Rumor: Blu-ray Enabled Wii 2 in 2010

Gaming site Maxconsole.net, citing information leaked to Logic-Sunrise.com by a Nintendo France marketing employee, is reporting that a new Nintendo console will be launched worldwide in the third quarter of 2010. This "Wii 2" will reportedly get a Blu-ray drive, and support 1080p for games and movies. An official announcement will reportedly happen just one month before launch date. In the intervening months, "huge publicity and viral marketing will be utilized to create buzz" (so this post is ultimately contributing to that, right? Damned if you do...). Allegedly, there will be the option to trade in old Wii's for "Wii 2" consoles. This rumor comes just after Nintendo's profit fell by more than half in the six months from April, hit by a slump in console sales (it sold 5.75m Wiis between April and September, far fewer than the 10m it shifted in the same period last year). Some analysts are suggesting that a completely new console offers its best hope of reviving hardware sales. Sony, on the other hand, has benefited from a reduction in the price of the PS3. "The price cut on the PlayStation 3 was effective because people are getting a high spec Blu-ray disc player for a good price," said Yusuke Tsunoda, an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Securities.
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aygie  » Oct 29, 2009
If true its massive for Blu-ray but not so good for the PS3

visual0ne  » Oct 29, 2009	Show comment Hide comment
Sweet. I'll trade in the old Wii and then I can sell my stand alone player. I doubt it's true thought. Nintendo games will look like crap in 1080P. Hahaha

jasonicus  » Oct 29, 2009
^How can something look worse in better resolution? May need to rethink that one, chief. Thats sounds pretty cool, though. BD on a Wii. Nice.

AikonEnt  » Oct 29, 2009
So a HD console, with Blu-ray that has motion controls? Sounds like the PS3 to me, I think I'll stick with that thanks

Afrobean  » Oct 29, 2009

This sounds highly unlikely. Nintendo doesn't even like the idea of their consoles playing DVDs, why would they make a new one to function as a BD player? And no, Nintendo's console is nothing like the PS3. Apart from the obvious hardware differences, Nintendo has the advantage of their first party software. I also think it's funny the way you try to make it sound as though the Wii is ripping off the PS3, when the PS3 wouldn't have motion controls if not for Nintendo's innovation in that area.

Barion  » Oct 29, 2009
Nothing would replace my loyalty to PlayStation, but as a gamer, a BD-enabled Wii would be something I'd want, just as I also want a 360, especially once Natal comes out. The PS3 meets all my Blu-ray needs, but no one system meets all my gaming needs.

Tempest  » Oct 29, 2009

Wii's can't even play DVD's.. but now they want to have Blu Ray that plays movies? Even if true..expect bare minimum of features/options.. nothing like a PS3 that can also stream media from a computer and supports just about all video formats. PS3 has had motion controls since day one.. they didn't steal anything from Wii.. The New wands may of been inspired by it though but they will far surpass the Wii and Natal in motion control abilities when they come out. I will be sticking to the options fully loaded to the max PS3 for my media needs.

fullyalive76  » Oct 29, 2009

@Tempest doth protest too much. Again, the overwhelming majority that will buy the Wii 2 do not care about all of the "special" features on a PS3. In the real world Nintendo Wii has outsold 360 and PS3 combined. No Blu-ray, limited online functionality, terrible graphics and a small AAA library. If the only thing Wii does it upgrade the ability for graphics/media it will assure that Sony stays in a distanct third and Microsoft will be happy with second.

Elzeisa  » Oct 29, 2009

wow this is quite unexpected but exactly where they were headed (business-wise)... this current generation we saw nintendo's target market as the not-so-casual-gamer and whether or not gamers agree, nintendo has won this console war by a landslide because for the first time in a really long time (maybe ever) we saw a gaming machine dedicated to non-gamers. also while im at it... id also like to say something to all those hating on nintendo and all their remakes this generation : DON'T YOU GET IT!? at least 60% of wii owners arent hardcore and havent played all these old and golden games. its easy for nintendo to re-release/remake these games so that these new gamers can experience what hardcore gamers have already and they dont even have to spend millions on developing a brand new game. sony and microsoft may even benefit from nintendo expanding the gaming market in general. anyways back to big idea ..... nintendo owns the casual market ..... and it's safe to say that the movie-watching market overlaps the casual gaming market and would make perfect sense to have blu-ray capabilities. i wonder how well the ps3 would have done if nintendo decided to do it this generation instead of the last. i for one bought my ps3 more for the blus rather than gaming.

THE_JUDGE  » Oct 29, 2009	Show comment Hide comment
I heard this too, I heard that Nintendo had made a deal with Santa Clause to do the manufacturing and that's why Christmas is going to be canceled this year because Santa will be too busy making a Blu-ray Wii 2 for late next year. I also heard the new name for the console with be Wiibr just to connect the whole Wii to Blu-ray idea. This has fail written all over it.

