April 27, 2011 by Paul Curtin
After dropping the ball at last year’s E3 by only announcing remakes of played out popular games for the Wii, Nintendo is looking to steal the show at E3 2011. Rumors and news started to break over the weekend that Nintendo has been working on a secret new console with the codename “Project Café” and is planning on releasing the system sometime in 2012. From the sounds of it, Project Café (also rumored to be called Stream) isn’t going to be in the same family as the Wii, and instead will be Nintendo’s effort to take on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 in terms of graphics and technology.
Project Café is said to use a custom-built tri-core IBM PowerPC chipset which is the same kind of setup that you’ll find on the Xbox 360; however, Café will use higher clock speeds to beat out the three 64-bit, 3.2-Ghz that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 currently uses. IGN got their hands of a prototype image of Project Café’s new controller, which you can view below. The controller uses a similar design as Nintendo’s previous generation GameCube console and also features a 6-inch touchscreen that is said to be able to transfer content and games between the controller and system, hence where the possible “Stream” name will factor in.
Nintendo is allegedly planning on releasing their new console (Wii 2, Project Café, Stream, whatever you want to call it) in April 2012. Based on the costs of the console’s rumored parts, the retail price of the new system is expected to be around $350 to $400. More details will probably leak out as E3 gets closer, and we’ll be sure to get our hands on it at the show.
