I don’t think anyone expected the Wii U to be compatible with DVD’s and Blu-ray discs, seeing as the Wii and GameCube both skipped out on DVD support, but we now have official confirmation from Nintendo that the console doesn’t support them.
The reason for this is that the Wii U uses a proprietary disc format that renders it incompatible with your movie collection – an anti-piracy and cost-saving measure that they’ve used since the GameCube.
Giant Bomb and GameTrailers had the chance to get some playtime with Ninja Gaiden 3 and put two great preview videos together. While they are of the Xbox 360 version, there’s lots of great footage here to help you get a feel for how the game will look and feel. Giant Bomb’s video in particular is a solid 40 minutes long.
You can watch the videos after the break. And just a warning – there is a lot of blood.
Yosuke Hayashi, the head of Team Ninja, dropped a comment in a recent interview suggesting that Dead or Alive 5 might come to the Wii U.
We’re thinking about all sorts of things. Right now, our Wii U development is focused just on Ninja Gaiden, but we’re definitely keeping other platforms in mind for DOA5.
Dead or Alive 5 is currently on track to hit the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 later this year.
Team Ninja have been getting a lot of attention here with all the Ninja Gaiden 3 screenshots they’ve released, and some of the studio’s higher-ups recently commented on the Wii U development process. For one, working with Nintendo as a platform supplier is apparently quite a good experience:
It’s very easy to develop for. We’re finding it very similar to develop for Wii U as for the Xbox 360 and PS3. …They’ve asked us what we would like to see from the hardware, and when we give them feedback we can see that they’re definitely listening to it and making changes. The hardware is still constantly changing.
Moving on, Team Ninja also praised the Wii U controller’s touchscreen, comparing it to the DS in that it places a screen in the player’s hands. They are looking to bring some of the touchscreen features of the DS title Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword across to Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge.
At Nintendo’s last investor relations meeting, Miyamoto pointed out that the Wii U isn’t “just about better graphics,” which should hopefully be quite clear considering the console’s true strength lies in its versatile controller.
But that doesn’t mean graphics don’t carry any weight for him – in fact, Miyamoto expressed that visuals will be very important for “some games,” listing The Legend of Zelda as a specific example.
No direct translation of this quote is available, but I’m sure that many of you will rejoice at the news that graphics will play an important role in the Wii U’s Zelda adventure nonetheless.
These just keep coming! Tecmo Koei released yet another beautiful set of Ninja Gaiden 3 screenshots, all of which I’ve uploaded after the break. This particular set comes from the game’s multiplayer mode, which we’ve heard some neat details about before.
The Wii U is still a long ways off from release, but that didn’t stop Chinese manufacturer JXD from “borrowing” a few elements of its controller. The JXD S7100 (pictured above) is an Android device billed as a “game console” on JXD’s website. The S7100 features a 7-inch 800×480-pixel capacitive touchscreen, motion sensors (described as “gravity” on JXD’s website), and comes in your choice of black and white.
JXD have released a batch of pictures of this device, which you can check out at their website (and while you’re there, notice anything else familiar?). There is also a video, which you can watch after the break.
Gearbox Software released a fittingly creepy new trailer for Aliens: Colonial Marines, which you can watch after the break.
We’ve heard this a few times before, but at yesterday’s investor relations meeting, Iwata took the time to reassure us that his company “learned a bitter lesson from the launch of the Nintendo 3DS” and will do everything they can to make the Wii U fantastic right at launch.
For the launch of new hardware, it is, of course, regarded as a sort of requisite not to miss the critical year-end sales season. The company is aiming to firmly complete the development of the entire system and prepare sufficient software so that the Wii U will be at its best at the time of the launch. Needless to say, we have learned a bitter lesson from the launch of the Nintendo 3DS.
With all the awesome Wii U features that have come out of this meeting, it really makes me happy to know that I won’t be waiting half a year for them to actually become usable.
Iwata thinks that gamers are ready for the next generation of home consoles to start. He sees the declining sales of all three current systems as a sign that the market is ready for something new.
However, not just the Wii, but the overall performance of home consoles in December was lower than the previous year, and I think that the market is now waiting for a new proposal for home consoles.
And I think he’s right. With Microsoft and Sony both keeping their focus on milking every last dollar out of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Nintendo have the chance to gain a huge competitive advantage in the next generation by being the ones to kick it off.
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