What Will Nintendo's Wii 2 Console Pack Underneath the Hood?

Posted 04/22/2011 at 6:14am | by Paul Lilly

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Out of all the modern game consoles, none is in need of an upgrade more than Nintendo's Wii. It doesn't have a hard drive, the online multiplay sucks, it can't do Full HD, and the graphics look dated compared to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. A recent price cut, along with another rumored cut next month, prompted speculation that a Wii 2 is in the works and could be released as early as this summer. That's all well and good, but what kind of upgrades can we expect?

According to news and rumor site Fudzilla, the Wii 2 is going to pack an IBM tri-core PowerPC processor clocked at the same speed as the Xbox 360, and perhaps a little bit faster. As for the graphics, Nintendo is again turning to AMD, which will supply a chip from its ATI R700 family with at least 512MB of video memory. Expect performance to be about the same as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and perhaps even a little better.

Fudzilla says Nintendo might also unveil a revised controller with a high definition touchscreen. Less clear, however, is how Nintendo plans to attack storage needs. According to Fudzilla, Nintendo still doesn't want to implement a hard drive and prefers sticking with flash memory, but high costs could prevent Nintendo from doing so.

While it's likely the Wii 2 will be a high definition device, don't hold your breath hoping for a Blu-ray drive. Simply put, it's not happening. Other than that, it looks like we'll have to wait until E3 before finding out for sure what exactly Nintendo has planned for its second generation Wii console.