Wii 2, Wii 1.5, Wii HD, or something new from Nintendo?
The Wii is doing phenomenally well at the moment, and has been since it was released over two years ago. But as is the way in the games industry, the technology is always moving forward and us gamers are always looking ahead at the next piece of hardware that’s around the corner. So let’s take a look at what Nintendo is likely to come out with next, and when.
I’ve written a couple of times before about the successor to the Wii. July saw Satoru Iwata admit that Nintendo was working on its next hardware release although no name, features, or time lines were close to being mentioned. And October saw evidence come to light of a Wii HD, a souped-up version of the Wii which is being readied for release in 2011.
So is any of this true? Is Nintendo likely to be contemplating a new console with the Wii currently riding so high? If it is, will it be a Wii 2, a Wii 1.5, a Wii HD, or something completely new?
I suspect all three of the home console manufacturers are at least planning their next hardware, even if they’re not yet currently close to finalizing what form it will take. But with Sony and Microsoft committed to ten-year lifespans for the PS3 and Xbox 360 respectively, it would seem logical to assume Nintendo would be first to take a bite at the next-gen cherry, especially as many of us believe the Wii to be thoroughly last-gen in its make-up.
I cannot see Nintendo replacing the Wii until the sales figures drop off substantially, which could happen this year but is unlikely to do so for a while yet. That is of course unless Ninty’s next console is more an upgrade to the Wii rather than being a whole new console. Which would go against Nintendo’s history in terms of home consoles but fit in very well with its reputation in the hand held market.
A Wii 2 would be a hard sell though because it would have to offer a genuine reason for current Wii owners to make the leap while also trying to appeal to those of us who aren’t remotely interested in the current incarnation. HD would be a must, but either a more accurate control method or some other genuine innovation would be the real killer needed to shift units.
I don’t expect anything this side of 2010, not even an announcement, but after that it really is anyone’s guess when Nintendo will jump to the next-gen. And there is, of course, always the chance that either Microsoft or Sony will beat Nintendo to the next-gen despite those ten-year pronouncements.
The PS3 has only got to sell in the current disappointing numbers for another couple of years and the console will no doubt be killed off prematurely. While if what the developers are saying is true, and the Xbox 360 is already being pushed to its limits, Microsoft may have no choice but to release new hardware.
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33 Responses to “Wii 2, Wii 1.5, Wii HD, or something new from Nintendo?”
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January 6th, 2009
Pack it in Dave, there’s no way the 360 is going to have a 10 year life cycle. It can barely last working 10 minutes.
To quote and paraphrase Bill Gates, Nintendo could make bricks and they would still sell.
Of course, Microsoft has a history of selling bricks.
January 6th, 2009
Wow, bitter much?
January 7th, 2009
Lock_Down:
Xbox 360 can last more if you don’t play at all.
January 7th, 2009
How about developing a decent console? Nah i’m just joking i love the Wii….
January 7th, 2009
“The PS3 has only got to sell in the current disappointing numbers for another couple of years and the console will no doubt be killed off prematurely” Wow. Sorry lock_down, I had a long 3 year “ten minutes” before going without for 2 weeks. The Jasper will only last longer.
Of course, as long as Sony keeps making promises (no matter how long they are delayed or unfulfilled) with the PS3, there will be those who buy it (the promises and the console).
As far as the Wii goes, it looks like they are following the same strategy that has kept them going in the handheld market. Graphical prowess and tech spec superiority was never a factor. I still prefer a 360 or PS3 to one though, but we are in the minority.
As for next gen, I’m looking forward to it in late 2010/early 2011.
January 7th, 2009
CarlB.,
I’m sorry, but I always have to laugh when people brag about how long their 360 lasted before it RROD. I don’t know if I’m suppose to congratulate you or what to do. And yes, the Jasper will more than likely help to solve the problem, of course it only took what, 3 or 4 years to fix the problem. This after Bill Gates promised it was fixed a couple of years ago.
January 7th, 2009
Hey make fun of RROD all you want because you will wait longer for a Game to release on the PS3 then it takes for your 360 to be fixed. If your in Canada they will just send you another 360 and I got mine back in 1 Week and I know many others with the same time frame. I was amazed. In the USA, according to one of my friends, he sent his in for repair and they sent him a loaner until his was fixed. MS take care of the packaging and postage. Meanwhile PS3 owner have been waiting since launch for Killzone, Gods of War, Grand Turismo, and others. Plus their are the games they cannot work on the PS3 and the cancelled games because it’s not worth it. PS3 sucks face it boyz.
January 7th, 2009
They can take the Wii and load it up with as many bells and whistles and possible… and I would still not buy one. Nintendo needs to spend some of the gazillions of dollars they have made on the Wii and provide quality software. Nintendo has almost abandoned the Wii and people are still giving them there hard earned money hand over fist.
Yes – I broke down and bought a DS… but I refuse to buy a Wii…. or a 360 for that matter.
