Everything Wii 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).

Supported Resolution's: 480i, 480p, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p (and possibly 2560x1600)

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 12 buttons, 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 Network Features: 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).

Retail Games (remember most retail games will also be available for download): 
Aliens: Colonial Marines                                                 Untitled F1/Formula One
Assassin's Creed III                                                          FIFA 13
Avengers: Battle For Earth                                              Killer Freaks from Outer Space
Batman: Arkham City                                                      Injustice: gods Among Us 
Untitled Battlefield                                                          Lego City Stories
Ben 10: Omniverse                                                          NBA 2K13 (launch window)
Darksiders II (Launch Title)                                            Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge
Untitled Dirt                                                                    Rabbids Rumble
Project CARS                                                                  Project Nova
Pikmin 3                                                                          Rayman Legends
Dragon Quest X: The Five Awakening Races Online      Untitled Super Mario game 
Untitled Super Smash Bros. sequel                                 Untitled Tekken 
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Online                                  Untitled The Legend of Zelda


Download-Only Software:
1001 Spikes                                                                    Marvel Pinball
Cloudberry Kingdom (launch window)                           Toki Tori 2
Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs

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Wii U Q&A

Have any questions about the Wii U?  Ask away in comments.

See other editions of Wii U Q&A:
Wii U Q&A: The Wii U to support 2560x1600 resolution?

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Wii U Videos

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This article is part of my "14 days of E3" celebration, also see:  The Seven Most Common anti-Nintendo Myths, Why I Think People Should Stop Criticizing 'New Super Mario Bros. Mii', and I Can Prove Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt that the Wii U Will Be More Powerful than the Xbox 360 and PS3

Did I forget anything? See a typo? Please comment.

Wii U Q&A: Ask Your Questions

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.)

Wii U Q&A: The Wii U to support 2560x1600 resolution?

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.

Wii U Q&A: Ask Your Questions

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.