2012 is set to be a year of new consoles, with the launch of Vita and Wii U and the possibility of an Xbox 360 follow-up at E3. But amid all this obsession over new machines, what are the devices we cherish from the past?

We haven’t done a Friday question for a while, so let’s remedy that right now. This year is going to be a big one for games hardware. There’s the launch of the PS Vita next month and the arrival of the Nintendo Wii U at some point later on. Plus, everyone is expecting Microsoft to announce its successor to the Xbox 360 at the E3 event in June.

It’s exciting – and it’s an excitement that tends to get lost behind the pervading notion that smart phones are going to kill dedicated gaming machines. I now have a PlayStation Vita for review and it’s a beautiful piece of consumer electronics engineering – stylish, highly specced, wonderfully ergonomic – it is all about the fetishistic qualities of good games hardware.

But what single console, arcade machine or handheld device would you like to own from the annals of interactive entertainment history, and why? I don’t mean just for the games it runs, I mean for the aesthetic appeal of the object – just the look and feel of the thing; I mean something you could almost display as an object d’art. If you’re into that kind of thing.

I’ve provided three of my own choices below. Let’s have some of yours in the comments section!

The Vectrex, 1982

This marvel of early eighties consumer electronics is utterly unique, with its vector-based graphics technology and its series of plastic overlays, which added colour to the otherwise monochrome visuals. I love the arcade-style portrait display, and the formative joypad, with its four-button layout. It looks like it belongs in a seventies sci-fi movie.

Star Wars, 1983

Yet more Vector graphics! But the beauty of this machine is the intricate cabinet design, with its gorgeous illustrations and the authentic instrument panel design inside. The sound is incredible for the era too, with a lively rendering of the soundtrack and clear digitised speech. Despite a cacophony of competing machines, I could always hear the Star Wars attract mode as soon as I wandered into any of the old coin-op arcades along Blackpool’s golden mile… Anyway, check out the video above, I like the way the guy sort of stalks the machine, like he’s about to murder it.

The blue debug PlayStation, 1994

These were littered around the offices of Future publishing when I first joined Edge back in 1995 and they seemed impossibly arcane and glamorous. This is where I would have played the likes of Ridge Racer and Resident Evil for the first time. I also like the chunkier, squarer design of the original PlayStation, before the slim re-model. I liked the array of obscure ports and connection features on the back as well. I’m not sure I like them quite as much as the chap in this YouTube video, though…

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The current console generation is already longer than previous ones, and other than the Wii U, no new consoles have been announced. And some would argue that Wii U is not really ‘next-gen’ since it’s basically on par with PS3 graphically. Does this mean Nintendo is launching too late? Speaking to IndustryGamers, EA CEO John Riccitiello said it essentially no longer matters and that consoles aren’t even the dominant force in gaming today. This site is updated regularly per day with the very latest Free Sony Slim PS3 news.

Update: A commenter helpfully pointed out that the Wii U won’t support GameCube games or controllers, so we’ve updated this story accordingly.

Close-up snaps of the Wii U have emerged that show off the new console’s port selection, including an HDMI port.

The snaps come courtesy of a site called Inside Games, and give us a good look at the Wii U console itself. Despite showing off its new machine at the E3 expo, Nintendo’s been pretty cagey about letting anyone investigate the actual console, preferring instead to let people get to grips with the quirky new controller. As big as a dinner plate, it rocks a 6.2-inch touchscreen.

There’s not a whole lot to glean from the snaps, though from examining the back (in the photo above) it looks like the power supply and sensor bar port are unchanged. Hopefully this means we’ll be able to use our existing Wii cables with the new console.

It also gives us a warm shiver to spy an HDMI port nestled around the back. HD gaming is something the Wii sorely lacks compared to its hi-def, highfalutin Xbox and PS3 rivals.

All Wii Remotes and Wii accessories will play nicely with the Wii U, but this is the point at which Nintendo stops supporting GameCube controllers and games.

Elsewhere the Wii U looks much like the Wii (ie rather boring, like a miniature air conditioner), but with trendier, rounded edges.

Still, there’s every chance that what you see in the photos above will change by the time the Wii U is released next year. We hypothesised in our preview that one of the reasons for Nintendo holding the console back was that designs weren’t final yet.

More news as it comes — in the meantime let us know what you think of the Wii U in the comments, or on our motion-controlled Facebook page.

