Slowly, but surely, we're starting to piece together what's going on inside that mysterious white box known as the Wii U. IBM was a little coy about the multi-core CPU it was providing, but did tantalize us by mentioning the name "Watson" in describing some of its underlying tech. Now details about the custom Radeon GPU are starting to surface and, while certainly capable, it's not exactly cutting edge. At its heart is a chip similar to the R770 found in AMD's last-gen cards like the 4890 and, before you dismiss it, remember the PS3 and Xbox 360 are still capable of pumping out impressive visuals while packing five-year-old silicon (The 360 is essentially running a souped up ATI X1900). The custom core also supports Direct X 10.1 (Microsoft runs out of steam with Direct X 9) and Eyefinity-like multi-display tech for up to four SD video streams -- though it'll be up to Nintendo and developers to put that to good use. In case you're still not convinced of the Wii U's graphical prowess, Crytek has said its advanced CryEngine is "pretty much" up and running on Nintendo's upcoming console -- and, if it's good enough for Crysis, it should be good enough for you.

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Nintendo took some inspiration from the TV remote for its Wii controller, and it apparently thinks its new Wii U controller could well be the "TV remote of the future." That's just one tidbit from All Things D's sitdown with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, who also talked more broadly about the Wii U's new role in the living room. As evidenced by E3, that will include catering to more hardcore gamers than the Wii did, but Iwata says the Wii U is also an effort to take some of the couch time back from folks playing games on tablets, smartphones or laptops. To that end, Iwata says that Nintendo's mission is to "shorten the distance between people and gaming" and remove some of the barriers involved with console gaming, further adding that it's also trying to "reach out to the people who are not interested in video games." Though it's not saying much about it, Nintendo's no doubt hoping to win back a few investors as well. As you may have noticed, the company's stock slipped significantly following its E3 announcement and, while it's bounced back a bit since, it's still well off its Wii-fueled heights of recent years.

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The Wii U will offer a significantly improved online experience to that of its predecessor, Nintendo has promised.

Marketing manager Rob Lowe outlined Nintendo's plans for the system to Eurogamer at E3 last week, explaining that a strong online set-up is much more important now than it was when the Wii launched back in 2006.

"I think that in a similar way that we waited until HD technology was almost ubiquitous before we went in there with an HD console, it's similar with the penetration of wi-fi," he said.

"I think now almost every home has wi-fi or broadband. It's a universal truth that everybody is connected online and that wasn't the case when the Wii came out five years ago.

Lowe pointed to the 3DS's refined online set-up as an indication of where Nintendo's aspirations lie for Wii U.

"If you look at 3DS and the online of that you'll get an understanding of where we're going with Wii U and we're taking that even further.

"We can't talk about the details yet as Mr Iwata will announce those slightly later. But with the online of 3DS it's obviously a massive leap on from where we were with DSi and DSi XL. It's smooth, robust, it doesn't drop in and out.

"The friend code system has also been refined. It still exists but in the same way that you'd need to pair up with friends on PSN or Xbox live. Now it's much closer to that kind of online gaming experience than what it was before.

"We always try and strike a balance. Because we do have more younger consumers than any other hardware manufacturer or games brand we need to protect them while also making it as accessible as possible for the more active and hardcore consumers to go online.

He also reaffirmed comments from CEO Satoru Iwata earlier this year that Nintendo has brought in outside help to remedy its lack of internal online expertise.

"With Wii U I think that we've already hinted that we're looking at getting people in that know and understand online gaming as it's something that perhaps we've struggled with in the past."

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Nintendo is hoping that the Wii U's unique set of features will attract major third party exclusives when the new system launches next year.

Nintendo's UK marketing manager Rob Lowe told Eurogamer at E3 last week that the platform holder is having a major rethink about its approach to third party development in the run up to the release of the console.

"It's absolutely fundamental to the success of Wii U to have better third party support than we've had in the past for our previous consoles. I think Mr Iwata totally recognises that," he insisted.

"That's why we had a Ubisoft round table session [during E3], that's why John Ricitiello was on stage at our conference.

"And even at a local level we're doing everything we can to support third parties much more than we have done in the past. It goes all the way through the company, from Nintendo Japan, to Nintendo Europe, to Nintendo UK."

Lowe added that this new approach represents a major strategic shift for the company, who has traditionally relied on its own key franchises - such as Mario, Zelda and Pokémon - to drive hardware sales.

"It's very different for us to act like that because traditionally we would invest our time and money more into first party," he explained.

