Official Wii U Discussion Thread

I heard today that Epic Mickey 2 is also to be a WiiU launch title, if the WiiU has so many launch games how will it have any for succeeding weeks! Gosh Ninty have a cuppa and calm down.

But really the 3rd party line up is strong, lots of ports of really good games, I guess the big problem with the WiiU launch is compared to the ports there aren't many exclusives, I think with just one more big Nintendo exclusive for launch like Pikmin or even a Zelda HD Collection or something the people who aren't interested just yet would be.

Nintendo's strength has always been 'games you can't get anywhere else', in which case they should probably have showcased that a little more on launch. I understand however that they wanted to show their now strong third party support to people who were turned off by the Wii's slight lack thereof. It's hard to impress everyone sure.
But still, one extra Nintendo exclusive would have gone a long way.

SuperLink said:
But still, one extra Nintendo exclusive would have gone a long way.

But seriously, I think New Super Mario Bros. U and Nintendo Land are all Nintendo needs for now. We will get the Zelda, Pikmin, 3D Mario, etc. after launch window. Heck, the fact that Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is coming to Wii U is one of the reasons I'm so damn excited. There are plenty of games for me to get at Wii U launch, so yeah.. gonna have to choose which ones I really want and which ones I'm going to wait for.

SuperLink said:
I heard today that Epic Mickey 2 is also to be a WiiU launch title, if the WiiU has so many launch games how will it have any for succeeding weeks! Gosh Ninty have a cuppa and calm down.

But really the 3rd party line up is strong, lots of ports of really good games, I guess the big problem with the WiiU launch is compared to the ports there aren't many exclusives, I think with just one more big Nintendo exclusive for launch like Pikmin or even a Zelda HD Collection or something the people who aren't interested just yet would be.

Nintendo's strength has always been 'games you can't get anywhere else', in which case they should probably have showcased that a little more on launch. I understand however that they wanted to show their now strong third party support to people who were turned off by the Wii's slight lack thereof. It's hard to impress everyone sure.
But still, one extra Nintendo exclusive would have gone a long way.

The Wii U version is not even worth considering, it's not made by Junction Point and will lack secret extras.

( Edited 04.10.2012 16:20 by Linkyshinks )

Linkyshinks said:

The Wii U version is not even worth considering, it's not made by Junction Point and will lack secret extras.

Wii was the lead platform. Another company have made the Wii U version, and their credibility as a developer is dire looking at their past games.

For Wii and Wii U

http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wiiu/console/0/3

• Shiota feels like he worked on a console and handheld at the same time, due to the Wii U and its GamePad
  
• Kitano worked on casing and thermal design, connectors and cables
  
• Akagi was in charge of testing programs/software
  
• Wii U designs kicked off with the change to HD
  
• Nintendo worked on offering a good price while achieving solid performance from Wii U
  
• Nintendo is always focused on low power consumption mixed with high performance and efficiency
  
• First time Nintendo is using a multi-core CPU
  
• Data processed can now be much more efficient with low power consumption
  
• Wii U also uses a multi chip module, which is where the multi-core CPU and GPU are built into a single component
  
• GPU contains large on-chip memory
  
• Chips were made at different companies, which made it hard to narrow down the solution to an issue when one arose
  
• Renesas, IBM and AMD all helped to figure out any problems that came up
  
• The companies had to 'prove their innocence' when it came to ironing out issues
  

• The Wii U substrate contains the 'console's heart'
  

• The setup seen above reduces latency and increases speed
  

• Having the Wii U casing take up little space was a goal from the start
  
• Nintendo referred to the role of the small casing as a 'stagehand', since they wanted the console to play its important role from behind the scenes
  
• Wii U has one heat source
  

• Wii U has about three times as much heat as the Wii
  
• This lead to trying bigger fans, raising fan revolutions, performing heat tests and optimizing air hole placement
  
• A lot of work went into the vent fan, making it thinner, slanted and more efficient
  
