Wii U info (OS, and Online info that is) came out today from the Japanese ND: - When you turn on the Wii U for the first time, you have to create a Wii U user account, with a Mii associated with it. - You can have up to 10 accounts per system. - Game settings, save data, browser bookmarks, and play history are all tied to user accounts. - Each Wii U user account can also be tied with a Nintendo Network ID. - In order to sign up for a Nintendo Network ID, you must give the fowling info: username, password, mail, date of birth and gender. - The Nintendo Network ID can be used for: Video chat, eShop, Miiverse, and most other networking services. - When anyone on your console buys something in the eShop, all user accounts can use it--not just the Nintendo Network ID that bought it. - On the Miiverse boards you can post ordinary post, game screenshots, and drawings. You can also add a spoiler checkbox to any post. - You can follow any other Wii U owner you see in the Miiverse boards and register them as friends. - Miiverse is supported in all Wii U games, though the implementation depends per game. No additional work from devs needed for basic implementation. - You can Video Chat with anyone on your friend list. - After you have everything set up, Miiverse Plaza is what you'll see when you power on the Wii U. - After the Wii U is done powering up you'll see this (see link):
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So what do you think?
Yesterday I did an interview with my good friend Mr. Anonymous (he's a famous video game developer), about the what Nintendo is going to announce about the Wii U tomorrow (you can watch it here: http://www.facebook.com/WiiU tomorrow at 7AM PT/10AM ET) and the specs! So sit back and enjoy the interview!
TechnoHobbit: Hello, Mr. Anonymous! I understand you want to tell me some new info about the Wii U?
Mr. Anonymous: Yes! First up: the American price, release date, colors, and launch games...........................................
TechnoHobbit: Yes? YES? YES?!!?!
Mr. Anonymous: Price: 3 bundles:
$249.99, with the Wii U, GamePad and $20 eShop cash (Nintendo is losing $30 off every bundle sold).
$299.99, with Wii U, GamePad, $20 eShop cash, Nintendo Land or NSMBU, one Wiimote, Nunchuck, and Pro Controller.
$349.99, with Wii U, GamePad, $20 eShop cash, Nintendo Land or NSMBU, two Wiimotes, Nunchucks, and Pro Controllers.
Release date: November 11th for all bundles Colors: Black, White, or Red. Launch Games:
Retail games:
Assassin's Creed III
Batman: Arkham City - Armored Edition
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Darksiders II
FIFA 13
Just Dance 4
Lego The Lord of the Rings: The Video Game
Madden NFL 13
Mass Effect 3
Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge
New Super Mario Bros. U
Nintendo Land
Pikmin 3
Rayman Legends
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Downloadable Games:
1001 Spikes
Chasing Aurora
BIT.TRIP Presents Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien
Little Inferno
Mighty Switch Force! HD
Tank! Tank! Tank!
Trine 2: Director's Cut
Toki Tori 2
TechnoHobbit: Wow! Lots and lots of games! Good prices! Can't wait!!!! How about other countries?
Mr. Anonymous:
Same bundles:
UK: £229.99, £259.99, £289.99. December 1st.
Canada: $249.99,
$299.99, $349.99,
December 1st.
Europe: €249.99,
€279.99,
€324.99 December 1st
Australia: $349.95 $399.95 $349.95
December 6th
Japan: 25,000 yen, 30,000 yen, 35,000 yen. December 1st
TechnoHobbit: I have no idea if those are good prices or not... How about the specs? Can you tell me them?
Mr. Anonymous: Yes, I can tell you.... but I'm not going to.
Mr. Anonymous: OK, I'll tell you... CPU: 360 3.5 GHz POWER7 eight core processors, or 2880 cores. RAM: 16 Terabytes of RAM GPU: None
TechnoHobbit: What............?
Mr. Anonymous: Oops!!!! Wrong specs... PS4 specs... Xbox 720 specs... Ah here we go Wii U Specs! CPU: From what I can tell it's a3 core POWER PC with some POWER7 tech added, runs at 3GHz, has a theoretical peak performance of 223GFLOPS, though under real-world gaming environments it's only able to produce about 100-120GFLOPS. RAM: 1.5GB of GDRR5 for games, .5GB for OS and other things. GPU: Highly customized E6760, according to some test I did on it, it would have a 3DMark Vantage score of 7012 if it was used on a computer.
