Rumour: Project Cafe Controller Contains a Camera

this just keeps getting cooler and cooler!

Picture makes me hope for FLUDD inclusion.

Lol loving the caption James

this is awesome!!!!

How much is it gonna be just for one extra controller?

I'm sure I've heard this rumour before...hardly a shock, but Nintendo will need to up the resolution, 640x480 video ain't going to look pretty on a 1920x1080 TV...

i heared the controller can make a cup of tea

I'm hoping to use my 3DS as a controller somehow

For those few games such as the potentially FFCC game on Ninty's next gen

Let me guess. 0.30 Megapixels.

@Hardy: Now now, let's not think too big

makes me think burnout paradise, taking a photo for your license. maybe they'll do the same for f zero or mario kart

The more I read the more I head that the controller is going to just be a DSiXL with protruding handgrips on the back.

Why would Nintendo buy and HD screen when they can just use the DSiXL screens they already manufacture for cheap?
Why get a camera remotely considered decent when they can just use the 0.30MP cameras they use on the DSi/DSiXL?
Why bother with a fancy touchscreen when they can just use the XLs? (the XL is 4.2", not 6")

Why even bother changing the button layout? Maybe add two slider pad things from the 3DS and maybe even it's gyros, throw in the Wiimotes bluetooth (or wifi depending if it'll stream a lot of content) and there you go. A fancy controller made from cheap already ready-made materials.

And honestly why wouldn't they go this route? It'll keep costs low while still innovating, kinda. And since the Wiimote will be compatible (thus classic controller too). It's a nice cheap innovative controller.

It may be true, but could be a misunderstanding. Technically the Wii remote features a camera

@14: whaaaat?

This might be a little too much for me. I still don't know how I feel about the idea of a screen on the controller but a camera too?
I just don't want to spend $60+ for an extra controller, not to mention the system itself isn't gonna be cheap either at this point.

Project Cappuccino, please. I'm joking.

This was rumored when the 'Project Cafe' story first broke.

AR games are clearly a new focus for Nintendo and with the praise that they've been getting on the 3DS it's no suprise that they want to continue with it.

so we'll be buying dsis to play our wiis with?

Actually, I've heard that the controllers will cure puppy cancer, and other miracles. I mean, it's all plausible.

Damn! I guess this means no more throwing your controller when you get mad.

@Hardy83 Because we don't really have a full idea of what they're planning on doing this time around. There is some speculation the console will do some kind of headtracking. I suppose the camera will need to be of a decent quality to pull that off but then again I don't play with cameras much.

Well, I expected this. What device DOESN'T include a camera nowadays?

Is this controller being partially designed by Victorinox?

By the time E3 rolls around, it also has a pencil sharpener, a coffee maker and a toothpick.

Cutlery set also rumored... XD

@Rensch "Project Cafe"...it already has a coffee maker, duh!

lol....kitchen sink....

Not interested in this unless they can think of somethign better than the 3DS offerings. They got old VERY uickly.

@7 no its clearly a café maker

Sheesh this stuff is driving me insane! What is Nintendo up to?! Gah! xD

How much is it going to cost to play 2 player? Wiimote+Nunchuck was bad enough!

@Hardy83

Why bother with a fancy touchscreen when they can just use the XLs?

Well, according to all current reports, the touchscreen will be capacitative, which is very different from the DS systems (finger-oriented rather than stylus / pressure oriented).

I want it to be compatible with the kitchen sink. Controlling games while washing my hands has been a lifelong dream

Yes. Now there is even a toilet that converts your poo into money!

True, how can you call it a Café if there's no kitchen sink.

i hope the controllers have a longer battery life then the 3DS. don't want to be charging it all the time.

@ those worried about controller cost

If they balance the cost of system vs controller would it still be that big of a deal .

It's almost as if there gearing it up to being able to run different games to the individual controllers instead of having to buy multiple consoles , or fight over whose playing what. Pure speculation. But cafe being a place people can get what they want. Nintendo stream, streaming to controller.

I wouldn't expect a capacitive touchscreen. They are far more expensive then a resistive. I just don't see Nintendo going of that.

