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Wii U Information Thread

Gahiggidy

My aunt & uncle run a Mom & Pop store, "The Gamecube Hut", and sold 80k WiiU within minutes of opening.
Annoying Old Party Man said:
The Wii U's system size has really left me worried. They went for form factor and size again, which begs the question: what kind of powerful, power efficient, stable and affordable system you can build with such a small box? I'm afraid the answer is not what I want to hear...
It's 42% bigger, dude.
 
Have they mentioned why the hell the screen is not multitouch? When they said that I literally facepalmed.

I mean, they show two people playing checkers with one another with the controller laying on a table. I can think of so many games that are not going to be possible because of lack of multitouch, it´s crazy they are willing to let that opportunity go just like that. Is it that much more expensive?
 

Matt

Member
bytesized said:
Have they mentioned why the hell the screen is not multitouch? When they said that I literally facepalmed.

I mean, they show two people playing checkers with one another with the controller laying on a table. I can think of so many games that are not going to be possible because of lack of multitouch, it´s crazy they are willing to let that opportunity go just like that. Is it that much more expensive?
Resistive is more actuate and can be used with a stylus. It's not just about cost.
 

Gahiggidy

My aunt & uncle run a Mom & Pop store, "The Gamecube Hut", and sold 80k WiiU within minutes of opening.
Matt said:
Resistive is more actuate and can be used with a stylus. It's not just about cost.
Why can't it be both?
 
Matt said:
Resistive is more actuate and can be used with a stylus. It's not just about cost.

Are there no resistive multitouch screens?


Ookami-kun said:
That and you already have buttons to begin with.

eeeeer.... there are many touch games that would never work with buttons, no matter how many you put in your pad
 
D

Deleted member 8095

Unconfirmed Member
bytesized said:
Are there no resistive multitouch screens?




eeeeer.... there are many touch games that would never work with buttons, no matter how many you put in your pad

I don't think the point of this system is to play touch only games on the pad. The pad is there to enhance the main game which is going to be played on your tv.
 

Krowley

Member
WinoMcCougarstein said:
I don't think the point of this system is to play touch only games on the pad. The pad is there to enhance the main game which is going to be played on your tv.


I actually bet there will be games where the TV becomes a menu while the pad is used for the main gameplay. Or at least games that have a mode like that.
 

Bert

Member
bytesized said:
Have they mentioned why the hell the screen is not multitouch? When they said that I literally facepalmed.

I mean, they show two people playing checkers with one another with the controller laying on a table. I can think of so many games that are not going to be possible because of lack of multitouch, it´s crazy they are willing to let that opportunity go just like that. Is it that much more expensive?

What games use multitouch for gameplay? I don't play a lot of iOS games, but the only thing I've seen mentioned is pinch to zoom, and that's hardly irreplaceable with buttons
 

Red UFO

Member
I can't believe we're equating console power to physical size.

The GameCube was tiny but that kicked out Resident Evil 4.
 
Red UFO said:
I can't believe we're equating console power to physical size.

The GameCube was tiny but that kicked out Resident Evil 4.

Nobody is equating size to performance.

But this isn't 2001. We aren't outputing SD resolutions any more.

Graphical power = heat. Typically smaller sized devices are clocked lower for that reason. The design wizards at Nintendo have a good track record with size/performance.

That doesn't mean those pointing out the size concern don't have valid concerns.

There's a reason why the MacBook air isn't as powerful as the Pro.. or why Mac Minis aren't as powerful as Mac Pros, etc.
 

Koren

Member
nVidiot_Whore said:
Nobody is equating size to performance.

But this isn't 2001. We aren't outputing SD resolutions any more.

Graphical power = heat. Typically smaller sized devices are clocked lower for that reason. The design wizards at Nintendo have a good track record with size/performance.

That doesn't mean those pointing out the size concern don't have valid concerns.

There's a reason why the MacBook air isn't as powerful as the Pro.. or why Mac Minis aren't as powerful as Mac Pros, etc.
While I can agree with some concerns, it's not so much smaller than a PS3 Slim, and the power supply is, most probably, external like on Wii, while PS3 power supply is internal.

