Article 004: Nintendo adds more enhancements to Wii U development kits to entice developers

Nintendo relied on innovative game play with its current game system, the Wii, and it worked. Nintendo captured the market and sold more systems that practically both of the main competitors combined--and made a profit from day one. But now, the generation of the Wii is coming to a close, and Nintendo is intensely working on their next system.

Greetings game fans, Doctor X here. The JoystickRobot and I have come across some interesting news regarding the latest Wii U and the efforts Nintendo is undertaking to make sure that they win the next generation.

Nintendo could be facing some stiff competition with its next generation home console, the Wii U. As we reported previously, many other companies, including Apple, will have products that will directly compete with Nintendo's next generation system. As such, Nintendo is pulling all the stops to make sure that the Wii U is successful.

However, two clear things stand out when comparing the iPad and the Wii U's gaming possibilities. One is that the Wii U will almost definitely be much cheaper, with estimates that it will be as low as $250-$299 on release date. The other key point is that the Wii U will have buttons. Shoulder buttons, analog circle pads or joysticks, d-pads and standard buttons in addition to the usual touch screen buttons. This will almost certainly allow for more diverse game play on the Wii U. Nintendo also will have some great exclusive intellectual property of its own.

Nintendo is making great efforts to bring in more developers to its system. It has been recently announced that the Havok physics engine will come as part of the Wii U dev kit for developers to integrate more advanced physics into their games. Also, Autodesk Gameware has been licensed for the Wii U, which will allow for more detailed character creation. In the end, these tools will allow 3rd party developers to create more realistic HD games for the new system.

Will all this be enough? Time will tell. However, I have learned over many years to never bet against a certain mustachioed plumber. Thanks for reading.

Doctor X and the JoystickRobot