A few more Wii details on the table?

Yet more unconfirmed gaming news today, this time on the Wii front; Maxconsole is claiming a Wii developer hooked them up with a slew of deets on the Wii's hardware, some of which does and does not jibe with things we've been hearing over the past year. They're claiming will be comprised of a 729MHz CPU ("Broadway), a 243MHz GPU ("Hollywood," which is supposed no different than the GameCube GPU, just faster), 64MB of GDDR3 RAM, 4.7 or 8.51GB single/double-sided disc drive, and optional Ethernet adapter. Apparently the Wii's I/O options will also be as follows: SD card slot, two USB 2.0, WiFi, four GameCube controller ports, two GameCube memory card slots, and an analog-only AV multi output jack. That's all well and good, but we're kind of beyond the point of obsessing over the specs on this thing, you know? We know it's not doing high def, and Nintendo's not exactly making a big stink about what a performer the Wii's going to be. So for right now you could say we're a little more bent on getting a release date and official price more than anything else.

[Omega X @ Jul 30th 2006 7:27PM]

IT doesn't make sense. Why work on a completely new CPU/GPU chip if its just faster? That info has to be wrong.

[The Grand Master @ Jul 30th 2006 7:32PM]

At least Nintendo are creating something new and different.

Instead of Sony's, 'Let's Make the most insanely powerfull console ever, and they will buy it because we are Sony and Sony rules all games!' approach.
Or Microsoft's, 'if we get there ages before everybody with very little reason to upgrade people will buy it because we are the only choice and we rule the world' reasoning. Oh and what was backwards compatibility with the 360 like anyway, even Sony can manage that!

I really hope this brings Nintendo back to the top, if the new contrllers are done well this could be awesome and the £135 pricetag seals the deal. And the backwards compatibilty with the GC will be awesome, I can buy all those games I missed from the bargain bin!

Disclaimer: I do not own a gamecube, I have a PS2 and only recently began to realise what I had been missing.

[OyoyoY123 @ Jul 30th 2006 7:47PM]

nintendo
We are all gonna buy it~so
just frigging tell us how much will it cost plz!

[Tim @ Jul 30th 2006 8:02PM]

i dont care about the specs. Its going to be fun to play in new and interesting ways. Rock on Nintendo!

[Qyiet @ Jul 30th 2006 8:03PM]

Hmm... a lot of that stuff was marked as an option... including ethernet...

It makes me worried for two reasons
1) Either developers won't develop for a lot of the potential of the console functionality as people don't necessarily have it or
2) People will be forced into buying a lot of tack on accessories to get basic functionality

[jake @ Jul 30th 2006 8:08PM]

@The Grand Master

Xbox 360's Live Arcade is more innovative than a stick with motion sensors. Less gimmicky too.

[Karl @ Jul 30th 2006 8:09PM]

I must say that the specs are a little disappointing. 64MB RAM? That's terrible. OK, its not going to be a massive performer, but part of the reason we don't get many good games on the Nintendo platforms is the specs being a limiting factor. IMHO this is contrary to what Nintendo are actually pushing with Wii - let yourself go, innovate, let your imagination take hold. Run away and have fun. But, you have to do it within a meter square box.

That said, the price tag is still impulse-buy level, so many people will still get one (I certainly will. Although there are limitations, it gives you a different type of innovative freedom). For the money, I guess the specs are alright.

[AndrewNeo @ Jul 30th 2006 8:09PM]

The only thing new here is that it can read double-sided disks, if that's what it means. And ooh, wifi.. is it b, g, or what?

[Secretcow @ Jul 30th 2006 8:10PM]

Its fake. Nintendo is not using GDDR3 RAM, they are using 1t-sram in the Wii console.

[SkipD @ Jul 30th 2006 8:14PM]

Let's hope the WiFi supports WPA and 802.11g. Can someone explain why more devices don't support better security? DS Lite and TiVo both only support WEP - WTF?

