Ubisoft, THQ might be hinting at rumored next Nintendo platform

February 5th, 2010 Posted in Posted by Valay, Rumors, Wii

Reader Zelos has sent a bunch of information our way regarding Nintendo’s rumored platform announcement at GDC. For those who missed out on the original story, there was some unconfirmed speculation earlier this week from “an employee at a major international publisher” that Nintendo has a platform announcement in store for GDC. Now the latest news is that Ubisoft and THQ might be hinting at that same revelation next month. I’ll let Zelos explain…

“I’m a member of the Dutch website www.Wii-DS.nl (I’m sure you’ve heard about them before: they’re the biggest Nintendo-website in the Benelux and often come up with exclusive news like European releasedates and screenshots. They’ve had exclusives like the PAL-releasedate of Mario Kart Wii and Fire Emblem DS and they had the first exclusive screenshots from Excitebots…something remarkably was posted on their forum today. The Ubisoft Benelux Brand Manager named Leon Winkler, registered himself a while ago on the Wii-DS.nl forum to answer questions about Red Steel 2 personally. After a while, the questions were also related to other game-stuff and right after the presented rumor of Nintendo’s next platform, the following question came up on the forum, in Dutch:

“Oh en Leon heb je al gehoord van de sappige roddel dat Nintendo tijden GDC 2010 een “nieuw platform” gaat aankondigen? DS2 lijkt me niet logisch aangezien de DSI XL dan net op de markt is. De meeste tekenen gaan naar een revamp van de Wii (WiiHD anyone?). Schijnt gelekt te zijn door een “medewerker van een grote internationale publisher”, ben jij die medewerker toevallig Leon?”

The literal translation:

“Oh, and Leon, did you already hear about the juicy rumor regarding Nintendo revealing a ‘new platform’ on the GDC 2010? The DS2 doesn’t seem too obvious since the DSi XL is going to be released soon. Most of the signs point at a revamp of the current Wii (WiiHD anyone?). It seems to be leaked by an ‘employee of a big international publisher’. Are you that employee by any chance, Leon?”

Mind you that this was simply a member who added random information in his question, like his own Wii-revamp theory. Also, I don’t think the Benelux Brand Manager of Ubisoft Benelux would personally contact Videogamer.com. Even so, Leon’s answer was very interesting. His answer in Dutch:

“Ik lek alleen als ik naar de wc ga. Ik weet het wel, maar ga het niet zeggen MWOAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Speculeer er lekker op los. “

The literal translation:

“I only leak when I go to the toilet. I do know it, but I’m not going to tell it MWOAAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Have fun speculating :D !”

You can find these quotes on this page:

http://www.wiids.nl/topic.php?topicID”503&page=4#668725

You may be able to relate this to Ubisoft’s statement on Twitter today saying there’s going to be a “VERY BIG” announcement next week, though it’s not very likely. Source:

http://twitter.com/Ubisoft

Wii-DS.nl also stated the possible connection and made a newspost about it, including the information from their own forum, saying it adds strength to the rumor of Nintendo’s possible new platform:

http://www.wiids.nl/article.php?id2288

So yeah, it definitely adds strength to the rumor of Nintendo’s new upcoming platform. I figured you guys would like this information and I think a lot more people would :) .

I just noticed a very interesting newspost on Wii-DS.nl again, regarding the whole ‘new platform’ speculation. This time it’s THQ that adds more strength to the whole story. You can find the article here:

http://www.wiids.nl/article.php?id2290

I’ll translate it for you, entirely:

“After Ubisoft, THQ follows the hype of ‘we do know it, but we won’t tell’-principle.

That Ubisoft may be teasing on our forum is plausible, but remarks like the ones on our forum are especially dangerous in times of speculation. That’s why THQ is now getting quoted for their ‘vague’ talking about upcoming releases.

We asked THQ, after THQ had revealed their line-up for 2010 and came up with MX vs ATV Reflex, Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising, Metro 2033, UFC Undisputed 2010 and HomeFront (PS3, Xbox 360 and/or PC-titles only), if anything’s coming up for Nintendo. Joey Smits, SR Product & PR Manager of THQ Benelux, replied to the matter with the following words:

quote:
“Enough’s coming up, but I may not talk about it yet :) ”.

The big question is what we can define as ‘enough’. A new Spongebob-title? Drawn to Life 3? New Bratz-parts? Other sequels or maybe new franchises? Or does this ‘enough’ refer to a completely new line-up regarding the possible ‘new platform’ from Nintendo? It’s fun to speculate in times like these and that’s why we wanted to share this piece of information with you.”

Once again, big thanks to Zelos for the news tip!


  1. 14 Responses to “Ubisoft, THQ might be hinting at rumored next Nintendo platform”

  2. By iWork4EA on Feb 5, 2010

    It’s a new hand held system. We’re working on a secret project for it…sssshhhhhh

  3. By Gavin on Feb 5, 2010

    ^ What’s the handheld called?

