Early this morning, Nintendo released financial results for its just-ended 2010 financial year. They brag that the total combined sales of software for the DS handheld and Wii have surpassed 1.5 billion units, with 139 DS titles and 103 Wii titles breaking the 1 million mark.
But, tucked away alongside all the fiscal cheerleading was the real news, that the House of Mario’s finally confirming a new home console that’s launching in 2012. A brief statement on Nintendo’s Investor Relations page reads:
To whom it may concern:
Re: Wii’s successor system
Nintendo Co., Ltd. has decided to launch in 2012 a system to succeed Wii, which the company has sold 86.01 million units on a consolidated shipment basis between its launch in 2006 and the end of March 2011.
We will show a playable model of the new system and announce more specifications at the E3 Expo, which will be held June 7-9, 2011, in Los Angeles.
Sales of this new system have not been included in the financial forecasts announced today for the fiscal term ending March 2012.
The web’s been all abuzz about Project Café, the alleged codename for the follow-up to Nintendo’s blockbuster home video game system. Screenshots below are reportedly from development assets created for Project Cafe. There’ve been leaks abounding regarding the upcoming console and speculation’s posited that Project Cafe will be chock full of upgrades and innovations:
- Final name to be “Stream”
- Cost likely to fall between $350-$400
- Output in 1080p full HD
- Three-core IBM PowerPC chipset paired with new GPU by ATI
- Controllers with a combination of touchscreen and stick/button inputs
- Screen Stream technology, which will send a hi-res portion of the main screen to controller screens
Previous rumors have circulated about Nintendo’s next big thing, so all of the above’s to be taken with a grain of salt. However, the world’s first glimpse of the Wii 2/Stream will be coming in two short months when E3 2011 kicks off in June.