Report: New Nintendo Wii Due in 2011
While the current console generation is just hitting its stride, talk has already begun regarding what comes next.
According to What They Play, Nintendo is currently showing to developers early presentations of the next-generation Wii. The new system is supposedly set to arrive sometime in 2011, making it 5 years after the release of the current Wii.
Those with HDTVs know full well that the Wii doesn’t put out clean, crisp images that compare to the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. The next Wii will expectedly come with high-definition output — in fact, some developers are calling the next-gen system “Wii HD.”
The current name used by developers, codename or not appears to be indicative that the next-generation system won’t be a radical departure from the current setup. Clearly, Nintendo snatched the lead away from the more technologically advanced competition with its easy-to-use controller scheme, and the company would be crazy to mess with its winning formula. What that in mind, the Wii HD will likely be a heavily upgraded console that won’t stray too far from the Wii’s present appeal.
As What They Play points out, Nintendo’s spending on research and development has more than tripled since the release of the Wii. Some of this can easily be attributed to Nintendo simply having more resources to pour into future projects, but it also shows that the company is keen in maintaining the lead that it has established.
Perhaps a more interesting question is whether or not the Wii’s comparatively simplistic hardware will be able to carry the momentum for another three years until the next Nintendo console arrives. HDTVs are finding their way into more and more homes, and with Microsoft and Sony already reacting to the casual gamer space with their high-definition consoles, the current Wii could have a hard time keeping pace.
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It's worth mentioning the Wii Component Leads.
Probably their most crippling move with the Wii release is that it only ships with the Composite (V+A[L/R] / Scart) leads. On any decent sized flatscreen (HD or not) this will look pretty awful.
With a full component (RGB+A[L/R]) setup the images are far more crisp and clean, even on a full HD setup (I have a 37" 1080p HDTV, and most of the newest Wii games look pretty good on mine).
I think a lot of Wii users are completely unaware how drastically they can improve the image quality, just by buying a set of £10 leads from their local game store (assuming they have a flatscreen Tv of course)
I think the next wii needs to have blu-ray support out of the box along with hd support for games, with the price cuts of the 360, the wii suddenly looks like less good value than it did on release.
You can buy a 360 for £129 with PGR and Pro evo this week from a chain of video rental stores, and even after forking out for a wifi adapter, its still only the same price as a wii. Plus 3rd party accesories are available reducing the running costs further....
Dont get me wrong, I think the wii is a fantastic piece of kit, I can just see Nintendo need to be very careful when considering the next iteration to ensure they arent superseded by the next generation competitors or leave out features like blu ray and media streaming that their competitors already provide and consumers are going to expect....
I don't agree with the need for Blu-Ray to be added. By 2011 internet speeds and movie download are going to grow a lot. I think they would be better of adding a big HDD to it.
It does need to have better graphics. The problem with having better graphics is it takes more time and money for companies to develop. That always makes the games more expensive to buy.
As a person who loves the Wii. I would hate to see them try to match the others on spec and high end performance. That's something that Nintendo has never done. I hope they stick to there guns and make there next console as fun as there other consoles have been.