This is it. All the rumours we’ve been hearing over the past few days finally come together now. A PDF posted on Nintendo’s own investor relations site has confirmed two things: the Wii’s successor will be revealed at E3 2011, and it’ll be launched next year. Here’s a screenshot of the doc:

German translation after the break! Continue reading…

Nintendo’s servers must be getting hit with a whole ton of 404’s right now as people madly try all kinds of combinations in their attempts to squeeze more and more images out of Wario World. These two are the latest to be found. The two images are identical, with the exception of one having a black border and the other a white one – probably because the image is used as a button the border of which changes colour when hovered over.

The images were supposedly uploaded on April 4, according to one site, and the banner came ten days later (which was incidentally the same day Game Informer broke the first large-scale rumour about the Wii 2).

Here’s something to think about: what exactly is that…thing in the coffee cup? I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure it’s a rabbit. Incidentally, 2011 happens to be the year of the rabbit. Could this mean that the Wii 2 is shipping to stores this year, as one earlier leak from IGN suggested? I’ll leave it at that. You can tell me what you think in the comments.

Update: If that really is a rabbit in the cup, it probably doesn’t actually have anything to do with the system’s release date, as Nintendo just confirmed that the Wii 2 will be coming in 2012.

Two more alleged pictures of the Wii 2 have leaked out. They look exactly like the console that was pictured in the two earlier leaks. I’m now 99% sure these are fake, because the console in this particular set has a light turned on, but isn’t plugged in anywhere (and home consoles aren’t exactly battery-powered). Still, it’s the cleanest look we’ve gotten at this particular “design” yet, so hit the break for the pics. Continue reading…

After that earlier find on Wario World, Manukineko from GoNintendo dug up the above image that more or less confirms that Project Café is the real codename of the Wii’s successor. It can be found at: https://www.warioworld.com/images/cafe/cafe_header.jpg

So I guess that’s it. Café really must be the new console’s codename, unless someone at Nintendo decided to screw with all of us by taking a circulating rumour and dropping a few sly hints like this. Which I strongly, strongly doubt is the case.

What are you hiding from us, Wario?

You may or may not be familiar with Wario World, the site which third-party developers go to for Wii, DS, and 3DS dev kits and such. GoNintendo reader KingBroly found a curious little anomaly on the site suggesting that the rumoured Project Café codename may actually be the real deal.

Try visiting https://www.warioworld.com/cafe/. It redirects you back to the homepage. Nothing special, right? Wait.

Typing just about anything other than “cafe” will produce a 404 error on the site, but it’s very curious that “cafe” specifically doesn’t. There is nothing on the site pertaining to the Wii’s successor yet, but this suggests that there soon will be…

In 1UP’s latest Oddcast, Sam Kennedy has been quoted as saying that Project Café will no longer use friend codes for its online system.

The origin of the information is unknown, as is its validity, but it’s certainly still a tempting proposition that Nintendo might finally do away with the friend code system entirely. However, we also have no idea what they would use in the codes’ place. Usernames? That seems like the most logical way to go, but who knows what Nintendo might be up to.

I think this one may turn out to be false – for one, friend codes aren’t really that big a deal anymore when there’s a single one for the entire system, as is the case with the 3DS. Second, I think that using friend codes on the 3DS and some other system on the Wii 2 will create unnecessary inconsistency in players’ minds, as they’ll have to follow two entirely different procedures to register their friends on each system.

Mark this one as “unlikely,” but keep it on your radar.

Update: I listened to the podcast, and I can verify that Sam said this.

The Swedish retailer Webhallen.com has put up a listing for the Wii 2, allowing you to pre-order it for the princely price of 4995 Swedish kronor. In more common currencies, that comes out to a whopping $817.05 US dollars, $779.47 Canadian dollars, or €561.63 Euros.

Webhallen makes it clear that “Wii 2” is only a tentative title, and lists a release window of 2012, in line with all the other rumours we’ve heard so far on that.

But here’s where it starts to fall apart. IGN said the Wii 2 was going to be expensive, but $800 is just too much, even if the thing brews better espressos than my dedicated coffee machine. Still, if you actually end up buying it, do let us know in the comments.

THQ's UDraw Tablet

A new article from 01net, one of the leading sources of Wii HD rumors, claims that the system’s touchscreen controller is not actually HD, and instead has a resolution of 800×500 pixels. While it’s not HD, it’s still a decently high resolution for 6.2 inches, and should look about as crisp as one of the 3DS’s screens.

The site also said that the controller was a “close cousin” of THQ’s much-publicized UDraw tablet (pictured at right), meaning it might function akin to an iPod Touch or iPad with physical controls.

Unnamed developers supposedly mentioned a June 2012 release date, and 01net noted that Nintendo would have ample time to change the controller’s design by then. They included the following mockup with the article that is supposedly the closest representation of the controller yet:

01net then said that “Stream,” the name IGN leaked out, was a “plausible and clever choice,” (urine jokes notwithstanding). We then get the following quote regarding the streaming functionality of the controllers:

The console will be able to wirelessly stream multiple types of streams (different media, games) to the controllers. This will make it possible to play without turning on the TV, or start a frenzied game on the big screen and continue uninterrupted into the toilet.

It sounds like the idea of streaming is one the rumour mill is really running with. But how exactly might this streaming work on a technical level? 01net partially answered that question, too, saying that they may work without relying on badly-compressed video streams (that current streaming services like OnLive are notorious for):

The console and the controllers could operate on the principle of “virtualization,” the bulk of the calculations being performed by the console itself, and the controllers serving as terminals capable of displaying the code pre-calculated. This system would distribute the game in high quality to the controllers, without significant latency and without using a compressed video stream and being demanding in terms of bandwidth.

The one concern I have with all of this data flying around between the console and controllers is that the latter is starting to sound very, very expensive. Even if most of the game code the controller displays is “pre-calculated,” Nintendo would still have to include some kind of processing circuitry, however low-end it may be, in the controllers to actually run the code.

At a press conference in Paris, Shigeru Miyamoto mentioned that Nintendo are looking into ways to connect the 3DS to a “future home console.” Specifically, he said that it’s possible to use it as a controller, but that they are considering a number of different options right now.

Nothing more came out of him than that, but it’s interesting to note that the 3DS in its current state is perfectly capable of connecting to the current Wii to transfer Miis, download DS game demos, and the like. Might it act as a generational bridge of sorts between the two consoles? In any case, it would fit very nicely with the rumour that Nintendo is planning to continue offering Wii Remotes as a controller option for the Wii 2.

In yet another interview, Miyamoto dropped another little hint at the Wii’s successor. Well, nothing new, really – he basically regurgitated an earlier comment by Reggie Fils-Aime that the Wii 2 will be about more than just HD.

I may not tell you, but to us it is of course a logical step to doing something with HD. The number of households with a HD television is now big enough to make an HD game console. And of course we are always busy anyway with the development of new consoles. We focus not only on HD and the next system will feature something totally different than usual.

The good part about this is that HD is most definitely confirmed now, and we can be sure Nintendo will blow us away with whatever this “totally different” feature turns out to be.

The bad part? We’ve known this since 2009. Oh you, Miyamoto.