"We have a sightly different business model to Microsoft and Sony, who will obviously invest more money or marketing support in third party titles. It's almost the opposite for us but I think we realise now we have to invest in a much bigger way in third party partners because there are certain types of games that we're just not specialists at.

"If we want to create a console that will appeal across boundaries to all different types of gamers we're going to need their support more than ever before."

According to Lowe, the end result should be big third party exclusives on the Wii U, while multiplatform releases on Wii U will be set apart apart from their PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 counterparts by "individual features".

"We're hoping we'll get a lot of exclusives as well because of the unique way the console is made.

"It is much easier for third parties to move their products across from Xbox 360 and PS3 to Wii U. However, the way that the controller has to make you think and make the developers think will hopefully mean that titles that are ported over will hopefully have individual features that aren't on the other systems."

The only third party exclusives confirmed for Nintendo's new system so far are Ubisoft's alien FPS Killer Freaks From Outer Space and Lego City Stories from Traveller's Tales.

A montage shown during Nintendo's E3 presser last week revealed a number of core multiplatform releases would be appearing on the console, including Batman: Arkham City, Ninja Gaiden 3, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Metro: Last Light and Darksiders 2.

Lowe also discussed Western developers' apparent reluctance to get on board with the 3DS, whereas Japanese studios have been quicker to up dev tools for the new handheld. In particular, he's looking forward to a "brave new dawn" with EA.

"I think because we're a Japanese company we automatically have those connections with companies like Konami and Capcom built up over many, many years, so it makes it easier for us to get those franchises off the ground first.

"But I think with EA in particular we recognise that we've had a very rocky relationship in terms of products and quality of their products on our systems. Sometimes its been great, sometimes they've done bespoke stuff for us and sometimes they've very much focused on the other consoles.

"I think with this brave new dawn with EA its great for us and it was fantastic to see a few slides [during our E3 conference] with all of their key properties coming out, and I think that will be across both 3DS and Wii U as well."

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Nintendo believes Wii U will change the way we play games, but according to OnLive boss Steve Perlman, everything it does UK gamers will be able to experience this autumn.

OnLive is the cloud-based gaming system that allows users to play high-end games through the internet as opposed to a home console.

The tech, which makes its UK debut this autumn, works through touchscreen devices such as smartphones and tablets – and it's this fact that leads Perlman to cast doubt on the Wii U.

"Nintendo announced a really cool thing, but, well, I can hold up an Android screen or an iPad screen and we can do exactly what they're doing," he told Eurogamer.

"In fact, if all you want is touch, I can do it with a smartphone as well, but I'm not tethered to my Wii. I can take this away and use it in a room by itself.

"Everything they demoed at their announcement is going to be available in the UK this autumn.

"Then again, people are going to want Mario and Pokemon. So those aren't going to go away. There's going to be an evolution to it."

Some commentators believe cloud gaming services such as OnLive and Gaikai mark the end of home console gaming.

Perlman believes consoles are under threat, but their extinction will be a drawn out process.

"PC gaming is always going to be there," Perlman said. "I hope it's always there. In fact, these are the guys who are pioneering the future.

"But console gaming, look, we're six years into what is usually a five year console cycle.

"Much as what has happened with the video and music world, mainstream people just want to play the games. They don't want to deal with downloads, with obsolete hardware. They don't want to deal with discs."

Game publishers, too, are leaning towards cloud-gaming, Perlman said.

"The reality is the publishers are just getting killed with used games and piracy. The publishers do lower the price when demand decreases. But the problem when the game stores do it is no money feeds back into the development of the games.

"With piracy, the people who do pay for the games are paying for the versions of the games that are pirated.

"Publishers can lower the price of all the games and benefit for the long tail if we control that. Cloud gaming enables that.

"Let's put it this way, it takes a long, long time for an established platform to finally go. For example, Xbox Live is a good example of stickiness. People have got their ranking, achievements and friends. That's going to be something people go back to.

"In that sense, we may see a co-existence."

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Like the Wii U's Apple white aesthetics? Nintendo has said the Wii U design it revealed at E3 will probably remain unchanged.

"In terms of the form factor of the console, it is quite near final," Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime told VentureBeat. "Similarly the form factor of the controller is quite near final."

The Wii U console's base unit looks like a chunkier version of the Wii, while the tablet-sized controller has a large touch screen. But it's nothing like an iPad, says Fils-Aime. "We were well in development before the birth of tablets, and again, to be clear, this is not a tablet."

"This was not conceptualised as an on-the-go piece of equipment," he qualified. The Wii U controller needs to be near the base console unit to stream content, meaning no on-board processor, which helps keep costs down.

