Nintendo Brings Wii U to CES

It’s a little unnerving to be sitting in a room with 4 Nintendo representatives looking at you, along with one of the most mysterious upcoming pieces of hardware in the business. There were multiple Nintendo Wii U consoles in the room, each one complete with the innovative controller that looks like the love child of a standard gaming peripheral and an iPad.

Nintendo’s Wii U is a next-generation gaming console that comes with a large touchscreen controller — which changes how the games are played. CNNMoney got its hands on the highly anticipated device.
The demo took place at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. At first glance, the Nintendo Wii U console looks almost exactly like the original Nintendo Wii.

The difference lies in the special 9-inch-long controller, which gives the bearer — let’s call ‘em the Nintendo Wii God — a bit of special power. This player can see things on the 6.2-inch touchscreen that their fellow gamers, equipped with regular controllers, see on the linked-up TV.
For example: In the “Chase Mii” demo game that CNNMoney tried, 2 to 4 players with regular controllers try to catch the player with the touchscreen.
The regular players simply see their avatars running around on the TV, while the Wii God sees an overhead map on the touchscreen, which shows where everyone else is running.
The touchscreen controller also works with a single player, though Nintendo showed off only part of that capability with a video of Zelda gameplay. Though the demo didn’t allow actual playing, it illustrated how pressing buttons on the touchscreen can move a game map from the TV to the controller and back again.
Details on the Nintendo Wii U’s price and release date won’t be available until later this year. It’s important for Nintendo to get the pricing right on the Nintendo Wii U, since a recent misfire on that front has cost them.
The handheld Nintendo 3DS went on sale in North America at $250 in March, and the company reported that day-one sales were the best of any of its devices. But sales slumped over the next few months. In its July earnings report Nintendo was forced to cut the 3DS price by 32%, to $170, in order to jumpstart sales.