Nintendo confirms next Wii coming in 2012, will preview it at E3 and a playable model of which will be shown off at the E3 gaming expo in Los Angeles coming up on June 7th.No details are available as to how the next Wii will improve on the first one and the brief note publicizing the new roadmap also comes with a total of Wii sales accumulated between its launch in ’06 and the end of last month: 86.01 million………..
Nintendo confirmed that it plans to release a Wii successor in 2012 and in a three-paragraph note (PDF) issued this morning, the game company said it “has decided to launch in 2012 a system to succeed Wii.” Nintendo said it had sold 86.01 million Wiis since the console’s launch in 2006.A playable version of the new system, as well as its specs, will be unveiled at the giant E3 video game show in Los Angeles in June.The news should not come as a shock to industry observers. Rumors have been circulating for some time about a potential new Wii that could cost between $350 and $400. It was thought that the console could hit shelves as early as October. But Nintendo’s announcement would seem to throw cold water on that potential date.On Thursday, the game-focused site IGN reported that its sources were telling it that the next Wii was being code-named Project Cafe:
According to sources with knowledge of the project, Nintendo’s next console could have a retail price of anywhere between $350 and $400 based on manufacturing costs, and will ship from Taiwanese manufacturer, Foxconn, this October, putting the earliest possible retail release anywhere between mid-October and early November.
However, Nintendo could also opt to build up a sizable supply of the system and allocate more time for software and games development by launching in early 2012. Similarly, Nintendo could attempt to lower the retail price of the system with lower profit margins to make the price more alluring.
The company seems to have chosen the latter route, at least as far as the release date. If IGN‘s reasoning is correct, that decision could be because Nintendo doesn’t want customers to repeat the experience of previous years, when a Wii was nearly impossible to find in stores during the holiday season. On the other hand, it would be interesting for Nintendo to launch the Wii’s successor in early 2012. The original Wii was released in the fall (of 2006) as was Sony‘s PlayStation 3. Microsoft‘s Xbox 360 also came out in the fall, albeit of 2005. All three of those releases were timed to the holidays, and led to significant sales of the respective consoles.Nintendo did not address the specifications for the new system. But IGN seems to believe that the console will have a lot more horsepower than the existing Wii.
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