IBM Announces Wii Chips In Nintendo Hands

simoniker writes "IBM has announced that the 'Broadway' CPUs created for the Nintendo Wii have been shipping from the company's East Fishkill, N.Y., fabrication facility since earlier this year. Nintendo, it would seem, is ramping up for the launch of their next-gen console in a month or two." Joystiq and Kotaku have the news as well. From the article: "Nintendo has also confirmed their reception of IBM's chip: 'The first chips are in our possession,' said Genyo Takeda, Senior Managing Director/General Manager, Integrated Research & Development Division, Nintendo Co., Ltd. 'Today's milestone marks the final stage of our drive to reach both core and nontraditional gamers with an inviting, inclusive and remarkable gaming experience.'"

Comments

Digitizers?

[headkase]

I'm wondering whether or not the wimote will work with my setup. I have a tv card with a built-in mpeg decoder. So when I'm pointing the thing at my lcd monitor the raster information has been lost - no more timing signal at 60hz. Am I confused or does the wimote work in such a setup?

Re:Digitizers?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Wii will work on any kind of TV, because the TV has nothing to do with the controller. There is a small (about the size of a couple pencils glued together) sensor bar you place near the TV. It doesn't matter where you put it, but that general area is where you'll be pointing the remote. So put it near the TV, and it seems like the distance you are from the TV affects the sensitivity of the controller. The closer you are to the bar, the higher the sensitivity.

Re:Digitizers?

[MadUndergrad]

You seem to be talking about some sort of lightgun setup. My understanding is that the Wii comes with a sensor that you place near your tv (or monitor) that triangulates the position and orientation of the wii, plus of course the accelerometer and gyroscope in the offhand attachment. So I shouldn't think you would have any problems.

Re:Digitizers?

[headkase]

My first computer was a Radio Shack TRS-80. I didn't have any storage mediums (not even tape) so I had to write something for it to do each time I turned it on. Sometimes I would press the reset button really fast to occasionaly cause a bad initialization. I really do remember the days of going uphill both ways to the computer shop. When I upgraded to a Commodore 128 (which I used almost exclusively in 64 mode) I unfortunately purchased an MSD brand hard drive instead of a 1541 drive which almost every piece of software depended on for copy protection purposes. So I had to reverse engineer my software to remove the copy protection before I could play it. One of the last protections on the 1541 was called V-Max (for Verify Maximum) and as a cracker I loved it because it was a third party product - once I cracked it it was the same protection for all titles.
Been there done that. :p

Re:Digitizers?

[QuantumFTL]

According to the Wikipedia article, the Wiimote uses a 1 megapixel imaging sensor to detect (what is most likely) IR light from the "sensor bar" that's placed at the bottom of your screen. To see how that works, try pointing a remote control at a digital camera or a camcorder - if you press buttons the remote, it will light up brilliantly, yet not be a distraction to humans.

To be honest, I'm not sure how they plan to get full positioning information from a horizontal bar, as I don't think any of their other sensors are absolute, which could lead to serious drift problems. They likely use Kalman filtering or some such to minimize the error, but I really do want to know how they stabilize this.

I suppose it would be theoretically possible for the Wiimote to also lock on to the display (the frequency would not matter, just the overall size and shape) and use that to reduce uncertainty, but for now we can only speculate on the inner workings. I for one can't wait to get my hands on one!

Re:Digitizers?

[fithmo]

As long as it works better than the sensors I had to strap to the television for the Power Glove. I bought it new, I still have it, it still works, and I still don't know how to use it. Worst use of allowance ever.

Re:Digitizers?

[wootest]

Not really, just prop the sensor bar up about the distance away that the glasses are supposed to feel like. (If they are supposed to feel like a 70" TV at 4 meters away, just put it 4 meters away, and so on.)

Wii launch date

[DeanCubed]

Well, most analysts have predicted that the Wii would launch either mid-November (the 15th being thrown around a lot), November 1st, or sometime around Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. With this news that production has been going strong for almost two months, I think the earlier date is much more likely. If Nintendo can take advantage of a month's head start on the actual holiday season, it pretty much guarantees them second place worldwide behind the 360 until at least the end of summer 2007, and likely well into 2008. If the PS3 can't ship their 6 million before Nintendo ships theirs, it doesn't matter about demand. Plus, whichever console sees the most sales between November 2006 and March 2007 will undoubtedly get the most developer support, which will lead to an even stronger holiday season 2007. By January 1st 2008, the "winner" of this generation will have basically been decided. At that point, as we've seen with generations past, whoever has the most games wins.

