Four writers at the popular culture site 411mania sat down and had a Q&A among themselves about video games. One of the questions they asked themselves was which company of the big three was going to be the first to launch an entirely new console, when they would do it, and why. Their exact opinions were somewhat mixed, but three of the four of them voted for Nintendo, and the general consensus among them was that we would see it some time in 2012.

The main reason for this – and it’s a logical one – was that Nintendo would be too focused on marketing the 3DS in 2011 to worry about pushing out a new home console. Once the 3DS catches on and begins to sell with less direct effort, Nintendo will be ready to dedicate some of their mass marketing resources to the Wii’s successor.

Justin Weinblatt believes that Reggie lied when he gave us a time around which to expect the Wii 2 – most likely to better surprise us when it does get announced – but said that if he was telling the truth, it wouldn’t at all be implausible because “Microsoft and Sony just released Wii-esque peripherals to extend the lifespan of their consoles, so they clearly have no plans to release a new console.”

The possibility of Apple barging into the console gaming space was also brought up, as they have (albeit almost unintentionally) currently taken over the handheld market – but considering that gaming has actually never been Apple’s thing, it’s improbable they’ll design a device specifically dedicated to it.

You can read the full discussion here, which includes a little love for Sony as well.

At Metro.co.uk, a rumour has begun to brew suggesting that Kingdom Hearts III will be seen on the Wii’s successor. Originally, it was thought to be in development for the Wii, but apparently, newer comments mention that the game will run in high definition, suddenly making a Wii 2 project that much more palatable.

This rumour comes from a recent interview with Tetsuya Nomura, the producer of the Kingdom Hearts games. As andriasang.com translates,

There could be some deeper meaning to the “3” in the title. In addition to indicating the use of 3D visual output, the game will be connected to Kingdom Hearts III both in terms of gameplay systems and story. It’s possible that the ending of 3D will lead into the story of KHIII.

Kingdom Hearts 3D is currently in development for the Nintendo 3DS, and Square has supposedly completed all the groundwork for it, and is now focusing on building up the game itself. You can read more about it here, at our friend Adam’s site.

The series has traditionally been kept to the Sony platforms, with both Kingdom Hearts I & II being PlayStation 2 exclusives. Some installments have ventured into GameBoy Advance, Nintendo DS, and cell phone territory before; but for the main series, Square Enix has always stuck with the Japanese consumer electronics giant. That’s plenty of reason to believe the rumour’s false, and that Kingdom Hearts III will turn out to be a PlayStation 3 game, as most fans currently expect; but third-party developers are free to choose which platform will allow them to express their vision best. If the Wii’s successor offers Square Enix greater possibilities, developing for it would only ensure that the final game is better than it ever would’ve been on a current-gen platform.

Source: Kingdom Hearts 3D Connects to Kingdom Hearts III (via)

Image: high-resolution download link

This list comes to us courtesy of Conflicting Gamers. What they wish to see in the Wii’s successor probably isn’t anything new you don’t already know you want, but they’re great suggestions nonetheless. Here’s my summary of their points.

HD graphics

This one should go without saying at this point. Nintendo already ignored HD for the seventh generation, when the format’s market penetration had already reached fairly respectable levels. They’ve been ridiculed for it quite a bit, too, and I personally know several gamers who chose not to buy the Wii because it lacked it. The Wii’s low price kept it selling despite its technical inferiority, but with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 now having gotten much closer to it in cost, it would be nothing short of downright silly if Nintendo chose to forego high definition a second time.

Better online

Friend codes, friend codes, friend codes, ARGH!!

The second someone utters “Nintendo” and “online” in the same breath, the dreaded 12-digit numbers come to mind. Not only are they a bit of a pain to register, but each game carries with it its own friend code and buddy list, meaning you’ll need to register your friend over and over again for every game you want to play with him. If there’s one thing Nintendo can fix about their online multiplayer systems, it’s removing friend codes and replacing them with a central, console-wide system of some kind.

