Nintendo announces Wii successor for 2012

@Bluebreaker It's on like *pay Nintendo* Donkey Kong.

@JnRx I'm guessing probably $300 knowing Nintendo...they will make it more than a handheld cause it will be better tech....but they will want to keep it cheap so it will probably $300 for sure.

@Bluebreaker

http://video.adultswim.com/squidbillies/it-is-on-like-michelle-kwan.html

@King Johngie the Fourth Nintendo fans don't care about the price... they care about how many versions of Mario will be launched that remember the old ones...

@AmethystHarp

LOL... everything AmethystHarp is true, the funny part is that you prob got downvoted because at this point Nintendo fanboys are so predictable its pathetic.

Want Proof?? There is ANOTHER Ocarina of Time remake coming out for the Wii2....

you can't see but 50 fanboys just nutted their pants and silently said "DDOOOYY WAAANN PUCCHASEE"

@PR0F3TA - What? Where has it ever been said that the Wii2 would have an Ocarina of Time remake?

@PR0F3TA

I wish I could downvote you twice. Once for being a presumptuous prick and twice for speaking the way you do.

It's called English.

@Foetoid

Geez Joystiq. I can only post 3 links :(

This is that 2nd pic of referred to:

http://wiihdrumors.davidturnbull.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Leaked-2.jpg

@Foetoid But uhh.... where do the disks go?! :P Unless that line on the bottom half is the disk drive in which case, this is one big, fat machine :P

@JasonDassh

Yeah thats obviously the disk drive of course. They already said its as big as a 360, and with the size of the disk drive on that machine, it makes it just that much more plausible. Plus of course the general shape of the machine looks close to the Wii.

@JasonDassh Lets pray they scrapped the discs and went back to good ol' cartridges.

@SuperAngryMeatBirdBoy

Seems extremely unlikely. The French leak site responsible for the successful leaking of Wii 2 and NGP rumors listed Blu-Ray for the media format. I think their pretty much perfectly believable.

@Foetoid

Well, now IGN is reporting that the Nintendo's machine is supposed to look like "a modernized Super Nintendo."

If that's the case, than that picture you posted may just be a SDK.


Speculation is fun.

@Foetoid Let's hope that isn't real, that might just be the ugliest console I've ever seen if so ... looks like a cheap router/modem.

@Foetoid that Blu-ray talk has been said since the Wii came out tho....

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi

True but this French website has been right about the NGP and now the Wii 2, and they claim developers are developing Wii 2 games on Blu-Ray media. Its very plausable.

@Foetoid
Umm.. That to me just looks like a reskinned Windows 7 or Windows Vista box...
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_XIv3mrxN5Xw/RpcKfIOCHyI/AAAAAAAAACo/kXNJA4wVVxw/s400/CP006.png

@Premature ejaculation man

Someone on another site pointed that out to me, but of course there are a couple of difference, mainly on the back edge of the console. Those MS boxes have a curved edge running top to bottom on the back where the hinge is, this console doesnt at all, and only has a very slight curved edge on the very top and bottom of the back-side. Also if you look carefully and compare them side-by-side, the console is thicker in comparison to its height than the MS box as well as wider in the front in comparison to its height. It is very similar yes, but looking carefully you can spot enough differences to see that its not someone just modifying a Windows Vista box or something lmao.

@Foetoid
Honestly, that looks like an SDK.

@Foetoid

Well let's look at it this way. Sony pioneered blu-ray and use it in their systems. Sony screwed over Nintendo back when they were making the first disc Nintendo system which eventually turned into the PS1. Why would Nintendo endorse a product that Sony openly uses. That said, things happen all the time in the background but I'd be very surprised if Nintendo backs Blu-ray at all.

@AceUnbound Well, Sony openly used the DVD format, and Nintendo also used it. So your argument doesn't have many legs. Not to mention that Blu-ray was developed by more than just Sony, and that Sony doesn't "own" the format. Sony was just the biggest backer of it. That doesn't mean the competition won't use it when it's clearly better than any other optical media out there that is available for consumer electronics. Using Blu-ray is hardly endorsing Sony. The only people that associate Sony with Blu-ray are the tech nerds, and they often mistakenly thin that Sony owns and controls the format (it's 2011, honestly catch up on the facts). It's not like Nintendo will be using MemorySticks or MiniDiscs.

