Nintendo Zii Patent Becomes Official in Japan

5 Comments / Add Your Response?

1. SuperTrainStationH says:

   15 December, 2009 at 7:53 pm

   First off, the title is misleading, this is a trademark, a patent protects actual inventions, which is not the case here.

   “Zii” trademark is pretty much guaranteed to have nothing to do with an upcoming Nintendo product, Nintendo has been trademarking variants of the “Wii” name for years now to prevent knockoffs from making products with similar names.

   Remember when everyone was speculating that Wii would have some kind of instant message service because Nintendo trademarked the name “!!M” (Wii upside down) before the system came out?

   This is the same thing.
2. Michael Dionne says:

   16 June, 2010 at 6:21 am

   First, sorry for any language mistake I may do, since I am originally speaking French.

   SuperTrainStationH is most probably true.

   But I can also imagine a Zii console being a Wii update for 3D-ready TVs; hence the “Z”… The letter “Z” is representing the depth perception.

   While Nintendo are now focusing on developping entertaining games based on very strong franchises (like Zelda Skyward Sword, Metroid Other M, New Super Mario Wii, Kirby Epic Yard, Donkey Kong Country Returns, GoldenEye 007, etc.), they may not absolutely need a huge hardware upgrade to get the same resolution definition, but in 3D on 3D-ready displays. It would theorically need 50% more processing power to achieve the very same quality in 3D. It is realistic since electronic components like CPUs and GPUs are much more powerful now for about the same price per unit. And since 3D (stereoscopic – depth perception to be exact) effects are generated on the fly by a combination of software and better hardware, no extra data (like 3D models and textures) need to be burned on the media disc. So, in this case, I would not expect any Blu-Ray tech to be thrown in. But Nintendo would not release such a system anytime soon; they would wait for consumers to adopt 3D-ready displays in mass.

   But since I am a strange guy, I will counter-comment this whole concept, mainly for 1 single reason: Nintendo laughed at 3D glasses at E3 2010 to add more value to the 3DS autostereoscopic screen, so they don’t have any plans on releasing a 3D-ready home console. I can even predict that in facts, they planned to NOT follow this way. They will probably stick to their 3DS for this tech and never develop a home console that will use any glasses to create 3D effects on a full-size TV. Those TVs are too expensive right now anyway, and it won’t be before 2015-2016 that we will start to see any full-size autostereoscopic 3D TVs on the market; it is too far away from the launch date of a Wii successor.

   I predict Nintendo will feed their Wii product for a long time. Too many people own it to just leave support any time soon. They have the opportunity to easily print money with new games and new accessories instead of new hardware, and I believe this is still the best thing to do right now.

   If there is any evolution to the Wii, and yes it will come in 2-3 years, then we will see something like my previous speculation of a Zii console, but working in duo with a head-mounted auto-stereoscopic display to better immerse the gamer in the virtual experience. Imagine a 3DS-like screen floating in front of your eyes, while an embedded gyro keeps track of your head movements on 360 degrees… Now update both the Nunchuck and the Wiimote by leaving the IR-based technology in favor of RF-based gyroscopic technology, both working on 6 axis. In Zelda, you would now be able to target your shield in a specific direction, instead of just shaking the Nunchuck to use it or not. It would have the advantage of never requiring any line of sight to keep track of the user’s movements, and would be in par with the PlayStation Move 3D motion capabilities and current advantages. Imagine a racing game like Need For Speed Shift where you can move your head around to look at rivals coming on your sides or catching up on your back. Now imagine being able to simply (physically) turn your head in order to look around in FPS titles, while you still can shoot an enemy located off-screen. You know the enemy is behind you… well! simply aim at him with your hand, without any requirement to ever move your head\camera! We would no more feel claustrophobic playing games like Metroid Other M (just an example), where you currently need to move the target near a screen edge to move the camera, then come back more in center, simply to shoot an off-screen target. Imagine playing a first-person Star Wars or medieval\fantasy title where you can physically and intuitively look at your body and see with 3D effects your motion-tracked arms being those of another character… You wave your hand holding your Wiimote, and you see a green orc hand waving a bloody sword in such a way that your brain actually assimilate the virtual character to be your real body.

   This is what I see as a future-proof hardware evolution for Nintendo. Something closer to VR (virtual reality) than ever before in the whole video game and entertainment industries. And this concept fits with the idea of not having to wear 3D “glasses”, since the display is “floating” in front of the gamer’s eyes. Electronic immersion in virtual worlds will someday have no choice to pass through such a concept of some eyewear.

   Hence the official name to be set to: Nintendo Sphere.

   It is funny, short, and cannot be more representative of the immersion concept. 360 is already employed by Microsoft, unfortunately. It would have taken a lot more sense than simply meaning “It does all you need in your digital life”! Plus such built-in 3D capabilities would allow Nintendo to sell seperate headsets for enabling multiple-users 3D movies playback on the same machine (for valid DRM control), something that won’t be possible on the 3DS, but that would certainly profit from the partnerships with the Hollywood industry. If they can’t beat Move or Natal in motion detection, then Nintendo MUST try something new to keep the sharp edge over those fierce competitors; they must push the immersion in a very unexpected way, and a 3D headgear is the most evident solution.

   Both the Move and the Natal (Kinect) goals are to get the gamer INTO the screen. Nintendo should try to get the screen wrapped all around the gamer! Maybe even couple it with the Pedometer to get an even more complete motion detection solution…

   I am not a Nintendo fanboy else than for their first-party games and franchises, but I sincerly hope that Mr. Shigeru Miyamoto or someone else at Nintendo will read this concept and find it smart enough to develop it in the forthcoming years. Once the consumers will try appealing games on this system, they will soon forget about the Virtual Boy failure. Because Virtual Boy would not have been a commercial failure if it at least supported a wide colors spectrum instead of this agressive red\black scheme… At least!
3. Cody says:

   27 June, 2010 at 8:15 pm

   I have a couple questions for michael. First off, what does the letter “Z” have to do with depth perception? Secondly, Nintendo said that 3D glasses look silly and that’s why they don’t want to use them. Wouldn’t a screen strapped to your forehead dangling in front of your face look even more ridiculous? Honestly, your idea would actually be better suited to glasses. There are 3D glasses that use LCD screens on the glasses to make the 3D work. Why not put a full-color LCD on each lens? That way it would look like you were really looking out into a different world instead of looking at a screen an inch away from your face. The problem with both of those methods, though, is that you are unaware of the real world. You would lose your orientation pretty quickly. Imagine how horrible it would be to swing your controller right into your brand new HDTV because you thought you were still in the center of the room.
4. Sam says:

   8 July, 2010 at 4:50 pm

   To Cody, in a coordinate plane, there are two values, horizontal, or X, and vertical, or Y. However, when working with 3D objects, we add a new letter to represent depth, and that letter is Z.
5. Steve says:

   16 May, 2011 at 10:34 am

   We should also consider the fact that it could be in response to Matt Groening using the Funtendo Zii in one of their episodes, which coincidentally aired a couple months after the trademark was registered.