E3 2011: Nintendo Wii U: Official specs

BLARRG on 7 Jun '11 said:

thank god the controller is rechargable out of the box

Media: A single self-loading media bay will play 12-centimeter proprietary high-density
optical discs for the new console, as well as 12-centimeter Wii optical discs.

that seems to suggest more storage than dvd, but not quite blu-ray

pRM8 on 7 Jun '11 said:

No price hints or actual release date? Come on CVG at least speculate

djhazardous on 7 Jun '11 said:

High res image of the console please!

PseudoDuck on 7 Jun '11 said:

Can you have more than one "screen controller" attached, I wonder.

PseudoDuck on 7 Jun '11 said:

thank god the controller is rechargable out of the box

Media: A single self-loading media bay will play 12-centimeter proprietary high-density
optical discs for the new console, as well as 12-centimeter Wii optical discs.

that seems to suggest more storage than dvd, but not quite blu-ray

HD-DVD!

TheLastDodo on 7 Jun '11 said:

Gotta love the internet. Hyped this thing to the moon and now I'm left with a "Is that it?" feeling like I had at the end of the Sony conference.

Bloody internet .

KMakawa on 7 Jun '11 said:

Well, with the SD Card and USB support, im presuming you could go higher then HD-DVD sizes. o.O no?

iggy666 on 7 Jun '11 said:

Wheres the proper system specs?
I wanna know what its capable of

TheLastDodo on 7 Jun '11 said:

"This combination removes the traditional barriers between games, players and the TV by creating a second window into the video game world."

I must be looking at this from the wrong angle but how does adding another screen "remove a barrier"? Surely it adds a new barrier for what we'll call traditional games? I could understand the new touch screen controller being a big help if I were say creating my own LittleBiGPlanet level, as it would give you more accuracy and a better response (which was seen in the trailer for LBP on the PS Vita) but how does it help, for ex. in say Arkham City or Ass Creed Brohood 3?

YCshinobi on 7 Jun '11 said:

Somebody confirm Gamecube backwards compatibilty, for the love of God, please!

fonjackerjon on 7 Jun '11 said:

......so more powerful than ps3 or not??? why dont they bloody say?

Dewin on 7 Jun '11 said:

What they probably mean is that the wife can watch her sitcoms on the telly and you can still play mario next to her, on that wanky controller.

cooloneuk on 7 Jun '11 said:

thank god the controller is rechargable out of the box

Media: A single self-loading media bay will play 12-centimeter proprietary high-density
optical discs for the new console, as well as 12-centimeter Wii optical discs.

that seems to suggest more storage than dvd, but not quite blu-ray

The new N Optical Discs are supposed to have equivalent storage as the BluRay approx 25GB.

I'm also guessing that since there is no mention of Gamecube compatibility that Wii games played on the new console will no longer be able to played using the GC joypad. Bit gutted really

iucidium on 7 Jun '11 said:

Told you it would do AR.

djhazardous on 7 Jun '11 said:

I want to know if you can do anything with the controller when you leave the console.

timewarp1 on 7 Jun '11 said:

And it probably wont get its online network hacked as all hackers love Nintendo!

Agamon on 7 Jun '11 said:

So it plays current generation games, ok i guess its all there is to port right now but seriously.....it will be outstripped by the PS4 and Xbox R2D2 within a year or two....looks like a lemon to me

Dewin on 7 Jun '11 said:

What worries me the most is the price. If we consider this tech above the 360/ps3, what would the console alone cost? If we consider the ps3 as the most expensive of the two, 299? But now you got a pretty expensive controller added to it. So add another 90 to it? Thats is pretty expensive for a bit-better-console. And this is purely speculative of course. What would be a good price for a bit-better-console?

TheCrimsonFenix on 7 Jun '11 said:

Even more underwhelming than I thought possible. E3's theme this year seems to be same old same old.

originalbadboy on 7 Jun '11 said:

No internal HDD???

