Wii U gets hardcore franchise mentions

Nintendo announced several "hardcore" franchises coming to Wii U, including: Darksiders 2, Batman: Arkham City, Ghost Recon Online, Dirt, Tekken, Ninja Gaiden 3, and Assassin's Creed.

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Nintendo announced at its E3 press briefing several "hardcore" franchises and games coming to the Wii U console. Among the named titles in the teaser video were Darksiders 2, Batman: Arkham City, Ghost Recon Online, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Metro: Last Light, Dirt, Tekken, and Ninja Gaiden 3. Ubisoft's Yves Guillemot also mentioned Assassin's Creed, but didn't specify a particular game.

Nintendo's press conference is still ongoing. Shacknews will update as more information becomes available.

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  • reply
    June 7, 2011 10:12 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Wii U gets hardcore franchise mentions.

    Nintendo announced several "hardcore" franchises coming to Wii U, including: Darksiders 2, Batman: Arkham City, Ghost Recon Online, Dirt, Tekken, Ninja Gaiden 3, and Assassin's Creed.

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      June 7, 2011 10:22 AM

      Did they keep their promise and appeal to the hardcore and support Devs more?

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        June 7, 2011 11:00 AM

        You don't understand.

        They are focusing on casual games. But they are focusing on hardcore games.
        They're also focusing on first-party devs, and they're focusing on third-party devs.

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      June 7, 2011 10:28 AM

      I told u u was hardcore

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      June 7, 2011 10:31 AM

      Well I am underwhelmed. A new console that looks like it is just as powerful as a PS3 or 360. I am assuming the controller will cost an arm and a leg, as they only ever showed one person holding the new controller (i.e. you are expected to use wii remotes for the rest it seems). The controller is not enough to sell the system to me.

      With Sony and Microsoft probably releasing their next consoles holiday 2013, I think I will pass on this one. My Wii already has its job as dust collector, don't need another one.

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        June 7, 2011 10:34 AM

        I wouldn't bank on that 2013 date. We haven't really heard much about the next gen hardware. Sony has said that it won't spend as much on development, so I don't expect much more than an incremental improvement from them. MS hasn't said anything, but I think we're probably reaching a point where R&D costs meet declining profitability. Nintendo could easily extend the life of the Wii U with minor tweaks if the next gen hardware isn't truly remarkable.

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          June 7, 2011 10:36 AM

          Hasn't MS always said that the 360 was going to be a 10 year console? Maybe they're backing away from that now, but that's what I always heard.

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            June 7, 2011 10:38 AM

            I think it was Sony that said that.

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              June 7, 2011 10:39 AM

              They've both said that, but remember the 10 year span for the PS2 overlapped with the PS3 release by a couple of years.

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              June 7, 2011 10:42 AM

              ^^^ This. Sony initially claimed the PS3 would be their main home console offering until 2016. Obviously things have changed quite a bit since the original release, and I think they revised it back a bit. Wouldn't expect to see a PS successor until at least 2014. Depending on Vita sales and integration, maybe even longer.

              360 on the other hand is gonna need to start shaping up quick. Hardware is showing it's age now.

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                June 7, 2011 11:33 AM

                2013 introduction, Sony releases holiday in Japan for 2013, releasing in North America in May 2014. For whatever reason Sony enjoys releasing consoles in the spring for North America.

                So when do you see the introduction in North America? Microsoft will want to be in their second holiday season when Sony releases their next console. With Halo 4 being announced for the 360 essentially, that leaves 2013 at the earliest. Will I be ready to pay for a new console in 2013, I think so. If the Wii U sells like the Wii did, you can almost guarantee that Sony and Microsoft will introduce in 2013 e3 with a release date sometime later. If the Wii U doesn't sell, maybe then they will hold off.

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          June 7, 2011 10:56 AM

          All I am expecting is more ram on everything, a faster processor, and probably blu-ray for all consoles (if Microsoft can just swallow their pride and license the bloody thing). The developers are pushing the systems pretty hard right now, and sure they are going to find ways to squeeze another cycle or two out of processors but there isn't much more they can do. So it makes sense to give the respective consoles a boost.

          Combine that with Sony and Microsoft wanting to ensure the Wii-U which will sell regardless of what I think, doesn't eat too much into their marketshare and a 2013 release makes sense in my mind.

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        June 7, 2011 10:39 AM

        Visual tech demo exceeded my expectations and the limitations of the 360 in particular by a far shot. Geometry and depth shaders, contrast based lighting, multilayered shaders and subsurf scattering, pixel shaders all demonstrated. Controller likely to cost an arm and a leg, yes, but I dare say the console itself will undercut competition significantly with full out-of-the-box backwards compatibility.

        I'm interested to see how it fares. Presence of EA pres on stage during Keynote hinting nonspecifically was interesting.

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          June 7, 2011 10:47 AM

          Perhaps you should wait and see "real" game play footage before getting too excited about the system's capabilities. I'm not saying that it won't be that good but none of the footage shown looked like actual game footage running on the system. My guess is that what was shown was "target" footage since they won't even have a single in-development game at the show, just tech demos.

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            June 7, 2011 5:47 PM

            That was still an interactive demo running on hardware. Several journalists have commented on getting to try it and moving the camera around.

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          June 7, 2011 10:57 AM

          [deleted]

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          June 7, 2011 11:31 AM

          I read this using Morden Solis's voice and it made sense.

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        June 7, 2011 11:04 AM

        Well considering they said it will render at 1080p and hardly any 360/PS3 games render above 720p, it definately has more power then those consoles.

        Hopefully some additional info will be released regarding the specs.

