Please note the above image is just for illustration purposes.
More details below (translated from French):
This is a nice exclusive we have here at MaxConsole courtesy of Artik from www.Logic-sunrise.com on the Wii 2. The actual information is said to have been leaked from an internal source of the marketing Nintendo France Service. Unlucky for them, this kind of information should stay internal, but that's not our philosophy.
- The Wii2 system will feature a Blu-Ray drive with a secondary aim of stopping piracy.
- 1080P and lower resolutions will be supported, for blu-ray movies and games.
- The release date is scheduled for third quarter of 2010.
- The release will be worldwide and on the same day for all countries.
- A scheme will be available in which it is possible to trade in the original Wii for a cheaper price on the new Wii 2.
Moreover, Nintendo wants to make a worlwide annoucement, only one month before release date. Huge publicity and Viral Marketing will be utilized to create the Buzz. Official pictures are not yet available, and more specs will be released in due course.
Why do we believe it at all ?
* Artik from Logic-Sunrise.com has regularly provided news to MaxConsole and has a lot of 'insider' contacts.
* Nintendo has suggested that it's time they embraced high definition technology for the Wii and Blu-ray has firmly established itself. So a Wii 2 with Blu-ray support does make sense.
I'm calling shenanigans on this. Several reasons, but the one that jumps out at me the most: "Nintendo wants to make a worlwide annoucement, only one month before release date."
I dont see them keeping a lid on this, even just an 'official' one while news 'leaks' out.
A few things to consider if Nintendo released a blu-ray1080p console within this 7th generation of video consoles:
- Gamecube compatibility will be lost
- Hardware specs (cpu, video, ram, sound) would have increase to support the higher resolution and sound quality that comes with 1080p.
- With increased specs comes increased power consumption and heat. The fan and power supply will have to increase(Wii currently runs on 13Watts). This would make the console larger.
- To compete with XBox / Sony they would have to keep the price under the current prices. Nintendo just made a price drop on the Wii and probably won't lower the price any farther.
I wouldn't doubt Nintendo is playing around with the idea of a Wii-2 in their R&D department, but we probably won't see it become reality within this generation of consoles.
