Another leaked image of Project Café

A reader sent me an insider photo of what he claims is an early build of the Wii’s successor. He wishes to remain anonymous, but did have some information to share. Hit the break for the picture and the details!

Here is what my source said about the particular unit shown in the picture:

This is not the final design, this unit does not have a working drive or final parts. The unit powers on and is an internal test kit that is no longer being used because more complete units have now been distributed. The design is close to what we will see at E3. The colour scheme does not necessarily reflect that of the final model either.

Project Café Leak

Click for a bigger version.

My source said that the photo was taken by a friend of his who sent the picture to him. His friend does not work directly for Nintendo, but she “has access to early kits.” Lastly, he told me that the final kit will probably be thinner and more detailed.

With this many images of what is clearly the same console, coming from all of these different sources, I’m starting to think that they may be the real deal, after all. What do you think? There’s currently an active discussion about this going on at the forums, too, which you’re free to take part in.

Update: DaimyoNintendo pointed out in the comments that judging by the size of the cables, it’s nowhere near the size of an Xbox 360 (though you should note that that’s only rumoured, too).

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Comments, Reactions, and General Hooliganism

  1. Will

    it looks better than the last one but the photos look to be at the same place so maybe the first one was a prototype with LED’s in to show what it looks like when turned on and would explain why there are no cables at the back and this one is a newer prototype which can fully work.

    • F0

      That sounds like a reasonable explanation, but as DaimyoNintendo said in comment #3, the size of the cables points to this one being a fake.

  2. Dan

    “Lastly, he told me that the final kit will probably be thinner and more detailed.” that could describe any of the 3 major consoles already on the market :/

  3. DaimyoNintendo

    I would like to think it would look like this, but judging size by the cords in the back…it does not look like the size of a an original 360 nor does it look like a modern updated SNES. Now those things could have been said to throw us off or someone who has very poor visual judgment.

    I just hope Nintendo has a red color console, red is just so Nintendo. After gray and black consoles for years and years and years..and years, I loved the white Wii but I so wanted that Red Wii. I just really want red and white colored console.

    • F0

      Good point. Those cords really give it away. Judging by their size, the console would have to use little mini-discs again, like the GameCube, which would destroy all hopes of Wii backwards compatibility.

    • George Tirebiter

      I wouldn’t worry yet, since there’s no disc drive on this model. The one on the Wii does take up the entire height/width (based on how you place it) of the system.

    • DaimyoNintendo

      Yea no doubt, not worried yet, I just really hope Nintendo can get blu-ray on their console and not just the HD discs, that would be HUGE!

    • I hope Nintendo releases the console with at least 2 different colors at launch. That would be sweat… I honestly don’t care what colors they are, I just want a choice.

    • zuxs13

      think your sizing is off. The cables dont give it away. if that is a normal size disc drive on the bottom then the system would be around 15″ high give or take an inch cause the curve. the cables would be fine if that was true. but the sizing of the wood grain on the floor throws that scaling off.

  4. Oh, so fake!

    • Mariofan21

      What makes you think its fake?

    • RockD79

      Its a fake. System stands out too much as the background remains blurry. Worst of all the DVD or BD slit is at the bottom of the system which makes no sense. Im glad I can put this one to the grave. Didnt care for the shape at all.

  5. FAKE!

    FAKE!

  6. 0003mg

    Normally early dev kits don’t have a disc drive because developers would waste a LOT of DVD’s on testing games. Dev kits nowadays use a cable to send the game to the console to test it.

  7. Andrew

    Oh look. That’s a cool looking modem!

    • Jerry3466

      Looks nothing like the first images..this white box is an obvious fake.

      Previous images> http://imgur.com/YNDq5

    • Generally speaking, the developer kits are usually a different color/different size than the retail box. I wouldn’t rule this out at all.

  8. If that at the bottom is a disc slot, than we’re seein’ here bit bigger console than previously expected…

  9. CaptainFlower

    Man, I just dont know anymore. Guess we’ll find out soon!

  10. Biohazard

    Do developer kits even have this much emphasis on design?

  11. This picture is a photoshoped picture of a wood floor. The console appears to be floating and the cables don’t appear to be attached to the system. zuxs13 also has a good point which proves my photoshop theory.

  12. It could be a mini prototype, but most likely not.

  13. If it is a small version of the real system, then the real system would be huge and that’s something you would expect from Microsoft because there stuff is all bulky and big.

  14. If it is a mini prototype, then the real thing would be huge and that’s something that we would expect from Microsoft because all of their systems and computers are huge and bulky.

  15. Sorry, I had trouble submitting and I submitted twice.

    • Oh, Ignore my last post. I had trouble reloading the page and I had to rewrite my post.

  16. Mariofan21

    If this is the real Wii 2, then it is not what I expected it to look like! But it still looks awesome!