No More GameCube, Wii 2.0 On the Far Horizon

The little purple machine that could is no longer being manufactured. Hardware revisions are in store for the Nintendo Wii eventually. These announcements aren't terribly shocking, but they're still interesting admissions from Perin Kaplan, Vice President of Marketing & Corporate Affairs for Nintendo of America. GameDaily has the interview, which also discusses Wii sales, the lull in games, new IPs, and some details on plans online. Don't worry, you won't have to buy a new Wii anytime soon. Kaplan is immediately talking about the planned Japanese version with DVD Playback capability, but does say 'Sure, absolutely' to the question of whether we'll eventually see hardware changes on the order of the DS/DS Lite.

Comments

Wii 2.0 will need a new name

[Gerocrack]

How about "Vagoo"?

Re:Wii 2.0 will need a new name

[Just Some Guy]

"Wiiwoaded"?

Re:Wii 2.0 will need a new name

[kahanamoku]

Being that doing wii in a toilet is considered as "number 1's" when speaking to children... I'd suggest that to increment to "number 2's" they should call it the Nintendo Pü

Wait a minute...

[__aaclcg7560]

I would be happy if the Wii was available in the stores.

Where's My Zapper??!!!

[ObiWanStevobi]

I'm anxiously waiting for my Wii Zapper. I think that will bring a whole new level of fun to muliplayer shooters. Before worrying about Wii 2.0, they need to get the zapper out and relase a new bond title for the Wii.

Wii-tf

[JoshJ]

New hardware? Gah. The abominable hardware upgrade tactics they used on the game boy (2-3 versions of each!) really shouldn't be taken to the console market.

Re:Wii-tf

[drinkypoo]

New hardware? Gah. The abominable hardware upgrade tactics they used on the game boy (2-3 versions of each!) really shouldn't be taken to the console market.

What tactics? They brought out hardware, saw what people liked and what they didn't like, and brought out new software. This continued over time. GB was a winner, but they eventually made it smaller, and we got pocket. 100% compatibility. GB Color had a flat design so GBA got one. Both units have incredible back-compatibility. People bitched about the screen being exposed, so they made a flip unit. Then they made the DS, it was still flip. Then later they did a shrink of the DS and we got a DS Lite. And still, backwards compatible.

In other words, what we got was a sort of hardware version of release early, release often. And at no time did anyone from Nintendo come to your head and hold a gun to your head and force you to buy it, nor did they ever invalidate your software library. The game I play most often on my GBA SP is Tetris... the cart that I used to stick into my original paperback-book-sized Game Boy.

Who cares if they bring out new consoles with new functionality? No one made you buy a Wii. I still don't have one - of course, many people have trouble just finding them, but I haven't actually even tried because I like to wait and see what games are coming out before I buy anything and there's not a lot available right now.

Re:Wii-tf

[Umbrel]

You are pissed because they improve the hardware every 2 years instead of say 5? >_>

Re:Wii-tf

[Soygen]

If you always waited for the best version of everything, you would never own anything. That's the price of early adoption.

Re:Wii-tf

[Skreems]

Basically it sounds like you're angry that you aren't selective enough about what you're willing to pay money for, and it has nothing to do with Nintendo.

Re:Wii-tf

[drinkypoo]

They could at least have had the decency to say "we're considering changing the wii hardware" ahead of time so people could make an informed decision rather than get pwned after spending approx $400 on the system, controllers, and games.

If they do that, then less people buy the system up front, the developers defect to other platforms, and the platform fails.

They are treating consumers the way they want to be treated. Consumers demonstrate the way they want to be treated by spending money (or failing to) in response to stimulus.

In particular the Dreamcast debacle really proves that words can kill. Of course, those words didn't harm Sony, even though they were provably fraudulent and uttered by a Sony Exec.

The simple fact is that revisions are the norm, not the exception. There's three versions of Atari 2600 (VCS, 2600, 2600 revision 2, the slim one) that I recall. There's two NESes. There's two SNESes. There's two Genesis systems, and even two Sega CD addons. Two Playstations. Two PS2s. Two fucking colecovision systems. Two TurboGrafx16 systems, not counting TurboXpress, and two different TurboCD addons. Really, anyone who doesn't expect a system to be redesigned should have their head examined.

Re:Wii-tf

[Chris Burke]

I'm a bit pissed that I had no way of knowing Nintendo would release a better Wii in a couple years instead of the usual 5 or so for consoles, and not only that, we're not even being told what new features it's going to have.

