Wada: new Nintendo console by 2011

By Games Industry.biz Published 21 September, 2009

Will be like PS3 and 360, says Squenix boss.

Square Enix president Yoichi Wada has said he expects Nintendo to release a new Wii console by 2011.

Functionality of this new hardware, Wada told the Financial Times, will be more like that of the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, and it will possibly come bundled with a different type of controller.

As for Microsoft and Sony's upcoming motion control systems, Wada said that he thinks these will have a limited impact on the markets of their respective systems.

"Present game machines already have a lot of functions: they are a network terminal, a Blu-ray or DVD player, and a gaming machine," he commented.

"Compared to these three pillars, the [new motion] controllers are quite limited, so the impact may be small. They are an extension of the gaming function."

The exec does rate the technology used for Microsoft's Natal highly though.

"As a user interface it's fantastic and I think it will become standard," he said, adding that both Sony and Microsoft's controllers could have a greater immediate effect on the console market if compelling games are released from day one.

However, he noted, games that use motion control are quite difficult to design.

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Comments (53) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • insincere_dave #1 2 years ago

    Wada lotta nonsense.

  • StooMonster #2 2 years ago

    Wii+ with 720p graphics, the PC emulators show Wii games run at this resolution with no modification, plus controllers with MotionPlus built in.

    Backwards compatibility assured, with BC games looking 'better' on new system, plus new games (Wii+) can take advantage of better graphics directly.

    That's my bet.

  • Dizzy #3 2 years ago

    "As a user interface it's fantastic and I think it will become standard"

    That would already be a nice step in the right direction IMHO. It might be more limited for games, but if the UI supports this I am sure that devs will start thinking in different ways.

    And BTW a HD Wii would be a good idea.... especially if Nintendo still brings 2D stuff to the console. Count me in.
    Edited by 1 at 21/09/09 @ 15:40

  • menage #4 2 years ago

    I would buy a HD Wii, before that I won't though.

  • Darren #5 2 years ago

    At one time I'd have jumped up and down with excitement at the thought of a Wii with HD graphics but in the two and a bit years I've owned it I've come to realise that it's more good games the console desperately needs not 720p visuals. Until Nintendo do something about the alarming drop in quality of their Wii games over the past 18 months then I've no interest at all in buying their next machine, HD or no HD.

  • CitizenGeek #6 2 years ago

    I think the Wii has proven that motion control doesn't work all that well. None of the best games this generation have been Wii games. I hope Sony and MS don't base their next consoles on motion control; it's really, really lame.

  • ianegg #7 2 years ago

    May be a wise move for Nintendo considering the Wii has been cracked wide open to anyone with an SD card. If they do make a Wii HD, it had better let you install your games to an internal hard drive.

  • Mkwone #8 2 years ago

    Are we talking a brand new console or an updated version of the Wii?

    I'm not remotly interested in a new variation, but a whole new console would be interesting.

  • JohnnyWashnGo #9 2 years ago

    @ianegg - To be honest, now I have all my games on HDD, I cannot go back to using the Discs. Its nice to be able to buy a game, transfer it to HDD and then store the disc away as a backup should anything go wrong with the HDD. Because of that, I back your suggesting that the next Nintendo console has some kind of backup to HDD facility.

  • linea #10 2 years ago

    Surely it'd be a DSi-style update, rather than a whole new console.

    I can't see a new platform chiming very well with their mass-market aspirations really, it'd alienate or confuse a lot of people I'd have thought.

  • layleeloo #11 2 years ago

    Hopefully its a brand new machine. Loved the cube, loved the N64, SNES, but only find my wii OK to be honest. No reason Ninty cant have 2 systems. Wii for casual and another machine for more dedication like previous brilliant machines.

  • Xerx3s #12 2 years ago

    Makes sense, ms and sony grow closer to nintendo and nintendo will grow closer to ms and sony. The optimal point will be somewhere in the middle.

  • LazyDan #13 2 years ago

    @CitizenGeek "I think the Wii has proven that motion control doesn't work all that well. None of the best games this generation have been Wii games."

    I gather you mean "none of your favourite games this generation have been Wii games" otherwise you're talking a lot of horserot. If you want to quantify quality with sales, then the likes of Wii Fit and Mario Kart are among the top games of the generation. If you want to talk critical acclaim, then Metacritic shows Metroid Prime 3, World of Goo, Brawl, Twilight Princess and MARIO GALAXY as among the best games of the generation.

