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Wii U Will Include an “App Store”
In a world of swiftly evolving consoles, Nintendo’s Wii has in some ways fallen a bit by the wayside. The Wii is a generation behind; it can’t handle HD graphics, and it also has only limited support for downloadable content and add-ons. While this support does exist, it is imperfect since it was created to fill a gap in a machine which wasn’t built with downloadable content in mind.
Nintendo knows that the Wii U will be the future of Wii—if Wii is to have a future. And that’s why they will be updating the Wii U to compete with the current generation of consoles. Nintendo did attempt to remedy the problem somewhat when it released the DSi and 3DS handheld consoles, but even these didn’t go far toward resolving the issue of streaming video downloads. With the Wii U, Nintendo promises it will be doing far more to make its next generation console not only a better gaming platform but an all-around media entertainment center to compete with Xbox and PlayStation. Part of this effort will take the form of the inclusion of a brand new “app store” for the Wii U.
What else will the Wii U need to do in order to compete with Xbox and PlayStation? Along with making it easier for users to stream content and add-on, the Wii U will also need to integrate live online features more seamlessly. And of course it would be helpful if Nintendo can bring something new to the world of console gaming—but right now the Wii is so far behind that Nintendo developers probably have more than enough work on their hands to even keep pace with the competition. A prototype of the Wii U should appear at the 2012 CES convention later this month.
read moreWii U May Come Out Late This Year
Previous rumors that the Wii U console would be released in April or May of this year have been swept under the rug as gamers now speculate that the game will be released sometime between June and December. This month Nintendo is planning to exhibit a prototype of the Wii U at the 2012 CES trade show. Guests attending the trade show will have a chance to try the new console out for themselves.
So will the Wii U come out closer to June or December? And why not in April or May of this year? For answer to these questions we can turn to the disappointing sales figures from the 3DS release back in 2011. The 3DS was released early in the year, following the 2010 holidays, and the result was that while it still overturned the sales record of the previous DS, it failed to achieve the sales which the company hoped for. Since then Nintendo has learned its lesson about not releasing during the holiday season. Even huge companies with hugely successful products have poor sales if they aren’t timed right!
Since June is months away from the holidays, it seems likely that following off of that lesson, Nintendo will wait till later in the year to release the Wii U. They will probably time the release with the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), which would be a occasion to unveil the Wii U. So we still have a while to wait—and a lot of anticipation is sure to build up in the meantime, which will only fuel Nintendo’s sales later in the year. For now we can look forward to the reports on the Wii U prototype from the guests at the 2012 CES later this month. Then we’ll know what we have to look forward to!
read moreWii U Giveaway
We are giving away 1 free Wii U console to a lucky fan. To enter in our prize drawing simply fill out the short form below. The winner will be notified via email when the Wii U console is released. (The date has not yet been given).
read moreMaking Wii Expectations Realistic
Leave it to the gaming market to supplant the absence of facts with wild speculation and rumors. This is no more evident than the rumors that surround the upcoming Wii U console release. This is the much anticipated industry changing release from Nintendo that is supposed to advance the Wii to a serious gamers machine that will compete head to head with Xbox and PlayStation. Unfortunately, that is all we know about the new Wii and Nintendo has been keeping the exact specifications close to the vest. It is no wonder that when Wii U Daily published speculations from an undisclosed source that most of us were excited for a moment and then upon reflection brought our expectations down into reality.
The Wii U Daily reported that their source listed the Wii U as including, 3 GHz quad core IBM Power7 chip with 768 MB of embedded DRAM and 40 nanometer ATI GPU. The chip alone, being based on Power7 and not PowerPC is in itself a great step forward putting the Wii U’s processing power far ahead of the Xbox or the PlayStation. But it is the 768 MB of embedded DRAM that should initially thrill until you realize that you cannot fit 768 MB of embedded DRAM into a console, or even onto a table for that matter. It would also be extremely expensive and without any true purpose or need.
It is more thank likely that Wii U Daily either misquoted or misunderstood their source and that the Wii will have a lot of embedded DRAM, but 768 MB is not likely. To put this in perspective the current Wii has 3MB of embedded DRAM and the current Xbox 10MB. Experts feel that the likely scenario is that the new Wii U would have around 32MB of embedded DRAM.
All of this is of course pure speculation to fill the void made by Nintendo not releasing their planned specifications. If they would only tell us, then we would not have to guess. But for now they choose to keep us in the dark, so if you want to believe you are getting 768MB of embedded DRAM, that is your prerogative. The fact is that no one really knows.
read moreThe Second Screen of a Wii U
Nintendo’s new gaming console that is set to release in 2012 is making use of a tablet as a second screen to the game. This is another innovation made by the gaming company that introduced motion control sensors to the gaming world and brought in unlikely game players as a result. The new system’s tablet will have a second screen, providing gamers with the TV screen or the smaller tablet screen to look at while playing their favorite games.
Nintendo is positive that their gaming system is likely to see success because it is doing something new an innovative that will catch the attention of gaming fans and technology fans who will find the experience of two screens fresh and interesting. The company points out that just producing high definition games is not enough and they feel that the innovation and fresh idea associated with the Wii U is likely to result in success.
While the system is likely to enhance gamer experiences, it is not yet clear what type of games will best use the innovative changes. Sports games are not likely to do well with this type of system the way they do on the original Wii while first person shooter games are also likely to create problems due to the limited number of players. Despite this challenge, the company expects to do well with the system.
read moreWii U E3 Announcement
The new Wii U has sparked interest among gaming fans who are interested in the new controlling system. Unfortunately, gamers will need to wait until after the E3 conference in June 2012 to find out all of the details about the new system. Nintendo has pointed out that with the losses of the Nintendo 3DS, it seems better to take it slow and work out all of the potential bugs instead of risking that it will have the same losses as the handheld.
For the first time in around 30 years, Nintendo has predicted that it will have company losses rather than gains. The predicted losses resulting from lowering the price of the 3DS earlier than expected due to poor sales has convinced the company that it is better to take their time on the newest system. This will allow Nintendo a chance to work out any bugs to the system and determine a better marketing strategy.
It also gives the company time to work with game developers who need to somehow integrate the tablet, which is likely to cause problems for third party developers.
Though the late Wii U launch date means that gamers will need patience, Nintendo is not only working on that one product. Gamers can expect to see new games that are a collaboration of Nintendo and other parties. This means new characters and interesting games to get through the holiday and the months following before the launch of the new Wii U gaming console.
read moreWii Tablet Rumor
The new Wii U is known to have at least one tablet support for the game system. This fact was announced during the E3 conference when the company announced its plans to launch the system. While one tablet has been a known fact, new rumors suggest that the system might actually come with two tablets for dual tablet support based on an anonymous source who made the claim.
Since the original announcement from Nintendo that the Wii U would have only one tablet was met with a disapproval from gamers and gaming fans around the world, the anonymous source has explained that part of the problem Nintendo faced with a dual tablet interface was the risk of driving the prices up rather than keeping them within an affordable range.
The company has begun working out a method of dealing with the price increasing second tablet and managing to work out bugs that were a potential problem when the gaming information was taken from the tablet to the console for playing on a TV screen.
More than just the addition of a second tablet, Nintendo seems to be looking for a method of increasing the RAM and processor speed, which should make the product more appealing to gaming fans. While more RAM and improved processor speed is a potential change, the most likely outcome in a slight tweak or update rather than a full system alteration that might cause delays in production.
While the system might come with two tablets, gamers should not hope that every game will properly support this system. The most graphic games available might not support the two tablets while less graphic games are likely to use both tablets easily.
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