All Of Japan’s Big Wii U Launch Details, Right Here

12 years ago

September 13, 2012 at 5:03 pm

Tonight, for the first time, Nintendo will be divulging concrete information on its upcoming Wii U console for the Japanese market. Release dates, prices, specs, the works.

While much of it will be of direct relevance only for the Japanese market, we should be able to divulge hints as to Western availability and pricing from the information, ahead of more official announcements due in the morning.

Join us for live coverage of the news.

This post will be updated as news comes to hand.

2GB MEMORY – The Wii U will have 2GB of memory. 1GB for games, 1GB for system memory.

25GB DISCS – Wii U game discs will have a 25GB capacity.

Comments

37 responses to “All Of Japan’s Big Wii U Launch Details, Right Here”

READ THE COMMENTS

nathan

September 13, 2012 at 5:17 pm

2 GB ? It better be easy to plug a hard drive in. If it is them im super happy. My only fear is that it might format the drive like the wii did for dragons quest 10. I would rather not buy another hard drive.

Reply
1. Boing
  
  September 13, 2012 at 5:18 pm
  
  It’s already been announced that it will support external usb storage. Great news IMO, so
  unds like a cost saving ploy.
  
  Reply
2. Nick
  
  September 13, 2012 at 5:26 pm
  
  I think that’s memory not storage
  
  Reply
3. redartifice
  
  September 13, 2012 at 5:27 pm
  
  That would be memory, not storage.
  
  Reply
4. bob
  
  September 13, 2012 at 5:28 pm
  
  I think they mean 2GB of ram, not storage.
  
  Reply
  1. bob
    
    September 13, 2012 at 5:28 pm
    
    beaten to it, by 2 whole minuets…
    
    Reply
    1. McGarnical
      
      September 13, 2012 at 7:32 pm
      
      Just shows you can’t quaver for a second
      
      Reply
5. dubYA
  
  September 13, 2012 at 5:34 pm
  
  That’s 2GB RAM. The system comes in 2 SKUs – An 8GB model and a 32GB model.
  
  Reply
Stephen

September 13, 2012 at 5:18 pm

25GB game disks…that’s Blu-ray storage isn’t it?

Reply
1. Michael
  
  September 13, 2012 at 5:51 pm
  
  Single layer blu-ray, yes.
  
  Reply
2. bob
  
  September 13, 2012 at 6:07 pm
  
  it may be the same size as blu-ray, but I think they said it wasn’t blu-ray?
  
  Reply
  1. Michael
    
    September 13, 2012 at 8:53 pm
    
    It’s not blu-ray no, because Sony owns blu-ray. It would be a proprietary disc like the Wii and Xbox 360 currently use, just with higher capacity.
    
    Reply
    1. Matt
      
      September 13, 2012 at 11:56 pm
      
      The Wii U uses blu-ray. Also SONY dosn’t own blu-ray, they merely own a large share of it and were one of the major companies that developed blu-ray. If that was enough to block a rival company from using the technology then SONY would of done so a long time ago.
      
      Reply
swift taylor

September 13, 2012 at 5:20 pm

I’m calling it:….. 599 US DOllars…. 5-5-5-5-599 US dollars

Reply
1. Hermes and Thoth
  
  September 13, 2012 at 5:22 pm
  
  Pssch, what do you even know swift, girls dont play video games ETC.
  
  Reply
Stephen

September 13, 2012 at 5:22 pm

Well on the livestream it said 8th of December in Japan, and two version one for $450US for a 32GB storage one and $330 for a 8Gb storage version. Well that’s what I got from it anyway…my Japanese is non existent

Reply
Ben J

September 13, 2012 at 5:27 pm

Remember, the 2gb memory is RAM, not storage space. It’s a huge step up over the 360 and ps3.

Reply
1. Damo
  
  September 13, 2012 at 5:30 pm
  
  And it only took 7 years to double the current gen consoles (as it says, only 1gb is usable for games) with the next gen will probably quadruple the WiiU.
  
  Reply
2. lokiparan
  
  September 13, 2012 at 5:33 pm
  
  I know the architecture is different.. but it seems like 2GB of RAM stopped being relevant in gaming PCs years ago!
  
  Reply
  1. Braaains
    
    September 13, 2012 at 9:23 pm
    
    Tech specs stopped being relevant to Nintendo years ago.
    
