Nintendo announces Project Cafe as Wii U
Nintendo has unveiled its next console, the Wii U (pictured) at its E3 2011 press conference.
The Wii U is a white console with a six-inch touchscreen embedded into the controller, as well as two thumbsticks, a camera, motion sensors and face buttons. There's also a base unit.
Players are able to switch between a roaming mode, where games are displayed on the touchscreen, and a fixed mode, where the controller outputs to a TV. Nintendo promises zero latency for this link.
It is also possible to use both screens at once, as a Nintendo demo showed Zelda played with the main action on a TV and inventory screens on the controller.
Nintendo has confirmed that the touchscreen doesn't output in HD, but HD is available when the controller is linked to a HD TV.
'As an industry, what we haven't achieved yet is a game platform that is equally satisfying for all players,' said Nintendo's Satoru Iwata. 'Yet, this is exactly what we intend to create with our new home platform.'
Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
You can check out other news from the show via our E3 2011 News hub.
This article has been updated since publication - see here for details
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Discuss in the forums ReplyThat looks really, really awkward to hold. I guess we won't really be able to tell until people get their hands on it though. For now, I'm not convinced this will be anything else but a disaster.
I hope I'm proven wrong. :)
I hate that. Really.
EDIT: I knew there was a console
http://gfx.dagbladet.no/labrador/168/168348/16834805/jpg/active/0.jpg
Hand controllers are meant to be able to take a beating, but with a touchscreen and other hardware inside the thing, people are going to need to be damn careful. I suspect even just dropping/thowing the console on a couch as you would once finished on a game could cause some damage if not immediately, then over a long term.
So if the controller is the console, that makes multiplayer massively expensive, mind you at the rate the wii sold everybody will probably buy one anyway. Last thing would be if 4 people want to play how do they all connect to the tv.
Im sure all these issues have been addressed but i can see issues.
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk
How are they going to withstand being chucked across the lounge like controllers often are at a tricky point?
Good to see Nintendo have a sense of humour though...
"Haha, Nintendo.. 'Wii' is a stupid name for a console."
Nintendo said:
"wii u!"
The curves of the new console in the linked picture make it look like a blend of an original 360 and a Wii.
Unless they can really pull some 'must-have' platform-exclusive game IP that takes advantage of all of that, then it will go the way of the Game Cube. And that doesn't just mean re-hashing the old staples of Mario & Sonic with a new device name at the end of the title!
*cuddles trusty PC and waits for BF3 & ME3*
I don't really care about PS3 and XBox 360.. because other than some few exclusive games, it provide nothing over the PC. And I can get the XBox 360 controller for it, among a wide selection of other controllers that best suit my hands. Sure NOW you have Kinect and Move.. but I see it as too late... I smell new consoles from both companies coming soon, so why bother paying such an expensive console.
What I like about Nintendo, and especially with the WiiU, is that it provide something that I cannot get from my PC.
Bad form. Bad research.
One shaped like that ... erm ... if the price is right I guess so. I'm assuming that the child will be able to play the latest Zelda/MArio game on the big screen (with the console bit ;) ) and then when the parents want the child to go to bed then he/she will still be able to play the game but on the handheld ... or something.
Not a bad idea, but I hate the look of the controller ...
Still, I don't fancy holding that thing for extended gaming sessions.
i dont like this at all, if im going to use a controller, i want one that fit in my hand comfortably not sit on my lap like a book with a screen, besides with all this 'tech' (read xbox killed us with kinect so this is all we could come up with) surely there will be a fairly big price? and i cant really see it improving over current consoles by much BUT that is just my opinion, others out there will like and thats fair enough but at the end of the day i have my pc and xbox, wife and kids use the xbox for kinect (apart from my son who thinks blowing things up in any fps is cool.....he's only 4) and we have a ds lite and a psp so were covered on all angles and i know quite a few people who have at least 1 console and 1 portable copnsole in there house especially considering you can pick up an xbox and a psp or ds with games for around 100quid these days.
we had an xbox and a wii as-well.....the xbox is still there 5 years on and the wii....well that went when we bought kinect, we had for 2 years and used for about 3 months and most of that was the kids playing it, my wife saw this new wii and the first thing she said was 'what the hell is that thing? i think ill stick to kinect thanks we aint getting that chris' how many more families will say that if they already have a wii or ps move or kinect?
How about slimming it down a bit, like an xbox/PS controller but with the screen out the top?
So I guess it is destined to become a world wide best seller, no?
I assume this is how you are supposed to refer to it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPU-Ud48evc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
(taken from Kung pow : way of the fist, great film!)
This article has been updated to reflect the fact that the Wii U controller has a base unit with which it communicates to the TV. Apologies that this wasn't clear before. I used the line 'The controller is the console' merely as a shorthand impression of the Wii U device, since it is both where the game is played and displayed. This mistake has now been corrected.
You give them/use the Wiimote controller... simple.
I think the size is perfect... look at your position of your hands on your keyboard when you play a game.. it's WAAYYY over the size of the controller.
Nintendo invests a lot on controllers design to be comfortable... like Sony PS3 first design, and end up with the PS2 controller because it was too costly to get it right.