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          June 7, 2011 11:17 AM

          Tech demos are nice, but the games they showed, Ninja Gaiden, Darksiders 2, Ghost Recon and espicially Tekken did not strike me as ushering in a new console generation. I am only assuming though that they were taken from the games running on Nintendo hardware.

          • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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            June 7, 2011 11:51 AM

            Remember the 360?

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              June 7, 2011 12:17 PM

              Actually I am remembering Sony and the Killzone 2 demo. Thing looked amazing at the time and they came pretty close. I was expecting something along the lines of the Samaritan demo that Epic did for the next console cycle for tech demos. The bird while pretty, didn't look realtime and didn't get me excited for what this console can do. The fact they showed games like Darksiders 2 and Tekken and left out Batman makes me wonder if that slice of video was taken from a development build of the games. If not, and the graphics can exceed what a PS3 or 360 can do, I might be more excited. Right now from their big reveal, it just looks like what we have grown used to. Uncharted 3 demo impressed me more than the bird tech demo, but that might just be me.

              • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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                June 7, 2011 12:20 PM

                Uh, you mean the Killzone 2 trailer that was 100% fake pre-rendered footage? Nintendo tends to be fairly grounded in reality. When the 360 came out, the majority of games it had were literally ports from the PS2/GCN versions that only looked marginally better.

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                  June 7, 2011 12:27 PM

                  Yes that one, when they showed it side by side of what they claimed it was going to do, what they actually achieved was pretty impressive in itself. But that is the key difference. It made me want the system with that tech demo. As far as the release of the 360, now I remember how bad those games were. With that said though, I don't remember their tech demos or their promises what their system could do. Part of it if I remember correctly was that they abruptly stopped supporting the original X-Box and forced all the developers to support their new system.

                  Kotaku has a video of Zelda HD which actually looks impressive. I have no idea why they didn't show that off on stage. That looks fairly impressive. Showing off real time lighting and other neat things.

                  • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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                    June 7, 2011 12:30 PM

                    Would it help if I told you that Reggie himself was actually a real time holographic projection made possible by the incredible power of the Wii U?

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                      June 7, 2011 12:38 PM

                      OMG that is awesome! I didn't know it did 3D let alone holographic projection!! ;)

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                June 7, 2011 6:52 PM

                Those games were the 360/PS3 versions, not development bits on Wii U

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          June 7, 2011 12:08 PM

          I never heard Nintendo claim it'll render at 1080p. All they said is, "HD Graphics" ... No specifics were even mentioned in the event..

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        June 7, 2011 11:32 AM

        [deleted]

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          June 7, 2011 11:35 AM

          Did you see the games they showed? Or are you just trolling?

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          June 7, 2011 12:22 PM

          It makes sense to be critical of bullshit marketing. In case it isn't obvious to you, Nintendo would sell ice to eskimos if they thought they could get away with it.

          They gave barely any details. You can choose to believe that somehow the Wii U is ten times as awesome as what they showed and be wowed (What they want you to believe,) or you can use caution and not be impressed by their inability to prove that this system will not only compete with current gen, but next gen hardware consoles.

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      June 7, 2011 10:42 AM

      but some of those games will be available this year and the wii-fu wont be around till next year so most people who would be interested would have played it by then

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      June 7, 2011 10:59 AM

      The new controller looks downright silly from a ergonomics perspective. Looks like it'd tire you out holding that big plank for long periods.

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      June 7, 2011 11:02 AM

      [deleted]

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        June 7, 2011 11:03 AM

        Yep. He said something at the beginning of the conference about how they came up with "Wii" which meant "We" and so this device would be about "you".

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          June 7, 2011 11:59 AM

          The Reggie rhetoric was so cringe worth. The message was more like "this is still about we... but it's also about you! So WII U"

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          June 7, 2011 12:06 PM

          "Wii" came up with a name that "U" are gonna love!

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        June 7, 2011 12:01 PM

        My feeling: Wii "U"pdate.

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        June 7, 2011 1:26 PM

        In the GT interview Reggie said something about "Utopia".

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        June 7, 2011 1:46 PM

        Wii and U, and U and Wii
        No matter how U toss the dice, It's meant for Wii
        The only thing for Wii is U, and U for Wii
        So happy together!

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        June 7, 2011 6:45 PM

        "U'll buy it no matter what we call it."

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      June 7, 2011 11:04 AM

      Dirt or Dirt 3? cuz Dirt 3 would be impressive, Dirt 1 not so much.

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      June 7, 2011 11:55 AM

      Battlefield 3 better have commander mode on the Wii U, or at least let me target Predator strikes from it!

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        June 7, 2011 12:05 PM

        this would be bad ass, everyone will want to be commander

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          June 7, 2011 12:18 PM

          That sounds awesome.

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          June 7, 2011 7:03 PM

          An interview has revealed that everyone already is a commander. There is no dedicated commander role...everyone has access to commander-like abilities.

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      June 7, 2011 12:04 PM

      It will become outdated when the next gen consoles come from microsoft and sony. At that point all of the devs making "hardcore" games will ditch the Wii U just like they did the Wii.

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        June 7, 2011 12:27 PM

        If Sony is telling publishers that their engines will work on the Vita and the PS3, maybe that phenomenon isn't happening anymore.

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      June 7, 2011 12:25 PM

      WHOA NINJA GAIDEN on a Nintendo system again? o{I still won't buy it but that's nice.}o

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      June 7, 2011 1:49 PM

      Are we supposed to believe that 3rd party games will be a success this time? How many times has this been tried and failed? All the best to the 3rd party publishers but I don't see it.

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      June 7, 2011 5:42 PM

      Mass Effect: U

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      June 7, 2011 6:01 PM

      It's U.

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