Better account management

Nintendo’s current digital distribution model ties all your purchases to the system they were made on rather than a user him- or herself. The problem with this is that there’s no way to transfer your downloads to a new system, like the black or red Wiis, or the DSi XL (or another colour of the DSi, for that matter), should you choose to buy one. This is doing nothing but limiting Nintendo’s potential hardware sales, as this draconian restriction screams at prospective customers, “You’ve spent a hundred dollars on downloading WiiWare and Virtual Console games? Awesome! Now, go spend a hundred more to get it all back if you want to celebrate Mario’s 25th anniversary!”

And believe me, I do want that red Wii, but Nintendo is just stomping on my face here for having supported them since the day it launched by releasing a special edition of it later that I simply cannot afford to rebuy all my downloads on. Nintendo can easily solve this problem by simply allowing you to redownload any game registered to your Club Nintendo at no cost on any system the account is linked to. To prevent piracy, they could set a limit on how many systems you can link to the account – one or two simultaneously should suffice for most people, as long as there’s a way to de-link it. If you have a CN account, each and every one of your downloads gets registered to it, anyway, so I can’t imagine it would be all that difficult to implement this functionality.

Hard drive

Speaking of downloads, if you’re like me and appreciate the explosion of creativity on WiiWare (and enjoy reliving the old times with Virtual Console), you’ve probably run into the Wii’s internal memory limit by now. Nintendo addressed this problem by enabling games to be played directly off of SD cards (okay, it’s not technically direct, but it creates the illusion that it is, and it works very well). However, this is still relying on the end-user to go out and buy themselves an SD card unless they are willing to spend time deleting and re-downloading their purchased titles. Why not fix this problem by simply including more internal memory – preferably in the form of a nice, big hard drive – in the console from the get-go? This is another problem Nintendo will surely address, as the 3DS already comes stock with four times the internal memory of the Wii, and I’m sure Nintendo wouldn’t want their handheld to eclipse their home console in specs for too long…

Now, it’s your turn. What do you want to see in the Wii’s successor? It can be anything, no matter how small or big.

Today, Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, was quizzed by Kotaku about the Wii’s successor, to which he said that we shouldn’t expect one in 2011, not even by Christmas. Everything else aside, this makes sense because Nintendo is already launching a new hardware platform next year in the form of the Nintendo 3DS, and a second Nintendo system for consumers to choose from during the holidays is bound to negatively affect the sales of both.

The Wii still has plenty of life left in it, according to Nintendo.

Reggie’s official explanation’s a little different, though – I’m gonna guess it’s because he wants to keep the hype about the Wii 2 as low as possible until they’re finally ready to show it. He says,

As we sit here today we’re saying the Wii has many, many more units to sell. After we’ve reached an installed base of 45 million here in the U.S., we can have a conversation about the next generation.

According to him, the Wii’s US sales currently stand at 30 million. The Wii’s making a lot of noise this year with hardcore hit after epic hardcore hit, and the trend’s continuing until The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and possibly even beyond. Whether this is the twilight phase of the Wii’s lifespan or simply a particularly awesome part of its life, Nintendo is bound to move lots of units, even if the impending release of the 3DS overshadows it a bit.

Even if Nintendo focuses on the 3DS during 2011, I still think it may still be possible that we’ll at least get a teaser of the Wii’s successor at E3. Nintendo has previously followed a pattern of using their handheld as a testing ground for the best ideas to integrate into a new console, so they’ll probably want to give the 3DS and its long list of awe-inspiring features at least a year or so on the market to learn what works and what doesn’t, and use their conclusions to design the finer points of the Wii 2.

Source: Wii 2 Is Not A Must For 2011

wiiboy101, one of this site’s earliest readers, has shared with me what he believes to be the CPU that could power the Wii’s successor. He suggests that Nintendo may opt to continue using the fairly successful PowerPC architecture of the GameCube’s Dolphin and the Wii’s Broadway CPUs.

According to him, the PowerPC platform offers a number of functional advantages unique to it, like out-of-order execution and branch prediction. The Cell processor used in the PlayStation 3 – previously rumoured to make an encore appearance in the Wii 2 – might appear to offer more raw power at first, but it’s very difficult for developers to code for.