@EDay When has Nintendo ever used the DVD format? The discs used for the Wii are proprietary DVD-sized discs. Just like the Gamecube used proprietary mini-DVD sized discs.

@Foetoid
Those last two shots are 3D renders, and not even very good ones at that.

@SuperAngryMeatBirdBoy
I disagree. Only Nintendo makes money off cartridges and they need 3rd party support to be successful. That media choice is largely to blame for N64's failure.

@EDay Nintendo uses a proprietary format based off of DVD, but not actually a DVD. It is officially called Nintendo Optical Disc (formerly GameCube Optical Disc). I highly doubt Nintendo will go with Blu-ray, mostly because the technology is still pricey, and even today most games do not need the extra storage.

You are *probably* right about the visuals being inferior to the PS3 and 360 successors - though who knows when those will come out - but come on, let's hold out just a little hope that they got online play right this time.

Hoping, hoping, hoping.

@skbkoy65
Dry assumptions will get you nowhere. Plus, why not judge a console by its... you know... games?

@skbkoy65

Its said to be using the R700 chip from Ati. This chip is responsible for the HD4800 series graphics cards on PC. In comparison, the Ps3 uses an ancient Nvidia 7800GT chip and the 360 is closer to the 8800Gt equivalent with the R600 chip. The 4800 series is leaps and bounds past what the current HD consoles are doing graphically. It'll likely have 1gb of ram which is double the current-gens and if i know Nintendo hardware, i know their architecture is top-notch. The GC had less horsepower than the Xbox, but was better graphically thanks to its speedy ram and brilliant Power PC architecture. Remember that the Ps3 and 360 currently have great HD graphics, the Ps4 and Nextbox aren't going to have the same huge leap that Nintendo is taking from the Wii to Wii 2, even IF they pack it with the best hardware in 2 yrs.

Devs have come forth to say that Nintendo has also totally cured their online gaming woes.

@skbkoy65
Can i barrow your time machine?

@kvn7918
i wish i had a edit button.

@Foetoid
Excellent analysis, Foetoid. The 4800 would indeed be a very noticeable improvement for most console gamers - to use a very old yardstick, it can max Crysis; and that's without all the optimisation that goes into console game development.

@Foetoid Okay, fess up. Who let Michael Pachter make an account here?

@Faceless Troll

Lmao i've been posting here for like 5 years or more, im no Pachter.

OR AM I

@kvn7918
A time machine would also help. =P

@darkinchworm I honestly don't think it'll matter at this point, as long as they can do slightly better than 360 and PS3 in graphics, that'll be good enough. People are still VERY pleased with what they're getting on PS3 and 360 (for good reason), so anything extra is just gravy.

If they're smart, they'll focus on improved *physics* processing in order to really wring the most out of motion controls.

Luckily, Nintendo could use 2010 graphics tech, which'll be dirt cheap in 2012, and *still* pretty thoroughly abuse PS3 and 360 in graphics and physics :p. If they can do that and do it cheaply, with a compelling new control/interface experience and a decent online service, they'll have nothing to worry about.

@SushiGummy I don't know that requires thought. It's so much easier to just be a drooling fanboy.

@Foetoid

The chip the ps3 uses is based on the architecture of the 7800, the chip the ps3 uses was developed by sony and Nvidia together. its not the 7800, just based around it

@Foetoid - I can't imagine why they would go for a DX9 chip (assuming there aren't DX11 chips in that range. The HD4870 in my PC currently isn't DX11) when the future is clearly DX11.

I think Nintendo would be backing themselves into a corner with little more than a small hardware leap over the PS3 and 360. If the PS3 and 360 successors come out with a lot more power, the Wii 2 would be stuck yet again as the console where all the awful ports are sent to die.

Unless Nintendo can come up with a reason for casuals to ditch their Wii's and move on to the Wii 2, they are going to have to compete head to head with Sony and Microsoft next gen. Using an older chip, and older architecture, isn't the way to do that. They're going to have to walk a fine line between keeping costs down, and putting out a machine that is powerful enough to last another five years.

@Foetoid

"the Ps4 and Nextbox aren't going to have the same huge leap that Nintendo is taking from the Wii to Wii 2, even IF they pack it with the best hardware in 2 yrs."