• The heat test number went over 2,000, with one test taking an hour
  
• Noise from the fan is also tested
  
• The team worked to figure out the optimal amount of revolutions for heat dissipation while keeping the fan from being too loud
  
• Heat sink is over the MCM, with the fan behind it
  
• Heat must be dissipated while securing a certain amount of airways to keep things efficient
  

• The entire setup allows air to flow through efficiently to keep heat down
  
• Main intake is on the side
  
• Openings at the top and bottom as well
  

• The heat sink shield suppresses electric waves from the board
  
• Mechanical engineering team started design work in April of 2009
  
• Square-type layouts like the GameCube were considered
  
• Wii U can be stood vertically in a stand or laid on its side
  
• Akagi had to take all this into consideration for testing
  
• This included a lot of tests, which takes time and costs money
  
• Early testing took a lot of time
  
• As things moved on, testing costs were cut down, as was time
  
• More tests were focused on typical problem areas while less tests were used in 'safer' areas
  
• Hundreds of defects were analyzed and sorted out
  
• Sometimes the Wii U would be left powered on the entire day, only to show a defect at the end of that day
  
• These were called aging tests
  
• These tests are important to simulate the breakdown of a system once in a customer's hands
  
• The devs feel that IBM, AMD, Renesas and Nintendo teamed together to form 'Team Nintendo' during development
  
• A lot of CPU/GPU designers were working with Nintendo since the Wii
  
• This helped to make the semiconductor smaller, and power consumption fell
  

• Sync button is on the outside
  
• USB connectors are in the front as well
  
• Cover now goes in instead of flipping out
  
• It was very important for Nintendo to include an HDMI cable
  
• You can use the cable that came with the Wii as well
  
• Nintendo focuses on consistent performance when working on hardware, rather than the top specs it can pump out
  
• Nintendo is proud that the Wii U doesn't 'leech' off of the TV like previous consoles, meaning that you can take the GamePad and play off TV
  
• Nintendo feels the touch screen will help break down barriers for those that don't usually play games
  
• They want consumers to use the Wii U to hop online and look up answers to questions that come up in conversations with friends and family
  
• Playing video games is the centerpiece of the hardware
  
• Creating Wii U with all it has and offering it at this price meant that a lot of people had to work 'awfully hard'
  
• Send images to the Wii U GamePad from Wii U without latency
  

That's tiny! 
I just hope that as games push the hardware further and further that the heat dissipation manages to stay within reasonable ranges. We all know what happened to the original xbox... Though I do say that with a huge heatsink sat on my PC...

In all honesty though, disk drives take up so much space, wouldn't they have been able to develop a low profile drive for the WiiU? Or is this something to do with keeping costs down/ proprietary disks?

Nintendo tests are stringent, I'm not concerned.

Wii U UK Showcase Tour

Braehead Shopping Centre, Glasgow: 11 - 14 October
Play Expo, Manchester: 13 - 14 October
Westfield, Derby: 18 - 21 October
MCM Expo, London: 26 - 28 October
Highcross Shopping Centre, Leicester: 1 - 4 November
The Bullring, Birmingham: 8 - 11 November
Westfield Stratford City, London: 15 - 18 November
Metro Centre, Newcastle: 22 - 25 November
Gadget Show Christmas, London: 30 November - 2 December
Westfield, London: 6 - 9 December
Centre: MK, Milton Keynes: 13 - 16 December
Arndale Centre, Manchester: 3 - 6 January

Monster Hunter 3: Ultimate - NYCC Trailer

Holy shit, it looks amazing in motion. I really can't wait for March 2013. Me and SirLink will play the shit out of Ultimate. Hopefully we can get a couple of other people to join though.

