Sources are claiming specific new information on Project Cafe’s price, tech specs, and controllers.
Rumors saying that Nintendo will be announcing a new console at E3 2011 are barely more than a week old, but alleged details on the system are already pouring in. The latest anonymous information on the device dubbed “Project Cafe” says that it’ll start out at a price around $400 and won’t necessarily stick with a single, primary controller type.
IGN reports that “sources with knowledge of the project” say Project Cafe will be priced at between $350 to $400 at launch. This would put it right up there with the Xbox 360 Pro’s launch price of $399.99. The sources also say that the earliest possible launch would have to be sometime after mid-October 2011.
Further, IGN claims that Project Cafe will run on a “revamped version of AMD’s R700 GPU (graphics processing unit) architecture,” which will outperform the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, while it adds to previously reported rumors that the console will use a “custom-built triple-core IBM PowerPC chipset.” The sources say Project Cafe will resemble a “modernized version of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System” in design, support a resolution of 1080p, potentially feature stereoscopic 3D support, and might be named “Stream.”
Meanwhile, Kotaku reports that “industry sources” have confirmed information about Project Cafe’s controllers. They don’t reveal too much that’s new, saying that Project Cafe will use a controller with a 6.2 inch touchscreen, two analog sticks, a camera, and 8 buttons. However, unlike most consoles that stick with a primary controller to play through most games, Project Cafe might use both the new controller and either Wii Remote or a new Wii Remote-style controller for motion gaming. Theoretically, it could use both controllers at the same time for new kinds of play experiences.
The controller could look something like these rumored concept designs that also recently surfaced. As always, all of this information should be considered rumor and speculation.
