What They Play has heard from multiple sources in the game development and publishing community that Nintendo is currently showing early presentations of its next home console hardware. Apparently set to hit the market “by 2011” the new device is said to be the true “next generation” Nintendo console, and far more than a simple refresh of the current hardware. Unlike previous console transitions from Nintendo, the new system will be presented as a true successor to the Wii, and is being dubbed by those that have seen the presentation as “Wii HD.” There is no indication if this will be its eventual name, but the nature of the transition has been characterized as similar to “the shift from Game Boy to Game Boy Advance,” where familiar, key elements were left intact while the core hardware was made more powerful. It is expected by all those that we have spoken to on the subject that the new device will retain the Wii name in part.

While our sources are reluctant to be too specific about “Wii HD,” they have been able to divulge some (albeit predictable) generalizations. High definition visuals are assured, as is a greater emphasis on digitally distributed and backwardly compatible content, indicating that the new system will feature some form of local storage medium such as a hard drive or large flash memory solution. It has also been indicated that Nintendo’s emphasis is again on what the consumer will hold in their hands and interact with, rather than the “console” itself.


Nintendo has proven it can be extremely successful by leveraging processor technology that is not on the bleeding edge, and be more profitable and more innovative as a result. In a 2006 interview with Business Week, Nintendo visionary Shigeru Miyamoto stated, “The consensus [at Nintendo] was that power isn't everything for a console. Too many powerful consoles can't coexist. It's like having only ferocious dinosaurs. They might fight and hasten their own extinction.” Based on our conversations about “Wii HD” this attitude would seem to still prevail.

But why should you believe this? Everything stated so far could easily have been the result of educated guesswork or speculation. While a Nintendo representative provided the expected response that, “Nintendo does not comment on speculation or rumor,” there is additional evidence, outside this commentary, to suggest that something is going on.

In 2003, Nintendo declared that $34 million was spent on R&D. This figure steadily climbed to $103 million in 2006 and the following year bumped dramatically to $370 million.


Based on figures from Nintendo’s annual financial reports, the company is currently spending more than ten times as much on research and development as it was five years ago, and since the Wii was launched in 2006, R&D spending has more than tripled. While this could be attributed to any number of additional projects, the level of spending suggests that a large project is in the works. In 2003, Nintendo declared that $34 million was spent on R&D. This figure steadily climbed to $103 million in 2006 (the year that the Wii launched) and the following year bumped dramatically to $370 million. When asked to explain the escalated spending, Nintendo representatives were unable to provide comment.

The current Wii hardware is based upon processors and graphics technology supplied by IBM and AMD. These two companies have a joint development agreement together, which is described by AMD as being focused “on delivering a range of integrated platforms to serve key markets, including … gaming and media computing.”


The joint development agreement between IBM and AMD expires on December 31, 2011 but “may be extended further by the mutual agreement of the parties.” This suggests that Nintendo will be leveraging research and development from the partnership in time to ensure that it’s new hardware will be compatible with the Wii’s current “Hollywood” and “Broadway” processors. As Microsoft learned in the transition from Xbox to Xbox 360, switching hardware vendors can make running older games on a new system a much more difficult proposition.

The dramatic bump in spending at Nintendo may also be reflective of Nintendo’s work on a rumored new DS, said to feature a camera and music player. Iterating on the DS in 2009 would certainly shake up the market, though given the incredible monthly sales of the device it hardly needs reinvigorating for the time being. When the Nintendo DS was launched in 2004, the worldwide installed base of the Game Boy Advance was 53 million (on top of the Game Boy’s incredibly huge 118 million.) So far, 80 million Nintendo DS units have been sold worldwide, and demand shows no sign of slowing.

It is unlikely that any official acknowledgement of Nintendo’s new hardware will come until at least 2009, however company president Satoru Iwata will be delivering his annual fall presentation this Wednesday.



UPDATE: Nintendo has now announced it's brand new NIntendo DSi, which features a 3 megapixel camera. We have more news about it here.

Another crappy console from Nintendo. Their Dinosaur metaphor is terrible. consoles are not like dinosaurs. The more powerful your console, the better. If Wii was as powerful as PS3, or 360, and had the motion controller right from the start, as well as the games to utilize that technology, IT WOULD BE THE BEST SHIT EVER! Now Sony is doing what Wii failed to do with a much more advanced motion controller that can allow 1:1 control of an in-game character, and all of this with the benefit of the PlayStation 3's powerful hardware. That means that while Wii could only play some pixelated Mario game, the possibilities for these PS3 motion controllers are huge. MMO's, first person shooters, RPG's. There's something that I am excited about, and if I didn't buy the wii I might still have that 250 dollars to spend on those controllers.

