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[IsntChrisL]

I'm all for Nintendo attempting to get more exclusive mature content on their systems, as long as they don't half-ass any of it.

I'm not sure what to take out of IdeaMan's latest rumor. Not sure there's much to it beyond "the real system hadn't been finalized yet." But I might just be missing something.

 

[AceBandage]

About the Wii U units and software brought at E3 2011 (system "history" infos, leading to new tidbits about the storage situation)

- Apparently, the titles & demos present at E3 2011 (maybe not all) were brought to the show on SD cards
- The port was made accessible for studios to run their content. I'm not sure if their projects worked directly from SD cards, or were transfered from this media to a flash memory or another storage.
- There's also a possibility that real dev kits (i think lherre talked a little about this in the first thread) were hidden behind, and directly plugged to the TV's, with the software brought & stored through digital means (storage, flash, Host PC linked to the dev kits containing the content, emulating a normal drive, perhaps the hypothetic access times, etc.)
- It seems no optical storage was involved at E3 2011. Wii U pseudo bluray weren't there at all. Some people could have thought, for certain demos, with the little LED lightened, etc. that such discs were present in the drives and that these were working, loaded the data & all, but it probably wasn't the case.
- With the latter information, it's plausible that Wii U brought didn't contained an optical drive. They certainly were just the dev kits (basically, all the hardware removed from the big development boxes ? i doubt it as dev kits are bigger than those units. A condensed version deprived of all the development stuff then ? A prototype of the retail board + components ?) with the activated at the time SD cards port.
- About the optical drives, in the less likely scenario (see the last point + the following message in some days) that they were inside, they could have been not-yet-working-models, placeholders. This could indicate an optical storage situation still in flux at the time, still in the fabrication process.
- This could reinforce the hypothesis that the Wii U cases were just "mock-up", boxes rather quickly built to contain the hardware they intended to bring at E3. It's a clear hint toward a possible change of the system appearance come E3 2012.
- Obviously, the situation has evolved since then, but not quickly after. This point will be made clearer in a following message about the optical storage of the Wii U.

I've heard that from two different sources but still grain of salt because it could only be relevant for some E3 2011 demos, not all.

Sounds about right. Pretty much what many said and expected.

 

[Sadist]

maybe that's what retro's doing and n-space is handling metroid prime 4 for the 3ds.

Don't joke about that man

Just don't

 

[BlackJace]

maybe that's what retro's doing and n-space is handling metroid prime 4 for the 3ds.

A true sequel to Fusion would have me sold.

 

[beje]

About the Wii U units and software brought at E3 2011 (system "history" infos, leading to new tidbits about the storage situation)

- Apparently, the titles & demos present at E3 2011 (maybe not all) were brought to the show on SD cards
- The port was made accessible for studios to run their content.
- There's also a possibility that real dev kits (i think lherre talked a little about this in the first thread) were hidden behind, and directly plugged to the TV's, with the software brought & stored through digital means (storage, flash, Host PC linked to the dev kits containing the content, emulating a normal drive, perhaps the hypothetic access times, etc.)
- It seems no optical storage was involved at E3 2011. Wii U pseudo bluray weren't there at all. Some people could have thought, for certain demos, with the little LED lightened, etc. that such discs were present in the drives and that these were working, loaded the data & all, but it probably wasn't the case.
- With the latter information, it's plausible that Wii U brought didn't contained an optical drive. They certainly were just the dev kits (basically, all the hardware removed from the big development boxes ? i doubt it as dev kits are bigger than those units. A condensed version deprived of all the development stuff then ? A prototype of the retail board + components ?) with the activated at the time SD cards port.
- About the optical drives, in the less likely scenario (see the last point + the following message in some days) that they were inside, they could have been not-yet-working-models, placeholders. This could indicate an optical storage situation still in flux at the time, still in the fabrication process.
- This could reinforce the hypothesis that the Wii U cases were just "mock-up", boxes rather quickly built to contain the hardware they intended to bring at E3. It's a clear hint toward a possible change of the system appearance come E3 2012.
- Obviously, the situation has evolved since then, but not quickly after. This point will be made clearer in a following message about the optical storage of the Wii U.

