Since the news about Nintendo’s Wii successor broke last week, the rumor mills have been churning facts, figures, and details on a daily basis about the console. Every day, something new and interesting breaks about the device, and Nintendo has been fairly mum on the subject.
With all the information floating out there, we’ve gathered it all together in one tight little bundle. And, after taking a good, long look at it, we admit that it kind of sounds a little too good to be true.
Nintendo isn’t known to have the most powerful console on the market, focusing more on making money rather than taking an early hit. So, when it was leaked that the console would potentially be more powerful than the PS3 and include more technical bangs and whistles than any other console, we were skeptical. Regardless, it should be noted that it’s probably the best course of action to go in, as the current console generation is sitting at 5+ years, and the next could go for longer than that.
Just a reminder, though: Take all of this with a giant, massive grain of salt. Nothing has been confirmed by Nintendo, and with rumors spinning out of control there are bound to be several that are way off or do not see actual release.
The story so far…
Late last week, Game Informer spilled the beans about the next Nintendo console, citing information from developers and publishers who have seen it or are working with it. This revealed some basic information that it was being worked on, with a possible reveal at E3. Later that week, news from IGN claimed touch screen sporting game controllers, backwards compatibility, and more. Purported presentation slides have been revealed, which specifically speak to streaming media becoming a major aspect of the device.
The internal designation for the console is “Project Cafe”, with the names “Nintendo HD” and “Stream” being thrown around for the official name, and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto has even admitted recently that the company is working on a new console.
Here’s a bullet point round-up of that information.
Specifications
The Hardware
- CPU: Custom-built three-core IBM PowerPC, similar to the Xbox 360’s CPU but faster
- GPU: AMD R700, which is two generations ahead of the Xbox 360’s R500. This compares to, and could be more powerful than the PS3’s NVIDIA 7800GTX, depending on which version of the R700 is used. The shader version is 4.1. [Specifications 1 | 2]
- 512MB RAM
- Full 1080p video and stereoscopic 3D support
- The device will be similar in size to the first-generation Xbox 360
- Four separate color LED lights on the front face indicating which controllers are connected
- Backwards compatibility to the Wii and Gamecube
- Being built by Foxconn in China
The Controls
Main Controller
- Two analog sticks
- D-Pad
- 8 action buttons: four “face” buttons, four “trigger” or “shoulder” buttons
- Select, Start, Home buttons
- 6.2″ resistive touch screen, but NOT Hi-Def resolution and no multi-touch
- Front-facing camera
- Accelerometer & gyroscope for motion controls similar to just about every other device out there (per the image below)
- “Screen Stream”: Ability to have video streamed from the console to the screen, with up to 1/4 of the rendering power of the main output. This allows for the console to utilize the screens for up to four players, as well as being able to stream the video of the game to the screen without the need for a television (per the image below)
- Virtual Console streaming to controller (per the image below)
Wii Controls
- Compatibility with all Wii controllers, including: Wii Remote, Balance Board, Nunchuk, Classic Controller/Pro
Software Development
- Most “developer friendly” SDK yet for the industry
- Easy portability from PC and Xbox 360
- Virtual Console will return
- Patches/live updates are possible at any time
- Integrated “M-Live” framework, which could be an update of the MT framework used by Capcom that allows easier PC-to-console porting
- Compatible with Wii and Gamecube games
- Will not utilize Friend Codes
- The “Big Three” publishers already have dev kits: EA, Activision, Ubisoft
- Rockstar Games has a development kit, and could possibly be working on Grand Theft Auto V for the console
- Square-Enix, Kojima Productions, DICE, and Capcom are all rumored to be working on games for the console
- Retro Games are rumored to be working on a game that “everyone has wanted”. The rumored names include Eternal Darkness, Star Fox and another Metroid Prime
Release Details
- Will officially be unveiled at E3 of this year, but may be mentioned earlier similarly to how the 3DS was announced
- Will not carry the “Wii” brand name, but “Stream” has been mentioned
- Rumored to cost between $350-$400
- Foxconn is set to begin production in October of this year
- Could release as early as November, but other dates that have been thrown around are: March 2012, June 2012, Fall 2012
- Nintendo’s investor relations presentation takes place around April 25th. That may be a date that the product will be announced.
That’s all we have as far as information goes, but it already sounds pretty impressive. If any more pops up, we’ve got you covered.
Sources:
Miyamoto confirms New Console (Game Informer)
Rumor Explosion (Destructoid)
Latest Leaked Project Cafe Image (Destructoid)
Neogaf roundup (Neogaf)
GameInformer’s Roundup (GameInformer)
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