[juanito @ Jul 30th 2006 8:21PM]

just one question, why would an inside source give insider information about the Wii's system specs to a hacking site?

[villainy @ Jul 30th 2006 8:35PM]

Qyiet:
I believe "the Wii's I/O options" was meant as the built in options, I don't think only offering AV out as an extra would go so well with people who want to see/hear their games.

[Jeremy Klug @ Jul 30th 2006 9:48PM]

It's obviously bull. Nintendo already confirmed that the Wii would have 480p widescreen output, as well as be Wireless only, no ethernet. Plus as previously posted, they are using 1T-SRAM, not GGDDR3. Why do you guys even bother posting this bunk.

[Extinction @ Jul 30th 2006 10:03PM]

"Instead of Sony's, 'Let's Make the most insanely powerfull console ever"

So developers can do things they couldn't last gen.

You know, the very definition of innovation.

[Chris @ Jul 30th 2006 10:08PM]

Can't wait for this to come out. It's going to blow away the PS3 and Xbox 360.

[Pal @ Jul 30th 2006 10:09PM]

Recently got an HD plasma display, and wow...I can't go back to analog television. Analog cable look terrible, and DVDs look bad as well.

I sure hope that the Wii has at least 480p. I've been spoiled beyond repair!

[greg @ Jul 30th 2006 10:20PM]

im thinking ill probably buy one and also this will put nintendo towards the top. every will buy one then after a 1 or 2 they will come out with another one but with better graphics to make more hard core sony and x-box fans buy the wii

[nivz @ Jul 30th 2006 10:46PM]

Well, I hope it will live up2 the expectations.. but why is nintendo scared to reveal what's in it and how much it's gonna cost for sure? I mean all we have is Someone said this, Someone assume this blah blah.. I am not a big nintendo fan.. (Gameboy was their best product in my opinion) I'm starting to think that they are just trying to hide behind the controller and hope the faithful ones will buy it.

I would rather spend £400 on a machine I can trust to be a star performer than to pay £100 and hope it will be better than a ps2 or a xbox.

[ANONA @ Jul 30th 2006 11:04PM]

Extinction, that's not innovation, it's simply an upgrade.

[Who Cares @ Jul 30th 2006 11:12PM]

There is nothing new and different here, it is a repackaged gamecube with a stupid contoller no one will use after 30 minutes with it. Nintendo should have spent the R&D money on actual R&D instead of this.

[mark @ Jul 30th 2006 11:29PM]

"Hmm... a lot of that stuff was marked as an option... including ethernet...

It makes me worried for two reasons
1) Either developers won't develop for a lot of the potential of the console functionality as people don't necessarily have it or
2) People will be forced into buying a lot of tack on accessories to get basic functionality"

people complained about the 360 not having built in wifi and having to pay 100 for the adapter but then the wii has builtin wifi and people complaing because you might have to buy an adapter if u need to attach an ethernet cable? stop finding things to complain about -- 6 of one, half-dozen of the other.

[John Doe @ Jul 30th 2006 11:47PM]

While I will be picking one up the day of release it would have been nice if Nintendo at least did SOMETHING with their GPU. As it stands we are in meh territory right now. Don’t get me wrong I’m glad they are staying out of this escalating hardware war that MS and Sony are obsessed over but for the love of god put a little effort in the thing. They must have blown their entire development wad on the controller. :-

[GameDev @ Jul 31st 2006 1:03AM]

I'm a game developer. Here are some specs so you can make an informed choice at launch , if Nintendo don't supply them:

* It's essentially a GameCube, no one has actual devkits yet, everyone is using GCs for their dev
* GPU has no shaders, fixed function, nothing new (it is an upgraded flipper)
* Unit has 88MB of memory, 24 for video/dsp and 64 for main external mem with 512 of flash mem for downloadable content, no HDD
* Clock speeds on GPU and CPU are approx 1.5x that of the GC
* Broadway CPU has a choice of 2,3,4 deep pipeline as opposed to Gekkos 2
* Hollywood is a LSI with DSP and GPU onboard with 2MB/s of eDRAM for framebuffer. No HD video fillrates here and that means no 1080i let alone 1080p, highest is 480p which all last gen units could do.
* Bus bandwidth is peak 1.9GB/s from GC 1.3GB/s

That's it... take these specs as you will. At least search around the net before you make comments here. You find some of these things confirmed already, as Game Developers speak to the press on their experience with Wii development.

