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 "It's a system we will all enjoy together, but also one that's tailor-made for you."
The Wii U is Nintendo's successor to the Wii. It is to be released by the end of 2012 (Sega has said—Reggie Fils-Aime, E3 2011 press conference
 "Spring/Summer", while a job listing from them confirms a game for "exclusively for next generation platforms" in late 2012. Nintendo investor meeting has said plans for September in Japan and November for NA/EU while on the same day Reggie confirmed an "after-April" date for the US).
What distinguishes Wii U from Wii is that the controller itself has a 6.2 inch (15.7 cm) touch screen on it *]], and it allows players to play their video game while someone in their room watches TV. In addition, players can use both the Wii U controller and the TV itself to interact further with video games.
Wii U will be backward compatible with other Wii controllers and accessories and Wii games, but not Gamecube games (though such have been confirmed for the Virtual Console). The controller itself can actually stream video chat, as well as sharing videos and other media. The controller will also support near field communication (NFC) common in mobile devices, allowing for wireless interaction with figurines and cards as well as microtransactions with credit cards that utilize NFC support. Incidentally, Nintendo originally planned on the Wii having such a touch screen controller, but they instead went with motion controls while saving the touch screen for the Wii U.
The Wii U is believed to have a larger amount of flash memory — at least 8 GB compared to the 512 MB on the Wii. In addition to using SD cards, a hard drive can be connected via one of the four USB ports. The Nintendo-proprietary game discs themselves are believed to contain at least 25 GB of memory *.
The Wii U is more powerful than the Xbox 360 and PS3 *, as well as a custom-designed AMD Radeon GPU based on the Radeon HD 4770]], and will feature HD compatibility equating to a resolution of 1080p (Actual resolution. The 360 upscales 720p), though it should be pointed out that any and all footage shown of the Wii U during E3 (except that of the tech demos and Killer Freaks From Outer Space) was actually footage taken from 360 and PS3 games. According to Shigeru Miyamoto, he cannot say for sure if the hardware will outperform the PS3 and 360; though Electronic Arts, Crytek, and Gearbox Software have confirmed the final developers' kit easily can. There are also rumors that the system will have at least 1 GB of RAM — almost twice as much as the Xbox 360 (512 MB), almost 4 times that of the PS3 (256 MB), and almost eight times the amount of the Wii (64 MB).
Nintendo claims pricing will be competitive with the 360 and PS3 at release, though also warns it won't be "cheap".
Nintendo has also announced plans to bring their online efforts up to par with their competitors, calling this revamped network the Nintendo Network, which will also eventually encompass the Nintendo 3DS. This new online setup will, instead of forcing developers to adhere to a unified online variant with, allow developers to create their own setup. Nintendo themselves will go with an individual account system, which will make management of different users easier. Plus, the cumbersome friend codes will be a thing of the past.
There are a few problems, though. The new controllers are so expensive that Nintendo will be focusing on single-controller possibilities for the time being. In other words, any games that require the touchscreen for every player will have to be consigned to Development Hell for a while; all currently-displayed multiplayer games give one player a "uPad" and the rest Wii controllers. Also, the E3 2011 Press Conference had little mention of Wii U-exclusive games for the launch, with Wii U-exclusives being either tech demos (The Legend of Zelda and New Super Mario Bros. Mii) or cryptic announcements that were not backed up with footage (e.g. Pikmin 3 and Super Smash Bros). Thus, there is not much hype for specific games, only for the hardware itself. There will undoubtedly be more announcements before and during E3 2012, closer to launch. As with the previous two Nintendo systems, it does not support DVD or Blu-Ray playback.
The console has gained much attention and praise from a few "hardcore" developers for its graphics and interesting controller mechanics. The makers of some high-end Game Engines have pledged support for it, namely, Unreal Engine 3 from Epic, CryEngine 3 from Crytek, and hinted support for Frostbite Engine 2.0 from EA. Nintendo has stated that they will focus on core gamers first this time around.
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