Nintendo Announces Wii U

Nintendo's new home console, the Wii U, has been announced. The star of the announcement is the WII U Controller, a joypad that looks like the love child of a Dreamcast VMU that's been down the gym and mated with a Nintendo DS.

What we know so far (Nintendo's brainwashing video after our notes).

-Wii U console is around the same size as the existing Wii console and has a slot for optical media. Wii backwards compatibility unknown.

-Wii U has HDMI, S-Video and composite video output, with support for 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p, and 480i resolutions

-The Wii U comes with a Wii U controller which sports 16:9 aspect ratio 6.2inch/15.7cm screen in controller that can be used as secondary screen for alternative in game views.

-The Wii U controller can also be used as the main gameplay screen if the rest of your house want to watch TV.

-The Wii U Controller's 6.2 inch/15.7cm screen is touch screen, but at present we don't know if the screen supports HD resolutions.

-Front facing video camera above the Wii U Controller touch screen for video calls.

-Motion sensors are built into the Wii U controller, yet it's power source is unknown.

-Wiimote and Wii balance board still used for some games.

-The Wii U is due for release in 2012.

- I want one. Jonathan Cronin, CeX Towers, webuy.com