gamingeek said:

What about DVD eco packaging?

Exactly....is that missing plastic somehow going to save the planet from the sun burning it to shit in a few billion years? No, so give me my fucking plastic cocksuckers.

And then you have Nintendo America, who has to print like 5 different languages all the sudden on the back of the boxes and in the instruction booklet, making the instructions for a game like Pac Man the size of the fucking Skyrim Strategy goddamn guide. So politically correct.

Is this shit necessary?

edgecrusher said:

Exactly....is that missing plastic somehow going to save the planet from the sun burning it to shit in a few billion years? No, so give me my fucking plastic cocksuckers.

I don't mind the 3ds eco packaging because they made it a feature.

Iwata Asks: Wii U full tech breakdown, design and more

Time to read this. Here are a few snippets:

Takeda


Yes. Ever since the Nintendo GameCube Nintendo has concerned itself with how to improve the game computer's efficiency while constraining power consumption, and this has been consistent in that design concept.

Iwata


What was the key to achieving low power consumption and high performance this time?

Takeda


First of all, adoption of a multi-core CPU for the first time. By having multiple CPU cores in a single LSI chip, data can be processed between the CPU cores and with the high-density on-chip memory much better, and can now be done very efficiently with low power consumption.

This time we fully embraced the idea of using an MCM for our gaming console. An MCM is where the aforementioned Multi-core CPU chip and the GPU chip10 are built into a single component. The GPU itself also contains quite a large on-chip memory. Due to this MCM, the package costs less and we could speed up data exchange among two LSIs while lowering power consumption. And also the international division of labor in general, would be cost-effective.

Iwata


There still aren't many instances where all these key components of a system is built into a single chip.

Shiota


There are a few, but there aren't many examples of something mass produced like this with a CPU and GPU of this caliber in one package. This is the MCM substrate.

Iwata


This single chip contains the console's heart. They were separated to two chips in the GameCube and Wii. Is the reason you focused on an MCM because you thought the results were worth it?

Shiota


Yes. As Takeda-san said, lowering power consumption has been our position since the GameCube. By putting LSI chips in this small package, the power necessary for communication between LSI chips drastically fell.

Iwata


Compared to power flowing between chips in separate physical positions on the board, you can get by with less power inside a small module. The latency is also reduced, and the speed increases.

Kitano


Compared with the Wii, the Wii U has about three times the amount of heat, so we really had to wrack our brains. We considered solutions such as making the fan bigger and raising the number of fan revolutions. We conducted heat tests for prototypes a number of times and optimized placement of the air holes.

Kitano


Yes. The basic structure is that the heat sink is over the MCM and the fan is directly behind it. It is advantageous for heat dissipation to have more air on the heat sink. However, we learned through testing that you have to dissipate the heat while securing a certain amount of airways or it isn't efficient.

Iwata

A big reason you could make the Wii U that is much more powerful compared to the Wii at this size, was reducing the number of heat sources to one. I remember Takeda-san saying rather early on that we should use an MCM. And we were also making something in an unprecedented way, where we combine various chips made by multiple semiconductor manufacturers into one package.

Takeda


I think that's the magic of game-console development. We carry out development together with other partner companies, but rather than having IBM employees and AMD employees and Renesas employees, we joined into what might be called "Team Nintendo".

Iwata


Instead of just designing a GPU, for example, you're making a game console. It's interesting how even different companies can form one team. So when defects arise, we are blessed to have people who will take a personal stake in it and cooperate with us even if the cause doesn't lie with them.

Shiota


Actually, a lot of the CPU and GPU designers this time have been working with us since development of Wii—which is a plus. They really like our products.

Akagi


I worked on the SDK18 and absolutely love CPUs! (laughs) So I myself have been happy to see how far game consoles have come. I hope people will be impressed by the types of software enabled by the CPU.

Takeda


I would draw attention to how efficient it is. For a computer to function efficiently, memory hierarchy20 structure is very important, and this time the basic memory hierarchy is tightly designed. Although that is an orthodox solution, it makes the foremost feature of this machine's high efficiency.

I hope that the people, especially those who bother themselves to read this interview to know that in order to make this hardware at this size, with this performance, while also suppressing power consumption—and all at this price—a lot of people had to work awfully hard. That is my candid wish.

This is important about backwards compatibility and the question as to the rumours of U using Wii 1 Broadway clocked higher CPU cores:

Shiota

Yes. The designers were already incredibly familiar with the Wii, so without getting hung up on the two machines' completely different structures, they came up with ideas we would never have thought of. There were times when you would usually just incorporate both the Wii U and Wii circuits, like 1+1. But instead of just adding like that, they adjusted the new parts added to Wii U so they could be used for Wii as well.

Would have been cool if the other guys could have done this for backwards compat too.

This is funny:

Kitano

Yes, so in the product...

Iwata


Oh! It's clear! Cool!

Everyone (laughs)

Iwata


You've got to sell this to me! (laughs)

Everyone (laughs)

So this is the heart of the Wii U

9. MCM (multi chip module): A component with multiple silicon chips called bare die mounted on a single substrate.

CPU and GPU on one chip, this is how they were able to get faster speeds yet smaller size and lower power consumption. Nifty.

Nice Monster Hunter pics GG. What console was that announced for 3DS?

Lack of instruction booklets is one of the things that will ultimately kill the industry. Mark my words. And remember we all have Square to thank for this. They were the first ones to pull this crap with Final Fantasy 9, when they provided a 4 page brouchure that showed character pictures and kind of explained Moogle mail, and insisted in-game tutorials and their website had all the instructions that you need. How the fuck are we supposed to even know to put the disc in and start playing it, if we're not instructed to do so.

And sorry to hear about your cock Edge.

robio said:

Nice Monster Hunter pics GG. What console was that announced for 3DS?

Yeah.

Foolz said:

So some just have blank holes? Lame.

No, not all games come with eco packaging.

Pics of my Bulletstorm playthrough:

edgecrusher said:

Pics of my Bulletstorm playthrough:

Pretty.

Anyone here have an opinion on all the Greek protesters with posters of the German Chancellor mocked up as Hitler? Makes me very uneasy.

THIS. GAME.

More here

Wow, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Wii U trailer, click the cog for HD. So clear and nice looking. Well, ya know for a Wii 1 game.

Archangel3371 said:

Yeah those eco-packages are pretty lame, moreso on the console games because the missing plastic space is so much larger and feels like you might put your finger through it just holding the case. I've noticed for the past while now though that the 360 games I've picked up now don't have these large holes anymore.

I've received some from online purchases where somewhere along the way they've ripped the cover because of those wagon wheels.  Some of my more recent games have not featured them, so hopefully they are phasing them out.

Iga_Bobovic said:

...

...anyone  here still think Lance Amstrong is innocent?

I never did.