I'm still not sold on if I want this or not. Though there was a penny arcade comic last week or earlier this week that if they made the game, I would have to go wait in the cold for one.

 

Penny-Arcade comic.

Kotaku's summary of everything from today.

The funniest thing was watching, during the live blog, the anti-Nintendo trolls go from "It's a system with "exclusives" that everyone has already played on other systems" to full-on outrage that Bayonetta 2 is a Wii U exclusive.

Other details: games will be $59.99. The Japan release will not include a sensor bar but the US ones will. There will be extra Gamepads sold in Japan (for roughly half the cost of the system) but not in the US during the launch window.

Project P-100 has been given it's final title of The Wonderful 101.

Technical breakdown for the Wii U

Though the US launch day lineup wasn't announced, the European one was, so we can probably expect the US one to be very similar: New Super Mario Bros U, Nintendo Land, FIFA 13, ZombiU, Rayman Legends, Mass Effect 3, and Call of Duty Black Ops 2.

This is the full list of launch window releases (Nov through the end of Mar):

505 Games
Funky Barn

2K Sports
NBA 2K13

Activision Publishing, Inc.
007™ Legends
Call of Duty®: Black Ops II
TRANSFORMERS PRIME™
Wipeout 3
Skylanders Giants™
Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2013
Rapala Pro Bass Fishing

Capcom
Monster Hunter™ 3 Ultimate

D3Publisher
Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game
Ben 10: Omniverse™
Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade

Disney Interactive
Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two

Electronic Arts
Mass Effect™ 3
Madden NFL 13
EA SPORTS™ FIFA Soccer 13

Frozenbyte
Trine 2™: Director's Cut
Gaijin Games
Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien
Majesco Entertainment
Zumba® Fitness Core

Maximum Games
Jett Tailfin™

NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc.
TEKKEN TAG TOURNAMENT™ 2 Wii U Edition
TANK! TANK! TANK!™

Nintendo
Nintendo Land™
New Super Mario Bros.™ U
NINJA GAIDEN™ 3: Razor's Edge
SiNG PARTY™
LEGO® City: Undercover
Wii Fit™ U
Game & Wario™
Pikmin™ 3
The Wonderful 101™

SEGA
Aliens: Colonial Marines™
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
Shin'en Nano Assault Neo

Tecmo Koei America Corporation
WARRIORS OROCHI® 3 Hyper

THQ
Darksiders® II
Wheel of Fortune®
JEOPARDY! ®

Two Tribes
Toki Tori 2

Ubisoft
Assassin's Creed® III
Just Dance® 4
Marvel Avengers™: Battle for Earth
Rabbids® Land
Sports Connection™
Your Shape®: Fitness Evolved 2013
ZombiU™
Rayman Legends®

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Scribblenauts™ Unlimited
Game Party Champions
Batman: Arkham City™ Armored Edition


In addition to that, they also wet into a lot of detail on the new "Nintendo TVii" functionality that effectively turns the system into a central hub for your home entertainment and streaming services- with the added remote control, TIVO, live sports scoreboard, IMDB and wikipedia functionality built-in. Which is actually pretty cool-seeming and might actually have some edges on the XBL dashboard stuff.


Finally, they revealed the Boost-Rush Mode for NSMBU, which is essentially a built-in speed-run mode for best times/coins/other goals (dont touch the ground, etc) kinda like the comets in Galaxy.

 

I'll post this for those that don't reside in the US, it comes out in Europe/Australia/NZ on the 30th November.
AU$349.95 for the White Basic Model pack
AU$429.95 for the Black Premium Model pack

I'm definitely going to preorder the Black Premium model and currently "Window shopping" for which launch titles that I want to get.

That was unbelievable! The reactions to Bayonetta 2... someone even made a video on that. [warning...strong language from the people's reactions].

 

The funniest thing is, from what I've read, B2 wouldn't even exist if Nintendo hadn't saved it after Sega dumped it.


In related news: it's being reported that, just about 1 day after they started taking them, Gamestop is sold out of it's entire Wii-U preorder, nationwide (at least on the Deluxe model- however, it's expected they'll stop taking preorders on the Basic model within a day or so).

I put my pre-order down last night for a Deluxe (along with Zombi U...if I can get the cash together I'll grab NSMBU, but I'm not too worried about finding a copy of that one if it comes down to it- with the way Nintendo works, it'll still be a full price game for the next 5 years ).



But I also ended up with a Gamestop card, despite my better intentions.



(it lowered the required deposit on the system, so I allowed it)

 

That's exactly it, they should be happy that their series are continuing. I would hate to see the reaction if COD or Battlefield was made a Nintendo exclusive... (though Battlefield was almost a GCN exclusive at one point.)

Gamestop preorders are sold out in 1 day? I wonder how they are in Australia but I better place my preorder this weekend before it's too late. I'm leaning towards Assassin's Creed III... then have to decided between Arkham City, Zombi U, Epic Mickey 2 and NSWBU for after launch. I am curious about 007 Legends... but will wait closer to launch.

 

Yeah.. there's going to be a healthy choice of stuff to play this fall/winter.

Ah, who am I kidding, I'll still be catching up on GCN and PS2 games .

 

Going with the Deluxe is a no brainer- it would cost you more just to buy the basic and Nintendoland separately, and it would seem the premium DLC offer could potentially be worth the price alone, depending on how the percentages work out.

