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Wii-2 in the Works?


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Is Nintendo already working on the successor to its hit Wii console?

 

http://www.cubed3.com/news/12439

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...mp;refer=europe

 

Guillemot said 10 percent of Ubisoft’s workforce is working on developing games for the next generation of game systems that will eventually replace Nintendo Co.’s Wii, Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 and Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3.

 

 

Well, since new consoles come out every 5 years, and since developers have to make their games ahead of time, that would make sense. Wii came out towards the end of 2006, and so it's nearly 3 years old now. Xbox360 came out over a year before that, and so it's now showing its age, being about 4 years old.

 

Microsoft and Sony have said they want to keep their consoles for a lifetime of 10 years rather than 5, and I think that would be a mistake, since technology will have marched way ahead by then, allowing other competitors to release superior products to gain a foothold in the marketplace.

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I'd assume so, since that's considered minimum specs nowadays.

 

I'd love it if they could support multiple monitors, since I hate playing multiplayer through splitscreen. Lots of homes have more than one TV anyway.

 

 

umm in the same room? <_<

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Microsoft and Sony have said they want to keep their consoles for a lifetime of 10 years rather than 5, and I think that would be a mistake, since technology will have marched way ahead by then, allowing other competitors to release superior products to gain a foothold in the marketplace.

 

considering the fact that the ps2 is still selling strong for a console in its 9th year on the market convinces me that the same can be done for the ps3 and the xbox 360.

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considering the fact that the ps2 is still selling strong for a console in its 9th year on the market convinces me that the same can be done for the ps3 and the xbox 360.

 

 

But nobody would claim that PS2 is a cutting-edge experience for hardcore gamers anymore - except maybe a fanboy.

 

To try and keep a console around for 10 years would make it completely irrelevant for the latter half of that period.

Hell, the portables would catch upto it before the end of that time.

 

There's a reason that the normal lifespan is 5 years, and that's because technology keeps marching on.

 

I would say then that even Sega should re-enter the market, if nobody else introduces a new console by 2012.

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umm in the same room? :boxing:

 

 

For a cool hardcore multiplayer experience, yes, you'd want to be able to play with your buddies using multiple monitors.

PC cards have supported multiple monitors for some time now, so why not consoles?

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I would say then that even Sega should re-enter the market, if nobody else introduces a new console by 2012.

 

How we wish. but back to the topic at hand. I seriously doubt Nintendo has milked the Wii for its worth yet so we have a while before it starts to see the end of the tunnel. Coincidentally, the last statment of the Ubisoft comment states that we always take new technologies right at the beginning of their availability meaning that it may not even go from a test model to an actual product. Still, I don't think anyone with the exception of Microsoft is looking for a product upgrade right now.

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But nobody would claim that PS2 is a cutting-edge experience for hardcore gamers anymore - except maybe a fanboy.

 

To try and keep a console around for 10 years would make it completely irrelevant for the latter half of that period.

Hell, the portables would catch upto it before the end of that time.

 

There's a reason that the normal lifespan is 5 years, and that's because technology keeps marching on.

 

I would say then that even Sega should re-enter the market, if nobody else introduces a new console by 2012.

 

That would be a bad decison. Its best that they keep making awesome games for 360 and the PS3.

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Well, like the article says, Nintendo's R&D budget has jumped through the roof since 2006, which is a good sign.

 

But even if they didn't spend on R&D, and instead went with off-the-shelf parts, even that would give hardware that can crush 360 and PS3.

Nvidia is supposed to have designed the GPU portion of the PS3's Cell processor, years ago. Now Nvidia's latest GPU design is way beyond that. Their GT300 would be released by yearend or early spring, and its specs are a major improvement. Just imagine what will be out by 2011/2012, when a Wii-2 would be coming out. It would be totally kickass.

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^^ The GT300 is a booming monster, but no console maker would ever stuff that into their boxes without drastically reducing its thermal envelope, which means cutting down on the number of transistors, which translates into lower processing power. Granted, even with half the power, it will still be a beast, but it has to be paired with the correct CPU, and Nintendo hasnt made great choices on that front over the past three console generations.

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GT300's multicore design allows individual cores to be shut down when not being used, and also in a couple of years the chip lithography processes will be down to 22nm, and maybe even 18nm, which is where things are supposed to max out. TSMC is planning to introduce 28nm this coming spring, for example. The smaller size would allow for faster heat dissipation. Nvidia seems to be veering towards CPUs itself, since Intel and AMD are jumping into GPUs.

 

ATI designed Wii's low-cost "Hollywood" graphics chip, and perhaps this might mean Nintendo would naturally go with AMD's planned Fusion offering, if it pans out.

 

Anyway, I'm hoping for some kind of radical breakthrough on graphics for Nintendo, since they wimped out the last couple of times.

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