Nintendo Wii 2 Rumor Mill Kicking into High Gear, but What About Price?

[celeb_2006]

Nintendo Wii 2 Rumor Mill Kicking into High Gear, but What About Price? - Yahoo! News

COMMENTARY | Few technology products make a splash into the consumer landscape than the Nintendo Wii did so many years ago. The little white box was popular with video game enthusiasts of all ages for a variety of reasons. The easy gesture based controls and user friendly menu driven interface were embraced by the community as a whole. PC Mag.com even declared it the best product ever in 2007. Unfortunately, in the world of technology a lot can happen in a few months, let alone four years. Lately, the Wii has been experiencing a sales decline.

What does a company do when a piece of technology starts to have sagging sales? Of course, it launches a better product. Rumors are flying that a Nintendo Wii 2 will be announced this summer, or sooner, for a 2012 release. The Wii once offered a unique experience in home gaming with the motion based control system. While Sony has answered that issue with the Playstation 3 with some degree of success, the Microsoft X Box 360 and the Kinect have been extremely successful.

Between all three of the major home consoles, the Nintendo Wii has the most room to grow. The Wii 2 will likely be a high definition console, with some rumors stating the new Nintendo console will be more powerful than the PS3 or X Box 360. Considering the graphics and sound that the two can produce, Nintendo will have to bring their A-game to surpass the two larger consoles.
Another area that Nintendo can exploit is home entertainment. While all three consoles support Netflix in some fashion, integrating television and improving web browser performance could really go a long way in a new successful next generation device. The Wii navigation channel system works pretty well, and adding some application options to a better piece of technology could spark interest. By adding a diversified experience consoles can extend their market reach, surely Nintendo has noticed this advantage.

However, what might have made the Wii so successful is perhaps the most important factor: price. The Wii was the most affordable of the three major consoles when release. The low cost hardware coupled with popular existing franchises made the Wii a must have for gamers everywhere. Should the price tag of the Wii 2 creep into the $300 or $400 range, Nintendo will experience some initial resistance. Consumers are price conscious now more than ever, but if the Wii2 has less gimmicks and more performance Nintendo would likely have a winner.

[Grimmlok]

The low cost hardware coupled with popular existing franchises made the Wii a must have for gamers everywhere.

Uh no, gamers everywhere didn't buy that underpowered gamecube piece of crap. People who wanted to amuse their 3 year olds and twits who thought they'd do pilates with it bought it.

[Mercer]

I disagree.
Bought the Wii as soon as I understood 'Zombies (ate my neighbours)' could be legally purchased on this device.

[Seth82]

I sold my Wii within like six months of buying it

awful shit

PS3 is just a billion times better

[Mercer]

I still stand by my PS3 as well. Of course.
But I seriously only bought the Wii for the old games.
Zombies, Shining force, even good old Sonic...
Money well spent.

[travelbug]

We got a Kinect for Xbox for Christmas and never use the Wii any more. Kinect is the shit and now they have the Michael Jackson dance game

[MohandasKGanja]

Wii is definitely not the best system, but it is suitable for kids and adults who could give a rat's ass about high-end resolution and frame rate. I've enjoyed myself playing the games with my kids.

A PS3 (or a Xbox360) uses literally 10 times the power of a Wii system. About 186 watts vs. 18 watts. Even if you just leave it on accidentally, the PS3 uses about 177 watts of electricity.

Also - the ability to play streaming NetFlix on TV through the Wii system without buying any extra equipment was pretty cool, too. Better menu system than the Roku.

New details about Wii 2:

The system will be based on a revamped version of AMD's R700 GPU architecture, not AMD's Fusion technology as previously believed, which will, as previously reported, out perform the PlayStation 3's NVIDIA 7800GTX-based processor. Like the Xbox 360, the system's CPU will be a custom-built triple-core IBM PowerPC chipset, but the clocking speeds will be faster. The system will support 1080p output with the potential for stereoscopic 3D as well, though it has not been determined whether that will be a staple feature.

