Wii U speculation

[Sarath]

Just when do consoles start making future proof hardware??? Xbox 360 & PS3 rooted to DX9, next gen is said to be DX11 compatible and by the time they are in the market PC owners will be enjoying DX12 or DX13. So the RV770 chip is not losing much ground here compared to what we have now or what we are expecting to get in another 5 years time.
Granted, the specs are not eye-popping, jaw-dropping type but have enough oomph in them. As stated earlier, major concern of Nintendo should be to rope Big developers which they fail big time with the Wii. EA was there at the beginning, but that's all about it.

Not many people realise that something has changed between DX10 and 11.
Personally when I swictch over from the PS3 to my PC to catch an FPS game or Warcraft I dont realise all that.

Standardisation in consoles despite older hardware produces same results as in a PC. A consoles life is around 10years. For the first 7 years its is hard to notice any difference between a PC and a console.
Ofcource courtesy the side by side comparison of the quality by many reviewers online tells us the real picture. But in real life that does not happen. Unless something is drastically different one will not normally notice it.

Also shorter life cycles are possible but since game development runs into years now such a thing would be disastrous for the developers.

P.S. Will edit the post tomorrow for typos. No mouse now.

 

[Tachyon1986]

So its not Wii 2 but Wii U, catchy name I must say.

See the details:-

E3 2011: Nintendo Wii U: Inside and Out - Features at GameSpot

Nintendo Announces Wii Successor - Wii U - Industry News - Overclockers Club

Pics:

*www.overclockersclub.com/vimages/news/news28467_1-nintendo_announces_wii_successor__wii_u.jpg

*www.overclockersclub.com/vimages/news/news28467_2-nintendo_announces_wii_successor__wii_u.jpg

Images taken from OverclockersClub.



POST ADDED
So some big games are coming, courtesy Ubisoft:-




And some more from a band of developers:-

Wii U: This is what the developers think about it - GamingBolt.com: Video Game News, Reviews, Previews and Blog

To quote Duke Nukem , "Now this is a FORCE to be reckoned with!" . The new controller does look nice , kind of like an oversized DS. Now , how do you use that to play Tennis games?

 

[Skud]

Buy a Wii motion controller separately

 

[Tachyon1986]

Already have two of those , also...how does one play with their attention divided between the controller's screen and the TV? I hope some of you saw the Engadget hands-on preview, you'll see what I mean.

 

[Skud]

Probably that's depend on the developer - what they want us to do with the controller.

 

[gameranand]

Well Satoru Iwata thinks that they should have unveiled Wii U differently. Don't what they mean I mean it looked good to me.
Source

Also Wii U don't have a analog stick so I guess boss meant that they should have provided that.

 

[Skud]

A pretty big news:-

Crytek: We're bringing our tech to Wii U | Game Development | News by Develop


Eyes closed, and I just see Crysis running on a Nintendo console. Try telling me that again.


Also see this visual tour if you want. Its fascinating.

Wii U: A visual tour

 

[Tachyon1986]

I heard the Wii U can only support one tablet at a time. I guess it's because it'd be too much for the GPU to stream data to the console. So, I guess 4 tablets at a time might be overkill.

EDIT : Looks like I was right , check the second link posted by Skud. In one of the screen shots, you can see 5 players playing the same game split screen (4 on wiimotes and one on the tablet). Guess it's true , only one tablet at any time.

 

[skeletor]

[YOUTUBE]4e3qaPg_keg[/YOUTUBE]

This is next gen.

You might call the specs "mediocre" - but still from a PC perspective RV770 used to be easily more than 3x powerful than G70. (G70 = PS3) I'm not taking low level optimization into account, just giving a rough idea.

Rumour has it all the three next gen consoles will be powered by AMD GPUs.

List of Wii U games - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - seems like Nintendo is trying to lure core gamers back.

 

[Skud]

For me the hardware is just right for console gaming. It should support all the high-end PC gaming goodies except tessellation. Among the games these many are confirmed:-

Mii Chase
Battle Mii
Shield Pose
Lego City Stories
Super Smash Bros.
Pikmin 3
Super Mario Bros. Mii
Darksiders II
Ninja Gaiden: Razor’s Edge
Assassin’s Creed
Killer Freaks From Outer Space
Ghost Recon Online
Batman: Arkham City
Rabbids
An unknown Ubisoft sports game for the entire family

If Metro, Aliens Colonial Marines, Dirt, Battlefield, Bioshock and FIFA really make it to Wii U, that would be superb. But then Wii was also supported well by developers, particularly EA, in the first 2 years. Then they take away the most successful of the lot - Madden NFL, a game played much better on Wii than on any other platform. There's no guarantee it won't get repeated this time.

 

[Skud]

Some more insight to the upcoming console:-

WiiU Feature: Wii U: Why Ubisoft's is Nintendo's biggest supporter - ComputerAndVideoGames.com


Pretty interesting read. Hope developers will continue to shower their support on Wii U.

 

[Skud]

The base specs are a bit changed according to the recent rumors:-

Wii U has quad core 3GHz CPU, 768 MB of RAM | WiiUDaily

According to the source, the Wii U specs are:

• Quad Core, 3 GHz PowerPC-based 45nm CPU, very similar to the Xbox 360 chip.
• 768 MB of DRAM “embedded” with the CPU, and shared between CPU and GPU
• Unknown, 40nm ATI-based GPU

The source also mentions that Nintendo has been testing two versions of the console, one with 768 MB of RAM, and one with 1 GB. The RAM is also made by IBM and is embedded with the processor on the same die/silicon, which results in more bandwidth.

 

[Skud]

Wii U to Have More Non-Game Apps

The Daily reports that Nintendo will be implementing a full blown app store for the console. While most of Nintendo’s digital download stores tend to feature either games or basic applications, like calculators, the Wii U’s yet to be names store will reportedly go ‘far beyond’ that, offering a plethora of apps and goodies.

Apparently, those with a Wii U will be able to download apps that will work on the console, such as TV apps, as well as ones that will work locally on the Wii U’s controller. Taking the Wii U’s controller specs into account, we can probably expect lots of web browsing and social networking. It’s not yet known how payment will work, however.

 

[Skud]

Damn, this thread is almost dead, so little is happening.

This video is impressive, Wii U's panoramic view:-

[YOUTUBE]hLceNcl2DhQ[/YOUTUBE]