35mins of Monster Hunter Tri U Gameplay:

( Edited 12.10.2012 08:59 by Linkyshinks )

Tecmo Koei Europe tweeted today that Warrior's Orochi 3 Hyper will be a launch title for the Wii U:
https://twitter.com/tecmokoeieurope/status/257822494596141056

Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2 confirmed for Wii U

Thanks for the news tip on that Mush, but it was announced ages ago. Game has been in the C3 database for some time now. Nintendo Life had obviously not heard of it until they saw this poster (or rather, whoever originally reported on this).

( Edited 15.10.2012 17:49 by Azuardo )

Azuardo said:
Thanks for the news tip on that Mush, but it was announced ages ago. Game has been in the C3 database for some time now. Nintendo Life had obviously not heard of it until they saw this poster (or rather, whoever originally reported on this).

I'm sure Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper being a launch title in Europe is news though, as they tweeted about that today and I had to correct them because they put 2011 instead of 2012, haha.

Pikmin 3 Release Date

March 26th - NA

March 29th - EU

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/373438/pikmin-3-targets-march-2013-release-date/

Is this confirmed or rumoured? Either way they would release it right at the end of the fiscal year eh.  Quite a wait.

New sync button location:

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 will be available to download on Wii U eShop, at a cheaper price in Japan, whether the same pricing will be applied in the West remains to be seen.

• - Available for purchase on Wii U eShop
  
• - Retail is 6980 yen
  
• - Download is 6280 yen
  
• - Requires more than 16.7 GB of space
  

That's gotta be a misprint. 16GB is ridiculous for any game.

Phoenom said:
That's gotta be a misprint. 16GB is ridiculous for any game.

Tekken is a big game but wow that just kind of reasserts the need for bigger harddrives on the WiiU.

PS. C'mon LS don't leave me hanging- also you srsly don't have to post so much.

SuperLink said:
Tekken is a big game but wow that just kind of reasserts the need for bigger harddrives on the WiiU.

PS. C'mon LS don't leave me hanging- also you srsly don't have to post so much.

I presume that is indeed an error, and it's something like 6GB. No way could I see a fighting game being 16GB...

I agree with SL, though. Where do you get all of this "information"?

I bought a 2TB USB HDD a few weeks ago. Partly because of the possibilities for Wii U.

Hm now that I think of it, I wonder if Wii U will be able to play BR rips and other media files... Probably not.

Nintendo Considering TVii for Europe and Japan
Satoru Iwata has given a strong indication that the Nintendo TVii service could be on its way to Europe and Japan in the near future.

We are currently considering offering Nintendo TVii in Japan and Europe by taking into account how people watch television in each region, and I believe I will be able to share more details in the not-so-distant future.In this sense, many partners, including third-party publishers and non-gaming partners, as exemplified by VOD service providers, are seeing a lot of potential in Wii U, especially because it can also be used freely in the living room even if the TV is in use, and there are many possibilities, such as a shopping service or some other service that uses the internet.

I would personally love for Nintendo to bring the service to the UK, we have a ton of free services it could add to it, such as BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD and 5Demand. They could also include subscription-based services, such as Netflix and LOVEFiLM Instant.

I know this could be quite difficult for Nintendo to get all of these services available to us, but surely we could at least have BBC iPlayer and Netflix, I mean.. the Wii does have both of those. If Nintendo were to bring TVii to Europe, with all the services mentioned, I would definitely use the Wii U as my central hub for media.

( Edited 30.10.2012 03:41 by Mush )

I'm rather shocked that this isn't in the plans yet for Europe/Japan. I was really looking forward to TVii, even though I don't plan on ever taking digital TV. I was hoping Nintendo would stream their own shows and support free TV channels like Mush suggests.

It better at least have good Youtube functionalities at launch. I'm tired of my TV/streamer's lousy functions.

Canyarion said:
I'm rather shocked that this isn't in the plans yet for Europe/Japan. I was really looking forward to TVii, even though I don't plan on ever taking digital TV. I was hoping Nintendo would stream their own shows and support free TV channels like Mush suggests.

It better at least have good Youtube functionalities at launch. I'm tired of my TV/streamer's lousy functions.