Nintendo Feel may be the name of the Wii 2, according to new rumors (which have suggested in the past it might be called “Project Cafe” or “Nintendo Stream”) which have also revealed a treasure trove of other new information. As always, this is all “rumor and speculation” so take it with a grain of salt until the actual system gets announced on June 7th, 2011 at E3.
Here is the most important new info:
And now for some major controller rumors! There are a lot of them, so here is what has been reported.
The Wii 2 controller sounds like it will involve what would be called a “haptic transforming” controller. Apparently this controller will have a touch-screen with “haptic” technology that allows for players to “move their fingertips across a surface and clearly feel the difference between soft, smooth or rugged textures”. Additionally the controller may have parts that conform, move or pull in and out, and some reports say it can change to imitate an Xbox 360 or PS3 controller, as well as a Wii Remote.
Finally, some reports suggest that the Wii Vitality Sensor will be making a “comeback” in some form on the Wii 2. Exactly how hasn’t been confirmed, but the Vitality Sensor was an accessory developed by Shigeru Miyamoto himself for the original Wii that would “initially sense the user’s pulse and a number of other signals being transmitted by their bodies, and will then provide information to the users about the body’s inner world”. However this device never saw the light of day. So it makes a whole lot of sense that Miyamoto would revive it for Wii 2.
We’ll all know whether this stuff is true or false in one short month! 😀
Here is a somewhat good example of what “Haptic” technology is, but in this case it is in the form of a pen that simulates pressing a button. Even though the user is NOT pressing anything down like you would with a real button. Skip ahead to 2:33 in the video to see how people react to using a pen that pushes a button even though there is no button. Its very interesting to see they’re reactions when they are told that they were not actually pressing a button this whole time, and that the table was not actually being pressed (because that’s what it feels like to them). Even though the user knew there was no button on the table in front of them, they didn’t fully comprehend what was happening when pressing down with the pen and were pressing as if a button was there. Very interesting!
And here is a video showing off the Wii Vitality Sensor. It’ll be interesting to see exactly how this technology has changed over time to be implemented into the Wii 2.
Via GoNintendo, VG247