TechnoHobbit: Sounds good, I don't have a calculator on me, so can you tell me how many times more powerful the Wii U is? (compared to Xbox 360, PS3)
Mr. Anonymous: In terms of RAW power? 3.5x more powerful than the PS3, 4.3x more powerful than the Xbox 360.
TechnoHobbit: Like I thought! I understand the UK Nintendo Direct is going to be "Phenomeniall"?
Mr. Anonymous: Yes! Niall Horan from the boy-band One Direction is going to be in the UK Nintendo Direct. It will start with a video of birthday party were Niall is opening presents (tomorrow is Niall's birthday), one of those presents happens to be a Wii U. Then it turns into a 25 minute long ad for the Wii U (with Niall as the star of course), announcing all the Wii U details that we didn't know before! Including more details on SiNG, like the fact that there are 20 1D songs in SiNG!
TechnoHobbit: Awesome! You also said you have some new Wii U Zelda info?
Mr. Anonymous: Yes, and it's going to be HUGE!!!! The dungeons are so big they will take hours to complete. Even the characters are going to be huge! Here's some character models they are going to show tomorrow:
How Ganondorf will look like in the new Zelda!
TechnoHobbit: Wow! Why are they sumo warriors?
Mr. Anonymous: The game takes place soon after Twilight Princess. When Link, Zelda, and whatever their names are, take a nice walk in the woods, they find Fi and unleash a curse on themselves that turns them into sumo warriors. Some of them like it, but Zelda hates it, so Link goes on a quest to find a cure for the sumo warrior curse, but Ganondorf stands in his way!!
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It was ......AWESOME!!! The Experience it's self was very well done, and they had this awesome glowing table!
The games I played were Rayman Legends, Project P-100, 2 Game&Wario mini-games--Ski and Fruit, New Super Mario Bros. U, and 2 mini-games in Nintendo Land called Luigi's Ghost Mansion and The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest. But before I get deeper into what I think of the games....
The Controllers
Wii U Pro Controller:
The pro controller was awesome. It feels like a cross between an Xbox 360 controller and a PS3 controller, taking the best from both: super light like the PS3 controller, yet the bigger design of the Xbox 360 controller; nicer buttons like those on the PS3 controller, yet nicer trigger buttons like those on the Xbox 360 controller! And some things that are not found on either the Xbox 360 controller or a PS3 controller, like the Nintendo D-pad, and analog sticks that click really easily.
Score: 10/10
Wii U GamePad:
Awesome! It was way lighter than I thought it would be, almost as light as the 3DS, and PS Vita, and the design was very comfortable, I could see myself using it for hours at a time. The buttons and analog sticks are like those on the pro controller, aka super. The touchscreen is like a cross between a 3DS's screen and an iPad screen, very accurate like the 3DS's, and super responsive like the iPad's. Overall it's perfect in every way I can think of. Score: 10/10
The Games
Rayman Legends
This game was extremely fun and made good use of the GamePad (though I used the pro controller). The level I played was this one:
I also enjoyed how it had some rhythm elements. Overall it was my favorite game I played at the Wii U Experience.
Score: 10/10
Project P-100
It was fun, yet it lacked something, then again I only played it for 7 minutes, so I think it will be better if I know the story behind it, and if I played it for an hour. It has very nice, colorful graphics.
Score: 7/10
Game & Wario
Ski
Very fun (and uses the GamePad well). It only took me 19.8 seconds to finish the mini-game, but I could see myself playing this again and again trying to beat my time (and I'm sure there will be more levels).
Score: 9.5/10
Fruit
In Fruit one player uses the GamePad to anonymously control one of the characters on the TV to quietly steal fruit, while up to 5 others try to guess which character is stealing fruit (I was one trying to guess). Fun, but I lost.....
Score: 8/10
Game & Wario overall:Looking forward to it a lot! 9/10
New Super Mario Bros. U
I only played this game for 2 minutes. It was fun, but nothing special, then again that was just a demo and hopefully the game will be better (so far it sounds like it will be).