Re:Wii launch date

[uvajed_ekil]

Hmm. This argument is sound and very well-reasoned, but I don't quite buy it. It works if you consider the two consoles and their projected markets to be identical. But with the PS3 being a more capable machine aimed more at hardcore gamers, and the Wii being a machine of lesser abilities hoping to cash in on casual and young gamers, you have to take more into account than release date. Even if SOny moves the PS3 relases date back to 2008, developers will still support it, and people will still buy it.

Nintendo may "win" in the short run, but I would bet money that the PS3 will soon generate more game sales, in terms of units sold and units sold per console. Sure, some of what would be the PS3 market might buy a Wii, but most of them are not afraid to fork over big bills so they'll buy a PS3 when it comes out anyway. If anything, the suggested scenario will only play to SOny's favor for the 2007 holiday season: he PS3 will be THE release of the year since it will be better (not adjusting for the crazy price, obviously), and it will be new. When it comes time to think about another generation of consoles, I bet we'll look back at the PS3 as the most popular of its generation, though it will certainly not be as dominant as was the PS2.

Or, maybe build quality and reliability will bite it in the ass and I'll look like a damn fool. I just can't count the PS3 out because of a late release, since there's still tons of buzz about it and it looks good (though expensive).

DISCLAIMER: I own a PS2 but am not likely to buy any of the newer consoles within the next two years, as I am not a big gamer and favor the PC as a gaming platform. The price for the Xbox 360 and PS3 (projected) are way too high for me. I will NOT shell out $60 for a game, period. (At least not until inflation drives my salary up a bit and I find a game that can do my laundry.)

Re:Wii launch date

[shigelojoe]

Even my girlfriend has been bugging me every week asking me when we can go buy one.

I wish *my* girlfriend looked forward to playing with my Wii with such enthusiasm.

Re:Wii launch date

[KDR_11k]

I think the hardcore gamers are the ones that care the least about the PS3 because the hardcore gamers are well informed and have been complaining about graphics taking precedence over new ideas in gameplay for quite some time now. In fact I'd wager the PS3 aims more at the high-end hardware lover market, the kind that really wants HD. I wouldn't say those are hardcore gamers, a hardcore gamer is perfectly content playing a 10 year old 2d game over a modern 3d game if it offers superior gameplay. Of course noone cares about those hardcore gamers as they are too few and too hard to please.

Another market that cares about the PS3 is the large number of average and casual gamers that liked the PS2 and expect the PS3 to perform similarily, sometimes while harboring misconceptions like believing that the exclusive titles for the PS2 are somehow bound to Sony in a way that prevents their sequels from being on other consoles.

The Wii is hoping to sway that sector of the market (as is the XBox 360, of course) in addition to gaining the "non-gamer", i.e. the people that don't like the games currently made by the big players in the industry and would like a game that's controlled with a mouse and one button instead.

I think that in the end all three consoles try to compete for the same markets, when one covers a market the others don't the others quickly try to adapt and cover it as well. Maybe with the exception of Nintendo as they are always quite slow to react to their competitors' actions.

Re:Wii launch date

[Anonymous Coward]

and the Wii being a machine of lesser abilities hoping to cash in on casual and young gamers, you have to take more into account than release date. Even if SOny moves the PS3 relases date back to 2008, developers will still support it, and people will still buy it.

First off, I don't think the Wii is hoping to cash in on Young Gamers but that is besides the point; the Nintendo DS was a machine of lesser abilities hoping to cash in on casual and young gamers and it is leading (and extending its lead) in every market:

North America:
http://www.vgcharts.org/usaconscomps.php?name1=DS& name2=PSP&type=2

Japan:
http://www.vgcharts.org/japconscomps.php?name1=DS& name2=PSP&type=2

(sorry, accurate European numbers not avaiable)

Nintendo may "win" in the short run, but I would bet money that the PS3 will soon generate more game sales, in terms of units sold and units sold per console.

