It's not particularly visionary, It's "Apple Visionary" Sony have remote play which shows us that it's possible to stream the video and control games using the PSP, plus certain games have additional PSP functionality. (Only one that springs to mind right away is setting playlists on Singstar) The Gamecube already had GBA connectivity, the PSone had the pocketstation and the Dreamcast had the memory units which could download mini games from the console which you could play on them. This isn't really going to be a game changer, It's an awkwardly shaped gamepad with a touchscreen and current gen tech touting itself as next gen. Motion controls can be fun and provide a different experience; the Wii U is just replicating what we do whilst watching tv and checking the internet on our phones/tablets.
I thought that their new controller sounded like a neat idea. http://youtu.be/_YbB-Q95K3U Now, imagine playing that on a dual analog tablet.
Ok. Hard to argue with that. So, how 'bout this. http://youtu.be/0QEFqno7UAk And here's a nice followup from the actual deveoper of that game. http://mynintendonews.com/2012/07/11/shinen-multimedia-wii-u-is-very-easy-to-develop-for-doesnt-have-many-limitations/ ;D
Question. Is the Wii U as powerful as Sony and Microsofts next consoles? If not then I don't care about the Wii U. Nintendo is like Stifler from American Pie. They just refuse to grow up and join the rest of their friends and instead choose to engage in childish pursuits.
I doubt that MS or Sony toss as much R & D dollars into it like they did last time. Officially, MS isn't even making one.
1. I thought I was the only one allowed to post gunnshop dudebro videos. 2. Haven't MS already shipped dev kits? 3. I heard from Inside Gaming Daily that MS have had to postpone their predicted production cycle until next year as it was supposedly going to start later this year. I never thought their next console was coming out in 2013 if only for the fact that Gears of War Judgment is coming next year for Xbox 360 and that's a reasonably big exclusive. Makes no sense to release that then a couple of months later launch a new console. Epic have said its a holdover game to keep fans happy until the next gen Gears. I predict a late 2014 launch for the Nextbox.
Yeah. The 720 dev kits are out. One even went up for sale on eBay and someone bought it for $20,100. http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/12/xbox-durango-ebay/ But what's more important is what's in it. http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/07/29/xbox-720-development-kit-photos-surface And I also checked into how much R&D that they spent on that GPU setup. According to Amazon.com, the "ASUS EAH6670/DIS/1GD5 Radeon HD 6670 GDDR5 128-bit 1 GB Video Card" sells for $89.99 & -- there's more -- this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. YAY! Take that Nintendo!!!
If you believe the 720 will have a 6670 based on some 2 year old rumour then you're pretty naive. An alpha kit from january this year has been obtained and photographed, and the GPU identified as either a 6870 or 6950 (MSI non-reference models) going off the fairly unique back blate and blue DVI ports. If I had to hazard a guess I would assume this would equate to something around a 8750-8850 level custom GPU in the final hardware. Of course Alpha kits aren't all that indicative of final hardware (final will be newer, possibly faster but definitely not slower) but we do know that the GPU must be at least 6870 level now. That's a whole generation ahead of rumored Wii U performance wise...
Kotaku and Joystiq moslty get their information from Beyond3D forums, GAF forums and various chinese forums. I was following it on B3D and it is most definitely an MSI 6870/6950. I'd personally lean towards 6950 because it was the newest architecture available at the time and a bit closer to GCN (what they will end up using ie. 7000/8000 + series) and because a 6950 has 2GB VRAM, which is far closer to what the final console will end up with than the 1GB in the 6870.
Well, I googled "Xbox 6950" and "Xbox 6870" and I didn't get any relevant hits at all. But I get all sorts of hits when I type in "Xbox 6670". Oh... it should also be noted that I got a couple of hits when I type in "xbox casual direction". But those are rather bad and I don't really want to list them. People may cry. :'(
Status update: After seeing at how well the Wii U, PS4, and 720 handles the new Unreal Engine 4, I have no choice but to admit defeat. I traded my Wii U in on a 250GB Xbox 360. Seriously, I did.