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[Sorcerer]

Wii U2

I hope so, maybe if Bono gets behind it, he can force the new Nintendo console on me for free against my will.

Spoiler

Totally my will

 

[On Demand]

Please make the GPU and CPU high end. I want to play Mario and Zelda with global illumination and real time ray tracing.

 

[StevieP]

Please make the GPU and CPU high end. I want to play Mario and Zelda with global illumination and real time ray tracing.

Perhaps you can play it on a render farm then

 

[DrWong]

And they called it the IIWata.

 

[wsippel]

That's quite a grab, actually

Certainly seems that way, he has quite an impressive CV. Director of Engineering at Nvidia, Principal Architect at LSI Logic, Senior Manager at Sun Microsystems and Principal Engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation.

 

[SwiftDeath]

Wii u is an mcm, and bc relies entirely of which direction they take their chips. Soc doesn't necessarily mean x86

What other options would Nintendo have to produce a SoC solution if they weren't using a x86 architecture? Are there many examples of PowerPC SoC? Serious question as I have no idea about PowerPC in that vein

 

[Jotamide]

Watch it be called the New Wii U.

 

[Rushersauce]

Guys... Have you seen how Nintendo is using the "New" in its products? Well the new Nintendo console will be called "New Nintendo Entertainment System". You can quote me on that.

 

[Chezzymann]

So this is the thread for next gen nintendo console rumors now right?

 

[SwiftDeath]

Guys... Have you seen how Nintendo is using the "New" in its products? Well the new Nintendo console will be called "New Nintendo Entertainment System". You can quote me on that.

NewNES I like it. Reads like newness

 

[wsippel]

I...didn't know that.

We know Nintendo is making their own OS now, so maybe they will borrow from Android. I'm a little worried about the potential for a million hardware SKU's like Android.

ES was really highly experimental. I don't think they really make their own operating systems. The Wii U OS is based on OpenBSD or something I believe. It's certainly a UNIX or UNIX-like system.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

Guys... Have you seen how Nintendo is using the "New" in its products? Well the new Nintendo console will be called "New Nintendo Entertainment System". You can quote me on that.

Hell, I think they should just go with 'Nintendo Entertainment System' and call it a day.

Nintendo does a fantastic job of creating new experiences in their established franchises, while also appealing to people's nostalgia. Might as well go full on and leverage nostalgia in their marketing message.

 

[deltatheta]

Their research operating system was called Nintendo Experimental System, or NES. After Google took over the project, the name was changed to just ES.

I'm not making this up, by the way. ES is a real thing. It's open source, and the lead engineer left Nintendo to join Google at some point, and took the project with him. I believe parts of ES were integrated in Android. If true, Nintendo essentially co-created one of their biggest competitors.

That's really interesting. I've never heard of that.

Having a userland based on ECMAScript was pretty forward thinking for 2006. It looks like they continued going down that path with the Nintendo Web Framework, which I believe will be what is used for the "apps" in NintendOS. (e.g. the MiiVerse, chat, friend list, activity log etc. non-game apps)

 

[Dr. Buni]

Hopefully this is for the 3DS' successor and not the Wii U's. Also hopefully the next handheld will be as good as the GBA and DS were... The 3DS was a tad underwhelming.

 

[Azure J]

Whoa, hiring someone in the US? Neat.

 

[Jackano]

Anyways, while I do love the idea of a high powered Nintendo console, not even Sony and Microsoft can make anything decent looking at runs at perfect 1080p and 60fps, so I prefer their scaled back approach. The games may not be as "technically" good looking, but they are vastly more appealing looking.

Actually in this tech fest thread, I will make a probably unnoticed digression: Nintendo's MK8 (just to name one) probably goes in the sense of that UBI guy quote, saying it was the AI and the CPUs who scale back FPS. I tend to believe him just think how basic AI must be in MK8, Pikmin 3, and SM3DW. Maybe not basic, but probably more simple and mastered by Nintendo guys. Goombas and cheating MK8 CPUs must not think that much compared to a whole sandbox games to simulate.

