Could madden possibly be the game that comes bundled with a second U-tab? Peter Moore seemed pretty amped about that controller specifically for their sports games, I doubt they'd be as optimistic if there were no possibility that each player would have the privacy to call their plays/ draw hotroutes etc...
EA/Ubisoft/Capcom and other 3rd parties seems to have alot of pull at nintendo lately. If nintendo are listening to their liscencee's they'll put out a nice piece of kit. It isn't like they can't put out a reasonably priced system that runs laps around ps360 in 2012... Nintendo is targeting the core moreso than casuals this time around, you can already see it in the way they are approaching the 3DS, and last time they put out a "hardcore" system it was a little beastly marvel of engineering.
People act like nintendo is somehow incompetent at hardware, or that they aren't capable financially of releasing a powerful machine... They are more capable at this moment of releasing anything they want than they were after the n64, or even after the sNES. Their games are selling better than they ever have before, the wii/ds gen was their most profitable ever, and they seem to realize that they can't rely on the casual gamer, evidenced both by their statements about sales/ wii-u, and their earnest attempt to secure high profile "hardcore" games for the 3DS. The approach is night and day different, and more in line with the gamecubes marketing. Th
is isn't the same nintendo that dedicates entire e3's to wii-fit and wii-relax, they just had a conference that was dedicated to their new business model expected to turn the 3DS around, and they didn't announce a single "blue ocean" title, focusing entirely on core games and zelda wii...
Wii know that at the very least these alpha dev kits are capable of higher resolutions and greater texture detail from gearbox, as well as graphic centric studios like crytek, who wanted nothing to do with the wii, and epic among others praising the strength of the hardware. I have no doubt that the wii-u will be at least substantially stronger than either the ps3 or 360 by the time hardware is finalized and optimized. Keep in mind all the devs talking about the system are working with unoptimized alpha kits and are under NDA's preventing them from talking about details of final hardware. I believe that it will have an RV770 or close analogue, just as was rumoured, and it certainly won't be severely downgraded by the time of release, especially given nintendo's history of upping system specs at the 11th hour (3DS).
Simple as this
NES- Core system. competitive visually
SNES- Core system. more powerful than genesis
N64- Core system. Kicked the shit out of the playstation in the raw power department
Gamecube- Core system. A marvel of engineering, kicked the poop out of the PS2 and could compete with x-box in many ways despite being tiny
Wii- Blue Ocean System- PURPOSEFUL marginal upgrade over the gamecube, caught lightning in a bottle that nintendo appears to be aware has moved on to cheap/throwaway gaming, an area in which nintendo has no intention or desire to compete in.
3DS- Core System- Drastically less focus on blue ocean, seems intent on choking the life out of vita the old fashioned way, with games. System sellers include A zelda game, A 3D mario, Luigi's Mansion, Smash Bros eventually, Railshooter style Kid Icarus, Mario Kart, as well as spending (presumably) alot of money on 3rd party exclusives designed to win the enthusiast audience, including the single biggest 3rd party game in japan today not named Dragon Quest.
The 3DS is most indicative of nintendo's newest approach, notice the lack of brain trainings, Nintendogs has been marginalized, they are releasing multiple colors and bundles again instead of focusing on the sterile clean image of the wii/dslitexli, basically everything about the 3DS is aimed squarely at people who play lots of videogames, as opposed to the blue ocean market that nintendo no longer can reel in at 40$ a pop. If anything the approach is most similar to gamecube, except this time nintendo doesn't have to be nearly as conservative in securing software, and their relationship with 3rd parties have taken a 180 with Iwata-san in charge as opposed to old man yamauchi. Coincidentally the 3DS is also pretty much the largest jump nintendo has ever made graphically on the handheld front (just because vita is superlative in that regard doesn't change the fact that 3DS is a quantum leap over DS in that sense).
How is it that when observing nintendo's approach to the successor to a system that was every bit as blue ocean as the wii (DS) that people come to the conclusion that nintendo will once again release an underpowered piece of kit, that 3rd parties will abandon due to not being able to painlessly scale their engines, that is more or less comparable to last gen, and will rely on a market that has left the wii DOA for over a year now because they are fickle and don't buy very much software? Basically the argument is that in response to the wii crashing in terms of sales and being a barren wasteland for an entire fiscal year nintendo will release another... wii? Doesn't seem likely listening to Iwata talk about how important 3rd party support is. If some 3rd parties have a rough idea of what to expect from PS4720 then you have to assume nintendo also has some idea of what benchmarks they are shooting for. Nintendo will assure that whatever they release will at the very least be able to easily handle down-ports from the other two (Unless MS goes for a more cost effective-kinect centric console). Nintendo is actually trying to compete for the core market this time around in both in the handheld space and in the console market, the wii being weak when nintendo had no intention whatsoever of being in direct competition with the other two is not grounds to assume nintendo is dumb enough to release a gimped console when they are actually interested in the gamer market.
I'd imagine that nintendo's approach will be similar to what they have done for the 3DS. The very concept of it is very japan centric, where multiple televisions in the home are less common and the economy of space is a greater concern. Nintendo will likely push for exclusive japanese support (at least for the japanese releases of said games) by moneyhatting some games important to the PS4, and count on the uniqueness of tablet control (until someone inevitably copies it) to add value to their western multiplats, which will only work if the wii-u is powerful enough not to be a massive visual downgrade from the PSXBOX versions of the games. Dual Tablet Madden could be a system seller to a massive degree, and really playcalling, hotroutes, coaching strategy could be absolutely huge for any sports games in a way motion control wasn't sophisticated enough to be, also air strikes in call of duty and classic strategy mode in battlefield... Basically all the cool things the DS could do but couldn't support due to n64+ hardware and traditional control support suggests AAA teams may actually bother with it. Nintendo won't shoot itself in the foot by releasing a gimped console, i'm more concerned with online, because unlike powerful hardware (nintendo has obviously been working with HD for ages in RnD) they don't have experience with a competent online. Honestly I wouldn't mind a wild-westy scenario if it actually works well and secures 3rd party support indefinitely, but alot of people value a unifed system, so we'll see. I'm not worried about the visuals though, it will have some damn handsome games. IMO nintendo will, despite the name, try to position the system as a more Japan-Centric PS2. Sure they will still come out with a Wii-Fit,