Wii U

Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 0 comments

So, this is rather interesting. IGN has “built” Project Cafe. I know, that probably doesn’t make much sense… But they were able to create the hardware using specifications provided by sources and PC components comparable to the ones Nintendo will apparently use in their own console.

It’s definitely a rough idea of what Project Cafe will actually turn out to be – and Nintendo hasn’t, of course, confirmed any hardware rumors – but the results are very interesting (see the video and images below).

Components

CPU: 3.2GHz Triple Core AMD Athlon II X3 450
GPU: XFX Radeon HD 4850 GPU with 1GBs of VRAM
Motherboard: BIOSTAR A780L3L Micro ATX
RAM: 2GBs of Kingston DDR3
Power Supply: Rosewill RV350 ATX 1.3
Hard Drive: 80GB WD Caviar Blue 7200RPM

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 0 comments

Tecmo Koei came right out of the gate with a launch title for the 3DS. According to CEO Yoichi Erikawa, the company would like to follow the same path with Project Cafe. Erikawa explained that hardware manufacturers rely on Tecmo Koei for launch titles, so the company hopes to have numerous games ready by the time Project Cafe releases.

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 0 comments

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot recently provided a few comments regarding Project Cafe. Although specific information about the system’s functionality was not revealed, the remarks are interesting since Ubisoft is the first-third-party to share significant thoughts about Nintendo’s next console. Guillemot said the following on an investor’s call:

“The platform Nintendo is coming with is really a fantastic platform. We think it will be extremely successful. What we see is that we will be able to leverage a lot of the work we do for Xbox 360 and PS3 while we create games for the platform. So we will not have to redo completely the games that we create. We’ll be able to use all the capacity the console is giving but also use all the work we do for the other platforms.”

Looks like Project Cafe could be getting a decent amount of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 games in the future. I suppose that’s not necessarily a bad thing! The Wii has missed out on some tremendous third-party releases…

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Wii U | 0 comments

Nintendo hasn’t said when they’ll release Project Cafe. The only guarantee they’ve provided is that the console will not launch until after April 2012. There’s a very good chance that we won’t receive Project Cafe’s release date at E3, though there is some speculation that it could arrive in early 2012.

Zumba Fitness 2 was revealed for Wii today, but I’m sure most of you probably don’t care about that announcement. The press release did contain the following blurb, though:

“ZumbaFitness 2 will also launch on another-to-be announced platform in early 2012.”

Of course, it’s very speculative to assume that: a) the “another-to-be announced” platform is Nintendo related, b) is indeed for Project Cafe and c) Majesco has already confirmed with the Big N that the console will be out in early 2012. Still, this does make things very interesting…

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 0 comments

These mockups are a bit more interesting than the last batch we posted. This time around we get to see some of the ideas fans are thinking about in terms of the actual hardware built rather than just the controller. These are some images of the controller as well, but things are pretty varied.

What do you guys think? Do any of these mockups interest you?

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Rumors, Wii U | 0 comments

Nintendo is apparently putting a big focus on hands for Project Cafe. That is, for the E3 trailers at least.

According to Twitter user Supererogatory, who has been spot on with many rumors in the past, the Big N wrapped production on promotional videos for the console last week. Again, Nintendo was looking for actors with the finest of hands, which supposedly needed to be “flawless.”

Project Cafe’s controller will most likely be a central part of the videos, so perhaps Nintendo simply wanted to feature hands that look nice. Then again, maybe there’s something more to it… We’ll find out in a little under five weeks.

“Told Nintendo filmed Cafe E3 promotional videos last week in Orange County with a bunch of seeming hand models cast ‘based on their hands.’ The hands ‘had to be flawless’ and ‘couldn’t have blemishes, wrinkles or a lot of hair.'”

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii, Wii U | 0 comments

Reggie Fils-Aime discussing the Wii price drop…

“For us this is a very important move. This is only the second price reduction for Wii hardware since we launched back in November 2006. And in the last home console cycle, the leading system at the time sold almost 50 percent of its volume at a price point of $149 or below.”

Reggie on why consumers would purchase a Wii with Project Cafe on the horizon…

“When we launch our new home system sometime in 2012 we think the consumer buying in will look very different than the consumer who’s going to be buying a Wii now. What we’ve seen in this business it that there are certain consumers who love being first – they have to have the absolute latest hardware – and there are other consumers that are perfectly happy to wait until the game library is much more robust and they have a wider range of options.”

