Iwata: Wii 2 is "under development", Nintendo

[DCK]

My guess is that it'll be $300 too. I think Nintendo might even regret pricing the Wii $250, because the demand has been larger than the supply for a very long time. If they priced it higher, they would've sold pretty much the same amount of consoles, but with another $50 pure profit for them. I also don't think the Wii will be lowered in price anytime soon, if ever.

 

@ Darkjak: what you say is true, but remember that Nintendo will order customised parts, so they can choose the power they want and the price they'll pay.

 

The Wii2's power is not something to worry about, however. There are several upcoming innovations in graphics processing that, assuming the Wii2 will be launched in or after 2012, will no doubt be featured in it. With these innovations, the Wii2 will easily be far more powerful than the PS3 and 360, and hopefully keep the gap between it and the PS4/XB3 small.

 

Firstly, there's an innovation dubbed Fusion by AMD. Both AMD and Intel are working on processors that have a graphics processor embedded on the chip, instead of a seperate chip somewhere else in the console. The advantages are numerous it's cheaper, more power efficient, and the graphics processor can communicate much faster with the central processor. This technique will be first introduced in notebooks next year with a low end GPU, but by 2012 it'll probably have evolved to have midrange GPUs integrated with a powerful CPU. AMD's advantage is that it owns ATI, so that it knows how to build great GPUs. Seeing Nintendo's ties with ATI in both Wii and GameCube, I think there's a big chance Nintendo will choose for an AMD processor with one or more embedded ATI graphics processors.

 

Secondly, DirectX 11 will be introduced some time next year. Graphics chips will adapt to that standard, which has everything DirectX 10 has, which is already more advanced than the DirectX 9-level PS360 graphics. It also allows for computing physics on the graphics processor, offloading work from the CPU, introduces a more advanced shader model, and introduces a lot more techniques to make graphics look better. It was even rumoured to introduce raytracing at some point, but it was an April Fool's joke. It's a shame, because it looks amazing:

Hardware supporting it is already in development.

[Sheikah]

There's nothing on that list that couldn't happen.

Stop daydreaming. Broadband is so bad in the UK and so many places at the moment that the switch would probably not be made for years and years. Also, that requires a net connection, and Nintendo as you well know love the simple approach. They'd stick to discs for ages.

[Emasher]

You know I don't remember saying anything on that list about switching to DD only.

[canand]

I want them to stick with discs and I want Nintendo Wii 2 to cost £200

[Guest Maase]

I want them to stick with discs and I want Nintendo Wii 2 to cost £200

 

And i want a pony... Which one of us will have our desire first?

 

No One

[canand]

And i want a pony... Which one of us will have our desire first?

 

No One

 

Why how much in £ do you think it cost? I hope £200-£250

[darkjak]

And i want a pony... Which one of us will have our desire first?

 

No One

 

200 pounds is unlikely, but chances are that it'll be cheaper than the Wii. This gens graphics will be cheap next gen, and the Wiimote, even with improvements will probably be cheaper to make as well.

 

And there WILL be discs, cartridgees, DS-style cards or whatever. Broadband isn't fast enough, and buying via internet isn't casual enough. We'll have some physical medium for many generations to come.

[Guest Maase]

Why how much in £ do you think it cost? I hope £200-£250

 

Well, yeah, you know... you said 200, not 200-250...

 

Its extremly unlikely to have 200 Pounds as the price, the Wii will go up on price, i can guarantee that...

 

It doesn't matter for Nintendo anyway, they can put it now at 300 pounds, there are a lot of casual fans who would want to buy it due to the sucess of the first Wii, and even if there would be less guys buying it, it doesn't matter, because the console is always sold out, and most of them can't find it other than Ebay.

 

Which means, that the price will go up.

 

Hey DKC, you have the same views as i do..

 

Net-Five ^^

[steggy]

200 pounds is unlikely, but chances are that it'll be cheaper than the Wii.

 

OBJECTION [/Pheonix Wright]

 

The Wii came out at £180.

 

I think people are getting confused with dollars.

 

I think £200-£250 sounds about right, I don't think many Nintendo console have come out much above that price. Apart from the N64, which quickly dropped soon after.

[darksnowman]

The N64 was £250 wasn't it? Which wouldn't put it above your £200-£250 bracket.

[darkjak]

OBJECTION [/Pheonix Wright]

 

The Wii came out at £180.

 

I think people are getting confused with dollars.

 

I think £200-£250 sounds about right, I don't think many Nintendo console have come out much above that price. Apart from the N64, which quickly dropped soon after.

 

I live in Sweden, so I payed 2700 krona for my Wii. And one pound is about 10 krona, so I counted the Wii's price to 270 pounds.

[steggy]

The N64 was £250 wasn't it? Which wouldn't put it above your £200-£250 bracket.

 

Na probably £249.99

 

I think it launched for more than that though, and saw a price drop of about £100 a few weeks after launch. Can't find anything online about it though.

 

I live in Sweden, so I payed 2700 krona for my Wii. And one pound is about 10 krona, so I counted the Wii's price to 270 pounds.

 

Ah I assumed as you were talking in pounds, you ment the price in the UK.