    If you want to use some other kind of inevitably subjective or flawed method to quantify game quality, then you may as well replace your mouth and hands with massive wibbling vaginas for all the value your opinions will be worth.

  • Canyarion #14 2 years ago

    I want a totally new console, not a HD upgrade.

  • Toothball #15 2 years ago

    I'd be happier with a new online service, as Nintendo's ideas on that are sorely lacking.

  • rhinoxious #16 2 years ago

    "Metroid Prime 3, World of Goo, Brawl, Twilight Princess and MARIO GALAXY"

    Yes, good games, but do most of them make motion controls seem essential? Most could be easily played on a standard analogue joypad or easily adapted to it, and world of goo is better with a mouse.

  • GreyBeard #17 2 years ago

    I'm assuming Wada-san is referring solely to performance within Japan, because if Natal fails to make a big impression in the West that would be quite a blow for MS.

  • drumbaby #18 2 years ago

    If Wii was HD I'd probably own one.

  • XdarXideX #19 2 years ago

    "We're going back... in... tiiiiiime!"

  • brainbird #20 2 years ago

    If Nintendo launched a console with powerful hardware (like, "next gen";) while the others try to catch up with shit waggle sticks, it would catch MS and Sony on the wrong foot.
    Imagine the hilarity.

  • Genji #21 2 years ago

    Tbh, although I would very much like for Natal to succeed.... I don't think it will.

  • Stuz359 #22 2 years ago

    Weird situation though. It's already been proved that the majority of 360 owners don't even own a HDTV. A lot of people are saying they wouldn't buy a wii because it's not HD, but the majority of people playing games for ALL consoles do not even have the capacity to play games in HD.

    Personally, I bought a HDTV in anticipation of 360, PS3 and HD gaming and blu-ray, but you can understand Nintendo's stance on HD.

  • mattigan #23 2 years ago

    It will be just like the 360 and PS3, and run on pixie dust, and cost £500, and use legs of lamb as innovative motion controllers.

    /This predicting the future malarky is a piece of piss

  • Fudce #24 2 years ago

    That sounds about right to me...

    Brand new Nintendo console to take on the PS3 and 360 on the high definition gaming front. It'll be fully backwards compatible with the Wii, and Nintendo could possibly even continue the Wii branding to the new console (Wii H Dii?)

    The Wii will get a price cut, and will continue to be produced, along with Wii software. The serious games will probably move to the WiiHDii, whilst the shovelware will remain on the Wii due to lower production costs.

  • chudders #25 2 years ago

    @Lazydan

    I enjoyed your last paragraph immensely.

  • tap #26 2 years ago

    @Stuz359 Most sensible reply so far!

  • neilka #27 2 years ago

    Wada refused to comment on rumours that the new console is a Wii with a picture of Susan Boyle blu-tacked to the side.

  • JahB #28 2 years ago

    Personally, I bought a HDTV in anticipation of 360, PS3 and HD gaming and blu-ray, but you can understand Nintendo's stance on HD.

    not really. it might be 50/50 at the moment, but SD is dying fast. i haven't seen a CRT TV in shops for ages, and it's a matter of time before the vast majorities of existing SD TVs will be replaced. 2011 is 2 years away (given how consoles tend to launch late in a year).

    Nintendo holding on to SD would be akin to MS holding on to HD-DVD.

  • jonsaan #29 2 years ago

    This is news? A load of speculative guff surely?

  • Cid #30 2 years ago

    I can imagine a DSi-style upgrade. Improved MotionPlus as standard, HD, a bit more power...that kind of thing.

  • FogHeart #31 2 years ago

    Hi def is the lowest requirement I'd have for it. I'd like it to have more RAM, more processor grunt and a graphics chip comparable to the ones on the other consoles, but don't compromise the size or reliability in order to get there (ie if you have to drop the spec to ensure that it's still quiet, small and dependable, then do so). If only 5-10% of people with the other consoles are running them correctly on hi-def TVs, it's pointless to make a weighty, noisy and short-lived console to chase that little portion of the market.

  • GamesConnoisseur #32 2 years ago

    Alarming drop of quality = third parties the worse culprits

    Now if WiiHD could runs Dirt2, BioShock2, Batman AA, then I m pretty much sure quality will follow. First parties are good but not going to be enough to carry the whole console forward with the competition as it is today.