Was any tech left out of Wii U to keep its price low? Fils-Aime's not telling. "What I would say is we have built an approach that we believe is going to satisfy the needs of all kinds of consumers that will allow for new experiences and yet still will be affordable and be consistent with the value philosophy of Nintendo," he said.

Fils-Aime also poured water on a dual platform release for upcoming Wii Zelda game Skyward Sword. Late GameCube Zelda game Twilight Princess found itself in a similar situation and ended up launching on Wii as well.

There's no chance of it this time around however, "Because Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was built to be played with a Wii controller," Fils-Aime reasoned.

An odd argument considering Skyward Sword uses the Wii Motion Plus, the advanced Wii Remote technology the Wii U fully supports.

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Nintendo's Wii U is arriving on the market at least two years late, according to influential analyst firm Wedbush Morgan.

In a note to investors, authored by Michael Pachter, Edward Woo and Nick McKay, the company pointed out that Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 footage was used to demonstrate third-party Wii U games - likely evidence that the system's high definition visuals will not surpass those of the current consoles.

"We think that Wii U is arriving two years late, given that the other HD consoles already have peripherals for movement," said the firm.

"As Nintendo did not provide any specifics around the new console's power or pricing (Nintendo used PS3 and Xbox 360 game footage in the Wii U presentation), we are assuming that the Wii U is unlikely to provide greater power than the current HD consoles," continued the report.

"If that is the case, we believe Nintendo has conceded a tremendous first mover advantage to Microsoft and Sony, which launched Kinect and Move control schemes, respectively, in late 2010."

The new tablet controller also failed to impress, largely due to it's role in multiplayer gaming.

"We were also disappointed by the recent announcement that each console can support only one of the new controllers, with the controllers for additional players coming from the original Wii."

The report also notes that the Wii U announcement "lost some impact" as a result of the limited information available about the new product. So far Nintendo has refused to offer detail on the console's performance, such as the type of graphic chip or more details on the IBM CPU.

Details of the PlayStation Vita received a better reception, with Wedbush calling Sony "smart to focus on power and core" but warning that success was dependent on strong launch games and the service provided to American 3G users by telecommunications partner AT&T.

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In case it somehow snuck in under your radar, E3 just happened. The LA-based gaming extravaganza is where Nintendo introduced its next generation of home console, the Wii U, also served as the location where our buddies from Joystiq caught up with Hideki Konno, the company's 3DS hardware chief. When queried as to why the 3DS uses the same, nowadays archaic, resistive touch technology as in the original DS, Mr. Konno answered candidly that "it's all about the backwards compatibility. We have to play DS games on this and we want to make sure they work." Not an unreasonable assertion by any means, however those same Joystiq sleuths also determined pretty conclusively that the Wii U's bodacious 6.2-inch controller also uses a resistive touchscreen -- could the primeval tech be getting recycled again for similar reasons? Nintendo's made no announcements about game compatibility on the Wii U beyond confirming that it'll play all Wii titles, but this at least it gives us some extra food for rumination (and speculation) while we wait for the new console's 2012 release.

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Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has said he doesn't believe the announcement of the Wii U will affect sales of the Wii, as that the two machines will attract different consumers.

He argued that the price and available games will maintain sales of the Wii, and that Nintendo intends to support the older machine until after the launch of the Wii U sometime in 2012.

"We don't think that's going to be an issue and here is why. Let me focus in on the US. About 36 million units later, the consumer who is buying a Wii for the first time now is very different from one buying the first one million Wii units," Fils-Aime told GamesBeat.

"The consumer today loves the $149 price point. There is a wide range of software. For the consumer today, having a library that includes Wii Sports Resort and Wii New Super Mario Bros, Wii Donkey Kong Trooper Challenge - it's a different consumer."

"I continue to believe that the Wii will have a strong summer, fall, holiday season and we are going to continue to drive the Wii part of our business. It will be strong even after the Wii U launches. They are just different consumers and we saw that just as an example when we launched the 3DS and continued to sell other units too."

While the console shown at E3 was a prototype, Fils-Aime said both the machine and controller won't undergo any drastic changes before release.

"In terms of the form factor of the console, it is quite near final. Similarly the form factor of the controller is quite near final."

He also pointed to the addition of HD, a first for Nintendo, as a significant step forward in securing new software. "HD is something that our partners told us was important to them and they were holding HD as a key reason why game A on a competitive platform couldn't be brought to the existing Wii. We have eliminated that issue now. "

The Wii U boasts 1080p graphics, a multi-core 45 nm microprocessor and a distinctive tablet style controller complete with a six-inch touchscreen for streaming content from the console.

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