Wii U: Nintendo President Says Inviting to All Kinds of Gamers

The experience enabled by Wii U and the new controller takes players deeper into their games, while reaching out wider than ever before to be inviting to all kinds of gamers, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said while introducing Wii U, the successor of its worldwide mega-hit video game console.

During the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, Nintendo finally revealed the details of its long-awaited the next generation Wii console, the Wii U, featured by a 6.2 inch touch-screen controller.

Wii U is Nintendo's first console that supports HD graphics, providing its gamers not only with high-quality and powerful graphics on the TV, but also with the full gaming experience on the Wii U's mobile screen by featuring an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a rumble feature, a microphone, speakers and an inward-facing camera.

Iwata stressed Wii U redefines the structure of home entertainment by fundamentally changing how the TV, the game console and the Internet function and interact together at the event.

Users can play games with touch-screen control, but it still has classic control scheme such as two analog Circle Pads, + Control Pad, A/B/X/Y buttons, L/R buttons, and ZL/ZR buttons. These features are aimed to attract “core users.”

Wii U also interacts between itself and the TV through the internet and has a video calling function.

At the press event, Nintendo of America President, Reggie Fills-Amie said It's a system we will all enjoy together, but also one that's tailor made for you.

Is it unique, unifying, maybe even utopian? The answer is even yes to all of this, he added.

According to the announcement by Nintendo, the release of Wii U will be between April and December 2012. They didn't mention the price, but it is presumed around $300.

Wii, the previous model of Wii U, is one of the highest sold home video game consoles. To date, more than 86 million units of Wii have been sold. But after 5 years of its launch, its sales have vastly decreased.

This February, Nintendo released a new portable console, Nintendo 3DS to fill the gap left by Wii. But it failed to meet the sales expectations. Hence, Nintendo is now banking on Wii U's success.