Wii U Speculation Thread The Third: Casting Dreams in The Castle of Miyamoto

But the other IGN RUMOR thread is still open... so i would suggest you'd go with the other option. It's unfortunate but let me put it this way... Anti Nintendo stuff is tolerated a-freakin-lot more on NeoGAF than anti Sony/Microsoft stuff...

Exactly, that one is still opened. Meaning the rumour itself has nothing to do with this, but the fact that the recent thread was a copy/paste is.

Weird that it took 350 post to close it, but hey...
 
Who is that and what game is he from?
Isaac, in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.

Basically this:
0qCOF.jpg

In adult form. :p

EDIT: Beaten, but whatever bitches!!!
 
for some reason I don't see them going with 4gb, shouldn't MS be the company trying to keep costs lowest due to packing in something like kinect? And now thy're including a bluray player in that shit, probably more hard drive space. 4GB just seems over the top, especially if the other 2 are around 1.5-2.

It would fit with Alberto's info.

Why? Don't developers have to consider the lowest common denominator?
Which would be that many wont bother with purchasing HDDs?
So what benefit would USB3 have if the game is designed for running off a disc?
And if they are using special compression techniques, then wouldn't USB3 be overkill?

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-10-20-xbox-360-battlefield-3-better-installed

How are downloadable games going to run from the disk drive?

To make one thing clear: Im not saying they wont incorporate USB3. Would be cool if they would.

The thing is, Nintendo is all about a simple machine with an excellent gaming experience. I just dont see "HDD install" fit that profile.

And if HDD install will be realised but via USB2, the numbers i postet show that it isnt going to be as slow as alot of people on gaf make it seem.

If Nintendo is going after a "certain group" like they claim, they are the ones that have to adjust accordingly.

Problem isn't HDD installs as it pertains to USB2.0, where installs are opted for increased speeds and faster loading. The problem lies with USB2.0 being slower than the stock DVD-Rom (reading/loading), so DD/DLC/patches/VC/WiiUWare would be a bit slower than the stock DVD. This creates issues when said DLC is supposed to run in tandem with a retail disk, creating a slow-to-fast situation where loading is concerned.

And USB2.0 IS as slow as people think. Go try to load a 360 ISO off of a JTAG 360 off a USB2.0 HDD and see how the loading times are 3x as long as they would be on the DVD-drive or internal HDD.

Much better than I could have said it.
 
Nintendo has been good about loading times with their disc drives, but I see this being the first gen that changes some.

Wouldnt it be easier to have a dedicated 1 or 2gb cache for data like hybrid drives do? Or already load the most important stuff into the ram while you're doing stuff in the menu? I do belive there are possibilities to generate short loadtimes without hdd install
 
Wouldnt it be easier to have a dedicated 1 or 2gb cache for data like hybrid drives do?

For a disc drive? I'm not sure how that would be possible.

Or already load the most important stuff into the ram while you're doing stuff in the menu?

With system memory? I'm assuming that's one of the things they've been trying to avoid, though someone can correct me on that. Loading it to the flash, is more likely.

I do belive there are possibilities to generate short loadtimes without hdd install

I expect Nintendo to have short as possible load times, but the increase in things like texture sizes make sticking to what they may have had a year ago a possible issue before Wii U even gets going good.
 
And USB2.0 IS as slow as people think. Go try to load a 360 ISO off of a JTAG 360 off a USB2.0 HDD and see how the loading times are 3x as long as they would be on the DVD-drive or internal HDD.

USB drive speed depends ALOT on the controller used and the device used that connects to the usb port.

How many MB/sec do you get on your xbox 360?

USB 3 is not easy. Nintendo would have to make an "official" Hdd, or else there will be alot of confusion. ALOT of lazy companies sell their USB2 drive with a sticker on the package that says "USB 3 Compatible!" and the consumer in the end wonders why its so slow. Belive me, not every customer knows that USB3 connectors are blue and have a second set of connectors on the inside.

Another problem is that some USB3 drives still are pretty slow and only slightly faster than USB3. "Official USB3 complaint" sticker is a nice selling feature aswell ;) I have a WD MYbook USB3 drive wich can hit 100mb/sec read and write, but it cost quite some money. (Ok its a 2 TB drive...)

