I was half expecting information to trickling in about the Wiis successor once the 3DS release was over. I never expect this much this soon.
- 6" touchscreen, not HD, not multitouch
- D-Pad, L, R, two triggers, others
Do not want! This sounds more like what Sony tried with the PSP- PS3 and Nintendo with the GBA-GCN before that. While there were some interesting ideas behind it and making this a standard would only expand on it, it sounds cumbersome. Plus, I never want to touch a 2-handed controller again and a 2-handed motion controller is a bad idea (just ask Sony).
Front facing me or front facing out?
A sensor roughly analagous to the Wii sensor bar is incorporated in the controller - i.e. some kind of IR beacons/transmitters. Purpose isn't clear.
This is saying "Different, but the same but we don't know why." The WiiRemote uses an IR camera inside the controller. A beacon built into a controller would be like the lollipop on PS3 Move. The only two ways this can work is if the new controller uses a camera and beacon at both ends (controller and sensor bar) or the new controller has a camera built-in that doesnt use IR which could eliminate the need for a sensor bar entirely.
One other 'huge surprise' about the system
Im still waiting for that mind-reading goo and hologram display.
Late 2012 is the release date
Understandable
.
Sources have this morning confirmed reports that Nintendo has a successor to the Wii in the works, telling us that thirdparty studios including those of Ubisoft, Activision and Electronic Arts have had development units of the new hardware for months
. There will be first and third party "Wii 2" games at E3. No clue if they'll be playable.
. But wait
What? Like I said, I expected news to start trickling in, but this is way more than that. This is basically a year and a half of Wii rumors rolled into a few days.
The Wiis timeline was more or less this:
PreE3 05: vague discussion, baseless speculation and rumors
E3 2005: system, features, no controller, no games.
TGS 05: controller no games
GDC 06: launch window, 1000 dev kits out.
E3 2006: Full unveiling
Nov. 06: Launch
If the rumors about the dev kits and E3 are true, we're getting system, features, controller, games with dev kits, plus surprise all at once... that's a late-2011 release. Nintendo plays it too close to the chest to give that much information that far in advance. And what exactly does a dev team need a kit 2 years in advance for? This isnt Star Treks Holo- deck (or is it), and computer architecture is standardized enough to which that much time is unnecessary... especially for "just a notch above 360".
