Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has confirmed the Wii U will be available in Japan, Europe and the US by the end of the year.
Nintendo first hinted at a release window earlier this month, when US boss Reggie Fils-Aime said "Wii U will launch some time between E3 - which is in June - at the end of the year so essentially the second half of the year.
Fils-Aime went on to say it would "share more information between now and E3 and after E3", with details such as pricing and specs expected to be revealed.
Yesterday an anonymous developer claimed to have the Wii U hardware specs and said it will have around twice the processing and graphical power of Microsoft's Xbox 360 console.
Other rumors have indicated the Wii U will have E-Reader functionality and a full Nintendo app store.
Iwata issued today's Wii U update as Nintendo more than trebled its loss forecast for the business year ending March 31, 2012, from the 20 billion yen (£165 million) expected back in October to 65 billion yen (£535 million).
Comments
26 comments so far...
MD1500 on 26 Jan '12 said:
Day 1. (Price depending, of course...)
Francisnf on 26 Jan '12 said:
As above!
me4pd on 26 Jan '12 said:
Not for me. Got too many Wii/3DS games to play. You suckers who buy all the consoles must really have no lives. I thought I had no life and I barely play 1-2 hrs a week. Shame. Wish I was a fat, lazy kid again.
spunwicked on 26 Jan '12 said:
I am really ready for a next gen console, but I'm afraid Nintendo won't be getting my readies.
Why?
I just don't need to play yet another Mario platformer, Mario 3D effort or Mario Kart. Or Zelda. Or Kirby.
No thank you.
Zellpunch on 26 Jan '12 said:
I know I'll get this day one but nobody has seen any games for it and there's no talk of even launch games. E3 better be loaded full of games for this or else its going to be the 3DS launch muck up all over again! Also, Fact, there wont be Zelda or Mario at launch
rivariad on 26 Jan '12 said:
day 1 if anything hardcore comes up, not some any nintendo bullsh.t like zelda or mario of course. more of a traditional bioware/bethesda/ea/rockstar kinda thing
PMIKE5 on 26 Jan '12 said:
Totally dependant on the games. Nintendo need to support proper games as much as they do the family games for me to want this.
Black Mantis on 26 Jan '12 said:
I think I'll avoid the rush to get one at launch, but I can see myself getting one eventually. Not really bothered if it doesn't have as much power as the eventual 360/PS3 successors, I just need to get some of that Nintendo goodness.
Aer0Smith360 on 26 Jan '12 said:
I can see Nintendo releasing this WiiU by the end of the year. Most games that are coming to the WiiU have or will be already out on the PS3/360 (Batman: Arkham City, Ghost Recon Online, Dark Siders II to name a few) which gives develpoers enough time to adjust any features that the WiiU has to incorporate into the game, same with tweaking the textures, lighting etc. The launch line up could be a good one?
E3 will no doubt be ALL Nintendo though I wander what MS and Sony have up there sleave to fire back the attention the WiiU will be getting? Hmmmmmmm.....
svd_grasshopper on 26 Jan '12 said:
main reason i'm not interested in it is that controller. it wouldnt last very long. then what? (assuming i'm willing to pay the £100 or whatever it is) you can't buy them in shops. i need to phone up nintendo?? f**k off.
aside from that, it's a massive gimmick.
spunwicked on 26 Jan '12 said:
Yeah, the controller while innovative looks like a pain in the proverbial. I can't imagine sitting down after a hard days work to do some gaming while holding a tablet in my hands. Just a little too much.
Aer0Smith360 on 26 Jan '12 said:
You make a valide point! If the contoller did get broken (which know doubt someone will post the incident on youtube) how will the public buy another one? Hmmmm....
svd_grasshopper on 26 Jan '12 said:
aside from that, general wear and tear. using the same controller for a full generation? don't think so.