The PowerPC 476FP can be thought of as "Broadway 2.0".

This high-performance, power efficient, compact processor core allows customers to meet the needs of today’s applications, while preserving legacy code.

wiiboy101 believes that the relatively new PowerPC 476FP will be a more-than-adequate alternative. It’s part of the same processor family as the Wii’s Broadway chip, and will be able to provide full backwards compatibility with all Wii and GameCube software. The most attractive thing about the 476FP, however, is the sheer amount of power it has under its inconspicuous hood.

The CPU runs at the impressive clock speed of 1.6 GHz, and is fabricated in a 45 nanometre process. Up to 16 cores can be crammed onto a single chip while taking up half the space a single (and far less powerful) Broadway does. Capable of up to 2.5 MIPS (million instructions per second) per MHz, IBM claims this is the most powerful embedded SoC (system-on-a-chip) design ever created. Even more impressive is the chip’s power consumption: at a paltry 1.6 watts, it’s also a strong contender for the title of most energy efficient SoC processor in the industry.

If the technical mumbo jumbo is too much for you, allow me to put it into simpler words: the PowerPC 476FP is realistically able to provide an incredible amount of processing power that is quite possibly well beyond even the PlayStation 3’s Cell while being just as easy to program for as the Wii, and retains full backwards compatibility with its games.

It seems like this chip could be a rather logical choice for Nintendo, as the 476FP does all this and wraps it up nicely in a small, neat, and energy-efficient form factor. It has previously only been used by LSI in high-performance networking applications, but it won’t take too much effort on IBM’s part to adapt it to a next-generation game console.

Source: IBM

Special thanks to wiiboy101 for the tip!

Good news for everyone who still has hope in the current Wii – myself included; I do want to see just how much further it can go now that it’s relying solely on awesome software to sell. Iwata feels that the Wii is currently still far from the limits of its full potential, and wants to continue developing great games for it.

Of course, we want to release original titles, but in order to release new games, we must continue developing them.

At Nintendo, we have not come to the stage where we need to give up on the developments of such unique titles at all. We do not feel that Wii has come to its limit. (source)

As Kotaku put it, to create a good, original game), Nintendo needs to “thread a needle between ‘interesting’ and ‘easy to understand.'” So far, they’ve been doing admirably in that regard with hit after big hit on the Wii.

Nintendo has already brought out all the big guns like Mario and Zelda on the Wii.

But games like these, which form the lifeblood of the Wii, apparently take a long time to develop. I imagine that coming up with a unique game concept in the first place must be difficult, so for Iwata to say that he wants Nintendo to continue to create big Wii games might mean that won’t see the Wii’s successor quite as soon as I thought.

The Wii's "surprise"?

On the other hand, Nintendo has already pushed out far more big console games this generation than usual – by the middle of next year, the Wii will have played host to three main-series Mario platformers, two complete Zelda adventures, the first console Kirby game in years, six sales record-setting games in the Wii series, and all the generational staples like Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros., among lots of other great stuff. With an all-star library like that, one has to ask: is there really anything Nintendo hasn’t done on the Wii yet? Iwata claims there is, but I find that just a little hard to believe.

The only Wii-related thing I can think of that fits the bill is the Vitality Sensor. Nothing has been heard about that since E3 ’09, but there are signs that Nintendo is working on something with it – namely, the “WiiRelax” trademark and a suspicious patent filing. But let’s face it: Nintendo has been sidestepping every question anyone’s asked them about the Vitality Sensor, leading me to believe the concept was abandoned.

What are your thoughts? Does the Wii still have a trick or two up its sleeve?

Source: Kotaku via GoNintendo

Got some salt handy? You might as well go to your local grocery store and buy a big bag of it as this story is about Michael Pachter, the infamous gaming industry analyst whose name keeps coming up again and again in Nintendo news, despite his predictions’ not-so-good accuracy record.

Today, Pachter boldly stated that he believed Nintendo’s doom was imminent unless they were to release an HD-enabled version of the Wii that could compete with Sony and Microsoft in the horsepower race.

