Wii U - Nintendo's Next Console

[Mirr0rR3flection]

...he's speculating there.

Whoops my mistake .........I should have read it more thoroughly.

Anyway its great to hear of Nintendo listening to feedback. Never thought I'd see the day.

[gtt]

I hope that feedback was 'put a dx11 gpu and a hdd in the machine'.

[Tainy Tonner]

A little thing I would like to see is a user system handled more like the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. Nintendo's consoles so far have used save files for the whole system. I think it's much more functional to have saves for each user instead. That way more people could play off the same console at the same time, and multiple users could personalize their own experiences on the console. Honestly, I think something like that will be necessary for serious third-party support.

[gtt]

A little thing I would like to see is a user system handled more like the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. Nintendo's consoles so far have used save files for the whole system. I think it's much more functional to have saves for each user instead. That way more people could play off the same console at the same time, and multiple users could personalize their own experiences on the console. Honestly, I think something like that will be necessary for serious third-party support.

I think this is pretty much a given at this point, while not super confirmed, all signs point to it.

[KingBroly]

Ok well if you're wrong are you gonna give yourself a warning for breaking the rumours rule? Because this isn't 100% confirmed you know.

Infact last year they said they're going to have "refined" friendcodes which is load of crap to me, I don't care how "refined" they are get rid of the damn numbers, let us have usernames end of story good bye the end.

Friend Codes have been refined into User Accounts, letters even! I mean, I guess you could make your account name a Friend Code if you wanted to, you know, to be a dick. By why would you do that?

But people around the site do know where I get this information about no friend codes, and it's from a legitimate source. It doesn't get anymore legitimate than this.

[LegendofZelda1996]

I hope that feedback was 'put a dx11 gpu and a hdd in the machine'.

Well, we are not sure if third party developers asked Nintendo to add a DirectX11 GPU and a HDD on the Wii U. And about the GPU of the Wii U, I hear rumours from NeoGAF about the Wii U using a Radeon HD 6670 GPU, but I will take that rumour as a grain of salt.

[KingBroly]

Topic merged.

[LegendofZelda1996]

~This is a rumour from NeoGAF concerning the type of storage the Wii U uses. Please do not take these rumours as facts. And please take them as a grain of salt!~

I know some people here hate NeoGAF, but I wanted to show you this rumour about the storage the Wii U may use. Sorry about that. By the way, I sent this rumour via tips@gonintendo.com.

The Wii U storage situation

Flash memory and SD cards
- Until the V4 dev kit (included) in possession of companies until a few weeks ago, the system had 8GB of flash memory to store your applications.
- 512MB of separated flash (another type) to store the OS. Beware, that doesn't mean the OS/firmware take as much room for the moment, it could be just 200MB and they are future-proofing the console for later system updates (strong possibility that it will be the case from what i've heard. Wii U will be very complete in regard to functions, features, services, online, etc.).
- For a long time, it appears developers only had access to the SD slot (as you know it from here, a lot of them brought their projects on that support, and Nintendo let them access to it), the flash memory wasn't usable for them.

Hard Drive
- Similar to the Xbox 360, there will be HDD, but not mandatory.
- Dev kits have an hard drive, to store the projects studios are working on (in several cases, the data is on the host PC, linked to the dev kits). However, the retail won't have this internal HDD. Basically, the E3 2011 Wii U units and the ones you'll see soon, include the mother board, the components, the disc drive, etc, and are deprived of this HDD + other elements putted here for development purposes.
- Foreign studios were left in a pretty vague state concerning this aspect of the Wii U, they knew it would support external HDD, but not how it will be implemented, etc.
- They were aware that those HDD will be USB(no eSata then), perhaps only 2.0 (it looks like dev kits don't have the typical USB 3.0 plugs).
- There are clues on a Nintendo branded HDD. Bigger grain of salt for this than the rest.


