I'm surprised it took them this long to put together a team to work on components for the next-generation Nintendo hardware, honestly.  You'd think by now the Wii and DS's true successors would be approaching the middle-to-late stage of development.  Of course, we don't know for a fact that's what IBM's getting contracted to work on, but it's a pretty safe assumption.

I'll bet that all they are doing is reinstating the chips that IBM had originally planned for Wii before Nintendo made them shelve it and overclock the GC instead.

It was a good call on Nintendos part since Sony & MS were pushing the tech to far too fast (see developers cost sky rocketing by using bleeding edge graphic tech). It also make Next generation R&D much cheaper since, well, its already been done & the cost of achieveing what they want(360/PS3+ level) is already cheap, and getting cheaper.

I don't think the DS uses any IBM components and I doubt a DS successor would either.

I would love to know if next-gen is going to follow the tradition of each console being smaller than its predecessor. Wii is practically pushing it close so i would love to know how it's going to turn out size wise.

I bet they are discussing the technical and business liabilities of returning to cartridges.

LOL

Tell me, they have two systems out which are completely owning all the other systems in their category. Why would they even be THINKING about releasing new systems anytime soon?

In the past, as soon as the current system is finalized, R&D starts on the next system. Why would that change this time?

Supposedly from what I understand Nintendo has been pouring massive amounts of R&D money into something (or somethings) even more so then with Wii.

That makes sense.

They started the slope, and now they need to pay hefty to slide down it....if they want to succeed that is.

Exactly, but my post was in response to:

Nintendo is always THINKING about what it is going to do next, that is why it starts R&D for the next system immediately after finalizing the current system.

And I think that whatever Nintendo has planned for the next system better be really good, because Sony & MS are gonna try to replicate everything that Nintendo did right this time around while also staying ahead of the curve graphically.

it begins!!! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

Exactly.  Nintendo always has to be planning for the future, which means doing R&D on the Wii/DS's successors while those platforms are still performing well and bringing in the cash that funds such work.  This ensures that by the time the Wii and DS are in their declining years, the next generation of hardware is ready to go.  Pretty simple, actually, and frankly common sense.

Coming up with the next product and deciding when to unleash it are different topics.

I LOL alongside Dirk on this.  Wii/DS are on the 10-year plan to pancake this industry into submission.  3rd parties, prepare your bankruptcy statements.

"I have no money. You win."?

Maybe Nintendo will start handing out "Bail Out/Stimulus" loans with exclusivity agreements attached to it.

Fat chance.  Market prosperity and customers have to be earned.

Yeah, R&D doesn't mean that they are or even should be "almost done" by now. They have literally zero incentive to release a new console, and all incentive to take their time with the new machine.

the official statement will be something like this from the nintendo pr spin.

"We here at Nintendo are always looking to innovate and create new mediums for which we can deliver our ideas."

That's a good statement.  It distracts people from the fact that Nintendo execs spend their work days swimming in pools of money.

Man i wish i was a nintendo exec. I love swimming, but i dont always like to get wet.. swimming in money would solve that problem.

Nintendo exec. don't swim in money. They build miniature cities made of money and tear them down Godzilla style.

They build blocks that can be suspended from the ceiling, fill them with money and paint a question mark on them, then punch them from below until the money flies out.

That would be great for a Nintendo-themed live game show.

Nintendo exec. don't swim in money. They ski down hills of it.

They bake money in the oven with self-raising dough.

OH SNAPS

Nintendo president says Wii Music, Animal Crossing disappoint with 2.65M, 3.38M sales, explains rationale behind Vitality Sensor, and still-forming plans for the system's successor.

In light of declining Wii sales, analysts have been projecting a price cut for the system for months. However, Nintendo has stood its ground, refusing to drop the price on its latest console, which has retailed in the US for $249.99 since its launch in November 2006.


Still waiting for a price drop to pick one up?
In a transcript of Nintendo's post-earnings conference call translated by GameSpot, Iwata said there were no plans for price cuts at the moment, saying that price hasn't been the reason for declining hardware sales. Instead, he pointed to weakness in the system's recent lineup of titles. For example, in the same quarter that Nintendo launched Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii last year, the publisher had no major releases.