Come on Ninty you are going to need one of those ... really you are

Imaduck on 7 Jun '11 said:

I kind of feel what Agamon's saying. To my mind, Nintendo should've like really leapt ahead with this, led from the front, instead it may end up dated before it even releases. They've kind of just joined the multiplat section and got some ports together. Seeing Zelda in HD was really nice and got fans going (despite the fact I nearly got crucified for suggesting such a thing a while ago ) Used to Nintendo pushing the limits, this doesn't really
I'm not saying it's bad or that it doesn't have promise, more that I think they didn't try hard enough so to speak and they could've done better for their fans. To have a good span the U needs a better f**king name for a start, but it really needed to jump AHEAD of current tech on all levels too. This is the first NEXT gen console, and it looks like it may be able to keep up with the now dated current gen HD consoles?
Imagine if Nintendo had the most hi-tech console on the planet by leaps and bounds. As it is, they've kind of caught up with the tech as this gen has ended. There's no need for that! You can use the current tech and still be Nintendo, still do your thing, just provide customers with even more. Win/win. As it is, they seem comfortable to use poor tech to cut costs, sell bazillions at the same price as the HD consoles(?!?!?!) and make bazillions.

Barca Azul on 7 Jun '11 said:

Looks very backwards compatible including controllers!

I don't know if the CPU is any good or not.

Looks very interesting, but the proof is in the games it has.

BLARRG on 7 Jun '11 said:

No internal HDD???

Come on Ninty you are going to need one of those ... really you are

flash memory is cheaper and faster but this only matters IF nintendo decide to give us a good amount of it

djhazardous on 7 Jun '11 said:

I prefer it that way, it will make it cheaper and I can hook up my external usb hdd to it anyway.

Very_Silver_Ownz on 7 Jun '11 said:

Somebody confirm Gamecube backwards compatibilty, for the love of God, please!

This. I still have a few GC games but no memory card, no controller or an actual gamecube

I hope Wii 2 will be able to save GC games on the harddrive and use the official controller or I'll never be able to play my GC games ever again

sjholland87 on 7 Jun '11 said:

I thought these were official specs... Where's the processor speed? GPU specs etc?

Ninty holding it back or has CVG just glossed over that to make a headline?

jacksaddiction on 7 Jun '11 said:

s**t.
I was really interested. Really. Until......

I saw that they are not 'sticks' on the pad, they are analogue nubs. Like the 3DS O_o

Uh-oh

Everything else has me very interested, but, I require analogue sticks, not nubs.

kimoak on 7 Jun '11 said:

Nothing about grx hardware. Next to nothing about processor. Specs subject to change. May release end of 2012. The current undisclosed speed could be immense, or even upgraded for when they finally relelase the final spec. They didn't even put the amount of cores. I am guessing that they have not disclosed because they just haven't decided how fast this hardware will run in the end.

If you look at current consoles and the gfx levels compared to High end PC's, they compare very well. Bumping up spec and price may not give the kind of bang for your buck in graphical improvements.

humanhand on 7 Jun '11 said:

s**t.
I was really interested. Really. Until......

I saw that they are not 'sticks' on the pad, they are analogue nubs. Like the 3DS O_o

Uh-oh

Everything else has me very interested, but, I require analogue sticks, not nubs.

Seriously though! Those nubs look under thought.

JAKEevans on 7 Jun '11 said:

I kind of feel what Agamon's saying. To my mind, Nintendo should've like really leapt ahead with this, led from the front, instead it may end up dated before it even releases. They've kind of just joined the multiplat section and got some ports together. Seeing Zelda in HD was really nice and got fans going (despite the fact I nearly got crucified for suggesting such a thing a while ago ) Used to Nintendo pushing the limits, this doesn't really
I'm not saying it's bad or that it doesn't have promise, more that I think they didn't try hard enough so to speak and they could've done better for their fans. To have a good span the U needs a better f**king name for a start, but it really needed to jump AHEAD of current tech on all levels too. This is the first NEXT gen console, and it looks like it may be able to keep up with the now dated current gen HD consoles?
Imagine if Nintendo had the most hi-tech console on the planet by leaps and bounds. As it is, they've kind of caught up with the tech as this gen has ended. There's no need for that! You can use the current tech and still be Nintendo, still do your thing, just provide customers with even more. Win/win. As it is, they seem comfortable to use poor tech to cut costs, sell bazillions at the same price as the HD consoles(?!?!?!) and make bazillions.