Other important points:
- It seems the new "V5" dev kits, currently used by studios and final, don't bring changes in this area (like a bigger flash memory). If Nintendo decide to increase the flash size, it's a very late decision, unknown of most of third-parties until now.
- During most of this last year, developers could solely run their games from the dev kit HDD or the host PC, as they didn't had access to the flash memory + they only received Wii U readers/writers/discs recently. Simply put, they designed their games with just the future presence of discs in mind, without knowing if they could run these from an external HDD, how it will work in terms of installation, loading, access time, etc.
- They are now able to emulate Wii U discs digitally, on hard drive (those of the dev kits). It certainly means that the system is now capable to run fully dematerialized content, transfered from discs, on the flash memory or the external HDD.


Several of these informations indicate that foreign studios just knew vaguely significant parts of the Wii U storage situation, and surely they will learn more about that tonight or tuesday, like us.

Grain of salt, as always, as it's second hand knowledge, gathered at a certain time, comes from a few sources with sometimes slightly different takes on this, but interesting nonetheless

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... ount=12497

If this information is true, I can see people thinking that this as both bad and good news concerning the Wii U. But remember, please take this as a grain of salt since this is a rumour, not a fact!

[MrWu]

Yeah no USB 3.0 support might be bad.

And Nintendo has a habit of looking at 'current' best practices and assuming they can just take it and run.

At the time of the DS/Wii launching, the PS2 was able to get away with online games without a central hub, gamer profile/unified account, so Nintendo adopted a similar strategy to the PS2 and ate dust when Live and PSN really proved that having an online hub works

Right now, they're looking at the 360's HDD implementation and saying 'well that console sold without a mandatory HDD' and they are now applying it to the Wii U. But all Microsoft/Sony have to do is make HDD mandatory and build games around it that take advantage of it and Nintendo will again look like it's a generation behind.

I truly hope that SD card support is robust enough that it can offset lack of internal HDD. It will certainly help them bring the launch price down by not including an HDD, but I really hate to see a Wii situation again when they start to look dated in 2 years.

[gtt]

~This is a rumour from NeoGAF concerning the type of storage the Wii U uses. Please do not take these rumours as facts. And please take them as a grain of salt!~

I know some people here hate NeoGAF, but I wanted to show you this rumour about the storage the Wii U may use. Sorry about that. By the way, I sent this rumour via tips@gonintendo.com.

The Wii U storage situation

Flash memory and SD cards
- Until the V4 dev kit (included) in possession of companies until a few weeks ago, the system had 8GB of flash memory to store your applications.
- 512MB of separated flash (another type) to store the OS. Beware, that doesn't mean the OS/firmware take as much room for the moment, it could be just 200MB and they are future-proofing the console for later system updates (strong possibility that it will be the case from what i've heard. Wii U will be very complete in regard to functions, features, services, online, etc.).
- For a long time, it appears developers only had access to the SD slot (as you know it from here, a lot of them brought their projects on that support, and Nintendo let them access to it), the flash memory wasn't usable for them.

Hard Drive
- Similar to the Xbox 360, there will be HDD, but not mandatory.
- Dev kits have an hard drive, to store the projects studios are working on (in several cases, the data is on the host PC, linked to the dev kits). However, the retail won't have this internal HDD. Basically, the E3 2011 Wii U units and the ones you'll see soon, include the mother board, the components, the disc drive, etc, and are deprived of this HDD + other elements putted here for development purposes.
- Foreign studios were left in a pretty vague state concerning this aspect of the Wii U, they knew it would support external HDD, but not how it will be implemented, etc.
- They were aware that those HDD will be USB(no eSata then), perhaps only 2.0 (it looks like dev kits don't have the typical USB 3.0 plugs).
- There are clues on a Nintendo branded HDD. Bigger grain of salt for this than the rest.


Other important points:
- It seems the new "V5" dev kits, currently used by studios and final, don't bring changes in this area (like a bigger flash memory). If Nintendo decide to increase the flash size, it's a very late decision, unknown of most of third-parties until now.
- During most of this last year, developers could solely run their games from the dev kit HDD or the host PC, as they didn't had access to the flash memory + they only received Wii U readers/writers/discs recently. Simply put, they designed their games with just the future presence of discs in mind, without knowing if they could run these from an external HDD, how it will work in terms of installation, loading, access time, etc.
- They are now able to emulate Wii U discs digitally, on hard drive (those of the dev kits). It certainly means that the system is now capable to run fully dematerialized content, transfered from discs, on the flash memory or the external HDD.


