Reggie: Nintendo Not Ready for Wii Successor

New isn't synonymous with best Reggie.

Your Wii Vitality Sensor might be new, but will it offer the best gaming experiences? No. No it will not.

This guy doesn't care about gaming, only the attention gained from doing old things slightly differently and calling it new.

Notice how Reggie felt Nintendo isn't there yet to start seriously thinking about their next console 'from a Wii perspective' but he did not say anything about the DS. makes me wonder if DS2 is coming soon?

Argh! I don't understand why people get all up in arms over this. Or why there's any confusion about it. Unless, people just plain don't pay attention to what they're saying.

In the past, Nintendo stated (and re-stated) the following:

1) There will be NO HD compliant Wii (i.e. an upgraded Wii as the DSiXL is to DSi, DSL, etc.).

2) The successor to Wii will very likely be HD compliant, but they want more than that. Of course, it will be Wii's successor... NOT Wii (i.e. as Wii was to GameCube, to Nintendo 64, Super NES, etc.).

3) Nintendo stated Wii will most likely have a longer lifespan than it's predecessors. So it's successor will not arrive for some time (i.e. within the somewhat typical 5-6 year Nintendo console lifespan).

I agree with Reggie. A Wii HD would just be redundant or pointless. Wii games aren't going to look that much better (if at all) just running at a higher resolution, and in able to do so, the system would need at least 4x as powerful hardware. You might as well reserve that technology for your next console.

I have no idea about the business involved in this, but here's what I would do:

Have a massive price drop, knock like £50 off the RRP and add some sweet deals to encourage family based multiplayer (two remotes with motion plus and the wii sports titles as well as Mario Kart or Mario and Sonic) and watch the spike in sales, then release a Wii 2 in about a year/year and a half.

( Edited 10.03.2010 19:09 by Lynk )

Translation for humans:

"Adding HD would cut into our profit margin between production costs and RRP. We will release a successor to Wii when Wii becomes unprofitable."

should I remove my blog which had this story in?

^called it.

Really though, what's with Reggie and Miyamoto always saying the exact opposite of each other?

Because Reggie has nothing to do with the running of Nintendo. He's just a P.R man.

So no suprise here, I don't see why they need to release new hardware while sales are still very impressive at the moment. And they're obviously developing new hardware, they're always researching and developing new hardware.

A new handheld's more likely to come out sooner than the next home console.

Well just as I stated back in Feb, this is no surprise. Working for a major Nintendo partner we get regular updates on hardware changes, system upgrades etc...

So I'll give myself a pat on the back..

I'd say that's slightly inacurate, i mean until we see this in proper action we cannot judge it. I don't think many people here would have even thought the Wii would have taken off when it was first unveiled, so maybe the Vitality sensor could still proove worthy yet.



There is no need though, its still selling by the bucket load any way.

To be honest Nintendo are in the driving seat and i'll say they would sit on their lead. At the moment all their PR and marketing is going into the DS. The second half of the year will be Wii orientated so perhaps you might see a deal similar to that around Xmas.

I would be quite fustrated with a Wii HD, it would force me to buy it and i don't really want to pay for it. I really don't get what people are moaning about, I still think Mario Galaxy looks great! Even Mario Kart (1player) looks fairly decent. Again i am playing with a component cable so its a lil better, maybe those graphic whores should get the component cable and just be quiet.

Because Reggie has nothing to do with the running of Nintendo. He's just a P.R man.
.[/quote]

way to shoot the "Regginator" down. At the end of the day even if Nintendo had something in the pipeline you wouldn't want a repeat of what happened with WiiMote/Sixaxis do you?

Having HD games is really not a big deal to me. I have to capability to do it, but I'm satisified where I am right now, and I feel that a lot of normal Wii owners would agree. We on this site are of a special breed: we like things bright, shiny, and clear, but the average Joe who picked up a Wii for their kid or just to play games doesn't really care. And sadly, a large chuck of the pie of Wii owners are these people.

Because Reggie has nothing to do with the running of Nintendo. He's just a P.R man.
.[/quote]

way to shoot the "Regginator" down. At the end of the day even if Nintendo had something in the pipeline you wouldn't want a repeat of what happened with WiiMote/Sixaxis do you?[/quote]

While that's a good point and possibly the case at hand, it doesn't make sense to keep saying nothing's happening when people higher up in the company are saying the exact opposite. Besides, Sony and Microsoft are already working on trying to cash in on the current Wii, so if Nintendo is preparing a wii with better graphics, what's there to steal?

His statement seemed 100% correct to me.

Also, Wii+/WiiHD is utterly pointless for all sorts of reasons.
Give it a few years, then do a proper new console.

It's the other way around. When the Wii was first revealed, the "core audience" went crazy and really thought this was Nintendo's big comeback.

Yes it was, but not in the way the hardcore wanted. The grand majority of hardcore Wii owners that bought the console on launch were severely disappointed with it in some way before long.

I not sure that I feel let down or disappointed. Maybe we all was responsible for the rapid dominance of the little white box and with it we set our own expectations.

Last year pretty much sucked for my Wii, I managed to get a few decent games last year but on the other platforms 2009 was a stronger year.

Nintendo have acknowledged this and I think the presentation for games this year on the Wii and DS is alot stronger.

Hasn't that already happened? I remember a few games that haven't come out on the Wii because the graphics aren't up to it and the developers don't want to make 2 different versions.


I agree completely. Nintendo COULD release a HD Wii and it WOULD be better, but it's doubtful they'd make as much money on it, so they're not going to risk it when their little console is selling just fine at the moment.

It's obvious that Nintendo wants to ride out the Wii as long as they can, and why wouldn't they?

I'm pretty sure they already kow what their next console will be, and are probably testing it right now.

As far as the next console goes: it does need HD, but thats not enough. It obviously needs some crazy Nintendo innovation again. But it also needs to be more powerful than the PS3, so they can match their rivals. Then 3rd Party Companies won't betray them.

Let's face it: A lot of games out there for HD-consoles are only selling because they are graphically enhanced. A LOT of games on these consoles are repetitive to each other and do sell a lot.
A lot of them on Wii are trying to get a grip and don't sell. Be it Dead Space, Conduit or the like. And that are just the ones with great graphics on Wii. But they don't stand up to gamer's eye for shininess and glitter. That you can achieve on HD consoles, and easily. Just throw out a lot of money to make it shiny, but stick with the gameplay.


Unfortunately a lot of gamers go for graphics and not for great gameplay. I am glad Nintendo doesn't just throw out Wii HD, because it would be pointless. You just would even out the consoles. All of them would have have great graphics, waggle-waggle, optical disks and voila, they are all the same. Why grab a Wii? Why not a PS3 or a X360? Sorry, but I think Wii still has a kind of magic to it and I play it a lot.

And Nintendo never was the company to throw in the latest technology, but the best suitable, less faulty/unpredictable, the one you may pay less for it.
They did it with Gameboy with the monochrome display, they did it with N64 with almost no RGB, with Wii with no HD, no camery based movement detection and so forth.
It isn't essential for Wii to have HD. I own an HD-TV, but I don't need it to have fun on Wii. Sure, it may look a bit blocky, but I do forget these things when I play Zelda, Zack & Wiki, Lit or Lost Winds.
That's the magic. But you have to let it happen. Crying for HD does make it go away.

4 player split-screen Wii games like Mario Kart look horrible on my 47" TV. Each quarter of the screen is effectively 360x240 resolution stretched across 23.5 inches. If they released an HD version, or add-on module that rendered the same games at 720p or 1080p rather than upscaling 480p, I would buy it in a heartbeat.