Nintendo has announced the announcement of a previously unannounced successor console to its hugely successful but now largely moribund Wii.
The formal unveiling of the new console, only known to be another home console, will come at E3 in June, and its release is said to be scheduled for April of 2012 .
Announcing the announcement at Osaka, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata was characteristically cagey about the exact nature of the new console, but seems to rule out any further toying with stereoscopy:
“I want to offer a new proposal for the home console.”
“If we consider that 3D TVs are not really well accepted by the market, 3D would be difficult to make the centre of the product.”
Sales of both Wii hardware and software have collapsed as the product nears the end of its lifecycle, and Nintendo profits have correspondingly plunged 66%, so a successor was a given, and probably an urgent prioirty in light of the weak launch of the 3DS.
Speculation about the new console centres on its spec (likely to be relatively low given Nintendo’s preference for inexpensive hardware, but how low or high in relation to the PS3 and Xbox 360 is an important question), and what sort of cunning gimmick it will incorporate to draw in the masses.
Motion controllers are now old hat, and current console 3D display technology requires useless 3D TVs nobody wants, so just what will be delivered here remains a mystery.
God, that’s just like you Sankaku, having console warring here, too. Along with Artefact being involved and trashing the 3DS.
I thought video game fans liked games instead of systems. I don’t even care in the slightest about anything other than games. If a game I like needs a system or a part to play it, I’ll buy it.
Nintendo systems are always guaranteed to have good first party games. And I will continue to buy their systems as long as Miyamoto keeps churning them out.
Metroid in HD!!!!
In fact I have rather fond memories of Sega Master System’s 3D games. Powered by special goggles, they worked on any conventional TV set. Pity it was plagued by the curse of the optional add-on – few games, so few people bothered to buy them, so few softhouses bothered to make games for them, so few people… You get the idea.
I’ve always wondered how a games console with 3D goggles included by default would fare in the market – today the question is all the more relevant, as most games are built on 3D engines anyway, so converting the graphics would be a no-brainer.
I would settle for just a solid console with good games like the Famicoms.
WW III