My wii is currently gathering dust. I bought it at launch, and since then I can recall playing less than 10 games. I only bought a fraction of that. Metroid Prime 3, Zelda, Super Smash Brothers Brawl and nothing else.

It was the biggest waste of money ever. I could have used that 250 bucks on games or other things. It's all because Nintendo is incapable of making original, real games anymore. They release crap for "casual consumers" which is just an excuse to put out a game with no depth and no appeal to a real gamer.

And if their new console didn't have more processing ability, then it would fail at launch in 2011. But, knowing Nintendo, this thing is probably just another novelty gimmick that will degenerate very quickly into the official console for wii sports, bejeweled-style casual games, and a million Mario games. Mario goes shopping, Mario takes a shit. Mario cooks some food. Mario bounces off of a planet.


And then there is the DS. I used to own a DS light. Then I sold it eventually as I found there were no more good games coming out for it. I got tired of hand helds. Maybe I was just too spoiled with actual quality games on my consoles. Now we have this DSI, which is just another way to pump more money out of us. OH LOOK, WE STUCK TWO FUCKING CAMERA'S ON IT AND UPDATED THE COSMETICS SLIGHTLY! AND IT CAN BE YOURS FOR ANOTHER 100+ DOLLARS. BUY NOW OR YOU'RE A LOOSER NON-NINTENDO FAMILY MEMBER!!1!!11!!!!

Fuck you Nintendo!

Wow, it sounds like you really don't like nintendo... I don't like them cuz they ate sonic the hedgehog.

It's because nintendo makes promises and them stabs us in the back. Where are the hardcore games? I bought wii expecting to play a game where I could do things just like in the Sony motion controller demo at last E3. I bought it expecting lots of titles like Metroid Prime 3 (great game by the way) and Zelda, but also lot's of new IP's and fresh games that fully took advantage of the Wii's technology.

There is a dude that has done all sorts of thing's with Wii's technology. He has made a virtual reality headset by placing an infrared LED on a headband or something (essentially mounting it on his head) and got the Wii to track it, allowing 1:1 control of a character in the game. WHY DIDN'T NINTENDO THINK OF THIS!? He also even asked himself why Nintendo doesn't make use of such features. He offered to help Nintendo with this and offered them his developments. They rejected it all. With this, we could have had an FPS where you can actually duck into cover and aim a gun for real, not just with a joystick.

Yet, Nintendo just let's the one good thing about the Wii go down the drain, as the most original usage for the technology they could think of was "SHAKE TEH REMOTE LIEK J00 ARE MASTURBATING TO MAKE MARIO SHAKE A CAN AND MAKE TEH SODA SPURT THE HIGHEST LULZ!"

Meanwhile, Sony shows off their new tech, which is much more accurate than Wii's, and looks cooler (to me) and in the demo they actually demonstrated that, unlike Nintendo, they have a specific set of uses for the technology in mind, and know WTF to do with it. They actually showed us what we wanted. 1:1 virtual reality-like control of in-game avatars and interaction with environment. Now, imagine Call of Duty 7 or whatever using this new technology, or an MMO like Oblivion where you actually slash using that motion remote and you have what Nintendo promised and failed to deliver years ago.

Hilarious and true. I completely agree.

I now have the urge to turn on my Genesis and play Sonic 2. Thanks.

ok w/e I never said you were wrong

I just noticed your apparent frustration[/understatement]

Project natal will blow the wii out of the water. :)

PRoject Natal sounds dumb. It's like they took Pre-Natal and took the Pre off.

I am just ranting. THe problem is not really the Wii so much as Nintendo and the developers who make "casual" games for it.

but can it play Crysis?...

I wonder if the current Wii can even run runescape HD on full graphics.....

The Wii browser doesn't have Java, so no, it couldn't play any form of RS. And if they slapped it on to a disc (god forgive me for what I would do to them), it could probably run on standard, and MAYBE (with a significant amount of struggling), could run HD without anti-aliasing.

Bladepaul is absolutely right, nuff said.