Image credit: Inside Games

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Nintendo’s brilliant scientists are locked in their hollow volcano, feverishly bashing together a successor to the monumentally popular Wii console. While we’re hearing that a playable Wii 2 will be unveiled in just a few weeks at the E3 gaming conference in Los Angeles, official details surrounding the new console are still thin on the ground. But rumours — that’s a different story! Here’s what we’ve been hearing through the grapevine…

The Wii 2 will be HD

Game Informer was the first site to break the Wii 2 story in April, citing anonymous sources who claimed the next console — which has taken on the curious moniker ‘Project Café’ — would be able to run games in high definition.

Both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 can already do this, and by comparison the Wii looks frankly ropey, graphics-wise. But don’t take this as a sign that Nintendo will definitely be cramming hi-def holly-jollies into its next console — the success of the Wii wasn’t down to its graphical capabilities, but its accessibility.

We’d think any new console would now be HD-capable by default, but frankly Nintendo’s never taken much notice of what we think a console should be — it’s always happily marched to its own beat.

The controller will have a built-in screen

We’re hearing this everywhere. The rumour goes that the Wii 2′s controller will feature its own hi-def screen. Some sites report it’ll be a touchscreen panel (akin to the lower screen on the Nintendo 3DS), and guesses put it at anywhere between 5 and 6.2 inches on the diagonal.

We’ve even heard that the screen will use fancy ‘haptic’ tech that enables the panel to feel like different things — when you stroke the screen it could feel like a brush or like wood, for example. We’re not sure how Ninty could possibly work that idea into a videogame, but the technology does exist, and the company has a history of adopting weird, unproven tech in its hardware.

It’ll cater to hardcore gamers 

We’ve also read that the controller will feature two analogue sticks, which would make the traditional gaming crowd very happy indeed, as it would prime the Wii 2 for intense first-person-shooter games. Myths abound that the new controller will also be slathered in buttons, shoulder-mounted triggers and a front-facing camera — further inciting rumours that this console will see Nintendo welcoming die-hard, muscly-thumbed gamers back into the fold, possibly with an upgraded online service.

But we wouldn’t count on it. Nintendo’s secured a legion of wealthy casual-gaming enthusiasts with the Wii, and it will be very wary of scaring them off with an interface that resembles an air-traffic control deck. We’re certain the new controller will keep the Wii’s motion-control capabilities, and if it adds anything new it won’t be a mass of buttons, but something more streamlined.

It’s more powerful than the Xbox 360 or PS3

This could well be true — a spot of computational one-upmanship is always welcome when new consoles are announced, and it aligns with the hi-def rumour. French site 01net reports the Wii 2 will pack a Custom IBM PowerPC triple-core CPU, an ATI R700-family graphics processor, and at least 512MB of RAM.

Nintendo’s never made much of a song and dance about graphical grunt, but it’s possible that performance-wise the next Wii could blow the current generation out of the water. There’s something to consider though — price.

The Wii’s success can be largely attributed to its fairly low starting price. Consoles that pack in a warehouse’s worth of spanking new tech are always pricey, and Ninty won’t want to alienate the casual crowd with an expensive bit of hardware. So while the next Wii could outclass the Xbox and PS3 on paper, we’d be surprised if Nintendo opted for the most expensive components it could find.

Backwards compatibility

The current Wii can run Gamecube games, so we’d hope the next Wii could at least run Wii titles. This one’s pretty much a cert.

When we try to apply our feeble human brains to dreaming up a new Nintendo console, the best we can come up with is an HD machine, with a cool controller and great online play. But we’re basically picturing an Xbox 360, and we doubt Nintendo is prepared to behave so conventionally. Here’s hoping for something truly mind-bending when the Wii 2 is unveiled in a few weeks time.

We’ll update this story with new rumours and more information as it becomes clear, but what do you imagine the Wii 2 will be like? We want your insane theories littering the comments, and our Facebook wall. 

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The Wii 2 will be unveiled at the giant E3 event in June and will launch next year.

Nintendo has confirmed that it will be launching a successor to its massively successful Wii home console in 2012. As rumoured for several weeks, the new machine will be unveiled at the giant E3 video game event, which takes place from June 7-9 in Los Angeles.

The company released a brief announcement on its investor relations website this morning, but has provided no other information. The confirmation coincides with the release of the veteran manufacturer’s earnings for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2011, which show a 52% fall in operating income, from ¥356bn (£2.6bn) in 2010 to ¥171bn. Worldwide annual sales of Wii hardware have also fallen from just over 20m in 2010 to 15.08m.

The Wii remains the most successful console release of its generation, with sales of around 86m, compared to 53m for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and 49.5m for the Sony PlayStation 3. However, the console has been available since 2006 and a refresh is now thought to be essential if Nintendo is to maintain its dominant position. An E3 announcement would allow the company to build on momentum generated by the release of the 3DS console last month.

