Nintendo unveils ‘Wii U’ at E3 2011
Nintendo has unveiled the Wii U, its long-anticipated follow-up to its bestselling Wii console. It’s… unusual, to say the least. But it could disrupt the video games industry once again.
We knew in advance that E3 2011 was going to be the event during which Nintendo took the covers off its next home console, but what was unveiled today still took many by surprise.
When it was released in 2006 few people thought the Wii would amount to much. At the time motion-control was seen as a gimmick and Nintendo as a weakening force in the home console market. And then something strange happened: the Wii became the must-have gadget for the mainstream. Families and non-gamers wanted one.
The Wii was such a huge success both Sony and Microsoft also started courting casual gamers, eventually releasing Playstation Move and Xbox Kinect respectively. And now Nintendo has once again stolen a march on its rivals by being the first to reveal its plans fr the next-generation of consoles.
The Wii U itself looks, both cosmetically and in terms of features, like a revised (or maybe revived) version of the Wii. The Wii U will feature full HD graphics via HDMI but once again rely on Flash memory along with “SD Card or USB solutions” for storage. Games will be available on optical disks and as downloadable content.
The key masterstroke Nintendo may have pulled is making the Wii U backwards-compatible with the Wii. All Wii games will play on the Wii U, and the Wii Remotes look to be needed, or at least are an optional extra, for many of the Wii U titles.
The new controller, which seems to be the main innovation with the Wii U, is a beast. The nearest comparison in terms of consoles from the past is the Dreamcast controller with its detachable VMU (Visual Memory Unit). But even that looks small compared to the Wii U controller. In essence it’s a handheld console posing as a mere controller. With a 6.2-inch touchscreen surrounded by enough space to house the usual buttons and analogue sticks, the Wii U controller is just a shade smaller than the Apple iPad.
What we don’t yet know is the release date (between April 1 and December 31, 2012 is all Nintendo would say) and the pricing. If Nintendo can pitch these two elements correctly then I can only see the Wii U being another huge success. It’s a strange beast, at least on first sight, but I (along with most other people) said the same about the original Wii. And look what happened there.
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June 8th, 2011
I kind of don’t get what the real benefit is of the small screen on the hand-held console. My kids like playing games on a large flat screen. Wouldn’t the hand-held device just be a momentary distraction? I mean, they have hand-held Nintendo games and a Wii for more full body interaction. Don’t get it.
September 7th, 2011
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