Now, the DS has captured the casual and non-gamer market in Japan (and is starting to capture the same market in North America) and look how software sales have gone:

North America:
http://www.vgcharts.org/usaconscomps.php?name1=DS& name2=PSP&type=3

Japan:
http://www.vgcharts.org/japconscomps.php?name1=DS& name2=PSP&type=3

Sure, some of what would be the PS3 market might buy a Wii, but most of them are not afraid to fork over big bills so they'll buy a PS3 when it comes out anyway

The thing that really bothers me about people who assume that the PS3 will be successful regardless, and Nintendo's strategy to broaden the gaming market is meaningless, is that they don't understand why the Playstation brand was so successful up to this point. The Playstation and PS2 catered to the mainstream market which is predominantely casual and non-gamers; when you consider that there is probably about 10 Million hard-core gamers (depends on your definition of hard-core) and you'd have to be pretty hard-core to spend more than about $200 (or maybe $300) on a console then it becomes clear that Sony is ignoring about 90% of the people they have sold their system to in the past.

the PS3 will be THE release of the year since it will be better (not adjusting for the crazy price, obviously), and it will be new. When it comes time to think about another generation of consoles, I bet we'll look back at the PS3 as the most popular of its generation ...

Much like the XBox and Gamecube were the release of the year in 2001, and both carried their more powerful hardware onto outselling the PS2 worldwide.

The truth is that the reasons why Nintendo is currently not the market leader in the home console market (they're the total leader, but that's not important) is that durring the end of the SNES generation and leading into the N64 generation they made several mistakes and Sony Capatalized on those mistakes; an upstart captured the market by producing a machine of lesser abilities hoping to cash in on casual market. As far as I can see, Sony has made some massive mistakes, including producing a $500/$600 system, alienating third party developers by screwing up the launch of the PS3 (not to mention the massive price, huge development costs, and Sony's insistence that games have to be of PS3 quality [in other words, those crappy looking games that made up 50% of the PS2's library are now not allowed to publish for the PS3]), and plain old hubris.

The way I see it is that the plague that has infe

Wii, PS3, Xbox360

[j235]

The console wars are over before they even start. IBM wins.

Re:Wii, PS3, Xbox360

[ZakuSage]

Do you not understand the point he's trying to make? IBM is manufacturing the CPUs for 360, Wii, and PS3, thereby making a killing irregardless of who "wins".

Re:Summary is misleading

[DigitalRaptor]

Technically 10 seconds ago is "earlier this year".

It's ironic isn't it...

[admactanium]

that twenty years ago people said macintoshes were toy computers and ibm's were serious business machines. now macs use some stonkin intel processors and ibm processors are behind every next generation game console.

Wait you mean they'll have enough of them??

[Korin43]

It's like Nintendo actually expects people to buy these things and doesn't need to limit the supply to make them sell out.. Crazy!

Re:Queue the East Fishkill jokes here

[roesti]

Do we want video games or fish?

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
Give a man The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina Of Time and he will forget to eat for a day while his on-screen avatar goes fishing.

Not quite...

[GFLPraxis]

"The closer you are to the bar, the higher the sensitivity."

Opposite, actually. Getting too close (within a couple feet) of the TV tends to make it hard for it to get exactly where you are pointing. I tried putting the Wiimote close to the TV to see if it helped me aim when I was playing it at E3, and when it made the pointer go nuts the representative told me that it loses sensitivity when you get that close and to stand back.

I could aim better from a distance.

IBM Wii's on Nintendo's hands???

[revolu7ion]

oh, sorry - i misread the title...

Re:Fishkill

[Y-Crate]

Their manufacturing plant, which no doubt produces some toxic chemicals, is in a town called East Fishkill? There's gotta be an interesting story behind that name :)

"Kill" means "Fresh Water Channel" in Dutch. Since New York City was once called "New Amsterdam" for a good reason, you can understand why the word "kill" pops up all over the place. It was however, a cringe-worthy experience hearing about all of the World Trade Center debris being taken to the Fresh Kills landfill five years ago. I could imagine how people all over the country were reacting to hearing the name over and over again, without any explanation from newscasters as to what "kill" meant in this particular context.

To those unknowledgeable about the origins of the word, it sounded like New Yorkers had particularly horrific taste.

Re:Interested in performance.

[rnmartinez]

I wouldn't worry. I played Resident Evil 4 on my gamecube with Component video cables and progressive scan - the graphics are way better then anything I have seen on ps2 or xbox1, so if you soup up the cube abit and you're doing everything at 480p I bet it will look great