The
speculation about what the next generation of the Wii console would
look like has been going on almost since the day the Wii hit store
shelves. Now we’re starting to hear some more concrete details about
what to expect. Shigeru Miyamoto, the man who made the Wii happen, gave
some hints to Popular Mechanics, and some of them are pretty tantalizing.
Miyamoto talked about all aspects of his gaming career from the
creation of the Mario character to his upcoming Zelda game. But some of
the most interesting parts are about the Wii. Miyamoto said the next
generation of the console would improve on the Wii remote and Wii
Motion Plus gaming mechanics, but the parts themselves would be
“perhaps more compact and perhaps even more cost-efficient.”
Could we be seeing a more mobile version of the console in the future?
Unfortunately, Miyamoto said nothing about when to expect the Wii 2.
He did, however, give us hope that the Wii 2 would have DVD playback
functionality built-in (currently you can only do that on the Wii with
a special hack). Miyamoto said,
“I think originally video-game systems
were viewed as a toy, and they were something you played with…As time
goes on, I think we're going to see how the system of the video-game
console and this interactive interface is going to gradually bleed in
to other elements of, say, home electronics and daily life.”
Taken with all the other rumors we’ve heard about the Wii 2,
including HD video capabilities, these statements are pretty exciting.
It’s obvious that Nintendo could gain even more market share with a
cheaper console that still had an HD-out connection and DVD playback.
It would solidify the already strong position of the console in the
gaming industry.
I mean, who could resist Princess Peach in HD?
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