The Smidgen

It’s been a long, long time coming but if the rumors are true the next handheld system from Nintendo may get a significant performance boost thanks to the Tegra in the form of the tentatively named Nintendo TS (Tegra System?).  Yup, that’s right, the same multi-core ARM based chip that powers the new Zune HD could give Nintendo a portable system that is on par with the Wii in terms of processing power and graphics output.  Moreover, it could actually compete with the feature set of its closest rival, the PSP.

The news gets even better when you consider that the previous generations of DS hardware were based around 16 and then 32-bit ARM cores, making the leap to Tegra painless and, very likely, backwards compatible, which everyone apparently loves.

If true, this design win for the Tegra chip would mean a huge boost in revenue for Nvidia knowing that they power the new version of Nintendo’s 100 million selling DS system.

Conversely, this could be dire news for Microsoft if it ever plans on getting into the handheld market with their Zune hardware.  The Zune HD currently uses the same Tegra chip and therefore is currently sitting idly on the processing honchos to deliver a great gaming experience.  That is, of course, if MS can ever get off it’s backside and integrate the Xbox Live Arcade into the Zune and vice versa.  Delay too long and Nintendo will swoop in with a Tegra of it’s own and a long history of success in the handheld market to swing around like a 10 ton hammer.

The handheld market just got a whole lot more interesting for me.  Look for this rumored device to land sometime in late winter of 2010.

Big old rumor alert here so grab that chunk of salt you keep laying around for just such an occasion.  It seems that SquareEnix head, Yoichi Wada, is predicting that Nintendo will unleash a Wii HD with graphic capabilities similar to the current PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2011.

This of course would not be the first time for such a rumor but it is the first one I know of coming from the head of a major game development studio.

An HD Wii that supports HDMI and 1080p with actual current gen graphics would go a long way toward swinging my attention back to the big N.  Of course playing catchup in 2011 is all fine and dandy until the next Xbox releases in 2012 (another rumor, that one).

A European patent reveals a new Wii peripheral tentatively called the Nintendo Wii-tarded (not really).  The inflatable seat … thing, to the left there is supposed to house a Wiimote to sense balance shifts and use the nun-chuck or second Wiimote to simulate riding a horse or other animal or perhaps a vehicle (like a motorcycle for shark jumping I would presume).

I’m speechless and/or choking on my own laughter here so I’ll just give you some links.  Joystiq, European patent.

While it’s not terribly surprising to hear, the recent update to the Xbox 360 dashboard (released today) contains a little blurb about how Netflix has an “exclusive” partnership with Microsoft, sorry PS3 and Wii fans.

Netflix Partnership
This exclusive partnership offers you the ability to instantly stream movies and TV episodes from Netflix to the television via Xbox 360. Xbox 360 will be the only game console to offer this movie-watching experience, available to Xbox LIVE Gold members who are also Netflix unlimited plan subscribers**, at no additional cost.

Of course the time was right for Microsoft to seal this deal now before things developed too far with other console manufacturers otherwise things would have been a lot more expensive I’m sure.  As long as it stayed on the Xbox it was fine with me, additional consoles streaming directly might have encouraged Netflix to press for some more direct download content but hey, what can you do.

PSP2 Concept. Credit: Joe Thomas and Rocco Devenanzio

The computer gaming industry is certainly no stranger to rumor and one of the most recent, and juicy, involves speculation on the PSP2.  Keep in mind, none of this information has been mentioned or confirmed by Sony.  It’s a rumor, remember?

Anyway, Acclaim developer, David Perry, started this whole thing off with a message he made on his Facebook and Twitter accounts that Kotaku picked up and repeated, and now I will do the same.  His quote,

“I hear Sony FINALLY has the PSP 2. And thank goodness, they’ve removed the stupid battery-sucking UMD disc drive. I’m excited!,”

has people running ragged questioning what Sony will do.  Will they go with an all flash based system, presumably Memory-Stick Pro Duo (Quad Singulo Disco Ipso Facto …), and direct download and if so, how will they support backward compatibility?  Or will this “new” PSP be another revision giving us the PSP-4000 (since we’re on the PSP-3000 now)?

Well you know what, when I see a rumor saying that Sony will can the UMD all I can say is, “no sh*t, it’s way over due.”  Other speculation is that Sony will announce the PSP2 officially at this years E3 in June and if they are planning to release one any time soon, that would be the time to mention it.  Hopefully in June we can lay to rest yet another failed proprietary Sony format (no one is weeping for you MiniDisc).