This. I agree 100% man

corkscru74 on 7 Jun '11 said:

Even more underwhelming than I thought possible. E3's theme this year seems to be same old same old.

Yeah, it seems like every day at least one company is releasing a new console with a seperate touch screen controller. It's like no-one is willing to take chances and try something new. Yawn

Sammy_bham on 7 Jun '11 said:

can output in 1080p.... nice..

shame it cant play blu ray....

ie - useless really.

theres no point having a low res image output in hd. doesnt work.

TheCrimsonFenix on 7 Jun '11 said:

Oh yes, basically sticking a DS into their uDraw ish tablet controller and sanding off the edges of their current console is just as much an ingenious move as when they chopped a controller in half and stuck a lightgun into the mix. I wonder what they'll do in the next 5 years. Introduce Mario with his painstakingly detailed moustache on 3D standard Tvs whilst we all jump on our Wii X Balance magic carpets to dive into very detailed pipes.

J23M on 7 Jun '11 said:

And it probably wont get its online network hacked as all hackers love Nintendo!

Ummmm if you haven't seen Nintendo got hacked last week!!!

aawells07 on 7 Jun '11 said:

I have to say that for the first time im interested in what Nintendo has to offer but we will see and i will for the first time buy a portable device and that being the PSVita its looking really sweet.

yourmumwasfun on 7 Jun '11 said:

Hi nintendo.
Welcome to current gen.

KesMonkey on 8 Jun '11 said:

Oh yes, basically sticking a DS into their uDraw ish tablet controller and sanding off the edges of their current console is just as much an ingenious move as when they chopped a controller in half and stuck a lightgun into the mix. I wonder what they'll do in the next 5 years. Introduce Mario with his painstakingly detailed moustache on 3D standard Tvs whilst we all jump on our Wii X Balance magic carpets to dive into very detailed pipes.

Your sarcasm clearly illustrates that you're clever, insightful, and a delight to be around at all times.

See what I did there? No, you probably don't.

TheCrimsonFenix on 8 Jun '11 said:

Ditto.

Wozzakl on 8 Jun '11 said:

Where's the controller spec -- ie, how ****ing big and how ***ing heavy?

TheMid on 8 Jun '11 said:

Ok... Looks interesting the Mrs loved the advert etc etc, but that controller is fooking massive and haven't they got the buttons and the nubs / sticks the wrong way around?? Bring back the N64 one handed ergonomic dreaminess!!!!

boskersrevenge on 8 Jun '11 said:

I was worried about the nice but some hands on videos have belayed that. It looks big, but not two big - IMO.

AMD have done the GPU again although no numbers yet. Potentially it's very good - multicore power pc + AMD? 1080p native too.

We just need it to proven now.

Also, no HDD? I do believe you will be at liberty to attach an external HDD, or at least I hope I got that right. Came to terms with the one controller, one Weewoo deal. I can imagine there is going to be a demand for a redesign of the classic controller pro.

Oh yes, and while multicore does sound nice, it could mean 3.

Felly117 on 8 Jun '11 said:

The only thing I want to know is whether or not the graphics and power will be more than a PS3/360. I dont give a S*** about motion controll or backwards compatibility. I have them already.

krazykunal85 on 8 Jun '11 said:

I want to know if you can do anything with the controller when you leave the console.

Me too! What's the boody point .... it looks to Big to be walking around with a brick! Also will it be kid-proof? The screen looks like it will crack if dropped even once!

aj101 on 8 Jun '11 said:

Seen a lot of hating on the console which for the most part seems unjustified from all the hands on previews I've read. Besides all that though I think the reason behind Nintendo staying mum is why release the specs of the console now? I suspect that given the release date of 2012 (didn't pick up when in 2012), they're giving themselves a chance to see how the market develops until that time before locking anything down.

