New Nintendo Wii 2 Launching in 2011?

While the next-generation Nintendo Wii won't be featuring 3D visuals, it will offer high definition gaming - at least, according to rumours.

Originally circulating at the tail end of last year - as can be seen on sites such as Neowin - claims that the successor to the Wii would feature HD support were pervasive but unproven, but a small gaming news site has received what it claims is categorical proof.

GirlGamersSuck quotes "a bashful but reliable source" at Nintendo as confirming that not only will the Wii 2 feature support for full HD 1080p gaming - a feature present in the current-generation Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 consoles, but missing from the Wii - but will also come equipped with a Blu-ray drive for high-definition video playback.

The inclusion of Blu-ray playback is an interesting departure for Nintendo: while the current Wii has a DVD drive, it cannot play DVD videos without modification - again, the only current-generation console not to feature this capability.

If true, however, the use of a Blu-ray drive does make sense: high-definition gaming requires assets such as video and textures that take up more space, making DVDs impractical, while the use of expensive Blu-ray discs makes piracy - a big problem for the Wii - far more difficult.

So far Nintendo hasn't confirmed the rumours, but with a launch expected some time in 2011 we could be seeing the company's first foray into the high-definition world.