Wada: Nintendo will release new console by 2011

Square Enix president Yoichi Wada has said he expects Nintendo to release a new Wii console by 2011.

Functionality of this new hardware, Wada told the Financial Times, will be more like that of the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, and it will possibly come bundled with a different type of controller.

As for Microsoft and Sony's upcoming motion control systems, Wada said that he thinks these will have a limited impact on the markets of their respective systems.

"Present game machines already have a lot of functions: they are a network terminal, a Blu-ray or DVD player, and a gaming machine," he commented.

"Compared to these three pillars, the [new motion] controllers are quite limited, so the impact may be small. They are an extension of the gaming function."

The exec does rate the technology used for Microsoft's Natal highly though.

"As a user interface it's fantastic and I think it will become standard," he said, adding that both Sony and Microsoft's controllers could have a greater immediate effect on the console market if compelling games are released from day one.

However, he noted, games that use motion control are quite difficult to design.