"We will show a playable model of the new system and announce more specifications at the E3 Expo, which will be held June 7-9, 2011, in Los Angeles," the company said in a brief statement. Nintendo did not reveal any additional details.

Multiple sources tell IGN the console - dubbed Project Cafe - will be "significantly more powerful" than the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and be backwards compatible with current Wii software. The console will also utilize a new, tablet-shaped controller. Sources say it will have a 6-inch touch screen display, dual analog sticks, and has the ability to stream content directly from the console.

[Grimmlok]

Note to self, don't buy any game system till after the Wii comes out and Sony/Microsoft respond in kind..

[Mr. Authority]

Almost everyone I know who owns a Wii have left it collecting dust; Nintendo does make some great games with their franchises, but a console can't just depend on 1st party titles to keep gamers interested.

[KrisNine]

I love the Wii...but I love Mario anything and you have to have a Wii to play.

[NoDayButToday]

I still use my Wii, but mostly as a way to watch Netflix instant on my tv. I do play Epic Mickey or Mario occasionally too, but that's pretty rare now.

[MohandasKGanja]

I heard this story on the radio on the way home yesterday:

Sony In Hot Water Over PlayStation Security Breach


Sony is facing a lawsuit for failing to protect PlayStation customer accounts from a hacker, sending the company scrambling to regain consumer trust.

The suit alleges Sony provided inadequate security for customer information, allowing a hacker from gaining access to more than 77 million PlayStation accounts and stealing personal information, possibly including credit card numbers. The lawsuit also accuses the entertainment company of waiting too long to disclose the problem.
"Consumers and merchants have been exposed to what is one of the largest compromises of Internet security and the greatest potential for credit-card fraud to ever occur in U.S. history," according to the complaint, filed by a California firm on behalf of a long-time PlayStation owner.

Companies are handling ever-increasing volumes of customer data, including financial details, but maintaining effective security appears to be an ongoing challenge.
Sony immediately shut down its network on April 19 when it learned of the breech, but waited to inform the public until April 26, and then only after it had unveiled the new S1 and S2 tablets.

The company says it waited so long because it was trying to determine exactly what unencrypted data the hacker stole, which now appear to be names, e-mail addresses, birthdates, login information and purchase history.

A Sony FAQ now informs customers about what happened in detail and says data is being moved to a more secure location. The company is also creating a software update requiring users to change their passwords once the network goes online again.
Credit card companies say they have not seen any unusual activity, but that didn't prevent Sony's shares on the Tokyo Stock Exhange from plummeting by 4.8 percent to close at their lowest since 2009.

Sony will need to work hard to recover, given that it was already suffering supply shortages after the Japan earthquake and facing a long uphill battle to revamp its ailing smartphone line.
If it loses the lawsuit, it may have to cough up tens of millions of dollars, putting it even further in trouble as disgruntled gamers consider defecting to Xbox.

Sony isn't the only one in hot water over security issues these days. A hacker recently stole customers data from many top U.S. retailers by attacking a single marketing company that held millions of consumers' e-mail addresses.

The U.S. Senate has proposed a "privacy bill of rights" to protect consumers against data theft and misuse, signaling increased governmental attention to growing Internet security issues.
The U.K. already has power to fine companies up to £500,000 if they fail to adequately protect consumers' personal data.

[Baby Face]

We bot the XBox 360 for christmas. I sold all of the old Wii games and got all new XBox games. What I didn't know was that many of the Wii stuff we assumed would be available on Xbox wasn't. We now have both systems because our absolute favorite games only come on Wii - Mario, Raving Rabbids. Now the understanding is XBox 360 for the M fighting games and Wii for the E games.

[celeb_2006]

Coolness, the new Wii U, the next generation Nintendo gaming system.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e3qaPg_keg[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arHNcSMXaBk[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shch7LNkVXw[/YOUTUBE]

[NVash]

Looks nice. I cant wait to see how it works in person and test it out.