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Nintendo's WiiU: Touchscreen, coming 2012
- alanfalcon 15y agoIf Nintendo didn't disdain indie developers so much, this would be a much more exciting announcement. This kind of innovative thinking is wasted on the mega corporations who hardly take advantage of it.
- jpablo 15y agoDidn't Nintendo opened up to small devs with WiiWare ?
- alanfalcon 15y agoI was thinking of Fils-Amie saying the 3DS "isn't for unproven indies". I suppose it would make sense if the WiiWare model carried over to Wii U. http://www.develop-online.net/news/37379/Nintendo-3DS-isnt-a-platform-for-unproven-indies http://www.develop-online.net/news/37379/Nintendo-3DS-isnt-a...
- jbermudes 15y agoWhile the WiiWare SDK is a lot cheaper than previous kits, Ninntendo still has you jump through the hoop of being a registered and licensed developer with a business office and a secure facility to store the development kit/hardware. So while it may open the doors to some smaller studios, it's still generally outside of the reach of most "indie" devs compared to the iphone app store.
- wccrawford 15y agoSmaller companies, anyhow. It's not like the Android market where just about anyone can publish a game.
- mortenjorck 15y agoIf Apple puts out an SDK for the Apple TV in September, things could get exciting pretty fast.
- nicholas1987 15y agoApple is on a 3 year product cycle, so I wouldn't count on it, but you never know: 1998- iMac; 2001- OSX/iPod; 2003/4- iTunes; 2007- iPhone; 2010- iPad; 2013 ?????
- zdw 15y agoProbably because the iPad has an SDK and the comment didn't make sense as a result. HN tends to be kinda rough on technical inaccuracy.
- nicholas1987 15y agoActually your comment is the one that is technically inaccurate, why would Apple wait a year and a half to launch an SDK. All I pointed out was that Apple's big launches come in 3 year cycles, it wouldn't fit for a TV SDK to launch now, or anytime soon.
- younata 15y agoFrom the guidelines: "Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading." So far, the only device (that I'm aware of) from Apple that had a wait between the product launch and the sdk launch was the original iphone. Everything else, as far as I know, had an sdk launched way before the product was launched. As for your downvotes: I'm sorry, but as has been stated previously, we value technical accuracy.
- nicholas1987 15y agoYou're agreeing with me and proving my point:"So far, the only device (that I'm aware of) from Apple that had a wait between the product launch and the sdk launch was the original iphone. Everything else, as far as I know, had an sdk launched way before the product was launched." That's exactly my point, so thanks for agreeing with me. I don't think there was anything wrong or inaccurate with my comment--anyone guessing why Apple does or doesn't do something is going to have fairly equal odds. Also for your smugness, not needed, not helpful, not necessary. And, Michael Brindle-- you're not even logically consistent: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2622617 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2622617 I guess I shouldn't feel bad though, you're not exactly brilliant yourself: http://www.okcupid.com:900/profile/younata http://www.okcupid.com:900/profile/younata http://twitter.com/#!/younata http://twitter.com/#!/younata http://younata.blogspot.com/ http://younata.blogspot.com/ http://www.youtube.com/user/younata http://www.youtube.com/user/younata https://github.com/younata https://github.com/younata http://www.last.fm/user/younata http://www.last.fm/user/younata http://forums.humansvszombies.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2861 http://forums.humansvszombies.org/index.php?action=profile;u... http://blog.michaelbrindle.com/ http://blog.michaelbrindle.com/ http://www.gaiaonline.com/profiles/younata/501513/ http://www.gaiaonline.com/profiles/younata/501513/ http://morde.deviantart.com/art/Younata-44411069 http://morde.deviantart.com/art/Younata-44411069
- icefox 15y agoWho is to say indie's can't do this with the existing tablets that are out there today? http://benjamin-meyer.blogspot.com/2011/03/tablet-tv-games.html http://benjamin-meyer.blogspot.com/2011/03/tablet-tv-games.h...
- v21 15y agoI agree. Watching this, I start thinking of all the exciting shit I could do with it. But I'm not a company with a contract with Ninty. So i won't. Hopefully the protocol is easy enough to decipher, and I can start using it as a remote control for the PC hooked up to my TV.
- Roritharr 15y agoFor me these colliding principles are heartbreaking. I've been playing Nintendo games since i was 3, and always wanted to work in the Videogame industry, but it seems to get your own games onto a Nintendo platform you need a lot of money or accept the fact that it will only run on jailbreaked consoles and people will live for free. I was really hoping Nintendo would jump at the Android possibilities that were opening up, but it was Sony who went and did the right thing...
- kmfrk 15y agoI basically gave up on Nintendo after the N64; all Nintendo is about nowadays is releasing Metroid 13, Mario 59, Zelda 32, in whichever conceivable permutations. There's no wonder that they want to innovate the hardware, because the games remain the same. Zelda almost feels like the Lorem Ipsum and Hello World of Nintendo, when they want to demo their new platforms. And I think they just announced an HD-cum-3D version of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. Jeez.
