Fact: Nintendo to reveal new console at E3

[Fusion]

Take it with a grain of salt, rumor and all.

I wouldn't expect it to be more powerful than the 360 and PS3 if there even is a new one.  I mean, Nintendo just pushed out the 3DS.

EDIT: More evidence of this: Satoru Iwata effectively admitting that the Wii's approach to gaming wasn't the best idea in terms of third-party support.

[UHMEEEEBA]

Joystiq reported this too, with IGN as a source which gives it a bit more validity.

EDIT: More evidence of this: Satoru Iwata effectively admitting that the Wii's approach to gaming wasn't the best idea in terms of third-party support.

As for that quote, it's basically Nintendo on there knees begging third parties to take them back now that all the shovel ware developers have moved onto portable devices like the iPad etc. Nintendo can no longer count on that market.

[UHMEEEEBA]

Nintendo has cut the price of the Wii, take that as you will.

Also corrupt, adulterating shitbags compiled a bunch of the rumors the other day.

[Fusion]

Not terribly enthused by the idea that the controller might have a touch screen, especially with the description I've seen most: "iPad with buttons".

[UHMEEEEBA]

A Nintendo console having an awful controller? Perish the thought!

[Brandy Bogard]

Not terribly enthused by the idea that the controller might have a touch screen, especially with the description I've seen most: "iPad with buttons".

What would be the point of THAT?!

[UHMEEEEBA]

Everyone can do motion control now Nintendo needs a new shitty controller rap name to justify inflated controller prices and an over saturation of shitty one use peripherals. Simple enough really.

[Fusion]

I'm not saying the idea is bad, it just doesn't sit well with me.

I mean, yeah, the obvious use of it would probably be a touch pad for entering your name and stuff, and that would be tons more convenient than having to use the Wiimote alone to do it.

But what other use would it have beyond that?

Now, don't get me wrong, it seems cool that the new controller might have touchscreen on/in it. After all, it's worked out very well for the DS, and seems to be doing well for the 3DS. But I'm worried that it might be a rap name (and yes, I was worried that the motion tracking of the Wii would be a rap name). Nintendo has a history of being innovative and fresh, but I think this might be a hint of copycatting... specifically, the casal ease of gaming on a smartphone. Nintendo has long billed themselves as a family-friendly platform with a shallow learning curve that was accessible to anyone... the "gateway drug" of console gaming. The Wii's ad campaign specifically focused on being a platform the whole family could play (and indeed, an unusual majority of the games do best at multiplayer). I hope they aren't planning on taking this to the extreme of casual gaming.

The pessismistic part of me could very well see this turning out to essentially be a couple of iCraps tied to a console.

[UHMEEEEBA]

corrupt, adulterating shitbags says they've talked to some higher ups in the industry about it and are convinced it is real.

Also the controller Fusion mentioned will only be one controller as it will still support Wiimote controls for twice the shitty rap name action, and twice the price of course.

In other news Microsoft and Sony aren't going to do new consoles until 2014, this next Nintendo will be out in 2012. So yeah even if this thing blows the competition out of the water in two more years it could be suffering from the same sort of a gap that killed the Dreamcast.

[UHMEEEEBA]

And now IGN says they have system specs, also a 400 dollar price tag.

For some reason IGN thinks the system will look like a "modernized SNES".

[Jesuszilla]

I will be interested to see such a design if that is the truth.

[UHMEEEEBA]

Nintendo, has announced they are indeed working on a new system for 2012.

Nothing else besides confirmation that they're working on it right now. A working model will be shown at E3.

[Fusion]

Now I vent some of my concerns.  Hit the spoiler for the full dump (lots of text ahead):

[spoiler]The more I look at Nintendo today, the more I think that they've forgotten what brought them to the spotlight to begin with, at the very in America.

Back in the 1980s, prior to Nintendo releasing the NES, video gaming was practically dead.  They brought out the Nintendo Entertainment System, and their first ever "rap name": R.O.B.  Who was only good for all of two games and it flopped hard.  Or how about the Virtual Boy?  Yeah, it was 3D (in a way), but it was also a massive flop of a system.

Then, starting with the Nintendo 64, Nintendo themselves seemed to be bested by their competition.  They were behind the times, despite having games that left fond memories.  Then, there was the GameCube, the last "true" system Nintendo had made, and for the second time in a row, they had found themselves in a pinch: Microsoft and the X-Box, with the creation of the Halo generation.

The Wii and DS succeded mostly because, for every bit their features were labelled as gimmicks, they were also incredibly easy to use.  I can't help but think that the 3DS and Wii 2 will work backwards from here.  The 3DS is, at it's core, just an upgraded DS.  Touch screen, minor bump in resolution, analog stick, and the attachment of a 3D graphics mode.  Which really doesn't work out too well, because the handheld itself barely has PSP-level graphics.

That brings me concerns that the Wii 2 is probably nowhere near as cracked up as it's rumored to be.  Graphics better than a PS3 & 360?  Not likely, Nintendo hasn't been playing for graphics for a good while.  We might see graphics power ALMOST that of a 360, but not quite.  Worse yet, a touch screen on a controller?  It screams "disaster" to me.  The Wii's concept was easy to get in to because it was so easy to demonstrate.  Touch-screens on a controller?  That sounds gimmicky at best, and would likely only serve to alienate the modern market than it would to seize control of it.

Certain higher-ups in Nintendo have pretty much confirmed the approach of the Wii's successor, but I don't expect them to make good on those words.  I'm not even really expecting the system to be cared about.  Simply put, it might just be past Nintendo's time.[/spoiler]

[UHMEEEEBA]

R.O.B. while a shitty rap name was a necessary evil, after the video game market crash Atari caused many retailers refused to stock video games or consoles on the grounds they no longer sold. Nintendo got around this by marketing the system with R.O.B. along with the Nintendo Zapper so they could argue to retailers the NES was a "toy" and not a video game console. It worked and after they became entrenched in the market they stopped support for both.

You can read more indepth explanation here.

If it weren't for R.O.B. Nintendo probably wouldn't have been able to get retail space, and as such the video game market today would be a very different place. So saying it "flopped" is kind of missing the point.

[Jesuszilla]

Touch screen controllers would make buying replacements a pain in the ass. Why not make the 3D- no no NO do NOT do this Nintendo, I am NOT giving you any fucking ideas because you WILL do it.