High Def Wii "Upgrade" in '10?

PostHigh Def Wii "Upgrade" in '10? by **jpatez** » Sat May 02, 2009 10:54 am

From Gamespot:

Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter tells investors to expect a high-definition version of Nintendo's console next year, but believes publisher investment will put off next hardware generation.

Although Sony's PlayStation 2 is holding up remarkably well nine years on, game-console life cycles traditionally last around four to five years. However, if one of the leading US game-industry analysts is to be believed, the current crop of consoles won't be succeeded as soon as their forbearers.

Although the Xbox 360 was released in 2005 and the Wii and PlayStation 3 arrived in 2006, Wedbush Morgan Securities' Michael Pachter said that we shouldn't expect truly new consoles in 2010 or 2011. "We do not expect the 'next' generation to begin before 2013, if at all," he said. The latter part of his comment may be in reference to new technologies that may disrupt the console model, such as the OnLive cloud-computing game network revealed at this year's Game Developers Conference.

"We remain convinced that the publishers will resist the introduction of any video game hardware technology that requires a refresh of software, as the publishers have as yet to capitalize on the immense investments made in being competitive in the current cycle," Pachter continued.

"We therefore think it is likely that the 'next' generation will begin after 2013, meaning that software sales are likely to grow by a compounded annual rate of 6-10 percent for another five years. Because R&D costs are likely to flatten out with the benefits of a learning curve, we expect earnings leverage as the publishers are able to exploit R&D investments. In brief, we think that investors have it wrong so far this cycle, and think that investment in video game publishers will bear fruit for many years."

One thing Pachter does expect next year, though, is "the long-rumored high-definition Wii, which is likely to upgrade the Wii to current console technology." Last year, similar rumors circulated about a HD Wii, but those pegged the device as arriving in 2011.

About bloody time, although alot of the comments under this story reckon Nintendo should be focusing on the new Motion Plus control, instead of upgrading the console.
Your thoughts please.

PostRe: High Def Wii "Upgrade" in '10? by **HSH28** » Sat May 02, 2009 11:11 am

A load of guess work.

Can't see it myself.
How many here would upgrade to a Hi-Def Wii?
Personally speaking..... no.
And I don't think it's that much of a factor to the masses who are picking them up.
If Nintendo really wanted to push sales further a dramatic sub £100 price cut would have a far more beneficial effect.

I suppose it would depend if there was anything else thrown into the box alongside it.
An integral HDD, for example, might make me think again.

Wont happen. The Wii does 480P, I can't see the need for any more.

Yorkcityknight wrote:Can't see it myself.
How many here would upgrade to a Hi-Def Wii?
Personally speaking..... no.
And I don't think it's that much of a factor to the masses who are picking them up.
If Nintendo really wanted to push sales further a dramatic sub £100 price cut would have a far more beneficial effect.

I suppose it would depend if there was anything else thrown into the box alongside it.
An integral HDD, for example, might make me think again.

Well Wii sales are cooling off, especially in Japan. Nintendo would rather iterate in the hardware than cut prices - like they've done with the DS lite and the DSi.

I imagine a new Wii would follow similar lines - i.e. essentially the same hardware but HD (possibly just upscaling), more internal storage, integrated Motion Plus, a variety of available colours etc.

I doubt HD will be the only upgrade in the new revision.

Nintendo could just release another colour to pick up sales :lol:

I mean white? FFS, I wanted the red one I saw at E3 all those years ago.

PostRe: High Def Wii "Upgrade" in '10? by **Ario** » Sat May 02, 2009 12:53 pm

Fatal Exception wrote:Nintendo could just release another colour to pick up sales I mean white? FFS, I wanted the red one I saw at E3 all those years ago.

They looked pretty decent back before it was called Wii, I would have gone for the black one over the white one given the choice.
It's also criminal that the blue light isn't on when you play.

Back on topic, it's not going to happen, if anything it'll just be a production line with an upscaling chip, I doubt there would be any HD software.

