Topic: Wii Successor and Glassess Free 3D: How Will It Work?

[ThePerm]

head tracking works pretty well.

I think the motion sensor which isn't actually a motion sensor but a bunch of infrared LEDs on the wii 2 should have a cheap camera that at least if not tracking where your head is tracks where your wii mote is in relation to your head. Your head is 99% of the time pretty much in between where you hold the nunchuck and the wiimote. If it uses a night vision filter it might be able to track where your eyes are pretty cheaply. The question is how cheap can they make a camera that is just good enough to function?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkEcljNBggU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTBz0A47XA4&NR=1

[MegaByte]

I do think a combination of Move and Kinect would be awesome to see in the next system, though I have to wonder if we'd ever see anything like that for two reasons: Nintendo didn't come up with it themselves, and now there are patents to deal with.

[Kytim89]

In order for the wii 2 to be successful it must have established third party series that remain loyal to the brand. Red Steel, No More Heroes, Madworld, The Conduit and many others to remain on the system and give it a sense of identity.
 
 

[ThePerm]

games of this generation...

[Sarail]

In order for the wii 2 to be successful it must have established third party series that remain loyal to the brand. Red Steel, No More Heroes, Madworld, The Conduit and many others to remain on the system and give it a sense of identity.

Nah, games such as those aren't what needs to be successful with 3rd parties.  Street Fighter, mainline Resident Evil series, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Lara Croft, etc etc....  series such as those from the major 3rd parties are what will determine Nintendo's success next go around.  Especially the mainline Final Fantasy series.  If Square ever brought it back to Nintendo's console... then yeah, man... Nintendo's back in business with 3rd parties.  As of right now, though, they're still on the crapper.

[Ian Sane]

In order for the wii 2 to be successful it must have established third party series that remain loyal to the brand. Red Steel, No More Heroes, Madworld, The Conduit and many others to remain on the system and give it a sense of identity.

I can't think of a list of third party games that would have less of an impact.  If those games mattered no one would complain about Wii third party support in the first place.  If these games are the big third party titles next gen then nothing has changed.
 
What Nintendo needs is for the Wii 2 to be the de facto default choice for new games.  That's healthy third party support.  The Xbox 360 has the best third party support this gen.  If you own that console, when a new game is announced, unless it is published by Nintendo or Sony, you can just assume it's going to be on your console.  90% of the time it is.  That's good third party support.  That's what it was like to own a PS2, PS1, SNES or NES.  New game announced and you can assume it's for your console until proven otherwise.
 
I want the Wii 2 to be the target platform for all the major third parties.  That doesn't mean you get one or two exclusives from them.  It means the vast majority of the games they make are designed with your console in mind.
 
And exclusives are not that important.  What's important is getting the majority of the major games.  Whether it's an exclusive or multiplatform title is rather irrelevant.

[Kytim89]

The only way for the wii 2 to recieve the brunt of thrd party support is to keep development costs for the machine far cheaper than the PS3/4 and 360/720. I do not understand how this could happen, but it would help out a whole lot.
 
 

[broodwars]

The only way for the wii 2 to recieve the brunt of thrd party support is to keep development costs for the machine far cheaper than the PS3/4 and 360/720. I do not understand how this could happen, but it would help out a whole lot.

No, we've been there with the Wii already: development costs are a major factor, but that doesn't matter if developers don't think they can get people to buy their games on that platform.  Nintendo needs to establish good 3rd party relations and restore faith in those developers that big 3rd party projects can sell on Nintendo platforms, along with factoring their needs in when designing the hardware.  Otherwise, what we saw with the Wii will just happen again.

[AV]

I do think a combination of Move and Kinect would be awesome to see in the next system, though I have to wonder if we'd ever see anything like that for two reasons: Nintendo didn't come up with it themselves, and now there are patents to deal with.

True but it would be fairly easy.


1) Upgrade censor bar
2) Upgrade wiimote


I'm sure they will think of something else to really make it stand out.

[Kytim89]

Having Final Fantasy XV for the wii 2 would truelly be a feather in its cap and a huge score for Nintendo. Although people will be nervous thinking that motion controls are going to be gimmicked into the game.
 
What does wiiware and the virtual console services look like on the wii 2? Are new consoles emulated? Would any one shy away from the idea of having HD 8-bit game?

[broodwars]

Having Final Fantasy XV for the wii 2 would truelly be a feather in its cap and a huge score for Nintendo. Although people will be nervous thinking that motion controls are going to be gimmicked into the game.
 
What does wiiware and the virtual console services look like on the wii 2? Are new consoles emulated? Would any one shy away from the idea of having HD 8-bit game?

I think the WiiWare (or whatever its next-gen counterpart will be) and VC services will be roughly the same, maybe better organized this time with layouts similar to that of the PSN store so titles have a better chance of being seen and purchased.  I don't think we'll be able to bring over our old titles, though.  I think Nintendo will concoct a reason to make us purchase our old VC/WW games again, just like the trial balloon they floated earlier with DSiWare not being transferrable.  As for the consoles, I think we'll see GameCube, Dreamcast, and potentially Saturn games added to the VC.

