Topic: The OFFICIAL Big N rumor thread *bring your own salt*

[Stogi]

The Wii 2 itself has to be beefed up in order to send processed HD video, especially if controller can act independently of each other.

[Adrock]

Either this console is gonna be expensive, I've extremely over estimated the cost of parts, this controller is not gonna be anything like the rumors suggest or the console itself will be weak in favor of a beefed up controller.

The console can be a beast and have a pricey controller as well. If Nintendo and 3rd parties can deliver a seamless and unique experience, price really isn't going to be an issue. That's a huge "if" but if any company can do it, I'd put money on Nintendo. They've made ideas work that sound absolutely insane on paper. Ignore the one handed controller shaped like a TV remote. How about Mario driving a go-kart? How about Mario in general? Bitch, please....

$15 seems low for a 6 inch screen. For comparison's sake, the iPhone 4's screen was $28.50 when it first came out. Granted, I doubt the resolution would be as high on Nintendo's controller, but it is a larger screen and I would hope Nintendo would be smart enough to use something lightweight and durable like Gorilla Glass since, unlike the 3DS, the touch screen would be exposed at all times (I always thought DS/3DS should have employed glass touch screens). Scratched screens = FTL

Also, Nintendo could get a camera capable of 1080p for under $10 but considering the 3DS cameras cost less than $1, that seems more likely. I'm not sure Nintendo can get away with selling an $80 controller even though they did for like a year and a half. Selling something in 3 installments (i.e. Wii Remote, nunchuck, Motion Plus) appears cheaper than a lump sum of $80. That's why informercials seems so enticing even though "3 easy payments of $49.99" really means "$150. Nintendo should aim for $60, $70 tops.

By the way, you forgot the speaker. That was a great addition to the Wii remote and woefully under-utilized.

[Spak-Spang]

Which is why I don't think this controller will have all that.  I still find it hard to believe you can truly experience real touch with haptics...but I am willing and hoping to be surprised.

I know Nintendo has raised the bar for pricey controllers...they thought people would carry their controllers over and you would not need more than 1 or 2 tops...but that isn't realistic.  People MUSt have 2 controllers, but most people have 3-4 controllers because they want to play with their friends at home...and not everyone has a system, or carries controllers with them. 

I think a lot of the extra features in these controllers don't exist.  A touch screen yes...but it will not be HD, it will be a resolution between the 3DS and DS I could see that. 

[Adrock]

The resolution better be higher if the screen is expected to be that much bigger than a 3DS screen.

I can believe the touchscreen just not the haptic layer.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I figure a speaker is had for pennies at this point too.

As far as the screen is concerned, it's rumored to be 800x500 which isn't HD, but might look it at only 6.2" (rumored size).

But the Haptic Touchscreen would be really cool, and if it's as cheap as I think it is, since there are other companies putting them on market as we speak, then I say Nintendo should implement it and take the credit for making it a widespread tech like the touchscreen on the DS.

[Nemo]

 I'm usually an early adopter (launch) and other friends will want to play, but can't bring their own controllers if they don't own the system. So, I generally buy 4 controllers. Maybe not this time, though...

[Stogi]

Jeezzz...

E3 can't come soon enough.

[Shorty McNostril]

All this haptic stuff was all the rage before the Wii remote was revealed.  Pretty much every rumor involved haptics somehow.  I don't believe it for a second this time either.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Project Cafe: 8GB onboard Flash, 25GB disc
http://kotaku.com/#!5797890/nintendos-next-console-will-enter-the-hd-era-but-not-the-hard+drive-era

The console, codenamed Project Café, will include 8 gigabytes of on-board flash-based memory, presumably for game storage. That quantity, while nearly 16 times the storage capacity of the Wii, is smaller than the 20GB of room available in the original, optional hard drives offered in 2005 for the Xbox 360. The amount of memory in the new Nintendo console would also be dwarfed by the 250 GB drives offered in current, high-end versions of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
[...]
The new 2012-scheduled Nintendo system will fall more in line with the 360 and PlayStation 3 by matching those consoles' abilities to render and output graphics in high-definition. I've heard mixed things about whether Nintendo will cap their machine's graphical resolution at 1080i or 1080p, but either figure would significantly exceed the Wii's 480p and achieve the resolutions used for most high-end console games on the Microsoft and Sony consoles.

Nintendo's disc format for the new console will hold 25GB of data, I've heard. That capacity is triple the size of the biggest DVD-style discs for Wii and Xbox 360 and comparable to the capacity of single-layer Blu-Ray discs on the PlayStation 3.

more at the link

8GB onboard flash sounds fine(16-32GB sounds better), 25GB disc sounds great, 1080p should be a given.
SD card support is good, but Optional HDD's better be an option though.