While Nintendo has no problem with that.. and they did that with the Wii more from the 2006 E3 and the final product (longer, wider view camera on the remote, and other improvements)
It's a new console which can play HD games, nah! It can play HD nintendo games. It doesn't focus on motion control and it can be played, while you watch TV! This new console most certainly get me back into console gaming..
Also I can't see why people complain about the controller being fragile and too big, it's not a much more different than your iPad or whatever gadget you have..
Um... I hope you're right but i don't see how. When i play on a pc my hands are flat, which is natural and comfortable, but it's not holding a controller is it?
To hold a controller comfortably the lower palm supports need to be further apart than the buttons, that way your wrists are in line with your arms and not twisted into a wierd angle... which I think is the first thing people were see when they look at this... ouch.
probably why the basic shape of the playstation controller has stayed so long...
Controller design is not an issue as you can see here, and you can see how it works... really cool.
But seriously?
GTFO Nintendo. Yes that door. Close it on your way out. Yes, you can keep Zelda. We don't want it it.
Now hurry up and die. Preferably under a barren hedge somewhere.
People will still buy it. "OMFG MUMMY LOOK AT THE NEW NINTENDO AWESOOOMMMME!!!!"
*sigh*
Like saying that PC gamers are social inept geeks, over weight, looking at porn when they are not playing games, and eating hamburgers all day.
Or that XBox 360 players are insecure beer drinker alcoholic man, playing football games all day.
And for THAT, a console should be banned. It makes no sense.
And in term of innovations (since day 1), even if Nintendo screws up, you must close your eyes. It's like if you hire an investors, makes millions for you out of nothing for several years, and then loses 10$ and you fire him (and that is assuming that this console will be a failure, which won't, especially after Wii success). It makes no sense. Nintendo revolutionized gaming several times, which many (including you) take for granted.
Some of Nintendo innovations:
-> Perfectly smooth and optimized way for side scrolling
-> Saving games on consoles (battery on cartage for North America and Europe, and disk system add-on for Japan)
-> Force feedback (N64)
-> Perfected the shoulder buttons (SNES), you can say even invented, as I wish you good luck using Intelivision ones, which was on the side of the controllers.. so not really "shoulders"
-> Perfected D-Pad (Game & Watch consoles and perfected even further with the NES)
-> Analogue thumb stick on controllers with full motion and precise. (N64, and perfected in the Game Cube)
-> System to load content while somewhere in the game, eliminating game loading screens, once loaded the first time.
-> Wireless controller done right, with long range, long battery life. (GameCube WaveBird controller)
-> Wireless controllers working correctly without any latency problems and connection problem with the NES Satellite controller.
-> Wii remote
-> First home console with 4 player support (since Atari 2600?!) with a full library of games supporting it (unlike Atari consoles)
-> Real Portable systems
And of course
-> Saved the gaming industry.
As for Zelda games... you play Zelda for the game play experience, like Mario games, and for Zelda the puzzles. If you expect Mass Effect story... than really you are looking at the wrong games.
And no says "Another Football/Soccer/Golf/etc. game", "Another Mass Effect/BioShock/Resident Evil/Street Fighter/Taken/etc game". No one forces you to play games, or buy a console.
I think it's great that it uses Wii peripherals as well, both seperately and in conjunction with the new controller.
The only part that MIGHT come back to bite them is their pricing. Sony have shown them up with the PSVita pricing (rightly so) and I hope that sticks with them for some time while they decide on a price.
Even then, there are a LOT of die-hard Nintendo fans that will end up buying it regardless.
My apologies for the confusion, I probably should have added a disclaimer to my post :D
I'll take 2.
Now if Sony and Microsoft would just get with the program and update their systems...
Looks like there will be good times ahead for all gaming platforms. I kinda feel bad for all the fanboys fighting over who is best, take some time to enjoy what each platform has to offer and have fun... Is that not why we play games in the first place?
Best video I've seen to show it's potential.
I digress, it does look to have an interesting concept. But I dont judge a system till I've had a time to play on one and see for myself. Knowing Nintendo it'll be quite good, but they have had failed products before.
Only true failure being the virtual boy, but at least it introduced the concept of duel analogs.
Exactly some people just need to chill out and give it a chance! Only time will tell.
It is a handheld console? Don't Nintendo already have the 3DS?
Can't wait until the kids will be throwing this around, dropping it cause it is so heavy, poking their fingers throught the touch screen, dropping food and drinks on it..........etc etc.
What is Nintendo's stategy here? Are they trying to move gaming away from the TV? Are they trying to cash in on the whole casual/mobile gaming thing and apply it to a powerful console? I don't know but it look lame to me. Will stick to my Wii and PC ;)
I'll post it again, this time with the embedding working.
93VOGnE8fg8
Personally I think Nintendo have it going on here, and the fact it should match the 360/PS3 in graphics and it's coming out a good year or two before the next gen of consoles, means it could be a very nice purchase.
Edit: Embed fixed, thanks Fod.
And no - Nintendo isn't trying to move gaming away from the television. The controller is useless without the WiiU base console.
If this console did somehow bump all WII games run on it to HD that would be nice, but I won't count on that.
Three cheers for claims of the fundamentally impossible!
Yes, yes, I know they probably mean "so near to zero it's irrelevant", or perhaps, more likely, "so near to so near to zero it's kind of usable", but honestly.