Afrobean  » Oct 29, 2009

lol If hype leading up to the Wii's release hadn't been what it was, Sony would never have tacked on the sixaxis system to their controllers. And now Sony and Microsoft are both trying to outdo Nintendo's motion sensing with add-ons. But I say, is this a good thing? Gimmicky motion controls have plagued the Wii from the beginning and now they want to apply that to the other consoles as well? And yeah, for "media needs", a COMPUTER works better than a PS3. Don't even try and act like the PS3 is the best thing for a media center. A general purpose computer can do everything a PS3 can with media and then some. Like browsing message boards, or allowing me to post this comment I am currently typing. Not that being a "media center" has ever been Nintendo's goal. They're all about the games. Even though the hardware is able to, they intentionally made the Wii unable to play DVDs. This is why I find this -rumor- to be dubious at best. If the Wii is purposely unable to do DVD and was wildly successful regardless, why would the next system from Nintendo mix things up?

Kaminari  » Oct 29, 2009
Don't expect a war machine. Everything points to a Game Cube 3, with the same overclocked PPC (I smell a single-core 1GHz G4) and the same marginally biffed Radeon 7000 chipset, with EDTV and HDMI support to make people happy -- so much for "hi-def". And how a souped-up Wii Cube is going to cost less than the current one with the addition of a BD player?

Lucy Diamond  » Oct 29, 2009

Will they really let me trade my Wii in?? Even with all the dust it's collected since I bought a PS3?? Too little too late for me and besides that, Nintendo's philosophy of the 1 in a million chance in the games I play is getting old. Take Animal Crossing: One day out of the year you can get a certain item half of the time...or something like that. That is not difficult...it's annoying. They have turned everything into A giant Pokemon slot machine. You might get it...ya might not. :/

jk1138  » Oct 29, 2009
BD in their system? They do not even have DVD now, and that is super cheap to add on.

Baker1000  » Oct 29, 2009
Where in the world has this come from?! Wii doesn't even have DVD at the moment, no Nintendo console has. I'm a huge Nintendo gamer, and I love the Wii so I hope this is true, because I also love Blu-ray. But I will believe it when I see it, I'm afraid.

Hale-Bopp  » Oct 29, 2009
They should include up-scaling for all current Wii games to at least 720p.

Afrobean  » Oct 29, 2009
Wii DOES have DVD. What the heck do you think the format of their games are? They just purposely designed the software that runs the system to NOT PLAY MOVIES. People who want their Wii to play DVD movies can actually do a simple hack with homebrew that unlocks this ability.

Ashamed Pegasus  » Oct 29, 2009
Anything to add Blu-ray into more homes is good... I had no desire to ever play a Wii but a Wii w/Blu-ray and HD graphics might spark my attention...

fettastic  » Oct 29, 2009

Afrobean, that comment sounds like you are saying the PS3 can't read message boards or type comments on them. You DO realize that the PS3 DOES have that right? Although I agree that a HTPC does more than a PS3, installing Linux makes a PS3 a HTPC. But the PS3 does an incredible amount out of the box. Far more than any other gaming console in history. As for the Wee-wee, I have better things to do with my time than wave my arms around like an idiot trying to make a hydrosymphalic character complete a preprogrammed move in 480p and 2-channel stereo.

Memnoch  » Oct 29, 2009

We all know a Wii HD is on its way. But we don't know any specifics right now and probably won't for quite a while. Let's not go all crazy PS3 fanboy vs Wii fanboy and get into a pissing contest about which console is the best and blah blah blah. They both have their strengths and their weaknesses and many consumers own both systems for different reasons. It's like comparing apples to oranges. And for what its worth, PS3 most certainly copied the whole "motion control" idea from the Wii. Absolutely NOT the other way around. I remember when PS3 motion control was first brought up at a trade show. This was AFTER the Wii had been anounced as the new, hot thing coming down the pike. The second phase of PS3 (and first phase of 360) motion control is this crappy wand (and camera) thing coming out. This is not new or exciting news. Wii has already done this. PS3 and 360 are just copying the Wii, trying to catch up, and granted, are probably going to improve on the Wii's implementation of this technology. But to say that the Wii copied PS3 motion controls is just ghastly inaccurate. I'm more concerned with the new cameras/sensors. The Wii sensor bar is sleek and barely noticeable, but the playstation eye and project natal prototypes would look god awful on top of my TV. I already don't use my playstation eye or any other sensors (e.g., Time Crisis 4) because they are too big, bulky, and just unappealing. They just sit in their packages on my shelf. It's too much trouble to get them out everytime I want to play those games, so those games just don't get played. And I can't leave them out because nothing says awful quite like a $3K TV with a big fat playstation eye sitting on top of it. Ugh.

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