Rumors will no longer be rumors in a few days, when the video game industry descends upon Los Angeles for E3 2011. All eyes are on Nintendo next week, as the company reveals the first details on its next game console, the successor to the Wii.
Japanese newspaper Nikkei has run a story with alleged details about the new hardware, translated by the ever-useful Andriasang, and it backs up many of the rumors.
The big thing about Nintendo's new console, unless Nintendo blindsides us with something else, is a controller with an embedded touch screen. It appears to be something wedged between an iPad and what we've come to expect from game consoles. It's unclear if the screen is single or multi-touch. DS, for example, only responds to a single touch. iPad can register up to 11 touches at once.
There's also reportedly a camera on the device. Given what we've already seen from developers on iPhone and DS, the possibilities for gimmicky fun (and perverted deviance) are pretty obvious.
Nikkei also pegs the release as early as the mid-2012. All Nintendo's said is that it's coming in 2012 and sales for the console have not been baked into its projects for the coming fiscal year, which ends in March. That tells us the console will not launch until at least after March 2012.
Other than that? E3 will have (some of the) answers we seek.