It's not even a controller anymore. It's half the console itself.

It sounds extremely weird to me, but so did the Wii at first...

But, I wanted a dishwasher!

Personally, I greatly prefer the DS resistive touchscreens for gaming purposes, as a stylus is more precise, comfortable, and less invasive of your viewing area than fingers.

However, the reports (from IGN, etc) which have more or less been confirmed little by little did say that it would be capacitative this time, and that does make sense given the expected use of the controller (ie, primarily buttons but various other options mapped to the screen).

The Wii Remote is such a perfect form for a motion controller that I can't see the point of having it in a traditional controller. Look what happened to the Sixaxxis.

Personally, I think they've thought up something so unique that everyone is miles away from guessing what it can do and all these leaks won't harm it in any way.

If even half of these rumors are true, we're looking at one expensive console...

@ those worried about controller cost
based on Amazon.co.uk's RRPs a Wii Remote, Nunchuck and Classic Controller should set you back £62.97 so anything under this is will be cheap

I really do hope there's no "virtual" controller on the touch screen. Software buttons are rubbish.

If the controller has a built-in Slap Chop, I'm buying this baby on day one!

I wish i lived in the US, then i could go to E3!

@3DSneedsRPGs "E3 Expo is a professional trade event and is not open to the general public. Individuals who are not able to document their direct, and current professional affiliation to the interactive entertainment industry are not qualified to attend." Also "3-day Show Floor Pass $500"

Next they'll say it has a built in phone. These rumors are getting rediculous. I can't wait until E3 when most of this crap will turn out false.

thank god im not getting any new nintendo machines, all my money goes to old game consoles from nes to wii. and i mean every nintendo console expect virtual boy

@48 And I think Wii controllers are already overpriced. I live in a family of 4, we have 4 wii remotes, 2 nunchucks , 2 classic controllers, 2 wii wheels and a balance board, plus 2 extra motion plus other then the one that came with Wii Sports Resort. One wii remote and nunchuck came with the wii console, but it still adds up. If one controller for this winds up being much more then $50 each, we just can't afford it.

I would prefer they make the wii remote/nunchuck system better. I love a system like Super Mario Galaxy where the pointer and motion controls play a minor role, but they still are there. The pointer is so much easier to make menu selections with, it's hard to go back to an old controller sometimes. Makes the Water Temple in OoT all the more frustrating. If a flick of the wrist is "waggle" like some people complained about with SMG and SMG 2 then it isn't really so bad.

Got NPC Pikmin recently and the pointer controls work really well. Makes me wish we had pikmin 3 already to see what they could do with a pikmin wii game built for the system. I really don't want them to give up pointer controls, but I don't think that would work with a traditional controller shape.

I also heard that the Cafe controller controls games!

this is just too cool to be cool. It's EPIC!

I think it's gonna be able to play games.

Imma just laugh if Nintendo really does announce the console controller to be a 3DS in it's entirety. What I think will happen is it will be comparable to what #13 above said, and Nintendo will throw in the added bonus that if you have a 3DS, it will be a fully functional game controller for the new console as well (instead of only "slight" instances like the GBA-GC connectivity or the DS-Wii connectivity).

Isn't this old news? This was the first rumor I heard back when talk started about cafe.

it better make hot chocolate during the winter and chocolate milk 24/7 I would be set for life. It would use that sensor (the one that tells you mood forgot what it call) to decide your drink of choice along with a game to get you out of your depress mode or take you out of your very happy mood just so you see all of the in game advertisements cause they give you a very tough game to play to keep you playing.

how is this cool or great or anything besides disappointing?

if the controller had a handy dandy swiss army knife id be more interested

All these rumors are just proving how everybody really has no idea at all what Project Cafe is going to be, it's still entertaining to read though, I wonder what will be next.

I hope my controller can read me a bed time story

It'd be an insta-buy if my controller gave me back rubs. Ahhh....

i want to play rock, paper, scissors with mine.

