gpu isnt the problem, resolution can be increased by simply decreasing scene complexity. The problem is that a larger resolution is still a bigger data size even AFTER its finished and rasterized.

The problem is hardware, specifically the wi-fi out, which is custom made to output a precise packet size, interleaved, at unprecedented speeds (way, WAY faster than a ps3 or 360 controller. Faster than a tv can display the image....) Simply De-interleaving the data can increase report size by 2x, (still not enough for hd) but.... will cripple signal distance to a few feet.

They would need to change the systems wifi out for an hd gamepad.

Again, we don't know if they've already accounted for that packet size in the design of the Wii U. Odds are, they haven't, but it's still possible that the packets they've been sending for the current titles are not using up all the bandwidth that their WiFi protocol is capable of.

There is truth to his argument.... and yours as well.

Image quality consists of 2 main factors, Well, really just one, they are linked, so one is typically the product of the other, unless you do something silly, which i will use as an example later: resolution, which is what you are talking about, the number of pixels, and ppi, pixels per inch aka pixel size.

You can have a resolution of 4k, but if your pixels are the size of lego blocks, you are getting a lousy picture.

The pixels in the gamepad are much much smaller than those in an hdtv, so despite having less pixels, it still has a comparable image quality, particularly with supersampling (downsizing a much larger picture) giving the appearence of higher resolution.

Although, increasing the resolution within the same physical screen size ALSO increases ppi (makes pixels smaller so you can fit more) for a double whammy of image quality increase.

Which, unfortunately, is impossible for the gamepad without changing the wii u console.

I understand what you're trying to say a bit more now, but I still don't see the merit of it. The first point you made had no mention of changing screen size, which is where the miscommunication might have been.

However, saying that the Wii U is not capable of displaying a higher PPI on it's GamePad without changing the console might not be true. You'd need to change the GamePad, yes, but as I mentioned above, Nintendo hasn't told us about the technology they're using under the hood to stream video to the GamePad. Maybe there is more bandwidth available than they're using or than we know about, and a higher PPI screen - let's say something with a 1708x960 resolution on the same 6" screen instead of the 854x480 one (yes, I know that's a total stretch) - and it would be possible.

Banned because I squashed the goomba.

theres no reason for it to be HD dumb thread its HD  down sampled to 480p+ so your getting effectivly HD anyways and the gamepads screen to pixel count is higher than a lot of HD tvs

Your argument makes no sense. HD provides higher fidelity. If you downsample HD to 480p, yes it might look better than what you would traditionally get as 480p content, but it's still not HD. Not even close. Compare an HD image downsampled to 480p and another that is 1080p or even 720p for that matter. You'll see a world of difference.

Not only is it pointless, its impossible.

The system was designed for a 480p gamepad, not just with fillrate, but in data streaming speed as well. An hd image would not only demand more from the gpu, but the data size being streamed to the gamepad would exponentially increase, and would likely not only need to take more than one report to deliver, increasing lag, but no longer be able to be interleaved decreasing distance from the system.

I wouldn't say it is impossible. Nintendo has designed their streaming protocols from the ground up. We don't know what kind of throughput they get or how much they're using right now. It's smart for them to have designed something that can have its functionality opened up so that, as developers get better with system resources, they have more bandwidth available. Now, Nintendo doesn't typically think that far ahead, I don't think, so I'm not saying it's there, but the fact is that we don't actually know what Nintendo is doing under the hood and how expandable it is.

I never sell back my games, so I don't have a problem with digital. If the games are huge, like Smash Bros though, I go retail. Another thing, people say that you don't own the game when you go digital, but you only own a license to play it. Is the company going to take it back from you or something?

They're not going to take it back from you or anything, but the argument is being made about whether or not you will always have access to that game. Let's say Nintendo goes bankrupt or decides to stop offering certain games on its online store. (Get around the fact that those things probably won't happen, but we've seen worse and weirder things happen). If you have paid for a game and are granted a license to use it but Nintendo no longer offers it, you can't redownload it, which means you've effectively lost the money you've paid for it. The same thing would not happen with a physical copy unless it requires a constant internet connection to servers to verify its authenticity, though game companies are moving away from that now anyway.

The same applies to physical retail games and not just digital games.

That's actually not true. No, you don't own the physical assets of course, or every gamer would have a 0.00001% ownership of Modern Warfare 3 or Super Smash Bros. or any other game. But you do own an always playable copy of the game that cost you probably the same price as a digital copy would have.

It probably is illegal & I normally wouldn't have done it, but when I bought my wiiu points card they charged me 12% tax for it. I didn't want to have to pray full tax twice so I changed my region. I still payed 17% tax though when I should've only payed 12%. So if the law wants to get on my case they can suck beans.

Not sure what you mean here since Wii U games that you buy online are not bought with points. Also, if you are talking about Wii games you buy for points, you don't pay tax twice since you pay in points, so if a game is 800 points, you pay 800 points, not 800 *1.12 or whatever your tax rate is. You would have paid tax on the 2000 points you bought, for example, but not twice.

I could see GamePad HD coming out in a year or two. It would be a great system upgrade when dual GamePad games become available later this year or in early 2014. Of course, Nintendo's console is already having trouble keeping up with the video end of things as games like Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two chug along with some major framerate issues. With that said, as developers get smarter with console resources, maybe there is untapped power in the console.

