Topic: Wii U Developers Have Received Final Development Kits?

[NWR_insanolord]

The final update may include increased system power.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rumor/30277

Wii developers now have the final version of the system's development kit, according to reports posted on NeoGAF. The units are tagged "mass production," meaning they are the version of the hardware that will ship later this year.

These units, which developers supposedly received earlier this month, are reported to feature a bump in system performance over previous versions. The rumor source also teases another piece of "good news" about this new version of the hardware, which may be the inclusion of traditional analog sticks featured in a leaked photo from a developer last week.

[Disco Stu]

Vague rumors are my favorite kind, they let your imagination run wild and get you even more excited for the coming announcements.

[joshnickerson]

The "good news" could also be the long rumored name change of the system.

[Ceric]

Or instead of making waffles it makes Poutine.
Personally wouldn't consider analog sticks good news.

[Ailingforale]

I'm hoping it's along the lines of the "easier than ever to develop non-shovel ware titles" capabilities have been raised considerably.   My poor Wii never saw it come'n and when it did, it was too late.

[Vahne]

If that teased piece of "good news" IS about the sticks replacing circle pads, that's not good news. Just a bit of something nice only for people who care about sticks, and a bit of something annoying for people who don't.

[Ymeegod]

Rumor is the good news is going be dual tablets support and I guess there's going be an e3 demo game featuring just that.

Hopefully Nintendo's been keeping third parties in the loop this time (Motion+ failure).  Two tablets will be great especially in sport titles where you select your plays. 

[BlackNMild2k1]

The "good news" could also be the long rumored name change of the system.

There wil be no name change. Most of the trademark issues have already been resolved.

[tendoboy1984]

I'm hoping it's along the lines of the "easier than ever to develop non-shovel ware titles" capabilities have been raised considerably.   My poor Wii never saw it come'n and when it did, it was too late.

The Game Boy, GBA, and DS all had shovelware, and no one really complained about that. And look at the iOS App Store, there's tons of crap on that as well.

[Chozo Ghost]

Hopefully the bump was substantial and kills off that speculation that the Wii U was inferior to the PS360.

[nickmitch]

I wish we could just put that speculation to bed. It's like the ultimate troll.

[Spak-Spang]

Perhaps the bump in specs was for the "good news."  I bet Nintendo realized a bump in specs to get 2 WiiU tablets running on the device would be a good idea...and moved towards that direction. 


If Nintendo can put a little more power in it and get a second controller running...then the Wii U will deliver what people want...and more importantly, Nintendo can sell another controller for like $50-60 easy...and make more money.

[Adrock]

Getting 2 tablet controllers working simultaneously seems like a really good reason to bump the specs. It may be possible that 3rd parties convinced Nintendo to bump the specs as a way of staying competitive with Sony's and Microsoft's new consoles.

[UncleBob]

The nice thing about that would be that if a developer doesn't want to use multi-tablets, they can still make use of that bump in specs.

[tendoboy1984]

Getting 2 tablet controllers working simultaneously seems like a really good reason to bump the specs. It may be possible that 3rd parties convinced Nintendo to bump the specs as a way of staying competitive with Sony's and Microsoft's new consoles.

I find it quite ironic that Nintendo is the first one out with a next-gen system. They've never been the first one out. Either MS and Sony want to prolong the life of their current consoles, or they don't consider Nintendo to be much of a threat anymore.

[NWR_insanolord]

It's probably a combination of the two. Microsoft's finally in a position where they're making money after starting the generation losing it and then getting even worse because of the whole RROD fiasco, so it makes sense that they want to keep that going as long as they can. Sony's in a similar boat with the PS3, and also have a vested interest in keeping it viable because of how easy it is to port from it to the Vita, which is struggling right now. It's a gamble on their part, and can blow up in their face if the Wii U really takes off, but they're betting it won't.

[nickmitch]

I think it's more so the fact that the two want to prolong this generation than not seeing Nintendo as a threat. They're better off using a wait and see approach to the Wii U model (like they did with motion controls) to see what they need to do to "keep up with the times." With Sony, it's as easy as pushing the feature with the Vita. MS is in a much different boat. Besides, Sony said they wanted the PS3 to last 10 years anyway.