This, which reminds me I should sell my Wii. Almost forgot about it seeing as it's just been collecting dust since I got it.

Agreed, the Wii is capable of much more than what it is being used for and casual games have been giving it a bad rep.
Although it's not hopeless, developers are starting to get that Wii can still have great hardcore games.
Look at Madworld, Redsteel 2, Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles, Monster Hunter 3. All hardcore, good graphics games exclusive to Wii, showing that it can certainly compete with the other consoles if given the chance.


But some developers can't even be bothered to use a graphics engine designed for the Wii and end up porting a PS3 or 360 engine and end up giving us crap like this.
It's like buying a shirt 2 sizes too big and then trying to make it fit by using scissors and duct tape. Absolutely awful.


And btw Bladepaul, about the Sony 1:1 motion controller, Nintendo released an extension to the Wii-mote that does that very thing months ago, although it would be nice if it had it from the start.




Oh please. Sorry, but that's complete bullshit and you know it...


I'm not saying the Wii is the best system or anything (it's not), but it's not the shitty thing people try to say it is.

Go the ebay route and make more. lol


Do shadows bullshit? No.

Minimum for Runescape(not hd): 128MB RAM
Wii: 88MB RAM

Of course, we don't know how it would work on a disc, but.. yeah.

And no, the wii isn't shitty, but I dare you to honestly say that Nintendo couldn't have done better.

What does RAM have to do with output of graphics (what do you mean by it not having enough RAM)? Serious question, I honestly don't know.

I doubt they're coming out with a new one in 2011, I think they've already said the Wii will last another couple of years (I'll try finding it). That post is just pure speculation.

Graphics don't really matter, I'm getting a Wii because it has the best 1st party titles (IMO) and well that's about it. I'm going with a Wii and 360 the rest of this gen.

P.S.
The article is almost a year old.

Definition of RAM for a computer (Wii RAM is basically the same thing): "Random Access Memory (RAM) provides space for your computer to read and write data to be accessed by the CPU (central processing unit). When people refer to a computer's memory, they usually mean its RAM.

If you add more RAM to your computer, you reduce the number of times your CPU must read data from your hard disk. This usually allows your computer to work considerably faster, as RAM is many times faster than a hard disk.

RAM is volatile, so data stored in RAM stays there only as long as your computer is running. As soon as you turn the computer off, the data stored in RAM disappears. (dunno if this sentence applies t the Wii)

When you turn your computer on again, your computer's boot firmware (called BIOS on a PC) uses instructions stored semi-permanently in ROM chips to read your operating system and related files from the disk and load them back into RAM. (this probably doesn't apply either)"

What I get from that is that the Wii doesn't have enough temporary memory to run RS in any current form

Ok, maybe I am wrong.
Although my computer doesn't even come close to the minimum requirement for Spore, yet it somehow runs fine :P

I keep the Wii for the Gamecube compatability, the new Metroid coming out, virtual console, GH:III and SSBB.

as long as it has wii motion plus built in and NO FRIEND CODES in a online enviorment similar to xbox live id get it.

This is 100% how I feel about Nintendo. I didn't buy it at launch but mine also gathers dust. I've started lending my Wii to the people that are about ot buy one... they change their mind in less than a day when they realise that its the worst piece of crap ever... Even if Nintendo do bring outa next-generation console I'm not going to buy it because I feel like I've been lied to. Their Zelda game was made to look like it was so innovative and you actually swung the sword, actually stabbed the sword... a REAL immersive game!! But nope... you just press A or B and flick.

WHAT A JOKE

Their games are all gimmicky pieces of crap and they have innovated NOTHING... the technology that is inside the Wii mote has been around way long before it was released... like those little £10 lightsabre games you buy with a sensor and the lightsabre as the remote.

Nintendo are fantastic marketeers, that is it

Sounds like you don't like Nintendo.

wiis are ok, the games don't have much depth but my 5 year old brother always wants one for christmas

I bought a wii 2 years ago.

Worst decision of life.


Almost no games worth buying EVER came out. Most of them are 3rd party crap that is basically a scam for money.

Modern Warfare for Wii

Yes it's terribly late, but better late than never.