There's no market for a HD Wii. Anyone who cares enough is probably not going to be in Nintendo's target audience.

Extralife wrote:There's no market for a HD Wii. Anyone who cares enough is probably not going to be in Nintendo's target audience.

This.
Think about Nintendo's advertising strategy.
Right from the off they have shown more footage of people playing the games than of the games themselves.
The player interaction is what drags most people in not necessarily what is happening on the screen.

Therefore, yes it's a load of bollox.

Either that or people who buy an HD Wii will end up connecting it with SCART anyway.

Just look at how many people who have Sky HD connected with SCART and HDMI, then don't realise that they're watching in SD.

Fishfingers wrote:Either that or people who buy an HD Wii will end up connecting it with SCART anyway.

Just look at how many people who have Sky HD connected with SCART and HDMI, then don't realise that they're watching in SD.

HDMI is SD?

Extralife wrote:
Fishfingers wrote:Either that or people who buy an HD Wii will end up connecting it with SCART anyway.

Just look at how many people who have Sky HD connected with SCART and HDMI, then don't realise that they're watching in SD.

HDMI is SD?

It can be, but many Sky engineers connect the boxes using both HDMI and SCART at the same time. Great when you boot it up and select the correct input, but because SCART can send a signal to the TV to tell it to tune to its input, then people end up watching via SCART instead.

I've been to at least one friend's house who's been doing this and even more infuriatingly I've been to many others where people have their regular Sky boxes set to 4:3 picture output on their 16:9 TV.

PostRe: High Def Wii "Upgrade" in '10? by **rinks** » Sat May 02, 2009 3:07 pm

Why does everything that Michael Pachter says get reported? I wonder if anyone has ever checked back on all his predictions, to see how accurate he is.

PostRe: High Def Wii "Upgrade" in '10? by **Mafro** » Sat May 02, 2009 3:10 pm

Yorkcityknight wrote:Can't see it myself.
How many here would upgrade to a Hi-Def Wii?
Personally speaking..... no.

I would. if a new Wii came out that:

had more internal memory
motion plus built into the remote
can render at a higher resolution
has HDMI output

then I'd definitely buy it.

I could see Nintendo doing SOMETHING. The Wii looks pretty shoddy on cheap HDTV's, which are rapidly becoming Nintendo's target market. But at the same time, I doubt an upgrade because all that does is split said market.

PostRe: High Def Wii "Upgrade" in '10? by **Raide** » Sat May 02, 2009 4:36 pm

TheTurnipKing wrote:I could see Nintendo doing SOMETHING. The Wii looks pretty shoddy on cheap HDTV's, which are rapidly becoming Nintendo's target market. But at the same time, I doubt an upgrade because all that does is split said market.

Nintendo are the king of selling people upgrades/add-ons that they don't actually think they need...yet. :lol:

It worked with the DS>DSLite>DSi and people flocked to hand in their old DS to get the new one, so expect Nintendo to make some tweaks and repackage it and send it onto the shelves.

I might but then I don't have a HDTV.

Raide wrote:
TheTurnipKing wrote:I could see Nintendo doing SOMETHING. The Wii looks pretty shoddy on cheap HDTV's, which are rapidly becoming Nintendo's target market. But at the same time, I doubt an upgrade because all that does is split said market.

Nintendo are the king of selling people upgrades/add-ons that they don't actually think they need...yet.

It worked with the DS>DSLite>DSi and people flocked to hand in their old DS to get the new one, so expect Nintendo to make some tweaks and repackage it and send it onto the shelves.

The absolute success of the DSi remains to be seen.

I bet the Wii HD, will be inferior compared to the Xbox 720 and PS4 anyway.

PostRe: High Def Wii "Upgrade" in '10? by **rinks** » Sat May 02, 2009 6:04 pm

With incisive analysis like that, it seems like Pachter has a rival.

High Def Wii "Upgrade" in '10?

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