Wii 2 will not simply be more powerful

The original news story predates this blog – it’s all the way back from 2009 – but I found it interesting and thought it would be worth sharing, since you may have missed it back then, too.

Green motherboard circuit board inside computer

The Wii's successor will be far more than just a hardware upgrade.

Stephen Totilo from Kotaku had interviewed Reggie Fils-Aime, and got onto the topic of the Wii’s successor. He asked Reggie why he thinks third-party publishers often refuse to publish their biggest multiplatform hits on the Wii, with its massive installed base of tens of millions of people – many of which are hardcore gamers who yearn for the grand, high-budget experiences that the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 are usually treated to. We all know the answer is that they don’t think the Wii is powerful enough, and Reggie openly admitted this; but he added that third-party developers that do take the time to create good Wii games often see great commercial success from them.

Totilo then suggested that making the Wii more powerful was all it needed to absolutely dominate the marketplace, as it already had a number of great advantages over its competition (remember, this was back in ’09 before Microsoft and Sony developed their motion control systems). Reggie disagreed vehemently, saying that an HD upgrade alone does not warrant a new system. He then went on to confirm that they would only create a new system when he feels the Wii is ready to truly be succeeded, leaving a simple hardware upgrade out of the picture.

Verbatim,

Reggie: The fundamental issue in the logic flow is that — and this is what I’m hearing, whether it’s from you or Geoff or Michael himself — is that, gosh it’s such an opportunity to take HD capability and link it with the Wii. And what we have said, repeatedly, is that that’s not the way we at Nintendo do things. The way we at Nintendo do things is, you know, when we will move to a new generation, it’s because there are some fundamental things the [current] console cannot do. What that says is that simply the addition of HD capability will not be the next step for us. There will be more to it. There will be additional capability. There will be additional elements, and, given that, it is far into the future.

Stephen: So, no new Wii in 2010?

Reggie: Not to announce with you here today.

Source: Reggie: Wii 2 Theories Miss Key Point

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Comments, Reactions, and General Hooliganism

  1. Scientist

    I’m tempted to say “well duh”, because… y’know, it’d be a horrible idea for Nintendo to make an HD Wii without any other upgrades.

  2. George Tirebiter

    Of course, this does NOT mean “we won’t update our graphics for the next generation.” I’m sure that’s what many people would gather from this at one glance (especially fanboys who live to bash Nintendo), but the important combination of words here is “not HD alone.” I’m not quoting directly, just paraphrasing the idea. 😛

    It’s not the sole reason for the upgrade, but they’ll include HD or the like if they’re smart.

  3. wiiboy101

    HD is nothing but video format of course its going to be HD thats just commonsense,i think a 3DS like online and off line wifi ability is going to happen and some kind of wii remote/nunchuck upgrade like better speaker, a mic wm+ in the nunchuck and one iv been thinking of 3D HEPTIC FEED BACK A 3D DEEP UPGRADE TO RUMBLE PAK IN BOTH CONTROLS and built in vitality sencer…3D rumble in both hands would give amassing 3D stereo feed back that adds more imursion and gives a surround effect to rumble….example a explosion to your left the surround sound starts left and goes to the right the rumbleveffect goes of in your left hand and ripples threw to your right other examples feel the gun in your right hand advanced rumble over say COD etc rumble effect and feel the granade leave your hand wen throwing it with nunchuck feel punches impact both hands wen boxing/punching feel the drill,saw.even maybe advanced stuff like fur of a animal as you stroke it….