Tom's Tech Blog: Next generation Wii controller to feature 6.2-inch display, turn living room into giant DS?

Saturday 23 April 2011

Next generation Wii controller to feature 6.2-inch display, turn living room into giant DS?

E3 is getting close, just two months away now. As such the next-gen Wii console rumors have heated to a boil. One of the most interesting bits of tattle originates from Kotaku. The gaming site's sources claim (with impressive specificity) that the new 8-button controller features a screen pushing a whopping 6.2 inches, two analog sticks, and a camera. The new Wii console (sometimes called the Wii 2, Wii HD, or simply "Project Cafe") is said to support the new controller in addition to Wii Remote-style controllers for backward compatibility with existing Wii games -- at the moment, however, it's not clear if that implies support for existing Wiimotes. But why the giant display? Here's Kotaku's take:

The 6.2-inch screen will receive data wirelessly from the Nintendo console and presents an array of options, from putting the player's inventory or map on the controller screen, to allowing players to combine it with the controller's camera to snap photos that could be imported into a game or even turning it into some sort of glorified viewfinder (we're unclear about whether the camera on the controller points at the player or can be outward-facing; we've heard both - maybe it swivels?).

In other words, you can think of the new contoller-plus-console combination as a modern Dreamcast system or "glorified mega-DS," as Kotaku puts it, where the TV is the top screen and the handheld controller is the lower touchscreen. If true then we'll likely hear the official first word at E3 which kicks off on June 7th.

Update: IGN has its own set of "sources" confirming many of these details. Could this be a Nintendo rumor that pans out, for once? We should know in just over a month.

Next generation Wii controller to feature 6.2-inch display, turn living room into giant DS? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 05:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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