Agent75 on 26 Jan '12 said:
Like with the Wii remote (a very big gimmick), it looks like the Wii U is going down the same road. When you look at the range of games on the Wii which is quite poor, not forgetting that new releases have dried up, it begs belief how Nintendo have sold around 95 million consoles. Nintendo knows that it can release very little and still go on to sell bucket loads of consoles. I'm convinced that the UK price will be £299 with a game, but when you consider that the 3DS was £230 without a game, the Wii U could set you back £299 to £349 without a game. Nintendo will argue that you're getting a lot more for you money. As with the Wii U and the Vita, the hardcore will buy into early, then a price drop will happen, then I'll pounce and get one!
IplayVideogames on 26 Jan '12 said:
It'll launch on 21st December 2012 and the world will become trapped in the "touch-screen" dimension, which is what the mayans predicted
ste hicky on 26 Jan '12 said:
Is this news? Console that we all knew would be out this year will be er, out this year.
Well colour me stunned.
E3 should be fun: Waiting on Half Life 3 Wii U and GTA V too. Also believe that Wii U is the lead format for Rocksteady's TMNT game and surprisingly, Black Ops 2 as well.
Bring it on.
Fr33Kye on 26 Jan '12 said:
It's news because it's almost February and pretty much nothing is known.
Waiting on half life 3 Wiiu? What makes you think half life 3 is coming any time soon? Or Gta V wiiu? Or that rocksteady's tmnt game's lead format is the wiiu? Or that activision would go from being xbox-centric to leading on the wiiu? That just doesn't sound like something they'd do. Source?
rbt2 on 26 Jan '12 said:
You're not that aware about how much ste knows about all things Nintendo, are you?
And ste, I agree that a 2012 release is hardly news but it's nice to have definite confirmation. Can't wait.
Fr33Kye on 26 Jan '12 said:
He always seems to have some random information.....Just curious as to where it's coming from. Half life 3 is going to be on every device that can run it of course. Just not sure where he got the idea that they were readying it to be released anytime soon. Actually didn't valve say they prefer to build things from the ground up for that sort of thing? Like portal 2?
ste hicky on 26 Jan '12 said:
Random information? It's rare i'm wrong guy, that's a tad unfair. anyway, Can't be letting sources out Freekeye. (Jk)
Still, Here's a nice HL3 hint from Gabe the other week.
http://hicky-hsgameview.blogspot.com/20 ... ife-3.html
I know Nintendo and Valve are in talks at the moment too about Valve (or EA) handling Wii U's online set up and Gabe has already stated his love for the company a few months back while dropping hints about Wii U being added to Valves dev pipeline.
damoxuk on 26 Jan '12 said:
Tbh not really interested, the power of the console isn't meant to be much better than what my 360/ps3 has and it doesn't have blu-ray so looks like my ps3 will be getting most use as always.
Maybe at a later date after all the lazy ports of 36-/ps3 games are done with.
ste hicky on 26 Jan '12 said:
Damo: Fair enough guy but it's using 25gb discs (apparently). I wouldn't rule Blu Ray out just yet tbh.
Oh and it is vastly superior to current gen tech. That's a nice myth being perpetuated by most boards on earth.
Balladeer on 26 Jan '12 said:
Day one... probably. Would like some decent launch software this time around please.
Legend Turtle on 26 Jan '12 said:
I bought a TV stand with extra shelf space ready to receive the bounty of the next generation, and by that I mean consoles, not startrek fruit.
There is room in my room, and in my heart, for ninty. If only to live the dream of riding a cartoon dinosaur on a huge smiley bullet.
Kezwar on 26 Jan '12 said:
f**k you troll.
Fr33Kye on 26 Jan '12 said:
Ohhhh well i wondered what all the hype was about that picture. I did hear about Valve and EA talking to nintendo abou thte online, and like i said valve are willing to add whatever console can run their games. That's the only reason they missed out on the wii. I guess they can ignore the screen if necessary or just allow for full streaming.