Score: 7/10
Nintendo Land
Luigi's Ghost Mansion
In the Luigi's Ghost Mansion 4 players using Wiimotes hunt down the player using the GamePad, AKA the ghost. I was one of the 4 players using the Wiimote (and one of the best players). Very fun and hard. Score: 9/10
The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest
In this game 2 players using Wiimotes use swords to kill enemies, while 1 player uses the GamePad's gyro features as a bow to shoot enemies. In this one I used the GamePad. The GamePad's gyro was amazingly responsive and accurate. The game itself was both fun and hard. Score: 10/10
Nintendo Land overall:
I was surprised at how fun and deep Nintendo Land was, and I'm way more likely to buy the Wii U day 1 if it's bundled. 9.5/10
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Now that I have played the Wii U, I'm more excited for the Wii U than ever before, and I think I will get it on day 1. Oh, and I overheard one of the representatives saying that the GamePad was not in its "Final Form," so who knows, maybe the GamePad will look different on the 13th? Now I can't wait until the 13th....
That was one of the best E3 press conference I have ever watched (9.8 out of 10). There is no doubt about it Nintendo won E3, and Nintendo still has one more major press conference and one more minor press conference. My favorite part is at the beginning, when.... Well, you can see it for yourself: (For those who don't know, Miyamoto created Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, F-Zero, Pikmin, the Wii series, and more. He is considered to be one of the greatest video game developers in the world.)
In my opinion that right there is cooler than Microsoft's entire E3 Press Conference. The one thing that I didn't care for was the fact Satoru Iwata (the president of Nintendo) was not there... Right now it's hard to find a video (at the time I'm writing this) of the press conference, so here's what was revealed and more.
Wii U Games Shown:
Nintendo showed off 23 Wii U games and said that many more would be revealed later. (I have included "New" by every game that has never been announced before for the Wii U.)
Aliens: Colonial Marines
Assassin's Creed III
Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth
Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition (New, and exclusive to the Wii U)
Darksiders II
Just Dance 4
Lego City Undercover (Exclusive to the Wii U)
Mass Effect 3 (New)
New Super Mario Bros. U (Exclusive to the Wii U)
Ninja Gaiden 3
NintendoLand (New, and exclusive to the Wii U)
Pikmin 3 (Exclusive to the Wii U)
Rabbids Land
Rayman Legends
Scribblenauts Unlimited (New, and exclusive to the Wii U-3DS)
SiNG (New, and could be exclusive to the Wii U)
Sports Connection
Tank! Tank! Tank! (New, and exclusive to the Wii U-Arcade)
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (New)
Trine 2: Director's Cut (New)
Wii Fit U (New, and exclusive to the Wii U)
Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013
ZombiU (Exclusive to the Wii U)
3DS Games Shown:
The 3DS will have its own press conference tomorrow, but they did show off these.
Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon
New Super Mario Bros. 2
Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Scribblenauts Unlimited
And a few more that I can't remember.
Ofter Stuff Raveled:
The Wii U will have Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, and YouTube apps.
The Wii U will be available in both, black and white.
I suggest that you go to http://e3src.nintendo.com/wiiu/ for game trailers and a cool video that gives a virtual tour of the Wii U GamePad. Come back to my blog on the 8th for "Everything Wii Now (after E3 2012) Know About The Wii U."
It's been more than 1 year and 3 months since Project Cafe rumors started appearing on the internet, and now the Wii U's second E3 is approaching fast, so let's look back at what we know about Nintendo's sixth home video game console.
Release date: By Christmas 2012
Price: MORE THAN $250
Processor: A custom-designed IBM POWER7 processor (same processor found in the Watson supercomputer, and if it's good enough for Watson, it should be good enough for you).
Graphics Processing Unit: A custom-designed Radeon HD similar to the Radeon R700 architecture (3 years newer than the Xbox 360 & PS3's architecture).
Media (Discs): The Wii U will use a disc format developed by Panasonic based on China Blue High-definition Disc, but with the ability to handle more layers. It has capacities up to 75 GB, (the Xbox 360's disc format has capacities up to 8.7 GB, and the PS3's disc format has capacities up to 100 GB). The Wii U is also backward compatible with Wii Optical Discs.
