DoctorFinger
10-01-2008, 06:01 AM
Veteran games journalist John Davison, citing unnamed sources inside the development and publishing community, is reporting that a new Wii console will launch in 2011.
According to Davison early iterations of the new hardware - tentatively dubbed Wii HD - are now being shown to key individuals in the development and publishing community. The details on the system are still shrouded in secrecy, but it is supposed to include high-definition visuals and an expanded capacity for digital distribution while also maintining links like backwards compatability to the origial Wii console.
Now I know what you're asking yourself. Why should we assign any more weight to this speculation than any of the dozen other articles postulating on the new Wii? Well Davison did some investigating, and came up with this indicator:But why should you believe this? Everything stated so far could easily have been the result of educated guesswork or speculation. While a Nintendo representative provided the expected response that, “Nintendo does not comment on speculation or rumor,” there is additional evidence, outside this commentary, to suggest that something is going on.
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Based on figures from Nintendo’s annual financial reports, the company is currently spending more than ten times as much on research and development as it was five years ago, and since the Wii was launched in 2006, R&D spending has more than tripled. Now Davison admits that this R&D spending jump could also be attributed to development of a successor to the DS, so this is not a slam dunk. But it stands to reason that Nintendo (much like Sony and Microsoft) is already deep in the planning stages of their next piece of hardware. The modest progression power-wise from the Wii also jibes with the Big N's proclivities.
Sources - What They Play (http://www.whattheyplay.com/blog/2008/09/30/new-wii-due-by-2011/); Edge-Online (http://www.edge-online.com/news/report-wii-hd-set-2011)
According to Davison early iterations of the new hardware - tentatively dubbed Wii HD - are now being shown to key individuals in the development and publishing community. The details on the system are still shrouded in secrecy, but it is supposed to include high-definition visuals and an expanded capacity for digital distribution while also maintining links like backwards compatability to the origial Wii console.
Now I know what you're asking yourself. Why should we assign any more weight to this speculation than any of the dozen other articles postulating on the new Wii? Well Davison did some investigating, and came up with this indicator:But why should you believe this? Everything stated so far could easily have been the result of educated guesswork or speculation. While a Nintendo representative provided the expected response that, “Nintendo does not comment on speculation or rumor,” there is additional evidence, outside this commentary, to suggest that something is going on.
--
Based on figures from Nintendo’s annual financial reports, the company is currently spending more than ten times as much on research and development as it was five years ago, and since the Wii was launched in 2006, R&D spending has more than tripled. Now Davison admits that this R&D spending jump could also be attributed to development of a successor to the DS, so this is not a slam dunk. But it stands to reason that Nintendo (much like Sony and Microsoft) is already deep in the planning stages of their next piece of hardware. The modest progression power-wise from the Wii also jibes with the Big N's proclivities.
Sources - What They Play (http://www.whattheyplay.com/blog/2008/09/30/new-wii-due-by-2011/); Edge-Online (http://www.edge-online.com/news/report-wii-hd-set-2011)