Keep in mind Project Cafe is still this generation. Nintendo wants to make a console that is competitive with the 360 and PS3, but they also want it to be a reasonable price. Nintendo is probably betting on this generation to last a few more years, and they can bank in some easy cash while the 360 and PS3 drop in sales.

They should be thinking long term. Nintendo already won this gen because PS3 and 360 will not outsell the Wii.

It's also inevitable that Nintendo will fall behind tech wise again by releasing a comparable console to PS3 and 360. When Sony and Microsoft release their next systems they will obviously thump Progect Cafe's specs. I also don't see Sony and Microsoft staying put for the next five years.

Keep in mind though that the Wii was never really competing with the 360 and PS3. Sure, it was a great gimmick for Nintendo, and they were able to pull in a huge casual gamer base. However, the casual gamer base isn't reliable as a long term customer, and Wii sales are declining rapidly, because practically everyone has one.

Nintendo realizes now that they can't just ignore Microsoft and Sony. If they want to stick around and still be a viable system, they need to appeal to the core base of gamers as well, who are more likely to get a 360 or PS3. As a result, Nintendo is building a more powerful system than the PS3, and is also going to support 3rd party game developers more so than they ever had. This is really Nintendo's opportunity to maintain their casual base, while also allowing their console to be well-rounded enough to appeal to core gamers with multi-platform AAA games, without it being too expensive.

If Nintendo's plan works, they will be able to have a powerful system that is relatively cheap, while also maintaining their casual base with Wii mechanics. But also Project Cafe would allow for 3rd party developers to build games on the console, while also having Nintendo's lineup of AAA titles. Considering they are releasing this new console in between generations, this could be exceptionally profitable initially, and perhaps even when the new generation comes as the next xbox and PS4 will likely be too expensive for most.

If Nintendo's plan fails though, they could be the next Dreamcast...

Problem is those rumored specs aren't more powerful than a PS3. Any word on what disc format they'll be using?

Well actually, the rumors for the hardware is conflicted at the moment. One source says it's comparable but better than the 360. The other source says it's better than the current generation of consoles. We probably won't really know until the new console is unveiled this year at E3.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/04/15/rumor-roundup-nintendo-39-s-new-hd-console.aspx

Thanks for the link. Good to see that it may use Blu Ray.

The rumor says at least 512MB, not 512MB. Reggie Fils-Aime (president of Nintendo of America) said


512MB RAM would be a tad low if Nintendo is talking about their new system like that. In the past week or two Nintendo has talked about needing more Western games, a major partnership with another company to release a network service that will be unveiled at E3, among other vague comments. Sorry if I steered the discussion a bit off topic. I brought up the rumored specs in relation to the discussion that somehow Microsoft could have sued Sony for using similar architecture. The rumored specs of the new Nintendo console basically amount to a direct successor to the Xbox 360. That of course does not mean Nintendo and Microsoft are working on this together.

i dont think they will be using blu ray. the link clearly says the new system will be backwards compatible with all wii games. now if they do use blu ray, they will also have to put in a conventional laser to read the old wii disks (the same thing sony did when the ps3 launched), but doing this would bump up the price of the console, so if they want it to compete with the ps3 and 360 they probly wont use blu ray.

That would be a shame if it was limited to DVD again.

Hang on a second, I will just go ask pete hines....

...he said he doesn't know. Kinda like us lol It would be nice if it didn't!!! But what do I care, i'm gonna be on the 360 or PC either way : P

But Nintendo could go with blu ray, and put the old wii games on their new online store available for download. and for the people who already own certrian DVD games, they could give out special codes for the games you already paid for.

Um why does Todd claim that the xbox 360 is the smoothest running platform?,surely a suped up PC is better right?

Without a doubt.

Where did he say this though?

It's cuz I think they make it for 360 and then change it to play on PS3 and Computer so it plays better on what they made it for.

Judging by past history, I would say that the PS3 version will be slightly inferior to the 360 version, but not unplayable. I just hope they modified the engine enough to remove the horrible bugs that plagued Oblivion and FO3. If the "new engine" still crashes as often as the "old engine", I will be seriously p!ssed!

All that and only in B&W plus 2D.

He said in an interview when asked about the PC version,he then preceded to say ''I prefer the 360 because it's a lot smoother''

That's absolutely ridiculous. While sure, it might be smooth, unless the PS3 has any issues (probably resulting from having it using a different API), the PS3 will be just as smooth. And PC's will run it just as fine as the 360, given you have at least the minimum requirements.

The API would make a difference only if Bethesda was so focused on the 360 version that they didn't take the PS3's separate API into account, much... and I believe that is what's happening. On the bright side, Skyrim might actually put your PC to work... by being so unoptimized for anything but a 360 that even powerful PCs struggle with it.

Really this whole thing has given me a major headache All I want to do is play the game at it's best visually and accessibly but now seems there's no clear answer to which platform is the best :/ (Btw I thought it was the pc )

I am slightly worried about those possibilities.

well people were showing me how the computer is stronger thatn the consoles so it will probly be able to play it really good no matter what. but Xbox is stronger then PS3 and way more popular so there going to work the hardest on that version cuz more people will buy it.

Between PS3s and 360s, the general hardware is, more or less, equal, but the PS3 has the guarantee of a hard drive and they all come with a standard Blu-Ray format, so theoretically, the more expensive of the two consoles with the better disk format and a hard drive should have the better version, if not at least an equal version. That is not the case, and I'm pissed off, about it. I don't ask for the impossible. I know full well that a PS3 is far weaker than good gaming PC, but for what I payed, I expect a version that's at least equal to that of the technologically inferior, cheaper console. As for PCs, it depends on the PC, most certainly (people tend to forget that the PC is not a set platform). That's why there are settings both lower and higher than those of console versions with practically all multiplayer games on the PC. It varies, but those with decent gaming PCs most certainly have the upper advantage... or theoretically they should, as well. In the platform hierarchy, the weakest/weaker one/ones get/gets the most attention and the more capable one/ones may sometimes get a crappy port.

Well I don't think the PS3 is as strong as the 360 and I know that more people have a 360 so it makes sense that that's the better version right? if you like your PS3 that's cool but it makes sense if you think about it.