E3 2012: Nintendo Reveals MiiVerse and New Pro Controller for Wii-U

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E3 2012: Nintendo Reveals MiiVerse and New Pro Controller for Wii-U

Post by Dan @ 09:17am 04/06/12 | 8 Comments

As promised, Nintendo's Pre-E3 conference hosted by company President Satoru Iwata out of their Kyoto headquarters, heralded some new details on their upcoming new console, locking in the final look of the device and it's tablet controller and revealing some new features.

The tablet control's final design confirms the recent leaked photo that showed the wireless touch-screen device with two larger analogue sticks. It also confirmed that the controller would have Near Field Communication (NFC) support, which had also been hinted at in a recent leaked trailer for Ubisoft's Rayman: Legends.

Iwata reiterated that the existing Wii peripherals including the Wii-Remote, Nunchuck and Balance Board would all be compatible with Wii-U, before taking a moment to reveal a new "Pro Controller" (pictured below) -- a new input device no-doubt aimed at attracting more multi-platform games to Wii-U given its shameless resemblance to an Xbox 360 controller.

On the software side, the presentation revealed MiiVerse, a social-networking service that will be integrated into the console's operating system offering many of the features similar to Xbox Live or the Steam overlay but with more of a Twitter-like blogging focus.

If you missed it, you can watch the full conference video embedded below.

Details on Wii-U and 3DS games will follow in a couple of days from Nintendo's E3 media briefing in Los Angeles.

nintendo wii-u e3 2012

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tspec
Posted 09:31am 04/6/12

I found the whole thing fairly underwhelming tbh, the social factor doesn't really interest me and being able to use the WiiU tablet as a TV Remote and Web Browser isn't really ground breaking, the controller is nice though. Hoping for more on Tuesday.

One thing that didn't seem to be mentioned (haven't watched the conference but was following the live blogs) is that image of the new Wii controller appears to have a usb connector on the top, does this mean I can finally ditch the AA batteries and charge via USB like I've been able to do on the PS3 for the last 5yrs? Hope so.

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Icarus
Posted 09:47am 04/6/12

I don't think it's fair to call that pro controller a shameless resemblance. It's like you want another n64 control or something! I reckon if the left and right triggers were parallel to the uh.. 'bumpers' you would have called it a shameless ps3-xbox hybrid! And if anything, it's a reverse playstation controller with an xbox body. I guess we'll see how that works out when it's in our own hands. :s

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Eorl
Posted 09:56am 04/6/12

I'd like to point out that this conference was merely a showing of current design as well as the social aspects. The next few days will be more geared at the Wii U inside tech and the games available on the system.

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Mantorok
Posted 10:07am 04/6/12

There hasn't been any majorly different gamepads since the Dreamcast and GameCube.

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Linker
Posted 10:15am 04/6/12

Yeah like eorl said in the other thread, the 360 controller was very much copied from the gcn controller first.

It's great they have this out of the way so they can now dedicate the whole conference on tuesday to games, if a little disappointing that they're gonna skip any details on new 3ds stuff. I guess they'll put up a new Nintendo Direct at some time to cover the 3ds.

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Dan
Posted 11:01am 04/6/12

It really wasn't. The original gamecube controller and even the much-preferred wavebird were both still rather awkward designs with a fisher-price style appearance.

The 360 controller was an evolution of the original xbox controller S, which was a slimed down version of the original controller which was an amalgamation/evolution of the concepts of a whole bunch of previous controllers -- it much more resembled some of the Logitech and other PC control pads of the time.

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FSCB
Posted 10:42pm 04/6/12

I agree that the xbox controller was an amalgamation of previous controller designs, but the major contribution and design difference of the xbox is that it has the L analogue stick positioned top left so that your thumb is straight and not cramped inwards like it was with N64 and even PS. The rest of the design is similar to previous controllers, and similar to PS.

Personal side note: However PS does seem to have the weirdest design choices: sticks with convex curved surfaces = thumbs slip off, both analogue sticks are positioned closer to the palms= major cramming, half-triggers = lack of "sensitivity" more like an on/off button.
But controllers are a very individual thing...everyone likes em different.

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