Nintendo: Project Cafe - Wii U

[pakopako]

And here I am, hoping for the next Virtual Boy.

[CRTGAMER]

I remember about a year into the Wii's debut - Nintendo made it clear that they were not in competition with Microsoft and Sony when it came to their home consoles. Instead, they focused on creating an innovative and easily accessible product that not only your parents would want to play, but your grandparents as well. Suffice it to say, Nintendo were well aware of the gap in graphics when compared to a PS3 or a 360.

My point is thus - Until we see what they have planned, I wouldn't get any hopes up on them even competing again with the next-gen market, let alone being a PS3 or 360-killer. They have re-established themselves in the minds of the non-gamer consensus with the Wii, and I doubt very much that they are going to look to deviate from what they started with the Wii.

The name 'Project Cafe' brings to mind interaction, populated lobbies, and hip technology that conforms to arts and society. Based on Nintendo's track record of improving upon the previous generation's technology, I expect a better CPU and graphics processor, both a significant and serious attention to multiplayer interaction, (knowing Nintendo, not only confined to gaming - after all, there has to be something to the name 'Cafe',) and a more in depth embrace of multimedia outside the scope of games, (music, video, etc.)

Nintendo's been at the console business for 25+ years, and regardless of all of the family-friendly shovelware that found its way onto the Wii and the cries of some people claiming they betrayed their hardcore audience, they still managed to serve up games that cater to the hardcore gamer that grew up with the early Nintendo systems, (New Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kirby: Epic Yarn, the entire Virtual Console service.)
Maybe Project Cafe has this type of gamer in mind - as if to say "we've grown up with you, as well!"

Maybe I'm reading too far into it, but these are just some of my thoughts on the new system. And, as with every new Nintendo hardware announcement, I'm excited to see what they plan on doing next!

Great Post!

You made me think about the code name also. I'm thinking the Cafe name has connotations of using a laptop at Starbucks. Browsing, watching youtube, streaming videos and playing online Flash games. Starting to do a realization head explode. Maybe this will be a NO DISC Console? Games can ONLY be purchased thru a download?

[Erik_Twice]

Maybe this will be a NO DISC Console? Games can ONLY be purchased thru a download?

No chance of that. Casuals will not buy those, they want to buy in a shop and bring the disc home and Nintendo is not going to alienate the market like that.

[pepharytheworm]

Maybe this will be a NO DISC Console? Games can ONLY be purchased thru a download?

No chance of that. Casuals will not buy those, they want to buy in a shop and bring the disc home and Nintendo is not going to alienate the market like that.

Then why are so many "casuals" downloading games for their phones? If anything I think they would be more inclinded to download as they really don't care about later, only the now. I think you are thinking people who are against changing "technology", you know the same people who don't want to understand what an MP3 is, but this wouldn't be for them anyway.

But here is to hoping for a return to carts. It would be simple, you buy the game at a store its on a card like a DS game, you either play straight from it or download to hard drive.

[Erik_Twice]

Then why are so many "casuals" downloading games for their phones?

Because paying from your phone requires no effort from your part and the price is much, much lower.

Also note that while, say, paying for tracks for Rock Band is common in the US it is not representative from the whole world.

[Niode]

First of all, 6" screen in the controller? Not happening. Along with all the other stuff they're cramming in there they're going to have to charge £100 AT LEAST per controller. Who's going to pay that much for the controller? Also, battery life would be a big issue powering such a large backlit screen as well as a motor for vibration.

To all the people bitching about Nintendo 'abandoning' their hardcore audience. Complete and utter codswallop. The shovelware on the wii isn't Nintendo's fault, they made the 'mistake' of making it incredibly easy to code for. Why put the effort into learning the idiosyncrasies of the PS3 or 360 when you can port last generation code to it relatively pain free. Makes sense from a business point of view.

Wii wasn't able to out perform some ps2 games like a spiderman game did. From the ps2 version you can see the NY road bridge while the wii version was half generated bridge.

That's just a shitty port of a shitty game by a shitty dev. They just couldn't be bothered to get it working properly so farted the port out to make as much money as possible with smallest amount of effort required.

Back to the new Nintendo console. I honestly can't see Nintendo throwing away the headway they made into the 'casual' market. I find it absolutely amazing what Nintendo achieved with the Wii. They said they wanted a Wii in every home, they wanted people thinking about playing wii amongst their media choices as a family entertainment system (sound familiar?). They wanted it to be synonymous with 'watching TV' or 'Watching a DVD'. They succeeded. They didn't need horsepower, they just needed a vision of a future. Now what do you see in practically every home? A Wii. Because they hit the perfect price point and functionality in one go. Nintendo's little white box of tricks may not have been the brightest of the bunch but it certainly was the most popular. Do you think they're going to throw that away by chasing the 'hardcore' audience? It's not going to happen, besides those fucking morons are way too busy calling each other 'faggots' 'niggas' and 'bitches' on COD that they wouldn't know fun if it slapped them across the face and having fun is what Nintendo is all about. It's not about casual or hardcore markets. It's not about demographics. It's not about teenies or grandparents gaming. It's about letting people have fun. I think a lot of people forget that some times.

Personally, I'm glad that Nintendo consistently do their own thing. They're the company that is bringing innovation to the industry, they're the ones with the vision. It just goes to show that even though they had the weakest in power terms they still had Microsoft and Sony limping behind them wanting a piece of the market that Nintendo (seemingly) invented overnight.

I do hope they give us a proper online service this time round though. Stop trying to mollycoddle us Nintendo, just give us the controls to do it ourselves. IF the parents can't be responsible for their child, that's not your fault Nintendo, that's the parent's fault.

[alienjesus]

I agree fully with everything Niode just said. Like, word for word

[CFFJR]

I agree fully with everything Niode just said. Like, word for word

Same here.

Well, except for the Spider-man thing. I liked the 360 version of Web of Shadows.

[SwooshBear]

That was awesome Niode, really made me think about games these days.

[kgcarini]

I agree fully with everything Niode just said. Like, word for word

Me too! Awesome post Niode.