News Project Cafe system specs leaked

I'm Glad Nintendo starts the push towards next gen consoles so early. Maybe we'll see some other more potent consoles soon too.

 

Picked that up about a month back, I've enjoyed what I've played of it so far (haven't got too far yet (heading towards Section 2), the wii is set up on the main TV so I don't get to use it that often).

 

but surely any nintendo console using an ATI chip would be running close to the metal too?

i doubt an 800 shader part based off current tech will be possible as even the mobile parts use 50 watts:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5870.23073.0.html

it makes more sense to me to go for an all-in-one integrated SoC manufactured on 32nm that pulls no more than 65 watts in total. http://bit.ly/h7wO7P

 

So many of you are forgetting the facts:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_wars#Worldwide_sales_figures_5

Nintendo sell more consoles than either Sony or Microsoft, and it's highly likely that while Sony & MS make a loss on each unit sold, Nintendo don't.

When you factor in the DS, you're probably talking about Nintendo taking over 50% of the home bound & mobile console market.

So for Nintendo now, MS & Sony are just part of their competition. The real threat big threat that's sucking money out of the traditional path?

iOS & Android

All Apple have to do is do an incremental refresh into the Apple TV to bring it up to iPad 2 spec and they could seriously wipe the floor with Nintendo.

 

What are Wii game sales like against the other consoles?

 

A lot better.

http://www.vgchartz.com/ - 4 out of the top 10 (weekly?) sales are Wii, 2 out of the top 10 are DS. 2 out of the top 10 are xbox 360 and just 1 out of the top 10 are PS3. This pattern occurs historically too. As for overall sales:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games gives:

Overall Wii games sold: 695.37 million
Overall PS3 games sold: 315.3 million
Overall 360 games sold: 353.8 million

Plus as mentioned above, the Wii made money from the offset with the console, whereas the PS3 and 360 lots money from the off.

And I do think this pattern will continue too - whilst Wii 2 probably won't be great for core gamers, I do think it'll do a lot better than the other two nonetheless.

 

Wait, let me get this straight:

Triple core PPC CPU
An unspecified R700 GPU
Similar in size to the XBox 360
Costs more than the collective hardware components are worth

...So Nintendo is making an XBox 360. And calling it their next generation console.

Riiiight... no.

 

Look up Sega's 32X. Nuff said.

 

You know it has to be asked:

But will it run Crysis?

 

Well I wouldn't want to give you the impression that it's a bad game, just a sub-par metroid game when I compare it to the others that I have beaten, metroid prime 1-3, fusion, zero mission, super metroid, metroid 2, metroid:hunters. It did a lot of things right, the combat was well done, controls worked really well and I thought the graphics for a wii game were quite good. The unskippable videos really drag on though once you've played through the game(or died over and over at certain parts) and with only 1 bonus area there isn't much to go back for and replay the game after your 2nd or 3rd time through unless you crave getting each and every missle/energy tank. I don't regret my purchase but I do hope that the next metroid game takes what was done with other m and makes it a smoother more enjoyable experience for the player if the series is going to move in the same direction that other m took.

 

Retro Studios should be the one doing Metroid. Or at least Team Ninja for the animations Retro Studio for everything else.

Every game from Retro Studios kicks ass beyond belief. While I do enjoy platformer gamer, I am unable to get attached to Mario games anymore. But For some reason Donkey King Returns (by Retro Studios), made it play the games like crazy, I got hooked on it. Replayed the game twice and getting everything twice. I never been able to do this before.

 

Obviously most of Bit-Tech's readers are not the Nintendo audience.
Nintendo had the best console from NES to SNES to N64.
N64 graphics were kickass and they did well. But not as well as the new Sony Playstation. Not because the P(o)S had better hardware or even better games, N64 had both. PS was cheaper, used cheaper cd media (which made for horrid load times that N64 users laughed at), and it had ten thousand cheap 3rd party titles, 3 of which were good.
Nintendo soldiered on to the Gamecube, but it was seen as more kiddie, especially because of Mario Sunshine and Zelda Windwaker, which the hardcore Nintendo fans did not like (even though I understand they were actually quite good games). So many, including me, were lured to the darkside by PS2 and (for me) the xbox. And I totally regretted it. I gave my xbox away to my little brother within a year as I just didnt care for most of the games.
So when the Wii was coming, with promises of a more Ocarina-like Zelda, despite the lower graphic ability (which don't get me wrong, I was disappointed with, mostly with the lack of AA, which was horribly noticeable to a pc gamer), I beat up 3 old ladies to get one at launch. And have not regretted it once. Now, it seems the Wii took a note from the Playstation 1 playbook. It had lesser graphics and cheaper media (no bluray or hd-dvd... or even dvd playback) and a thousand crappy 3rd party titles. But it didn't matter because the first party titles still give you your monies worth for the console and so they sold double all thier competition combined. I finally tried an xbox 360 when the slim came out, as I got a "fat" 360 for $100 then. And I played it a couple times and then regretted it. Every game on 360 I would want to play... I can get on pc and would prefer to get it that way. 360 is redundant to pc for me, but the Wii provided an experience I couldn't get on pc.