Storage: Internal flash memory, supports SD cards and USB hard drives to increase hard drive space.
Supported Controllers: Wii U controller (see below), Wii MotionPlus/Wii Remote Plus, Classic Controller Pro, Wii Balance Board.
Backward Compatibility: All Wii games and peripherals are backward compatible with the Wii U.
Other: 4 USB 2.0 Ports (2 at front of console, 2 at rear), HDMI 1.4 port (interesting fact: HDMI 1.4 supports 3D images), Sensor Bar power port.
The Controller
Dimensions: 5.3 inches high x 0.9 inches deep
Screen: A 6.2 inch 16:9 resistive touchscreen with a resolution of 854×480 (could be higher when the final-form is shown at E3). (Note: Some people say that since it's a resistive touchscreen it can't support multi-touch, but that is not true. Resistive touchscreens can support multi-touch and still be a lot more accurate than the touchscreen you can find on a iPad.)
Buttons: It has 12buttons,A/B/X/Y face buttons, ZL/ZR bumper buttons, L/R trigger buttons, and Select, Start, Home, and Power, buttons.
Sticks & D-Pad's: Two Circle Pads (like those on the 3DS) and one D-pad, or if the leaked photo is real, then two Analog sticks and one D-pad.
Motion Control: It has a 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyroscope, like the 3DS.
Battery: A rechargeable battery pack.
Wireless: Bluetooth and NFC (Near field communication chip, not Nintendo Fried Chicken, see Rayman Legends concept trailer below).
Other: Rumble, a 3.5mm Headphone jack, a Volume Slider, a microphone, a front-facing camera, built-in speakers, and a IR sensor strip (for Wii Remotes).
Online Services
The Wii U will use the newly announced Nintendo Network, we currently don't know much about the Wii U's Nintendo Network features (we don't know that much about the 3DS's Nintendo Network features either), but here's the little we know:
Nintendo NetworkFeatures: User Accounts, the ability to buy and download full retail games, online gameplay, Videocalls, Virtual Console (in a interview, Nintendo's Amber McCollum said that GameCube games would be available for download on the Wii U's Virtual Console, in addition to the games you can already buy on the Wii's Virtual Console), DLC (paid downloadable content), downloadable-only software, game patches, and Wii U-3DS connectivity.
The Games
Hear are the few games that have been confirmed to be in development for the Wii U (expect this list to double or even quadruple after Nintendo's E3 press conference).
This article is part of my "14 days of E3" celebration.
Currently I think it's safe to say around 75% of all media and gamers think the Wii U will be weaker than the Xbox 360 and PS3. People tend to listen to negative news (most likely rumors with anonymous sources) such as Wii U less powerful than PS3, Xbox 360, developers say, and Wii U’s Total Bill of Materials Estimated at $180. At first when researching for this article I figured I was going to fight rumors with rumors, but thankfully I didn't need to. Here's proof (in my opinion) beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Wii U will be more powerful than the Xbox 360 and PS3.
At E3 2011 Brian Martel form Gearbox said:
"Right now we're still finding out what kind of final tech specs the Wii U is going to have. But we like the system a lot; we think it's going to be a really cool stop-gap in between this generation and the next generation. We think it's really smart of Nintendo, and the fact that as a platform it's a lot more capable for hardcore first-person shooter-style gaming – for us that's fantastic. We've got the [Aliens: Colonial Marines] engine running on the Wii U, and as far as the console goes, you're going to see textures at a resolution that you haven't seen on [the current] generation."
In July 2011 Mike Capps from EPIC said this about the Wii U:
"At the launch event at E3, some of the products that you saw running on Wii U were based on Unreal Engine technology. So that kind of gives you an idea of where we are in that space. You can certainly use our engine on that platform – it's a natural fit from a technology perspective, It opens up some doors that weren't open before on current generation consoles because it is going to be a powerful box."
In March, 2012 Gearbox President Randy Pitchford said this about the Wii U:
"The Wii U version has so much more to offer ... no other platform can do what the Wii U can do {note by TechnoHobbit: He's either referencing the controller, the power, or both}. If you love [Xbox] 360 games, you are not used to being in a world where you have this new interface. But once you get used to that, you imagine the possibilities; there are some opportunities that are just not possible on any platform that does not have that device."
