Nintendo Confirms Wii 2 / HD–Will Be Playable At E3

April 27 00:27 2011 by Alexei Rivera Print This Article

The Nintendo Wii

Nintendo have just announced that they are indeed working on a new Wii console and it will be playable this June at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). The new console will finally be able to run High Definition games – something that the Xbox 360 and PS3 have been enjoying for a while now and is one of the main reasons why the draw for the Wii have waned these past years.

Rumors of a Wii 2, or Wii HD have been circling around ever since the motion-controlled console came out in 2006. But recently, GameInformer broke the news that the new Nintendo console will be playable this E3 2011. Shortly after the rumor, Nintendo sent out a memo to investors confirming the rumors that a Wii 2 is indeed in the works, and will be shown on the convention floor.

To whom it may concern:

Re: Wii’s successor system

Nintendo Co., Ltd. has decided to launch in 2012 a system to succeed Wii, which the company has sold 86.01 million units on a consolidated shipment basis between its launch in 2006 and the end of March 2011.

We will show a playable model of the new system and announce more specifications at the E3 Expo, which will be held June 7-9, 2011, in Los Angeles.

Sales of this new system have not been included in the financial forecasts announced today for the fiscal term ending March 2012.

There’s not a lot of info to be gleaned about this though, except the higher quality graphics. It should be safe to assume that they’ll still have some motion-control – but we wonder if they’ll also provide for more traditional methods of control.

The Wii was a commercial success when it launched in 2006, but due to lack of decent games, weak online capabilities, weak graphical performance, and the loss of the novelty of the motion-controlled system, sales have begun to dwindle the past few years. This new console looks like Nintendo’s attempt to solve the problem – and we’re hoping for the best.

Translation: Dear God, Nintendo. Please get rid of those terrible Friend Codes.