[GameDev @ Jul 31st 2006 1:06AM]

One more thing:

The 64MB of external RAM is GDDR3, the 24MB is 1TSRAM.

GameDev

[GameDev @ Jul 31st 2006 1:13AM]

Whoops! Sorry that was meant to be 3MB of eDRAM... 2 is sooo close to 3 on the keyboard! :)

GameDev

[Ed @ Jul 31st 2006 1:59AM]

"Let's hope WiFi supports WPA"

Let's not, as WPA has been proven by the FBI as hackable in under 5 minutes. Not meaning to sound biggit at all, but I have hacked my own laptop WPA in under 10 minutes.

If I can do it simply off information from my CS Cryptography course, how quick could criminals do it? Especially if we get an incarnation of Opera for the Wii.
-------------------
Limiting the hardware to not be ground shattering is not hurting the developers. It allows you to fill in the gaps on your own. How many kids didn't play Sonic on the Genesis then go out in the backyard and imagine blasting through woods or fields as quick as Sonic?

[Vincent @ Jul 31st 2006 2:06AM]

"but why is nintendo scared to reveal what's in it and how much it's gonna cost for sure?"

I can assure you, Nintendo is not *scared* to release the price. It's brilliant for them to not say the price yet, even though they confirmed less than $250, which *could* be $249, but I think it will be $199, like the rest of their home consoles.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, when it comes time for kids to start begging for consoles, again, that surprise $199 is gonna look real sweet to parents when they go to Wal*Mart or something, and then they get coaxed into playing the demo unit, they have fun, and they buy it. Simple as that.

[Christopher @ Jul 31st 2006 2:09AM]

I was walking out of an FYE (For Your Entertainment) located in Elmont, New York on Hempstead Turnpike and was surprised to see this info()about the ps3 release date. RELEASE DATE 11/17/06!!!!!!

[Jed Merrill @ Jul 31st 2006 3:45AM]

This is definitely, definitely fake. Is some nobody website trying to get a little attention?

[jordan @ Jul 31st 2006 3:55AM]

Gamedev, do you honestly think anyone actually believes your sorry excuse for a post??? and besides, why is everyone making a huge deal out of it when Super Smash Bros Brawl, Mario Galaxy, Red Steel, and others all look much better than Gamecube, if it's just a gamecube, then why does it look so much better?????????

[Cry Havoc @ Jul 31st 2006 4:25AM]

@ Jake and whocares:

So, simply upping a processing chip and the GPU capabilities is what classifies to you two as "innovation"?

...

You do realize that neither Sony NOR Microsoft actually designs the chipsets for their systems, right? They have very little to do with the power the chip brings to the table. That's like giving a Honda Civic credit for being fast when it has a Corvette engine and a Porsche chassis under the body. Makes a whole lot of zero sense. Good effort to bash Nintendo without ANY knowledge of the actual situation, though.

Nintendo has proved that graphics are far from what determines how well a system fares. The DS is still beating the crap out of the PSP in sales as of now, and the Lite will only further extend that advantage, despite the PSPs huge edge in power. Why? Because the PSP games lack any innovation what-so-ever.

As for the article, it's pointless speculation. Next Gen isn't exactly the most reputable of sources, as I used to subscribe to their mag and it was awful. Full of spite and conjecture.

It's going to be very interesting to see how this race shakes down. From what I've read and heard from other people, there is no system that's more in demand than the Wii right now. EVERYONE wants to buy the thing. If the controllers live up to the potential, it's going to be difficult, or impossible, for Sony and Microsoft to catch up.