 

[The_Lump]

It's never too early for some hype.

WiiU has a good couple years left in it as far as Nintendo are concerned imo, but makes sense for them to be into the design process for their next piece of hardware by now

 

[Meesh]

Is it too much a stretch to think hiring someone in the US is a way of adding that western appeal to their Next-tendo?

 

[On Demand]

Perhaps you can play it on a render farm then

The console is probably going to be released in 2017. I expect the GPU and CPU performance to match the time it's in.

 

[Snakeyes]

Certainly seems that way, he has quite an impressive CV. Director of Engineering at Nvidia, Principal Architect at LSI Logic, Senior Manager at Sun Microsystems and Principal Engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation.

Is it safe to assume that he had little to no involvement in the Wii U's development since the system was basically revealed a month after his hiring?

 

[The_Lump]

Their research operating system was called Nintendo Experimental System, or NES. After Google took over the project, the name was changed to just ES.

I'm not making this up, by the way. ES is a real thing. It's open source, and the lead engineer left Nintendo to join Google at some point, and took the project with him. I believe parts of ES were integrated in Android. If true, Nintendo essentially co-created one of their biggest competitors.

Developing a knack for that

I remember you bringing this up in the later WUST threads (I believe. May have been the WiiU tech spec threads?). Was a very intriguing tidbit nonetheless.

 

[Shikamaru Ninja]

Whoa, hiring someone in the US? Neat.

Is it too much a stretch to think hiring someone in the US is a way of adding that western appeal to their Next-tendo?

Nintendo Technology Development Inc based out in Washington, has been the lead 3D chip-set research group since 1996 for Nintendo's hardware.

 

[NormalFish]

Is there a specific reason why people believe the next nintendo handheld will come in 2016? It seems much more likely to me to come in 2017 based on their previous release schedule. It might not be selling as well but I think it's selling well enough that they'll give the next full step a bit of time in the oven.

 

[Asbear]

It will be called Nintendo New U

 

[anexanhume]

They do, but as I said, that's not the problem with Nintendo and 3rd parties.

Then what is? When Wii was doing well, nearly all major third party games were coming to it. Now, none essentially.

But the point is, nintendo should have zero interest in an one-off x86 design. Aside from the fact it does nothing to homogenize their ecosystem, one should look beyond 2014. Two years from now everybody and their cats will be doing A57s as the bare minimum, and the big SoC players will be doing custom v8s. Going for a x86 this next gen will be the most questionable decision a console vendor like nintendo could make. Basically, a last-resort 'Halp, our A, B, and C plans fell through, scramble for an x86!' sort of move.


I think you're a generation out-of-date on ARM capabilities.

If Nintendo did an x86 design for their mobile system and console, it would homogenize their system, and it would lower the barrier to third parties putting games easily on their platform.

I suppose if they thought that the future of games was mobile first, they'd go ARM. But I think there's a serious argument for them wanting to provide premium experiences that start at the home.

Those are custom ARM cores you refer to. SoC are more often custom than not, and are assembled of different standard parts (ARM cores just being one of them) that for itself are usually not customized further. It's also were Intel is highly lacking as they prefer to offer as SoC parts on their own, resulting in packages that are substandard to other available SoC solutions (e.g. LTE support in mobile SoCs).

No, they're not custom. Like I said, Qualcomm and Nvidia are doing custom ARM cores (Apple too). Everyone else does Vanilla A15, A53/57 etc. cores.

Not only is Intel competitive on performance in the mobile space (and their finally in a position to leverage their process advantage as well), but their acquisition of Infineon has made them competitive in the modem business. See their recent design win with the Samsung Galaxy Alpha that has a Cat 6 modem.

