back to article Nintendo confirms Wii 'successor'

Nintendo's next home console will be out in 2012, the videogames pioneer has revealed, though the 'Wii 2' - or whatever the machine will be called - is expected to be shown off at the E3 games industry show in June. The Japanese company posted its latest financial data, for its 2011 fiscal year, which ended on 31 March, this …

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  1. Ian Davies
    FAIL

    Sooo...

    ...they've just killed demand for the Wii when it's replacement isn't out for at least 8 months? Smart.

    1. The BigYin

      I hope so

      Then I can pick an old one up on eBay for little.

      Hacktastic!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Horse seen cresting hill, still accelerating

      The rumours have been out and about for weeks; there's no point pretending. Aside from anything else, it's been well known that the next Zelda is: a) Well along in development, and b) will be released on Wii and Wii2 (WiiII?). So even if five years an a dropping sales rate isn't enough of a hint, it's obvious that WII2 is going to be this year sometime.

    3. Term

      Maybe not...

      When Sony released the PS3 wasn't it being out sold by the PS2?

    4. Giles Jones Gold badge

      Carefully calculated

      True, but then they always do it once the market for the original has vanished anyway. The product has probably been ready for over a year now, just waiting for the right time to release.

      So is the follow up to the Wii going to be the Pooh?

      1. LaeMing
        Happy

        Re: So is the follow up to the Wii going to be the Pooh?

        Yes, but for trademark reasons it will be called the WiiNii.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I think the point is...

      demand was already on the slide, and with only 1 holiday season (when the large share of these things are sold) left in the Wii's life they have probably decided to push the 3DS this year and then launch the Wii 2 into the market and push it holiday 2012.

      Sounds like a sane strategy to me, the Wii is getting a little 'old' and needs a revamp and some new ideas, meanwhile the 3DS actually has new ideas (well 3D is old ideas rehashed with new technology but nevermind).

    6. Gary 7
      Stop

      Sooo... what

      The naysayers said it was stupid of Nintendo to have the Wii only support 480p while the others were 1080i or p, and yet it was still a money machine for them. I doubt this will sway potential buys that much.

      Besides, how is that any different than any other next-gen console announcement?

    7. Anonymous Coward
      Troll

      Wii Wii!

      But of course, sacre bleu!

    8. sisk

      What demand?

      Demand for the Wii has been down for quite a while anyway. It's still king of this generation of consoles on the strength of sales for the first couple years it was on the market, but PS3 and XBox360 have both been outselling it for at least the last couple years. Most people who wanted a Wii have one now and since the things don't randomly die like certain other consoles (*cough* red ring of death *cough*) they aren't likely to buy another. They aren't likely to do much harm to their bottom line by announcing the next generation now.

      1. Kevin 6

        RE: What demand?

        agree

        Know people with Xbox 360's and PS3's

        out of 2 people with a PS3 one is on their 2nd other is on their 3rd

        5 people with xbox 360's all are at least on their 2nd xbox, 1 is on a 3rd, and think one is on their 4th...

        all have wii's all on their 1st wii (cept my one cousin, but that was due to the wii getting stolen when their house was robbed)

        My Wii I've used alot, and have had 0 issues with it. I have owned it since launch

        1. Citizen Kaned

          fair point

          but then again all it is is a gamecube with a fancy controller.

          so 10+ year old tech should be more reliable. in the same way that a go kart is probably more reliable than an F1 car. you kinda get what im saying i hope

    9. Peter H. Coffin

      8 months from release.

      They're pretty busy selling 3DS handhelds this season anyway.

    10. Charles 9

      It is smart...

      ...when your moneymaker is approaching the point of Market Saturation. Demand's on the slide since nearly everyone who wants a Wii has one already. There are tons of used models being hocked off by people who've gotten tired of it.

      The same thing happened to the Atari 2600. The market became saturated with it and the clones, and Atari needed to pick up hardware sales. It was its poor execution that led considerably to its collapse during the Crash of '83.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    lets hope

    lets hope they have learned from the mistakes that they made with the wii..

    the pathetic storage space, poor use of the sd card, it should have been used to expand available system memory. and most important, online gaming was poor at best due to the complex system of joining up with friends for online games.

    i was wondering when they were going to replace the wii as it now has been totally pwned by the hackers and crackers. They know just as much about the wii and its security as Nintendo does.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. Sir Runcible Spoon

        Sir

        "I can't think of a single dedicated games system that was expandable where the expansion a) dramatically increased the capabilities of the machine and b) achieved sufficient market penetration to be considered commercially successful."

        What about the light gun for the Nintendo Master system? Wasn't that also the first machine to use 3d?

        1. Charles 9

          Zapper wasn't supported that much.

          Compared to the entire NES/Famicom library, the number of lightgun games was pretty paltry. It wasn't as if the Zapper made a paradigm gaming shift but rather provided an alternative line of games to play. Much like guitar controllers and dance pads of these days--you can play certain games with them, but they're not going to do much outside their niche.

  3. The BigYin

    Will it be called...

    ...a "Wii wii"?

    (Got an original, well worth the money).

    1. James Micallef Silver badge

      or just...

      ...a wiiii

  4. Goffee

    Proper games coming to Wii2

    And all kinds of fun news - http://wii2roundup.blogspot.com/

  5. Daniel B.
    Joke

    The new Wii

    Should they just call it the Wiii?

  6. David Austin

    Title

    Sounds about right. Wii and DS Must be near/at market saturation, and for the last three generations (GB Color/N64, GB Advance/Gamecube DS/Wii), the handheld has preceded the console by about a year, so things are going like clockwork for the lads at Nintendo.

  7. Maxson

    right now it's called "Project cafe"

    ....but surely the obvious name is WII (W two)?

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