I respectfully disagree. Typically, we see a doubling or tripling of overall computational power and with each successive GPU architectural release (as Intel calls it, a "tick"); with "tock" releases (micro-arcitectural refinements couple with a die shrink) there can be and are dramatic performance increase when it comes to specific functions. AMD's HD 6000 series, for example, offers significantly better tessellation, GPU compute, and rendering performance in relation its predecessor despite being a "mere" architectural refresh. To give you an idea of just how much technology changes, AMD and NVIDIA are expected to release single chip solutions that offer a comparable level of performance to the tri-SLI GTX 580 setup Epic used to showcase The Samaritan within the next year. The next Xbox and Playstation will most likely use GPUs heavily derived from those parts. Assuming that's the case, the performance and image quality gap between contemporary consoles is unlikely to change.

@jackal - I don't completely disagree with you, but there is one point in there that is a bit suspect. The idea that Nvidia or AMD has any single GPU card in the pipeline that could compete with a tri-SLI setup of GTX 580's is just wrong. There are dual GPU cards from a few generations ago that are still performance monsters, and an SLI/Crossfire setup of last gen cards is still generally a better price/performance buy than any new single GPU card, due to having more power for the price.

The next gens from Nvidia and AMD will surely be more powerful, but not that much more powerful.

@BananaBoat

1) Both NVIDIA and ATI have been relatively hamstrung by the 40 nm manufacturing process; they can't go much further beyond 3 billion transistors right now without running into thermal and power consumption problems. By moving to the 28 nm manufacturing node, which they've both confirmed they will do once it becomes available, they can probably double or triple their transistor count while keeping the status quo as far as heat and power consumption is concerned; that means higher clockspeeds throughout, at least double the shaders, and, with their emphasis on improving geometry performance, at least a 3x performance increase when tessellation comes into play.

2) Triple GPU solutions generally do not scale well in games; the average performance increase compared to SLI or Crossfire is less than 5% for most titles and there's even a performance regression in others. Drivers can and do help, but not by enough to make it a worthwhile investment for most titles. It is not at all far-fetched, given the inherent limitations of triple or even quad GPU setups, to see a single chip solution outperform it; my GTX 570 is faster in most games than 3 GTX 275s.

@jackal

28nm will not triple performance.

Total power consumption of the Wii 2 will likely not be nearly as high as even a single HD 4850, so rule that one out.

They're going for profit, not cutting edge, that means more gimmicky ideas, less "brute force" hardware.

The PS3 and Xbox360 also do graphics rendering on their super high end CPU's, this somewhat makes up for their weaker GPU's in comparison to home gaming PC's. Most entry level gaming desktops still aren't up to par with a tri core 3.2GHz PPC cpu, nor an 8 core cpu.

I've built both SLI and CF gaming pc's for various clients in the past and always test them on various games, usually scaling in most games was around 80-95% granted the CPU was not a bottleneck, I don't know where you got your 5% figure from.

At the time the Xbox360 & PS3 were released, PC's already had the next massive architectural leap, the 8xxx series GPU's and their programmable unified shaders. Due to this, it's likely the next batch of consoles from MS and Sony will be based on what is currently available during manufacturing. ie, if they were released next year, they would likely be based on a modified GTX560 or HD6800 series core.

@aea0a095

"28nm will not triple performance."

I didn't say they could triple performance, I said they'd be able to, at the minimum, double the transistor count of what their current solutions offer and that it is very possible for a next generation videocard to be as fast as a tri-SLI setup due to the scaling issues inherent with a triple GPU subsystem; at the moment, three GTX 580s do not scale as well as three HD 6970s despite outperforming ATI's solutions on a single card basis. Adding a third GTX 580, in most games, does little for the title's performance; you might be able to eek at 5-10% more FPS over a two card solution but that isn't exactly a noteworthy achievement considering that simply overclocking the SLI setup results in the same performance without having to spend an additional $500. In other titles, Tri-SLI results in a performance regression. Yes, there are some cases where you get excellent scaling with Tri-SLI, but they are few and far between. I still stand by my statement and maintain that by the time Sony and Microsoft are expected to release their next generation of consoles (2013 at the earliest considering they both just hired engineers), the performance gap between Nintendo's systems when compared to its competitors will remain largely the same.

@bryoneill11

You're making my icon look bad with your grayed out comment.