess the mods don't like |ST|.
=/

 

[Verelios]

And so it begins.

 

[IdeaMan]

Hello there

Edit: and grats for the OP, it's exciting !!

 

[Deleted member 10571]

Oh here you guys are. Yay!

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

Hello there

so you're not gonna kick off this thread with a bang (aka new info)?!!

?!

 

[Nibel]

Nintendo must build in that goddamn folder/groups feature. My 3DS homescreen is a mess, seriously. I think the Wii U pad OS is going to look like on the 3DS.

 

[Criminal Upper]

I should hang around this thread alot more starting now! As WiiU is my most anticipated thing this year, and I'll be going to E3.

 

[Nilaul]

Also at the end of the day we really dont know nothing, except it uses a modified watson and blue-ray.

 

[Gisk]

That would be nice as well. I'd also like the channels umm look coming back. I kind of liked that about the Wii OS. How it would turn to static, had the shape and look of an old tube tv. I actually found that little touch really nice, much more appealing than a static box, or just generic shape with a logo on it.

If they decide to keep with the whole "classic tv" theme, it would be cool to see a shut off animation like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2ivG0IvckM or something to that end.

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

Also at the end of the day we really dont know nothing, except it uses a modified watson and blue-ray.

don't know nothin = do know somethin

 

[BlackJace]

Nintendo must build in that goddamn folder/groups feature. My 3DS homescreen is a mess, seriously. I think the Wii U pad OS is going to look like on the 3DS.

I just hope we get to customize wallpapers.

 

[AceBandage]

Also at the end of the day we really dont know nothing, except it uses a modified watson and blue-ray.

Technically, we don't even know that. That could have just been PR speak.

 

[tkscz]

ALL ABOAAAAAARD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDl3iUo__dY

 

[Oddduck]

Author of that NintendoEnthusiast interview responds:

Woah woah guys slow down. If you don't want stuff posted without being able to quote the name of the source I won't do it. But, let me start off by saying that I did not read the gaf thread on this until I saw them linking back to the article today and then saw them claiming I summarized it from the thread. I STILL haven't found time today to read through that thread so I have no clue to what it says. Honestly, I don't really understand much of the hardware talk and some of the questions in the interview were asked with our programmer on hand posing the question because he has a better understanding of these things. Anyways, most of the day the site has been going down and I've just been busy trying to figure out what the issue is with my server host.

The reason the interview reads a bit weird is because the guy said that last year he nearly got in trouble and he would rather I reworded what he said so it wasn't word-for-word coming from him. The problem was I don't know how to reword the content of what he said without messing up the content- because I'm not well-versed in all the hardware talk. So, I just played around a bit with the sentence flow a bit.

Whatever the case, I can assure you the chat I had with him was not made up by me. What I could say is that he doesn't want to get in trouble so he probably only spoke about things that have been hypothesized about already or even become logical conclusions.

EDIT: What I do see from this is that it might not be worth it to get an insider "scoop" if you can't prove it. So far, any 'big' story or article we had always came with such repercussions. You get big traffic but you lose brownie points with your readers.

http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/an-industry-exclusive-look-into-the-wii-u.250088032/

 

[Nibel]

I just hope we get to customize wallpapers.

It somehow hilarious that we are demanding these standard features.. but it's Nintendo.

Right?

Author of that NintendoEnthusiast interview responds:
http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/an-industry-exclusive-look-into-the-wii-u.250088032/

So he did interview himself :lol

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

I just hope we get to customize wallpapers.

if folders + wallpaper customization aren't there, then Nintendo should just pack up their bags and leave the industry.

 

[outunderthestars]

How the hell has the WiiU threads hit over 40,000 posts so far? Was something new unveiled?

 

[NeoRausch]

Before the only talk ends up to be the thread itself (cool whip Ace!)

..can we continue the OS-Mockups from the last thread? Those were great!

 

[HylianTom]

We need an info leak to commemorate this new thread.. any volunteers?

 

[Gianni Merryman]

Hopefully we'll get some reliable news before this thread comes to an end as the previous one.

 

[Sadist]

Good

 

[IdeaMan]

so you're not gonna kick off this thread with a bang (aka new info)?!!

?!

I already released a little bit yesterday with the OS/Memory story
Maybe next week !!

Let's make this thread as interesting as the previous one guyssss ! The crown of NeoGaf !