A lot of people think that the year 2012 is significant. Some think the world's going to end by then. People in the games industry, on the other hand, think that it will be a beginning instead of an end: the beginning of the next console cycle. Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli is one of those who believe that 2012 is when the next generation of game consoles will start showing up. *UPDATE* Two demo videos have surfaced from GamesCom 2009.

Thanks, Peter Bauer!

The Dolphin Team has released a new update for the Unofficial SVN build of Dolphin, the Gamecube and Nintendo Wii emulator for Windows. The latest SVN build is a feature pack release and is said to be the best and most stable bin release from the team by far.


Download: Dolphin Unofficial SVN build 3972 (Win/32-bit)
Download: Dolphin Unofficial SVN build 3972 (Win/64-bit)

Whoa, hold your horses, people - we say preliminary Wii support because while there is Wii remote and emulation code integrated into the latest build of Dolphin, the GameCube emulator does not successfully play Wii games. Also note that while this update is Wii-centric and applies directly to Windows gamers, it's essentially here to call out to developers who would like to pick up the project. Learn more about it at the full story.

With the limited number of development libraries and other tools designed for the Wii homebrew scene, it's no surprise that there aren't that many people working on homebrew projects for the Nintendo platform. Fortunately, developers Chaosteil and Feesh! recently came up with a sprite library which introduces a simple and fun way to develop Wii homebrew. Find out more about libwiisprite v0.1.8b in our full article.

Download: libwiisprite v0.1.8b

Epic Games CEO and founder Tim Sweeney expressed his opinion on the flagging state of the PC gaming industry. In an interview conducted by TG Daily, he pointed out the different problems the PC marke t is facing as well as some possible solutions the industry can take if it wants to make some headway against its rivals. You can check out the rest of the interview by reading our full article, accessible through the "read more" link below.

Nintendo's white-hot commercial success console, the Wii, has been called a lot of things. The most prominent description  is "underpowered." Microsoft Xbox division Robbie Bach took a swipe at the innovative game system recently, saying that even the original Xbox can pull off better visuals.

That may be a foregone conclusion as Nintendo itself was recently quoted admitting that the processor for the GameCube and the Wii are very similar except for a few minor details. Anonymous third-party developers say that the layout of the system is not very flexible and may pose gridlocks to developers.

The sources said that the processing power of the Wii when it comes to shadow and lighting generation is very close to last-gen Nvidia GeForce 2 3D accelerators. "The Wii's GPU has fixed functions for vertex, lighting, and pixel operations... The Wii is an older fixed function design where you have lots of operations but the pipelines are not programmable in the sense of downloading shader code to run," says a developer.

What distinguishes the Wii from its earlier-generation brother in terms of graphics is the fact that it has significantly more memory that allows better pixel generation and other important feats. The memory was raised from 162MB to 243MB, freeing up operations to allow better lighting and rendering effects as well.

Nintendo, however, doesn't seem to mind the criticism, and rightfully so. The strategy has never been to compete with sheer muscle. Rather, it chose to expand the market and outfox the competition with innovation and friendliness. The results are outstanding. With its relatively low price and massive appeal, it has been dominating from Japan to the USA.

If you want to know the whole technical comparison of the Wii to the GameCube, you can follow the read URL. See if you think Robbie was able to "Bach up" his assertions.

The whole videogame industry is currently in the middle of the transition to high-definition next gen visuals with the introduction of DirectX 10, and to make the transition an easier process, here comes Nvidia with the "definitive" game development platform, Nvidia SDK 10.

The core of Nvidia's new platform is the new NVIDIA Developer Toolkit. It promises to "save developers time and money in creating games that deliver almost lifelike graphics and physics realism." The platform consists of Nvidia GeForce(R) 8 Series graphics cards, Nvidia nForce(R) 680 motherboards, and DirectX 10.

The new NVIDIA Developer Toolkit also includes instructive code samples, advanced shaders, performance tuning, and more, all in a bid to make the creation of Microsoft DirectX 10-compatible games easier.

The Nvidia Developer Toolkit also includes the following:

• SDK 10: all-new DirectX 10, OpenGL, and CUDA code samples for the latest GPUs
• Texture Tools: Powerful libraries and plug-ins for working with textures - now with DirectX 10 support and approximately 10x faster due to GPU acceleration via CUDA
• PerfKit 5: powerful tools for debugging and profiling GPU applications for Windows Vista and DirectX 10 -- now with shader edit-and-continue, render state modification, customizable graphs and counters, and more
• ShaderPerf 2: detailed shader performance information with support for new drivers
• FX Composer 2: a world-class development environment for cross-platform shader authoring; DirectX and OpenGL support with HLSL, Cg, and COLLADA FX
• Shader Library: the world's largest collection of GPU shaders featuring more than 100 different shader effects and support for external submissions

Nvidia is currently demonstrating the entire development platform and distributing some of its components free of charge at the Game Developers Conference (GDC).

