Nintendo prez to talk Wii 2 at games conference
Or will Satoru Iwata just push the 3DS?
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata is to give a keynote speech at next March's Games Developers Conference.
It'll be the twenty-fifth GDC, and while Iwata will undoubtedly look back at the evolution of videogames over the past quarter century, many Nintendo buffs will hope he drops a hint or two concerning the future of the Wii.
The fellow has form: back in 2005, he outlined the technology that would eventually debut the following year as the Wii. With the Wii's key differentiator, motion-based control, now available on rival consoles the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, the innovation ball is firmly back in Nintendo's court. Fans and plenty of other folk besides want a glimpse of what Nintendo will do next.
Whatever Iwata says about the 'Wii 2', he'll undoubtedly want to plug the 3DS too. The handheld will have just gone on sale in Japan, and be about to arrive in the US and Europe.
GDC kicks off on 28 February in San Francisco's Moscone Centre, with the key part of the conference commencing 2 March. ®
COMMENTS
Evolution, not Revolution (pun intended)
If they can bring out an HD capable version, backwardly and forwardly compatible with everyone's existing games, paid downloads and saved data by some mechanism, that will be a winner enough for the target demographic. New control mechanisms are not essential, with the competitors only just playing catch-up. I have reasonable confidence Nintendo can deliver this.
The reality has shown that Wii games are casual gamers, who will not upgrade lightly. They (and I include myself in this number) see the Wii as an appliance as much as anything. Nintendo must encourage developers to design games that will run on both platforms, making best use of the HD etc on the new model, but still compatible with the old.
