Topic: Wii U Final Form to Be Shown at E3 2012

[NWR_DrewMG]

The new home console from Nintendo will be fully revealed next June.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/28252

The Wii U will be shown in its final form at E3 in 2012, according to the Nintendo financial briefing. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata stated that the "bitter" lesson learned by the 3DS launch has them taking extra precautions to ensure that the launch of the Wii U is a successful one.

The Wii successor is set for a launch in the 2012 fiscal year. Although the final launch date is still unknown, many previous Nintendo consoles have launched in the holiday window.

[Mataata]

I really, really hope the Wii U can get more support than the 3DS did at launch. I absolutely love my 3DS, but it's taken so long for anything good to come for it. Thankfully, Wii U's E3 2011 lineup looked really promising.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Wii U's E3 2012 lineup hopefully won't be packed full of last years ports with Special Edition and GOTY attached to it and just a handful of new games to show off.

[Lithium]

but if we lose on WiiU's final form we don't have to start again from the beginning do we?

[Kytim89]

I liked the compactibility of the Wii U, but it looked too similar to the Wii.

[Razorkid]

Wii U's E3 2012 lineup hopefully won't be packed full of last years ports with Special Edition and GOTY attached to it and just a handful of new games to show off.

For the third party showing at the launch of a Nintendo system, that is the best we can hope for alongside maybe a couple unique and actually fun third party titles along side Nintendo's own roster. I'd rather take a GOTY edition of Skyrim on WiiU at launch versus a Petz Space Carnival minigame collection for a token 3rd party showing.  On the handhelds, third parties have done well by me. But when it comes to Nintendo's consoles, I now have absolutely zero expectations for anything they put out until I play it, especially at launch.

[NWR_insanolord]

I am pumped for this. Looks like my first E3 trip is going to be a big one.

[xcwarrior]

“So Wii U, you show your true form!"

Just as long as its specs are 1/2 of what the PS4 and Xbox 3 will be.

[Ras]

It wouldn't hurt if they decided to rename it.

[Kytim89]

It would make my heart fill with joy if Nintendo renamed the Wii U to "Super Wii."

[Chozo Ghost]

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata stated that the "bitter" lesson learned by the 3DS launch has them taking extra precautions to ensure that the launch of the Wii U is a successful one.

I hope the lesson they learned is to sell the hardware at or around cost, and not with $100 markup. That doesn't mean they should water down the Wii U and go with the cheapest components possible just so they can sell it at the lowest price possible. That's what they did with the Wii, and it left the wii weak compared to the competition.

So is it good that Nintendo learned a "bitter" lesson with the 3DS? That depends on how they've interpreted that lesson. At least they know they did something wrong, so that's something, but do they know correctly what was wrong and more importantly how to do it correctly?

[Ceric]

I would take away a few things with that.

1) Launched has been delayed from Nintendo's Original planned date
2) The Mario 3D Land/Mario Kart 7 equivalent games for Wii U will be Launch or almost Launch
3) The online eShop will probably be useful for the WiiU
4) One of the big Marketing problems for the 3DS is that looks like a DS, Smells like a DS, plays like a DS, and Named like a DS so using Duck Typing it must be a DS which it really isn't.  I'm hoping Nintendo recognizes this and part of the Delay is getting the Wii U to not easily be Duck Typed to a Wii variant.  I expect to see a semi radical redesign to the actual console.  The uMote is locked I'm fairly sure but the console itself I seriously doubt it will look like a Wii anymore.  I'm hoping for a sphere in the spirit of the Gamecube and the Power Mac G4 Cube, which is darn pretty to this day.  A GameSphere if you will.
5) The Markup won't be large

[Fatty The Hutt]

Good. I have just enough time to start saving. Putting away $25/month should go a long way to offsetting the cost of this new toy.
 
@ceric - LOL at Okama Gamesphere reference
 
@JP - look forward to your E3 podcasts, you lucky bastard!!

[NintendoFanboy]

the only lesson nintendo learned, is release near holiday, at low price with a mario title.
they need to ditch the :
1 name
2. look (shouldnt look like Wii)
3.Family fun tag
Need to have quality tech that is true PS4 and 360x2 equal and have killer 1st and 3rd party games.
BBut its nintendo, and they wont. still love them, but god bless them, they dont get it.

[Ras]

4) One of the big Marketing problems for the 3DS is that looks like a DS, Smells like a DS, plays like a DS, and Named like a DS so using Duck Typing it must be a DS which it really isn't.

It's really bad with the boxes.  Sure, they shifted the logo to the right side of the box, but they completely blend in on the shelf--especially somewhere like Walmart, where they mix the 3DS and DS games together.  They should even now find a way to totally differentiate the games.  They shouldn't just say, "Well, what's done is done."

[NWR_insanolord]

the only lesson nintendo learned, is release near holiday, at low price with a mario title.
they need to ditch the :
1 name
2. look (shouldnt look like Wii)
3.Family fun tag
Need to have quality tech that is true PS4 and 360x2 equal and have killer 1st and 3rd party games.
BBut its nintendo, and they wont. still love them, but god bless them, they dont get it.

None of those first three things are important. The name and physical shape are irrelevant, and that's probably the best way to market it to a mass audience. The games are what's important. If Nintendo should focus on one thing, it should be high quality first- and third-party support. As long as they've got that they'll be fine, even if they pick an even worse name and it looks exactly like the Wii.

[Mop it up]

Well, this confirms that they won't be launching it anytime in the first six months, as some were speculating. I just hope that they learned the right lessons from the 3DS launch; knowing how Nintendo tends to have a unique interpretation of things, I'm not entirely convinced they realize all of the reasons the 3DS is having a slow start.

[Ceric]

4) One of the big Marketing problems for the 3DS is that looks like a DS, Smells like a DS, plays like a DS, and Named like a DS so using Duck Typing it must be a DS which it really isn't.

It's really bad with the boxes.  Sure, they shifted the logo to the right side of the box, but they completely blend in on the shelf--especially somewhere like Walmart, where they mix the 3DS and DS games together.  They should even now find a way to totally differentiate the games.  They shouldn't just say, "Well, what's done is done."

Seriously, personally I can see why they wouldn't want to change the game cases form factor but for goodness sake make them a strikingly different color or something.  They are hard to pick out when close or mixed with the DS games.  I should be able tell at near glance between the two.

[ThePerm]

They really should change the name, I'm used to it, but they can do better. As far as 3DS goes, they should make the box a bright color, and not white with colored lettering on it, that way it contrasts the previous product. When I opened my Wii i was really pleased by the Cyan Cardboard.

[SilverQuilava]

I can't even imagine how many games for the Wii U will be announced at that point!