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[kyn]

The Nintendo^tm Home-Entertainment Extravaganza in full technicolor, stereophonic and hyper-reality touch-sensitive display*





*batteries not included, may caused anal prolapse and rage-induncing internet outbursts

[SirNiko]

Just go retro. "Ultra Nintendo Entertainment System".

[phubans]

The Wiiamoto.

[Tuba]

Drop the Wii... make it

.

[Uykered]

I hope they drop the whole "wii" thing.

They're making it compatible with Wii games and accessory stuff, so they'll probably stick with the Wii in the name. Just like how they started with the DS, they can't stop having DS in the handhelds now!

[Dugan]

a "Nintend-U"! that way they can later have a "Super Nintend-U" - "Nintend-U 1024" etc etc

[s0]

I hope they drop the whole "wii" thing.

They're making it compatible with Wii games and accessory stuff, so they'll probably stick with the Wii in the name. Just like how they started with the DS, they can't stop having DS in the handhelds now!

They dropped the "Gameboy" name when they released the DS, even though the previous Gameboys were massive successes and the DS runs GBA games.

One of the 3DS's initial problems was that a lot of people thought it was a DS redesign and not a new system. The Wii U could suffer from the same issues (though I guess it's less likely, what with the new controller and all). They'd have to call it "Wii 2" or something to make it clear that it's "next gen."

[Christian Knudsen]

Wii Too?

[Daid]

Wii On U!

[Manuel Magalhães]

"Nintendo lol"

[DavidCaruso]

"Nintendo lol"

"Nintendo \o/"

Comes with free disco lights and methamphetamines. They've been bringing the party to YOUR house since 1889, and they have no plans of stopping, gosh darn it.

[Tumetsu]

Nintendo Wii Ur Mom
Wii u mad?

[Geeze]

Wii U NO PLAY XBAWKS INSTEAD?
Super FamiWii.

And they should make own version for each demographic.
WiiU 4 Kids
WiiU 4 Adults
WiiU 4 Dummies
WiiU 4 Evil Dictators
...
And so on

[tesselode]

Nintendo WOOOOAAAAHHHH

[Richard Kain]

Not directly related to the Wii U's name getting changed, but related to the Wii U, and I didn't feel like starting a new thread.

Wii U's NFC tech, and its potential effect on the market

In short, the same technology that Activision employed in its "Skylanders" line of products last year is going to be incorporated into the Wii U, most likely into the "tablet" controller. This has been confirmed by Nintendo. Several analysts are convinced that this is a major development for the upcoming Wii U, and could go a long way toward making it a more viable contender in the current console market.

The rather obvious example used is Pokemon. That is a no-brainer for anyone familiar with Nintendo's products. Producing and selling little plastic Pokemon figurines that work directly with a Pokemon-themed Wii U title would be an incredibly obvious and lucrative proposition.

[SirNiko]

Don't those figures in Spyro actually store save data on the figure? I don't know much about that Skylanders game other than it unlocks new characters.

[Richard Kain]

Don't those figures in Spyro actually store save data on the figure?

Yes, that's actually what's a "big deal" with this development. The use of NFC technology is a means for video game developers to directly tie physical products to digital video games.

Once upon a time, this was par for the course. When the game industry operated on cartridges, game progress and data was always tied to the physical media that the games were distributed on. With the Playstation, all that changed thanks to the success of optical media. Disc-based media separated games from save data, and lead to an industry were physical media became increasingly less important. The modern success of GameStop is largely dependent on this development.

The recent success of Skylanders is opening a new opportunity that is very attractive to traditional retailers. Making video games dependent on separate physical objects would be a boon to brick-and-mortar stores. Even digitally distributed games could be combined with physical merchandise.

[s0]

dlc scam bullshit: the next generation

[Richard Kain]

dlc scam bullshit: the next generation

That is a cynical way of looking at it. A potentially accurate way of looking at it as well, but very much glass-half-empty.

I'm thinking collectible card game, with a little chip embedded in each card. A game like that would not need much data stored on each card, and most of the data would be basic numeric data. There are a lot of attractive opportunities for developers in this sort of technology.

[SirNiko]

Combining toys and games will certainly be the sort of things children and collectors will eat up. I'm not sure about the others.

As a gamer who isn't into owning physical stuff, I'm not sure what I might gain from this. It might be fun for a while to play a game where I have to manage my inventory (perhaps Legend of Zelda where I have to physically swap out my tools to play) but I could see that quickly turning into a tedious thing especially if it's horribly mismanaged. And that's assuming that anyone other than me actually likes the idea of a physically demanding game.

Then again, if it pushes Nintendo ahead and they follow up by making some cool traditional games in addition to the DLC figurines maybe it'll be pretty good. Nintendo still makes my favorite games, I just wish they'd make more of the good ones.