- dddrh 15y agoKeep in mind that last year was the 25th anniversary of the original Mario Bros. This year is the 25th for Legend of Zelda, and next year the 25th for Metroid. While it does seem that they are rehashing old IP (and I agree that they are) they also have a slight incentive to push out permutations of their successful franchises here in the next few years.
- ryanisinallofus 15y agoIt's crazy. They found a problem, and solved it in a novel way. This makes having a console possible in my single tv house. Too bad this won't be out for Christmas or I'd be getting one this year.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- rexf 15y agoI'm interested in how much they will charge for the WiiU controller. The Wii had controller-itis with the wiimote + nunchuck + motion plus. At least the WiiU will re-use the Wii's controllers. Also, how does the 3DS fit in the equation? If the WiiU controller works for standalone gaming, it could compete against the 3DS.
- kakaylor 15y agoFrom the article (referring to the controller): "Please understand that it was not designed to be a portable video game machine," Nintendo President Saturo Iwata explained. Looks like it won't compete against the 3DS.
- pmjordan 15y agoWhile not explicitly stated anywhere, it seems the Wii U only supports a single new controller, as they haven't ever shown more than one. It probably ships with it, so you won't need to buy it on its own.
- nathanb 15y agoAny idea if it's backward-compatible with the Wii?
- mahyarm 15y agoAll that hardware and I worry about the weight. The ipad is tiring to hold up in your hands long term, if that thing has any sort of battery life, it would be fairly tiring to hold up too.
- joelanman 15y agoI thought that, but then this will presumably be all plastic, like current Wii/DS hardware. If so it'd be significantly lighter.
- kin 15y agoit's actually quite light and it isn't a portable device, it's simply a screen that streams content/input. I too am worried about battery life. Wii controllers ate up AA batteries like no other.
- brianbreslin 15y agook so someone explain this to me. this device negates the need for a Wii? or is an extension for the wii? so are they updating the graphics on the wii? Sorry I'm slightly confused by this (and i've been gaming for 20 years+) How does this connect to a tv?
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- 83457 15y agoThink of an improved Wii system plus the controller has a screen to view extra info and functionality. Then add the ability to optionally use the controller screen instead of the TV screen to view the full game. There you go.
- fhars 15y agoYou are taking the wireless controller for the console, the console looks like that http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=21727778#p21727778 http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=21727778#p21727... and connects to the tv with a cable.
- brianbreslin 15y agoah thank you! no one was showing the console in the pics. thus confusing me.
- flannell 15y agoI watched it live. Once the controller was confirmed I immediately thought about a feature Microsoft did in Vista called SideShow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_SideShow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_SideShow
- modernerd 15y agoWiiU announcement video from E3 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eniBUtc4Uws http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eniBUtc4Uws
- desigooner 15y agoFWIW Quite a lot of the game footage was from XBox 360 + PS3 games.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- ansy 15y agoIt's an extension of the Nintendo DS formula. Except the top screen is the TV and the bottom screen is embedded in the controller. The controller's cost will be a huge factor. It could be as much as $100 ... or more. Nintendo just needs to make a phone. A Nintendo DS with a cellular antenna that's free after carrier rebates. How could that not work? Every kid would get it. A lot of adults, too. If you really wanted an iPhone or Android, you could just buy a normal Nintendo DS. There's so much opportunity there, it's baffling. Even if all it did was play Mario and have the same features as a flip phone it would sell.
- k_harrigton 15y agoIf the Wii U supported more than 1 new controller at a time the cost would be a huge factor. I don't think it does. If it did I believe they would've mentioned it at the conference. Instead they showed a picture of a controller/screen and 4 wiimotes.
- dhechols 15y agoThis looks like the most uncomfortable thing in the world to hold. It looks expensive, gimmicky, and prone to breaking. By the time they launch this, Microsoft will be announcing new firmware for Kinect with even more extreme fidelity than they have now, and Sony will start hyping their next console. Add to that the lackluster sales of the (gimmicky, low battery life) 3DS, and I'd say Nintendo just jumped on the fail whale.
- superkarn 15y ago"This looks like the most uncomfortable thing in the world to hold" Most of Nintendo's previous controllers have been quite comfortable and ergonomic compared to their competitors. That said, the WiiU does look kinda awkward.
- steveb 15y agoI kept thinking about the iPad as I watched the video. Nintendo sees opportunity in freeing users from the TV, Apple sees opportunity in freeing users from desktops. Nintendo, being a game company, keeps the console as the focus, and has the controller as the accessory. Apple, a device company, has the smarts in the controller, and AppleTV is the accessory.
