Nintendo Wii U

[Penfold]

It is a standard, but not the only one (remember HD-DVD?). Plus that would suggest the Wii U does have a higher density format than DVD.

HD-DVD has been dead, there is no physical competitor to BD; so no, it is the standard for physical HD media. The system could very well use BD, but merely mentioning that the system doesn't have a separate function related to the medium doesn't "suggest" that it does or doesn't use it. To be clear, I'm not arguing a value judgement for or again its use, merely that it doesn't logically follow.

[Crowbar Man]

Dead as a movie standard but they could still base their disks on hddvd, which provides 15 gb for single or 30 for dl.

You do have a point there it may be just a completely general statement not related to what the hardware does or does not contain. Curse them and their lack of info

If it is based on bd though I hope whatever changes they make to it makes it faster or use a faster drive than ps3 at least

On a side note Im guessing it also doesn't play HDDVD movies... or laser disk

Edited June 16, 2011 by Crowbar Man

[Bleck]

The system could very well use BD

the system uses a proprietary format

which means it's not a format anything else uses

which means it's not blu-ray

in fact for all the people who apparently have no idea what 'proprietary' means reggie fils-aime specifically said in an interview that it does not use blu-ray

[The Damned]

On a side note Im guessing it also doesn't play HDDVD movies... or laser disk

Or VHS. Or Betamax. Or film reels. Or filmstrips. Or Edison wax tube recordings.

Man, this thing sucks already.

[Penfold]

the system uses a proprietary format

which means it's not a format anything else uses

which means it's not blu-ray

in fact for all the people who apparently have no idea what 'proprietary' means reggie fils-aime specifically said in an interview that it does not use blu-ray

I don't recall having read or heard anything about the medium, but it's not like it's particularly signficant. At best we could know the space available on the disc, and that's pretty trivial.

As a point of clarification, without seeing the source I'm not entirely convinced that merely calling it "proprietary" necessarily rules out BD - it is a proprietary format, in that manufacture of media on BD or devices capable of playback of BD must be done under license from the BD Assocation.

[Bleck]

As a point of clarification, without seeing the source I'm not entirely convinced that merely calling it "proprietary" necessarily rules out BD

so you're one of those people I mentioned, then

the people that don't understand what proprietary means

[PROTO·DOME]

Or VHS.

Oh man.

Do want.

[Crowbar Man]

Bleck: the GC and Wii also were proprietary formats. They were still based on DVD, though its not DVD at all. Its just cheaper to reuse exsisting tech

It is still possible they could come up with a completely unique format.

Also I forgot to add, besides not playing DVD, Wii U will keep the tradition of not playing CDs either. No cool music visualizers :/

Edited June 17, 2011 by Crowbar Man

[5!D34RM]

This has some pretty titillating ideas, but it seems like Nintendo is trying to split hairs again. I don't see how this thing will satisfy the "hardcore" in me, as they stated it would. The demo reel they showed definitely didn't do it justice as it made the console look like it was still made for casual gamers. I was one of the OG adopters of the Wii and got burned when 1 year later there still weren't any good games for it, sold it for a profit (when you couldn't find one) and bought it again when Smash bros. came out.

It seems like Nintendo is still a bit out of touch about what excites the western world when it comes to games. And they avoided saying so but can this thing produce 1080p, or are the 1-2 extra screens using up too many resources?

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

I think that in order for the Wii U to be successful(and I think it has a good shot despite my concerns), Nintendo will have to bank on its quality first-party titles as well as deliver them in a timely manner to coax the people into biting. To keep them, get the compelling third-party support, and that means more Metal Gear Solid, Bioshock, and Final Fantasy, and less Carnival Games and other such crap.

Basically everything they didn't do with the Wii at first.

I think that despite everything, the Wii U could represent the "one console" future that I'm hoping against hope for, due to it's multiple control set ups as well as being the Wii HD we've all been waiting on. It's kind of like what the PSVita represents to me in the portable gaming space.

The question is however, whether it's too late for the system or if we've finally reached the point where audiovisual fidelity is no longer the driving force behind console generations. If the latter is the case, then maybe Nintendo will be on top again.

[The Damned]

http://www.destructoid.com/new-wii-u-dev-kits-on-the-way-to-developers-203986.phtml

So, it sounds like the hardware isn't exactly finished yet. Who knows? They might be able to figure out how to do two or more tablet streams. Or maybe it's just a better overall design o the dev kit. Or maybe it's just Nintendo saying it's better.

I guess we won't know until next year, when it comes out.