So I don't see it as a such a big issue, with a clever designed system a components chosen to avoid too much heating. Even with modern GPUs.
 
Koren said:
While I can agree with some concerns, it's not so much smaller than a PS3 Slim, and the power supply is, most probably, external like on Wii, while PS3 power supply is internal.

So I don't see it as a such a big issue, with a clever designed system a components chosen to avoid too much heating. Even with modern GPUs.

Certainly.

For me it's more "If the specs listed this thing as being HUGE, I'd be very reassured that they are going for a lot of power." Make sense? I'm not saying it's impossible for them to wow me at that size, I'm saying it's simply less probable.
 

Gahiggidy

My aunt & uncle run a Mom & Pop store, "The Gamecube Hut", and sold 80k WiiU within minutes of opening.
PS3 also had BlueRay, 1st generation, and a hard drive inside. As for Xbox 360 and its large case, well, that's made by Microsoft.
 
Gahiggidy said:
PS3 also had BlueRay, 1st generation, and a hard drive inside. As for Xbox 360 and its large case, well, that's made by Microsoft.

Blu-ray doesn't increase the size of the console.. and both revs of MS's console came with room for a hard drive inside... just like Sony's.

As far as features/size is concerned the only real difference was the power brick on 360 vs. internal for PS3.. but the PS3 wasn't smaller than the 360 originally.

PS3 Slim > Xbox 360 Slim > Wii-U in size.

It will be the smallest of the 3 at launch... if it had a 2.5" hard drive like the 360S has room for, it might be the same size. Either way that "size" adds room into the case of the 360S overall.. potentially adding more room for active cooling components.

The point digital foundry was trying to make is that it uses the same die process, so should have similar heat output/speed ratio... and that it would be difficult to make something in a smaller case, using the same die process be significantly more powerful.

It's just speculation either way, but it has logical merit. Why is this so hard for people to digest? Nintendo might wow us with the power/size.. they might not.. and they may have been able to do more power wise launching in a bigger case... then shrinking the thing down when parts become smaller.

If MS and Sony make their next consoles using 45nm processes, they probably will go back to pre-slim sizes.. have more room for cooling.. have their systems clocked higher than Nintendo's, etc.
 

J-Rock

Banned
Devil's Third - Wii U:

Itagaki says it's also possible that Devil's Third will be a Wii U game too, though it's only officially announced for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

"There's always a possibility," Itagaki said of Wii U support, via his translator. "If Nintendo's fan base increases, especially in terms of hardcore games, then yes. Machine performance-wise, it can handle it."

LINK

_________

Metal Gear Solid - Wii U:

Creative producer Yoshikazu Matsuhana, the man responsible for the forthcoming MGS HD Collection and Snake Eater 3D, told Eurogamer that it was shown the console well in advance of Nintendo's E3 press conference yesterday, and is still weighing up how to best support the new platform.

"Obviously we did have talks with Nintendo early on – they approached us with the Wii U," he explained.

"We can't say exactly when this happened or what kind of talks we've had but we were aware of the hardware and we've been looking at it.

"We are very much thinking about possibilities with the Wii U and it looks like a very fun system. As for whether we'll have something at launch for the Wii – we can't say that. Probably not, but we definitely have things in mind.

"We're also looking at the public reaction. If there are enough people who say they want us to bring something to the Wii U that also factors into things."

Might Metal Gear Solid 5 be a nice fit for Nintendo's new machine perhaps? We tried and failed to tempt Matsuhana into dropping that particular bombshell.

"We anticipated we would get questions about this today and unfortunately our answer is, we can't answer that. We can't say anything right now. Top secret," he cheerfully responded.

LINK
 

Gahiggidy

My aunt & uncle run a Mom & Pop store, "The Gamecube Hut", and sold 80k WiiU within minutes of opening.
Itagaki said:
"If Nintendo's fan base increases, especially in terms of hardcore games, then yes. Machine performance-wise, it can handle it."
Why does he even have to say that?!