- jerf 15y agoWhile we've never had a full-color screen in our hands with a console, we have had displays in our hands before, with the Dreamcast. I would consider it a bit of a warning that the Dreamcast's promises of how the display would be useful almost entirely failed to pan out. I think the core problem is that on average, you're not going to split your attention between two screens, if for no other reason than physically acquiring a screen with your eyes is a significant fraction of a second. The fraction of a second spent changing screens better have a really good payoff. For every use case given for the auxiliary screen, I'd ask, could it have been done on the Dreamcast (even if not quite as well), and if so, why didn't it work there and why will it work on the WiiU? Merely saying "now it's in color" really isn't good enough, I think. I can generate hypothetical uses as much as the next guy ("call plays in sports games!" "multiplayer shooters!" "rear-view windows!"), but once I tone down the excitement (easy after years of practice) and really think about the pragmatic issues of trying to use this auxiliary screen, I'm not actually coming up with many situations in which the auxiliary screen is the best solution, which is the real criterion to measure uses of it by, as opposed to a solution. Play calling works, but that's an awfully elaborate screen for such a use case. Rear-view displays don't work at all. Locally multiplayer shooters are OK, but what will the main screen be doing? An example in the current generation: Light gun games are best with motion controllers (haven't tried Move but assume it will be at least as good as the Wii), because that game style really uses the controls, a two-dimensional high-speed directional input system that can harness muscle memory; with only a little practice I can flick reliably from one side of the screen to another and it isn't long before there is no longer any barrier between where I am thinking the reticle should be, and where my muscles are putting it. I have never had such fun with this genre as I have on the Wii. Motion controls are not merely a solution, but are the best solution, beating out even "badly-calibrated arcade gun without on-screen reticle". Whereas "wiggle the stick to attack" is not an argument in favor of motion controls, because while it is a solution, it is not the best solution, and the Wii's reputation has suffered from the number of games that have tacked this on so they can claim "motion control". Motion control as a whole has had a big problem with being a solution instead of the best solution. Given the price of the screen here, both in dollars and in controller comfort, I don't see it being the best solution to enough problems to make it worth it. (Opinion calibration: I was actually up on the Wii, precisely because motion control really did open a lot of things up, and I consider it still underused. Unfortunately, sophisticated uses rapidly become very complicated AI problems to try to figure out what it is you actually meant. I'm also at least modestly up on the 3DS' long term potential, but it's going to take probably 2 full game generations before the developers themselves get over seeing it as a gimmick and start "truly" developing for it. I don't consider myself a reflexive naysayer. I really do think this isn't very likely to turn out to be useful for games, though. But I could be wrong; this could be the iPad of the space. Who knows.)
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- jon914 15y agoThe Iwata Asks interview for Wii U has been posted. Some interesting insights into the thought process that went into it. http://e3.nintendo.com/iwataasks/ http://e3.nintendo.com/iwataasks/
- genbattle 15y agoCan't say i'm impressed by Nintendo's offering. It's like they've spent the last 5 years resting on their laurels, then in the last few months before E3 they slap something together with every possible feature you can have in a single controller, and upgraded the hardware to handle HD graphics. The console itself is fairly decent for it's size, it would be interesting to see whether long-term hardware issues will arise out of shrinking down such high-performance components. All of the tech demos seem very smoke-and-mirrors at this stage; when the Wii was revealed there were real demos with playable games that people could pick up and enjoy. Overall the hardware feels current-gen, and with MS and Sony already planning their next consoles, it won't be long until Nintendo is again at the back of the hardware rankings. No media playback seems like a bit of an oversight; it uses a proprietary disk format, and there is no mention of media playback, except Youtube integration. Seems it will follow the same path as the Wii did with DVD/media playback. The controller seems strange; you can use it in several different ways, but it seems to be optimized to a tablet-type usage scenario. The placement of the shoulder buttons seems very awkward with the size and shape of the controller. As i said, it just looks like they've tried to incorporate everything including the kitchen sink at the last minute, with no _real_ use-cases or target applications. In the end the biggest disappointment for me is that Nintendo hasn't addressed the areas it admitted it failed with the Wii. Not so long ago they said they knew they had failed to engage developers on the same level as MS and Sony, and they had failed to create a healthy online ecosystem. Their announcements at E3 haven't addressed either of these failures, so I can only assume that they are still working on a solution, or they are going to continue with the same strategies that they have used in the past.
- MetallicCloud 15y agoWhilst I agree with you, can you really blame Nintendo for continue to do what they're doing? By just releasing low cost hardware and iterating the same franchises, they are making a killing without having to barely anything. As long as people are willing to open up their wallets, there's no reason to change.
- tocomment 15y agoWhen is the next Zelda coming out btw?
- podperson 15y agoI've owned several Nintendo platforms (N64, Wii, DS) now, and every one has been starved for compelling titles. Indeed, the best titles (imo) have been the same damn things with minor variations over and over. This seems to work for Nintendo, but it's hard to get excited about a new gimmicky hardware platform which will have the same titles slightly changed. It is funny to see Nintendo appearing to go back to conventional controls having lured Microsoft and Sony into the gimmick gesture control tarpit.
- jsz0 15y agoAs a non-console gamer is really amazes me how complex it has gotten. There's gotta be at least 4 different controllers that will work on the WiiU? How do you decide which one to use? Are some games unplayable without the right controller? The Xbox and Playstation seem to be even more complicated with add-ons like the Kinect and a controller with tons of buttons/combos to memorize. It's really daunting to me at this point. I don't think I could pickup a console/game and have any fun at all. I would have to figure out which accessories to buy first and probably sit down and read the manual (do games still come with manuals) before I could even attempt to play. The complexity doesn't seem to be hurting the industry yet but it makes me wonder how far they can push it before it just becomes completely inaccessible to normal people.