Wii U design "quite near final"

The Wii U and its innovative controller will look almost exactly like the model seen at this year’s E3.

Speaking to VentureBeat, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime confirmed that the design of the prototype hardware is almost final and explained why the new console is larger than the original Wii.

In terms of the form factor of the console, it is quite near final,” he said. Similarly the form factor of the controller is quite near final.

The size is driven by the componentry and what’s inside. When you compare it to any of the competitive systems, it’s still dramatically smaller.”

Fils-Aime also claimed that the Wii U’s design was not influenced by Apple products such as the iPad, and reiterated that the controller has not been made to compete with portable tablets.

He said: We were well in development before the birth of tablets and, again, to be clear, this is not a tablet. It is a connected experience to the base console. It talks with the base console. It interacts with other Wii accessories whether that is a Wii Remote Plus or a Wii Balance Board. So it has very different functionality compared to a tablet.

What we wanted to do was in a home environment, taking advantage of this multiple screens. This was not conceptualised as an on-the-go piece of equipment.”