Any company with an architectural license can do custom designs. Apple is obviously out of the question, but quite a few companies including the two you mentioned, AMD, Marvell, AMCC, Samsung and even Intel have architectural licenses and design custom ARM cores. Well, Intel doesn't, they just got a license because they could.

And the thing is: Nintendo is absolutely willing to contract unknown or unexpected companies. I mean, look at their GPU suppliers:

Silicon Graphics (N64)
ArtX (Gamecube, Wii)
Alchemy (DS)
Digital Media Professionals (3DS)
AMD (Wii U)

Of the five different vendors Nintendo worked with, only one was actually on anyone's radar. ArtX, Alchemy and DMP were startups, Silicon Graphics used to do high-end workstations and big iron exclusively. And they're not alone. Apple's impressive custom ARM cores? Designed by what used to be PA Semi, a pretty much completely unknown company with zero experience when it came to ARM chips (they developed PowerPC cores).

ARM makes this easier than ever. Any startup can apply for a license, and manufacturing would be outsourced, anyway. Nintendo's next SoC could be developed by some tiny startup nobody has ever heard of.

I think there's a serious disconnect in what "custom" means. I'm talking about hand-laid out customization and ISA extension. Not drop in tweaks or standard library element changes. Also, I'm talking about CPU specifically, not the GPU.

Apple's cores were not designed by PA Semi in the way you suggest. Their engineering expertise was used in future designs no doubt, but they had previously only done POWER designs. They acquired Intrinsity who did the A4 for Apple and the Hummingbird design for Samsung, who was more likely directly responsible for the early "A" series iterations.

 

[big_z]

Hopefully Nintendo gets help from the factor 5 guys again. They seem to be on the same level as cerny.

I guess well see how this US hire pans out in 2.5-3.0+ years when this new console is revealed. Hopefully this along with the virtual boy news means Nintendo is looking at vr and trying to do it right by giving it proper time to develope. They can't half bake another idea.

 

[Hendrick's]

Wii-TU brute?

 

[MadJackChurchill]

I don't think a 'New Wii U' will work for marketability.

 

[Rösti]

I do not believe anything too major will come from it, but Nintendo's Second Quarter Financial Results Briefing for FY 2014 happens on October 30, tentatively at least, perhaps some meager details about the next stationary console will surface there. I'm expecting Mr. Iwata to talk about QOL then, a few words about other upcoming systems as well wouldn't hurt.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Their research operating system was called Nintendo Experimental System, or NES. After Google took over the project, the name was changed to just ES.

I'm not making this up, by the way. ES is a real thing. It's open source, and the lead engineer left Nintendo to join Google at some point, and took the project with him. I believe parts of ES were integrated in Android. If true, Nintendo essentially co-created one of their biggest competitors.

Co-creating Android 1.0? Depending on who you ask it is either an insult or quite an exaggeration . Seriously, I think you might give it too much credit .

 

[Nintendojitsu]

I do not believe anything too major will come from it, but Nintendo's Second Quarter Financial Results Briefing for FY 2014 happens on October 30, tentatively at least, perhaps some meager details about the next stationary console will surface there. I'm expecting Mr. Iwata to talk about QOL then, a few words about other upcoming systems as well wouldn't hurt.

I honestly don't believe QoL is so much an insight into their platform plans but a drastic shift in their core philosophies. Whatever the case, nothing this major would be discussed so soon.

 

[tesla246]

As far as naming is concerned, I honestly can see them going with wii2, just because the large audience knows what a wii is (and generally doesnt know what a wiiu is with its damaged brand) and because they are just stubborn enough to do theire own thing, as the past has proven, to think it may work as if wiiu never existed.
If that is a good idea remains to be seen, but dont count it out completely; many may see it as that wii with the remote successor from years past they had fun with.

They would obviously need to capture the gaming community, but honestly, I dont think those will give a shit about the name if more important aspects are ok to them, such as graphics, unified account, online, etc. My point is; dont count out the wii brand entirely as it may still prove valuable for people who made the wii a succes and have absolutely no awareness of there being a wiiu and its struggle.