Isn't that like saying...
1999 said:
Itagaki says it's also possible that Dead or Alive 2 will be a Dreamcast game too, though it's only officially announced for the PlayStation and N64.

"There's always a possibility," Itagaki said of Dreamcast, via his translator. "If Sega's fan base increases, especially in terms of hardcore games, then yes. Machine performance-wise, it can handle it."
 

DECK'ARD

The Amiga Brotherhood
BY2K said:
What's a catch 22? Been seeing that a lot in Third-Party related threads.

People not doing something until there is a change, but that change will never happen unless people do things in the first place.
 
They had Ghost Recon playable at the show floor, haven't seen much coverage about it for what i can see. Which is weird, since its the type of anti Wii game acording to people's general perceptions.

Another one was, some sort of Brain Age type game were the user was prompted with the numeric value of an angle so it need to physically draw it on the screen.

Any place with a good quality video of the japanese temple demo? Want to see people manipulating the screen.
 

gerg

Member
BY2K said:
What's a catch 22? Been seeing that a lot in Third-Party related threads.

To expand upon DECK'ARD's definition, more generally a "catch 22" refers to a situation where an individual needs something that can only be attained by not being in that situation, thus ensuring that that thing will never be attained.

The phrase stems from a book titled "Catch-22", where one of the pilots in the book wants to be grounded from flight on the grounds that he is insane. However, if you think you are insane you must have a correct understanding of sanity to compare it to, and thus you must, in fact, be sane. Subsequently, it is impossible to believe yourself insane.

In regards to video games, a catch 22 would be when a developer says that they will not support a system until it has more successful games similar to the ones that they wish to develop. As those types of games will only be successful when more developers produce them, however, holding that attitude produces a catch 22 whereby it is impossible for any of those games to be successful.

... I hope that's clear.
 

Christine

Member
gerg said:
The phrase stems from a book titled "Catch-22", where one of the pilots in the book wants to be grounded from flight on the grounds that he is insane. However, if you think you are insane you must have a correct understanding of sanity to compare it to, and thus you must, in fact, be sane. Subsequently, it is impossible to believe yourself insane.

That's not quite the dynamic from the book.

Yossarian can get grounded from flight if he's judged to be insane by a mental health review. This should be no problem, because flying the bombing runs is a near-suicidal act--the odds of surviving 28 missions are so low that anyone who continues to fly is demonstrably insane due to their evident lack of self-preservation.

However, requesting a mental health review would prove that he doesn't want to die--meaning that he is sane and therefore fit to fly.
 
nVidiot_Whore said:
Blu-ray doesn't increase the size of the console.. and both revs of MS's console came with room for a hard drive inside... just like Sony's.

As far as features/size is concerned the only real difference was the power brick on 360 vs. internal for PS3.. but the PS3 wasn't smaller than the 360 originally.

PS3 Slim > Xbox 360 Slim > Wii-U in size.

It will be the smallest of the 3 at launch... if it had a 2.5" hard drive like the 360S has room for, it might be the same size. Either way that "size" adds room into the case of the 360S overall.. potentially adding more room for active cooling components.

The point digital foundry was trying to make is that it uses the same die process, so should have similar heat output/speed ratio... and that it would be difficult to make something in a smaller case, using the same die process be significantly more powerful.

It's just speculation either way, but it has logical merit. Why is this so hard for people to digest? Nintendo might wow us with the power/size.. they might not.. and they may have been able to do more power wise launching in a bigger case... then shrinking the thing down when parts become smaller.

If MS and Sony make their next consoles using 45nm processes, they probably will go back to pre-slim sizes.. have more room for cooling.. have their systems clocked higher than Nintendo's, etc.
You really need to stop comparing the cooling requirements of a 2004 Chip to a 2010/2011 chip.
Just stop it.
Efficient design trumps everything.

Compare a top spec iMac to an equivalent PC. My damned quad core, 2TB HDD, 8GB memory and all else it contains iMac is almost as small as my 21" monitor, and then i have a desktop for it as well.

