Nintendo's Dunaway: no Wii successor 'anytime soon'
By Donald Melanson 
posted February 25th 2010 6:02PM
posted February 25th 2010 6:02PM
Miyamoto may have been dropping hints about some new Nintendo hardware recently, but it looks like a true Wii successor isn't among the options in the short term. That's according to Nintendo's Cammie Dunaway, who told GameSpot during the company's just-concluded Media Summit that she doesn't see a proper Wii follow-up coming "anytime soon." She further went on to note that even though the Wii now has a larger installed based than the PS2 did at the same point in its life cycle, the Wii "still has a lot of room to grow," adding that "we'll have it [a successor] ready when we think the time is right."
@Nitesh The Nintendo DS has seen many refreshes, though.
@tkrow21 Refreshes aren't successors. Like the PS3 Slim isn't a new PlayStation, just a rehash.
I don't understand it either. I want the black one!
Maybe they now hold back for the 3D version.
@techlord
according to them, Nintendo are not interested in 3D at all, the technology is not final at the moment and they are considering the long term health risks
Who needs a new system when in a few short months, you could have a Vitality Sensor! I'm still intrigued to see how they're going to try to make that thing fun.
@scrumtrelescent7
I think the Vitality Sensor could be good in games like Resident Evil ... if things start to scare you, it can detect your heart rate. But 480 resolution games aren't going to make my heart race.
More than likely, it'll be a novelty like those Wii MotionPlus add-ons that no-one really needed.
480 resolution games arn't going to make my heart race?
what does that even mean!?
the number of pixles your viewing isn't directly replated to how scared you get in a game, it's all to do with the mood, the music, the story line, and everything else that makes up the game.
Think about the difference between the new alien vs predator game on the PC vs the old one from 1999.
I still think the older one is far far scarier, and the wii would be perfectly happy rendering something like that.
we've only had HD (or 1080 resolution games for you) for a short time, and now everyone thinks for a game to be good, it HAS to be HD,
stop!.. just stop...
@chazhacker
So true. I've played all sorts of games on the older consoles, Silent Debuggers for TG26 scared me more than a few times, Space Hulk for 3DO made me jump far too many times, and Aliens vs Predator made me drop my controller in fear because the atmosphere was so vivid. Even Resident Evil (the original) made me almost crap myself when the dogs burst in. 480 is more than sufficient to handle drawer fulling scare tactics.
@(Unverified)
er, TG16 (Turbografx 16) and drawer filling is what that meant to say. And it was Aliens Vs Predator for Atari Jaguar)
Wii is still selling like hotcakes.. They will ride this wave out till their next system Is ready, and by then people will be ready for Nintendos' next venture and will most likely (and hopefully for Nintendo) jump directly from the Wii to the next system.
I wouldn't make an HD upgrade either if I was in their shoes..
...more like installed OWNER base, amirite?
The reason they keep putting off a "successor" is because THEY GOT NOTHING LEFT.
They put every crazy idea they had into the Wii and put it all on the floor hoping it would succeed, and luckily it did. But now, they got nada.
@Kinjo:
False. Nintendo is the king at R&D. They've got plenty...they're just making too damn much off the Wii to stop now.
@Jordan
Nintendo is like Apple in the games industry...
@Drybones5 What successful?
@Drybones5
Lol apple only has a small fraction of the computer industry whereas nintendo has the majority of the gaming. Nintendo is more like microsoft in most senses.
While the Wii may have sold more units than the PS2 in the same time frame, the PS2 provided 100x more long lasting fun than the Wii did in far less of a time frame.
I played Gran Turismo 3 for about 6 months straight before I got bored of it. I played Wii Sports for about a day before I used it to shield dust from my PS3. For the first year, I kept buying dust shields for my PS3 hoping that maybe I'd be proven wrong, then I gave up and made the Wii into a $250 paper weight.
@TheDigeratiDude
Seriously.
Playing Gran Turismo and getting your racing line JUST right constituted a large portion of my day to day at one point. The Wii just doesn't have games like that, short of first party titles. This will bite them in the ass eventually, just wait....
