Hello all! As you can tell this past weeks podcast has been delayed a bit, but have no fear this week we will be coming back strong! But as you wait I thought I would share this interesting bit of news with you all in the world of gaming.
Nintendo announced today that the yet unnamed Wii 2 (known supposedly as “project cafe”) will be released next year and will be shown for the first time at this years E3. This concludes week’s of speculation starting with a Game Informer piece hinting that an HD enabled Nintendo console would be announced some time this year. That started a flood of supposed leaked information, the most interesting of which stating that the new console would feature a controller with a 6.2′ touch screen.
It would seem Nintendo’s falling profits and limited third party support has forced their hand into jumping into the next console generation a little early. Microsoft and Sony have stated they don’t plan on releasing their new console’s until 2014 the latest to help push their current systems so it gives Nintendo one heck of a head start. Honestly I think it’s a smart decision, while a great and innovating console, the Wii has had it’s best times behind it. When first released the Wii was a great change of pace for the console market. Introducing motion control and focusing on quality first party games, the Wii dominated the first couple years of it’s release.
But times have changed and Microsoft and Sony have caught up. The use of HD graphics, strong online focus and a stream of AAA titles have pushed the Wii out of the top spot’s, mainly because it honestly can’t compete.
Nintendo wanted the Wii to work for the entire family so they focused all of their efforts on the motion controls and didn’t see any reason to compete on a graphics or online level with the other consoles. At the start this was effective but ultimately it was the Wii’s undoing. With the console not being as strong under the hood as it’s competitors, a lot of high profile third party releases (Portal 2, Mortal Kombat, L.A. Noir etc) can’t make it over to the Wii thus costing Nintendo a lot of potential profits. Also with online becoming such a large part of home consoles, Nintendo needs to adapt.
As the Wii was once known as a “Revolution” this new console needs to do the same to the gaming market once again to survive. But survival is nothing new for Nintendo. Each generation the company has had to battle against strong competition but has manged to keep going and providing quality content, most recently revamping old franchises to try and give a booster shot to the already aging Wii. Some have worried that the company may go the way of Sega and fall out the console market and only develop games, but I don’t think that would ever be the case. The thing that makes Nintendo unique is the people running it, Shigeru Miyamoto’s imagination is limitless and Satoru Iwata is not afraid to take the company into brave new directions.
The rumors about developers already being talked to about working with the new console shows how serious Nintendo is at not only keeping pace with the other systems but becoming a leader in the market.
At E3 2010 the big news was the 3DS now Nintendo will steal the show once again with the Wii 2 and reveal exactly what it has up it’s sleeve. Hopefully we will have a corespondent this year at E3, like the year before, so we will give you exclusive news on the new console and more.
But one thing we do know for sure? Ninentdo plans on changing the face of console gaming once again and set the bar for the next generation.
So what do you guys think about the announcement? What do you think the name of the console will be? What do you think will be the next big innovation from the company? Sound off in the comments below to let us know what you think.
-Jesse
The Fourth Wall 