  4. By Joshy4Ever on Feb 5, 2010

    Probably announcements for games

  5. By keyz on Feb 5, 2010

    Im betting on Wii HD. I dont think its a new handheld because they just released the DSiXL.

  6. By kuchiki ness on Feb 5, 2010

    if its a new handled i wont buy it and im gonna be so mad cause i just recently buyed the DSi and now is ou the DsiXL few months after the release and my buyed dsi, so im gonna hate that so damn much… i hope is a new HD wii, cause that would say that zelda its comming in HD :D

  7. By vigeoman on Feb 5, 2010

    lol am i the only one that isnt going 2 buy a wiihd?
    well actually that depends on the cost

  8. By thomas on Feb 6, 2010

    This article’s incredibly hard to read for several reasons. Just thought I’d point that out.

  9. By David Macphail on Feb 6, 2010

    A Wii HD would be a bad move for Nintendo. It would essentially be a slap in the face to any hardcore gamer that already owns a Wii, alienating the very people who are likely to purchase one.

    Of the Wii’s 65 million install base, 62 million are casual and 3 million are serious gamers. The 62 million casuals will not care about playing Wii Fit in HD so will not buy the console, the 3 million hardcore gamers will be so pissed at having to buy the console again just to get a feature that should have been there since launch that they will not buy it either.

    A Wii HD would go the same way as the PSPGO. Nobody who currently owns one would be interested. Nintendo should save HD for the Wii 2, instead of upsetting the few hardcore gamers they have left even more.

  10. By Holsety on Feb 6, 2010

    Nice false dichotomy there, David. Care to share the source of this vital market data you’ve acquired?

    Wii HD will not happen for the exactly the reasons Iwata’s already stated. Plus, given that Nintendo still has a slew of high-profile games and the Vitality Sensor in the pipeline, a new console platform isn’t even feasible (let alone probable) until at least late 2011.

    There are three likely possibilities. Either this is a DS follow-up, a new platform presented as a “third pillar” like the DS originally was, or it’s total humbug.

  11. By Connor on Feb 6, 2010

    David, I disagree. I think the hardcore would go for a Wii HD; look at Modern Warfare 2′s sales. I’d bet a lot of those are casual gamers pressured by friends to get the game for multiplayer, and that brand of casual do care about high definition gaming.

    As for me, I currently live with my family in lieu of finding my own apartment, and the entire family does pretty much use the Wii. There is no HDTV in our main room, but I do have a 1080p display which I use as a monitor. If the Wii HD came out, I’d buy it, leave the standard-definition model in the living room for my family and hook up the high-definition one in my bedroom.

  12. By cafevincent on Feb 7, 2010

    If a Wii 2 would only add HD support it would be like ‘tendo crapping on your face. Obviously they will add new hardware because let’s face it, you can get a 10x more powerful GPU than the ones in PS3/360 for maybe 10 dollars. The GPUs in PS3/360 only have around 48-96 stream processors and the cheapest crap GPUs today already count them in the hundreds. So graphics wise the new tendo will blow away the CURRENT competition. The real question you should be asking is if it will have support for 3D televisions that will become popular fast. That plus what type of controls will it have.

  13. By cafevincent on Feb 7, 2010

    And yes, the platform will definitely be a home console for the following reasons:

    -Milking the casual audience requires shorter console lifecycle because they lose interest faster.
    -The modern consumer is expecting HD support, especially the ‘hardcore’ gamers often known also as technology addicts.
    -Nintendo loves profit and marketshare so Wii sales/interest/profit going down and 360, PS3 catching up has lead to revamping of their release schedule for a new system.
    -The release of PS3/360 motion controls practically means Nintendo needs a reboot too to keep their ‘most innovative’ image alive for mass audience.
    -Let’s face it, their fun games would be even cooler with fabulous graphics. Wii graphics look more and more outdated and they know it.

    So there you go. To summarize: Profits rule and the Wii is simply milked out. I bet the new Zelda and Pikmin 3 projects have been moved to the new platform last year already. Don’t be shocked, it happens in every generation.

  14. By cafevincent on Feb 7, 2010

    Yet another interesting thing will be what name they pick. They have never used a “2″ in a name just to ride the success of a previous console. They will probably not go for Super either. Then again the Wii and DS/DSi are the ones named by Iwata so we can expect more in the lines of these modern, short, apple style names. The console will most likely resemble the current Wii to spark the connection in the consumer’s mind. And obviously it will be at least twice the size of the Wii due to modern technology inside.

  15. By matt on Feb 16, 2010

    its the ds2 the wii software lineup this year is so strong it would be impossible to bring a wii2 out its a ds2 and it will launch Q3 of this year with big games from big 3rd party devs,and a few huge nintendo releases ect it will have HD interney,HD video streaming ,and will be able to do 480p graphics in ultra high detail or less detailed graphics at 720p u wait and see if im right people

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