I've heard that from two different sources but still grain of salt because it could only be relevant for some E3 2011 demos, not all. And i don't know if the SD cards bit is implying that this content worked directly from this media, or transfered from it to the flash memory or other storage to be run from those.

Very plausible when your hardware is still a year and a half before launch. It takes zero effort and a couple of cables to put an empty case with a pulsating blue led while the dev kit is hidden inside the cabinet (in fact, this is supposed to be usual modus operandi when this stuff happens). Based on your knowledge about the issue, do you think the final case might be bigger than initially showed?

I just thought they could have done a massive cosmetic overhaul. It was too similar to Wii (much more now with the BC-less units that only work in horizontal setting) and they have learnt the hard way with the 3DS what happens when you don't clearly differentiate your products from the predecessors, especially when you tend to release cosmetic revisions on them.

Edit: I don't know if this kind of mock-up has already been made but I just thought a circular front would look cool

 

[Plinko]

- This could reinforce the hypothesis that the Wii U cases were just "mock-up", boxes rather quickly built to contain and hide the hardware they intended to bring at E3. It's a clear hint toward a possible change of the system appearance come E3 2012.

I certainly hope so. I'd like the system to look drastically different than the Wii.

 

[Graphics Horse]

This point will be made clearer in a following message about the optical storage of the Wii U.

Intrigued by this, is it suggesting it may only have DVD? surely not..

 

[StevieP]

Intrigued by this, is it suggesting it may only have DVD? surely not..

Nope. BluRay in all but name. It just wasn't in the mockups/dev kits according to IM.

wsippel, since you're around at the moment: OoO or IO CPU?

 

[IdeaMan]

Very plausible when your hardware is still a year and a half before launch. It takes zero effort and a couple of cables to put an empty case with a pulsating blue led while the dev kit is hidden inside the cabinet (in fact, this is supposed to be usual modus operandi when this stuff happens). Based on your knowledge about the issue, do you think the final case might be bigger than initially showed?

I just thought they could have done a massive overhaul. It was too similar to Wii (much more now with the BC-less units that only work in horizontal setting) and they have learnt the hard way what happens when you don't clearly differentiate your products from the predecessors, especially when you tend to release cosmetic revisions on them.

I could be wrong, but i really think that the optical drive designed for Wii U wasn't ready/available/put in those mock-up boxes brought at E3 2011. Have they built those cases with the size that this bluray drive will occupy (and above all, how it fits with the component board for heat/airflow, compare to Wii U, etc.) in mind or not for example ? Probably but not sure.

And it's nearly certain that the GPU used at the time was FAR from what it is today, hence again some potential changes pertaining to cooling, etc, with consequences on the Wii U volume, shape.

+ your last point, very important and already talked about before. And the aesthetic proportion problem of this box, too depth.

In short, a lot of elements converge to a possible redesign.

 

[wsippel]

About the Wii U units and software brought at E3 2011 (system "history" infos, leading to new tidbits about the storage situation)

- Apparently, the titles & demos present at E3 2011 (maybe not all) were brought to the show on SD cards
- The port was made accessible for studios to run their content. I'm not sure if their projects worked directly from SD cards, or were then transfered to a flash memory or another storage to be launched from those instead.
- There's also a possibility that real dev kits (i think lherre talked a little about this in the first thread) were hidden behind, and directly plugged to the TV's, with the software brought & stored through digital means (storage, flash, Host PC linked to the dev kits containing the content, emulating a normal drive, perhaps the hypothetic access times, etc.)
- It seems no optical storage was involved at E3 2011. Wii U pseudo bluray weren't there at all. Some people could have thought, for certain demos, with the little LED lightened, etc. that such discs were present in the drives and that these were working, loaded the data & all, but it probably wasn't the case.
- With the latter information, it's plausible that Wii U brought didn't housed an optical drive. They certainly were just the dev kits (basically, all the hardware removed from the big development boxes ? i doubt it as dev kits are bigger than those units. A condensed version deprived of all the development stuff then ? A prototype of the retail board + components ?) with the activated at the time SD cards port.
- About the optical drives, in the less likely scenario (see the last point + the following message in some days) that they were inside, they could have been not-yet-working-models, placeholders. This could indicate an optical storage situation still in flux at the time, still in the designing process.
- This could reinforce the hypothesis that the Wii U cases were just "mock-up", boxes rather quickly built to contain and hide the hardware they intended to bring at E3. It's a clear hint toward a possible change of the system appearance come E3 2012.
- Obviously, the situation has evolved since then, but not quickly after. This point will be made clearer in a following message about the optical storage of the Wii U.

