Hoping to reassert itself in the face of so many motion-controlled copycats, Nintendo has confirmed today that it plans to introduce its Wii successor next year, two years before Sony or Microsoft will have new consoles out, and at least three years before the machines rise up and force humans into gladiatorial contests for their amusement. A playable model of the new Nintendo Whatever (not its actual name) will debut at June’s E3 Expo, but until then there are only rumors about what it will entail: Kotaku has been following the development of the next-generation machine—which has the internal code name Project Café—that Nintendo calls a “new approach to home video game consoles,” but there’s not much else to go on just yet.
However, early reports say that in addition to working with the current Wii remote, it will also feature a new controller that uses both a traditional Nintendo d-pad plus a built-in touch screen (so maybe less fodder for Wii Injury this time around?). We also know it will not be based in 3-D, due to the fact that most people don’t own a 3-D television yet, so there’s still time to speculate on what Project Café’s “new approach” to gaming will be. Given the name, perhaps your console will have lingering, latte-fueled conversations with you about why your latest Super Mario quest feels, I don’t know, emptier somehow, and maybe this means you’re just getting older? [via Vulture]