Rumor: Wii 2 coming 2011 with Blu-Ray drive

Another rumor about the Wii 2. This time it appears a Nintendo employee from France spilled the beans that the Wii 2 will most definitely come with a Blu-Ray drive to help thwart piracy, support 1080p, and be available next year. Apparently when Nintendo officially announces the Wii 2, they will also bring up a program where you can trade in your old Wii to get a discount on the new Wii. Out of all of this resurfaced rumor material, the Blu-Ray drive portion is the only part that they support 100%, everything else not confirmed. Nintendo will be holding this new console close to vest until a month before launch to generate a lot of buzz. What do you guys think? Another baseless rumor or do we finally have something to hold onto?

I'll take what I can get. Let's just pretend it's fact and rejoice! Wooooo!

Don't even care, these rumors are old and lame.

I guess we'll see what comes of this Blu-Ray thing. The source stands by the rumor 100%. But, this might all be a way to drive more traffic to their site. Problem is, when sites start posting up too much false rumors, credibility takes a dive and then the whole more traffic thing backfires.

I'm hoping we get some sort of new console in 2011. As long as I can transfer downloads, I'll be on board.

As long as I can transfer EVERYTHING, including Mario Kart and SSBB save data, I'm on board.

Lol. Yes Nintendo put Sony power into their next console, that makes sense. I believe Nintendo's next console will be HD, but definitly not blu-ray. No Nintendo system released in America has had any multi-entertainment devices built into it. Nintendo makes Video games and consoles to play them, that's it.

Even so, the Wii can play DvDs. (With a little help.) Blu-Ray would allow for more than simply movies, anyway. It allows for considerably more storage space on a disc, which in turn allows for bigger games with better graphics and other features.

(No, storage space does not affect graphics directly, but it does indirectly through how much space you have to hold various graphical assets. It affects other things, too. Basically, it allows developers to cram whatever they want into a game without having to make trade-offs because of storage space.)

Wouldn't it be sweet if the next new console used SD Cards as its games, much like the ds? Then it would be even cooler if you could play DS games on your TV!


I'm a visionary.

Yes, Nintendo loves looking for new ways to help pirates...

Antilles wrote:

Even so, the Wii can play DvDs. (With a little help.) Blu-Ray would allow for more than simply movies, anyway. It allows for considerably more storage space on a disc, which in turn allows for bigger games with better graphics and other features.

(No, storage space does not affect graphics directly, but it does indirectly through how much space you have to hold various graphical assets. It affects other things, too. Basically, it allows developers to cram whatever they want into a game without having to make trade-offs because of storage space.)

the N64 says your wrong....but beware the n64 lies :p

The N64 was the most powerful system of its generation by far, and yet the PS kicked its can. Why? CDs held more than cartridges. Big names like Square jumped ship because they wanted to make stuff with fancy FMV, which they didn't think was possible with the limited storage space of the N64. (Capcom might've proved them wrong with RE2 for N64, but frankly I think that's because Capcom is more talented than Square these days.)

I've heard arguments from both camps claiming ps1 or n64 were tougher than the other.

Me being the technical nub I am, would you care to explain why the n64 was/is more powerful? What makes a system "powerful," anyway? I am being serious, btw. lol

Personally N64 was crap, or at least, my least fav Ninty system (including, possibly, the Wii). PS1 had a shitload of amazing RPGs.

Still to this day, if Ninty had kept their Sony/CD-i agreement there would be no Playstation, and FF7 (and the series in general) would still be home on Ninty consoles... *sigh*

I'm afraid I'm feeling too lazy/don't have time to go dredge up technical specs, (so take this all with a grain of salt, since my memory may be faulty,) but the 64 in Nintendo 64 means 64-bit. It had a 64-bit GPU, which is 4x what the SNES or Genesis had. The PS, by contrast, had only a 32-bit GPU.

I remember looking at early PS games back in the day and thinking, "What the heck? The gameplay graphics don't even look as good as top of the line SNES games like DKC3, much less your average N64 game." Sure, the FMV looked good, but not so much the gameplay graphics. Did they improve over time? I don't know, because I stopped paying attention after that. I was too busy enjoying things like Goldeneye, Ogre Battle 64, DKC64, and Ocarina to care.

I'm with you there. 64 had its amazing games to be sure!

The PS1 did have pretty lousy in-game graphics. I remember going from cut scene in FF7 to game and it was just... ugh. UGLY. Not to mention... LOAD TIMES. Fucking appalling. Still can't revisit too many ps1 games for the attrocious load times. And I have freaking Xenogears.

I should clarify that I still like 64 better than PS1, but ps1 had way more rpgs for me.

The N64 was more powerful and fell to the underpowered ps1. Apparently they took good notes, seeing that the biggest and baddest console on the market is not always the favorite. Now it's the more powerful 360 and PS3 left coughing in the Wii's *ahem* dust.

Nintendo has always been about gameplay. Graphics are nice, and Nintendo has always done what they could in that department, but it's never been a focus, even on the N64. One big reason they chose to remain cartridge-based with N64 was that exact issue you mentioned- LOADING TIMES. CD-based technology at the time was just too danged slow. I'm still not sure they made the wrong decision.

Don't get me wrong- I like pretty graphics as much as the next guy, but the majority of the game-playing public is pretty shallow, and they're always way too easily wowed by eye-candy. The PS wowed people with its fancy FMV (full-motion video, for anyone who doesn't remember that old acronym,) but its gameplay graphics were seldom much to talk about. Still, FMV was a bigger deal back then than it is now. (Even the DS has FMV.) People are a little smarter in that regard- not to judge a game by its fancy videos, but many are still hung up on the latest and flashiest graphics. If they weren't, Wii would have more support and be even bigger than it is now.

That's not to say that other consoles don't have great games today, (95% of which are FPS- great variety,) but I say Nintendo always has and will for the foreseeable future, have the most games that are just plain fun to play.

Preach on Antilles!

ZeldAnTales wrote:

Preach on Antilles!

Can I get a AMEN, brother?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMENNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It seems odd to me. Many gamer friends around the same age as us here (excluding Shag and Mr. 999) all give Nintendo its props. But the generation after us really seem like dude-bro graphics whores. A few of them at least nod the hat, but most think Nintendo is "out of ideas" as if any game they are playing would even be possible without Ninty's existence in the first place!

I hear ya!

I'm gonna go on record saying this: If Nintendo is out of ideas, it must be because there are no ideas left.

yea the n64 was def the more powerfull system but it was VERY bottle capped by its carts. the cart justr did not have the storage space to allow the n64 to really pump out the graphics it was really capable of. textures,polly counts ect was very limited by the cart size.

As far as wii leaving the ps3 and 360 in the dust, on the surface thats true. but when you look a little deeper you'll see things are not as cut and dry. the wii caters to a much def type of gamer over all than ether of the HD systems,ninty them selves stated they were not competing with sony or M$. the ps3 and 360 are directly competing with each other for the market they cater mostly to. thus sales are split between them. not that there is not bleed over between the markets and systems. another words IF the 360 had not come to be the sales of the ps3 would def be MUCH higher than they are. but even still ninty has done a great job of selling hardware units.

The quote I heard from Nintendo was that they're not just competing with Microsoft and Sony, they're competing with any company that's in the entertainment business. Be it the clubs, the movies, even sporting events. To be successful in the entertainment business, whatever it may be, you can't corner yourself to just the industry you specialize in. The time we have as consumers to have fun is limited and it's up to Nintendo to say "Hey, screw going to the pool hall! We got that right here and more!"