In March, 2012 Mark Rein from EPIC said this about the Wii U:
"I like the Wii U. I think E3 will be a big eye-opener for people. I played Batman: Arkham City on the Wii U and they are doing some really cool stuff with the controller. Do you remember the Zelda demo they had on it? Would you not buy a Wii U just to play that? Of course you would. That's what Nintendo is all about. Their hardware is the software delivery service for their great content. That Zelda demo was gorgeous and we can do even more than that with Unreal Engine 3. I think it will do great."
This is the Zelda demo he was talking about, and if the Wii U is powerful enough to have better graphics than this...
. . . it's basically guaranteed that the Wii U will be more powerful than the Xbox 360 and PS3
In March, 2012 Han Randhawa (art director for Darksiders 2) said this about the Wii U:
"There is not much I can really talk about right now, but I think that the Wii U is a pretty powerful machine, which obviously means more resources, and means you can do a lot more. So the Wii U team is doing very well, we've been working with Nintendo and I think it's going to be a very exciting version of Darksiders but we want to keep the overall theme relatively consistent."
In April 2012 Gearbox President Randy Pitchford said this about the Wii U:
"Nintendo still has a lot to announce with their platform, and it's not up to us to go ahead of them. I think it's a great platform and I'm really excited about it, particularly with this game, there's a lot of exciting opportunities like, 'Wow, my motion tracker is there, and I can move it like this!' There's just so much cool stuff. There's a lot that we can do with that screen. It's a really cool system -- it's pretty powerful. I want to be careful, because I don't want to risk any sensitive information that Nintendo's not ready to share yet, but in our experience it's a great system. I think it's a really nice bridge to the next generation. I think people will be surprised. I don't know off the top of my head how many of the specs they've released, so I want to be very careful not to jump the gun, but we're very pleased with the hardware. And even since they gave us our first alpha kit, our very first 'pre-prototype' development hardware that they kind of let us play around with, they've done so many things to make the platform better. So it's getting better for us as developers."
“The machine itself will be one of the best looking versions of the game [sic]… because they’ve got more RAM than some of the other things [platforms]“, says Martel. “They’re late in the cycle so they’ve got this really great processor.”
In April 2012 , Chris Faylor, from Gearbox Software & Matt Powers form Sega said this about the Wii U version of Aliens: Colonial Marines:
Powers initially referred to the game as “the Wii U port” and Faylor rushed back over to scold him, telling us: “I hate that word. The Wii U version is not a port. Remove it from your vocabulary.”
After that rather tense exchange, we tried to get Powers to talk more about how the Wii U controller would come into play. With the Community Manager standing over his shoulder, he would only say that “there are interesting things you can do with the Wii U controller” and “for an Aliens game, you can probably guess what some of those things are.”
"The Wii U is a powerful, powerful machine and it can do a lot of cool new things. And so the game itself, moving it over to work on the Wii U was not much of a chore. Now the interesting thing is finding out all the cool ways you can use the controller to do new stuff with it. You can imagine all the cool things we can do, with this franchise and having a thing with you, right?"
And the Wii U version of Aliens will "be better" than the PS3 and Xbox 360 version in terms of visuals, he confirmed. Why? Because of "more modern tech".
In May, 2012 Jeremy Greiner form Vigil Games said this about the Wii U:
If I didn’t have a strict gag order on me, I’d love to talk about all the great features that we have, but what I can tell you is that it’s a next generation platform, and you should keep your eyes open.
We’ll obviously be using the unique controller that it has to its utmost potential, but speaking to specific features or tech effects… well, that’s in Nintendo’s playground right now. And I know that they have plans for E3.
Nintendo announced today that New Super Mario Bros. 2 (for 3DS) when released in August will be available not only at retail but also for download on the Nintendo 3DS e-shop (two of my predictions are confirmed in this announcement) and that most first-party games released after August will be available to download (including Wii U launch titles). The president of Nintendo Satoru Iwata also said that the Wii U will have a very rich launch line-up.