[David @ Jul 31st 2006 4:33AM]

"Gamedev, do you honestly think anyone actually believes your sorry excuse for a post??? and besides, why is everyone making a huge deal out of it when Super Smash Bros Brawl, Mario Galaxy, Red Steel, and others all look much better than Gamecube, if it's just a gamecube, then why does it look so much better?????????"
I couldn't have said that better myself. You can do all the research online(which I have for months now) and still not know all of the technical specs for the Wii. If you had done enough research you would have brought up the fact that Nintendo has always worked to use their hardware more efficiently. The whole thing behind the hardware is the way the CPU and GPU work together. That's why they named the two processors "Hollywood" and "Broadway". More than one developer has said that the Wii's CPU is a little bit slower than the Xbox, but that it'll perform 1.5-2 times better than it. That should tell you that horsepower is not all it's about. Hell, Athlon proved that to Pentium.

[NivZ @ Jul 31st 2006 7:26AM]

"Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, when it comes time for kids to start begging for consoles, again, that surprise $199 is gonna look real sweet to parents when they go to Wal*Mart or something, and then they get coaxed into playing the demo unit, they have fun, and they buy it. Simple as that."

That probably is the most accurate thing someone ever said about the Wii.

"You do realize that neither Sony NOR Microsoft actually designs the chipsets for their systems, right? They have very little to do with the power the chip brings to the table. That's like giving a Honda Civic credit for being fast when it has a Corvette engine and a Porsche chassis under the body. Makes a whole lot of zero sense. Good effort to bash Nintendo without ANY knowledge of the actual situation, though."

So Which part did nintendo make for the Wii that MS or Sony Didnt make for their consoles?? Oh Wait, The Nintendo 10 generations ahead Processor?? or the Most powerful GPU in the world which cant even do HD?

No1's trynna bash nintendo m8, everyone doesn't think alike. And the ppl who didnt buy the GC for the good reasons will not see much more in the Wii than the controller. Question is, are you willing to sacrifice everything else in a game just for the gameplay?

[extermin8tor @ Jul 31st 2006 7:36AM]

Nintendo clearly is just releasing the wii for a laigh, first the name, now the piddly-winks specs.
If the original xbox was pretty crap, and the wii is slower than it, how are they planning to take the console market.

If I had the choice of paying 150usd for a piece of crap that wont work with my hd tv or 250usd for a nextgen console that looks amazing and has killer games, which do you think I would choose.

and 'The Grand Master', why are you here, go on over to a nintendo fanboys site.

[extermin8tor @ Jul 31st 2006 7:43AM]

oops laugh******

(spelling error)

[Dickson @ Jul 31st 2006 8:20AM]

"Nintendo clearly is just releasing the wii for a laUgh, first the name, now the piddly-winks specs.
If the original xbox was pretty crap, and the wii is slower than it, how are they planning to take the console market."

First dumbass, as stated in previous forums, it won't be slower as it would be newer and better architecture inside the CPU, despite a slightly slower clock speed - think about it, the xbox CPU was basically a pentium 3 that came out 5 years ago. Secondly, the specs listed are inaccurate at best as Nintendo have already advised the system will do 480p and have a component cable port, not simply AV cables. And the info on the GPU sounds off as well, since there has been speculation that SM3.0 is supported by the Wii as well, and if so, then it is definitely different to flipper.
GameDev, you sound more full of it than the article posted at the top, prounding around calling yourself a game developer to try and add weight to your crap. "You find some of these things confirmed already, as Game Developers speak to the press on their experience with Wii development."

Like What?? Heard of NDA?? there is still nothing confirmed about the specs, apart from the USB2.0, 512MB flash, SD card and Gamecube ports under a flap.

[S-K-K @ Jul 31st 2006 8:28AM]

NivZ imo has made the most valid statements here

let us randomly clap

also extermin8tor, y dont you link to your site?

