Nintendo Touts Wii U Improvements Ahead of E3 News Briefings
LOS ANGELES -- Nintendo President Satoru Iwata took to YouTube Sunday to tout enhanced features of the coming Wii U’s GamePad controller ahead of all the E3 news briefings. In addition to the previously announced touch-screen and motion controls, the GamePad was “redesigned and improved from its reveal” at last year’s E3, Nintendo said.
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The new GamePad features include a TV control button on the bottom that Iwata said enables the device to become “a fully independent infrared TV remote.” That can be done even when the Wii U console is turned off, Nintendo said. The feature enables the device to perform a function that tablet apps like Cablevision’s Optimum app for iPads can already do.
The GamePad’s “new form factor” also includes dual analog stick controls that Iwata said are more appropriate for portable game devices. Iwata also said Nintendo will ship a Wii U Pro Controller as a separate peripheral, but didn’t say what it will cost or when it will ship. Nintendo hasn’t said how much the Wii U will cost or when it will ship, saying only that it will arrive late in 2012.
Iwata also announced plans to introduce a new network communication system called “Miiverse” that Nintendo said will enable gamers globally to “share experiences, discuss games and discover new content.” The system will be made available for the Wii U, 3DS, PCs and any Web-enabled mobile device -- but won’t be available immediately at the Wii U launch, he said. He didn’t elaborate on the timing. Using their personalized Mii characters, players will enter the Miiverse network and see games, applications or entertainment content that either they have interacted with recently, expressed interest in learning more about, or that their friends are using or discussing, Nintendo said. From there, they can “challenge their friends to play together, ask a question about a difficult level or discover new elements of their favorite games they never knew existed,” it said. After a notable achievement or other “share-worthy moment, players can pause their game or application and seamlessly post messages” to the Miiverse community, it said.
The Wii U will “revolutionize how people connect with games, each other and entertainment through the system’s unique and integrated second-screen controller,” Nintendo said. Today, people are “paying more attention to their devices than to each other,” even when sitting in the same room, Iwata said. With the TV and Wii U GamePad “working as two integrated screens,” the console will create “unique possibilities for gaming, allowing ‘asymmetric’ game play where each player can have different goals, challenges and views within the same shared gaming experience,” the company said. Iwata also said that game discs for the Wii system will be compatible with the Wii U, and the new system will also support controllers for the Wii.