Nintendo invigorated the family market with the Wii – its revolutionary controller was widely derided at first but ultimately made Nintendo a household name for the first time in years.
And, if a report from Nikkei turns out to be the truth, it looks like they’re going to do it all over again.
Project Cafe, the codename for the Wii’s follow-up, is set to be revealed at E3 next Tuesday. Apparently it’ll feature a 6 inch touchscreen on the console’s controller which will give a ‘tablet-like’ aspect to games. The touchscreen can be detached, and used as a portable.
Sounds like the console can stream to the controller when the TV is being used for something else, for example – something that we’ve covered before.
The thing will also feature a camera, and will seemingly release in the second half of 2012 , a year from now. All eyes on E3 then – we’ll let you know what it’s like when we get our hands on it.
Bladesteel
So if this is supposed to be used as a portable it will need to have a processor, ram and storage. As well as a battery big enough to power the thing.
So how much is that going to cost then? Looking at amazon the cheapest tablet I can find is £80, so assuming Ninty really goes for the cheapest possible components let’s say it’ll cost £50. I think that’s more than the casual market will accept as the cost of a controller.
Short version: I don’t believe it. Touch controller maybe. Used as a portable, no way.
Smallville2106
I won’t be buying one but I’m really interested to see what Nintendo bring to the table.