[ECM @ Jul 31st 2006 8:45AM]

"Question is, are you willing to sacrifice everything else in a game just for the gameplay?"

Uh, yes? i mean I play games for, uh, you know...gameplay? Kinda why my PSP is a very expensive paperweight and my DS gets played all the time. If I want pretty pictures above all (as you seem to imply) then I can watch Ep. III till my eyes bleed (or my sanity gives out.)

[matt @ Jul 31st 2006 8:57AM]

It's always fun listening to these flamewars... I love hearing both sides. It's fun.

Anyway, I find the whole HD debate really funny... people saying that they'll never play another game in SD again.

Of course, in Xbox threads, they talk about how the latest marketplace game (very simple, but addictive) has held their attention for the last two weeks. Yeah - just keep telling yourself that happiness lies in HD. Graphics are king - games are enjoyable when they have good graphics, and they're not enjoyable if they don't have good graphics.

And you've never had fun playing any game on any console in the past, because it wasn't in 1080p.

[Alex @ Jul 31st 2006 9:40AM]

I think nintendo has finally relized what all gaming companies should: it doesn't matter how many kick-ass capabilities and features it has unless you have the games to back it up. Zelda, mario, red steel, ect...

[VL-Tone @ Jul 31st 2006 10:40AM]

Oh please Engadget, don't fall for that... MaxConsole is a known spammer on digg.com

Let me bet that GameDev=TheGuy=malloc (author of the article).

Yeah you were once a real GameCube developer "GameDev", but now your out of the loop and look for ways to make money without working too much. How about using your GC knowledge to create a fake Wii article and generate tons of hits and publicity for the site??

"The dev mailed us and said he was shocked to see all these cries of 'fake', so he provided some more info to show he's not bluffing..."

Why would he be shocked that people believe it's fake? Anybody with more than 2 neurons could understand how "revealing" any details like that about the Wii would be met with skepticism.

Seems more like a case of "over-lying" to me.

The only official spec we know about the Wii CPU and GPU is that both will be using the 90nm process.

While you/TheGUY repeated just about every official specs + speculative/invented specs, you didn't mention anything about 90nm...

Maybe because using 90nm for a 243MHz GPU doesn't make sense? Maybe because a 729Mhz PPC at 90nm doesn't look right?

IBM started using the 90nm process on PPCs starting with the G5 (PPC 970).

Remember Moore's law? The GameCube Gekko is a 4+ years old CPU...

How come after 4 years Nintendo would only use a 729 MHz PPC? but at 90nm? It doesn't make sense.

[Juan @ Jul 31st 2006 11:41AM]

How come no one in the gaming "press" ever jumps on Nintendo for basically re-releasing the Gamecube with a fancy controller?

$250 is still a ripoff! The Gamecube is $99 now. You're paying for a remote.

They release the Gameboy/DS every six months or so in a "different" form, and people snap them up.

I must find the formula for the mind control drug Nintendo is using.

[David @ Jul 31st 2006 12:08PM]

VL-tone, that's very true. Why would Nintendo create a new chip at 90 nm that has a lower clock speed. It would actually end up costing them more money to mass produce, because it's never been made. It would seem more logical to make a customized 90 nm chip already in production. I haven't seen 729 Mhz in a long long time. Here's something that's logical, when GC came out, 400 and 450 Mhz cpu's were common/almost substandard. The GC had 485 Mhz. It would only seem logical to use a chip that was in the 1-2 Ghz range, because that's what is common, if not getting substandard.

[NivZ @ Jul 31st 2006 12:12PM]

ECM, think about it.. what other choices do u have in the handheld market atm apart from the PSP and the DS. So obviously you are going to stick to one of them depending on your choice of games (as they both have similar sorta graphics and that's about the only other factor affecting the choice between those two).

We are talking about entirely different things here, will u buy ps1 or a dreamcast or something like that over a 360 or a ps3, if they (ps1/DC) had a wii style controller just for the gameplay? I'm pretty sure u wouldn't.

