Nintendo Reveals Wii U Console [UPDATE] News

Had you not been paying scrupulous attention during Nintendo's E3 press conference, then you might have been left with the sneaking suspicion that the platform holder was trying to pass off a new controller for the Wii (albeit a highly advanced one) as a new home console called the Wii U.

Not so, game lovers. It turns out that in addition to the rather fancy looking, HD touch-screen enabled controller that Nintendo spent all of its presentation showing off, the Wii U will also incorporate improved hardware in the form of a dedicated new console as well (console pictured above-right courtesy of Joystiq, Wii U controller shown below-left).

It seems Nintendo wasn't keen on detailing, or even showing this part of the Wii U during its reveal, which led to some confusion across Twitter in the conference's immediate wake.

As a result, hardware specifications for the Wii U console itself are thin on the ground at the moment, although numerous core titles have been attached to the platform already including (but not limited to):

• Tekken
• DiRT
• Batman: Arkham City
• Darksiders II
• Ghost Recon Online
• Assassin's Creed
• Metro Last Light
• Aliens: Colonial Marines
• Ninja Gaiden 3

EA's CEO, John Riccitiello took to the stage at one point to underscore the publisher's commitment to the new platform with its EA Sports catalogue as well as a hint that Battlefield 3 might arrive on the console too. All of this appears to indicate that the Wii U can easily hold its own against the Xbox 360 and PS3 in the hardware stakes.

As far as first-party Nintendo games are concerned, the highlight of the conference came when Satoru Iwata, the company's President teased the prospect of a cross-platform compatible Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS.

Although very little is known about the console, the Wii U controller was thoroughly detailed by Nintendo. A gyroscope and accelerometer will incorporate motion controls into the device, while an HD touch-screen can be used by players to interact directly with games that are in-play on their TV screens.

Examples include placing the controller on top of a Wii Zapper peripheral and using it as a scope, or flicking ninja stars from the surface of the controller screen onto targets displayed on the TV.

Through wireless communication between the controller and console, players can also leave the game on their TV and take it with them on the Wii U's built-in screen.

Two analogue sticks, two shoulder and trigger buttons each, face buttons, and a d-pad make up a fairly core-friendly button array, while rumble feedback, a microphone, camera, and speakers have also been confirmed for the controller.

Update: A Nintendo press release has now detailed further info on Wii U, including a 6.2 inch size for the controller's screen that will display full 1080p HD graphics. Nintendo also confirmed that the Wii U will be backwards compatible with all Wii titles and can be played with up to four Wii Remote/Wii Remote Plus controllers.

Product specifications on the Wii U console itself remain under wraps.

Update 2: In some further details on the Wii U controller that we didn't manage to fit into the original article, it will be able to play games entirely by itself (a 2 player game of Reversi was shown) and footage from a trailer also showed the controller being used for web browsing and video calls.