Making an official "512GB Externel Nintendo HDD" wich has some speed behind it would be a good way to avoid it. If they just allow HDD install and let the costumer, that is not as "good informed" as we, the nerds/geeks, buy and connect any drive, then there will be confusion. Heck in very few instances the drive may not even work (Even though very unlikely, but hardware incompatibility CAN happen. I had this once with an external drive... Worked fine on my dads pc. Wouldn't work on mine).

Well lets sip some coffe and wait for E3. We should know alot more after June 5th!
 
Whatever happened to the Wii U using IBM's Power 7?

A year or so ago, IBM stated that the Wii U used a Power Architecture based CPU. It was reported as "the same technology the powers the Watson". Some people interpreted that specifically as meaning the actual chip in the Watson, which is the Power 7.

That was merely an assumption. The only thing that has been confirmed is that the CPU is Power Architecture based.


Edit: It's like if AMD announced that the Wii U used x86-64, and somebody referred to x86-64 as "The technology behind the Oak Ridge Jaguar, the third most powerful supercomputer in the world". This would be technically true, but some people would understandably foolishly assume that they meant that the Wii U contained a 224162-core Opteron layout.
 
For those that can't resist, there's yet another thread about the Next Gen being weak here.
I already dropped "the ps4 will be on par" bomb.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=469615

And people claim Nintendo fans are the only defensive ones, hahaha.

I don't get why many think ANY of the the next systems automatically will be 6-7X more powerful than what we have now.

There comes a time where its time to focus more on other stuf than shoving the most expensive parts in a kit.

Not to mention in this economy...
 
Whatever happened to the Wii U using IBM's Power 7?

An IBM rep said that the Wii U would "feature the technology used in Watson", and people started assuming that there was just going to be a Power7 CPU in the console. There obviously isn't, but the CPU will likely inherit some technology from the Power7, most notably the eDRAM cache, but possibly also a variant on the Power7's VSX AltiVec unit, and perhaps the out-of-order pipeline. It might end up being something like a heavily stripped-down Power7, but they certainly aren't going to put an 8-core server chip in there.
 
Nonsense. 224162 cores fit comfortably within a 7 megawatt power envelope. Much more than that would certainly run too hot for the average living room.

But my living room is the size of a football field! MY living room is next gen! Not that tiny last gen crap "standart appartment size"... So my game console needs to be next gen aswell ;)
 
But my living room is the size of a football field! MY living room is next gen! Not that tiny last gen crap "standart appartment size"... So my game console needs to be next gen aswell ;)

Japanese football fields are much smaller than American football fields*, and Nintendo is a Japanese company, so they're kinda screwed there. Luckily, the next Xbox is likely to take advantage of the 57600 square foot form factor.



* I heard this on Kotaku, so it must be true
 
Here's something fun to speculate about: What should be this year's E3 equivalent of the Kid Icarus Uprising megaton from E3 2010?
 
Here's something fun to speculate about: What should be this year's E3 equivalent of the Kid Icarus Uprising megaton from E3 2010?

My personal choice:

Star Tropics returns and is done by Retro. Better than Uncharted graphics, a wide variety of environments, and the yo-yo returns as a weapon.

My realistic choice:

F-Zero Returns for Wii U.
 
IBM Watson documentation, for anyone interested: http://www-03.ibm.com/innovation/us...ite_Paper_POW03061-USEN-00_Final_Feb10_11.pdf

As for Watson, it uses 2,880 POWER7 cores divided over 90 IBM Power 750 servers. The IBM Power 750 Express server has the following specifications (shortened):

POWER7 processor modules – one per processor card:
4-core 3.7 GHz or
6-core 3.7 GHz or
8-core 3.2 GHz or
8-core 3.6 GHz
Sockets: 1 to 4
Level 2 (L2) cache: 256 KB per core
Level 3 (L3) cache: 4 MB per core
Memory: 8 GB1 to 512 GB of RDIMM DDR3, Active Memory Expansion
Solid State Drives (SSD): Up to eight SFF drives
Disk drives: Up to eight SFF SAS drives
Disk capacity: Up to 2.4 TB
Media bays: Slimline for DVD-RAM, Half height for tape drive or removable disk
PCI Adapter slots: Two PCI-X 2.0; Three PCI Express 8x
System dimensions: Rack Drawer: 6.9"H x 17.3"W x 28.7"D (175 mm x 440 mm x 730 mm); weight: 120.0 lb (54.4 kg)
Source: http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/hardware/750/specs.html