As for new hardware, I think both the 3ds successor as the wiiu successor are at least 3 years further away from release. My thoughts are they wanna ride this one out, get every penny out of these systems that are left and wait a little longer for the technology to be there to realise theire vision, instead of "gambling" again. New hardware takes huge risks as you start over from scratch regarding installed base. (allthough rumours say they want to alleniate that problem).

 

[wsippel]

Is it safe to assume that he had little to no involvement in the Wii U's development since the system was basically revealed a month after his hiring?

Pretty much, yes. Suresh Devalapalli, another hardware engineer who joined NTD in 2011, did work on the Wii U in limited capacity. He designed the audio API. Now he's the engineering manager for Nintendo's next SoC.

 

[The_Lump]

Might have already been said (apologies if so): There is a job posting from last week for Retro Studios on there aswell for a gameplay engineer with:

Prior experience working on game-play systems for AAA video games required

mmmmmm.

Spoiler

I know it's a standard job posting but it mentions Retro so I can't not be excited

 

[Eolz]

I do not believe anything too major will come from it, but Nintendo's Second Quarter Financial Results Briefing for FY 2014 happens on October 30, tentatively at least, perhaps some meager details about the next stationary console will surface there. I'm expecting Mr. Iwata to talk about QOL then, a few words about other upcoming systems as well wouldn't hurt.

I don't think we'll hear anything about the next console (at least anything new), but we're sure to have one or two question about the next handheld, and why they chose to make the n3DS before that.
I think to remember (may be wrong on this one), that Iwata would talk a lot more about QOL before unveiling it at the January meeting.

 

[Azure J]

Nintendo Technology Development Inc based out in Washington, has been the lead 3D chip-set research group since 1996 for Nintendo's hardware.

Man just when I thought I've seen all of Ninja's gems of knowledge already.

 

[DizzyCrow]

Today everyone and their mother have a set-top box/microconsole, while the media capabilities are amazing the gaming front is still lacking, I think how Nintendo would fare if they released a 4DS TV. They totally have the games to attract the audience and even though it would lack an iTunes/Play Store/Kindle store, the ability to stream their own files and watch Netflix/Hulu and the likes would be good enough for some people. The main problems would be Nintendo making a more simple handheld (input wise), so it would not have game compatibility issues like the PSTV, and capable of outputting at least native 720p.

 

[Rösti]

I don't think we'll hear anything about the next console (at least anything new), but we're sure to have one or two question about the next handheld, and why they chose to make the n3DS before that.
I think to remember (may be wrong on this one), that Iwata would talk a lot more about QOL before unveiling it at the January meeting.

Correct. This is what he said at the Corporate Management Policy Briefing/Third Quarter Financial Results Briefing in January this year:

Today I would like to limit my presentation to the general direction of our new business, but I plan to announce more details within 2014. I then plan to talk about its specific features and a clearer vision of what we really mean by the term “non-wearable.”
This new business will be launched during the fiscal year ending March 2016, which begins in April 2015. As this is a completely new field of business, our plan is to make it contribute to our overall business and position it for growth from following fiscal year.

Source: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/140130/05.html

And at the Financial Results Briefing for Fiscal Year Ended March 2014, in May:

At the Corporate Management Policy Briefing in January, we referred to our new efforts to adapt to the changing business environment. Some of these efforts will yield results during this fiscal year; others need to be addressed over the medium term. Anyway, we would like to steadily advance each of them this year.
Today, please let me touch on the progress of some of these projects. However, regarding the medium-term goals, including the challenge of expanding into a new business area “to improve people's QOL in enjoyable ways” to be launched during the next fiscal year, I would like to disclose more specific information later this year.

Source: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/140508/02.html

 

[wsippel]

Co-creating Android 1.0? Depending on who you ask it is either an insult or quite an exaggeration . Seriously, I think you might give it too much credit .

