For months we've known that Wii U will support various storage solutions in addition to the variable internal storage that comes with different system bundles (8GB and 32GB at launch). Nintendo has now provided more details on SD card and hard drive support, plus even shed some light on how much space the system's OS will take and more. Thanks to NeoGAF user cvxfreak for translating all of the details from the last second Japanese broadcast.

The OS Space

When buying a Wii U, gamers will be able to choose between the Basic bundle, which comes with 8GB of internal storage, and the Deluxe bundle, which comes with 32GB of space. By default, due to formatting, the Basic system will have 7.2GB of free memory and the Deluxe will have 29GB. From there, though, the Wii U's OS will take 4.2GB of space. That's about half of the Basic's storage, not counting any expansion through hard drives or SD cards.

Nintendo also specified that New Super Mario Bros. U is approximately a 2GB download. Nintendo Land ranks around 3.2GB. That means Basic system owners can't download both Mario and Nintendo Land to their internal storage without running out of space. Something to keep in mind.

USB Hard Drives

By default, and barring an update that Nintendo says is coming in the future, Wii U will only allow one USB drive to be connected at a time. These drives cannot be disconnected while Wii U is powered on, and the system will support and read up to 2TB of storage.

Drives that will be used by Wii U must be formatted by the system's Data Management system, meaning you can't use the drive with a PC. However all data can be moved internally and externally through Wii U's OS.

Drives that require more than USB 2.0 connections might not work properly with Wii U. Drives that have two USB connectors will work, however.

SD Cards

Wii U will accept SD cards, but their use is limited. PC, Wii Virtual Console, WiiWare and Wii saves can be stored on these cards, but Wii U save data cannot.

Rich is an Executive Editor of IGN.com and the leader of IGN's Nintendo team. He also watches over all things WWE, Resident Evil, Assassin's Creed and much more. Follow him on Twitter, if you dare!

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

Nintendo continues to slowly release details on some of the functionality Wii U will gain once gamers access its Day One update. As we previously revealed, key features like Miiverse and Wii U's backwards compatibility will only be available once this patch is downloaded. Today Nintendo showcased more of these elements in a video. Most of it was previously known, but the footage does provide more context than we previously had, plus actually shows things like Miiverse operating on a Japanese Wii U.

Check it out. We're still waiting to receive the update stateside, so this is currently the latest information we have about these new programs.

Rich is an Executive Editor of IGN.com and the leader of IGN's Nintendo team. He also watches over all things WWE, Resident Evil, Assassin's Creed and much more. Follow him on Twitter, if you dare!

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

A few weeks back, one of Wii U's launch titles got a little boost, courtesy of Nintendo. Scribblenauts Unlimited, a game that allows players to summon any object imaginable, welcomed Mario, Link and their friends into the fold.

All we've had to go on was a simple promotional image featuring Scribblenauts hero Maxwell with some stylized renderings of Mario, Link and a few more characters from their worlds. Today we're able to show you some of them in action, including how they interact with a few familiar objects. As is often the case with Scribblenauts, we're not trying to do anything in particular - just write things into the world and see what happens. Also keep in mind that we're doing that writing and a lot of the object manipulation through the GamePad.

Let's see Hyrule and the Mushroom Kingdom crash the Scribblenauts party!

Stay tuned to IGN for the latest on the Wii launch!

Rich is an Executive Editor of IGN.com and the leader of IGN's Nintendo team. He also watches over all things WWE, Resident Evil, Assassin's Creed and much more. Follow him on Twitter, if you dare!

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

Arguably the biggest news coming out of today's Nintendo Direct livestream was that Nintendo is developing its own karaoke software, snappily titled: Nintendo-JoySound Wii Karaoke U. You'll apparently be able to use the in-built mic or purchase a special Wii U karaoke microphone, which will come with a trial disc.

Over 90,000 songs will be available. But don't get too excited, it's unlikely the service will be made available outside of Japan.

Would you like to see Wii U Karaoke come to the West? Let us know in the comments below.

Daniel is IGN's UK Staff Writer, and you can be part of the world's worst cult by following him on IGN and Twitter.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

Miyamoto has talked about how Nintendo is encouraging developers to make games for Wii U in an IGN interview.

It seems that Miyamoto has been meeting personally with developers to encourage them to work with Nintendo's new console. "I am trying to meet with the game developers individually for this matter," he says, asked how the company will be supporting other developers that want to get the best out of the hardware. "The real subject is whether I’ll be able to - we’ll be able to - convince developers inside of the licensing publishers to be excited about the new features of the Wii U, so much so that they’ll be enthused towards making brand new entertainment that I couldn't come up with myself."

