Wii U To Consider The Future Of Televisions

[Black Star]

Speaking to investors, Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata, said that Nintendo will market the Wii U as “slightly different” from a regular home console, due to its ability to have the controller itself substitute for a television set. In English press releases, Iwata says, the word “console” is required to help communicate the idea of the system. In Japan, however, the words “home console” will not be used at all.

This is so that Nintendo can communicate the idea of a changing lifestyle, where one no longer needs to sit in front of a television. in order to play a console game. Speaking further on the subject of televisions, Iwata elaborated: “In addition, I would like to use this occasion to talk about something I was hoping to talk about someday. That is, what is going to happen to the TV?”

In Japan, July 24th marked the end of analog television broadcasting after 58 years, switching over to terrestrial digital media broadcasting instead. What this means is that, everyone in Japan that owns an analog television will need to upgrade to digital televisions to watch T.V. The only areas exempt from this switch are those that were affected by the Tohoku earthquake. These areas won’t be required to make the switch to digital until next year.

As a result, several families in Japan have recently upgraded their televisions, and won’t be doing so again any time soon. However, Iwata says that he sees ads in electronics magazines that talk about new televisions with multiple screens or how they can interact with smartphones. For Japanese families, the appeal of the Wii U would be being able to turn their existing T.V. into a multi-screen display that works closely with the Internet.

“Please think that the Wii U is a product that is a combination of a proposal for a ‘new play style that is not restricted to the TV,’ a proposal for a ‘new kind of entertainment using multi-screens’ and also ‘the future of TV’,” Iwata told investors.

He emphasized: “The Wii U is not simply a Wii with a different user interface and we are not proposing to society a performance-enhanced Wii, rather we are proposing hardware with a totally different concept and vision.”

Source: Siliconera

Nintendo always come up with groundbreaking ideas but i must say this tops the cake so far. Im not fully sure this will be as successful as they make it seem, but this concept has really piqued my interest. Im actually looking forward to this now

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

Nintendo always come up with groundbreaking ideas but i must say this tops the cake so far. Im not fully sure this will be as successful as they make it seem, but this concept has really piqued my interest. Im actually looking forward to this now

I agree with you, I had next to no interest in the Wii U but now I'd like to see what they do with it.

[Ostinato]

Yeah, right. I can just see CEK trade in his 40" TV for a Wii U pad...

Maybe in Japan this will go down well, but elsewhere it's just going to be regarded as a gimmick.

[JackFrost]

Yeah, right. I can just see CEK trade in his 40" TV for a Wii U pad...

Maybe in Japan this will go down well, but elsewhere it's just going to be regarded as a gimmick.

when his kids get older believe you me this will look real nice.
This has got 0 excitement from me as of now....Im not a huge console gamer and still reeling from the 3DS/Wii. I can say this leans more towards the innovation side then gimmick side as this can actually change gameplay in a meaningful way if done correctly.....like when Sony rips the idea XD

[Syphen_Freht]

From the way it was explained, it kind of seems like the "screen within a screen" idea that tried to become popular a few years back. If, instead of the family gathering around to watch a movie together, each member of the family can watch the same movie, t.v. show or whatever on their Wii U "controller", that would be kind of neat and worth my time looking into. The next step, however, would be the ability to allow each person to watch something different, all on the same console.