Reggie on slipping Wii sales…

“Typically a system peaks in the second year of availability and then gradually declines. Wii was fortunate to have a number of very strong selling years in its 3rd and 4th year of availability. And from our perspective, the curve that we’re on is natural and to be expected but importantly, the sales curve is higher than any other system.”

Reggie’s thoughts on why May 15 is the perfect timing for the Wii price drop…

“There are a lot of households where kids will be off from school and the parents are either looking for celebratory presents as the children finish the school year or they’re looking for a fun exercise to keep the kids busy and happy during the summer time frame. We think there is a wide range of consumers that are wanting to purchase a Wii and what they have been waiting for is this type of announcement.”

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 0 comments

Understandably, third-parties are tight-lipped when it comes to talking about Project Cafe. We’ll likely see at least a few announcements from companies other than Nintendo at E3, but until then, don’t expect developers and publishers to openly discuss their thoughts on the system’s capabilities and reveal any games they are working on. However, THQ did offer the following quote during a financial results conference call that took place just a short while ago:

“We are excited about the prospect of new hardware next year and look forward to working on that system.”

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 0 comments

“Without a doubt, my first request would be for an improved digital marketplace more along the lines of XBLA and PSN. We’d love to be able to offer downloadable titles for Nintendo fans in a more user and publisher friendly environment. Two additional possibilities that we’d love to look at would be a camera for augmented reality and stereoscopic 3D.” – Steve Couture, Frima Games, CEO

“I think our wishes are pretty basic. We’d love more processing power, which is essential, and a better GPU as well. Aside from that I think the key to success would be to improve the whole shop system.” – Ole Teglbjaerg, Press Play, Director

“My biggest wish would be for Nintendo to open up development to everyone just like on iOS. It’s obvious that it will never happen but I might as well wish big. At the very least, they could make it easier for indie developers to make games on the new device and have a better, more thought out digital store. As far as hardware goes, It would be nice if you didn’t need a separate dev kit to make games for it – that you have the ability to develop right on the retail version of the device. From the consumer perspective, I’m sure Nintendo will put lots of interesting bells and whistles on the device. The iPad-like controller sure sounds interesting (although a little expensive if I need to buy 4 controllers for multiplayer).” – Dave Castelnuovo, Bolt Creative

“I’m always excited about a new console from Nintendo because I know they’re going to innovate somehow and do something creative. They never fail to do that. On top of that, their games are always fantastic and I just can’t wait to play their games so it comes hand in hand. So those are the things that I’m – I know it’s not anything specific on a tech basis, but those [tech] things excite me far less than some of the innovations and some of the games that Nintendo’s going to make. So that’s what I look for from Nintendo – something new and fresh, something of very high quality. That’s what gets me excited.” – Denis Dyack, Silicon Knights, President

It’s no surprise that one of the common desires among developers is an improved online/digital service. I think the 3DS eShop will be a good indication of how things will play out on Project Cafe. I’m also hoping that Nintendo will take online another step further with the console – let’s get rid of those Friend Codes once and for all!

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Rumors, Wii U | 0 comments

Wii owners have basically been begging for a hard drive since its release, yet Nintendo has only opted to enable SD card support on the console. Despite the company’s apparent interest in regaining hardcore fan interest, Nintendo will not, according to Kotaku, include a hard-drive for Project Cafe.

That’s just one of the many new rumors we’ve hearing about today. You can check out additional speculation regarding the console’s graphical capabilities and more controller streaming talk below.

– 8 gigabytes of on-board flash-based memory
– 16 times the storage capacity of Wii
– Smaller than the 20GB of room in the original/optional harddrives in 2005 for the Xbox 360
– 250 GB hard drives offered for PS3/360 today
– SD card saving also supported
– 8 GB of storage won’t allow Nintendo to offer full-sized games for download like we’ve seen on the PS3/360
– Unlikely to store downloaded feature films without additional user-supplied storage
– Unclear if Nintendo will cap the graphical resolution at 1080i or 1080p
– 25 GB of data for the disc format (triple the size of Wii discs/Xbox 360, comparable to PS3 Blu-Ray discs)
– At least equal to the PS3/360 in terms of horsepower
– Nintendo could tweak the storage capacity and other parameters before launch
– Screen-controller can function in many ways
– Controller can act similar to a PS3/360 controller
– Can also present a supplemental, touch-sensitive viewing screen
– This could be used for maps and inventory
– Third option: stream the game on the television to the controller screen
– Play these high-end games portably while within an unspecified range of the console

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