Nintendo's Upcoming Console: The Wii U

By LORDGIDEON of Bullet Proof Pixel

Nintendo’s Wii’s had serious problems for some time now. It was underpowered at launch and had only proven to fall farther and farther behind Microsoft’s crushing Xbox 360. Despite leading for some time in hardware sales, Nintendo had problems with third party vendors shying away from the console entirely simply due to how underpowered the device is. To top it off, Xbox 360′s attach rate has always been higher than the Wii and Playstation 3 attach rates combined.

To bring the hardcore back into the fold, Nintendo had a tough play on their hands. How do they keep their new casual gamers while giving hardcore gamers something new? How can they provide a new gaming experience while keeping the strengths of the Wii but also eliminating the weaknesses?

Nintendo’s Answer: Wii U.

Stupid name. Seriously. The actual truth of the product is actually something revolutionary – but Nintendo completely fumbled and flopped on the entire presentation. They claimed this was all about making hardcore fans happy, but did ZERO to show us what they’re doing to bring us back. They didn’t tell us what resolution it was running at. They didn’t bother to even tell us it was an actual new console (i.e., box under the tv) – they spent the entire presentation telling us that it was a controller with a screen in it – and even in the videos, we never saw the new console part of it. They had a Wii under the tv screen. This led everyone to believe that it was a new third handheld device. Fragmentation anyone?

I spoke with SteelValor after the presentation – we were both confused. Nintendo never bothered to deal out even the basic information about the device.

As a gamer, it’s clear that Nintendo’s completely lost touch with it’s “hardcore” audience. Reggie, if you’re looking to really get us back tell us how awesome your new actual console is. A new controller is fun, but you need to tell us what’s powering the device. You need to tell us what makes this device run in HD. You need to tell us that you’ve wiped out the atrocious multi-player system from the Wii and gone with something that’s not from 1951.

Don’t make us do what I had to do – dig up the press site to actually see the REAL console and actually find out what’s in the device.

*sigh*

This is the real Wii U. Don't let Nintendo fool you. Without this device under the tv, that swanky controller's a paperweight.

Now that I’m off the soap box, let’s talk about what’s actually in this device – and why you should be very interested in it. And, for the record, I don’t use the word “console” interchangeably with the word “controller” like Nintendo did. They are not the same. Without the box under the tv the “console” (really the controller) that Nintendo kept calling it is worthless. It won’t function.

Let’s get to the facts:

- It’s a completely new console.

- It streams games from the console to the handheld device. Not the other way around.

- It runs at 1080p.

- It’s powered by a “multi-core IBM microprocessor”.

- Four USB ports (No word on speed)

- Uses up to four Wii Plus remotes.

- It IS backwards compatible with all Wii games.

- Supports HDMI, Component, S-Video, and Composite.

- Completely re-vamped online gaming system

- The new controller is single touch

- The new controller can display completely different info on it than what’s on the tv screen.

- The TV can be switched to something else while the Wii U streams it’s gameplay to the controller screen

- Internal flash memory (no word on how much) It’s expandable with an SD card, or a USB hard drive.

- Does NOT have an internal hard drive.

So what does this mean for Microsoft and Sony? Is this a game changer? It’s too early to tell – having nice looking hardware is cool, but without specific references to exactly what’s powering it we can’t tell. We don’t know how many cores are in the IBM processor – I’m hoping it’s a quad core, but wouldn’t be surprised if it’s only a dual core device. We don’t know how much RAM is in it. We don’t know what kind of video card is powering it. It looks like a logical step to the Wii moving on from what it is.

The baseline truth is that it’s a Wii HD with a new type of controller.

You have to be in the room to send the video to the controller – the controller is only that – a controller. It’s not the Wii U, just the device you use to interact with it.

No price point has been mentioned and Nintendo’s staying firmly mum on how much it’s going to cost. If you’re interested in this and believe you’re going to pick it up launch day, look for probably a $400 to $500 price point.

Reggie Fils-Ame has stated that they’ll be revealing more about the console during E3. Make sure you check back – we’ll keep this post updated with the latest info as we get it.

***Update***

According to Kotaku, Katsuya Eguchi (One of Nintendo’s chief game designers) has stated that the Wii U’s new disc format holds 25GB’s of data. [Source: Kotaku]