You know frankly, the box isn’t as powerful and anybody who has an HDtv (sic) has to think twice about buying a Wii when they can get a 360 or PS3 for not much more.

Out of all he said, this sentence was most believable and is in line with previous reports of the Wii’s slowing sales. Pachter blamed this on Nintendo having gotten accustomed to the Wii’s continuous surge in sales during its first few years on the market.

I don’t think it is a bad thing that sales are down. I don’t think they were sustainable at that level…and I think demand is just tailing off to something much more normal.

So far, I think his reasons make sense, but then the conspiracy begins.

I think Nintendo is kind of going to continue to fade unless they decide to refresh the box, and as we all know that Wii HD should be coming out next month…

I find this last bit contradictory to what Pachter said just before it: if Nintendo is now selling their Wiis at “normal” rates, doesn’t that suggest that sales have stabilized and will stay at this level into the future?

Regardless, Pachter thinks that Nintendo needs to release an HD version of the Wii – not an entirely new console, just an HD version of the one they have – to regain the interest of the public and rise back to the top of the charts. He also mentioned that it would be wise for Nintendo to adopt a strategy like Apple’s, where they release new iterations of a product on an annual basis, incrementally adding new features to it year after year.

I don’t agree with either of Pachter’s suggestions – at this stage, Nintendo is better off dedicating resources to the development of the Wii’s true successor rather than an HD version of the same console; and they’re very unlikely to go the Apple route of annual hardware redesigns. Nintendo’s philosophy is one of delivering a consistent experience to all of their customers and people unwilling to upgrade from an older model of their system could potentially be restricted from experiencing a new game in its full glory.

What do you think of the latest word from Pachter?

Source: Nintendo Universe

…LIFTOFF!!

This site has already been online for a little over a month, but today marks the day of its official launch; everything until now was really just a test of sorts, partly to gauge the interest in the site and partly to give myself a chance to play around a bit with some behind-the-scenes stuff.

I’ve now managed to register Wii 2 Blog’s own domain after spending the last two months waiting for it to drop. In addition, I created its official Facebook page – just click the big “Like” button in the sidebar to get all the latest news delivered straight to your news feed!

For anyone who was already following the site in its early prototype phase, I’d like to extend my thanks to you for giving me a burst of confidence I never expected; if the blog was already able to get a few fairly dedicated readers then, it has a bright future ahead of itself. I also want to apologize for the lapse in updates recently – some real-life commitments came up that I couldn’t ignore, but those are, for the most part, out of the way now.

But also remember that updates may be a little slower on this site than others due to the general lack of information about the Wii’s successor. Subscribe to the email newsletter on the right to be sure you don’t miss out on new updates when I get them! If you see anything interesting that’s related to the Wii’s successor, please feel free to send it in to me by email or post it in the comments of an article. If I decide it’s worth writing about, you’ll get full credit for the submission.

New sections and features will be added as I see fit. The only reason the site is small and simple right now is that there simply isn’t enough content yet to support anything bigger. I do have things like forums and image galleries in mind, but they’re simply unnecessary at the moment.

I’d like to bring this post to a close by giving a few special shouts to a few special people:

Adam Leavi from Nintendo3DS.org.uk for being a great friend and supporting Wii 2 Blog right from when I first thought of it. Thanks also for giving me a job when I needed it the most; it’s helping greatly to finance this and other sites of mine.

David Turnbull from Nintendo 3DS Blog for inspiring me to create this site as well as being a good friend and supporting it.

The wonderful staff at HostGator for providing great hosting and backing it up with good customer service. Their servers are what keep this site up and running, and the technical support is always there for me when I need it (editor’s note: we no longer host with HostGator).

This site wouldn’t have been possible without these people, so it would be nice if you could show a little appreciation by visiting and maybe even signing up for their respective sites.

Without further ado, welcome to Wii 2 Blog!

Editor’s note: Before you start spouting things about the Wii’s success and that Kinect and Move will never beat it, allow me to reinstate that I’m only presenting my own opinion. No one says you need to agree with it, but if you don’t, please don’t be rude about it in the comments.

