A while back, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said the new design of the MacBook Air was meant to look like what would happen if an iPad 
and a MacBook mated. Now Nintendo's updated game console may appear to some as the product of an iPad that hooked up with a Wii.
The Wii U was launched Tuesday by Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, known as E3, at the Los Angeles Conference Center. Taking wireless control and motion-sensing to a new level, the Wii U's controller is a 6.2-inch touchscreen device similar to a tablet computer . In addition to touch input, the controller supports interaction with classic action buttons, and it's also equipped with a directional pad, a microphone, a front-facing camera and a gyroscope.
The Wii U will display games in high definition and allow a game to be switched from TV display to the touchscreen.
Long Wait
The Wii U will be backward compatible with games from its Wii predecessor, but it won't be available until next year. Nintendo didn't even give a specific time frame, saying between April and December. The price, too, is up in the air for now.
News about the tablet controller and high-definition display was leaked by gaming sites back in April. Some speculated that the refresh would support 3D play, but for now the Japanese game giant seems to be investing only in its portable player, 3DS, for three-dimensional images.
The Wii is the top-selling video -game platform worldwide, but has been losing ground. Units shipped slipped from 24.8 million in 2008 to 22.5 million in 2009 and 17.2 million last year.
At the same time, Microsoft's Xbox shipments grew from 10.2 million in 2009 to 12.1 million last year, while Sony shipped 14.35 million PlayStations last year, up from 12.46 million in 2009, according to figures released by the companies.
New Life?
Nintendo seems to be banking on the soaring tablet market fueled by the iPad craze to reach new audiences and spur some upgrading among current Wii customers.
"With touchscreen interfaces being all the rage, the new Wii U seems interesting," said Charles King of Pund-IT . "I was particularly intrigued by the inclusion of an accelerometer and gyroscope, which could be leveraged in any number of game scenarios."
King said it will be interesting to see what developers come up with for the device.
"On its surface, a handheld technology like the Wii U -- along with previous Wii controllers -- doesn't seem as seamlessly usable as Microsoft's Kinect, so the device's success will depend largely on the imagination and innovation of Nintendo developers. They obviously enjoyed significant success with the original Wii, and I'm sure they'll give the Wii U a good shot. But whether or not there's still life in handheld controllers is a question whose answer is up for grabs."
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