 

2700 krona is actually £225 though

[Emasher]

I just checked. 2700 krona is £224.4.

[Foxfear]

And i want a pony... Which one of us will have our desire first?

 

No One

 

Really you want a pony too?? Pony's are frickin' awesome !!!

[DCK]

I think £200-£250 sounds about right, I don't think many Nintendo console have come out much above that price. Apart from the N64, which quickly dropped soon after.

If Nintendo expects the same things from the Wii2 as from the Wii, they might as well make it more expensive. Nintendo had major shortages for a major part of the time over the last few years, and probably would've sold as much if it would've cost $299.

 

With inflation and that in mind, I expect the Wii2 to be anywhere in between $300-350, so 200-250 pounds sounds about right. Hopefully Nintendo will chuck a little more power in it for the money.

[Emasher]

TBH I wouldn't care if it was a little more expensive to make it more powerful. As long as the price doesn't get up there with the PS3.

[canand]

TBH I wouldn't care if it was a little more expensive to make it more powerful. As long as the price doesn't get up there with the PS3.

 

Nintendo wants people to buy it so they won't put a price of £425

[david.dakota]

Na probably £249.99

 

I think it launched for more than that though, and saw a price drop of about £100 a few weeks after launch. Can't find anything online about it though.

 

The N64 was launched at £249.99. And recieved a hefty price drop 6 weeks after. Early adoptors were offered a "gesture of goodwill" - a game i recall.

[Emasher]

Nintendo wants people to buy it so they won't put a price of £425

 

I meant more like $350.

[steggy]

The N64 was launched at £249.99. And recieved a hefty price drop 6 weeks after. Early adoptors were offered a "gesture of goodwill" - a game i recall.

 

Yeah I remember the game offer, just couldn't remember the price at launch. I started work in Game around the time Zelda OOT was released so missed out on the fun.

 

So I think I'm right in saying nintendo haven't released a console for more the £250. So the price point for the Wii 2 will probably be in the £200-£250 bracket, or you never know they may follow the Wii's price point of £180.

[david.dakota]

The N64 was indeed their most expensive console, at £250.

 

My personal opinion is, or maybe its a desire, that Nintendo will release their next home console and run it as a new 'third pillar', perhaps for the core audience.

 

You see, i wonder if these ultra casual gamers will actually upgrade. Do they treat their tech purchases as longer term investments, like a DVD player.

[Emasher]

My personal opinion is, or maybe its a desire, that Nintendo will release their next home console and run it as a new 'third pillar', perhaps for the core audience.

 

You see, i wonder if these ultra casual gamers will actually upgrade. Do they treat their tech purchases as longer term investments, like a DVD player.

 

I've been thinking the exact same thing. Maybe they could just release a new console, perhaps called the revolution or something like that, latter on, but not at the end of the Wii's life as an experiment to see if the casuals will upgrade. If the original Wii sticks, perhaps they could get the developers to release their core games on the new console and their casual games on the Wii and control it a bit like that. And if they upgrade, they could just say its the next console for both, and no harm done. And obviously it would still play Wii games, so we could still buy the casual games if we wanted.

[david.dakota]

There's a bit of talk in the Wii General Discussion thread about a successor to Wii, so thought it would be time to bump this thread, especially since i've been thinking of Nintendo's aims with Wii and how these could impact any future hardware... Some a wish list, some guess work. Thoughts as ever...

 

Turn it on daily.

Nintendo have previously said they're giving consumers a reason to turn their Wii Consoles on each day. So, how can this be improved?

 

firstly adopting broadcast and/or VOD television. Nintendo are tinkering with VOD at present, so thats telling of their desire to do multimedia but with a 'Nintendo skew', so what could that be?

Nintendo could do well by integrating a TV channel to Wii 2 but will want to differentiate their offering. Now thinking of the functionality of a PVR, the Nintendo skew could be a TV recorder where Nintendo offers a mini EPG with set shows available to record but you can't watch them live (perhaps even charging the broadcaster to appear on Nintendo's TV channel). Remember (as far as i know), Japan does not have EPG services for TV.

 

WiiSpeak 2. Offering Skype style telephony. With the potential of video chat via internet too.

 

Softcore! Simplifying the Wii experience further (i'm still surprised Nintendo aren't pulling a Microsoft and updating the interface).

 

Streamlined Menu. Game Channel (incorporating both Disk and VC/WiiWare), Nintendo Mall (incorporating a combined Nintendo and Shop Channels), Mii (Mii Channel, profile management) , TV Channel (as above), WiiSpeak (as above). Various tickers - acting as 'quick links' - giving the user up to date community info, whose playing what, new game releases, new TV episodes etc.

 

Where are my channels?. The current utility channels- news, weather - become 'gizmo's', appearing not only on the main menu but also the in-game home screen. A vast array of widgets are being incorporated into TV's radios etc, and Nintendo needs to update their usability. With one or two exceptions, you choose which tickers appear on your screens.

 

Hardcore! The bit for us.

WiiConnect (finally).