    Imagine if we can play Metroid Prime Trilogy in 720p and so on...... Would be ruddy great! Wii do have some great games but simply being misty ignored of great third party titles and get rehashes instead.

  • richyroo #33 2 years ago

    Too late for me. I sold my Wii last week because of the lack of decent software on it. I hadnt turned the machine on since May.

    Nintendo have now lost my support, from which dates back to the SNES. They proved that they no longer care about my demographic, and I no longer care about them. It is a sad day to admit that!
    Edited by 1 at 21/09/09 @ 18:05

  • teabagger #34 2 years ago

    Interested to see how the next one, in whatever form, sells. Given that Wii has a substantially lower play rate than the other consoles I wonder how many 'new' gamers (i.e people who only own a Wii, and nothing before then) will go out and buy the next Nintendo console.

    Disclaimer: I in no way have any issue with Nintendo, or anyone else for that matter, being successful now or in the future.

    Wonder how many minus points this will get me...

  • WinterSnowblind #35 2 years ago

    I think it could happen. I've always said Nintendo would be the first to launch a new console, especially now with Sony and Microsoft pushing motion technology.. I don't really expect it to take off for either of them the way it has with Nintendo, but it'll still make the Wii a lot less desirable.

    I'm hoping Nintendo do something really unique again though.. and not simply releasing a console on par with the 360/PS3.

  • teabagger #36 2 years ago

    "I'm hoping Nintendo do something really unique again though.. and not simply releasing a console on par with the 360/PS3."

    Yep, and that will be the expectation of a lot of people. However, I can't help but feel that Microsoft has out manoeuvred Nintendo with Natal. Plus the 360 is pretty affordable even now, let alone when next Wii comes out.

  • shotgun44 #37 2 years ago

    I want that Xbox thing from the film The Island!

  • canIdoyabombsforya #38 2 years ago

    Sega had VGA graphics a good 5 years before MS and the difference was quite staggering, but nobody gave a toss.
    And now the jump from 480P(which modern TVs upscale anyway) to 720P is hailed as the second coming of christ. Just goes to show what good marketing can do 14 years after many of our PCs went HD.
    The best thing about this generation, is the cheap large screen TVs that upscale deinterlace and gloss up our games. If we were still stuck with VGA CRT monitors, 'HD' simply would not have been a selling point, let alone become the label for this generation.



    Edited by 1 at 21/09/09 @ 20:46

  • TRUTH #39 2 years ago

    It's not just resolution, it's the other graphics-memory-sound-online capabilities in the 360/PS3 that are all missing in the Wii (which is just a gamecube). I can't see games like: Oblivion, Bioshock, CoD 4, GoW 2, Maotor Storm 2, Virtua Fighter 5, Burnout Paradise, Batman Arhkam Asylum, Fight Night 4, Dead Space, Fallout 3, GTA IV, Half Life 2(The Orange Box), Mass Effect, MGS 4 and with Assassins Creed II, Bioshock 2, Boarderlands, R.U.S.E, Splinter Cell Convection, Uncharted 2, the new Deus Ex (can't wait for this) pushing the platforms 360/PSr further etc etc; I can't see the Wii coping as it does not have the power or memory under it's hood to actually run these games - unless major cutting & editing/downsizing along with dumbing down the Ai (eg: Halo's AI in major battles), less onscreen being displayed with less graphical detail etc etc...then maybe some games cut-down may the Wii cope!!!!!...though the game won't be same as 360/PS3 versions. Resolution itself won't bring the Wii in league of deeper/larger/graphically superior games on 360/Ps3
    Edited by 4 at 21/09/09 @ 22:11

  • Xerx3s #40 2 years ago

    "Weird situation though. It's already been proved that the majority of 360 owners don't even own a HDTV."

    No, Epic has claimed that the majority of their users of gow2 did not have a HDtv. Big difference.

  • Diomedes #41 2 years ago

    Are Nintendo going to release a brand-new console and start to build up the userbase again ,going against the PS3 and 360 that will be comparable in graphics and with great userbases and back catalogues?

    I frankly doubt it.

    Another thing is if they finally release a Wii with HDD ,and able to play DVDs ,show photos and music etc .....to that I can see it coming.

