Topic: New Wii U Development Kits to Be Sent Out Soon

[Crimm]

The newest iteration of the hardware will arrive either this month or next.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/26864

Nintendo will be sending out the next generation of Wii U development kits either this month or next. This news comes from comments Sega Europe's Gary Dunn made to Eurogamer.

As was reported earlier this week, the kits that developers have been working on are underclocked, and Nintendo deemed the visuals they produced as not of sufficient quality to show at E3. Dunn explains that the new kits will be more representative of the final components of the Wii U hardware. "It's still a little early. There's another generation of prototype hardware coming out in June or July that's going to give us more information."

Dunn would not comment on how long they've had their current Wii U hardware, nor could he say if the system is more powerful than the PS3 or 360. He noted simply that "it's different" and that the system is "quite powerful." He also noted that Sega's engineers have been able to easily get prototypes running on the new hardware.

Sega's Alien: Colonial Marines has already been announced for Wii U. He confirms that the porting process can be done "very quickly", but also cautions that Sega will make all porting decisions based on "platform by platform consideration." He also points out that they aren't interested in straight ports of PS3 and 360 games as "the new control mechanic allows some asymmetrical gameplay which we're quite excited about - to leverage that when we're looking to put any game on that system."

[Ailingforale]

Wonder if they will put an ethernet port on the back this go-round...

[MegaByte]

Highly doubtful. There isn't much of a demand for that.

[SilverQuilava]

hehe! Sega's never gonna die out! Man I can't wait for Sonic Generations.

[Chozo Ghost]

Highly doubtful. There isn't much of a demand for that.

Also, Ethernet can be added via a USB adapter I believe.

[ThePerm]

i crossed out ethernet on my want list..meh. Its a little faster than wireless, but not enough to worry about, i play minecraft all the time wirelessly and experience little lag.

[Morari]

How about a lot faster than wireless? Theoretically, even under the best of conditions, your 802.11n connection is going to top out at 300Mbps. Your typical Cat6 Ethernet connection however is going to run full speed, 24/7, at 1000Mbps (1Gbps). Furthermore, wired connections are more secure and more reliable. Packet loss and interference isn't the problem that it is with wireless networking. It's a helluva lot easier to set up as well. Plugging in a USB adapter is not an ideal solution, as that only further decreases your speed. USB adapters are a terrible bottleneck.

Wireless connectivity is fine for the basic needs of my netbook and my Nook, but it's not something I'd count on for much else... especially the high demands of gaming.

[ThePerm]

like i said, i dont have problems with lag, and im wireless gaming practically all the time, im also surprised they diodnt go usb 3.0 considering its fast

[Ceric]

I will make the counter argument that you unless you live in Chattannooga or somewhere similar you can't get a Pipe to the Internet that will come close to using 10% of 300mb.  I do agree with Package lose and that Wired connections should always be used when available but its not a bandwidth issue.

[Chozo Ghost]

It's a helluva lot easier to set up as well.

Less software configuration is required, but it isn't easier in a physical sense if you have your modem/router in one room and the gaming system in another. 50ft-200ft ethernet cables do exist, but setting them up so they aren't laying across the floor is a challenge. My house doesn't have a basement, so for me to do that I would have to go in the crawlspace with the mold and spiders and then drill holes through the floor then run the cables under the house. It doesn't sound like an easy thing to do.

Plugging in a USB adapter is not an ideal solution, as that only further decreases your speed. USB adapters are a terrible bottleneck.

That makes sense. I'm wondering how much of a decrease it is, though. Is it a huge decrease? Is it still better than WiFi?

[Crimm]

My preference is for anything that is stationary is to wire it.