Topic: shared effort: lets invent our nintendo console

What do I mean by this.

Well there are very much split feelings about the Wii U, especially following the opinion of Capcom just being posted on the news site of this website, that they don't believe next gen starts with Wii U. As I have responded to the news entry I kinda have to agree. Most people (like me) still remember the times of the SNES when Nintendo was the epicenter of home entertainment/gaming. So I thought why not - just for fun and killing time - lets invent our own Nintendo Console. What should it have, how much should it cost, what would think is important?

I'll go first.

I definitely think it should cost around 450 Euro, to allow for a more sophisticated approach in what the current Wii U tries to achieve. I hate lackluster ideas, it almost always comes back haunting you. What do I mean? Well the gamepad for example. I got used to using a touchscreen for ingame items, additional buttons, etc... on my 3DS so I kinda think the gamepad for the Wii U is no bad idea - IF done right. Why not give it that iPhone kind of touchscreen? Why not give Wii U enough power so there can be two of those gamepads (or include own processor into the gamepad eliminating frame rate drops and lag)? And where are the "killer apps" for it? It's a touchscreen, it's screaming for strategy games of all sorts, building games like minecraft or the old Sim City games...

So I will sum up my idea, I think the Wii U is fine, but it should have more polish to it, even if it costs more.

o) more power for the gamepad
o) higher graphics power maybe even upgradable (once every 3 years or so) graphics card in the main unit
o) more strategy games, building games making use of the unique controls available to a touchscreen
o) miiverse and eShop at least as sophisticated as Xbox Live
o) total integration via miiverse of 3DS
o) definitely WAY MORE media exposure of the Wii U to promote it being something different as the Wii, for the casual market to take notice
o) NAME CHANGE (whats become of the codename of the Wii "Revolution" ? - I Like that)
o) ANALOGUE TRIGGERS on gamepad for racing games and "push-sensitive" games
o) rumble/force feedback for gamepad as well as pro controller
o) different name for PRO controller (because it indicates THIS is the way PROS play games, gamepad is for kiddies?!)
o) Wii released with Zelda game, Wii U releases with old-game-ports a minigame and (at least) a 2D mario, thats SHYTE, no system seller in there...
o) make eshop really easy for indie developers to get into and port their games, give them freedom about pricing, look at the app store for inspiration
o) every multiplayer game released for Wii U should have a "make clan" or "make community" function in miiverse to get people together
o) youtube app, web browser a must (fu*k facebook anyways)
o) offer an exclusive movie streaming service to nintendo offering INDIE movies from film students and such
o) asymmetric gameplay is just a sad excuse for underpowered Wii U, with more power, make it asymmetric by CHOICE like having 2 people with gamepads, having different gameplay there and another 2 on TV - and ACTUALLY make good use of it, bring the software that wows people.

Thats about my thoughts about it, i might have missed lots of things but thats what I could think off the top of my head.
As I see the reality now, Nintendo will again lose the "power struggle" - so they should at LEAST win by far with innovation, but for that they need to do more than what they are already showing so far with the gamepad. I really hope for the best.

So now lets share YOUR thoughts about it!

My Perfect Nintendo Console:

1. EXT Port on the bottom for upgrades, such as graphics, RAM, etc.
   2. Complete connectability with the current portable, like using the portable as a controller, being able to stream your games on the big screen to the small one, etc.
   3. Amazing Online Functionality. It needs to be fully integrated into the console and it should come with 3G/4G so it can auto update even when your wireless is down (mine goes down a ton and I'd hate for this to happen when updating the console)
   4. The Wii U controller. I like the gamepad and I think it'll work great with a lot of games.
   5. High development costs for physical products. The higher the development costs for physical games, the less shovelware.
   6. A version of steam greenlight for the eShop so the high development costs don't kill of all of the indie games.
   7. Profiles that can share games. If you pay for a game I think you should be able to let other people on the console play it without having to let them use your profile.

That's about all I got that I think makes a good console.

build a PC if you want these things.........

5. High development costs for physical products. The higher the development costs for physical games, the less shovelware.

The less shovelware, the less game developers. The less game developers, the less game publishers. The less game publishers and you can kiss goodbye to new IPs and sequels to your favourite games alike.

In other words you would like to have the games industry collapse.

Yeah, it's like nature's ecosystem. You hate the mosquitoes, ants and other annoying common bugs, but if they go, the ecosystem will fall apart.
I just thought that was a nice metaphor there!

Going a bit more on topic I think the only thing a console should be that a PC isn't is simpler. You buy that Nintendo game thingo, plug in the power and AV thingys, load the game and go. Then devs can build specifically for the hardware you will have and optimise the hell out of it and every owner of that console gets the same experience. If you start making the thing modular and upgrade it over time with 100s of different possible configs you've thrown away all of the benefits of having a console gaming experience.

In terms of components I'd want to see I think it's probably the same as what I'd want to see in a gaming PC at this stage. You don't need a massive processor, you don't need heaps of RAM and you don't need masses of storage. Loading games from an external HDD is fine if you need that much storage. What it should have is a decent GPU, fast memory and a fast boot SSD. Blu-Ray is sadly the physical media they have to use but if it was upto me I'd rather pay a little bit more and see cartridges. Games should load quickly.

Other than that.......... the Wii U is fine as it is (and is probably doing most of this anyway!)

Honestly my only REAL concerns are the gamepads power (low framerate, streaming lag) and how its going to be utilized, since I have a PC for the "big serious" games (if you wanna call them like that) Im fine with the general power of the Wii U, not planning to upgrade my FULL HD setup in years, so...

Given that the Wii U uses better technology for this kind of thing than the iPad + Airplay, and iPad + Airplay works just fine, I don't think you have anything to be worried about.

So Ill have lag on the TV then instead of the gamepad...

Thats nice and all but all just assumption, and that video the other guy posted, not sure what to think about it, but that is something ill really wait and see, what Im worried about is: no 2 gamepads at once! ;(

They announced at E3 that it will support two gamepads.

Nintendo has nothing to do with the quality of the TV you get. The Wii U GamePad is obviously optimised for displaying images from a game console but most TVs are not. When building a TV most manufacturers think about displaying a good image when playing movies and watching sport rather than speed because that's how sets are sold. Go into an electronics store, how do they demo their screens? So in most cases the lag on the GamePad will be less than the lag on your TV and if your TV is awesome it will be about the same.

If you are fine with how good your TV plays Wii games than you'll be fine with how it handles a Wii U signal. If anything it'll handle the Wii U better because most TV manufacturers don't put anywhere near as much effort/money into making sure their sets are good at processing SD content as they do with HD content. Obvious reasons again, nobody buys a brand new $2000+ TV so they can watch DVDs.

@Skywake - what you're saying is only partly true, nowhere do you get lag up to 116 ms from a normal LED. My LG LED has 3 (!) ms lag and I have never had any problem with whatever signal i put into its HDMI port. Im not planning to get Wii U first day anyways, I just stated that those things got me worried, I love to be proven wrong or my worries put to rest, but 116 ms lag just cannot be the TV - from my experience/my opinion - don't wanna step on your toes mate!

I think you meant, 'Let's invent our own Sony console.'

No how about update the 3DS to play all Nintendo console titles on the go and have one cord hook up to the TV so you can play on the Big screen if you want to, I'd do that and get my WiiU games as well

Infidel! To the dungeons, I say!

Needs blast processing!

They also said there would be slowdown on the game itself, so yeah...lag with 2 pads. Though I think they also said it depends on how the gamepads are used.

I may be wrong, but my understanding was that the frame rate dropped when two gamepads were used, which is different to lag.