Wii U

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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Posted on 13 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Rumors, Wii U | 5 Comments

– Called the “Nintendo Feel”
– While the Wii was about the controller, this will be about controller, the graphics, and the new software
– The screen on the controller isn’t just hard like the iPad, it brings a new “Feel” dimension
– Moving your finger across the screen allows you to feel the difference between soft, smooth, and rugged textures
– Could be used for feeling fur on Nintendogs, drawing patterns in desert sand, feeling the breeze on a lake, getting burned from lava, or figuring out the structure of a very old tree
– Playable at E3
– Vitality sensor could be a key feature

Via NeoGaf

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

A report from IGN a few weeks ago stated that Nintendo would announce the Wii’s successor before the end of April. And that’s exactly what Nintendo did. The company released a short press release confirming the console’s existence last week, only saying that more news will come at E3.

Although we did receive a summary as to why Nintendo announced Project Cafe before E3 a few days ago, we now have the direct quote from Iwata. Iwata also explained why he chose not to reveal the system at GDC.

“Next I would like to tell you why we announced Wii’s successor system at this time, not at GDC. Naturally, the earlier we announce a new system, the more speculation will be encouraged and there will be a higher risk of information leakage from those who are working cooperatively on it outside Nintendo. In addition, a lot of people interested in our next move might be less amazed at E3 if we disclose too much information in advance.

At the same time, however, if we make a totally surprising announcement at E3 on the spot, which would be an effective way to astonish people, some busy people might say, “Oh, Nintendo is a mischievous company. I could have visited E3 if I was informed of the announcement in advance.” We decided to make the announcement at this time because now is our last opportunity to inform people so that they can arrange their travel schedule for E3.”

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

It’s pretty much a well-known fact that third-parties haven’t been able to find success on the Wii. Sure, a few titles have performed beyond expectations – such as Just Dance – but on the whole, third-party releases just haven’t sold well.

Satoru Iwata was asked to comment on Nintendo’s inability to attract third-parties for the Wii at the company’s financial results briefing last week. Iwata explained that poor sales of previous games was a factor, as was the console’s graphical limitations and competition among other platforms. He also said that Nintendo is interested in cooperating with software developers for the Wii’s successor and admitted that third-parties are important to maintain the market.

“Regarding your analysis that cooperation with third-party software developers didn’t go as well for Wii as it went for Nintendo DS, there actually are some arguments which attribute the reason to the system’s ‘performance,’ but in terms of ‘performance,’ Nintendo DS did not overwhelm other devices by its performance. However, it proposed what other devices could not, and that value was recognized, and as a result the software sold well, which is the most important point. Unfortunately, there are very few success stories of third-party software in Japan on Wii. This lowered the motivation of the software developers, and at a time when these software developers should have been running their businesses on the platform with the biggest installed base, this wasn’t the reality. On the contrary, in the U.S., several titles sold well. Not only ‘JUST DANCE,’ which I introduced today, but for some titles, such as ‘Guitar Hero,’ even if the titles were released for multiple platforms, the Wii version sold the most, and in such a situation, the developers did not completely lose motivation for development on Wii. However, Wii is good in some areas but not in others, so especially for games like ‘Call of Duty,’ the Wii version sold pretty well, but the unit sales were very different from the versions of other platforms, and I assume that one of the reasons is the issue with the graphical representations which you mentioned before, and also, the consumers who like that kind of game will have other platforms at home as well, which led to this result. Of course, we would like to cooperate with software developers for Wii’s successor, and as I am repeatedly saying, I don’t believe Nintendo can carry out everything alone. I am saying that we are responsible for building up the market, but I don’t think that Nintendo can maintain the market alone; We are aiming for creating a situation where software publishers will be willing to cooperate. As for commenting on such things as the performance, I already stated in the beginning that I would not mention any specific plans. Thank you for your understanding.”

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

Much of the speculation surrounding Project Cafe indicates that the system’s controller will contain a screen, which could be used to stream games and other content. E3 is still a few weeks away, so we’re going to have to wait just a bit longer for Nintendo’s unveiling of the console. Be sure to check out a new round of Project Cafe mockup images below – most of which feature the console’s controller – as we continue to count down to E3.

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

Just like all of the other rumors we’ve posted thus far, the points below are not confirmed. We’ll have to wait until E3 before Nintendo shares substantial information about the console. For now, though, you can check out the latest Project Cafe rumors from 1UP’s Sam Kennedy.

– Nintendo looking to create the first social game console
– No Friend Codes
– Console will be designed around the concept of connecting, sharing, gaming with others
– Think of the above as if you are in a cafe
– Nintendo hoping to stream video of games being played to other people’s consoles so friends can see what each other are up to
– Might be able to join another friend’s game seamlessly

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Wii, Wii U | 0 comments

If interested, you can also watch Satoru Iwata’s presentation in English here.

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