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View Full Version : Nintendo Wii U An Entirely Different Way to See Things



thelostone
08-06-2011, 10:11 AM
A quick update to a post i made a while back
<!-- videoId: explore/gizmodo/videos/897 -->http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2011/06/medium_explore_gizmodo_videos_897.jpg (http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2011/06/explore_gizmodo_videos_897.jpg)<!-- /videoId: explore/gizmodo/videos/897 --> Nintendo's new console is called Wii U, and it's got a full touchscreen controller that looks almost like a stretched out, tabletized DS with twin analog sticks and full motion controls.The controller's got a 6.2-inch touchscreen. It's got a d-pad, twin analog sticks, a front-facing camera, four shoulder buttons, accelerometers, vibration motors, and a mic. It's backward compatible with the original Wii and Wii accessories, like Wii Fit.
Nintendo showed it doing some seriously wild stuff: Attached to a gun it's acting like a sight (kind of like Silent Scope), and in another demo, held portrait-style, it was a way to flick shuriken. In another, your holding up the controller like a shield to block pirate arrows. You can basically play an entirely different game on the touch controller than everybody else is playing on the big screen. Or use it for another view of what's happening up on your TV. The possibilities do seem limitless. Multiplayer with Wiimotes is interesting?in one example, the touchscreen remote has a top-down view of the gaming, while everybody else plays normally with Wiimotes.
It also does video chat, it's web browser, and it mirrors photos/videos up on the TV. Nintendo's being careful to say the controller is not a portable gaming machine. All the images come from the Wii U, wirelessly transmitted.

The games they've got on the screen look roughly like current-gen Xbox 360 in terms of graphics, to give you an idea of how much power is lurking inside the Wii U console. Battlefield looks incredibly good?like Battlefield!?as does FIFA.

thelostone
01-08-2011, 09:20 PM
A quick update on this

Nintendo’s recently unveiled Nintendo Wii U console will come without a DVD or Blu-ray player as the company targets its own propriety format, an interview with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has revealed.
Announced in an investor Q&A with Iwata, news that the Wii follow-up will not support either of the current leading entertainment formats comes as a surprise as the Japanese gaming head reveals the decision was made based on costing of the console.

"We feel that enough people already have devices that are capable of playing DVDs and Blu-ray, such that it didn't warrant the cost involved to build that functionality into the Wii U console because of the patents related to those technologies," Iwata declared.

As well as revealing that the Wii U will not support Blu-ray or DVD formats Iwata outed Nintendo’s plans to make the second-generation Wii the first social networking compatible console. "After examining the penetration and adoption rate of social networking services like Facebook, etc, we've come to the conclusion that we are no longer in a period where we cannot have any connection at all with social networking services.

"Rather, I think we've come to an era where it's important to consider how the social graph of the social networking services can work in conjunction with something like a video game platform."

Diablo13
01-08-2011, 09:46 PM
He's right there are a lot of people with dvd and Blu Ray devices, which means more power usage and more messy cables!
I think a lot of people nowadays prefer fewer devices under the telly, so a games console which plays multi format disks as well as going online is the way forward, so I think he is being short sighted about his future market?
Granted Nintendo appeal to a cheaper market than the other big consoles. They also appeal to the younger market and their parents, with them being suitable for a kids bedroom and with "safe" games. So if that is the market you are going for, why include access to dangerous social networking sites?
I think many sensible parents would feel happier keeping an eye on their kids network browsing, so might not want them to have unsupervised access on a bedroom console out of sight?
To market a new console in this way seems a mistake to me, only time will tell, but it sounds like this time Nintendo actually can't make up their minds where their market is, so they have gone for cheap and new without satisfying anyone's needs fully? :dunno:

tinkertiler
01-08-2011, 09:50 PM
And Nintendo is thinking do away with a drive for games then we have no second hand market for games!! Which will make us even more money as you wont be able to trade them ect. And as a by product piracy will become harder or easier time will tell lol

Im just wondering what they are going to be doing with storage on the console. With no optical drive to keep games on you will have to store all the games on a hard drive. While that is all very well and good but if they try and say you have to buy one of our hard drives and charge the earth for them then they are going to annoy alot of people! Just like what MS did with the 360 but they cracked that pretty quickly lol

EDIT - the other question you have to ask yourself is how much is this going to cost?? The 3ds cost 180 when it came out and that is alot!! !This is more powerful and alot more spangly so what price are they going to come out with for this??? ?400?? When its only as powerful as the xbox 360 which you can get for alot less than that kids are going to hound their parents for one when its not even going to be upto date when the next generation xbox and playstations come out!!!

Diablo13
01-08-2011, 10:06 PM
Good points tink.
Could they possibly be thinking of a Steam type storage situation, where you pay to download from Nintendo or its licensed partners direct and your games are saved on a cloud? Then only your right to access content needs to be stored on the console itself.
It all does sound a bit expensive for a Nintendo console though!

morphorino
03-08-2011, 01:10 AM
I dont saee the wii u having quite the same impact as the wii did, but it won't necessarily be a bad thing as long as nintendo can win over the core audience whilst keeping a good percentage of the user base they already have with wii then I think things will be fine. I'm really looking forward to seeing some of the top 3rd party games finally come to nintendo machines, we're starting to see it on 3ds and hopefully things will move on from here

immy
09-09-2011, 12:53 AM
that looks pretty cool!

mr_bigtime
02-01-2012, 12:44 AM
I've had a look at some of the preview material. Whilst the controller is a revolutionary change, it seems like the Wii U will be a second console to many people, in the same way the Wii was. I expect the console itself will be relatively cheap, but they'll hit us with a big price tag on the extra controllers.

frankbutcher29
08-07-2012, 12:10 AM
I'm not convinced. I was a hardcore Nintendo fan (NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Wii and Gameboys) but jumped ship to the PS3 last year. First non Nintendo console I ever owned, I actually felt a bit guilty! My reason was simple, the number of A+ game releases dried to a trickle. Sure, the A+ games (mario, zelda, metroid etc) are stunning games but it got to the point where there'd be only 2 or 3 a year and the rest were complete dross made for all the people that bought Wiis for the living room and only played them a few times and didn't care if games were crap. I honestly feel like Nintendo sold the hardcore gamer down the river chasing a quick buck. I also think it will kill them in the long run as casual gaming becomes dominated by ?2 iPhone/Mobile games.

alexband
26-09-2012, 10:13 PM
The nintendo wii u will be very good, i am looking forward to it featuring lots of classic games, super mario donkey kong etc. I first got excited about the wii u when it was presented at E3, it looked awesome. The best thing is it is coming out quite soon November 18!:))