    Reply
Martin

September 13, 2012 at 5:30 pm

Holy ficking shot. 2gb ram. $450us. Kirby cream!!!

Reply
Azza

September 13, 2012 at 5:43 pm

So I’m guessing that Kotaku forgot to update this article….

Reply
bob

September 13, 2012 at 5:55 pm

Why the hell does the system need 1gb of memory? What the hell is it going to do with it?

Reply
1. Azza
  
  September 13, 2012 at 6:15 pm
  
  My guess is the tablet might be taking some of that memory up, as the console is streaming directly to it.
  
  Reply
  1. bob
    
    September 13, 2012 at 6:29 pm
    
    Very good point. Speculation says the resolution is around 854 x 480, let’s assume 4 bytes per pixel. That’s just under 1.6mb of memory. Then you’ll need more memory to compress that on the fly, surely this wouldn’t accomodate for more than 5mb? 1019mb to go…
    
    Reply
2. Ben J
  
  September 13, 2012 at 6:39 pm
  
  AFAIK it’ll save the state of the OS while you’re playing a game so you can easily switch between them and browse the internet/the nintendo world thingo and that. It’s still not going to use 1gb RAM but it’s better to have it there than have things getting laggy.
  
  Reply
3. Michael
  
  September 13, 2012 at 8:56 pm
  
  My wild guess is that it’ll be used to temporarily store game data so it can be accessed quickly.
  
  Crazy thought, I know.
  
  The more data that can be stored the quicker it can be accessed. You really think the next Playstation and Xbox will launch with anything less than that?
  
  Reply
mchaza

September 13, 2012 at 6:54 pm

You can buy 2GB ram for around 10 dollars aussie retail(if you can find one), if that, and Ninty are buying bulk so even less for them. Considering I have 16 GB in my PC which cost a combine 100 dollars, they could of at least 4GB for around <15 dollars, which would of made a big difference really. 4GB is the standard on PC’s at the moment but 8GB standard is coming in the next year.

Reply
1. Infermofperpus
  
  September 13, 2012 at 7:01 pm
  
  Consoles don’t need huge amounts of RAM. Trust me 1GB for games is huge.
  
  Reply
  1. Zenon
    
    September 13, 2012 at 7:38 pm
    
    For now and perhaps the near future it is, but we have to remember this is the hardware that’s going to be locked in for at least 5 years.
    
    Their hardware choice has already excluded them from a number of ‘next gen’ (hate that word) features, especially if they want to bring on board more ports/releases from their competitors.
    
    Same goes with the Xbox and Playstation announcements next year, remember whatever it comes equipped with, its going to have to last a long time and sets the max bar for all development for years.
    
    Reply
    1. Zip
      
      September 13, 2012 at 7:59 pm
      
      I really don’t see the next Xbox or Playstation bringing more than 2GB of RAM. Considering their current consoles use 512mb. 2GB is a solid upgrade.
      
      Reply
    2. Eorl
      
      September 13, 2012 at 9:14 pm
      
      You also have to remember that a console is a dedicated piece of gaming software. It isn’t bloated down by everyday tasks like having to run a OS plus the many behind the scenes processes. Don’t get me wrong though, more memory the better as my current desktop PC has 8GB DDR3 2000MHz RAM, but such amounts are no where needed for at least the next few years for consoles.
      
      Reply
    3. Matt
      
      September 14, 2012 at 12:06 am
      
      The largest bottleneck for consoles is RAM — RAM is a huge problem for PS3/360 so merely doubling it doesn’t bode well. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Next-Box / PS4 with 4gb or even 6gb of RAM.
      
      Reply
Sean

September 13, 2012 at 7:50 pm

Place your bets, I’m going with $399 AU

Reply
1. Boomzzilla
  
  September 13, 2012 at 8:28 pm
  
  For the cheapo version maybe, $120USD sounds horrible for an extra 24GB of storage space considering you can get a 32GB SD card for $30, that worse than Apple prices.
  
  Reply
  1. msaraiva
    
    September 13, 2012 at 10:29 pm
    
    Don’r forget there’s also a Nintendo Network Premium subscription packed in.
    
    Reply
cade

September 13, 2012 at 8:21 pm

who needs blu ray when you can play movie files from your HD 🙂

Reply

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All Of Japan’s Big Wii U Launch Details, Right Here

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37 responses to “All Of Japan’s Big Wii U Launch Details, Right Here”

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