Gaming (rumours) Metroid on URE3, Netflix and Android OS?

[Clarky]

Nintendotown has been posting up some juicy rumours...

*New Metroid in the making using the Unreal 3 Engine, apparently a tech demo has been shown off in cooperation with Retro Studios

*Nintendo are apparently in talks with various video on demand services as to build support for them into the consoles dashboard similar to the Xbox 360 and PS3

*The Wii U will be running off the Android OS



source-http://www.vg247.com/2012/04/26/wii-u-rumors-metroid-ure3-vod-services-andorid-os/

all 3 sound good to me, although Android does sound a little too good to be true

 

[chartube12]

Maybe it will be the dreamcast. Run an highly customized version of android, but when you run a retail game it shuts off and runs a very lite OS from the disc in the background.

Dreamcast did this but with windows ce as it's main os.

 

[notmeanymore]

Well that would blow all the claims of the PS Vita being "too much like a smartphone" out the water.

 

[koji2009]

Err... is there even a powerPC port of Android?

-does a quick search-

hmm... I see a few mentions, but no build websites or anything like that. So I guess it's possible... but a little improbable. Seems like a lot of work to completely (or mostly) port an existing OS when Nintendo already has their own OS running on PowerPC.

(edit) Forgot to comment on the others parts... The Netflix thing is a "well duh!" moment since Nintendo has already got Netflix on Wii and 3DS, it would be a no brainer to include it and others into the system.

As for Metroid... I could see some UR3 engine demos being made both to show off the Wii U's specs to the masses, as well as show developers that the engine works in general (though we knew this already since Batman Arkham City is coming to the Wii U, and it's an UR3 based game) but even seeing some working demos of Metroid, I wouldn't take it as confirmation that a Metroid game is currently being made for the Wii U... For an example, see the FF7 demo used to show off the PS3.

(edit 2) Another quick thought.. a powerPC port of Android for the Wii U seems pretty unlikely... but I do know a certain peripheral that's already very tablet like.... That seems both plausible and promising in that maybe the tablet itself really could have some more uses.

 

[mysticwaterfall]

1) Possible, like Koji said
2) 1000% certain
3) Highly unlikely. It will probably run on a 3ds/Wii like menu. Nintendo would never give up that much control over the system menu to something it didn't make. For one thing, it would make it a lot easier to hack, as there isn't an Android device that hasn't been rooted at this point. There are things you can do to make it harder, but it still happens eventually.For another, it would allow (after root of course) the operation of entirely seperate markets that Nintendo gets no revenue from.
Third, you would be sacrificing game performance, as Android apps are all run through a Java VM.

 

[Hanks6]

would make it highly hackable if it ran on such a scalable, widely distributed OS, i'd of thought!

 

[Foxi4]

News from April 26th, all of this has been posted here I think.

 

[AceWarhead]

This has been posted.

 

[JN_big3]

It will be f*cking awesome if it was to run in Android OS.

I'm already thinking of having many apps on the controller if it had memory on it . The bad thing is it would be easily hackable.

EDIT: I wish that the Wii U will have a hard drive inside of it so that we can play games, music and videos of it like the XBOX 360. But because of the flood that struck the factory of HDD Manufacturer the prices of HDDs today are way expensive. Atlea the Wii U supports External Hard drives.

 

[finkmac]

Maybe it will be the dreamcast. Run an highly customized version of android, but when you run a retail game it shuts off and runs a very lite OS from the disc in the background.

Dreamcast did this but with windows ce as it's main os.

Uhh, no...

The Dreamcast did not run Windows CE, it was, however... Compatible with Windows CE, as stated on the case../

 

[Deltaechoe]

Out of these rumors, there will almost certainly be some sort of improved netflix support. That service sells consoles believe it or not. Metroid running on the unreal engine is plausible, but the rumor regarding android is pretty unlikely no matter how much I want it to be true. I'm an absolute android fanboy and would love to see my favorite mobile OS oon my gaming system but I honestly do not see it happening, Nintendo is undoubtedly going to use some proprietary os that they made specifically for the wii U. Their new OS is most likely going to be a derivative of the Wii os (just like the 3ds is)

 

[RichardLaughter]

wow, if it does run android, which i highly doubt, i hope they apt for a new revision and not ics. i love ics, but it just wouldn't feel right.

 

[ChaosAngel]

As cool as Android may be, I personally hope they stick with the standard Nintendo UI. It works well for me and for what it needs to do, though the compatibility with various other apps would be nice.