And in point to your writing off the GC, as it wasn't HD.
It was still a 1/3 the size of an XBox outputting similar power. So no Size != Power

And same size/ratios maybe, but same size/ratios doesn't again = power requirements
 

Gahiggidy

My aunt & uncle run a Mom & Pop store, "The Gamecube Hut", and sold 80k WiiU within minutes of opening.
Kandinsky said:
That was awkward in a "I dont know who the hell told you that false information" kinda way.
Ehhhh... looked more to me a cheeky "dude, I can't go on the record with that even though I just told you that info five minutes ago." Where else would he have gotten that idea?
 
I have to say Nintendo did a poor job at E3 with the Wii U

- Stupid Name!
- Showed nothing that could prove the hardware can push a definitive version of anything
- none of the 3rd parties could say anything, everyone on lockdown even if they knew the answer
- gave little details, this just allows everyone to go crazy guessing and bitching
- same as every hardware launch, until the thing is out on store shelves we will never know the facts

my only guess for all of this is lots of things are in flux, the hardware is not final, the online is not final so they don't want to promise anything
 
With the current version of UE3 comming to a end, is there perhaps any chance this new console might be able to run the new (still in development) Unreal 4 engine?
 

Bert

Member
Smiles and Cries said:
I have to say Nintendo did a poor job at E3 with the Wii U

- Stupid Name!
- Showed nothing that could prove the hardware can push a definitive version of anything
- none of the 3rd parties could say anything, everyone on lockdown even if they knew the answer
- gave little details, this just allows everyone to go crazy guessing and bitching
- same as every hardware launch, until the thing is out on store shelves we will never know the facts

my only guess for all of this is lots of things are in flux, the hardware is not final, the online is not final so they don't want to promise anything

I still think their hand was forced by the leaks coming out. If they wanted to show anything it would have been a concept vid and perhaps the console/name like they did with Wii.
 
Considering a Wii U version of Arkham City would release months after the other platforms, it damn well needs to be the definitive version of the game.
 
D

Deleted member 74300

Unconfirmed Member
Smiles and Cries said:
- Showed nothing that could prove the hardware can push a definitive version of anything

Darksiders 2 man.
 

Log4Girlz

Member
Man, I'm still amazed that the Wii is basically the successor to the N64. I wonder how many Wii's duct-taped together equate to the Wii-U.
 
D

Deleted member 74300

Unconfirmed Member
Log4Girlz said:
Man, I'm still amazed that the Wii is basically the successor to the N64. I wonder how many Wii's duct-taped together equate to the Wii-U.

You forgot about the Gamecube.

1 Wii = 2 Gamecubes and Gamecube = 128-bits.

Do the math!

Because I suck at it : (
 
Sammy Samusu said:
Rumors about Wii U getting the definitive version of Batman Arkham City.

[3:10] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4rb3iu7KNU

Looks like Nintendo is out and cutting some checks. I love it.

I love it too, but I hope they keep cutting them so we don't end up with Holiday 2011 games for the system coming Q2 2012 or later.

Showmeyamoves said:
You forgot about the Gamecube.

1 Wii = 2 Gamecubes and Gamecube = 128-bits.

Do the math!

Because I suck at it : (


The GC was 32 bits, as was the Wii and XBOX. The PS2 was 128 bits, however.
 

deleted

Member
Here is a german Interview with Katsuya Eguchi.

Its mostly known stuff, but some parts are quite interesting:

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Kann ich zwei der neuen Controller mit einer Wii u nutzen?

Eguchi: Ich kann nicht offiziell sagen, wie viele der neuen Controller mit einer Wii u verbunden sein können. Ich kann aber sagen, dass ich als Entwickler die Möglichkeiten, die zwei Schirmcontroller bieten, sehr reizvoll finde. Zwei Spieler verfolgen völlig unterschiedliche Detailansichten des Spielgeschehens - das will ich sehen.

Eguchi can't officialy confirm that you will be able to use two u-controller at the same time, but he likes the possibilities that two controllers allow and he wants to see it.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Multitouch.

