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Nintendo is about to hold its E3 2011 keynote, where it should show off the sequel to the Wii. Possibly codenamed Project Cafe, it could have a touchscreen display and a front camera even as as it brings back analog controls. Connections in the venue are intermittent, but visit our live coverage page for updates as they appear.
The replacement for the current Nintendo Wii may simply be called Nintendo, according to SlashGear. The new console will be revealed at the E3 expo on Tuesday, June 7 and goes by the Project Café moniker thus far. Other possible but unofficial names for the device could include Wii 2 or Wii HD, the latter to reinforce the system's ability to play back HD content, be it movies or games.
Japan's Nikkei chose very early on Saturday to reiterate a report [reg. required] about details of Nintendo's Project Cafe. It contended that the Wii sequel, due to be unveiled next week at an E3 event Electronista plans to attend, would have the suspected six-inch touchscreen and camera. It would also work like a "tablet" for handheld gaming, the newspaper said.
Nintendo's Project Cafe is garnering much more attention than even Apple devices for gamers in the lead up to E3 next week, Nielsen found in a study on Friday. Although Nintendo has only acknowledged that a future system exists, 47 percent knew it was coming and 27 percent planned to buy one within half a year of it being available. Only 39 percent knew that Apple would have a new iPad, and 18 percent were willing to buy one shortly after it arrived.
OmniVision in its quarterly results call Thursday night dropped clues as to its possible iPhone production plans as well as a key console deal. The camera sensor maker said it was transitioning much of its smartphone work to eight-megapixel sensors and was seeing strong orders from "key customers in the smartphone market" for the next few months ahead. It also clarified plans for its next-generation eight-megapixel sensor, the OV8830; it planned to ship the sensor to "premier brand name" smartphone creators when it was ready in the second half of the year.
The controller for Nintendo's next-generation home gaming console will indeed have a front-facing camera, a source told Develop. Supporting details of Nintendo's upcoming Project Cafe console, it has reportedly been a central feature and tightly guarded. Nintendo has been careful to keep leaks on the controller from spreading by not showing it to all developer partners.
Nintendo's Project Cafe will be much more friendly to cross-platform games than the Wii, Ubisoft chief Yves Guillemot hinted during a results call. He explained that developers could "leverage a lot of the work" from the PS3 and Xbox 360. Titles would still be optimized for the future console, according to Guillemot, but much more of the core work will carry over.
Nintendo on Wednesday geared up for its new console by cutting the price of the Wii. The system is now dropping from $200 to $150 and will come in a bundle that replaces Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort with Mario Kart Wii and the Wii Wheel cradle for the remote. The console maker is also finally discounting games and is dropping games such as Animal Crossing, Twilight Princess, and the now unbundled Wii Sports down to $20.
Nintendo's famous game designer Shigeru Miyamoto in a Dutch interview late this week dropped few but important hints about his company's next console. The Zelda pioneer would neither confirm nor deny the existence of Project Cafe, a game system with a large touchscreen and analog hybrid gamepad, but promised that whatever would come about would be "totally different than usual." Spits was given a clue that the new game system would natively support HDTVs versus the 480p of the Wii.
Nintendo may be planning a radical revision to its controllers with its increasingly expected sequel to the Wii. Supposedly codenamed Project Café, one of the game system's controllers would revolve around a very large 6.2-inch touchscreen. It would still have two analog sticks and eight buttons but would add a camera, Kotaku said.