2010 actually looks like a decent year for the Wii. The Grinder; Gladiator AD; Super Mario Galaxy; Metroid Prime The Other M; Red Steel 2; Monster Hunter Tri; and a myriad of others. Also later this year Dead Space Extraction; Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles; New Super Mario Bros; F1 2009; and Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga.

zelda has no depth... resident evil 4 has no depth... no more heroes has no depth... madworld has no depth... i could go on and on listing amazing wii titles... really now? id like you to go back and think about what you said

Actually, Mad world and resident evil 4 have no depth. Madworld uses "Stylized graphics" possibly to cover the Wii's inability to manage graphics like the PS3 and 360 does, but even if they are truly what the developers wanted, the graphics look bad to me. Everything is black and white, looks like someone drew it. At first it looks awesome, then after awhile it starts to hurt my eyes. The game itself literally has no depth. YOU KILL PEOPLE VIOLENTLY! FFS. You run around stage after stage with fixed points of interest that kill endless waves of enemies in the same fashion. After you ram the same sign post into a slightly different enemy for the nine bajillionth time and throw them in a turbine, the appeal starts to quickly fade.

I played Zelda. I agree, it was a good game for the Wii and seemed like a good start to an even better line up of games. Abruptly, everything fell off a cliff. Zelda itself is not nearly as appealing to me as, say, Uncharted 2 or a much grander adventure only possible on a system with the hardware to support it.

Resident Evil 4....can be gotten elsewhere. No more hero's suffers the same problem as Mad World in that it gets repetitive after a bit because you are just mindlessly button mashing

What I am saying is that Nintendo could have definitely done great things with the Wii even despite their bizarre approach to the hardware, purposely making it obsolete compared to it's competitors.


BUT, they blew it. All of the hype, all of the actual capabilities of the hardware that the Wii has in terms of motion sensing and interface technology, and the best they could come up with was shaking the damn controller in a number of slightly different ways to do a mundane task on-screen. I am not going to pay 250 dollars to be able to shake my controller to open the door instead of pressing a button next to it, really.


Now, Sony is doing what Nintendo messed up. Let's take a look why:

Nintendo releases their wii with inferior hardware but novel interface technology is incorporated into it. They can clearly do many things with the motion sensing capabilities and ability to detect where remote is on a 3D plane. But with the limited hardware of the Wii, they cannot create massive adventures and MMO's possible on the 360 and PS3, so they must really make up for this with excellent usage of their interface tech. I don't think I need to tell you how that went.

Sony, meanwhile, releases the PS3, a technological marvel when it was first released, and still is one thanks to it's Cell Processor. An upgraded version of which is being used as the basis for the RoadRunner, the fastest super computer in the world by far, currently operated by the U.S. military.

They see what Nintendo has done wrong, realize the true potential of motion sensing technology, create a controller that is much more accurate than the current Wii mote and capable of doing more things, and right from the very introduction show that their planned uses for it are going to be what we have wanted from the Wii all along. Realistic aiming for FPS games and controls for in-game objects and characters instead of "shake controller slightly to slash with your sword in a pre-determined animation."


If they manage to pull this off, props to Sony. In the future, if Nintendo want's my money, they better make a real console and put some real effort into making it innovative and awesome instead of a novelty.

Getting a Wii today
Selling my 360 to gamestop Sunday(probably) and get Super Mario
Galaxy + Zelda.
I have 2 360's so don't worry, just have to send mine in lol
Bought the extra one for 120, came with 2 controllers, 2 charger kits and 9 games.
I would make all the money I wasted back.

... please dont sell your 360 for a wii... i mean the wii is decent but i mean 360= best console on the market (excluding hardware failures) and plus when natal comes out it will kick the wiis and ps3s ass in terms of motion controls

Read what I said.

Project Na-tal (/facepalm) may or may not turn out to be anything to shake a motion-sensor at. One demonstration doesn't mean anything. It could still turn out to be worse than...than...something bad

That said - I like my Wii. I wish it was better. Nintendo needs more new ideas. It's all true. The Wii is still a lot of fun at parties and to play with my family. It's the only console that I've ever gotten my parents to play, and they love it. The Wii is a console *not* designed or marketed at gamers, and that apparently makes people furious. I'm a gamer, but by no means a hardcore one, and so find it a perfectly acceptable system.

Honestly, Okami alone nearly makes it worth it.

The only reason I have mine is for Zelda and Gamecube games. Other than that, I usually only use the PC, because my brother is always on H3: ODST.

Since this was posted Sept 29, I'm going to assume by now you've realized the mistake you've made getting a Wii, even if you have another Xbox.