I think Nintendo must be aware of the need to produce a system somewhat more powerful than the current Playstation or Xbox. They need to compete in that arena if they want third parties to continue to port games to their console when the next crop of competitor consoles are released, and they'd be shortsighted if they weren't going to make as much of the window in which they will be selling the best spec-ed console as they could.

Give it some time. If it turns out the Wii U is only marginally better than the PS3 or Xbox360 there'll be every reason to question the decision and be disappointed. It's a cash rich company with access to tech in the market place that dominates the current gen, nor is it expensive tech either. I will not be surprised if Nintendo don't release tech specs until the day the console is shipped, or until they hit a point between cost and performance that they're happy with.

Apart from that it all sounds like good things from what I've read. People are far too quick to hate.

aj101 on 8 Jun '11 said:

As an example of what I was just talking about:
"AMD will supply Nintendo a custom AMD Radeon HD graphics processing unit with "high-definition graphics support, rich multimedia acceleration and playback and multiple display support". It is unclear whether the new GPU will support DirectX 11-class functionality, general purpose processing on GPU (GPGPU) and other modern technologies, but AMD indicated that the chip features "modern and rich graphics processing core, allowing the new console to shine with new graphics capabilities"."
And
"IBM promises to supply Nintendo an all-new, Power-based multi-core microprocessor that packs some of IBM's "most advanced technology into an energy-saving silicon package". For example, the chip is projected to have embedded DRAM (potentially on the same package) that will speed up memory accesses for the multi-core chip. IBM plans to manufacture the new microprocessor using 45nm silicon-on-insulator process technology at the 300mm fab in East Fishkill, New York."
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia ... Wii_U.html

I have also read the exact opposite of those statements - one going as far to say Wii U would implement a Mobile AMD GPU, though that particular source was not quite as credible as the one above.

The picture will get clearer, but things sound promising for the moment. It's also not streaming HD to the portable screen, and from what I've read there will only be one tablet controller per console anyway (which seems a shame in my opinion, but then again who knows?).

miseryguts1969 on 9 Jun '11 said:

I am quite interested to see how it copes with Wii games, upscaling/filtering.. or whatever graphical alchemy is going to be used here.

If it can achieve something similar to the PC Wii emulator (Dolphin) with the internal resolution cranked up, this will be quite something to behold.. if your PC can handle it, some of the results are quite simply beautiful.. plenty of YouTube videos will attest to this, to see all the Wii games upscaled like this on a big HDTV would be another significant plus point for the Wii U.

solamon77 on 9 Jun '11 said:

The actual hardware looks so plain. I wonder why they didn't go with something a little more distinct than a plain white box.

aj101 on 9 Jun '11 said:

The actual hardware looks so plain. I wonder why they didn't go with something a little more distinct than a plain white box.

Haha, you're talking about the same company that bought out the Wii, a plain white box. It'll be interesting to see whether it gets a makeover before release day, along with proper tech details. I've read elsewhere that it's going to have tech adapted from the Watson computer IBM built for Jeopardy. What about RAM?? Still early days.

And yes to res-ing up Wii games, that would be pretty sweet.

jimbofett on 1 Jul '11 said:

Okay sounds promising, but hang on....

How big is the built in flash memory?
Multi core processor?, How many cores?
How fast is each core?

Details subject to change?, you never provided any, I still know nothing
about the power of the machine or how much memory it will have.

You haven't even mentioned a GPU.

Nintendo i Love you but our relationship is well and truly on the rocks
You never talk, When I ask you a straight question you never give a
straight answer. You make promised you don't keep.
I feel like I'm nothing to you. Just a piece of meat
you can use whenever you like. Is there someone else? Do I not do it
for you any more. I have needs too Nintendo.

I think we should start seeing other people.