For those of you who continue to ask Det. David Mills-style questions like “what’s in the box?!” about the Wii U, a few more details have trickled out since yesterday’s unveiling at Nintendo’s E3 press conference. In addition to the previously revealed hardware specifications, we now know that the console’s “proprietary high-density optical discs” will hold 25 GB of data — the same as a single-layer Blu-ray Disc, the optical medium of choice for the PlayStation 3. (Whether the Wii U will read Blu-ray Discs, or even DVDs, remains unclear at this juncture.)
Along with that news came the announcement from microprocessor manufacturer AMD that it will be providing the graphics chip inside the Wii U. Aside from calling it a “custom AMD Radeon HD GPU” with a “modern and rich graphics processing core” that will deliver “high-definition graphics support; rich multimedia acceleration and playback; and multiple display support,” the company gave no further details. This marks the continuation of a decade-long Nintendo/ATI/AMD partnership (AMD acquired ATI in 2006): ATI also designed the GPUs for the GameCube and Wii.
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has also confirmed that the Wii U will feature no backward compatibility with GameCube games or accessories. Considering the proprietary connector on GameCube controllers, that’s not surprising. However, he did announce during Nintendo’s press conference that the console will support all Wii games and accessories, including the Wii Remote and Classic Controller.
Wii U Discs Will Be 25GB In Size [Kotaku via GamesIndustry.biz]
Farewell, GameCube, the Wii U Doesn’t Play You [Kotaku]
