Nintendo Wii U

[EvilBoris]

It's something they are going to have to look very hard at, people don't understand that the 3DS is a faster,better more powerful DS. Which I suspect is why the sales haven't been great, people are still opting for the older DS models.

Many games shops still have old DS lites, then you have DSI XL, DSI and now 3DS.

Obviously they have kept with the Wii Moniker in order to keep brand recognition, but i by just tagging U on the end, they may not put across a clear enough message that it is totally New in many ways.

[kryss]

That comment about DS/3DS games being intermingled rings so true here. HMV I was in yesterday had everything mixed up to the point it was hard to figure out what 3DS games they had.

Someone on the Gameplay forum shocked me earlier with a comment they made:

1: do 3ds games work on regular ds machines? obviousley without the 3d aspect.
2: No.
1: thats pretty sucky
me: Um...Not really. DVDs don't work in my VHS machine. Xbox360 games don't work in Xboxes. PS3 games/PS2, etc. Backwards compatibility is great, forwards is impossible.

I really hope Nintendo think about this when deciding on packaging for WiiU games. Plastering "Not compatible with Wii console" on it might not be enough.

[cutmymilk]

All they had to do was show the box on the screen for 30 seconds and say "New box..."

[EvilBoris]

Then all the news outlets would of shown images of that, I'm pretty sure Nintendo wanted the new pad showing, as that's the only bit that matters.

[kryss]

"New Box and FREE iPaDS controller"

That would confuse them.

[Hazuki]

[QUOTE=kryss;1857812]That comment about DS/3DS games being intermingled rings so true here. HMV I was in yesterday had everything mixed up to the point it was hard to figure out what 3DS games they had.

This is the one thing that really worries me about 3DS. My local Tesco has no mention of 3DS at all. The games are jumbled up and hidden amongst the DS games. To any casual observer it would appear Tesco don't even stock 3DS stuff.

[Dogg Thang]

I think the bigger issue here is why they didn't call it the U Wii so they could use Ronson's 'Ooh Wee' in the ad campaign. Shows a serious lack of foresight and must be why their share prices dropped. Can imagine Ronson had some harsh words and will be boycotting any new Mario game. And Nate Dogg is turning in his grave.

[cutmymilk]

Haha great post..

Im not sure the media would have showed just the box. When the wii was announced we saw the box and the controller yet the remote was what was focused on by most.

[Matt]

John Carmack, who probably knows quite a bit more than us about both the tech in the WiiU and the quality of graphics it will produce, has said this will give Ninty parity with the PS3 and 360.

http://e3.gamespot.com/story/6318725/e3-2011-john-carmack-talks-wii-u-playstation-vita-and-next-gen-rage

So that's quite a big Yawn from me then. Ninty are once again a generation behind, just this time they're launching a couple of years earlier.

[Neon Ignition]

It's going to be interesting to see how far behind the Wiiu eventually ends up looking. If MS really are intent upon expanding into the casual market here onwards there will be no real reason for them to price themselves out of the general masses with expensive tech, spruce up the 360 innards so it slightly out powers the Wiiu and can affordably factor in advanced versions of the Kinect tech etc and they would have a general mid market system. If they go with the casual market plan (which base don Kinect seems likely) the PS4 may be the only true 'next gen' system we see for a long time.

[dataDave]

So that's quite a big Yawn from me then. Ninty are once again a generation behind, just this time they're launching a couple of years earlier.

That surely depends on your definition of a generation.

[cutmymilk]

Well its the first of the new consoles. ps4 will probably be super powerful and if MS insist on Kinect being included with the next console they'll probably go cheaper with that, as ctn said.

[Matt]

The 360 success has been built on the "hardcore gamer" who likes running around shooting things. MS know this, despite their recent lack of decent first party support. They know that if CoD10 looks significantly better on the PS4 than the XB3, they will lose the hardcore, passionate supporters.

So while I agree it does look like MS want to move to the Wii market, I can't see them launching a console without some serious grunt under the hood. They want both markets.

Even if it's a basically a 360 with twice the cores and 4 times the graphical power, it will piss on the WiiU from a great height. Bump it up to 4gig of RAM, that's not a bad start. The PS4 would then walk it, but MS would have a powerful box with a relatively cheap price. Given the WiiU is likely to cost ?249 or something I believe, a ?299 XB3 with Kinect would make a lot of sense. Though I suspect the base unit will be without the Kinect, as some of us just don't have room for the blasted thing. Or any interest

[abigsmurf]

I think it's incredibly likely that MS will unveil the 720 next year from this year's E3 showing which means there's a strong chance of the Wii U being released amid rumours of how powerful the 720 will be. They could easily bundle a 'Kinect HD' with it.

The PS3 seems to have more life in it because Japanese developers are starting to wake up a bit and are producing for it. I'd say at earliest it's a TGS 2012 unveiling for the new console but more likely it's 2013.

It does seem likely that new consoles will launch at lower prices than the 360 and PS3 though.

One thing that's interesting is that Battlefield 3 has largely been confirmed for the Wii U. That's the first truely 'next-gen' game out there. It's possible that the Wii U , even if it's only slightly better than the current consoles, has just that little bit extra grunt and a few more advanced shaders to make it possible.

[Neon Ignition]

I expect ?299 to be the fixed price point roof for all three systems. After the stalled start the PS3 suffered through inflated price I don't think anyone will risk sailing higher again for a good while.