As I predicted there was no talk of a Wii U name change or 3DS Lite. Regarding whether or not my prediction that they were going to reveal some E3 Plans was true (there is still no E3 press conference date set, by the way), it depends on your interpretation of this quote from Satoru Iwata:
I believe that you are most interested in the details of the Wii U. Since the Wii U will be launched in Japan, the U.S., Europe and Australia in the year-end sales season…
Therefore, we still have some time before the launch and I cannot say anything about the release date, price or the launch titles here.
Regarding the Wii U, just as we have been saying until now…
We will showcase the final format, and discuss the details and the software lineup for this year at E3 2012, which will be held in Los Angeles in the United States in June this year.
Also, in the week after the E3 show, we would like to organize an opportunity where we can showcase the same to the Japanese wholesalers and financial analysts who cannot attend the E3 show. The people in our appropriate sections will let you know as soon as we have settled on further details.
Please also be advised that, as we did for previous platforms that were launched in the year-end sales season, we will announce the launch date and price in each market sometime after E3.
Some people think this quote means that Nintendo will not announce the price (in the US or anywhere) of the Wii U until after E3, while other people think this quote means that Nintendo will announce the price in the US, but not for the rest of the world until after E3.
Today Nintendo posted a $530 million loss (that's $274.57 million less than the
expected $804.57 million loss) for the 2011-2012 financial year. Most sites are blaming poor hardware sales (or Apple) because at the beginning of the fiscal year, Nintendo expected to sell 16 million Nintendo 3DS consoles (they sold 13.53 million Nintendo 3DS units), 13 million Wii's (they sold 9.84 million Wii units), and 11 million
Nintendo DS's (they sold 5 million
Nintendo DS units). Though the main reason why Nintendo is losing money is because the Yen is doing really good, making it so that when Nintendo converts the USD into Yen they only get so much.
Here are some articles explaining why Nintendo is not in any trouble:
"For the "Nintendo 3DS," its hardware has been sold below cost because of its significant price cut in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012. However, Nintendo expects to cease selling it below cost by the middle of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013. As for the "Nintendo 3DS" software, a totally new side-scrolling action "Super Mario" in 2D called "New Super Mario Bros. 2" will be released this August, and the latest version of the popular franchise for this handheld device, "Animal Crossing," is scheduled to be launched this fall in Japan. The newest title in the "Brain Age" series, with which people can brush up their "working memory" (a brain function of processing or utilizing the incoming information with information kept in the brain) and "concentration power" at the same time, will be released by this summer in Japan. Moreover, Nintendo will attempt to maintain the popularity of evergreen titles such as "SUPER MARIO 3D LAND" and "Mario Kart 7," and release compelling products one after another, in order to further expand the sales of the "Nintendo 3DS." Also, Nintendo will roll out the "Nintendo 3DS" in Asia in due course.
Nintendo will release the "Wii U," the successor of the "Wii," mainly in Japan, the United States and Europe at the end of this calendar year, and propose a new play style of home entertainment with its unique controller embedding a 6.2 inch touch screen.
Nintendo continues to pursue its "Gaming Population Expansion" goal based on the idea of putting smiles on many people's faces by offering brand-new entertainment that anyone can enjoy, regardless of age, gender, or gaming experience.
Nintendo strives to spread the "Nintendo 3DS" released last year, will endeavor to spread the "Wii U" to be released at the end of this calendar year, and will keep on offering not only Nintendo-developed new games but games and services making use of the capabilities of those systems by collaborating with software publishers while positively promoting potential evergreen software titles.
Moreover, Nintendo will push forward with "Nintendo Network," which is the network service for the "Nintendo 3DS" and the "Wii U," and offer game experiences, which enable users to compete and interact with others all over the world, and provide add-on content by utilizing its network functions.
Furthermore, for the purposes of adapting to the changes in the environment surrounding the video game market and creating new business opportunities, Nintendo is envisioning the digital distribution of packaged software and is aiming at expanding the digital business.
In the challenging and competitive video game industry, which consistently requires new and innovative products, Nintendo will continue striving to expand its offerings of compelling products and services by capitalizing on being a platform holder with powerful in-house software development teams.