[Crowbar Man]

Dev kits go through several iterations before and after the consoles release. The 360 just got a new more powerful dev kit and that consoles been out forever. The dev kit they are using might be the grey box that was showing up in pictures everywhere.

Though there's definally no evidence the hardware for consumer release is finalized since they gave us no info

[Deathtank]

Im not in the mood to search, if this was already posted, my mistake.

[JH Sounds]

How to pronounce "Wii U": http://neverwiialone.ytmnd.com/

[The Damned]

Some Wii news... because I can't find the actual Wii thread after ten pages, so fuck it.

A new Wii model (but not the Wii U). It has built-in MotionPlus, but loses GameCube game support. It's also smaller, just wide enough for a game disc and not much else.

The best part? Europe-only exclusive, or at least Nintendo says.

[EC2151]

Ha ha ha...

Really, GC support is one of the Wii's strongest assets- access to last generation's best controller.

Have fun playing Brawl with the shitty other-control-options.

And really, who is there left to buy a wii at this stage?

[Gollgagh]

pretty sure I was the last one so

[ambinate]

i'll admit that losing gamecube compatibility sucks but the gamecube controller is baaaad. it might be better than playing smash with the other options but that's not saying a whole lot

[Gollgagh]

that's what this is for

edit: at least what it would be for if it were built properly

[Nabeel Ansari]

that has never and will never be a problem for anyone who doesn't have the mind of a fourteen year old boy

Hey I love mario and zelda.

[Calpis]

So did anyone watch the Nintendo Direct video today? Mostly, he brought up stuff we already knew, but the Miiverse stuff and new 'hardcore' controller were new. The online community stuff could be cool as well.

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

E3 hype train!!!

[JackKieser]

So did anyone watch the Nintendo Direct video today? Mostly, he brought up stuff we already knew, but the Miiverse stuff and new 'hardcore' controller were new. The online community stuff could be cool as well.

I saw it. I wasn't impressed. I mean, it's a neat little teaser for the E3 presentation, but it's going to take a lot of work to make this year's presentation show that the hardcore should invest in Nintendo again. I'm still waiting to see Nintendo's answer to Xbox LIVE, and a bunch of Mii's spouting tweets on a home screen is not it.

Nintendo is great at hardware innovation, but hasn't been ahead on software innovation in decades. Yes, Nintendo's been doing a lot of things that no one else has ever done before lately... but now it's time for them to swallow their pride and admit that it's time for them to play catch up and do things that everyone else has done before. Until I see that, I'm not going to be too interested in throwing down 350$+ on a new Nintendo system.

[Overflow]

I saw it. It wasn't amazing, but it was just intended to get a few technicalities out of the way. I like the social aspects of the system: how connected you'll feel to your friends what with all the messages and the built-in help board. It looks like it's gonna have it's own version of facebook. FaceMii? lol. Although if the game asks you to share your feelings after EVERY LEVEL or has those speech bubbles then that could get annoying...I'm sure you can turn those off, though.

The redesigned gamepad is also pretty nice, although I hope they FINALLY included pressure sensitive buttons. It looks sturdy, and apparently has a built in sensor bar, so you can play wii games right on the gamepad itself. Snazzy.

The new Pro controller is also pretty cool. I mean yeah, it looks very similar to the 360 controller, but if it's comfortable I don't mind. From the picture it looks like the triggers aren't analogue, though...

Anyways, tuesday is when the real exciting stuff happens. Now that NIntendo's gotten some of the more banal aspects of the system out of the way they can focus on showing off awesome games and other software. I can't wait.

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

I'm actually pretty enthused by their design philosophies that they've used since the Wii in removing the psychological barrier to entry that is the standard gamepad and such. My mother for example can't for the life of her use anything more complicated than a NES controller, but man will this woman cream you at Wii Bowling.

Hell, I'm just glad they actually have design philosophies at all as opposed to Sony and Microsoft's "let's dominate the living room with services and ads and copy whatever Nintendo does". As far as I'm concerned, Nintendo has earned the right to copy someone else's shtick with the new pro controller.

Over the past year since I grabbed my 3DS, I've realized that I'm just not a huge fan of traditional "take over the TV, power up system, insert disc, etc." of console gaming anymore, and I feel like the Wii U really grabbed me with the ability to play pretty much anything on the tablet without having to commit to the TV. Gonna be great when having family over.

Naturally though, it's all about the games. I know it's probably a fruitless thought, but if Nintendo manages to land the third parties, and just unload a plethora of stuff on their Virtual console, I might seriously consider the Wii U. Really hate having to have more than one console around the house taking up space.