Although no technical specifications for the Wii successor – allegedly codenamed “Project Cafe” – have been revealed, gossip and speculation are rife around the industry. Anonymous development sources have claimed to several news sites that development kits are already with big publishers such as Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and Activision. Games site IGN claims that it has been handed details of the architecture, which reportedly includes a triple-core IBM PowerPC processor and an AMD Fusion graphics processing unit. If true, this would make it considerably more powerful than the current Wii and a step up from the Xbox 360 (which has a similar internal set-up) and the PS3.

It is almost certain that, unlike Wii, “Project Cafe” will provide 1080p HD visuals. It is also set to feature a controller with its own built-in 6in display, effectively resembling a mini-tablet PC. This screen will be able to stream game visuals from the main console (showing, say, track layouts for racing games or interactive maps for adventure titles), but the controller may also be able to operate as seperate handheld games devices. Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto also hinted last week that the 3DS may be able to act as a “Project Cafe” joypad.

Nintendo has refused to comment on any of the speculation surrounding the new machine.

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The duo will be pole-vaulting onto Wii and 3DS, with new events and features for their successful multi-sport adventures.

Sega has announced Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, the latest in the hugely successful series of multi-sport tie-ins starring the two legendary gaming mascots. The first title in the series to name a specific Olympic location is being developed for the Wii and 3DS at Sega Japan and a release date is expected to be revealed later in the year.

On the Nintendo Wii, the London title is set to boast new sporting tasks such as football and equestrian events, as well as favourites like athletics and table tennis. The 3DS outing is apparently set to feature 50 ‘original Olympic-themed’ challenges, which makes it sound a little like a WarioWare title, which should be fun. Both versions will offer single- and multiplayer modes.

Mario and Sonic were bitter enemies during the 90s when the Super Mario Bros titles went moustache-to-spike against Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog series. However, the intense rivalry was put aside several years ago when the duo discovered a mutual love of Olympian sporting events. So far, their previous co-projects, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games and the fiendishly named Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, have sold over 19 million copies.

To celebrate the announcement, Sonic and Mario have spent the afternoon travelling around London on a double-decker bus, having their photos taken in front of various landmarks. I’m hoping they were also pictured having a snog outside the John Snow pub in Soho, although I fear this is unlikely.

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One of the problems with Nintendo’s motion-sensing gaming system is the lack of realism offered by the controllers, as anyone who’s woken up aching after over-exerting themselves playing bowling on the Wii will tell you. Fans of table tennis on the Wii should enjoy the TT Champion Bat, then, a controller modelled on an actual ping-pong paddle.

Ah, Wii table tennis. Yes, with the Wii, you can play a fake indoor version of a game which is itself a fake indoor version of another game.

British peripherals purveyor Shinobii designed the life-size replica of a table-tennis stick to have an accurate feel and weight. That makes it perfect for recreating that one glorious night down the youth club when you were unbeatable on the scuffed ping-pong table so Sharon Wilkinson let you hold her Lilt, and all the other hundreds of nights when you weren’t and she didn’t.

For complete realism, Shinobii is also developing a peripheral that randomly fires ping-pong balls across the room, allowing you to get more knackered from constantly chasing manically bouncing balls than from actually playing the game. There will also be two versions of the TT Champion Bat: one decent one, and one that’s all manky, with the red rubber bit all peeling off, so the first round of each game involves arguing over who gets the good paddle. Probably.

The TT Champion Bat boasts a built-in rechargeable battery and built-in Wii remote, so you don’t need to plug in a separate Wiimote. It’s compatible with all MotionPlus games for the Wii, including such tabletop treats as Racket Sports Party, Rockstar Table Tennis, and Balls of Fury. The paddle will be available ‘soon’, costing $70 (£45) in the US.

We’ve compared the latest motion-sensing gaming systems in an arm-waving face-off between the Xbox 360 Kinect, PlayStation Move and Nintendo Wii. They’re no Monkey Tennis, though, are they?

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When Wii MotionPlus launched in June 2009, enthusiasts immediately realized what the Wii’s technology was now capable of, and these abilities were shown off in releases of Wii Sports: Resort and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10. After the initial games that launched with MotionPlus, support for the new-fangled extension began to slack, even into 2010.

All hope is not lost, though. Other sports titles undertook the new technology, including ,i>NHL 2K10, and fishing, tennis and golf releases. A huge, upcoming third-party title, Red Steel 2 looks to take motion-controlled gaming to a new level, but besides that we don’t have a huge look into 2010. Other than Red Steel 2, we haven’t seen much. At Nintendo’s Media Summit, we only saw one title announced to be Wii MotionPlus compatible: FlingSmash.