Should have put it in quotation marks. Of course they didn't really co-create Android, they created something that would later become a small part of Android. Supposedly.

 

[EloquentM]

Man just when I thought I've seen all of Ninja's gems of knowledge already.

Wsippel posted that like on the first page. You're slower than slow azure!

 

[Vidpixel]

I feel like Nintendo, at this point, should just stray far away from the whole "Wii" branding with their next console and start fresh whenever the successor of the Wii U is announced. Either that, or just keep it simple and call it the "Wii 3" or something to keep their message clear from any ambiguous labelings.

But hey, I'm no business expert, so who knows whether this would be a good call or not.

 

[Timeless]

What if they built an x86-based console like their competitors?

 

[Padinn]

Super Wii U 2 Nintendo Entertainment System: Ultra Redux Edition?

SWU2NESURE!

 

[diaspora]

I feel like Nintendo, at this point, should just stray far away from the whole "Wii" branding with their next console and start fresh whenever the successor of the Wii U is announced. Either that, or just keep it simple and call it the "Wii 3" or something to keep their message clear from any ambiguous labelings.

But hey, I'm no business expert, so who knows whether this would be a good call or not.

Go the Mario Kart route and abandon the stupid names and just add a number. NES 7.

 

[heidern]

It's Nintendo's history, prior form and the buying habits of their userbase that have the publishing houses feeling sketchy. Despite a wealth of evidence and sales successes, it's like they don't know how to sell to Nintendo's audience. When Nintendo gave them a casual audience with the Wii, there were some publishers who 'got it' and jumped on board with the likes of Just Dance etc. But in a normal gaming environment - they just don't know how to do it. Personally? I think its partly Nintendo's fault but also partly the publishers' fault. Again and again, they fail to recognise what the Nintendo audience finds interesting and fun. In my opinion, they should start by listening to what Nintendo say themselves. They say it in all of their investor relations material, and in every interview: they want to surprise and please people.

It's partly this, and also partly that whenever 3rd parties 'burned bridges' with Nintendo, they also burned bridges with Nintendo's audience. Nintendo have been consistently providing their range of content to their audience for 25+ years. 3rd parties have had no consistent strategy. It's not a surprise that Nintendo win that battle to sell to their audience whereas 3rd parties have to struggle with a bad reputation or no reputation with the audience.

The 3rd parties already have reputation, supportive media, and importantly momentum on Sony/MS platforms. They'd rather carry on there than fight a slow uphill battle to generate momentum on Nintendo console's. Look to how Level-5 have been consistent on the DS and now got the reward of a smash success with Yokai Watch for a template to success on Nintendo platforms.

 

[shandy706]

Virtual reality system incoming.

Itshappening.gif

 

[Trago]

Go the Mario Kart route and abandon the stupid names and just add a number. NES 7.

I think using the Nintendo Entertainment System name in general would be beneficial, especially when you consider that they are unifying their platforms, using the NES name makes sense.

 

[KageMaru]

Please just don't call it the New Wii-U or the Wii 3. I also hope they spend more engineering resources on performance that resembles a generational leap instead of trying to squeeze last gen performance out of half of the power consumption.

The strategy is no longer a valid approach Nintendo, please do better keeping up with expectations next time. Otherwise I see them experiencing many of the same problems they are experiencing now.

Unfortunately the recently released new 3DS doesn't give me much confidence that they learned anything from the Wii-U.

 

[diaspora]

I think using the Nintendo Entertainment System name in general would be beneficial, especially when you consider that they are unifying their platforms, using the NES name makes sense.

Yeah. NES Home/TV v. NES Portable?

 

[Snakeyes]

Pretty much, yes. Suresh Devalapalli, another hardware engineer who joined NTD in 2011, did work on the Wii U in limited capacity. He designed the audio API. Now he's the engineering manager for Nintendo's next SoC.

Neat, thanks for the extra tidbit.