New Nintendo Thread

[Ztrl]

The Wii


New console releases from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo will determine the future of video games for the next half decade. Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 late in 2005 to get a head start on the competition--Sony and Nintendo will launch their new consoles this year. The Xbox 360 sports excellent hardware and a robust Xbox Live online platform, plus Microsoft has pockets deeper than the Mariana Trench. The PlayStation 3 will be just as powerful, with advanced Nvidia graphics, a custom-designed IBM Cell processor, and new Blu-ray drive technology. And Nintendo will have a new controller that bares a striking resemblance to a television remote control.

If there's one console manufacturer that marches to the beat of a different drummer, it has to be Nintendo. The originator of the modern console-gaming era has been a traditional player in every single console generation, first with the Nintendo Entertainment System, then with the Super NES, then with the Nintendo 64, and now with the Nintendo GameCube. But Nintendo promises that its next console system, the Wii, will be a major departure from the current console CPU and graphics-hardware arms race.

Instead of putting together an expensive box with impressive hardware specifications like the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, Nintendo decided to set its Wii system apart by offering innovative gameplay with a new motion-sensitive controller. The Wii's gyroscope controller will take users away from the gamepad interface and make game control more intuitive. For instance, we're used to pressing buttons in a certain sequence to cast a line in a fishing game, but on the Wii, expect to pull the controller back and then whip it forward in a real casting motion to get that line out. It's this kind of gameplay that will make the Wii completely different from the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.

We shouldn't be surprised by Nintendo's move. This is the same company that rolled the dice on the Game Boy and the Nintendo DS. Nintendo may have missed the mark with the Virtual Boy, but you can't produce huge winners without taking some risk. Only a company like Nintendo could release a new console system right after the collapse of the entire video game industry, and only a company like Nintendo can release a new game system that's dramatically different from today's proven console models.

Nintendo has been fairly secretive about its new console after announcing it at E3 last year. We know it has an IBM processor and an ATI graphics chip. It's rumored to be two to three times as powerful as the GameCube, but we may never discover the final hardware specifications because Nintendo believes that comparisons should be based on the quality of the games, not on numbers in a specification list.

Nintendo is wise to leave its spec sheet at home, as the forthcoming Wii will likely not be able to compete with the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox 360 in terms of pure silicon brawn. The PS3 and Xbox 360 have specification sheets a mile long, littered with numbers and lots of technical jargon, some of great import and others of little consequence.

Nintendo's hardware won't let it run with the big boys when it comes to powering high-resolution displays like HDTVs. While the Xbox 360 renders graphics at 1280x720 (or 720p), and Sony claims that the PlayStation 3 will render at 1920x1080 (or 1080p), the Wii will output at 853x480 (or 480p). The good news--you won't need a brand-new HDTV to take full advantage of the Wii.

It's almost certain that Nintendo will have an online experience like Xbox Live, but Nintendo has not released specific information about how the service will work. We do know that the service will give Wii owners access to more than 20 years of games by making NES, SNES, and N64 games available for download online via the Virtual Console, for a fee of course. At the 2006 Game Developers Conference, Nintendo announced backward compatibility for the Sega Genesis and Hudson's TurboGrafx-16. The Wii will also be able to play GameCube games, and Nintendo will release a Wii edition of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess with special controller support.

[Ztrl]

The Controller

Even though Nintendo bowed out of the hardware arms race, it's making up for the horsepower shortfall with ingenuity. At the 2005 Tokyo Game Show, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata unveiled the radically new controller design for the upcoming Wii console. The new wireless controller looks quite simple in an age when most controllers, including those found for the Nintendo GameCube, have multiple analog sticks, a D pad, and eight buttons or more.

At the 2006 Game Developers Conference, Satoru Iwata explained why Nintendo chose to design the new controller the way it did. The controller had to meet four major requirements for Nintendo: It had to have wireless connectivity, approachability, and sophistication, and it had to be revolutionary. By approachability and sophistication, Iwata meant that the controller had to be easy for nongamers to use, yet provide enough complexity for veteran gamers.

The new controller and console are an "investment in actual market disruption," according to Iwata. The company has demonstrated its ability to create new markets and change old ones with its handheld console, the Nintendo DS. Nintendo brought forth nontraditional games like Nintendogs and Brain Training. Combined, both games have been immensely popular, selling in excess of 10 million units.

To nongamers, modern game controllers seem overly complex and pose quite a hurdle to playing a game. Nintendo's motion-sensing controller should make movement in games more natural--waving your arms around is about as intuitive as it gets. Nintendo believes that the simplicity of the interface will be the key to bringing in the mainstream crowd that didn't grow up cradling an SNES or PlayStation gamepad.

The top half of the Wii controller features a directional pad and a single, oversized A button. If you hold the controller like a remote, your thumb will have immediate access to the D pad and the A button. The underside of the controller has a B button that functions like a trigger button. The controller features select, home, and start buttons lined up horizontally halfway down the controller, and the bottom half of the controller has two buttons stacked vertically. We've seen some controllers that have the buttons labeled as A and B, but other controllers have them labeled as 1 and 2. In any case, if you hold the controller sideways, you'll have two horizontal buttons for classic Nintendo gaming.

