Reports: HD Wii Successor To Be Announced At Or Before E3, Launch In 2012

Persistent rumors about Nintendo's plans for a follow-up to the Wii have begun to leak out in press reports, with multiple outlets citing unnamed sources regarding the system's imminent announcement and features. Game Informer led off the chatter with a report that "multiple sources" have confirmed the system will support high-definition resolutions and would be announced "at E3 this summer if not sooner." The report mentions that publishers are being shown early demos of the system ahead of a planned "late 2012" launch. IGN followed up GI's report with a story citing its own unnamed source as saying the system will support full 1080p HD resolutions. IGN also cites sources confirming the system will be backward-compatible with the Wii, and that Nintendo will give "a pre-announcement this month." Rumors of Nintendo's entry into the HD console market have long been a subject of discussion in the industry, with Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter predicting an HD upgrade for the Wii since at least mid-2007. In 2009 he predicted such an upgrade would be available by the end of 2010 for under $200. In a 2009 interview, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime addressed those rumors, saying that simply adding HD capabilities onto the Wii would "not be the next step for us." "The way we at Nintendo do things is, you know, when we will move to a new generation, it's because there are some fundamental things the [current] console cannot do," he added in that interview. Nintendo did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reports of a new console, but does not make a practice of commenting on what it deems rumor and speculation.