I've heard that from two different sources but still grain of salt because it could only be relevant for some E3 2011 demos, not all.

Having seen an actual development kit, I'm quite sure the demos were running on the actual devices shown, not some completely different looking devkits hidden somewhere behind the displays. Just saying.

 

[Graphics Horse]

Nope. BluRay in all but name. It just wasn't in the mockups/dev kits.

I know the facts as we all understood them in 2011, but what is Ideaman getting at with suggestions the optical situation still being in flux?

 

[IdeaMan]

Intrigued by this, is it suggesting it may only have DVD? surely not..

Oh certainly not lol.
Wii U will have "bluray", and it was officially announced.
Concretely, one could think "ok, optical medias weren't present at E3 2011, but i guess studios were aware of their status/received them not too long after the show", but it wasn't the case, and i'll write about that in a future message.

 

[AceBandage]

Having seen an actual development kit, I'm quite sure the demos were running on the actual devices shown, not some completely different looking devkits hidden somewhere behind the displays. Just saying.

It's not uncommon for E3 demos to run off dev kits though.

I know the facts as we all understood them in 2011, but what is Ideaman getting at with suggestions the optical situation still being in flux?

At E3 maybe. Not now.

 

[StevieP]

I know the facts as we all understood them in 2011, but what is Ideaman getting at with suggestions the optical situation still being in flux?

Perhaps he is speculating that they hadn't finished implementing it into the design properly. Maybe they're not taking a slot-loading laptop BDRom and calling it a day? Maybe they're customizing their own design with Panasonic like they did for the DVD Rom in the GC and Wii?

 

[wsippel]

It's not uncommon for E3 demos to run off dev kits though.

Sure, but most certainly not in this case.

To clarify: The demos were running on devkits, but the devkits were the devices we've seen, not some metal boxes hidden behind the scenes.

 

[Graphics Horse]

Oh certainly not lol.
Wii U will have "bluray", and it was officially announced.
Concretely, one could think "ok, optical medias weren't present at E3 2011, but i guess studios were aware of their status/received them not too long after the show", but it wasn't the case, and i'll write about that in a future message.

Ah understood, thanks.

 

[BGBW]

Edit: I don't know if this kind of mock-up has already been made but I just thought a circular front would look cool

http://i.imgur.com/tJZsW.png

It can look like this:

Spoiler

That's a Nintendo vacuum cleaner

 

[Hiltz]

If you had to choose one, would you guys want a Wii U name change or a different looking console box design ?

 

[AceBandage]

Sure, but most certainly not in this case.

To clarify: The demos were running on devkits, but the devkits were the devices we've seen, not some metal boxes hidden behind the scenes.

Well those would be more akin to debug kits, no?

 

[Gleethor]

If you had to choose one, would you guys choose a Wii U name change or a different looking console box design ?

Different looking console, easily

 

[beje]

Oh certainly not lol.
Wii U will have "bluray", and it was officially announced.
Concretely, one could think "ok, optical medias weren't present at E3 2011, but i guess studios were aware of their status/received them not too long after the show", but it wasn't the case, and i'll write about that in a future message.

Probably just some blue laser based lens (like the chinese version explained here) not exactly just a blu-ray without playback licenses like the Wii DVD reader was but a different disc based in the same technology that in the ends allows for at least double the capacity than a DVD9 and is not easily pirate-able. Am I on the right track?

 

[IdeaMan]

Having seen an actual development kit, I'm quite sure the demos were running on the actual devices shown, not some completely different looking devkits hidden somewhere behind the displays. Just saying.

Well, i've seen dev kits also, and from the look of some demo stands, there was enough room to hide them.

But if you read my message carefully, it's just a third hypothesis to explain that maybe, for several demonstrations, those Wii U units weren't switched on.

A way to cover my back about the first and real information: the content was brought from SD cards, so demos & all certainly ran from those (or transfered to another storage like the flash).

And optical discs weren't involved.

 

[BGBW]

If you had to choose one, would you guys want a Wii U name change or a different looking console box design ?

