Don't confuse this with the other page, this Café has a dash above its "e."
Just when you thought all the rumors about an HD version of the Wii were done, Game Informer came out of no where with some new rumors to spark the flame. Soon, this whole thing spread across the internet like wildfire, but instead of dying down, more and more rumors came outta NOWHERE and the whole subject has no sight of stopping. Codenamed Project Café, the thing isn't even confirmed, but it's lookin' mighty reliable right about now.
History[]
Where can this all stem from? One delightful day when Game Informer posted an article saying that the successor to the Nintendo Wii and the company's next gaming device, was in development, with power that blows away competitors PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and has backwards compatibility with already existing Wii games. Sounded like everything we'd heard before. Except, get this, one more piece of info was included: The system would be showcased at the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo, or "E3." Thus, with this, the news spread to websites like IGN and GameFaqs, and a certain guy who made a blog for Nintendo 3DS went to cash in on the news.
Names like "Wii HD" were resurrected, with "Wii 2" and "Nintendo HD" also used. Of course, possibly the weirdest thing about the device... was its controller. Yes. Other websites started receiving information about the console as well, with conflicted reports about its control system. It is said to have motion control (ala Wiimote), while others say it's a regular controller (ala GameCube), and some say the thing has a 6-inch touch screen in the middle of it! Some even went so far as to make mock-ups of what they thought it looked like.
Surprisingly, Nintendo hasn't even come out to comment on the danged thing, and just stays in hiding. Meanwhile, numerous famous video game folks have teased it. E3's Twitter account asks if it could be, with a link to the GI article about the Wii HD, and then says to stay tuned for E3 2011. Project Sora (the development team that makes the Kid Icarus and Super Smash Bros. games) tweets in Japanese about if they'll ever get to make a game in HD. The developer of the Street Fighter games says that Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition for the 3DS will have some compatibility with a future system, but can't announce what that is. And IGN employees have also been toying with our minds.
Finally, a French website broke the ice, stating that the system's codename is "Project Café." How could a French website know of Japanese material, you ask? Well, French video game company Ubisoft is said to have a development kit of the device, along with companies like Retro Studios (of various Nintendo series fame), Square Enix (of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts fame), and Rockstar (of Grand Theft Auto fame) as well as Sega, Konami, Namco, and Capcom, so it is possible the website had collaborated with them. The system was also said to have power "just above the 360" as reported by the website, but then again, if the website HAD seen one of Ubisoft's game, it probably stunk and didn't show off the console's true powers. Because, come on, Ubisoft's launch titles for the 3DS sucked.
Retro Studios has been reported to be asking for employment to help with the making of some games, and a Sony employee is said to be working with Nintendo for help in the powers department, and to boot, Nintendo is said to be hiring to help with online. Such details seem to lead to the fact that Nintendo is trying to win back the hardcore audience who have often turned away from their games for their "Call of Duty" and so forth, and to truly lead us into the next generation of gaming. It is also reported to be "not a gimmick like the Wii", which I disagree with, as the Wii was never a gimmick to begin with, but hey, no one listens to me anyway.
So does this REALLY exist? Well, we'll only know when E3 comes. Or on April 26, when Nintendo holds a meeting in Japan, which is pretty likely as other sources have said Nintendo will make a pre-unveiling announcement at some point. So I guess then. But keep in mind that E3 2011 won't be ALL devoted to the Wii HD when Nintendo comes on. That'll probably be a small part of it, and the rest will be devoted to the Nintendo 3DS. After all, that IS supposed to be Nintendo's main focus until late 2012 when the console is rumored to come out. Though some folks say it'll come out either late 2011 or early 2012, you can take the whole thing with a grain of salt.
As for what the thing will look like, well, it's said the thing will have a figure similar to that of the Xbox 360. Also, it will look like a modernized version of the SNES, which seems interesting. And the system will be based on AMD’s R700 GPU architecture, and the CPU? A custom-built triple-core IBM PowerPC chipset, but the clocking speeds will be faster. Whatever that means. Oh, and it seems that of the final names considered for the console is "Stream." Can you imagine that? "Nintendo Stream"? It makes sense what with the controller supposed streaming content from the TV to the screen on itself, but it doesn't sound right. Besides, think of all the pee jokes you can make with that. As if "Wii" wasn't enough, they can crack jokes like "all the Wii flowing into a stream" or something.
Also, some say that the price of the system will probably be from $269 to $349 while others say $300 to $400. Also, Shigeru Miyamoto, one of the big hot shots at Nintendo and creator of the Mario, Link, Metroid, Kirby, Star Fox, etc. series, says that Nintendo is always working on new tech. Could this mean the system is real? He also goes onto to say they'll unveil what they're making when they want to. He has also apparently heard the rumors about Café, but won't exactly confirm it. He also claims that it takes five years to make interesting R & D. He finishes that you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet, which is some advice I'd like to take, but the inner gamer within me says "To heck with that."
Project Café is Confirmed![]
It was only a matter of time before rumors became reality. And so it begins.
Let's start with "WarioWorld.com", Nintendo's official site for developers and such. Here, I suppose official Nintendo employees develop stuff and whatnot. Anyway, for whatever system you develop for, you must go to that system's URL. So, for example, if you were developing something Wii-related, you'd go to https://www.warioworld.com/wii/, log in, and do your stuff. However, in the case of DS and 3DS, the URLs are https://www.warioworld.com/nitro/ (DS) and https://www.warioworld.com/ctr/ (3DS). Why is this? Because "Nitro" and "CTR" were the codenames for DS and 3DS respectively.
Now say you were to put in some cruddy URL, like say, https://www.warioworld.com/cruddyurl/ . You'd be taken to a 404 Error page, WITHOUT the log-in screen. Now, type in https://www.warioworld.com/cafe/ . Boom, you're taken to a log-in page. Coincidence? No, it just leaves us with further confirmation that "Café" is the official codename for Nintendo's next console. And it helps that the image seen at the top right with Wario from the same website says "Cafe Advance Support", furthering the fact that that's the true codename.
And just recently, Nintendo sent out a press release confirming that they are releasing a system to succeed the Wii in 2012, and that it will be unveiled AND playable at the Experimental Electronics Expo (E3) 2011 on June 7-9 in Los Angeles. So, now that Nintendo has finally given in, we know that the thing exists and will come out. I say, mission accomplished! We stuck through it all, worked together, and eventually, we came out victorious. This calls for a good ol' pat on the back.
However, that's ALL they said. They didn't specify WHAT the thing did, what its controller looked like, or what its real name was! Well, looks like we'll just have to look onto E3 for more juicy information.