Some of Nintendo executives will be discussing more of the company's plans for the 2012-2013 financial year and beyond in an investor's presentation the morning of April 27 in Japan (or tomorrow afternoon PST). I'm hopeful that that's when my predictions for what Nintendo will announce will come true.
Tomorrow is going to be the end of the financial year for Nintendo, so they will have an investor's conference tomorrow. They are most likely to announce million dollar losses, but they will also probably announce new Wii U and 3DS information.
Last financial quarter Nintendo announced the Nintendo Network, New Super Mario Bros. 2 (though it wasn't known as New Super Mario Bros. 2 until the Nintendo Direct webcast on April 20th) and that the Wii U controller will have a NFC chip. So it makes sense that Nintendo will announce new 3DS and Wii U information tomorrow at their investor's conference. I will present some things Nintendo could announce tomorrow.
Some E3 Plans
This is almost a given. Microsoft and Sony have already announced when their E3 press conferences will be (Microsoft: June 4 10am Pacific and Sony: June 4 6pm Pacific), and E3 is only 42 days away so why not announce their E3 press conference tomorrow.
A New Game or Two (or at least some new information about a game already announced)
Once again this is almost a given. Last time they announced New Super Mario Bros. 2 so why not announce at least a downloadable game, and if not a new game, then at least some new information about a game already announced like Luigi's Mansion 2 orPikmin 3.
New Nintendo NetworkInformation
New information on downloadable retail games? Personal accounts for Wii U? Who knows.
Wii U Name Change
Honestly I don't think Nintendo will change the Wii U's name, and who would want it to be changed (lots of people). Not only does the Wii U symbolize a console for "We" (ordinary gamers) and "You" (hardcore gamers), it also sounds like a police car. . . Wiiiiiiiiuuuuuuuuu Wiiiiiiiiiiiuuuuuuuuu (Microsoft and Sony are on the run form Nintendo).
3DS Lite
I don't think this will happen (Nintendo wants people to focus on the Wii U), but in my opinion it's the most likely time for Nintendo to announce a 3DS Lite this year.
Come back tomorrow for the official announcements.
Earlier today in an interview Shigeru Miyamoto gave to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Miyamoto implied that a new Super Mario Bros. for the Wii U would be shown at E3 in June. Later Nintendo issued a statement confirming Miyamoto’s claims saying, “In a recent interview, Mr. Miyamoto confirmed that a new Super Mario Bros. game for the Wii U system will be shown at this year’s E3 Expo. We’ll have more to announce about our plans for the E3 Expo at a later date.”
It appears that this E3 could be one of the best E3s ever for Nintendo fans.
The Wii U Q&A column is where you ask questions and I answer your questions to the best of my ability. You have from now until Friday the 27th at 11:59pm to ask any question about anything to do with the Wii U, and I
will post my answer on Sunday the 28th from 1pm to 2pm. Ask away in
comments
(sorry for taking so long to post another edition of the Wii U Q&A column.)
According to the Canadian website Forget The Box, "sources closely involved with manufacturing and distributing Nintendo products" revealed to them the Wii U will have $130 of parts and the controller will have $50 of parts (a grand total of $180 of parts for both the Wii U and the controller) and will cost no less than $300 retail price.
Once again most of the media is acting like this is confirmed and (since they believe it's confirmed) that Nintendo is greedy for making the retail price $120 more than what they are paying for parts. They're forgetting that there's also the manufacturing cost, the accessories included with the Wii U (power cords, charging cradle for the controller, manuals, etc.), packaging, and transportation to the store. All that should add an extra $20-$30 to Nintendo's cost. Then the store probably gets about $50 of the profits, so in the end Nintendo only profits approximately $45 per Wii U sold.
I think this rumor is fake and that the Wii U will have a retail price of $350. I think it will cost $280 all together (including the console and controller parts, the manufacturing cost, the accessories, packaging, transportation to the store) to make. As a side note, to all the people who care a lot about graphics, $280 is enough for Nintendo to make a console as good at playing graphically intensive games as a $600 gaming computer is. That's because they get all the parts inexpensively, and the Wii U has one main purpose: to play games. If you also include that the store gets approximately $50 of the profits, Nintendo still gets approximately $20 per Wii U sold. Remember that's just my theory; it won't be until E3 in June before we can know for sure.