Console design. Looks too similar to the Wii at the moment. Even the 3DS managed to distinguish itself.

A different starting colour would help.

 

[HylianTom]

Console design. Looks too similar to the Wii at the moment. Even the 3DS managed to distinguish itself.

A different starting colour would help.

Agree. But the disc drive has to glow still!

 

[TheCongressman1]

If you had to choose one, would you guys want a Wii U name change or a different looking console box design ?

WiiU really isn't that bad compared to it's design. So, redesign please.

 

[IdeaMan]

Sure, but most certainly not in this case.

To clarify: The demos were running on devkits, but the devkits were the devices we've seen, not some metal boxes hidden behind the scenes.

Yep

- With the latter information, it's plausible that Wii U brought didn't housed an optical drive. They certainly were just the dev kits (basically, all the hardware removed from the big development boxes ? i doubt it as dev kits are bigger than those units. A condensed version deprived of all the development stuff then ? A prototype of the retail board + components ?) with the activated at the time SD cards port.

I won't exclude the possibility that for certain demos, it was the real development boxes that ran the content though.

 

[Hiltz]

I don't really have any beef with the design of the box, except perhaps the size could be smaller. I'd probably prefer a name change. Isn't anyone getting tired of saying "Wii" nowadays ? Now we've got to say Wii U for the next 5-6 years!

 

[GhostTrick]

Yep



I won't exclude the possibility that for certain demos, it was the real development boxes that ran the content though.

Do you think Nintendo will show something really surprising this E3 ?
I mean... good surprising.

 

[Linkhero1]

So the final Wii U design could potentially look vastly different from what we've seen? If they can differentiate it enough from the Wii then I don't think the Wii U name will be too much of an issue once people actually see the console itself.

 

[Dreamwriter]

You know what I want in the final Wii U design? I want Nintendo to offer two Wii-U packages: the normal one, and a cheaper version without a disc drive, or maybe the same price but with a lot more storage instead of the drive. I want to download all my games, game discs are relics of a bygone era.

 

[Pappasman]

I don't really have any beef with the design of the box, except perhaps the size could be smaller. I'd probably prefer a name change. Isn't anyone getting tired of saying "Wii" nowadays ? Now we've got to say Wii U for the next 5-6 years!

I think I'm with you on this. I don't really care what the box looks like, but the name is something that we have all gotten used to. I'd probably go for a name change.

 

[TheCongressman1]

I don't really have any beef with the design of the box, except perhaps the size could be smaller. I'd probably prefer a name change. Isn't anyone getting tired of saying "Wii" nowadays ? Now we've got to say Wii U for the next 5-6 years!

I'd rather have something nicer to look at for the next 5-6 years.

 

[beje]

I don't really have any beef with the design of the box, except perhaps the size could be smaller. I'd probably prefer a name change. Isn't anyone getting tired of saying "Wii" nowadays ? Now we've got to say Wii U for the next 5-6 years!

I guess more people are already tired of saying "Playstation" for 18 years...

 

[wsippel]

Well, i've seen dev kits also, and from the look of some demo stands, there was enough room to hide them.

But if you read my message carefully, it's just a third hypothesis to explain that maybe, for several demonstrations, those Wii U units weren't switched on.

A way to cover my back about the first and real information: the content was brought from SD cards, so demos & all certainly ran from those (or transfered to another storage like the flash).

And optical discs weren't involved.

The demo units have SD card slots, so I don't really see the issue. I'm sure they didn't use optical disks either way.

And why shouldn't they have used the demo units we've seen? The units on show were not mere dummies. They contain the exact same PCB as the first generation devkit. The only difference between the devkits and the demo units at E3 was that the devkits come in a black metal case and have a USB type B port for debugging on the front.

 

[TheGreatMightyPoo]

If you had to choose one, would you guys want a Wii U name change or a different looking console box design ?

I don't care about either but I guess a new console design.

People get too caught up about a name.

 

[Izick]

So this is now the unofficial, official Toonami thread, and we also talk about Wii U junk?

I'm in.

 

[BurntPork]

There will obviously be slight case changes, but that's it.

 

[Hiltz]

I guess more people are already tired of saying "Playstation" for 18 years...

That's a good point. Nintendo at least changed up its handheld name brand after the Gameboy.