Several of these informations indicate that foreign studios just knew vaguely significant parts of the Wii U storage situation, and surely they will learn more about that tonight or tuesday, like us.

Grain of salt, as always, as it's second hand knowledge, gathered at a certain time, comes from a few sources with sometimes slightly different takes on this, but interesting nonetheless

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... ount=12497

If this information is true, I can see people thinking that this as both bad and good news concerning the Wii U. But remember, please take this as a grain of salt since this is a rumour, not a fact!

I wouldn't take anything in a dev kit, storage wise, as indicative of what will be in the retail unit at launch.I mean, there was a gcn reader (debug kit) that read off a hard drive. No one wants to be burning optical discs to test a new build on their debug units after all.

And I wouldn't worry about not being able to use a sata drive, there are external enclousers for both ide and sata drives. and USB 2.0 can transfer at upto 60MB/s so while not usb3 fast, it's still decent. and a 2.5" drive can be powered off of what a USB 2.0 port can provide.

that said, I'd much rather have a usb3 or ideally, internal hdd port. I don't really mind if they include one in the system if they have a drive bay and support for sata 2.5" hdd. that would be sweeeeeet. and if the debug kits have such support, maybe the commercial units will have it as well with a little hacking. (can't wait for the firs teardown vids)

[KingBroly]

How much more cost is USB 3.0 v. USB 2.0 right now.

[gtt]

How much more cost is USB 3.0 v. USB 2.0 right now.

like, per controller chips or for consumer equipment?

[J0RdAnN]

They really need USB 3.0 it might cost a little more but it will help future proof the system. I'm sure USB 4.0 will be out within the WiiU's lifespan.

[KingBroly]

How much more cost is USB 3.0 v. USB 2.0 right now.

like, per controller chips or for consumer equipment?

per controller chip.

[gtt]

How much more cost is USB 3.0 v. USB 2.0 right now.

like, per controller chips or for consumer equipment?

per controller chip.

for a regular ol' pci-e based controller card, it's between 5 and 10$. and I figure most of this is due to the age of 2.0.

for the actual ICs and such, I can't find a good wholesale price for large lots. and with intel putting usb 3.0 controller circuitry in Ivy bridge, I'm not sure how that will effect the market for dedicated usb controller hardware.

the plug and cables the pretty much the same.

[Irritating Stick]

Correct me if I'm wrong, But I think that 2.0 is still faster than most disc drives nowadays.

[gtt]

Correct me if I'm wrong, But I think that 2.0 is still faster than most disc drives nowadays.

no. sata 3.0 is 10 times what usb2.0 can do. even sata revision 1 is about 100MB/s faster than usb 2.0

[Broken_Cartridge]

Don't forget, we can't get excited for the Wii U. It will jack up the price. Act as disappointed as possible.

[J0RdAnN]

Don't forget, we can't get excited for the Wii U. It will jack up the price. Act as disappointed as possible.

Glad to see there are other people with a similar mind set.

[GameWatching]

HD consoles are usually pricey

[Irritating Stick]

Correct me if I'm wrong, But I think that 2.0 is still faster than most disc drives nowadays.

no. sata 3.0 is 10 times what usb2.0 can do. even sata revision 1 is about 100MB/s faster than usb 2.0

Sorry, I meant optical drives, not hard drives.

[gtt]

Correct me if I'm wrong, But I think that 2.0 is still faster than most disc drives nowadays.

no. sata 3.0 is 10 times what usb2.0 can do. even sata revision 1 is about 100MB/s faster than usb 2.0

Sorry, I meant optical drives, not hard drives.

usually, yea.

[CrispyGoomba]

Talk about a weird yet exciting Nintendo Direct! All I gotta say is that I already love the new Wii U Classic Controller.

[Gulshog]

It was interesting! Some good stuff, some stuff I am not sure about...some lame stuff. But, that's Nintendo, lol. Overall, it was a good primer. I kinda dislike the fact that they aren't going to support Classic Controller/Pro, but whatever. Not really a big deal, and the new one looks pretty cool.

[KingBroly]

- Wii U Pro Controller
- Messaging/Voice Chat
- Internet Browser/Pictures/Curtains
- Miiverse
- User Interface Shown

New Super Mario World