When the original Wii hit stores it blew the world away with its entirely new gaming experience. Will the Wii 2 – currently under the code name Project Café — delight and surpass expectations in a similar way? At the center of rumors around the Wii 2’s supposed highly innovative experience is the device’s controllers (Wiimotes) and an attempt to reconnect with hard core gamers.
In mid-April, Nintendo confirmed in a press release that the hugely anticipated Wii 2 would hit stores in 2012. Since then, rumors have been circling around its exact features and design – especially since a playable model will be available at the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3 Expo) in Los Angeles from June 7-9.
Adding to the excitement is a just released leaked video, which is now being buzzed about in gaming blogs across the web. It is uncertain if the footage is authentic or not; however, the diagrams in the slides are very similar to images leaked the end of April – making both now seem much more legitimate. The video was released alongside an event for developers Nintendo held in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
The 40 second video shows a woman making an internal presentation of what appears to be the design of the Wii 2 console and Wii 2 controllers (there is no audio):
As mentioned, the biggest focal point for rumors in this next generation Wii are the controllers, or Wiimotes. Rumors all seem to point to a 6-inch touchscreen interface on a more traditional D-Pad gaming controller – one that many are suggesting seem like a tablet in and of itself (*cough, have you met Boston-based Brass Monkey?). The new Wiimotes seem for sure to suggest Nintendo is going for a more “hard core gaming” demographic than the original Wii. The remote is rumored to support a front facing camera that will act like the Wii sensor bar.
As for rumors around the console itself, the Wii 2 specs suggest it is very similar to the Xbox and PlayStation — meaning higher resolution graphics are likely in the works. If the video is legitimate, it also shows a standing, black colored console. French gaming publisher Ubisoft announced earning results on Friday, with their CEO singing praise for the Wii 2:
“The platform Nintendo is coming with is really a fantastic platform. We think it will be extremely successful,” said Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. ”What we see is that we will be able to leverage a lot of the work we do for Xbox 360 and PS3 while we create games for the platform. So we will not have to redo completely the games that we create. We’ll be able to use all the capacity the console is giving but also use all the work we do for the other platforms.”
Nintendo’s annual profits are down 66% from last year, so the company is under pressure to seriously up its game as a result. This is especially the case given the hype and success around the Xbox Kinect and Playstation Move, which target a similar demographic and offer much more impressive graphics and network play than the original Wii. The Kinect has sold 10 million units and the Move 8 million. Lucky for Nintendo, Sony (makers of the Playstation) and Microsoft (makers of the Xbox) aren’t slated to launch their next consoles until 2014.