I think Nintendo has learned a lot: most notably innovative gameplay and affordability trumps superior graphics in the console market.

Lets not even get started on the fact that if Nintendo launches two years before Sony and MS, this will still be the BEST graphics any non-pc gamer has ever seen. Remember, they will have a limit of 1080p. Top level graphics at 1080p is not that hard to do on current graphics chips. If they can keep that price at $300 and maybe 225-250 in a year or so when xbox720 and ps4 come out, they will win the market again. Hopefully good 3rd party developers will come this time, as with the Wii, no one thought it would sell, so 3rd party developers were caught off guard when it became the largest market, and I feel they never caught up.

 

I totally agree, the new donkey kong country game for wii kicks ass, I would have loved for them to continue making metroid games.

 

One thing I would find interesting to see, is if any developers make a more proactive move towards the console. Developers obviously had major limits with the Wii in terms of graphics, but considering the other two won't have their next gen units out for a couple of years after Nintendo, It may offer the opportunity to create some decent looking games. I'm sure they would want to take advantage of the newer tech.

 

The very least one should be expecting from this console is DX11 compatable graphics, and depending on when Sony and MS release their next gen consoles, they will (or should be) targetting DX12 or beyond.

Else for 85% of PC games for rhe next 5-10yrs will end up developed on DX11 thanks to the cross migration of releases across all platforms.

 

The only console that will use DirectX is the XBox. Because DirectX is a Microsoft product. Sony and Nintendo uses OpenGL.

 

Even OpenGL gets updated though to suit the hardware - so if we are at openGL4 now and the new cards are developed around openGL4, when OpenGL 5, 6 and 7 are released, none of the cross platform releases will go much beyond that spec for the PC for the duration of the life of the next gen consoles - the principal is the same for both DirectX and OpenGL platforms.

So if the Wii is only OpenGL4, the new consoles are OpenGL5, the PC will become capable of processing OpenGL6, 7 and 8 during the life of the new consoles and again the PC will remain under-utilised because of it - in fact if I recall in DirectX10 was released shortly after the DX9 xbox360, the only saving grace was that DX10 was crap and Vista only.

It probably means Nvidia and AMD should really just focus on making the fastest DX11/12 cards they can for the next 10yrs

Heck they probably code everything at the lowest common denominator already and then just add a few 'bells and whistles', not really developing a platform using the latest and greatest edition of the API - which is probably why we see less multi platform releases covering the Wii and it looks like that will continue.

 

Ah that is what you mean.
Yea well it's the same for PC.I still have my GTX 260, why upgrade a perfectly fine GPU?

Most games on the PC are still DirectX9 even.. why bother. When DirectX 10/11/12 or OpenGL 5/6/7 FULL support made games (GOOD games), not some silly effects here and there just to say it supports OpenGL wtv or DirectX wtv, then we will talk. So far I think Crysis, Flight Simulator X and maybe 1 or 2 other games supports fully DirectX10 or more.

 

Methinks there's another Zelda game on the horizon!

It would be great--and I mean GREAT--if Nintendo would announce, ready for it...

KILLER INSTINCT 3!!!!

 

Personally - I thought that the Gamecube had awesome graphics - which is now going back a fair few years. Its not what they have, its how the developers utilise the hardware. I've just got myself a new 570 GTX for £230 from OCUk - bargaintastic I know. Trouble is, how many PC developers are really going to make the most out of my hardware? Very few, due to the shear variation of PC users.

Fair game I say to Nintendo - they've got some smart people working for them, I'm sure it will be a success.