The Official Wii U Thread

[meu2]

I want to point out that so far, all the multiplayer games shown so far have used only ONE new controller and multiple Wii Remotes. It seems that Nintendo is designing this thing to have one New controller and multiple Classic controllers or Wii Remotes. So people who are worried about this thing costing $100+ to get additional controllers, keep in mind that might not be necessary.

Also, some people have worried that if you drop the thing, the LCD screen will crack easily. Well, I've dropped my DS hundreds of time and the screen has yet to crack. Nintendo has proven time and time again that it makes the most durable hardware. As pointed out by the review that Alex posted, the controller is amazingly light.

It's already been confirmed that the system will be set up to use just one Wii U controller. Apparently you won't even be able to buy additional ones: http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=160181

[merman1974]

That's slightly disappointing - I was imagining a "Four Swords" style setup where each player could have a view of the action.

Still, backwards compatibility with the Wii was one of the major features I was hoping for, and they announced that.

And I'm very surprised at them allowing USB hard drives as storage. I'm imagining now that the drive will have to be formatted in a proprietary state and won't be something you can just attach to something else...

[meu2]

I wonder if you will be able to transfer VC/WiiWare titles to the Wii U like the DSi to 3DS transfer.

[Darksol]

Too bad about not support multiple Wii U controllers. It must be the bandwidth for the video because I believe I thought the display getting served up via Wireless. Anyway, it looks interesting and follows Nintendo's traditional pattern of taking existing technology and giving it a twist.

[Shane R. Monroe]

So much for Pac Man Vs

[lion2]

See, that is impractical. Nobody is going to get that, because you are looking at people having multiple $200+ phones. That's ridiculous. Same problem when Sony showed off a similar feature with Gran Turismo 4 using the PSP as a rear view mirror (don't know if that made it into the final game), the PSP is a separate console and that adds another variable that developers cannot count on.

This is the same thing the Wii triumphed on. Since the motion controller was standard and included with the system, every game could use it. Similarly, as every Wii U system will have one new controller, it is also a standard.

Not impractical at all. Virtually everyone I know has a highend touch-screen phone. Anyway if this does become reality, Microsoft might create a cheap ipod touch-like device for those people without phones.

[lion2]

Too bad about not support multiple Wii U controllers. It must be the bandwidth for the video because I believe I thought the display getting served up via Wireless. Anyway, it looks interesting and follows Nintendo's traditional pattern of taking existing technology and giving it a twist.

Might have to to width bandwith and rendering performance. With the Wii-U already rendering a 1080p image on the TV, it might be too much rendering several more screens (even if they are lower res) on top of the extra game logic.

[alexjlopez]

That's slightly disappointing - I was imagining a "Four Swords" style setup where each player could have a view of the action.

That can still be done the old way--pairing up a Wii U with a 3DS.

I have mixed feelings on the "one Wii U controller" thing. On the one hand, I don't like limitations, but on the other, was it ever realistic for anyone to own four of these things? I mean, even if the controller were $99 (unlikely, probably more), $400 just for controllers? That's crazy. And this also opens up the possibility of a regular wireless gamepad (a Wavebird 2?) to be released for games like Modern Warfare, etc where some folks will want to pass on the extra screen gizmology. Not every developer is going to take the time to incorporate a great idea using this screen into the vision for their game.

After a day of thinking, I'm actually glad they kept the Wii name and glad they're not veering too far towards pandering to the hardcore crowd. They simply can't win in that space, it's way too crowded. By offering great HD visuals, there's no reason Nintendo gamers need to own a 360 or PS3 anymore since presumably all cross platform games will come to WiiU. But the controller does ensure that the unique and creative exclusives that Wii got will continue to come.

Will WiiU lag behind when new consoles come from Sony and Microsoft? Maybe. Probably, even. But will it matter? Haven't we hit a ceiling on this pixel thing yet? How much more photorealistic do visuals need to become? Will 95% of consumers even be able to tell the difference anyway?

If Nintendo convinced almost 90 million (and counting) consumers that HD wasn't important last time around, how on earth are Sony and Microsoft going to sell shinier pixels and more megaflops when Mario and Zelda no longer sport jaggies?

Still way too many questions to be answered, but I'll be happy when the day comes where I can stick with one console and get the best multi-platform releases along with the franchises I love.

[alexjlopez]

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has reportedly told Japanese newspaper Nikkei that the new Wii U console will "likely" be more than ¥20,000 when it launches in Japan.

20,000 yen is about $250.

Link.

[alexjlopez]

Something else I haven't mentioned. The controller has both a built in sensor bar and a kickstand so you can stand it up like a small portable TV. So theoretically you could play Wiimote games without a TV, or even gamepad games using it as a compact gaming system right out of the box.