Wii U: Nintendo Plans 'Great Software Support'

[keithlewis]

Wii U: Nintendo Plans 'Great Software Support'

IndustryGamers sat down at CES with Nintendo of America's Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing Scott Moffitt for some private game time with the Wii U, and a conversation about the 3DS and what will happen to the Wii after the Wii U comes out. Nintendo showed the Wii U at E3 last June, but very little additional information has come out since then. Other next-generation consoles are rumored for the future, but Nintendo's new console is slated to arrive this year. Would Nintendo finally begin to reveal more information at the start of the Wii U's launch year?

Scott Moffitt did his best to dash those hopes from the beginning with an opening statement. “A few caveats before we get going. We are not going to talk about exact price today, we are not going to talk about the specific games that are in development, we're not going to talk about tech specs, and we're not going to talk about launch dates.” That doesn't seem to leave much room for new information to come out, but IndustryGamers wasn't about to admit defeat. Maybe there was some wiggle room to get a little more information... what about the launch date? “What we have said about the date is that it will be available in the US market sometime after E3 and before the end of the year. You can expect more information coming out around the time of E3.” At least now we know the Wii U will be coming out in the second half of 2012.

Moffitt framed the Wii U's position relative to the Wii: “When we introduced the Wii about 5 years ago, we had some lofty goals. We wanted to change how games were played and also who played the games. With over 90 million Wiis sold since launch, over 40 million in the US, we've largely accomplished those goals. Motion-control is now the centerpiece of the gaming landscape. What really resonated about Wii is it brought an unexpected new type of gaming experience. With Wii U we think we've found a similar type of experience, with its innovative second-screen controller. We think we'll be able to have a large impact on the gaming experience for consumers as well as expanding the gaming audience beyond what it is today.”

Does the Wii U's design build in some way on the DS' two screens? Moffitt felt that was just one of the inspirations. “A lot of creativity came out of the DS. I think it's fair to say the inspiration came from a wide variety of sources. I think the DS is one. The original Wii also inspired us and inspired the developers. They always challenge themselves to come up with something that can make a game better.”

Read the rest: http://www.industrygamers.com/news/wii- ... e-support/