This is a really interesting discussion. A couple of decades ago, Pepsi and Coca-Cola had about the same market share and it didn't seem to be changing for a while. So Pepsi decided they would save a bunch of money and not advertise for a while, thinking people already made their minds up and had their preference set. Well, over the next five to ten years, Coca-Cola's market share grew to nearly 80% or so, and Pepsi has never come all the way back to parity with Coca-Cola.

I think the same thing could happen if Nintendo were to abandon Mario. Sure, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Kirby, and Luigi could hold up the company, and perhaps it would be good to have a break from our favourite little plumber for a while. But without the character at least seemingly in development in a new game, Nintendo could be in for a lot of trouble. That doesn't mean that big-N needs to release a new Mario game every six months, but they can't explicitly say they're not developing any Mario games or people will be up in arms. Of course, they could just leave it for a few years between major releases, but they already do that. It's been years since a major Mario game like Galaxy 2.

The biggest thing I'm upset about with digital-only is going to be the lack of collector's edition content. I mean, sure you might pay extra for DLC or a season's pass or something, but what about that cool journal from the game, or statuette, or even that gold Wii Remote? Gone

Banned because Piers Morgan is right about everything regarding gun control.

Seems about right for them to make a MGSV, 4's been out for a few years now.

True, but I feel like they'll be drowning the market in Metal Gear Solid games over the next few years. We've got MGS Rising: Revengeance, MGS: Ground Zeroes, and now MGS V? That's a whole lot of Kojima.

$100 is a bit pricey, but if you think about Nintendo releasing this thing at $79, why would anyone go out and buy another Wii Remote and Nunchuk and spend $69 when they could get a whole new system as a backup for an additional $10?

I'd love to see The Phantom Pain realized as an actual game, but I'm not sure how the footage we saw could tie into a Metal Gear Solid game. Either way, here's our rumour roundup:

http://www.eggplante.com/2012/12/11/the-phantom-pain-rumour-roundup/

Like I've said before, if anyone feels like this is advertising and would like me to stop, I have no problem with it. I'm only letting you guys all know about posts that are relevant to you (Wii mini, and the contest). I'm also contributing to content on the forums, too

We're giving away Wii minis! And personally, I'd love to see someone from these awesome forums win it! Take a look here:

http://www.eggplante.com/2012/12/07/win-1-of-2-wii-minis-from-eggplante/

Special bonus just for TheWiiU.com Forum Members: Email us from the contact form on our website with your username and we'll give you an additional two entries in the contest!

Hi everyone! Here is the world's first Wii mini unboxing video! Take a look here:

http://www.eggplante...video-pictures/

Also, we're going to be doing a teardown of Nintendo's new console, so stay tuned to Eggplante.com for more! Enjoy and please let me know what you think!

Reviews should be based on having the console and playing through whatever you review.

The original poster is quite clearly very fanboy-like, which is great (I'm a total Zelda, Halo, and Apple fanboy), but has a time and place. When you're reviewing something, you need to be as objective as possible.

The review Mr.Saturn gave is fine, if he/she truly believes that stuff, but there is no way anyone could have played through all those games by three to four days after launch of the console to know whether or not those are excellent games or not.

If you read the wording closely, it says that it's a Canada exclusive through the holidays. Which means that it will be brought to other territories at the beginning of the new year I presume.

Or it means that it won't even be in Canada after the holidays. At which point it'll be worth even more.

The best platinum reward ever for me was still the Club Nintendo Japan reward from 2007's Platinum program. I got me one of these babies on eBay for about a hundred bucks and it's beautiful (and still boxed, of course):

http://www.inside-ga...4/15/28450.html

This will probably be the Wii's last remodel ( excluding color variants and bundles), considering they've cut pretty much every corner they can. The only thoughts I could imagine for another remodel would be to make the console memory smaller, which sounds possible. But not for an entire new remodel, maybe in the really late days of the Wii ( 2014ish?), they downsize the memory.

Nintendo will continue selling the original Wii (in full-size or 'mini' form) until holiday 2013. They'll probably announce final production just after next holiday season this year and kill the console so that they can compete in every market - last-gen and next-gen - against Microsoft and Sony's consoles (assuming they're out next year). Also, after that season, Nintendo will be able to say that the Wii has surpassed the 100,000,000 mark of units sold, assuming they can get another two and a half million out by then. That should be doable because they've been doing about 3-5 million units per year for the past little while.

Wii Mini is a CANADIAN EXCLUSIVE! http://www.eggplante...-mini-announce/

The jack on the GamePad will work with a headset (headphones and mic). I reviewed the Tritton Stereo Headset for Wii U (great set) and found it to be excellent. You can also hear yourself talk which is nice.

Check out Eggplante.com for the review!

Don't forget that CNN doesn't necessarily "slip up" so much as the poke the fire a bit. Even the slightest bit of controversy is big news.

Not that Reggie would ever do it, but if he was the type to get super mad and yell that Wii U is better and storm off screen would be bigger news than a little interview like this.

Hey PotatoHog, this is a games forum but we're all human and willing to talk about whatever will help each other.

I've gone through some tough times as well, losing my closest friend to cancer.

PM me if you'd like to talk in private.

You should be able to just go through the level. Worked for me.