    Frankly ,Wada doesnt know where is his ass ....he bets for the 360 in Japan when its clear it has no future ,he hasnt released a single PS3 game slowing its adoption rate when its clear its the console that could save japanese gaming ass etc etc ....he is doing a great disservice to Square Enix ,he has a real ability to not see the future ...and with this it seems the same....

    As for the Wii having some of the greatest games of the generation ,let me laugh a bit.Mario Galaxy is a great game ,ok ,but hardly a great step over Mario Sunshine or even Mario 64,Mario Kart wii is arguably worse that MK Double Dash ,Twilight Princess is a Game Cube game for gods sake I have it in my Game Cube ,Metroid Prime 3 is a toned down game from the excellent Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime Echoes ...

    Ok ,so metacritic has given these some good scores and the Wii is in the shelves right now...does this makes them "some of the best of the generation"?Of course NOT.The PS2 is still in the shelves ,it has new releases and if we go to metacritic we can see it pulverize the 360 and PS3 in catalogues ....but just the same as the Wii its not the current generation.

    Lazydan=FAIL.

  • George-Roper #42 2 years ago

    Wow. I can't wait for HD shovelware! Bring it on!!

  • shotgun44 #43 2 years ago

    If you look hard enough you'll find some pretty fantastic HD shovelware for the PS3 and Xbox...

  • Stuz359 #44 2 years ago

    Could I just say though, I rebuilt my PC last year (early last year). I only put a 9600 GT in my PC and it outperforms the 360 and PS3 in graphics terms. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch of the imagination that Nintendo could put together a console of comparable performance to my PC or beyond for a lot cheaper than the PS3 or 360 are capable of by 2011

  • smelly #45 2 years ago

    >"If you look hard enough you'll find some pretty fantastic HD shovelware for the PS3 and Xbox... "

    You dont even need to look that hard:

    in the recent 360 review list we have:

    [link url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/watchm en-the-end-is-nigh-part-2-review
    ]http://ww w.eurogamer.net/articles/watchm...[/link]
    [link url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/g-i-joe-the- rise-of-cobra-review
    ]http://ww w.eurogamer.net/articles/g-i-jo...[/link]

    etc


    Normally i'd say "take this with a pinch of salt".. but this isnt an analyst speaking - it's square. Games take around 2 years to make, if it IS true, they probably already have devkits.

  • sneetch #46 2 years ago

    @smelly
    Normally i'd say "take this with a pinch of salt".. but this isnt an analyst speaking - it's square. Games take around 2 years to make, if it IS true, they probably already have devkits.

    I think that if they had devkits that they'd be bound by non-disclosure agreements. It seems unlikely to me that he'd "out" Nintendo's new console if he knew for sure. I'd keep that pinch of salt handy. ;)

  • Alterego-X #47 2 years ago

    Again, the good old "The obvious market leader must try to emulate the features of the losing consoles asap" argument.

    It still doesn't make sense.
    HD was just a bad decision, accept it.
    Edited by 1 at 22/09/09 @ 09:09

  • mkreku #48 2 years ago

    HD was a good decision. The bad decision was 512 MB of ram (in both HD consoles!).

  • Canyarion #49 2 years ago

    @rhinoxious "world of goo is better with a mouse"

    I have to disagree. I beat the game both on Wii and PC, and I greatly prefer Wiimote controls. They are faster and just as precise. If you're not comfortable with it, it probably means you never learned how to use the Wiimote. (My brother has the same issue, he hardly plays on the Wii and has trouble with the pointer.)

    @smelly "this isnt an analyst speaking - it's square. Games take around 2 years to make, if it IS true, they probably already have devkits."

    If Squenix had dev kits, I bet they wouldn't be allowed to talk about it, or to make statements like these. I assume it's just their common sense.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #50 2 years ago

    I would concur that Nintendo need a proper Live / PSN / Steam Community style online service more than then need HD visuals on their console, And they don't need new hardware for that.
    Edited by 1 at 22/09/09 @ 13:26

  • electrolite #51 2 years ago

    Would seem to make sense, especially if it can play current Wii games and upscale them in any way. Include a HDD and M+ as standard. It'd be a typically Nintendo move e.g. Gameboy 'Color', DSi.

  • smelly #52 2 years ago

    "I think that if they had devkits that they'd be bound by non-disclosure agreements"


    good point, well made...

    back to him talking crap then! :-)

  • Kamata #53 1 year ago

    massive wibbling vaginas FTW!