[Ceric]

Project Cafe: 8GB onboard Flash, 25GB disc
http://kotaku.com/#!5797890/nintendos-next-console-will-enter-the-hd-era-but-not-the-hard+drive-era

The console, codenamed Project Café, will include 8 gigabytes of on-board flash-based memory, presumably for game storage. That quantity, while nearly 16 times the storage capacity of the Wii, is smaller than the 20GB of room available in the original, optional hard drives offered in 2005 for the Xbox 360. The amount of memory in the new Nintendo console would also be dwarfed by the 250 GB drives offered in current, high-end versions of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
[...]
The new 2012-scheduled Nintendo system will fall more in line with the 360 and PlayStation 3 by matching those consoles' abilities to render and output graphics in high-definition. I've heard mixed things about whether Nintendo will cap their machine's graphical resolution at 1080i or 1080p, but either figure would significantly exceed the Wii's 480p and achieve the resolutions used for most high-end console games on the Microsoft and Sony consoles.

Nintendo's disc format for the new console will hold 25GB of data, I've heard. That capacity is triple the size of the biggest DVD-style discs for Wii and Xbox 360 and comparable to the capacity of single-layer Blu-Ray discs on the PlayStation 3.

more at the link

8GB onboard flash sounds fine(16-32GB sounds better), 25GB disc sounds great, 1080p should be a given.
SD card support is good, but Optional HDD's better be an option though.

That doesn't make sense. 
It sound like Nintendo was using HD-DVD with that size. 
8GB of drive is pathetic.  If a smartphone can generally have as much space as your console that's pathetic.  8gb of flash for developers to use for whatever for their games that be cool. 
Since my TV can only do 480i/p and 1080i I'm ok with that.  Though the 25gb disc with how big Blu-ray easily gets seems silly unless it wasn't actually optical.

I'm really hoping that the 8gb of flash are used like I mentioned.  That would help bring load times down.

[BlackNMild2k1]

8GB of fast onboard flash is fine. SD card support is still in and if you look at the 3DS, the SD card storage is an extension of the onboard flash. 16GB SD cards cost like $20-$30 today and likely to be $15-$20 each a year from now. Nintendo is also doing a background OS, so being expandable by external HDD can easily be achieved with a FW update.

25GB is the size of a single layer Bluray Disc.
if my memory serves me right, HDDVD was 15GB single layer
So if this rumor is true, then that rumor of them Using a Bluray disc is true and our speculation that they would do it just like DVD's and not use the file format but use the physical disc would be correct.
So hopefully they allow the end user to pay the licensing fee and allow Bluray playback, that would be another good move from Nintendo.

As far as the 1080i thing, I didn't even acknowledge it as a possibility. It makes no sense. Who would cap their resolution at 1080i? If Nintendo was gonna support HD and wanted to ensure relevance by possibly being lead dev when PS4/720 hit the market, then 1080p standard is the only choice on the table. I'm not even gonna consider 1080i a possibility.

[Chozo Ghost]

I'm disappointed by this lack of a hard drive. 8gb is no where near enough for modern games. That might let you hold one or maybe two HD games, but that's it. It seems like in every generation Nintendo is always one step behind in at least one thing. I guess in this generation its going to be HDD support. But the ridiculous thing about this is even the original Xbox and the PS2 (optionally) had support for hard drives. I just looked on Wikipedia and the original Xbox had a hard drive of 8gb or 10gb, so the next generation Nintendo console is going to have only as much or less space as the original Xbox. This is just ridiculous of Nintendo.

You all know what this is going to mean, don't you? This means that once again 3rd parties are going to have an excuse to ignore a Nintendo console. With only 8gb of storage, DLC addons are going to be severely restricted and installing games to the hard drive is also out of the question. This sucks!

[King of Twitch]

BUT IT'S ONBOARD STORAGE. IT'S LITERRALLY ON. BOARD.

[BlackNMild2k1]

BUT IT'S ONBOARD STORAGE. IT'S LITERRALLY ON. BOARD.

seriously.
The original Xbox has 0 bytes of onboard storage
The original Xbox360 had 0 bytes of onboard storage (+ Optional 20-250GB HDD)
The PS3 has 0 bytes of onboard storage (+ 20GB - 250GB HDD)
Wii has 512MB of onboard storage
New 360slim has 4GB of onboard storage (+ Optional 250GB HDD)
3DS has 2GB of onboard storage (+ 2GB SD card)

Wii2 is rumored to have 8GB of onboard storage

sounds like Nintendo is ahead of the curve on Onboard storage
HDD support on the other hand.....