Let the games begin. Regardless Gameday will be on the scene/screen. Ha

rumour has it that the new system is actually yet ANOTHER version of the ds

I don't know why you guys are buying into all the hype. Nintendo isn't stupid enough to repeat the mistake SNK made in the 90's by selling a system at such a high price nobody could afford it. Think about it, why would Nintendo sell a system with the same capabilities as a 360 that can be had for $200 for $600 with all the rumoured extras. Rest easy. It will be a nice system, will have some new features, but it won't be the overpriced juggernaut that all these rumours are pointing towards.

i really hope they don't go with this

Chat roulette on the Project Cafe!

I hope that I can turn the system on, then play in the car
Or better yet, make it run on recharble batteries also, that last for 3 days, so I can take it in the car

16 days till E3! & then what's not a rumor will still be around on the net in spades! (As everything put online doesn't ever die, it just gets archived in Google, lol)

does it have splenda in it too?

Anything to draw attention away from the software itself!

Perhaps the new controller will control us... be careful.

Hrm, perhaps augmented reality will be their next big hook.

LOL they might as well have us use 3DS's for controllers. I wouldn't mind, but getting extra controllers would be out of the question. Everyone who's playing would have to buy their own controllers.

I DO hope that there IS an option to use a 3/DS as a controller... I've been hoping to use a Nintendo handheld as a console controller since I had a GBA.

Too bulky for my liking. I always enjoyed controllers in my hands.

I'd hate to swallow the price tag for it, to. Something that big must cost at least $70.

Since E3 is about a day away, I'm just going to type up my wacky prediction here. That way, it will be funny to come back and laugh at how wrong I was. I haven't been keeping up with every bit of news, so maybe my theory has already been disproved... but here it is anyway, for posterity:

The Wii 2 IS the controller. The game is inserted into the controller, and the processing power is all in the controller. However, there is also a small unit that plugs into your TV. The controller processes the game and wirelessly streams the video/audio output to the TV unit. The small unit that plugs into the TV only handles outputting whatever the controller tells it to. The controller is the console.

Is it possible to fit this much power into the controller? To be honest, I don't know. But I think it's a cool idea. So, I will continue with my theory:

Secondary controllers will be sold without all of the powerful hardware inside; instead, they will wirelessly sync with the primary controller, which handles all of the game processing for all players. This means the secondary controllers will be simpler and available at the traditional price for a controller (around $50). Or, there is a chance that the secondary controllers might just be the Wii remotes that we already own (but I doubt it).

The primary controller will be big enough for a Wii disc to fit inside. When players want to play Wii games, they put a Wii disc inside the controller and set it down next to the TV. Then the player picks up his/her Wii remote, and the "Wii 2" controller sits next to the TV, acting as both the Wii console and sensor bar.

Promo videos will show off the versatility of the system. We will see players sitting on the couch playing a 4-player game, an individual gamer who takes the primary controller out of the house to continue playing, and a family who uses the controller as a Wii console when they want to get off the couch and move around. Maybe we will also see the family using the controller as a video camera, and then they stream their home video to the TV moments later. Emphasis will be that Project Cafe is different from anything you've seen before, but it can still play all of your old Wii favorites. There will also be an emphasis on social features - like maybe a video call with grandma.

Because the controller will have the strength of a console, it will come with a charging dock and encourage players to always put the controller in the dock between play sessions. It would make sense for this charging dock to be combined with the TV receiver that I mentioned earlier. That way, the charging dock can be designed so that the controller acts as a Wii console whenever it's in the dock.

My request for a launch title: Mario Paint. I can already imagine the promo video of a family passing the controller around, creating something together. We will see people holding the controller like a palette and drawing on it like a Wacom tablet. I'd love to see Mario holding the controller like a palette.

Whether I'm right or wrong, I think the Cafe/Wii2 will blur the line between what we consider a "console" and a "handheld". That means it will have the best features of both. It will have power and HD output to a TV screen, which makes us think of consoles. But it will have a controller with tons of features (including a screen), which we usually associate with a handheld. The 3DS would still be a valuable asset, because the dual screens and 3D are unique features. In conclusion, Nintendo dominates the world.

Make it happen, Nintendo!

Wow that was a long post. I need a blog or something. Sorry.