Plus, it seems like having a stand for the controller could be very useful for certain game setups (Black Ops 2, for example, allows you to play without using the Gamepad as your main controller, but you can still have the Gamepad active as a map screen while doing so- seems like proping that up on the table in front of you on a stand would be ideal for that).

That and I want the black color anyways .

They did sell Wii-branded GCN controllers (and maybe Wavebirds?) for awhile.

 

Namco has revealed their UK launch day titles (and downloadables), so we can once again extrapolate that they'll likely be in the US for launch as well. Alongside other confirmations, that brings the likely launch day list confirmed so far to be:

-Ben 10: Omniverse
-Call of Duty Black Ops 2
-Darksiders II
-Family Party: 30 Great Games: Obstacle Arcade
-FIFA 13
-Mass Effect 3
-Nano Assault Neo
-New Super Mario Bros U
-Nintendo Land
-Rayman Legends
-Scribblenauts Unlimited
-Tank! Tank! Tank!
-Tekken Tag Tournament 2
-Toki Tori 2
-Trine 2: Director's Cut
-ZombiU

 

You'll be able to transfer all your data from your Wii to your Wii U but you'll need both systems. Also, Wii games and VC titles wont be playable on the Gamepad screen.

No word on the next 3D Mario yet (and I think we can all agree that if it's not titled Super Mario Universe, it'll be a massively wasted opportunity ). Remember that even Mario Galaxy 1 didn't hit until a year after the Wii launched. NSMBU is the first new Mario game (2D or otherwise) to launch with a Nintendo console since the N64- even the GBA & DS only launched with ports of an existing game.

In other interesting news, Nintendo has entered into a partnership with the Unity engine, which will make indie development for the system much more accessible.

Other details recently revealed:

-The Gamepad will have a "best performance" range of 24 feet, but can go further under optimal conditions or with some performance loss..
-Nintendoland will not have online multiplayer, but will have some online connectivity features (not a surprise- the games are obviously designed to be played in the same room; don't think anyone expected them to be online multiplayer).

 

You can expand storage with external USB drives.

 

Of general Nintendo lore interest, Kotaku's got an article with some Mario questions. Most notably, the Koopalings have been retconned as not being Bowser's children and Bowser Jr's mother is still unknown (but I think we all know what happened there...).

 

News round-up:

Wii U Pro Controller will have an 80 hour battery life (3-4x as much as the 360 and PS3 controllers). It will also not be compatible with Wii games.

Though the quality is unknown, there is a gorgeous 3rd party Pro Controller coming out in Australia that looks like a 360 controller hugging an SNES pad (with the SFAM button colors):



Wii U Gamepad's latency is only 1/60th of a second, even in full HD on the TV) and 60 fps. It reconfirms that when games come out that utilize a second Gamepad, framerates will drop to 30 fps.

The time it takes to switch a game from TV play to Gamepad play has been timed a 3.5 seconds- and most of that time was due to the user's reaction time.

A Scribblenauts teaser hints at the inclusion of Nintendo characters in the upcoming releases. One of the user comments made the excellent observation that Paper Mario-styled characters would fit right in with the Scribblenauts style.

The company porting Mass Effect 3 to the Wii U is also rumored to be porting a AAA Square-Enix title. No other specifics other than it's a "big franchise". Tomb Raider is the front running speculation due to earlier TR rumors at E3, however, it could easily be something else.

The Wii has had a price drop to $129.99 and will be bundled with a wiimote+ w/nunchuck and both Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort on a new combo disc, as well as NSMBW & a music CD.

 

Apparently Nintendo has confirmed they'll be selling the Wii U at a loss, to keep the price within a range consumers would accept.

Which is unusual for the Big N, especially after the loss on the 3DS price cut (then again, maybe their success there motivated this strategy's application to the Wii U's launch, at least partially).

But it also makes me wonder- if the Big N had to take a loss on something only partially more powerful than current gen systems- what kind of hit will M$ & Sony be taking on their next systems, which will be even more powerful?

(granted, the Gamepad's screen and transmission speed put the Wii U's hardware cost at a disadvantage- but I think a lot of that gets balanced out by high end specs of the competitors)

 

The premium program has had some details revealed: when you purchase digital content (including eShop and download codes) with a Wii U premium system, you get 10 percent of the value back as credit to apply towards other purchases on 3DS or ii eShop (so, buying a full retail title like NSMBU would nab you the equivalent of $5 & change in credit). The program would run until the end of 2014.

 

Wii U FB Countdown. Has some sizle reels and other videos.

We also have the ad campaign launch video up:

 

Yeah, they can do better in that regard- though I don't think the video is too bad (the cube they show that actually has the 5 player game going on is kind of an exciting moment, actually).

I think the purpose of that video was to show the multiple possibilities of the Gamepad, as opposed to just specifically the asynchronous gameplay. Hopefully the next batch of commercials will spin off of this one and focus on specific examples for that.

 

There's only so much they can fit in 30 secs...

Also, EB Games Australia has said the cut off date for Wii U preorders is the 18th Nov... Just another 22 days from today before it comes out here.

A lot of content has gone up, from Nintendo account details (you can have 12 accounts on a system), further details behind the Miiverse and also about how to transfer your content from the Wii to the Wii U.

 

No more Friend Codes! w00t!