Nintendo expects that situation to be remedied shortly, as the company's slate for the rest of the year is being forecast favorably against last year's launches. Iwata said that last year's big Wii launches in the back half of the year--Wii Music and Animal Crossing: City Folk--failed to live up to expectations, selling 2.65 million and 3.38 million copies worldwide, respectively. By contrast, the publisher expects its 2009 lineup--the recently released Wii Sports Resort and the upcoming Wii Fit Plus and New Super Mario Bros. Wii--to each surpass the 10 million units sold worldwide milestone in its current fiscal year (12 months ending March 31, 2010).

Iwata also shed a little light on the company's decision to pursue the Wii Vitality Sensor pulse-monitoring peripheral. He said the company likes to challenge itself with such unproven concepts at least every two years, and explained the reasoning behind the sensor's E3 unveiling.

"At this year's E3, there was a danger that we were being perceived as a company that creates many sequels," Iwata said, adding, "As a time frame, we would like to bring this to not too late into next year but as mentioned before, in software, the last bit of effort is very important so we'd like to withhold a exact time frame."

Looking beyond the Wii, Iwata answered a question about the next generation of Nintendo console hardware, and how it won't be coming any time soon.

"We we are currently approaching the end of a cycle and must start thinking about releasing the next piece of hardware at all," Iwata said. "And so we are not setting a determination on how long this console should remain active. Of course research into hardware is ongoing and we are developing the next console. When we determine that the ideas of our employees match the flow of the world and we can provide the appropriate amount of stock at a reasonable price, that is when we can start talking about when to release the next piece of hardware. But we feel that this is not something that will happen at any time in the near future."

I think that goes without saying Mr. Iwata.


Nintendo exec. don't swim in money. They put googly eyes on stacks of them and reenact Shakespeare.

Dammit BnM where was your quip about nintendo execs! you ruined it!

'at a boy Stogi, 'at a boy.

Oh, my bad

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c262/BlackNMild2k1/8e0w183.gif

ROFLMAO

Just what i needed to end a long day of work. Thank you guys.

Iwata:  (laughs)  I'M RIIIIICCH, BIOOOTCCH!

It's hard to resist using that in my sig, but its long enough already...

Hopefully it's a new gameboy; Where's my third-pillar Nintendo!

I think 10 years is freakishly optimistic.  The Wii was realistically behind the times with it's no-HD support when it came out.  In 2016 you think a console that doesn't support HDTV features is not going to seem ridiculously out of date?

Nintendo is not without competition.  Sony and MS are introducing their own motion control options.  Now I find them to be pretty laughable but things aren't final yet.  Sony and MS likely will release another console in that time where they will have a clear edge in hardware (though if they're smart it will be a more conservative and less expensive one) and they'll have motion control, which will likely be more refined because they'll have learned from their first attempt with their current consoles.  Nintendo will no longer have any unique feature to hold over the competition.

Now maybe Nintendo will combat that.  Maybe the competition will fuck it all up.  But for Nintendo to not at least prepare for this would be idiotic.  So I think it's pretty damn obvious that Nintendo is working on the next gen.  Maybe they don't need it yet but if they have even the simplest business logic they're not risking that.  They're well aware of how competitive the console market is and can't risk having the competition get a hit with their next console and then be stuck with an outdated machine on the market while they scramble to get a new product out the door on short notice.  They cannot assume everything will go 100% the way they want it, particularly when a 10-year lifespan would go against any previous console market trends.

Considering their R&D is supposedly higher then when they were in the beginning stages with Wii I think Nintendo is taking the competition seriously for next generation. Should be one of the most exciting gaming generations in quite some time because we will see what each company does with the motion controls which Nintendo single handily started with Wii. There is so much room to grow now when it comes to how we interact with games, that it should be good times for gamers.

Just remember that the DS was done many years before it released. Nintendo will be ready for whatever the competition has to offer.
Nintendo already learned the lesson that Sony is just now being taught; There is only room for 1 at the top & down is the only other place you have to go.

It's 2009,

and the United States of Technology was worried about the "digital TV conversion" for millions of Amerikan TV viewers.  If this is the climate we've been living in, then the Wii platform (despite whatever multiple-color Pikachu iSlim-GO SKU models that come down the road) will continue to be a fancy tech toy commodity for a comfortable duration.

It's 2009,

and the Y2K-born PLAYSTATION 2 still gets supported by software and sales.

This is reality.

My prediction for next generation: Nintendo will be profitable, Sony and MS will lose money for at least a couple of years!