id Software’s president Todd Hollenshead thinks the Wii U “looks interesting” but confirmed that his studio isn’t going to make anything for it until John Carmack, their lead programmer and the studio’s co-founder, approves of it.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard id say something about the Wii U, but I’m glad to hear that they weren’t as pessimistic this time. With the console being more powerful than the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, I hope our next story about them will be a game announcement – I’m sure an id-developed FPS would drive a good amount of interest in the console, especially if it packed some Wii U-exclusive content.

A recently filed patent for the Wii U’s controller reveals a few hardware elements we didn’t know about. Most notably, the controller – which is said to be completely dependent on the Wii U console – appears to have built-in flash memory. The amount of this memory is unknown, which means it could be for anything from simply remembering the console the controller is synced to to more elaborate uses like storing Miis or game data. Maybe you’ll be able to take your controller to a friend’s place – an idea we’ve heard Nintendo has been looking into – and bring your save data with you for a multiplayer game? I’d love to hear your own ideas in the comments.

Lots more details and an image gallery after the break! Continue reading…

Katsuya Eguchi, game designer and manager at Nintendo, discussed the ‘Wii’ in the Wii U, explaining that…

…there were also things [with Wii] that we weren’t able to accomplish with that system, that we would have liked to see in it. Wii U is kind of the natural progression in looking at what we did, how we changed gaming.

He went on to say:

This is the next logical step for us and we wanted to convey that in the name. in addition to that there are many Wii users out there – and we are very appreciative of this – who invested in lots of peripherals, such as more Remotes, balance boards, Classic Controllers, and they can continue to use these peripherals with Wii U as well. We wanted to make sure they understood that.

This is interesting, although I feel Nintendo should have gone for a more distinct name. They might see the same problem as with the 3DS, when people don’t realise it’s a totally new console.

Nintendo very early on confirmed that no GameCube games will be playable on the Wii U. However, this was merely the discs – no downloads mentioned.

Super Mario Sunshine + Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker live here!

During an interview, Amber McCollom, the Director of Entertainment & Trend Marketing at Nintendo of America, was asked asked about backwards compatibility in the Wii U, and said that “[a] number of the games that were playable on GameCube can be downloaded from WiiWare.”

It seems like a strange thing to mention so early on, and with no confirmation from a higher place, you may want to take this news with a pinch of salt.

However, when Nintendo of America was directly asked a few days later, they gave a similarly fishy response…

To clarify the capabilities of the Wii U system: As correctly stated, Wii U will not play Nintendo GameCube discs, however Nintendo has not made any announcements regarding downloadable content. 

This seems quite strange. Nintendo could have easily given a straight no. This definitely suggests that, even if they haven’t commenced doing it, they are considering the possibility of GameCube games on Wii U.

Codemasters, renowned for their racing games, are already working on a Wii U entry in the Dirt series. But their other big racer, Formula 1, will be making its way to the system, too, if Rod Cousen’s words from an interview are anything to go by. He didn’t reveal any specifics, but teased that “[they] will be doing Dirt and F1 for Wii U.”

As well, Rod had a few words of wisdom to share on how he thinks Nintendo should play the price war in order successful in the evolving landscape of the video game industry. Most interestingly, he seems to suggest that Nintendo may need to settle for a low profit on system sales (if any at all).

In terms of Wii U, the interesting aspect is timing and price and that has not been announced.

Everybody knows it is coming. I anticipate further price cuts on existing consoles prior to Christmas this year, and there’s room for further price cuts next year.

So Wii U needs to be very keenly priced – and in the same way that Sony is having to price Vita when the competition is smartphones and tablets. Pricing is critical in a very fragmented hardware space. So I am not sure they are going to be able to come out and hit a premium price point from the outset.

But Nintendo is smart. It is always innovative. It has demonstrated its breakthrough ability in the past, so let’s see if it can do it again. And the industry should cheer it on.

What’s great is that he remains confident in the company’s future, which I find rather refreshing in a time when the mass media is using Nintendo’s falling stock value to spread doomsday theories about their demise.

The 3DS price cut has caused quite a buzz among the media, with the 3DS price set to drop from $250 to $170. Iwata is concerned that this will make people wait for a Wii U price drop before buying the console.

“With regard to the influence on the Wii U, what we have to take most seriously is that the price markdown could damage the trust of the consumers who bought the Nintendo 3DS just after the launch,” Iwata said. “I feel greatly accountable for it. Our decision of the price markdown this time has a side effect that, at the launch of the Wii U, people may feel that the price might drop in the near future if they wait. Nevertheless, we have decided to cut down the price of the Nintendo 3DS as we consider it as a necessary decision now.”

Iwata also revealed that we will finally get to know the Wii U price and release date next year.

While speaking to N-Gamer, Guillaume Brunier has said that the Wii U’s controller will make it easier for players to turn around in first person shooter games. Ubisoft’s Wii U FPS, Killer Freaks From Outer Space will take advantage of the controller’s accelerometer feature.

“We’ve used the accelerometer feature,” explained Brunier. “If you move very fast the game will know and adjust movement speed. Those familiar with FPSes know how difficult it is to go around 180 degrees. With these new controls it’s a thing of the past.”

What do you think about Ubisoft implementing this feature?

Executive producer of Mass Effect 3, Casey Hudson has said that he needs to spend more time with the Wii U and to think more about it. However, he does seem impressed with the Wii U so far.

“It’s an interesting system. One of the challenges and opportunities with that kind of device is that it takes a while to really figure out what the amazing forms of gameplay will be – but it also has enough flexibility to potentially do things that are totally unprecedented in games,” Hudson said. “It’s very exciting, but I definitely need to think more about it and spend more time with the actual hardware.”

It was not to long ago that Frank Gibeau said that the Wii U and Mass Effect are a nice fit. Let’s wait and see what happens.

Recently, Square Enix have been sitting up and taking the Wii U seriously. With it being significantly more powerful than its predecessor, Final Fantasy producer Yoshinori Kitase said the following at E3:

Three or four years ago we joked around about developing a Final Fantasy game on the Wii Fit balance board. But after seeing Wii U revealed at Nintendo’s conference, we are now considering the possibilities of bringing the Final Fantasy series to the format. (source)

Final Fantasy Wii Fit jokes aside, it seems that Square are really considering bringing a numbered Final Fantasy title back to a Nintendo console. But how exactly could an FF experience be enhanced by the Wii U’s new controller? Continue reading…

Independent software developers Brain in a Jar, who specialize in Motorsport games and have been working with Ubisoft on the upcoming game Driver: San Francisco, have shared their thoughts on the Wii U with us. Feld0 and I posed some questions to Brain in a Jar’s creative director, Carl Dalton, and he was happy to answer them for us. Continue reading…