 

The Inquirer's Charlie Demerjian was surprised at how much a Nintendo executive would spill after a couple of alcoholic drinks. He was especially surprised to note how knowledgeable the exec became in CPUs and GPUs in his drunken state! But nothing was more surprising than hearing what the exec had to say.

Wii has hidden HD technology in its GPU. Problem is, it isn't really that great. It probably won't brush near 30 FPS at HD resolutions. Besides, isn't that the same technology that pushes the other next generation consoles above the US$ 400 barrier?  The discovery doesn't look so great after knowing the rest of the information - and getting hit with reality.

After "Asian hero" Shigeru Miyamoto explained why the Wii doesn't include HD capability, the claim that the Wii had HD all along caught our attention. Was the Wii slated to come with HD, but was changed during the design process? We probably will never know. The news isn't confirmed at the moment. But Miyamoto did say the next console will include HD capability, so that's a promise we hope kept.

 

We got a copy of the official factsheet for the Wii console just now, and the factsheet runs down all the necessary stuff you'll need to know about the console, including the specs, CPU, and GPU. Let's get down to business, shall we?

As already mentioned in our NewYork updates article, the Wii is set to launch on the 19th of November for the price of $249.99. The console will come in just one color...white. The console measures 8.5" long, 6" wide, and less than two inches thick (157mm x 215.4mm x 44mm). The overall look of the Wii is that of a compact design that can be displayed vertically or horizontally, and looks like your ordinary tv setup add-on.

Channels, Media, and Communication: The Wii Channel Menu will be your main gateway for interactive multimedia, entertainment and communication functions, the latter of which can operate even when the console is turned off. Thanks to the WiiConnect24 service, the system updates itself even when in an idle state. Wireless connectivity options include IEEE802.11 and USB 2.0 LAN adaptor. The Wii is also compatible with the DS for wireless communication. A single self-loading media bay can play both single or double-layered optical discs, as well as 8cm Nintendo GameCube discs.

Controls: Up to four motion-sensing Wiimotes can be simultaneously connected via Bluetooth technology, and the wireless signal is detectable within 10 meters of the console. The Wii Remote controller includes rumble feature, a speaker, expansion port, and can be used as a pointer within 5 meters of the screen. Buttons on the Wiimote are: power switch, plus pad, A & B, Minus, Home, 1 and 2. The Nunchuk controller has an analog control stick as well as C and Z buttons. Both controllers have a three-axis motion sensor.

Virtual Console: The Wii will have access to titles originally released for N64, SNES, and NES. The virtual console will also have  a selection of Sega Genesis titles as well as games from the Turbo Grafx16 console.
Specs: 512MB internal flash memory, two USB 2.0 ports, built-in WiFi capability, SD memory card slot
GPU and CPU: PowerPC CPU (aka Broadway) made with 90nm SOI CMOS process, and is developed and manufactured by IBM. The Graphics Processing Unit is being developed with ATI.

Other features include 4 ports for Nintendo GameCube controllers, two slots for NGC memory cards, AV multi-output port for component, composite, or S-video. Let us know if there's anything else you need to know that we haven't covered, or keep checking back with us for more updates.

Maxconsole apparently received word from an "anonymous Wii developer" about the final Nintendo Wii specs. Due to the nature of the source, we can't be sure if everything is 100% fact - but looking at the amount of information and technical details, I doubt this is a fake.

Since it is a really expansive list, I will only be putting the most important parts here. Click the link below for the full details on all components of the Wii hardware.

So, without further ado:

• Wii's "Broadway" CPU runs at 729 MHz; 243 MHz 64-bit memory bus (max. bandwidth: 1.9 GB/sec)
• "Hollywood" GPU runs at 243 MHz, with 3 MB of internal graphics memory and 24 MB of high speed main memory (same GPU as in the Gamecube, but runs faster)
  
• External Main Memory consists of 64 MB of GDDR3 RAM.
  
• Optical Disc Drive supports Wii disks with either one (4.7 GB) or two (8.51 GB) sides or layers. Read speed is equivalent to DVDx6. GC discs are also supported
• Additional Interfaces that come with the Wii: SD card slot, Wireless controller, two USB 2.0 ports, wireless LAN, 4x GC controller ports, 2x GC memory card slots and an AV multi output jack.
• Wii controller features: Direct Pointing Device, Three axis accelerometer, Wii power button (remotely turn console on/off), buttons, wireless connectivity, indicator LED’s, rumble, battery powered (two AA alkaline batteries) and able to connect an extension unit.