[tendoboy1984]

I think it's more so the fact that the two want to prolong this generation than not seeing Nintendo as a threat. They're better off using a wait and see approach to the Wii U model (like they did with motion controls) to see what they need to do to "keep up with the times." With Sony, it's as easy as pushing the feature with the Vita. MS is in a much different boat. Besides, Sony said they wanted the PS3 to last 10 years anyway.

People keep taking the "10 year lifespan" thing out of context. It means the console will have a total life of 10 years, regardless of whether a new system is launched or not. Sony had the same 10 year plan for the PS2, they kept the PS2 around for years after the PS3 launched.

[nickmitch]

I don't remember if Sony actually said that the PS2 was supposed to last ten years, but they were saying that bout the PS3 before it launched. We're only a few months past the halfway point on that one. And the FULL context was "Ten years and beyond," IIRC. I would take the 'and beyond' part to mean after a successor was launched as post PS3 PS2 sales were beyond it's intended life.

Besides, I don't think it's a good time for Sony to launch a new system with the Vita doing so poorly. They simply have too many reasons to wait and almost none to launch a new system.

[tendoboy1984]

Besides, I don't think it's a good time for Sony to launch a new system with the Vita doing so poorly. They simply have too many reasons to wait and almost none to launch a new system.

Agreed. The PS3 has plenty of potential, that Cell processor is a beast that few companies have managed to top. The only thing holding the PS3 back is the RAM, so maybe Sony could make an upgraded PS3 with a bit more RAM. That way it will be more future proof.

We have no idea what Microsoft's plans are for a next-gen Xbox. They may try to ride out the Kinect wave for as long as possible. I remember them saying they wanted the Xbox 360 to have a long lifespan too.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=30232470&postcount=1

Today, Microsoft's European head made a fairly obvious statement, though most interesting was his lack of denial that the next Xbox will be unveiled at E3 2012.

Originally Posted by Metro:

GameCentral: You’ll be well aware that everyone thinks you’re going to announce a new console at E3 next year. When you were talking about the Xbox 360 lasting 10 years did you mean 10 unbroken years without a successor or just a 10 year lifespan at retail? Chris Lewis: Well, we think we’re more than halfway through but given we are still growing, we think we’re at a healthy part in the life cycle still because we’ve pumped this adrenaline into the arm of the business with Kinect and the scope and scale of what that means for publishers and developers I think is huge. And indeed with Xbox Live which does truly stand us apart from everybody else. So we think we’re a little over halfway with the life cycle of the console, but that’s not to say there won’t be an overlap… GameCentral: So those 10 years, they won’t be the Xbox 360 alone? The Xbox 720, or whatever it’s called, will presumably be leaking into some of those 10 years? Chris Lewis: Could possibly be the case. I’m not going to announce specifically or talk about timing. But you could imagine there could be overlap, it depends. We’re not being specific about the next generation at this stage. We’re very fixated on what we’re doing right now and the success we’re enjoying. Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/87...#ixzz1VSovJnhG [/t][/t][/t]

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[Chozo Ghost]

that Cell processor is a beast that few companies have managed to top.

That's because from all accounts it is a major pain to try to program for.

[tendoboy1984]

that Cell processor is a beast that few companies have managed to top.

That's because from all accounts it is a major pain to try to program for.

No no, I mean few companies have managed to make a more advanced processor. The Cell was far ahead of it's time, and I think the PS3 has plenty of life left because of this.


Look at the CPU in the Xbox 360, it's severely outdated compared to today's chips. And the Wii is even worse.


Nintendo needed to make a new console because they are so far behind the rest of the industry. The Wii was underpowered the day it came out.


Microsoft will come out with a new Xbox soon enough, because the Xbox 360 is already showing its age.


Sony can afford to keep the PS3 around for a few more years, because the Cell processor is so advanced. Developers have recently come to grips with programming for the PS3, and Sony would be a fool to bring out a PS4 so soon.