Nintendo’s Project Cafe is set to be announced at E3 this week and we’ll finally then know what Nintendo has in store for us.
But to prepare for that let’s take a look at all the latest rumours about what we can expect from Beem… oh yeah, that’s the rumoured official name of the console. Beem as in Beam
Beem has come about due to some detective work by GAF who found a bunch of domains being registered around the name, such as NintendoBeem.com, NintendoBeemStore.com and NintendoBeemGames.com but possibly the biggest sign is that someone paid $136 000 for the domain www.beem.com in January and there is still absolutely nothing on that site.
Don’t be surprised if by this time tomorrow that domain name is choc full of awesome Beem information.
And the other rumours, well there are a ton of them but the most interesting ones to me are that the top end developers have now had the Beem on hand for over 2 years so we can expect the launch catalogue to be pretty incredible.
Also the touch screen has it’s own internal memory and is detachable so you can just take it with you to a friends house with your characters on it and plug straight into their controllers.
Nintendo have also outsources their online network to a 3rd party company and are expecting it to be more stable, more feature packed and just plane better than both the PSN and Xbox Live… and yes friends codes have died a horrible and deserved death.
Check out the entire list of rumours thanks to Gamersmint below
The System:
- Uses a custom IBM triple-core CPU running at 3.6GHz per core
- The development kit contains 1gb RAM, but Nintendo have hinted that the console will actually have 1.5gb
- Nintendo will be releasing games that will run 1080p natively. Sources say that with Nintendo’s art style and the power the system has, the games look ‘stunning’.
- The system does run on AMD R700 card, but the architecture is slightly different and the clock speeds are much higher.
- The System resembles JPN/EU SNES machines in color only and not in shape
- The development kit is about the size of a 360, not the console
- Close sources say it’s as if Nintendo is in “damage control†with 3rd party developers. Nintendo is trying really hard to get 3rd parties on board to develop games and have offered incentives such as not releasing big-title Nintendo games in holiday seasons to compete against 3rd party titles.
- Nintendo went to many 3rd party developers on guidance on what they were after with the new console in terms of system specs, controller and online system.
The Controller:
- Nintendo have been keeping this really quiet and have only given developers controller prototypes to start designing games. However, the final controller build with all the features have only been given to Nintendo 1st and 2nd party developers for now.
- Nintendo had planned on inserting a screen on the controller back when the Gamecube was in development, but opted out due to technology not being advanced enough to be functional
- The controller that’s been given to developers has a large 5.7inch hd (960x640pixel) screen, 2 analogue sticks, 4 face buttons, 3 middle buttons (select/home/start in that order), 2 shoulder buttons and 2 triggers.
- The triggers aren’t as deep as the 360’s triggers, but have plenty of push
- The big thing about the screen is that it’s a multi-touch screen, contains it’s own battery and is detachable from the controller unit
- The screen when detached contains its own memory so developers can store data on it, so gamers can play whatever the developer designs for the screen-only use
- When the screen is attached to the controller it works by streaming content directly from the console
- Nintendo are giving developers ideas other than just having it function as a quick menu screen for games while attached, or as a simple tamagochi-like mini-game when detached
- The controller contains a gyroscope, but motion controls isn’t the focus of the controller like it was for the Wii
Games:
- Nintendo will release a Mario platformer as a launch title which hasn’t been done since the N64.
- The Mario platformer looks to be the spiritual successor to Mario 64.
- Gamefreak and EAD are hard at work developing a Pokemon online RPG.
- The Pokemon RPG is not an MMO, but does have a large online emphasis and will be Nintendo’s flagship title when showing off the online capabilities of the console.
- There will be at least one new IP Nintendo will reveal at E3.
- Nintendo is working on a new Zelda, but didn’t reveal anything to developers.
Other:
- Some developers have had the Wii 2 dev kit for going on 2 years now. When the Wii 2 is released in late, that’s 3 years to develop games on.
- Because of such generous development time, Nintendo have pushed 3rd parties to develop high quality games to be released at or near launch.
- Nintendo have sourced an external company to develop their online network, which the developer has commented, surpasses both the PS3 and 360 in terms of speed and functionality.
- Nintendo is pushing for the console to be online 24/7 and have seamless online integration with many of their games
- Friend codes are confirmed to be gone
- Nintendo has been toying with the idea of a game where the main character is your Mii
- Nintendo will be pushing their Pokemon RPG to showcase their online network
- Rockstar are supposedly hard at work in bringing on of their “most popular†titles to the console.
Source: NEOGAF
Last Updated: June 6, 2011