The bottom of the controller has an attachment port for peripherals, should a game require more buttons or a specialized controller. The Wii controller will have an analog-stick attachment that plugs into the controller. We can expect to see a variety of extension devices, but the number will have to remain low, or they will have to be packaged with games, because add-ons typically have low user-acceptance rates.

A variety of potential game-usage scenarios were shown at TGS. One involves a fishing game, but instead of pushing a button or moving an analog stick, with the new Wii controller you could cast a line by flicking your wrist. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess will have the first implementation of real-world Wii fishing, complete with casting and reeling. Basic games, such as air hockey, can get a boost from the new controller design as well. The built-in sensor can detect depth as well as lateral movement, which lets you push the puck from side to side and into and away from the screen in one natural movement.

At E3 2006, Nintendo revealed that the controller will have built-in speaker and vibration effects to make games even more immersive. If you use the controller to fire an arrow in Zelda, the controller will make a drawing sound as you pull back on the bow to launch a shot, and the controller will shake on impact if you thrust your controller forward to bash an enemy with your shield.

The connection port on the bottom of the controller could act as the point of contact for numerous types of devices that would provide for extra functionality. Fans have flooded the Internet with homemade attachments, like gun-shaped controller sleeves and other imaginary designs, that could work with the Wii controller. The potential certainly exists for a whole host of attachments or completely new controllers designed specifically for game genres, like a six-button peripheral for fighting games. Nintendo included an image of a "classic" gamepad controller for the Wii with its E3 06 press materials, presumably for use with older Nintendo games that require a more traditional gamepad controller.

We don't know how many wireless controllers can connect to the Wii simultaneously, nor do we know how long the controller can go before it needs new batteries or whether it's even rechargeable. That said, we're not really worried about the unknowns; we're more excited about the world of new possibilities that the Wii controller presents.

[Ztrl]

Wii Games

Nintendo hasn't announced official Wii launch games aside from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, but company executives have promised that all of its major franchises will make it over to the new system. Nintendo's press event at E3 06 was heavy with game announcements. The company announced Super Mario Galaxy, a great-looking addition to the Super Mario franchise that takes advantage of the Wii's remote and nunchaku attachment to give Mario a host of new moves, like the ability to swat away objects with a controller sweep. The Wii will also have a new Samus adventure in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Nintendo also announced three new franchises: Excite Truck, Disaster: Day of Crisis, and Project H.A.M.M.E.R. Square Enix announced Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, and Sega revealed that it is working on a new Sonic game. Check out our Nintendo games page to find all the games displayed at Nintendo's E3 press briefing.

The GameCube had a considerable amount of third-party support in the form of multiplatform games, but few developers and publishers offered content exclusively for the GameCube. Nintendo is hoping that the Wii's innovative controller design will differentiate the system from the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. In addition to appealing to the imagination of game developers, Nintendo will appeal to game-company budgets by offering lower production costs, exemplified by its recently released $2,000 development kit.

Rumors indicate that the Wii hardware won't prove difficult to code for, as the Wii and the GameCube share many of the same characteristics. Nintendo's current developer's kit for the Wii is little more than a GameCube with a Wii controller attached to it. In speaking to officials at Nintendo, they mentioned that the software developer kits for the GameCube and the Wii share many commonalities. Depending on how similar the two architectures turn out to be, developers might be able to create graphically advanced games within the first generation of Wii games instead of waiting for the second round of games as with most new console systems.

Lower production costs could also result in lower-priced games. At the 2006 GDC, Nintendo's president pointed out that games today cost 50 or 60 dollars at launch, and if they were found in a bookstore, all a reader would find is hardback books--there would be no lower-cost paperbacks or magazines. Mr. Iwata clarified his position by stating that he "cannot imagine any first party [next-gen] title could be priced for more than $50."

The Wii will be backward compatible with games from all previous Nintendo consoles, as well as games from the Sega Genesis and the TurboGrafx-16. Everything from the Nintendo Entertainment System on up to the GameCube will work on the Wii. GameCube games will load via the disc, and you will be able to download older Nintendo games, through a payment system, via the Virtual Console system. The games will be stored on 512MB of internal flash memory. Though 512MB of memory might seem miniscule in comparison to the 20GB Xbox 360 hard drive, which has 40 times the storage capacity of the Wii, remember that games were much smaller back in the day. NES games take up less than 50KB in storage space, and SNES games such as The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past take up only 1MB of space.

In the event you go buck wild on downloadable content and manage to fill up the internal storage, you will be able to use the SD memory slots for more storage space. The street price for a 512MB SD memory card hovers around $20, but cards will likely be more expensive if Nintendo creates its own proprietary storage format.

The list of Wii games we have below is only a partial list of officially announced games. Nintendo and its various third-party development houses have many more games in development. You can find a full list of Wii games here.

[Ztrl]

Pricing Speculation

Nintendo publicly stated that the Wii will be cheaper than the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. The Xbox 360 debuted at $299 and $399, respectively, for the Core and Premium systems. In comparison, Sony's recently released pricing information puts the PlayStation 3 at $499 for the 20GB model and at $599 for the 60GB model.