As noted by other posters, it's very easy for some people to completely blow things out of proportions if an IBM spokesperson says that Wii U features the same technology as in IBM Watson. As exemplified with the above specs, this would be utterly ridiculous; soccer moms carrying a good 50 kg home (just as an example), and that's not even IBM Watson (which probably requires a Heavy Equipment Transporter (HET) or similar for transport).

A heavily modified POWER7 processor is feasible, though an IBM PowerPC 476FP Embedded Processor Core has been suggested as well (don't remember who talked about it, but it was in relation to the Cu-45HP deal).
 
Rösti;36786675 said:
IBM Watson documentation, for anyone interested: http://www-03.ibm.com/innovation/us...ite_Paper_POW03061-USEN-00_Final_Feb10_11.pdf

As for Watson, it uses 2,880 POWER7 cores divided over 90 IBM Power 750 servers. The IBM Power 750 Express server has the following specifications (shortened):


Source: http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/hardware/750/specs.html

As noted by other posters, it's very easy for some people to completely blow things out of proportions if an IBM spokesperson says that Wii U features the same technology as in IBM Watson. As exemplified with the above specs, this would be utterly ridiculous; soccer moms carrying a good 50 kg home (just as an example), and that's not even IBM Watson (which probably requires a Heavy Equipment Transporter (HET) or similar for transport).

A heavily modified POWER7 processor is feasible, though an IBM PowerPC 476FP Embedded Processor Core has been suggested as well (don't remember who talked about it, but it was in relation to the Cu-45HP deal).

I still speculate that it will be based off Power7, but won't have the 4-way SMTs, unless they find a way to keep it cool. 4-way SMTs might be pointless for gaming but hey, we don't know. I also say final model will go with a quad core over a tri-core. Quad cores are more balanced, Nintendo is all about balancing hardware.
 
The internet would break.

But if they were ever to remake FFVII, my money would be on 3DS.

They can use the same rationale I heard a fan come up with for Mario Kart 7.

3 = 3
A=1 B=2 C=3 D=4

3+4 = 7

3D = 7
7 = 3D
 
lol people still don't get that BG knows more than he lets on.

I'm cool with it. It let's me drop hints without them being picked up on.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=33512107&postcount=15421

Bg, you're too good at hiding info. I got nothing out of that to suggest you know something. The only conclusion I can make is if you post ANYTHING it must be true!

Yeah. Main change being MS apparently being talked up to 4GB. Wii U's GPU still seems like the wildcard with that.

Current Blu-ray drives are already close to USB 2.0 ports.

USB 2.0 = 60MB/s

12x Blu-ray = 54MB/s

USB 3.0 - 625MB/s

With the continued shift to HDD installs, making sure it has USB 3.0 would be very important IMO.

Nintendo doomed as always.

Nintendo has been good about loading times with their disc drives, but I see this being the first gen that changes some.

I don't really expect that speed either, but with Nintendo being big on loading times they will push it as best as possible. And even then I don't see it being good enough. With Nintendo appeasing 3rd parties, I would disagree on HDD installs being banned. I expect them to be allowed and preferred by 3rd parties. And USB 2.0 even compared to current internal drives won't cut it. With Nintendo allowing the usage of external HDDs, there's no need to bottleneck them.

If Nintendo add USB3.0, they'll have to do it on all ports or it won't be able to be relied on because I guarantee people will be plugging them into the 2.0 ports if their are mixed ones.

OK, just thought about that and if Nintendo do a proprietary drive then they could customize the plug right? Does the spec allow for that?
 
Here's something fun to speculate about: What should be this year's E3 equivalent of the Kid Icarus Uprising megaton from E3 2010?