January 7th, 2009
Wylie77,
Sorry, I really have to tone down my “bragging”. If you read it, you would have found I was just saying it lasted longer than the “ten minutes” claimed. That it went down at all is bad, I admit, and I am glad you are amused so easily. I don’t feel so bad because I had an excuse to go back to the handhelds and PS2 for a while, plus MS paid for the repairs and shipping and handling, and managed to get it back to me in a short amount of time with some comp Live. I’m glad they fixed the problem with Jasper, just as I’ll be glad when Sony puts backwards compatibility back in PS3 and drops the price of admission (I didn’t think another $100+ and another year to wait for the PS3 release equated to two weeks downtime and twice as many quality titles on 360, but that is just my opinion, and I am sure things will looks brighter for PS3 by 2011, when the next gen comes out). I think CAD makes a good point as well. During the three years I would have been waiting on the title that really interested me (God of War III) I have played many more on 360. I might pick up a PS3 slim around year 9 of it’s life cycle though, as they should have a much better game selection by then and I can get a better deal.
January 7th, 2009
HAHAHAH I knew it… I knew CAD would break down and go back to his old ways…
CAD… I dont know about you… but I dont like to send my electronic stuff away to the manufacturer to get it fixed… I had to send my laptop away for a broken key… those 2 days were hell for me…
also… its funny you said the exact thing I wrote a coupla days ago… TEH PS3 HAZ NO GAMEZ!!! RAWR RAWR RAWR!!!
guess what… R2 and Little Big Planet are sufficient exclusives… I havent even bought them yet because I have yet to finish MGS 4 and Heavenly Sword… I havent even bought Uncharted… not to mention COD 4 and COD 5…
so Im in no hurry for new games to be released…
but not many people are like me… probably they have finished Heavenly Sword and Uncharted and MGS 4… well… they have R2 and LBP and MGS 4 to play online…
dear sweet CAD… you dont need more than a coupla exclusives at a time… Im sure most people would love to play god of war and Killzone 2 now… but they are already swamped with all the games released on November…
so dont worry about us… we are fine… next time… take some time and think before saying something…
January 7th, 2009
Barnabe… thats great news… what games didja buy?? do you play any pokemon games??? if you do then tell me whether the new series is any good…
Ive been dying to play the new gen of pokemon games…
also carl… yeah I was pissed that my PS3 had to BC… probably will buy a slim one if it has BC… but look at it this way… with the games that are already out… the exclusives and the multiplatform?? did you have time to play them all??? wouldnt you rather finish them one by one… than taking them all in??
also I can be really patient… so I have no problem with waiting…
January 7th, 2009
DWH – I picked up Final Fantasy IV. I’m up to the part where you make your way up the mountain to become a paladin… it’s really good. I’m going to pick up III when I complete it. You happen to be in luck with Pokemon, my girlfriend’s son has almost all of them from the old Game Boy up through the DS… he doesn’t have the newest Ranger though. I’ll have to check them out and get back to you.
January 7th, 2009
NOOOOOOOOooo I am so jealous of that little twerp right now…
I have the blue version… the yellow version… two gold versions… a crystal…
damn… gotta get a DS… also try crono trigger… retro people and DS people are creaming their pants over it…
also I hate the DSi… no BC… it sounded great to me when I heard you could play all Gameboy games on the DS… sadly my Gameboy is broken… still have the games though…
January 7th, 2009
dwh,
Exactly, and I think we went through this before: there are more than enough good multiplats and system specific games on both consoles to keep any gamer busy. Especially if they are buying the console now. Bigger and better variety is preferable to me, but I can also see how you are not worried, especially if you really dig MGS4 and Uncharted, or those other three titles you mentioned. And we will both be rocking out to RE5 and FFXIII later on. Happy gaming!
January 7th, 2009
NO CARL YOUR WRONG!!! TEH PS3 SUXORZ!!!
In other news… even RE fans are saying that RE 5 is like RE 4 but with better graphics… and they say theres nothing wrong with it…
but after Dead Space… and Left 4 Dead… you would expect a lil more innovation in the survival horror genre… its like Doom 3… we’re gonna need a Hax to Be ABLE TO WALK WHILE SHOOTING!!! the man has huge biceps but cant shoot while walking… fucking stupid…
but doesnt it get a lil anti climactic to shoot slow zombies after getting rushed by them in L4D??
also… RE 5 is racist… hates black people… so dont buy it…
January 7th, 2009
Im so happy we are talking about games… god bless you carl…
January 7th, 2009
also… did you see Trine?? it looks so great… classic platformer with new age stuff…
check out its preview video…
January 7th, 2009
I would maybe wait until the DSI comes out… then the older DSI Lites will be alot cheaper. Chrono Trigger is on my list. I never played it, but I keep hearing a lot of good stuff about it. The art style reminds a lot of Dragon Ball Z… or Blue Dragon…
January 7th, 2009
yeah cept it doesn suck… hahahaha…
I wouldnt buy a DSi… since I missed many Gameboy games… and the DSi doesnt have BC… also cant play the Guitar Hero game… and dont need a memory card slot to buy stupid $2 games….
what about professor layton and brain age?? didja try them??? theres like 10-20 games that you should try… how many you got now??
