Wii HD By E3?

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Multiple sources have confirmed (or are at the very least speculating) that, by E3 2011 at the latest, Nintendo will be unveiling a new console. So far, little is known besides the fact that:

• It's in HD
• There will be much broader 3rd party support

Thoughts?

edited 14th Apr '11 5:55:35 PM by OurGLORIOUSLeader

Topic's kind of been made already, but at least this one has multiple sources.

>1080p and HD
>more powerful than X360/PS3
>all new controller with built-in HD screen

edited 14th Apr '11 5:59:21 PM by Torquey

^x3 THE THING HAS CONTROLLERS WITH SCREENS?! ... So did they rip the bottom half off of a DS or something?

^^ Ew.

edited 14th Apr '11 6:00:29 PM by Komodin

Prepare to be disappointed.

Oh. Then just migrate over there, I guess.

@Tor: Did you HAVE TO POST THAT!? It's NSFW you know!

Hmm, I'm pretty excited by this news.

Please no. If Nintendo unveils and new console, then Sony and Microsoft will be rushing to get new systems out to market in order to compete, and I really don't want a new generation yet. This one's just gettin' good!

Not sure what the surprise is. Did we ever found out who bought all those chips "unsuited for a portable device because of power consumption" from Marvell? Doesn't Nintendo (and Sony for that matter, MS released the 360 ahead of everyone else) have consoles last 5 years? Wii is 5 years old this year, GCN was 5 years old when the Wii was released, N64 was 5 years old when the GCN was released, SNES was 5 years old when the N64 was released.

edited 14th Apr '11 6:44:23 PM by deuxhero

Sonic Generations will be the pack-in

Yea- no.

Fun Fact: Not everything revolves around Sonic.

Funner Fact: Nintendo certainly doesn't.

edited 14th Apr '11 9:16:49 PM by BadWolf21

@Miru: I'm fairly sure Nintendo would pack-in a first party game, sort of like Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt for the NES or Wii Sports for... well you know.

My take.

There have been tons of reports that Nintendo will unveil the Wii HD at this year’s E3 2011:

• MCV: Sources point to Wii HD at E3
• C|Net: Nintendo Wii HD could be revealed in June
• USA Today: Reports: Nintendo unveiling new video game console

Kotaku is the originator of the rumor, and some of the claims the site is making are eyebrow-raising. The bullet point that is the most intriguing is the claim that the Wii HD will be more powerful than either the Play Station 3 or the Xbox 360.

The problem here, of course, is that Nintendo has not issued software that appeals to the core gamer, and if they really want to attract PS 3 and 360 owners, they have to get heavy third party support – something Nintendo has been historically opposed to – and release a controller built for serious gaming. A more powerful machine will require a higher price tag, and the problem is that Nintendo built its Wii audience on the casual audience who doesn’t like to spend money. The Nintendo 3DS, an expensive, feature-rich handheld device, undersold by 200,000 units, selling 400K instead of the expected 600K in the US.

Nintendo, of course, has issued a “no comment”.

^ I think that the "Nintendo haz no 3rd party support" argument has been kinda dead since the DS rolled around, and has really been dead for the 3DS, sales figures beside the point (a $250 price point and having one of your major markets hammered by a major natural disaster doesn't make for good sales figures). The only things that I can see going wrong with the HDii is if it cost significantly more than the HD Twins at launch, if it were noticeably harder to develop for than the current HD consoles, if it had a sucktacular software library for the first couple years of its life, or if it wasn't able to find some sort of novelty factor to distinguish it from the twins that appeals to a non-core audience. If none of those factors apply, I don't see any particular reason why a HDii shouldn't succeed.

edited 15th Apr '11 7:46:37 AM by TheGinkei

Well, Nintendo already did trademark the name "Zii" some time ago...

Sometimes companies trademark names for things they never intend to make, but are similar to the names of their actual products. It's a preventative measure that keeps people from cashing in on their name (look at the myriad of Drum Hero, Keyboard Hero, Guitar Villain, Drum Villain, what have you that Activision trademarked).

So the existence of the name "Zii" doesn't prove or disprove anything.

A good question is how they will handle backward compatibility. I think I'll wait to make any firm judgements until we see actual official data.

Plus, Zii would be a really dumb name for anything.

hey, people said the same thing about the Wii, but we all warmed up to that.

Wii ended up having a meaning, though. Zii just sound like the letter.

Yes. Zii sounds like Z. And we all know that X and Z are the coolest letters in the alphabet.

Lies, everyone knows that E is the coolest letter. It's the most popular *