Prerequisite: WiiPad get's haptics

Megaton: New Wii-U Kirby THAT ACTUALLY FEELS LIKE PANTS.

there were lastyear's target leaks???

Apparently only for NeoGAF Gold Members...Like AzaK I'll have to consider everything BG posts as gospel now, Portal Wii-U confirmed, friends.

Versus XIII=XV=Wii U

I wouldn't consider that a megaton, but I'm sure the Sony fanboys would be heartbroken. Why wouldn't Square put their games out on a Nintendo platform? They like money.

But 7 coming to Nintendo after the "Betrayal" would still be pretty big (also...7 remake is the biggest super-megaton), and there are already heated debates why 15 should never come to Wii-U ever.
 
USB drive speed depends ALOT on the controller used and the device used that connects to the usb port.

How many MB/sec do you get on your xbox 360?

USB 3 is not easy. Nintendo would have to make an "official" Hdd, or else there will be alot of confusion. ALOT of lazy companies sell their USB2 drive with a sticker on the package that says "USB 3 Compatible!" and the consumer in the end wonders why its so slow. Belive me, not every customer knows that USB3 connectors are blue and have a second set of connectors on the inside.

Another problem is that some USB3 drives still are pretty slow and only slightly faster than USB3. "Official USB3 complaint" sticker is a nice selling feature aswell ;) I have a WD MYbook USB3 drive wich can hit 100mb/sec read and write, but it cost quite some money. (Ok its a 2 TB drive...)

Making an official "512GB Externel Nintendo HDD" wich has some speed behind it would be a good way to avoid it. If they just allow HDD install and let the costumer, that is not as "good informed" as we, the nerds/geeks, buy and connect any drive, then there will be confusion. Heck in very few instances the drive may not even work (Even though very unlikely, but hardware incompatibility CAN happen. I had this once with an external drive... Worked fine on my dads pc. Wouldn't work on mine).

Well lets sip some coffe and wait for E3. We should know alot more after June 5th!

Great post. With all the ridiculous add-ons Nintendo have released over the years, one would think an official Wii U HDD would be a no-brainer. Combining that with some cloud storage as a backup would be my preferable scenario.
 
I think their IPs are still with Namco Bandai. Regarding Nintendo's Endless Ocean the IP is called Forever Blue in Japan which is a spiritual successor to Arika's (Which I think is still a 3RD party) PS2 Ever Blue. The Fatal Frame one is the only one confusing since it's Tecmo's IP.

When we consider that Nintendo published Baten Kaitos Origins in ALL regions, I think that's almost an indicator that Bandai Namco released the rights to the series.
 
Great post. With all the ridiculous add-ons Nintendo have released over the years, one would think an official Wii U HDD would be a no-brainer. Combining that with some cloud storage as a backup would be my preferable scenario.

I could see could savegames happening. But only that. Online storage capacity would be too expensive for anything else but that wouldn't matter IF your purchases would FINALLY linked to your (NiN) account. When your WiiU breaks down completely you wouldn't have to fear any losses. Once BigN sends you your new WiiU you could just redownload your purchases and the system would download the saves from the cloud. Losing savegames would finally be a problem of the past :)
 
My personal choice:

Star Tropics returns and is done by Retro. Better than Uncharted graphics, a wide variety of environments, and the yo-yo returns as a weapon.

My realistic choice:

F-Zero Returns for Wii U.

The thing is, I could see them trying to bring one or two different IPs back from retirement for each generation going into the future.

Maybe now that the Icarian experiment is done and successful, it wouldn't surprise me one bit to see them announce a huge, gigantic, epic, scrumtrulescent, new console entry to the series.

(ps: where did avatars go?)
 
I could see could savegames happening. But only that. Online storage capacity would be too expensive for anything else but that wouldn't matter IF your purchases would FINALLY linked to your (NiN) account. When your WiiU breaks down completely you wouldn't have to fear any losses. Once BigN sends you your new WiiU you could just redownload your purchases and the system would download the saves from the cloud. Losing savegames would finally be a problem of the past :)

Very true. The actual cloud data space per user would not end up being that much. Then there's the amount of Flash storage internal to Wii U. Last I heard, it was kotaku which placed it at 8GB? I wonder if this has increased since.
 
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