Although it just recently received its public unveiling, Nintendo’s main man Satoru Iwata revealed in an interview with industry site Gamasutra that the underlying concept behind Wii U dates back to 2007, almost immediately after Wii was released.

Iwata said the company mulled over various ideas, one of which described a dual-purpose approach — having the Wii U controller work in tandem with the console, but also as a standalone system. In the end – presumably for cost reasons, it decided to leave all the processing guts in the console itself, with the controller simply receiving images through wireless connection. more »

While Nintendo has been rather coy regarding its online plans for Wii U, president Satoru Iwata reportedly told investors at an E3 Q&A that the company is aiming for flexibility. The service will be adaptable to the desires of third-parties, says Iwata:

So, I think that, going forward, the question is really to what degree Nintendo can create a more flexible system for its consoles.

And, what we found at this point is that, as we discuss the online structure with different publishers, the things that the different publishers want to do are in fact seemingly rather different. Our current direction is how we can take the desires of the third parties and create a system that’s flexible enough to enable them to do the types of things that they might want to do.

It’s notable that Nintendo is trying its best to win third-party devs over, given that many have expressed frustration with the company’s current online approach. Here’s hoping concrete details aren’t far off.

Thanks, Gamasutra.

While we know Nintendo’s Wii U touts a ‘proprietary’ disc format for games, a question looming is if it will be able to playback DVD or Blu-ray media from the same drive. According to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in a recent Q&A session, the answer is no, citing cost concerns over patents: more »

Sales tracking firm NPD Group has released its hardware and software sales analysis for the month of May 2011, which marked the lowest month of sales in the industry since October 2006. NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier blamed the decline on a “light slate” of new releases. Only 42 new titles were introduced this May, compared to 58 in 2010 and 72 in 2009.

Sluggish showing in terms of gross video game sales aside, this month was hardly a somber one for Microsoft. Xbox 360 unit sales were up 39 percent year over year, totaling 270K for the entire month. Microsoft’s Major Nelson also stated that 360 took the number one spot for May, which leaves Nintendo’s Wii trailing behind for yet another consecutive month, despite a recent price cut.

See the full breakdown of hardware and software sales below. more »

Once a PC-focused studio, the middleware wizards over at Crytek developed CryEngine 3 as a way to ease the process of developing across multiple high-definition platforms — namely PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Given the Wii U is also HD-ready, it’s not surprising to see Crytek pledge its support for the 2012-bound platform. CryEngine for Wii U is “definitely” in the works, according to company frontman Cevat Yerli. more »

Aside from Nintendo’s own Zelda tech demo, the company did little to push the graphical capabilities of its newly announced Wii U hardware at E3 2011. Amplifying this is the fact that third-party footage shown was running code direct from PS3 and Xbox 360. So how does the Wii U stack up to these six year-old machines? more »

Nintendo’s “Project Café” was recently revealed to the world as the Nintendo Wii U yesterday. The Wii U is an entirely new console that will bring Nintendo in line with the Xbox 360 and PS3 in terms of graphic prowess as well as bringing a new controller to the table.

The Wii U’s controller features a 6.2” touchscreen of unknown resolution which displays content streamed from the Wii U’s base station. The base station also has the ability to output an image to an HDTV as well, either at the same time (with the same or different image) or one at a time with the game being displayed exclusively on the controller.

Dive on past the break to hear what I’ve got to say about the new revolution from Nintendo.

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Straight out of Nintendo’s queue-filled E3 booth, here’s an exclusive 1080p clip of Battle Mii running on the Nintendo Wii U. The premise of the game is simple, players command a spacecraft using the Wii U controller.

As shown in the clip, it features tilt-sensitive controls that move the HUD, while strafing is handled with the left analog stick. The demo tasked players with gunning down other human controlled opponents. Weapons included a laser beam with an optional charge, along with missiles activated by holding down the right trigger.

From our hands-on time with the title, movement was extremely fluid with no visible lag between the controller and TV. Take a look after the break. more »

During a developer roundtable discussion Miyamoto revealed that the long-in-production Pikmin Wii title will be making its way onto the Wii U. During the discussion Miyamoto revealed that he wanted to see it on the new platform and simply said “so we’re gonna make it on that.”

Nintendo has officially revealed “Wii U”, the new home console system previously codenamed Project Cafe. The “Wii U” controller features a touchscreen, microphone, speakers, gyroscope, inward facing camera and dual analog sticks.

The Wii U controller can stand as a standalone system with streamed content from the base station or as a companion controller to a game displayed on your TV. You will also be able to use the controller for video chatting with other owners without use of the TV.

The exact details of the console itself remain a mystery, however the early games shown off from various studios reveal that the console should be able to compete with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in terms of graphic prowess. You can expect to play the new system sometime in 2012.

Nintendo has revealed a few conceptual games that pit the Wii U controller user against others using the standard Nintendo Wii controllers.

One of the first titles announced for the Wii U was a new Super Smash Brothers that will be developed for both the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS with some inter-connectivity between the two systems.

Some more titles announced for the new system include Darksiders II at launch, Batman: Arkham City, Dirt, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Online, Metro: Last Light, Tekken, Ninja Gaiden 3, and Lego City Stories.