Wii U

Unnamed sources on the internet (man, those guys know everything!) are claiming that the top men at Nintendo are mulling over whether or not to rename the Nintendo Wii U.

The speculation stems from Nintendo promising investors that the Wii U will learn a "bitter lesson" from the launch of the Nintendo 3DS. One of the perceived problems with the roll out of the Nintendo device was that consumers supposedly confused the 3DS with the Nintendo DS, a mistake that seems pretty easy to make.

Couple that with the announcement of the Wii U at E3 2011, which left many baffled as to what, exactly the device is, and you have a muddled message, according to some. That could lead to a new name for the Wii U.

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Nintendo released the box art for Mario Party 9 yesterday, and it's notable for a couple reasons. First, it's bright enough to give you an aneurysm, and secondly, poor Luigi is barely even there.

Check out the full box art under the "Read More" tag, and see if you can find Luigi.

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Both the Wii U and the Tomb Raider reboot from Crystal Dynamics were revealed at E3 last year. The thing about the Nintendo console is that it's finally going to be able to compete on the level of the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 in terms of raw power. With Lara Croft returning later this year, some of you might be hoping that her next adventure comes to the Wii U as well.

Unfortunately, that's not going to happen. A newly posted FAQ from Crystal Dynamics confirms it (via CVG). "When we started developing the game we made a conscious decision that it was all about building the game for a platform and making sure the game was specific to that platform," studio community manager Meagan Marie writes.

"Given that we’ve been working on the game quite a while before Wii U was announced I think it would not be right to try and port it across. If we started building a game for the Wii U we would build it very differently and we would build it with unique functionality." It's certainly likely that Lara Croft will eventually have a Wii U-based adventure of her own, but this upcoming game will not be it.

Source: Crystal Dynamics

When Nintendo revealed the Wii U at E3 last year, the announcement came with confirmation that the console was targeted for release later on in 2012. The subsequent absence of updates on the developing console and its launch windows games have since led many to believe that those release plans were maybe a bit too optimistic. Nintendo is still right on target though, as company president Satoru Iwata confirmed to Reuters.

The Nintendo boss confirmed that the Wii U will be coming to the United States, Europe, Australia and, of course, Japan in time to take advantage of the end-of-year holiday spending. That's the extent of the news (seriously-- it's a REALLY short article), but it should bring hope to fans who may have been starting to lose the faith.

Source: Reuters

G4's Jessica Chobot went all the way to CES to get her hands on the Wii U. Nintendo's next console is still a bit of a mystery, but one thing is for sure, it works. Take a look at some of the "experiences" Nintendo is offering like Chase Me, Battle Me, Panorama, and a HD Zelda demo.

We've heard shockingly little about Nintendo's upcoming Wii U console, especially considering that it's ostensibly still set for release sometime before the end of this year. If it were just the tech, that would be one thing. But announcements for late 2012 releases like Resident Evil 6 fail to make any mention of the Wii successor. Is that because the console might actually not be ready for primetime, or is Nintendo simply urging publishers to hold off on game announcements until more details about the thing are revealed?

I don't have an answer to that question, but I do know that at least one developer is planning a Wii U release. Slightly Mad Studios (Shift 2: Unleashed) is currently working on a crowd-sourced racing game called Project Cars that is coming to PC sometime in 2013 and Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 consoles after that. Wii U has been added to the supported platforms list as well, Eurogamer confirms.

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Next week on X-Play - the next generation of consoles is almost here, and we've got a hands-on look at the Nintendo Wii U. The world's fastest, craziest football franchise returns as we review NFL Blitz and let you know if this one's a buy. Then, we'll talk games with two of the industry's biggest developers - Insomniac's Ted Price and Epic's Cliff Bleszinski. And be sure to tune in for an exclusive look at the new trailer for UFC Undisputed 3.  All that and more when an all-new week of X-Play kicks off this Monday at 6:30PM ET!

Here's the rumor: Ninteno's Wii U, which should be coming sometime this year, will feature an online app store that offers more than just games. The Daily reports via an unnamed source that some apps will live on the console while others will be meant for the tablet-like control device.

No other details were provided, but the basic fact of the Wii U including some kind of app store seems like a no-brainer. Consoles are already jam-packed with content-adding apps of various types, and the Wii U's tablet controller offers some unique opportunities that wouldn't otherwise fit on an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. 

It's tough to put any stock in a rumor, but this one holds more water than most simply for making complete and total sense. Is it true? We'll find out later this year.

Source: The Daily

It's nearing the end of 2011, a deeply craptastic 12 months. It was a bad year for the world economy. And for movies.  And for almost everything else on earth, but while Western civilization may be crumbling around us, know hope: 2011 was definitely a great year for one thing: Video games! And the peak part of this peak year was the 2011 holiday season.