It's no secret to anyone that third-party developers struggled to get the most out of the Wii - almost all of the system's truly great games came from within Nintendo's own stables. But Miyamoto does not think that third-party developers lack the know-how to make the most out of the hardware; far from it.

"When it comes to technologies and techniques and skills necessary for working on Wii U, [and] what we can provide, I can count on them that they already have that. They know how to do that," Miyamoto asserts. "They are always skilful, and actually they must have some different know-how from what we have. There might be some misunderstanding - as if Nintendo alone had some special know-how, and because Nintendo has not shared those unique, secret protocols with other, third-party publishers have not been able to create the exciting, unique gameplay on Nintendo hardware. But that was not the case."

“

There might be some misunderstanding - as if Nintendo alone had some special know-how...

"The fact of the matter is that most third-party licensees from a business point of view, had to create multi-platform titles – and because Nintendo has been trying to create very unique hardware, oftentimes it was not considered the first choice for them to work on multi-platform software," he explains. "So it’s the entire company decision-making process that is hindering developer’s ability from making unique titles on Wii U hardware. Once again, my job as one of the developers is meet with the individual people and convince that they’ll be able to create brand new entertainment that they really wish to realise. My job is to try to assist them in that fashion.

"I do not think that providing any special technologies, know how or skills would be able to change the situation, because I understand that most third-party developers already have those things."

Look out for our full interview with Miyamoto very soon.

Keza MacDonald is in charge of IGN's games team in the UK. You can follow her onIGN and Twitter.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

In an interview with IGN, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto discussed Wii U and 3DS connectivity, saying that the company is thinking about ways to get the best out of both systems - but it doesn't look like it's exactly a top priority at the moment.

Nintendo has a long history of connecting its portable and home console systems, from the Game Boy Player to the N64's Transfer Pak to the myriad ways in which the Gamecube and Game Boy Advance that could be used together to enhance the experience of games like Zelda: Four Swords and Animal Crossing.

“

Of course we are trying to think about a way to expand the experience of 3DS and Wii U when they are connected with each other, one way or the other.

"Of course we are thinking of the possibility of connecting Wii U and Nintendo 3DS once again," Miyamoto said. "[But] we have challenged connectivity on many occasions, and one of the great lessons we have learned is the simple fact that those who own both are much fewer than those who don’t own both. So what we decided early on when considering the Wii U design was that we had to make it so that every single purchaser of the Wii U is going to have the same play conditions, the same equipment."

That doesn't mean that Nintendo is discounting the possibility of connecting the 3DS and Wii U in interesting ways, though. "Even between Wii and 3DS, there are some things that can be done by connecting with each other – Mii channel is interchangeable on both systems," Miyamoto reminds us. "There are things that can easily done by transferring data between Wii and DS or 3DS systems.

"If we are going to do that with Wii U and 3DS, there would be three screens to consider. The reason why we were not so eager to do a similar thing between Wii and DS if that it would have become very complicated using two screens on the DS and one screen on the Wii. But of course we are trying to think about a way to expand the experience of 3DS and Wii U when they are connected with each other, one way or the other."

Look out for our full interview with Miyamoto very soon indeed.

Keza MacDonald is in charge of IGN's games team in the UK. You can follow her onIGN and Twitter.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

Nintendo Australia has announced it will be touring the Wii U around Australia from November 5.

Nintendo fans across several states will be able to go hands-on with Wii U at one of Nintendo’s temporary pop-up locations.

All locations will have Nintendo Land, New Super Mario Bros. U and Scribblenauts Unlimited available to play. The Melbourne and Sydney Wii U Experience Stores will have more titles, including SiNG Party, Rayman Legends, Batman: Arkham City Armoured Edition and Just Dance 4.

A range of the latest Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS software, including Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, Pokémon Black Version 2 and Pokémon White Version 2, Pokédex 3D Pro and Paper Mario: Sticker Star, will also be available to play at all locations.

Gamers keen to try the Wii U prior to its launch on November 30 can check out the dates and locations here, or refer to the image below.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

Nintendo of America has kicked off its Wii U advertising campaign with a new commercial. Set to some rockin’ electronic music, the promo has lots of pretty colors and shows off plenty of different people playing Wii U -- perhaps in situations like how you’ll be enjoying your own new console later this month?

Check out the ad below via Nintendo’s YouTube channel:

Wii U will launch on November 18th in North America and November 30th in Europe. For more information on all the launch games and bundles available (sorry, no dubstep or fancy modern apartments included), check out our Wii U wiki guide.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com