Obviously, i've mentioned the tickers above, remember these act as a simple lobby too- "Join LostMario in Mario Kart" or "Dazzybee's playing Zelda right now" ticking across the bottom of the screen, "Download World of Goo 2" lets you know whats in the Nintendo Mall or out at retail - and where appropriate a simple click gives you a seamless link to your destination.

 

Abolish Friendcodes. Mii Card. A proper gamer account, for security validated by credit card details (perhaps). If possible existing FC's can be added discretely to your Card and automatically added (if your Wii 2 knows how to access the save file for each game, surely it could find the FC?). For those random encounters, a brief nickname is shown and the option to register as a rival is available (no communication with these folks though)

 

Hardcore? Softcore? Its My Wii. Like DSi, Wii HD lets you personalise the experience.

 

Personal Profiles Just like WiiFit, after turning your Wii 2 on, the first thing your greated with are your registered Mii's, click to open your personal profile. In multiplayer, choosing a secondary Mii (from your Wii or if a friend's their remote Wii) will always drag any stats to their appropriate profile.

 

Meet Mii Your Mii can travel- to your handheld, phone, across the internet by Nintendo working with a variety of partners- imagine your Mii walking about on your phone or PC as a screen saver, or in your NE avatar!

 

Events, Reminders and Messages Your Wii keep track of events and lets you know, birthdays, meetings etc. Mailing other users on your Wii too. Perhaps, if the DSi has a PDA it can be sync'd with your Wii too?

[Dante]

There's a bit of talk in the Wii General Discussion thread about a successor to Wii, so thought it would be time to bump this thread, especially since i've been thinking of Nintendo's aims with Wii and how these could impact any future hardware... Some a wish list, some guess work. Thoughts as ever...

 

Turn it on daily.

Nintendo have previously said they're giving consumers a reason to turn their Wii Consoles on each day. So, how can this be improved?

 

firstly adopting broadcast and/or VOD television. Nintendo are tinkering with VOD at present, so thats telling of their desire to do multimedia but with a 'Nintendo skew', so what could that be?

Nintendo could do well by integrating a TV channel to Wii 2 but will want to differentiate their offering. Now thinking of the functionality of a PVR, the Nintendo skew could be a TV recorder where Nintendo offers a mini EPG with set shows available to record but you can't watch them live (perhaps even charging the broadcaster to appear on Nintendo's TV channel). Remember (as far as i know), Japan does not have EPG services for TV.

 

WiiSpeak 2. Offering Skype style telephony. With the potential of video chat via internet too.

 

Softcore! Simplifying the Wii experience further (i'm still surprised Nintendo aren't pulling a Microsoft and updating the interface).

 

Streamlined Menu. Game Channel (incorporating both Disk and VC/WiiWare), Nintendo Mall (incorporating a combined Nintendo and Shop Channels), Mii (Mii Channel, profile management) , TV Channel (as above), WiiSpeak (as above). Various tickers - acting as 'quick links' - giving the user up to date community info, whose playing what, new game releases, new TV episodes etc.

 

Where are my channels?. The current utility channels- news, weather - become 'gizmo's', appearing not only on the main menu but also the in-game home screen. A vast array of widgets are being incorporated into TV's radios etc, and Nintendo needs to update their usability. With one or two exceptions, you choose which tickers appear on your screens.

 

Hardcore! The bit for us.

WiiConnect (finally).

Obviously, i've mentioned the tickers above, remember these act as a simple lobby too- "Join LostMario in Mario Kart" or "Dazzybee's playing Zelda right now" ticking across the bottom of the screen, "Download World of Goo 2" lets you know whats in the Nintendo Mall or out at retail - and where appropriate a simple click gives you a seamless link to your destination.

 

Abolish Friendcodes. Mii Card. A proper gamer account, for security validated by credit card details (perhaps). If possible existing FC's can be added discretely to your Card and automatically added (if your Wii 2 knows how to access the save file for each game, surely it could find the FC?). For those random encounters, a brief nickname is shown and the option to register as a rival is available (no communication with these folks though)

 

Hardcore? Softcore? Its My Wii. Like DSi, Wii HD lets you personalise the experience.

 

Personal Profiles Just like WiiFit, after turning your Wii 2 on, the first thing your greated with are your registered Mii's, click to open your personal profile. In multiplayer, choosing a secondary Mii (from your Wii or if a friend's their remote Wii) will always drag any stats to their appropriate profile.

 

Meet Mii Your Mii can travel- to your handheld, phone, across the internet by Nintendo working with a variety of partners- imagine your Mii walking about on your phone or PC as a screen saver, or in your NE avatar!

 

Events, Reminders and Messages Your Wii keep track of events and lets you know, birthdays, meetings etc. Mailing other users on your Wii too. Perhaps, if the DSi has a PDA it can be sync'd with your Wii too?

 

What does all that have to do with gaming and have seen the messy channels of xbox360 channels?

[dazzybee]

What does all that have to do with gaming and have seen the messy channels of xbox360 channels?

 

It has something to do with Wii 2, you know, the title of the thread? And some good points and ideas are raised. And yeah I'm not a fan of 360's new interface, still prefer the Wii's, but it does have some great features Nintendo should steal.