Pre-E3 Nintendo Direct: The results

Whether you watched the broadcast or not, here is a small summary of the pre-E3 Nintendo Direct broadcast 

Most likely, you watched the special pre-E3 Nintendo Direct broadcast already. For those who did not, here is a summary:

General

• With Wii U, Nintendo tries to continu its life-long motto "Doku-so", or "creating something unique."
• Wii U should re-unite people: both in the same room (no longer playing with a laptop while the other is busy using a phone, console, etc) and at long distances (over the Internet)

GamePad

• The Wii U controller will be called "Wii U GamePad"
• The GamePad no longer holds a thumbpad but a 360-degrees and clickable thumbstick.
• There's an NFC reader/writer in the GamePad, similar to used in Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure
• Away with the TV-remote: there's a TV-button on the GamePad to simply replace it. Handy...
• Both a Motion Sensor and a Gyro Sensor are implemented.
• The high-res gameplay shown on your TV can be displayed on the Wii U gamePad as well, without delay.

Wii U Pro Controller

• There will be a 'regular' controller, targetted for more longer and intense gaming sessions

Communication

• During a short movie, the fictive Wii U player uses the GamePad to post a game-related question online asking for help in the Wii U community and getting (near) real-time advice from other players.
• During the same movie, the player uses the GamePad as a webcam and communicates directly with the helping fellow-gamer.

Miiverse

• When the Wii U starts up, a Mii gathering (similar to the Mii Plaza) is shown also called Miiverse (Mii Universe). The Miiverse contains your Mii and your friends' Miis and every Mii enjoying the same games as you do (grouped around game-icons). Doodles and texts can be used for communication. SwapNote on Wii U anyone?
• Screenshots and gamecontent can be posted among gamers.
• Miiverse will be available for all Wii U games, but some developers will go even further by implementing Miiverse-elements in-game.
• Miiverse will (or: might) become available on PC and mobile devices as well, to keep you connected in the community.

Internet browser

• The GamePad includes a built-in webbrowser, allowing you to browse while others use the television. It also allows you to 'send' the content shown on the GamePad on the TV at any time.

And that's it. More news (both Wii U and game-related) will be disclosed on Tuesday, so be sure to return!

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Comments

• 

  I came to post elements and you already did it. Quite nicely I might add. Awesome. Yeah some surprising stuff, especially after most of the first footage we got was just from E3 2011 during the first 10 minutes.

  Trent, 04-06-2012 at 00:33
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  No thanks. Was writing it up during the broadcast. I was most surprised by the video-chat actually. Not so sure about the whole game-community yet, I have to see that working first to believe it. Most likely there'll be too many people giving bogus answers (if you even get any answers) and I didn't even thinking about the amounts of genitals I'll see running over my big screen TV due to the Miiverse travellers passing by yet...

  Dennis, 04-06-2012 at 00:39
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  Nintendo has always been weak in the social arena and it looks like they blew out most of the competition. The pro controller was also nice. But first thing I thought was "xbox controller". Also it looked a little squished in?

  Trent, 04-06-2012 at 00:41
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  Not sold on the in-in-game activity posts either. It looks very cramped and poorly integrated in the Mario demo they showed.

  Trent, 04-06-2012 at 00:44
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  Two thumbsticks, the ABXY buttons, the D-pad, Minus, Plus and Home-buttons and four shoulderbuttons (L1, L2, R1, R2 anyone?) Only the positioning of the second thumbstick and the ABXY-buttons seem off, when compared to an Xbox 360 controller. I think this makes the second stick more accessible, but I doubt whether that's the same for the ABXY-buttons (but then again: same goes for the regular GamePad)

  Dennis, 04-06-2012 at 00:46