Eguchi: Der Bildschirm wird vor allem als Spielcontroller dienen. Deshalb muss er sehr präzise und sehr reaktionsschnell sein. Multitouch-Displays sind da nicht auf dem Niveau, das wir brauchen. Außerdem sind Nintendo-Spieler zwischen neun und 95 Jahre alt. Das ist unsere Zielgruppe. Wir haben festgestellt, dass Multitouch-Bildschirme die Haut alter Spieler nicht so gut erkennen.

No Multitouch, because its not precise enough. And Nintendo discovered that there can be problems with multitouch and older skin.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Bei den ersten Mini-Spielen für die Wii u sind die Gruppenspiele am unterhaltsamsten. Aber was haben Sie denn für Ideen, wie ein Einzelspieler die Schirmsteuerung nutzen könnte?

Eguchi: Ich stelle mir ein Strategiespiel vor, bei dem man auf dem Fernsehschirm das gesamte Spielfeld überblickt. Auf dem kleinen Schirm sieht man eine Vergrößerung mit detaillierten Informationen zu den Einheiten und kann Kommandos geben. Man bewegt den Controller einfach über das große Feld, die Anzeige verändert sich automatisch. Eine andere Idee: Auf dem großen Fernsehschirm sehe ich die Umwelt, auf dem kleinen meine Pikmins, meine Spielfiguren. Ich schicke sie mit Hilfe des Controllers in bestimmte Richtungen.

First details on Pikmin 3? Eguchi says, that he has an idea for pikmin: On the TV you see your surroundings, on the u-controller you see your pikmin and you can move them in different directions with it.
 
xyla said:
No Multitouch, because its not precise enough. And Nintendo discovered that there can be problems with multitouch and older skin.
This gives me the image of them calling in Yamauchi for product testing, and him flinging away a prototype Upad in disgust.
 

Zoe

Member
WinoMcCougarstein said:
I don't think the point of this system is to play touch only games on the pad. The pad is there to enhance the main game which is going to be played on your tv.

As5fw.png
 

Luigiv

Member
bytesized said:
Are there no resistive multitouch screens?
There are but they often have accuracy issues. If the Wii U touchscreen is anything like the 3DS touchscreen, then it won't be suitable for multitouch at all.

zomgbbqftw said:
Have people who are saying capacitive multi-touch is to imprecise seen a Wacom digitizer stylus/pen. They are very accurate.
Wha... I have no idea what you're even trying to say here. How is multitouch capacitive pads and Wacom digitisers even related? Beyond the fact you can stick both on the same device (because that makes about as much sense as saying apples and rulers are related because you can tape the 2 together).
 

wsippel

Banned
zomgbbqftw said:
Have people who are saying capacitive multi-touch is to imprecise seen a Wacom digitizer stylus/pen. They are very accurate.
Wacom digitizers are neither resistive nor capacitive. They're inductive.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Is ayone else miffed they don't have a camera at the back of the controller to also allow first person AR experiences? I mean, the thing is similar enough to the 3DS already, lacking that one feature isn't gonna work like the defining factor that will make one buy both devices if that's the intention... The defining difference is that 3DS is a portable with its own games... Maybe it's a cost issue, you'd want a high resolution high quality camera if it was, at times, going to be used to project things on the TV too but its primary use would be controller-only display which is lower resolution... Is there any chance they'll add one before launch? Did any "journalist" ask such a question?
 
wsippel said:
Wacom digitizers are neither resistive nor capacitive. They're inductive.

It still allows for multi-touch with fingers and whatnot right?

If so, you get accurate stylus input and finger friendly multi-touch, doesn't matter about the underlying tech, the outcome is what matters.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
zomgbbqftw said:
It still allows for multi-touch with fingers and whatnot right?

If so, you get accurate stylus input and finger friendly multi-touch, doesn't matter about the underlying tech, the outcome is what matters.
Aren't they not only inductive but also expensive for small sizes and no actual screen or anything else the WiiU controller has? Or am I looking at the high end models?
 
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