Um, are you completely ignoring that the usual 5 years between consoles is for completely new consoles, like PS1 -> PS2 or N64 -> Gamecube, right? DS -> DS Lite is nothing like that, because it's the same platform. Any game that plays on the DS Lite also plays on the DS just as well. Games are no different for the GBA SP than the GBA.

The only thing in your list that is even comparable to a new console release is the Game Boy Color, because games were written differently to take advantage of it. Of course people were complaining that the gameboy platform hadn't changed in about a decade, and it's true it was overdue for some change. A lot of people welcomed it, but apparently some people don't like progress.

I mean each of these minor revisions fixed problems with the previous one. Why is that "screwing" you, again? Because Nintendo should have had the better screens and the smaller form-factors to begin with? As if they strategically held back these advances to "force" you to upgrade again... In reality, they did it because at the time they launched the consoles, that was what they could afford to have. Releasing the "better" version of the console two years earlier would have meant that it cost much more, and then I'm certain you would be bitching about that.

Actually, that's a good question... Do you bitch about price drops in consoles, because you got "screwed over" when they didn't tell you in advance that they'd be dropping the price on such and such day by such and such amount? Or do you instead take the approach that the console was worth what you paid for it when you got it? In which case, why is that not true with your DS/GBA/Wii? Your console didn't get worse when the newer version came out.

DVD Playback + Wii 2.0

[ernest.cunningham]

I have read elsewhere rumblings that the complete hardware setup in the Wii is ready to support DVD playback but Nintendo are waiting on software from a third party that is being developed to enable such a feature. Muck like the Wii browser being developed by Opera. I think this is more rumor than fact at this stage.

I am sure any Wii 2.0 will be much like the Playstation2/Plastation 2 Slim, or the Playstation/PS One type of upgrade. You know, CPU and GPU manufactured with a 60nm of 45nm technolgy resulting in lower power consumption and lower heat dissipation resulting in smaller headt sinks etc. I doubt the feature spec will be much, if at all different.

Re:DVD Playback + Wii 2.0

[AKAImBatman]

I have read elsewhere rumblings that the complete hardware setup in the Wii is ready to support DVD playback but Nintendo are waiting on software from a third party that is being developed to enable such a feature.

The drive is basically a DVD drive with custom firmware that reads disks encoded at Constant Angular Velocity rather than Constant Linear Velocity. (Basically, the disc always spins at the same speed in the Wii/Gamecube while regular DVDs slow down as the laser approaches the edge of the disc.) A simple firmware update would probably "fix" the drive to be able to read both types of discs. Unfortunately, drives that aren't rated for movie use are more likely to burn out early. (Something that happened to a lot of PS2s.) So Nintendo will probably release a different console with a sturdier drive. Something for which they'll pass the cost along to the consumer.

Re:nice

[AKAImBatman]

Maybe they'll include HDMI output

I don't think they need a new hardware revision for that. The Wii (like the early Gamecubes) uses a custom cable connector. That connector sends the data in its own format that can then be translated into Composite or Component. (Depending on which "cables" you use.) I imagine that an HDMI "cable" for the existing hardware is not out of the question. Just not very useful at the moment.

Re:Fine Line For Nintendo

[timster]

If the Wii lineup reminds you of the DS launch lineup, then you are looking at the DS launch through the cloud of nostalgia. There was absolutely nothing to play except for a barely playable port of Mario 64. I thought I had wasted my money for over a YEAR.

The Wii launch lineup is far better than the DS, or the PS2 for that matter... anyone who disagrees can have my copy of Fantavision.

Consoles over, but not the games

[RyoShin]

I DRTFA, but I just wanted to note that just because the Gamecube is no longer being produced does not mean that there will be no more Gamecube games, thanks to the backwards compatibility on the Wii.

Only last year was the last Dreamcast game released (in Japan), and the system has been out of production for at least four years. Every once in a while a PS1 game is still released, because it can work on the PS2. Since the Gamecube will be cheaper to produce for than the Wii, and there's a fairly good chance that many of the consumers will have the 'Cube controllers or easily get them.

The PS3 will also see a lot of this with PS2 games, especially with the massive increase of PS3 production costs.

Gamecube controllers will probably also see continued production by third parties, seeing as how they can be used with VC games and are generally cheaper than the Classic controller.

It does look like Nintendo is ditching the Gamecube internally, though.

Re: Beating Animal Crossing...

[trdrstv]

I myself am waiting for Animal Crossing Thwii because I beat the GameCube version yesterday.

How do you "beat" Animal Crossing?

You build the biggest house possible, buy at least 1 of every item including all NES games, and owe nothing. At that point the only thing Tom Nook can sell you is time with his wife effectively making Tom your bitch for a change.