The rumours regarding new Nintendo hardware are continuing to snowball, with French website 01net adding to that already detailed by other publications.
The site was previously responsible for leaking the technical specification for Sony’s Next Generation Portable (NGP) way ahead of the company making any formal announcement in such regard, and now reveals that Nintendo’s latest console is known internally by the codename “Project Café.”
It reportedly includes architecture that is similar to Microsoft’s Xbox 360, but is “a bit more powerful” incorporating a custom IBM PowerPC CPU with three cores, a GPU from the ATI R700 family (with a Version 4.1 Shader Unit), and at least 512Mb of RAM.
Such a move would, unsurprisingly, allow developers the opportunity to port their HD games to the system, although Nintendo have once again implemented backwards compatibility ensuring that long-term fans can play Gamecube and Wii games, alongside utilising all of the Wii peripherals.
As for the controller, it has a six-inch touch screen, a front-facing camera, D-Pad, two bumpers, two triggers and “possibly more,” and most intriguingly can be used as a Wii sensor bar. The site expects a late 2012 release, with a “big surprise” about the console set for an E3 2011 reveal.
It’s hard to know whether to trust such information, but with 01net having been previously accurate with the NGP spec there could be plenty of truth here. Still, I do keep checking whether we aren’t in some kind of April 1st Groundhog day – this is beginning to spiral out of control!
[Cheers, CVG]
New Nintendo console codenamed “Project Café”