Atleast we will have SD card expansion out of the box if 3DS is anything to go by.
32GB SD card Aren't that expensive right now and will only be cheaper a year from now and then again a year from then.


edit: Nintendo could always do what they did with the 3DS (& Verizon did with my cell phone) by including a separate SD card to expand space out of the box. Maybe Wii2 will come with a 16GB card already in the slot just like my phone came with a 32GB card already installed.

[Kytim89]

BUT IT'S ONBOARD STORAGE. IT'S LITERRALLY ON. BOARD.

seriously.
The original Xbox has 0 bytes of onboard storage
The original Xbox360 had 0 bytes of onboard storage (+ Optional 20-250GB HDD)
The PS3 has 0 bytes of onboard storage (+ 20GB - 250GB HDD)
Wii has 512MB of onboard storage
New 360slim has 4GB of onboard storage (+ Optional 250GB HDD)
3DS has 2GB of onboard storage (+ 2GB SD card)

Wii2 is rumored to have 8GB of onboard storage

sounds like Nintendo is ahead of the curve on Onboard storage
HDD support on the other hand.....

Atleast we will have SD card expansion out of the box if 3DS is anything to go by.
32GB SD card Aren't that expensive right now and will only be cheaper a year from now and then again a year from then.


edit: Nintendo could always do what they did with the 3DS (& Verizon did with my cell phone) by including a separate SD card to expand space out of the box. Maybe Wii2 will come with a 16GB card already in the slot just like my phone came with a 32GB card already installed.

What I see Nintendo doing with the Wii2 HDD is to just provide a slot for a 2.5 SATA laptop HDD like that of the PS3 and then let the consumer provide their hard drive.

[BlackNMild2k1]

That's also a possibility and much better than the idea I had of them releasing an external shell tethered by a USB 3.0 cable, that you just plug any HDD into and the Wii2 would recognize it & format it accordingly.

[Kytim89]

That's also a possibility and much better than the idea I had of them releasing an external shell tethered by a USB 3.0 cable, that you just plug any HDD into and the Wii2 would recognize it & format it accordingly.

I assume that Nintendo will allow every storage option available jut to avoid the same issue that they faced with the Wii. High definition graphics and advanced online capabilities is not enough to attract third parties alone. The system needs as much storage as possible and the only true way to accomodate that issue is to have an HDD with storage options as high as 500 GBs from the box. Of course I stand by my motion that Nintendo will not provide the HDDs themsleves but the slot in order to avoid cost issues. Let the consumer decide what is best for them by making every modern storage solution avalaible for your system out of the box on day one.

One reason for Nintendo to inlcude HDD support is Gamecube emulation. If the Gamecube were to appear on Virtual Console then it will need lots of storage to accomodate the games. Nintendo can never pass up the opprotunity to charge us on stuff that they have already sold us before, so I assume that if the only thing standing in the way of Nintendo and greater riches via Gamecube emulation is a HDD slot then it will support hard drives.
 
 

[Caterkiller]

BUT IT'S ONBOARD STORAGE. IT'S LITERRALLY ON. BOARD.

seriously.
The original Xbox has 0 bytes of onboard storage
The original Xbox360 had 0 bytes of onboard storage (+ Optional 20-250GB HDD)
The PS3 has 0 bytes of onboard storage (+ 20GB - 250GB HDD)
Wii has 512MB of onboard storage
New 360slim has 4GB of onboard storage (+ Optional 250GB HDD)
3DS has 2GB of onboard storage (+ 2GB SD card)

Wii2 is rumored to have 8GB of onboard storage

sounds like Nintendo is ahead of the curve on Onboard storage
HDD support on the other hand.....

Atleast we will have SD card expansion out of the box if 3DS is anything to go by.
32GB SD card Aren't that expensive right now and will only be cheaper a year from now and then again a year from then.


edit: Nintendo could always do what they did with the 3DS (& Verizon did with my cell phone) by including a separate SD card to expand space out of the box. Maybe Wii2 will come with a 16GB card already in the slot just like my phone came with a 32GB card already installed.

I just read about this in talkback and everyone elses negative predictions lowered my spirits. But I read this and I am content again. Cafe is predicted to have some on board storage while the latest systems today have 0? Plus we can potentially add more later with big SD's or maybe a hard drive? Whats the problem? Someone argue with BlackN so I can get a different view point on why this could be bad. I'm as technical as a tree so all I can do is sit, watch, and then be influenced by everyone else here.