Shortly after E3, Nintendo senior managing director, Yoshihiro Mori, disclosed pricing plans for the Wii. He revealed that the console would cost no more than 25,000 Yen ($223 at current exchange rates) in Japan, and that US pricing for the Wii would not exceed $250. The company did not announce bundle details. In light of these statements, we believe the price range of the console will vary anywhere between $199 and $249.

Launch Speculation


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Nintendo has not revealed a specific launch date as of E3 06, but the company did announce that the console would launch in the fourth quarter of 2006. Nintendo has stated that it would like to have a worldwide launch for the Wii but has tempered that wish by acknowledging that production resources and logistics planning will likely dictate the final launch plans.

In the past, Nintendo has launched its game consoles in Japan first, following up with a US release and then a worldwide launch. Nintendo has whittled down the delay between market rollouts with each subsequent console launch--there were less than 60 days between the US and Japanese launches for the GameCube.

Our launch prospects look even brighter if we take into account Nintendo's handheld launches. The Nintendo DS shipped in the US before it hit the streets of Japan, and the Game Boy Micro arrived in Japan and the US simultaneously. However, Nintendo did change up its handheld market priorities by shipping the Nintendo DS Lite first in Japan, instead of the US. In the case of the DS Lite, production limitations forced Nintendo to deliver units to the more receptive Japanese market first.

We may see a similar situation if production limitations come into play for the Wii. A staggered launch schedule would help Nintendo deal with supply issues by sating demand in one region before moving to the next. As for which region gets the Wii first, we don't know. Japan and North America both offer strategic advantages, making each worthy of initial release, but it's ultimately up to Nintendo to decide which region will help the Wii grow the most during its first few months.

[Ztrl]

We'll be ducking beer bottles for this one, but aside from having a little fun with the competition this really is a huge reason we love our Cube. Compared to any other company out there, Nintendo builds machines that last, and if they do happen to fail gamers in any way the Big N's customer service doesn't mess around. We've often heard people say that there's really no reason for a replacement warranty on a Nintendo system, and we're inclined to agree. When PSP systems ship with dead pixels, DS seems to stand strong. When PS2's burn out, or 360's show the dreaded "red lights," Nintendo's consoles keep on chugging, adding even more to the value-based marketing we've come to expect. Simply put, Nintendo makes products that last, and knowing the cash we drop will go the distance is a huge plus in our book. Then again, we can't get a water-cooling system for our Cube either… not that we'd ever need it.

[swimstud600]

I'd disagree with the durability Nintendo is supposably known for. A year after I bought my cube it died and I had to buy a second one.

[ShAuNmAn-X]

swimstud600 said:

I'd disagree with the durability Nintendo is supposably known for. A year after I bought my cube it died and I had to buy a second one.

My GC was sorely abused at times and it never gave me any problems. The Wii will rock. Sony has some good games but gotta stay true to the innovators...Nintendo.

[Ztrl]

Thanks to those lovable people at Sports Illustrated for Kids, the internet was a buzz with rumors that Nintendo would be releasing their new generation platform, Wii, on November 6 of this year. Nintendo then responded saying that the date was clearly speculation generated by the magazine.

It doesn't stop there. A couple of hours later, CNN Money's Chris Morris let slip that he had some unnamed sources claim that Nintendo has actually started manufacturing the Wii and will have a launch date of, as some of the sources state, late September. The other sources said that they expect an October launch for the system.

Nintendo then jumped back on their toes and quickly debunked the sources saying that they " are planning an announcement in September and it may be causing some confusion." While this puts the September release to rest (or does it?) it does nothing to the October release that the sources also seem to think.

It has been stated that Nintendo will finally release all the information about Wii in September such as pricing of the system, games and controllers along with the final release date.

[ShAuNmAn-X]

omegazero said:

Thanks to those lovable people at Sports Illustrated for Kids, the internet was a buzz with rumors that Nintendo would be releasing their new generation platform, Wii, on November 6 of this year. Nintendo then responded saying that the date was clearly speculation generated by the magazine.

It doesn't stop there. A couple of hours later, CNN Money's Chris Morris let slip that he had some unnamed sources claim that Nintendo has actually started manufacturing the Wii and will have a launch date of, as some of the sources state, late September. The other sources said that they expect an October launch for the system.

Nintendo then jumped back on their toes and quickly debunked the sources saying that they " are planning an announcement in September and it may be causing some confusion." While this puts the September release to rest (or does it?) it does nothing to the October release that the sources also seem to think.

It has been stated that Nintendo will finally release all the information about Wii in September such as pricing of the system, games and controllers along with the final release date.

I definately can't wait till I can get my hands on one.

[Ztrl]

damn straight!

[ShAuNmAn-X]

*Would love to be able to play an RPG with the Wiimote.

[Ztrl]

Fire Emblem or FFCC2?

[Ruinaru]

Think we'll get games that were only released in Japan from the old systems? Stuff like the first 6 Fire Emblems, and some of the Earthbound games?

[ShAuNmAn-X]

omegazero said:

Fire Emblem or FFCC2?

All of the above and then some.