According to a Nintendo marketing employee, Wii is set to have a successor as soon as next year! Some info on the system are as follows…

• Wii 2 will feature a blu-Ray disc drive in a bid to prevent piracy.
• Support for 1080p resolution for both blu-ray movies and games.
• Due to release in the third quarter of 2010, in a worldwide same day release.
• Trade-in scheme for existing Wii owners to receive a discount on the new hardware.
• An announcement would come a month before release date, riding on the back of viral marketing to build hype.

If Wii 2 had the same specs as a GameCube or a Wii (they’re both the damn same anyway) then blu-ray space would be wasted. It could be telling that there is nothing what-so-ever in these key Wii 2 details regarding the systems’ graphical capabilities. Could you imagine if the Wii 2 was exactly the same as the original Wii, but with a blu-ray drive, HD support and nothing else!? That sounds like some shit that could actually fly at Nintendo. Just look at the evolutionary steps from the DS, to DSi, to the the DSi LL. Nintendo aren’t ones to fully embrace current technology. They always prefer to creep 5 years behind everybody else.

And as for the trade-in scheme? I cannot see Nintendo going for that. They made no effort to offer such a scheme for DS lite owners who would like to upgrade to a DSi, so I can’t see them doing it for their consoles. Nintendo are all about printing their own money. Not helping others save it.

A new Nintendo system with a blu-ray drive would be really cool. Even though Nintendo probably wouldn’t allow it to play blu-ray movies without a 16-digit blu-ray movie code.

It’s all speculation, but it’s rather exciting. A new Nintendo console with full HD output and a blu-ray drive would certainly make sense given the current games-scape – which is why I’m inclined to not believe it could happen. Because it sounds like way too much sense for Nintendo to actually go along with. I hope I’m wrong.

[Max console]

It’s no surprise console makers want further penetration into a consumer base. Microsoft plans to bring a music service to the 360; Sony is trying to expand PSN Home into… something. The key idea is incorporating the console into the center of your life. The Wii brought together the family and expanded casual games. Project Natal and the Sony Wand hope to not only accomplish this on their platforms, but are aiming to do so much more. It remains to be seen how well it is pulled off, but you can expect future generations of these device is improve exponentially.

As someone who owns all 3 consoles, must be connected to the internet and has a DirectTV Tivo, the consoles are not far off from being the primary sources of entertainment. My Wii is what I use for parties; the Xbox is great for multiplayer gaming, community, Netflix, and demos; my PS3 is the BluRay powerhouse and solo-gaming (RPG mostly) system.

The online experience is an untapped market for these machines. Google has revolutionize information cataloguing. Amazon has brought together a review community and personalization into a highly niche targeted environment. Imagine being on XBL and based upon your ratings, social-network likes and dislikes, you have targeted ads that compel you to purchase/demo a product/game, all with more information readily available and easily navigable.

The question I ask myself: do I want to be so reliant on these gaming companies?

Microsoft are set to release the Xbox 360 Elite model in Japan on October 11 for 47,800 Yen. You don’t care, I don’t care and come October, neither will Japan.

[Game Life]

Despite the already bolstering Virtual console, with downloadable Neo Geo titles around the corner, the possibility of downloadable Sega Saturn games, new channels and the recently announced WiiWare – Nintendo are adamant that there will be no hard drive for the Wii. If Nintendo really think that 512 MB of on board flash memory and having to keep switching between SD cards is a sound storage solution, then somebody at Nintendo HQ is smoking crack.

[CVG]

This post is old; I originally posted it on my.qj.net back in March, and then on my own blog, Warriors of Gaming. As such, it is slightly out of date. However, it still holds true and it reflects my core beliefs about the gaming community. It’s pretty long, so it’s after the split.

Read more!

Apparently, those of you lucky enough to have a Wii right now are going to have an easier time modding your Wii to your likings.

The new Wiis, which are part of new shipments of the console, have an altered circuit layout that makes modification more difficult than in earlier versions. Users attempting to mod the new consoles using current modchips are very likely to damage the system, the sources pointed out.

Hopefully, this will give you hackers a headstart.

[Techspot]

I really don’t like this. Microsoft stated that it’s already working on another XBox. Well, I’m not really worried about they making it, since it’s obvious they would, but my question is WHEN and HOW.

Microsoft member Chris Lewis told to European site Kikizo:

You can’t sit back on your laurels in this business – the consumer won’t let you, the developers certainly won’t let us. So that’s happening right now.

Has Microsoft decided to enter the motion-sensing arena? Or Will they apply more horsepower to the graphical way until we can see videogame characters’ facial imperfections or splats of makeup that male RPG characters use? and also… Will they wait the 5-year minimum limit between generation and generation to launch their console?

Talk about it in the comments section!

[Kotaku]

Welcome to the first edition of Clash of the Geekus, a weekly column in which 2 or more of our Editors sit down to discuss a hot topic of the week. Today we have Nahu and Velcor as our host editors. Enjoy!

This week we have seen a lot of talk about Pink. Reports of people preferring the pink DS Phat over the new & sleek DS lite boggle the mind. Later this same week we found out Nintendo is planning on releasing a pink DS lite. So it seems pink is quite an important color nowadays. The question for today is: Do you think a pink Wii should be available at launch?

Read more!