BlackNMild what do you do for a living? You should be in some kind of marketing, or spokesmen for something.

[Ceric]

I think the Hard drive slot solution would be a good one for all parties available.  I've seen plenty of enclosures where its simply plug it in same as a cartridge.  I can get behind that idea.

[Kytim89]

As for the optical media of the Wii 2, I am going to assume dual layered HD-DVD and not Blu Ray because Nintendo may not want to get involved with Sony.

[Ceric]

As for the optical media of the Wii 2, I am going to assume dual layered HD-DVD and not Blu Ray because Nintendo may not want to get involved with Sony.

I'm sure it will be something semi-custom.

[BlackNMild2k1]

As for the optical media of the Wii 2, I am going to assume dual layered HD-DVD and not Blu Ray because Nintendo may not want to get involved with Sony.

I've looked into that a bit and just so you know Sony doesn't own Bluray. The Bluray Consortium does and I think Panasonic actually holds the most Bluray related patents in the group.

So even if Nintendo was to pay royalties for bluray movie playback, which they likely won't, Sony would see a few pennies of that fee. Currently I think the fee is only $14 and Sony would see much less than $1 of it in a best case scenario.

Avoiding giving Sony ~36million  ($.060 per license x 60mill units) over the next 5 years is hardly worth the consideration. But like I said, Nintendo wouldn't use the licensing and instead do what they did for DVD on the Wii & miniDVD on the GC; use the physical disc and laser of the format but not the file system for movie playback compliance.

[Chozo Ghost]

As for the optical media of the Wii 2, I am going to assume dual layered HD-DVD and not Blu Ray because Nintendo may not want to get involved with Sony.

It would make some sense from an Anti-piracy standpoint as well, since HD-DVD is a dead format which means the burnable media for it is no longer being manufactured. Once existing stocks are gone, they're gone for good. The burners are also no longer being manufactured as well. Blu-ray is now an industry standard and computers are increasingly adopting Blu-ray drives and burners. It is a very vulnerable format to piracy, much like DVD and CD before.

Of course, giving an F-you to Sony by not using their proprietary format nor having to pay them licensing fees in order to use it are also major pluses. Why would Nintendo want to use a format owned by their main rival? That was why they rejected the SNES CD addon because Sony would have owned the rights to it. So it makes sense by that same logic they wouldn't want to use Blu-ray either.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I swear my post are invisible.

HDDVD will be easy to revive with very similar disc formats in China.

Sony DOES NOT own Bluray and it is not their own proprietary format.
The Bluray Disc Association owns it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc_Association
as Bluray as it is today was a collaborative effort from many different companies who probably all own some patents that were used in finalizing the tech that we use today.

Sony sees a very small portion of royalties from Bluray movie sales and licensing for the BRD drives (capable of playing back movies) are at ~$14 per unit right now and expected to drop again next year.

A bigger F-U to Sony that also helps Nintendo (& one of it's partners Panasonic) is to use the Bluray format and not pay any licensing to anyone.... like they did with DVD on the Wii and miniDVD on the GC.




edit: And to my understanding Nintendo didn't back out of the Play Station with Sony because it used CD's that would give sony rights to Nintendo's money, they backed out of it because of a term in the contract where Sony would own any properties released on the CD's for use with the Play Station. 2 very different things.

[Ceric]

I swear my post are invisible.

HDDVD will be easy to revive with very similar disc formats in China.

Sony DOES NOT own Bluray and it is not their own proprietary format.
The Bluray Disc Association owns it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc_Association
as Bluray as it is today was a collaborative effort from many different companies who probably all own some patents that were used in finalizing the tech that we use today.

Sony sees a very small portion of royalties from Bluray movie sales and licensing for the BRD drives (capable of playing back movies) are at ~$14 per unit right now and expected to drop again next year.

A bigger F-U to Sony that also helps Nintendo (& one of it's partners Panasonic) is to use the Bluray format and not pay any licensing to anyone.... like they did with DVD on the Wii and miniDVD on the GC.




edit: And to my understanding Nintendo didn't back out of the Play Station with Sony because it used CD's that would give sony rights to Nintendo's money, they backed out of it because of a term in the contract where Sony would own any properties released on the CD's for use with the Play Station. 2 very different things.

Also have it spin backward.     As I said I'm sure that it will be something mostly custom except the media.  The Presses themselves don't care.