It’s not often that gamers have nothing to complain about, and this holiday season is no exception. However, this time around, the complaints aren’t about bad games or exploitative publishing firms. Instead gamers are complaining that there are just too damn many good games out there. Or that there aren’t enough hours in the day to play them. Or that they have to work during prime Skyrim hours. Either way, I’m nearly positive that this year’s holiday season will go down as one of the greatest few months in video game history.

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Gamers will get another early look at the Wii U as Nintendo brings the hardware to CES 2012. Announced at E3 2011, the Wii U is the next generation console from Nintendo that features a touchscreen controller, as well as full 1080p high-definition graphics.

• VIDEO: Wii U Concept Trailer

While a prototype was shown at E3 2011 in conjunction with the announcement, we still haven't had a chance to see the full capabilities of the device, and hopefully what's show at CES 2012 will give us some more insight into exactly what the Wii U can do.

CES, or the Consumer Electronics Show, is held every January in Las Vegas, and showcases the latest and greatest hardware and gadgets. While gaming usually has some sort of presence there, it's usually centered around peripherals, with Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo sitting out the show to get ready for the gauntlet of gaming related events that begin in the spring; however, Nintendo's decision to bring the Wii U to the Mecca of hardware shows the company's confidence in its next generation console.

Plus, we get a chance to play with it, because starting January 10th, we'll be at CES 2012 in full force. I hope I can use the touchscreen to throw a parrot onto some else's television screen.

Source

Nintendo head Shigeru Miyamoto said in an interview with Wired that he is interested in retiring from his current position and stepping into another role at Nintendo. Nintendo, on the other hand, says everything for old Shiggy will be staying pretty much the same. So who should you believe? As always, you should believe Adam Sessler.

In this special, collectors edition of Sessler's Soapbox, Adam discusses this whole "retirement" thing and the culture of Nintendo. Click it, won't you?

Sessler's Soapbox: Is Miyamoto Leaving Nintendo? »

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In statements made to G4tv.com, Wired magazine has defended its reporting of the “stepping down” of Nintendo visionary Shigeru Miyamoto, as presented in a recent interview.

The interview sent tremors through the gaming world and financial markets when Miyamoto said that he was retiring from his current position as head of Nintendo’s game design department and changing his role within the company in order to focus on creating smaller games than his most recent titles. Nintendo responded to the interview with a statement that seems to contradict Miyamoto’s words, saying, “Video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto's role at Nintendo is not changing.”

We spoke to Wired editor Chris Kohler who confirmed that Miyamoto’s statements were reported accurately. “Miyamoto’s comments as presented in our story are exactly what Miyamoto said, and presented with the full context of his remarks,” Kohler said. “We are absolutely standing by those statements as reported.”

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Team Ninja has announced the highly anticipated Ninja Gaiden 3 will be hitting stores for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in March 2012, with a Wii U version to follow sometime after. We haven't had too much time with Ninja Gaiden 3 yet, but check out this brutal trailer which will definitely get you more excited for this bad boy.

If you want even more info on the bloody game, check out our first preview of Ninja Gaiden 3.

We have some new rumored Wii U specs via an unnamed Japanese developer who is said to be porting a PlayStation 3 game to Nintendo's new console. Here they are, but take them with a grain of salt as Nintendo hasn't officially announced anything yet:

• Quad Core, 3 GHz PowerPC-based 45nm CPU
• 768 MB of DRAM “embedded” with the CPU, and shared between CPU and GPU
• Unknown, 40nm ATI-based GPU

With these specs, the Wii U can be compared to the Xbox 360 in terms of power, definitely not living up to the "50% more powerful than the Xbox 360 and PS3" claims that Nintendo was originally boasting of the console. The source also mentioned that they were testing a second version of the Wii U with 1 GB of DRAM embedded within the processor.

Do these specs make you more or less excited for Nintendo's Wii U?

Source: Wii U Daily

I've got some alarming news for you: Developers like Ubisoft are already working on next-gen consoles like the Xbox 360's successor. I know, surprise of the century, right? According to Edge, (who got their info from an anonymous source), Ubisoft Montreal has been sent a devkit from Microsoft and deliveries of the first iteration of the genuine devkit is expected to "reach studios before Christmas". They go on to claim that the final console will indeed be arriving in time for the 2012 holiday season.

• NEWS: Xbox 720 To Be Revealed At CES? Rumors Point To A Holiday 2012 Release

"Ubisoft’s teams are said to be working on PCs containing off-the-shelf components provided by Microsoft, and it’s our understanding that several other major developers, including certain EA studios, are also in possession of these target boxes," said Edge. Ubisoft gave the standard, "We do not comment on rumor and speculation," response when asked about the dev kit but it would definitely make sense that they'd have one in their possession.

Edge also reports that a major Sony-owned studio has completely ceased PlayStation 3 development in order to work on the console's successor.

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