January 7th, 2009
I only have Mario Brothers (which is like a cross between Mario World and the original Super Mario Brothers) and FFIV. I’ve played Brian Age… it’s good for playing head to head… but might get old as a regular game. I haven’t tried Professor Layton, but it’s supposed to be really good. Yeah I think there are about 20 DS games I can name now that I want to play… being able to play the older games is a huge plus also. You usually have about 3 save slots on most of the game cartridges, so space isn’t an issue.
January 7th, 2009
nice… Ive heard about Mario brothers… is it the one where they have little versions of themselves??? like mini mario and luigi…
WANT…
DS!!!
NOW
January 7th, 2009
Carl,
I knew you were responding to the 10 minute post. And I’m happy for you that you’ve only had RROD once and that they fixed it in a reasonable amount of time. But to compare Sony’s delays to RROD is not a good comparison. If you gave me the option of waiting longer for a hopefully reliable product, or getting a product right away and dealing with it being unreliable, I would choose the delays. I am not Veruca Salt, I don’t need everthing I want “RIGHT NOW”. I can wait to get a Golden Goose. Just as you have handhelds and a PS2 to keep you busy, I have other games to keep me busy. The main thing is enjoy the console you have, after all, isn’t it all about having fun!
January 7th, 2009
Exactly, which is why I chose to have fun with the 360 a year earlier, and will continue to. I believe you brought up the RRoD, again, but I heard you the first time 50 articles ago. No PS2 out here, just emulation on a PC. I wish PS3 would get that sometime. The 360’s works well too.
January 7th, 2009
I agree with DWH. I have a blast debating the consoles… but the sales data gets stale after a while. We’ve all heard and used the same arguments now. We should try to focus more on gamming. That’s the important thing and the thing we all have in common.
January 7th, 2009
@ Barnabe Jones
“I have a blast debating the consoles… but the sales data gets stale after a while.”
It’s only getting stale to the PS3 boys because your console of choice is getting flogged by the 360.
January 7th, 2009
Barnabe,
You need to understand that I got into gaming for the sales data. I remember being a young lad and wanting to boost Nintendo’s sales. So I asked for a Nintendo for X-mas. I was so happy I got it knowing what it did for Nintendo. My parents had no idea that I could care less about actually playing it. So I would just stare at it and dream about all the sales data. Then if my parents walked in I would play a little Mario just so I didn’t let on my real motives. Sales data is great!
January 7th, 2009
“Sales of PS3 games rose 145 percent with 10.4 million units sold, which is a great result for the first full year the PS3 has been on sale in the UK. The Xbox 360 managed sales of 14.9 million”… Considering the difference in price, that’s pretty impressive and not nearly half as bad as most would lead you to believe. Considering the difference in life spans and the immanent price cut of the PS3 all is looking good for Sony. Oh yeah… and the PS3 won’t RROD or scratch games
January 7th, 2009
Well, I’ve had my 360 since Christmas and playing in 30+ degree (celcius) heat and it is still going strong
I am careful to have it in open air and not in an enclosed cabinet space though, but that goes for my ps3 as well.
On a side note, loved halo3, it had the same feel as halo1 for me, which is a good thing. It seemed a little short though …… Gears of War 1 is pretty good as well. The control methods can be a little annoying at times, but other wise very nice.
January 7th, 2009
THAT SO WEIRD WYLIE!!!
I asked my parents to get me the balance sheet of Microsoft for this Christmas… needless to say… I had a fucking awesome time crunching numbers on Christmas morning… while my dog humped the PS3 in the corner…
pfft… noobs…
January 7th, 2009
Oh and Harry – The 360 has a year head start on the market. Please do not forget that. It’s very important when comparing sales numbers.
So what games are you playing now? Gears 2?
January 8th, 2009
Yes Harry,
You must believe that they would not care one bit for the PS3 selling more than the 360 and would not mention it at all. In fact, if the PS3 sold zero consoles next year and was discontinued they would still not care. Because they are about games, and sales (software or console) have nothing to do with games coming to your console of choice.
They would so not care that when games stopped being made for the console (because none were selling) they would start a homebrew club and play homemade PSN games with each other, or just continue making levels on LBP for each other to play with, it is that fun. Sales, smales.
Barnabe, you are right, those sales account for almost 25% of the 360’s sales lead.
I’m going to try and sneak in some alone time with the platoon’s 360 and Fable II.
January 9th, 2009
True story about Fable 2…
My girlfriend was a huge fan of the first game, so I bought her Fable II for Christmas. I sat and watched her play through the opening sequence of trying to get enough gold to be able to buy the magic box… At any rate, she gathered all of the warrants and did all of errands to get the 5 pieces of gold. When trying to buy the box from the vendor, the game glitched and never gave us the option to buy the box. We were only a few minutes into the game, so we reset the game and started over. Sure enough, the next time we played we were able to buy the box without any issues. I’ve done some research and apparently there are a lot of glitches and bugs through out the game. The moral of the story is, save often and save in multiple slots.
January 10th, 2009
Barnabe Jones,
So is the game fun? Have they patched it to get rid of those bugs?