The website GamesIndustry has revealed that "according to developers familiar with the hardware who spoke on a condition of anonymity to GamesIndustry International" the Wii U is "not up to the same level as the PS3 or the 360," and another developer said "Yeah, that's true. It doesn't produce graphics as well as the PS3 or the 360, there aren't as many shaders, it's not as capable. Sure, some things are better, mostly as a result of it being a more modern design. But overall the Wii U just can't quite keep up." For some reason most of the media is acting like this is 100% confirmed, while this is still just a rumor, and all other rumors are pointing towards the Wii U being more powerful than the Xbox 360 and the PS3.
In order to determine if this is true or a fake, let's look at what Nintendo, AMD (they're supplying the GPU), and IBM (they're supplying the processor) have said about the power of the Wii U.
So far Nintendo has pretty much just said (in terms of power) that the Wii U will have native support of 1080p high-definition graphics, the Xbox 360 didn't have native support of 1080p until 2007. The PS3 does support native 1080p for Blu-ray and the home menu, but it's not powerful enough to support native 1080p for most games.
AMD has said that the Wii U's GPU is based on the R770 architect, which is 3 years newer than both the R520 architect the Xbox 360's GPU is based on and the GeForce 7800 architect the PS3's GPU is based on (usually the newer the tech the more powerful it is). For more information on the Wii U's GPU and how powerful it is see my earlier artilce Wii U Q&A: The Wii U to support 2560x1600 resolution?
IBM has said that the Wii U's CPU is based on "the same processor technology found in Watson" (in case you don't know Watson is the supercomputer that was on Jeopardy), the POWER7 processor, which is a lot more powerful then the Xenon (based on PowerPC architect) processor found in the Xbox 360 and the Cell processor found in the PS3.
So as you see these "sources" are most likely fake and the Wii U will be the most powerful console on the market until the PS4 and the Xbox 720 come out.
Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two will have online co-op
Though Epic Mickey 2 was originally confirmed in January, we now know the full name, Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, and that it's going to be a musical (I'm not sure I like that). It also looks like the main problem with the original Epic Mickey, the game's camera, has been fixed, with over 1,000 changes made to the camera. So far the game has been confirmed for the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. It will be released Q4 2012. There's still no information about a Wii U or 3DS version (there are some rumors saying that Disney has plans to create a companion to the main sequel for the 3DS called Epic Mickey: Power Of Illusion). I think Disney is preparing something special for the Wii U and will announce it at E3 2012.
The question I will answer today is "What is the Wii U's graphics card and what resolution will it support? Also, I have read some articles saying that the Wii U will be underpowered compared to the Xbox 720 and PS4 and won't support as high of resolution as them, is this true," by anonymous. The following is my answer.
AMD has confirmed that the Wii U is going to use a custom-designed Radeon HD similar to the Radeon R700 architecture. Some places such as IGN have said that the type of Radeon R700 that it's going to use is most like that of the Radeon HD 4850 (I believe it is most likely that the Wii U's version is on par or more powerful). Assuming that this is true, I googled the Radeon HD 4850 and found its official specification page. As you can see in the image below the Radeon HD 4850 supports 2560x1600 resolution also known as WQXGA.
That is 4,096,000 pixels which is more than 1.9 times higher resolution then full HD (1920×1080). It is even higher than 2K resolution. So when someone tells you that the Wii U is underpowered, that is not true (here's a good article comparing the Radeon HD 4850 and the HD Radeon 6670 [the Xbox 720's rumored graphics card]). Recently some people have gotten it into their minds that the Xbox 720 and PS4 will support higher resolutions than the Wii U, but it is most likely not true; one reason is that there are hardly any TVs that support 2560x1600 resolution.
Introducing the new Wii U Q&A column where you ask questions and I answer your questions to the best of my ability. You have from now until Sunday Monday at 6pm 10am to ask any question about anything to do with the Wii U, and I will post my answer on Monday the 5th at 1pm to 2pm. Ask away in comments.