Hit the cut to find out why Nintendo’s Reggie still thinks MotionPlus has “tremendous support.” Slim-PS3.com is updated several times per day with all latest gaming system news and reviews.

Following up on Sony’s bash of Microsoft yesterday, SCEA Senior Vice President of Publisher Relations Rob Dyer evidently also had a few words to say about Nintendo’s current offerings. Dyer believes that the domination of first-party videogame sales on the Wii turns third-parties off to the system and has brought them over to Sony’s PlayStation 3 instead.

“What publishers have said is they’re not going to spend the resources on Wii,” he asserts. “In the past, it was ‘Look how hot the Wii is,’ or ‘Look how hot the DS is,’ and ‘We should put resources there.’ They did that and realized, ‘You know what, third-party product just doesn’t sell on that platform.”

This realization is only a boon to the PlayStation 3, according to Dyer. “So now they’re taking those resources, coming back to us and saying, ‘Sony we’re going to be able to provide you with that exclusive content,’ or ‘We’re going to put more engineers on it and figure out to maximize the Blu-ray and get more out of PS3.’ That’s what we’re seeing now.” I like how Dyer is basically saying that third-parties tell Sony: “Well, nobody buys third-party games on the Wii, so I guess we’ll try your complicated-ass system and see how that works.” PlayStation 3 games must require at least 50% more engineers than Wii games.

In Dyer’s opinion, “Unless [third-party developers have] a particular franchise that’s worked well on the Wii, you don’t see a lot of innovative new IP coming out on that platform.” He’s right, thought I’m not sure Nintendo can do anything to fix the problem. People buy Nintendo games because they are the easy casual buy when walking into a store, and they are also fun for the hardcore. When any gamer looks at a wall of Wii games, finding something good is like searching for a needle in a mountain of poop. Nobody can stop publishers from cloning mini-game collections, or from naming and packaging them in a way that makes them look fun, when in reality they are the blights of the current videogame industry. The Wii has a reputation for crap, so even if a good game comes out on the system, it’s associated with the same crap as everything else.

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It’s actually not quite as exciting as it sounds…

For their respective press events at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft and Sony have emerged from some serious spreadsheet and calculator sessions with a collection of scintillating sales stats.

First up, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer confirmed that Xbox 360 has now shifted 39m units worldwide since its launch in 2005. This combines nicely with sales figures just released by ELSPA which show that last year, Xbox games overtook Wii titles in terms of UK revenue. As industry news source MCV, reports:

Xbox 360 raked in £459m in sales throughout the period according to numbers from ELSPA, generating more revenue than any other platform. Wii still won in raw unit terms, however, with 18m games sold.

Over at Sony, there were no new total sales figures for PS3, but it was announced that over 3.8 million hardware units were shifted during the five week run up to Christmas – a 76 per cent increase over last year, and a record Xmas performance for the machine.

While we’re on a stat offensive, ELSPA has also announced its 2009 UK games industry sales figures. Total sales of all videogames software during 2009 amounted to £1.621 billion, with revenue on console hardware sales amounting to £1.06 billion. The latter figure represents a slight fall from 2008 (£1.905 billion), which ELSPA puts down to slashed retail prices. And of course, a big bugger of a recession.

Here are the rest of the numerical titbits:

Nintendo Wii stormed the field with software sales of over 18 million units in the UK, retaining the title of Number One software format by units sold. Sony’s PlayStation 3 also saw a dramatic increase by 14 per cent of software units sold, from 10.4 million units in 2008 to 11.9 million units in 2009. Overall, in 2009 UK consumers bought a total of 74.6 million videogame units – which works out at more than one per person in the UK.

However, it was Microsoft’s Xbox 360 which saw the biggest increase in software revenue in 2009, up four per cent from 2008 to earn £459 million and become the number one software format by revenue, overtaking the Nintendo Wii.

The Sony PlayStation 3 was the star console this year, posting a two per cent increase of units sold compared to 2008. However it still could not overtake the Nintendo Wii which retained the lead as the most sold console of 2009. In total, 6.7 million videogame consoles were sold in the UK in 2009, which is one console for every nine people in the UK.

The total value of console/PC gaming peripherals was £630 million in 2009, with total sales reaching 35.8 million units.

As for Wii, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata recently told Reuters that the machine had recovered from its mid-2009 slowdown, with sales topping three million in the US over the festive season.

It will be interesting to see how the consoles vie for sales in 2010. With Microsoft now confirming Natal for a Christmas release and Sony lining up its own motion controller as well as confirming that 3D stereoscopic gaming will be added to the PS3 firmware this year, there’s a serious specifications war still raging.

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