@TheDigeratiDude well, when I have younger and/or female guests over, they are drawn to my wii, and I can assure you it puts smiles on everyone's faces.
if you're just playing with yourself a lot, then the ps3 is clearly superior.
@TheDigeratiDude
lol of course the wii would get borong if ur a loner. I played super smash bros all the time with my friends. Wii sports was on all the time for my family for all of `05. Lol.
@Skwidwerd
You realise the Wii came out in '06 right?
Nintendo definitely made out like a bandit financially this console cycle, but I hope when the Wii does come to the end of it's days, Nintendo has invested all that cash wisely and is ready to bring the heat with their next console again. They can really only do a Wii type console once every other decade for nostalgia gamers. The next one has to be the new standard barer the way the SNES did in it's day.
@KC what Nintendo did right was to stick w/ simple DVD to keep costs down and bring to the table a new way of playing that capture a far larger market than previous consoles.
what they did wrong was using such low end components, that it couldn't handle graphics, physics, textures, or AI for anything more than cartoony type games.
W/ some more horsepower and the huge accuracy improvement provided by the motionplus upgrade, there is a LOT more potential there.
@Ducman69
I personally think that what you think they did wrong, they think they did right! I think they hit it so perfect on the hardware side it isn't even funny.
Without thinking like a gamer - The mark up on a Wii, even from day 1, is INSANE.
I'm trading my white Wii for the Black Edition Wii.
HD would be nice, but it could hurt their ability to sell it as cheaply as they are now.
Plus, I bet most of the target market would still have the Y/W/R composite RCA cable connecting the thing to their "HDTV". Even for 480p, component is worth it.
Correct me if im wrong, but didnt nintendo anounce way back in 2004 that the ds was not part of the gameboy line? Cuz i've been waiting for the new gameboy... It is in need for some serious upgrade!
make the nintendo shop channel alot faster, give more sequels to your best-selling first party titles, and crack down on hardcore gaming please... like we have been asking you too do for like years now I dont think a new wii is necessary especially since the original is selling so dam well, but when the time comes for the successor, not having hd is out of the question... oh a price-cut wouldn't hurt :-)
that is all
Like Cammie would really know, Nintendo of Japan could be releasing a Wii successor next week and no one at Nintendo of America would even know. Were talking about the company that releases the DSi and the Regginator dismisses it saying that he doesn't understand why America would need it when the DS Lite is still selling like hot cakes.
I own a Wii and the games bore me stupid
This kind of comment does not mean anything. Remember how Sony was insistent that they won't drop the price of the PS3, then like the next day they did a price cut? If Nintendo said something about a new version, people would hold off buying the Wii (if there are still people that don't have one). Not good for Nintendo's numbers. So obviously they had to say what they said.
The Wii still sells like crazy so an update without full 2-way game compatibility isn't really necessary at this moment, I agree with that.
However, I'd really like to see a version with HDMI output (even if it's only 480p or 576p) and LPCM surround sound.
In the future, when we're all enjoying our massive 4K resolution HD displays, Nintendo will still be pumping out 480P.
I think the Wii is just lacking titles that take full advantage of the controllers. They've actually got brilliant tech in the Wiimote but it's just not being used properly by big gaming names. Sure, we've seen Tennis, but for crying out loud what's wrong with an FPS? Or even a First Person Fighter game?
The Wii could rock without HD graphics, and I don't think it would matter if they included HD graphics - gaming companies would still only make games for traditional controllers... or keyboards and mice.
But that doesn't mean they aren't going to make an actual game system 'anytime soon,' right?
Personally, I got a Wii for Smash Bros. Brawl. Then No More Heroes wowed me. So naturally I picked up the sequel when it came out. Then Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom came out and I got that......the point I am trying to make is that I can count the games I feel that are worth owning on one hand. The only game I am anticipating is Another M.....that is pretty much it.....
I've defended to Wii on these boards before. My 5 year old is obsessed with Lego Star Wars on the Wii. (And I'm actually proud of him. I'm such a geek). And we do play Wii Fit Plus, Mario Kart, and a handful of other games. But it is definitely showing its age. There is a PS3 in my future.