[Ian Sane]

Development costs could provide an advantage but Nintendo has to actually have lower dev costs.  They don't right now, they're just selling a cheaper product.  Yeah it costs less to make a Wii game but it has to have Gamecube level visuals.  That's not really saving any money, I'm getting what I pay for.  If I want the superior graphics of the HD consoles I have to pay extra for it.  So Nintendo's hamburger is cheaper than Sony's and Microsoft's steak?  Who cares?  If Nintendo wants to attract support with lower developer costs they have to sell steak for cheaper.

And I don't think any third party felt for a second that Nintendo was doing them any favour in offering cheaper dev costs.  Nintendo did it for themselves and themselves alone.  Nintendo did it to save themselves the cost of making HD games and, more importantly, to save themselves on manufacturing the hardware.

We talk about what gestures Nintendo has to do to show third parties that they actually care about third party support.  The thing is everybody knows Nintendo doesn't give two shits about it.  No one is going to fall for any token gesture, Nintendo has to actually change.  They have to actually consider third party support to be important, not just give the impression that they do.

[Kytim89]

Having Final Fantasy XV for the wii 2 would truelly be a feather in its cap and a huge score for Nintendo. Although people will be nervous thinking that motion controls are going to be gimmicked into the game.
 
What does wiiware and the virtual console services look like on the wii 2? Are new consoles emulated? Would any one shy away from the idea of having HD 8-bit game?

I think the WiiWare (or whatever its next-gen counterpart will be) and VC services will be roughly the same, maybe better organized this time with layouts similar to that of the PSN store so titles have a better chance of being seen and purchased.  I don't think we'll be able to bring over our old titles, though.  I think Nintendo will concoct a reason to make us purchase our old VC/WW games again, just like the trial balloon they floated earlier with DSiWare not being transferrable.  As for the consoles, I think we'll see GameCube, Dreamcast, and potentially Saturn games added to the VC.

Is it too soon to emulate Gamcube because the games are still around?

[NWR_insanolord]

Development costs could provide an advantage but Nintendo has to actually have lower dev costs.  They don't right now, they're just selling a cheaper product.  Yeah it costs less to make a Wii game but it has to have Gamecube level visuals.  That's not really saving any money, I'm getting what I pay for.  If I want the superior graphics of the HD consoles I have to pay extra for it.  So Nintendo's hamburger is cheaper than Sony's and Microsoft's steak?  Who cares?  If Nintendo wants to attract support with lower developer costs they have to sell steak for cheaper.

And I don't think any third party felt for a second that Nintendo was doing them any favour in offering cheaper dev costs.  Nintendo did it for themselves and themselves alone.  Nintendo did it to save themselves the cost of making HD games and, more importantly, to save themselves on manufacturing the hardware.

We talk about what gestures Nintendo has to do to show third parties that they actually care about third party support.  The thing is everybody knows Nintendo doesn't give two shits about it.  No one is going to fall for any token gesture, Nintendo has to actually change.  They have to actually consider third party support to be important, not just give the impression that they do.

If you look at what they're doing with the 3DS, you'll see that this is a much higher priority for them this time around. They seem to have actually considered third party developers when designing the hardware.

[Caterkiller]

http://www.n-europe.com/news.php?nid=14234

Rumours, suggestions and demands regarding an 'upgraded Wii' have been around for nearly as long as the console itself. Exactly what the upgraded version would contain has varied over the years, most commonly focused on either HD graphics or a hard drive, but like many rumours these have eventually fizzle out.

Piers Harding-Rolls has touched upon these suggestions again recently while discussing the future of the current main consoles; the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. He suggests the successors to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 will probably be released in 2014 and the successor to the Wii at the end of 2012 in Japan and in 2013 for the rest of the world.

He also suggests that an interim Wii could be released before this, pointing to the fact the DS has had numerous iterations over the last few years. However, he makes no suggestions as to what it could contain or when he expects it could be released.


“Our forecast actually incorporates the idea that there will be an upgraded version of the Wii available. There is potentially significant movement to come from Wii pricing in the future. If you look at the handheld strategy they've got the DSi and the 3DS, so I think they've got room to have to this iterative version before a 2012 or 2013 release.�

Obviously until any official word comes from Nintendo this should just be taken at face value; the speculative comments of an industry analyst.


All from N-europe

[NWR_insanolord]

Nintendo has historically never released significant revisions to their console hardware, as opposed to nearly always doing so with their handhelds, often multiple times; the changes they have made are usually entirely cosmetic, and include the same, and in some cases actually less, functionality.

[Kytim89]

The wii 2 is going to be a tougher, more reinforced take on the what the wii revolutionized the industry with, motion controls. As for the graphics, there is no reason why it should not be atleast 720p.

[Stogi]

I would like an extacy dispenser on my Wii 2.

[Guitar Smasher]

What about a waffle-iron?

[broodwars]

What about a waffle-iron?

The planet doesn't like waggle-irons. 

[Deguello]

That analyst is retarded and so is anybody else who expects Nintendo to "32X" their own userbase with some kind of mild increase in specs or abilities.

