I'm firmly of the opinion that Nintendo are going to blow us away on Tuesday. They're going to take all the "meh" surrounding the Wii U and they're going to whip it up into a storm of mass hysteria. All they need are a few high-def trailers – perhaps showing a new Mario game, a new Zelda game and something from Super Smash Bros. Wii U – and Nintendo will have won E3 in the eyes of the market. Add in a few trailers for things like Colonial Marines, and the "hardcore" will be smitten.
Still, we have questions about the new system, and an unnamed developer currently working on the console has apparently been talking with Wii U Daily. Is the unnamed developer a real living, breathing individual? I have no idea, and so this should be placed firmly in the rumour section of your brain.
The Wii U website reports that their source on the inside has revealed the existence on online achievements for the new system; they're apparently called Wii U Points at this point. Expect some interesting features if this turns out to be true:
“We have a lot of freedom with the Wii U points system, we can add “brackets” for players, e.g. if you amass X points you get promoted into a new bracket with awards such as new MP [multiplayer] skins. It’s basically what we’ve been asking Microsoft to do for years. Players who earn points by completing the game should be awarded. We can do that now”.
Social Networking could be an important part of the new system with a focus on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. The first two will allow you to post screenshots and status updates at any point, while Youtube support will allow you to record and upload video at any point.
There'll also be an option available for cloud storage, it'll be available to all players and available at some point in 2013.
The source also touched on updated Avatars – you'll be able to take pictures of yourself to be converted into high-def Miis, not entirely unlike on the 3DS – and said that ports were more difficult than developers had previously thought. Almost obviously, he said that it was easier to port from the 360 than from the PS3, although building a game from the ground up using middleware was more of a chore than perhaps building a game for the 360.
Whether any of this turns out to be true, and there are bits of it that make me doubt it considering the market that made the Wii what it is, we'll find out on Tuesday. With that said, there's some nice ideas here and it'd be interesting to see how it played out.