Don't take me wrong, I think the wii would be great just because of the controller, that's it, nothing else.. and I personally don't beleive just a controller would be able to win a race overall, specially after seeing what the 360 can do.

Hardcore nintendo fans would buy the wii anyway, but that's not what they should be looking for, not just to make their fans buy it but to make other ppl, to make the indecisive lot, (who are in the middle of the ps3, the 360 and the wii) buy it aswell. I have never been biased towards one console, I have a xbox, ps2 and a 360. But i never even thought about buying a GC. What nintendo has done so far is not enough to convince me to buy one either.. and that's exactly what they should be doing.. convince ppl!!

[blankoboy @ Jul 31st 2006 12:45PM]

Still no word whatsoever about it's region coding. Will it be region free like all Nintendo handhelds or will it maintain region coding like consoles of the 'past'?

Also, will the console menu GUI be multilingual as is the DS/Lite? This would certainly simplify Nintendo's manufacturing. One Wii to rule them all =).

[Dickson @ Aug 1st 2006 8:40AM]

"They release the Gameboy/DS every six months or so in a "different" form, and people snap them up."

Okay, so how many DS iterations have we seen in the 18-24 months that the DS has been around for?? well, going by your logic, we should be into the fourth, however the second has only been around a couple of months. There is a reason for it, it's "If it ain't broke, but only holding neck and neck, release a much more appealing one, fix any issues with the original and add some new features". Hasn't happened with any ninty console, but if it does, you can rest assured it'll be better than Sony's "lets shrink it and take away features" approach.

[Dickson @ Aug 2nd 2006 8:53AM]

Read this, it debunks the "analog only" crap about the AV port:

http://wii.nintendo.com/hardware.html

And I quote:
"Other Features: Four ports for classic Nintendo GameCube controllers. Two slots for Nintendo GameCube Memory Cards. An AV Multi-output port for component, composite or S-video."

[Matt @ Aug 5th 2006 12:03PM]

I'm a fan of nintendo the're very original, the specs are wrong because the cpu in the wii is brand new and fully custom. But the clock speed seems ok to me 729mhz does not seem a lot compared with the 360's 3.2ghz but I had a gaming computer that had a pentium 3 which is pretty good at games with its very short pipeline, with an ati 9700, it could play doom 3 very well.

My point is that if my old computer could play games like doom 3 which has a very powerful and complex game engine then the wii can still deliver the impressive graphics that we are seeing in PC titles at the mo.

The wii is going to be much more powerful than my old computer the gpu is more powerful than an x800 and the cpu is prob just over 1ghz and more advanced a pentium 3 which many experts say still is a good cpu. As for the graphics memory 64 meg of fast ddr3 is pretty good for a console thats not high def, having a lot of graphics memory like 256 meg is only needed at high resolutions. Memory is expensive so not going high def has lowered the price.

I belive nintendo can still wow us with great looking games and grahics that you don't need a high def tv to enjoy.

[NivZ @ Aug 12th 2006 8:19AM]

I was half way writing another comment, specially about what matt said.. but then i wnt through his post again.. and saw "m a fan of nintendo the're very original".. So i deleted everything i wrote so far and just gave up..

"Nintendo Fans" should wake up, snap outta there dream and see the world.

[Dickson @ Aug 20th 2006 7:48AM]

"Nintendo Fans" should wake up, snap outta there dream and see the world.

Yes NivZ you're right, we should see the real world, the DS is still beating PSP, Wii is making far more headlines and positive press than the PS3, but so far I don't think I'm sleeping. Sony has lost a fair bit of momentum, but don't complain, all you Sony fanboys will gladly fork over your hard earned cash for a company that heavily supports DRM and crap build quality, and live in your "real world" of pimping, shooting, and simulation games. Awesome man, love to be you. Pity I'll be enjoying fun games that don't need to have swearing to be mature.