It’s unthinkable, but sadly true. Nintendo has just released the fiscal results for the six-month period from March to the end of September, and it’s not good. They’ve declared a net loss of 2 billion yen, or almost 25 million US dollars. As a loss, it’s negligible compared to some of the reports coming from their rivals, Sony and Microsoft, but the real shock sets in when you realize that they made 69.5 billion yen (about $860 million USD) in pure profit during the same time period last year.

Nintendo ran into the red these past six months.

The reason for this loss is most likely the lagging sales of Nintendo’s systems: with the Nintendo 3DS slated for release early next year, most prospective DS buyers are holding off on their purchase until the glassesless 3D handheld comes out; sales of the Wii are also down 45% from last year. THINQ.co.uk believes this is because “pretty much everyone on the planet who wants a Wii has already got one.” Not just that, but Microsoft and Sony’s new motion control systems, while definitely reeking of the catch-up vibe, are also undeniably getting a fair share of attention.

Nintendo is by no means in trouble only because of this single loss – the Wii has already been a runaway success and in the almost four years since its launch back in ’06, has surpassed even the wildest expectations. The 3DS is also sure to steal the show come February and March, and will probably be a steady source of income for a while, but where does this leave Nintendo’s home console business?

As I said in my last post, I think the Wii has reached the twilight of its lifetime, the point at which a console gets a barrage of blindingly awesome exclusive games before riding off into the sunset. Admittedly, the Wii isn’t quite done for yet as it still holds the title for the cheapest way to get into motion-controlled gaming; with the competition, not only are the HD-capable consoles pricier, but their motion control systems are sold separately for quite a hefty price, too, while the Wii is motion-ready right out of the box. But these days, more and more people are willing to pony up the extra cash for an HD experience that suits their big-screen TVs.

This is by no means confirmation of anything, but it seems that Nintendo’s iron grip on the industry is finally starting to slip a bit, and therefore, I think it’s extremely likely we’ll at least be hearing about the Wii’s successor soon. A 2011 release is probably a bit too soon, but I still believe that we may be treated to the console’s reveal at the coming E3, with the launch following at some point in 2012.

Source: THINQ.co.uk

While it’s not directly related to the Wii’s successor, it’s an interesting tidbit of news I thought would be worth sharing.

NPD has stopped reporting hardware sales figures, but Michael Pachter has stepped up to fill in for them, revealing hard evidence that the competition is finally gaining on the Wii. The data shows that the PlayStation 3 beat the Wii by 58 000 units in September, selling 312 000 and 254 000 consoles, respectively. Sony must’ve done something right with Move to finally get ahead of Nintendo. Whether they manage to stay in this position for longer remains to be seen, but so far, many people seem to be excited about what is, for all intents and purposes, a Wii HD.

Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 has been on the rise for a while now, and Microsoft is currently outselling both of its rivals with a whopping 484 000 units. The prospect of no controller at all appears to be the most attractive at the moment.

With both of its competitors now offering a similar experience but with stronger tech behind it, the Wii now has little more than Nintendo’s first-party backing to set it apart. It may be hard to believe, but after its tyrannical reign spanning almost four years, the competition has finally caught up and taken the lead. Nintendo will once again need to come out with something new and unique to recapture the interest of the media as well as the gaming population; they aren’t a company to simply stand by and watch their market get taken apart without doing anything about it.

A set of blockbuster hardcore Wii titles coming out within the next half year or so – Donkey Kong Country Returns, Epic Mickey, The Conduit 2, Goldeneye 007, and quite possibly most important of all, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword – may temporarily rekindle interest in the underpowered white box, but more than likely, they are the last big push a console tends to get towards the twilight of its lifetime; after that’s over, Wii gamers will probably move on to other systems to get their fix. Keeping this in mind, it’s extremely likely the Wii 2 will be revealed next year (probably at E3). Knowing that Nintendo planned to reveal it as close to launch as possible, even a same-year 2011 release isn’t out of the question.

Source: Gamasutra

Thanks to the commenters for adding a few more games to the list, and Derrick for pointing out a silly mistake of mine.