I'm gonna ignore all the jabber about how it's Nintendo's fault they've got bad third party support because they had the audacity to innovate controls and because third parties can't sell anything on Wii due to their own horrible reputations.  We've had this argument before, and that was the losing side, mainly because all competitors are now aping said controls and a certain Wall of Shame made it plain as day that third parties, even the major ones, flooded the Wii market with crap which hurt their own positions and reputations.  Unless Nintendo pointed guns at their heads and said "make garbage or I'll shoot you," then that's on them.

Anyway about the Wii successor...

A whole back I made a link between something Iwata said at E3 2006 about load times:

I am busier, busier than ever and if I have to wait 30 seconds or 40 seconds or more for a game to load, often, I get frustrated. And sometimes, I just can not wait. And now that I know I can instantly stop or start playing my DS by just closing or opening the top, I think I am spoiled.

This got me to thinking that the next console will ditch discs in favor of a cartridge or specialized SD card that ranges from 8-32GB, which will have a "large enough" capacity for all those mega epics and HD art assets, yet be small enough so that developers can use only what they need.  Solid State ROMs like that are falling in price rapidly, as evidenced by Nintendo's use of a card that has a 2GB maximum capacity at launch for the 3DS.  The sizes I propose should be cheap enough to buy in bulk in one and a half years.

But, that got me to thinking about loading speed in general, and how Nintendo could design a console that completely eliminates all forms of loading times, by utilizing both carts/cards and a 16, 32, or (hopefully cheap enough by then) 64 GB Solid State drive as the storage solution (This is already what the Wii has, really.  It's just really tiny.)  This allows for lighting fast read/write speeds compared to Hard disk and a generally more pleasant user experience as they never need to see a loading bar again.

Now sure, the size will be considered rather "puny" in 2011-2012 when I'm sure the PS4 and Xbox 3 will be looming with the possible promise of 2 terabyte hard drives to support a push for digital distribution.  But Nintendo will not abandon retail models just yet.  IN fact, if they remain the only video game console in retail stores that also sells games, they would have a significant advantage.  Imagine walking into a Walmart/Gamestop and walking up to their case or wall of games and seeing that only 3DS and Wii2 games are even on the shelf, despite the Xbox 3 and the PS4 also being sold in the same store.  Who will Walmart and Gamestop like more?  A console that, once sold, basically guarantees you will never see that person again, or a console which ensures more foot traffic and sales?

This actually leaves their competition in somewhat of a pickle.  They could go full DD get the benefit of saving money on retail products, but then they would cede a gargantuan retail market to a competitor.  If they try a hybrid approach, they'll find it's actually more expensive than picking either one exclusively.

All the sundry aspects like the CPU, GPU, RAM, and internet connection can be beefed up accordingly.  You can walk into a computer store and buy components that run rings around the CPU and GPUs of the Xbox 360 and PS3 for half the price they paid for them.  That's raw technology for you.  The Internet "experience" or whatever can be made to grab the best elements of Xbox Live, ditch the worst parts of Xbox Live and Wi-Fi Connection, and offer it free of charge.  All of these will be upgraded in order to find that point where these abilities are "good enough" for your average consumer.

The controller will definitely have whatever advancements they make on Motion Plus already included, as well as possibly included into the nunchuck.  I'm wondering if they should include a "classic controller" in the box or try to convert the Wiimote itself into something more "standard."  Either way would be acceptable.

But, the main feature of the console should be speed of access.  Do whatever you can to eliminate load times from the equation.  Have a console that's quiet, rugged, and durable thanks to no moving parts, and have games load almost instantaneously.  That will be a killer draw for the console.

[Stratos]

The retail stores won't be put out that fast. As we've seen with other digital sales, you can buy empty game boxes with d/l codes in them among other things. And pure digital distribution won't be coming this next gen. To many people still buy physical games. Plus the PSP Go kinda shot those hopes of an easy switch out the window.

[Deguello]

Oh I agree.  Retail's not going anywhere until manufacturers figure out a way to digitally distribute their consoles.  WalMart and GameStop and whoever else are not going to sell the rope that hangs them so they will at best be biased against DD-only system and at worst demand the manufacturer pay them a "tribute" based on how much money they expect to lose from never seeing those customers again.

And download codes inside a game box are indeed the worst consumer product ever imagined.  It's all the worst parts of physical media and all the worst parts of DD all in one idiotic idea.  Gone is the convenience of not leaving your home, gone is the instant gratification of a physical game!  If the next consoles use DD and have that as their means of retaining retail space, the low-information consumers are going to be confused and/or angry.

[Kytim89]

Red Steel 3 should be placed on hold until Nintendo's more advanced motion control system is perfected. That third party game could be used as a good example of the technology.

[DAaaMan64]

In order for the wii 2 to be successful it must have established third party series that remain loyal to the brand. Red Steel, No More Heroes, Madworld, The Conduit and many others to remain on the system and give it a sense of identity.
 
 

lol no. Nintendo just made insane bank this gen not doing that. Throwing a bunch of hardcore titles into a blue ocean is gonna dry that bitch up.