 

[Linkhero1]

There will obviously be slight case changes, but that's it.

So you think it's going to look similar to what we saw last year?

I was hoping that if they kept the name, they would change the final console design a bit so people don't confuse it with Wii.

 

[MYE]

I don't really have any beef with the design of the box, except perhaps the size could be smaller. I'd probably prefer a name change. Isn't anyone getting tired of saying "Wii" nowadays ? Now we've got to say Wii U for the next 5-6 years!

I like WiiU, i just think the logo needs to be slightly tweaked.
I gave it a shot and personaly think it looks alot better like this

So yeah, i'd go with new console design. The one shown at E3 was nothing to write home about.

 

[Izick]

I'd rather have it be a new name, and give it a fresh start, but I'm fine with Wii U. I think people will buy it regardless of its name, and rather because it's a 'Nintendo' console. I think Wii U still might confuse some people though. Everyone laughs and thinks you'd have to be stupid to be comparing the two, but try to put yourself in the shoes of someone who doesn't game much, or know much about gaming. Wii U sounds like an add-on, or like software for Wii, or something.

Either way, I'm fine with almost whatever name.

 

[IdeaMan]

The demo units have SD card slots, so I don't really see the issue. I'm sure they didn't use optical disks either way.

And why shouldn't they have used the demo units we've seen? The units on show were not mere dummies. They contain the exact same PCB as the first generation devkit. The only difference between the devkits and the demo units at E3 was that the devkits come in a black metal case and have a USB type B port for debugging on the front.

Yes it was the info demos were brought to E3 from SD cards, and certainly ran from it (or were transfered from it), and no discs were involved (because studios haven't burned their projects to hypothetic Wii U discs at the time)

For the units, it's basically what i said. "hardware contained on the dev kits but deprived of development stuff" (like the LED, the diodes, some ports like the controller adapter, the host bridge, etc etc). The Wii U development boxes are less big than GC or Wii ones, but they are too big to be basically painted in glossy white and appears how we saw the Wii U units. I think we are saying the same thing lol, i'm just very cautious because i'm not sure that, like in some roundtables, those akin to VHS recorder boxes + Host PC running the Cafe SDK weren't there in place of those Wii U.

 

[Dash Kappei]

Yeah, I hope the console look is overhauled and made sleek.
Of course it's not top priority in my wish list (much better slide pad than 3DS -since we can't have stick, sob-, power, 2 tablets support, streaming range Etc), but still the "old" design was crap. I always loved the Wii despite people saying (they're right) it looks like an off the shelf hard drive... 'course you could say I also like PS3 phat (despise Slim), loved the Cube and Sega Megadrive.

 

[Christberg]

I'm probably the only one, but the thought that they had fully running devkit in the cases they had at last year's E3 is actually pretty encouraging. It shows me that you can do software that's functionally equivalent and in some cases better than current gen stuff. In a small box with under clocked placeholder hardware no less.

 

[Izick]

My reasonable dream list:

-Solid launch line-up

-1 TB drive (probably the most pipe-dreamish)

-Make online use a bit easier and more user friendly

-clearly be more powerful than the 360/PS3

 

[Dash Kappei]

Call it Wii 2U and be done with it

 

[IdeaMan]

Do you think Nintendo will show something really surprising this E3 ?
I mean... good surprising.

Surprising as haptic ? I doubt it
Surprising as nice system/os features, online mode, small changes on the padlet ? yes

 

[AceBandage]

My reasonable dream list:

-Solid launch line-up

-1 TB drive (probably the most pipe-dreamish)

-Make online use a bit easier and more user friendly

-clearly be more powerful than the 360/PS3

Yeah... no.

 

[Izick]

Yeah... no.

Like I said, it's a pipe-dream, but if stuff is going to be full on DD, we need larger drives.

 

[Linkhero1]

With more focus on DD, I'm hoping we get a ton of that great Shmup content we see on the Xbox 360. It will be a lot easier for those developers to bring their content over and I have a tendency to buy a lot of shmups.

Call it Wii 2U and be done with it

Really doubt they'll change the name. It seems like they're pushing for Wii U to be the final name. I hate it like I did last year. In fact, it grew on me. I'm only hoping for the design to be a lot different from what we saw.