Rumor: Nintendo Unveiling New Hardware At E3, UPDATE: Specs reportedly released

UPDATE: Reportedly specs for the new console, called Nintendo Fusion (which has been previously rumored as a name for new hardware) have been leaked as well:

"The specs are as follows:Nintendo Fusion DSCPU: ARMv8-A Cortex-A53 GPU: Custom Adreno 420-based AMD GPUCOM MEMORY: 3 GB LPDDR3 (2 GB Games, 1 GB OS)2 130 mm DVGA (960 x 640) Capacitive TouchscreenSlide Out Design with Custom Swivel Tilt HingeUpper Screen made of Gorilla Glass, Comes with Magnetic CoverLow End Vibration for Gameplay and App Alerts2 Motorized Circle Pads for Haptic FeedbackThumbprint Security Scanner with Pulse Sensing Feedback2 1mp Stereoptic CamerasMulti-Array MicrophoneA, B, X, Y, D-Pad, L, R, 1, 2 Buttons 3 Axis Tuning Fork Gyroscope, 3 Axis Accelerometer, MagnetometerNFC Reader3G Chip with GPS LocationBluetooth v4.0 BLE Command Node used to Interface with Bluetooth Devices such as Cell Phones, Tablets16 Gigabytes of Internal Flash Storage (Possible Future Unit With 32 Gigabytes)Nintendo 3DS Cart SlotSDHC “Holographic Enhanced” Card Slot up to 128 Gigabyte LimitMini USB I/O3300 mAh Li-Ion batteryNintendo Fusion TerminalGPGPU: Custom Radeon HD RX 200 GPU CODENAME LADY (2816 shaders @ 960 MHz, 4.60 TFLOP/s, Fillrates: 60.6 Gpixel/s, 170 Gtexel/s)CPU: IBM 64-Bit Custom POWER 8-Based IBM 8-Core Processor CODENAME JUMPMAN (2.2 GHz, Shared 6 MB L4 cache)Co-CPU: IBM PowerPC 750-based 1.24 GHz Tri-Core Co-Processor CODENAME HAMMERMEMORY: 4 Gigabytes of Unified DDR4 SDRAM CODENAMED KONG, 2 GB DDR3 RAM @ 1600 MHz (12.8 GB/s) On Die CODENAMED BARREL802.11 b/g/n WirelessBluetooth v4.0 BLE2 USB 3.01 Coaxial Cable Input 1 CableCARD Slot4 Custom Stream-Interface Nodes up to 4 Wii U GamePads Versions with Disk Drive play Wii U Optical Disk (4 Layers Maximum), FUSION Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) and Nintendo 3DS Card Slot1 HDMI 2.0 1080p/4K PortDolby TrueHD 5.1 or 7.1 Surround SoundInductive Charging Surface for up to 4 FUSION DS or IC-Wii Remote Plus ControllersTwo versions: Disk Slot Version with 60 Gigs of Internal Flash Storage and Diskless Version with 300 Gigs of Internal Flash Storage"

Original story: Following news that much like last year, Nintendo won’t have a big E3 press conference, IGN and VideoGamer are both citing anonymous sources claiming that Nintendo will be unveiling new hardware at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Obviously the Wii U is struggling, and struggling bad. Despite having a year head start on the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One, it’s being soundly thrashed by both in sales numbers, and third party developers have all but abandoned it for the most part (though it has some surprising indie support). But since the system hasn’t even been out that long, it might be foolhardy for Nintendo to burn the loyal customers they have if they were to introduce something new and pretty much abandon the Wii U (as a launch day buyer who is overall fairly pleased with the system, I certainly would be pretty unhappy with that).

Of course this could simply be the vague “Quality of Life” platform that Nintendo has mentioned before — in which case, I’d be very interested to see exactly what that turns out to be.

It could also be a simple hardware revision: a redesigned 3DS, a Wii U without the gamepad (which I’d be surprised at, but neither Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze or Mario Kart 8 really use it, which could be an indicator of them de-emphasizing the gamepad much like they have the 3D on the 3DS) or even just a new SKU bundle.

The question is what can Nintendo introduce at this point to really surprise and excite everybody? Admittedly before the Wii came out everyone had pretty much written off Nintendo, but they just proved that you can’t really ever count them out. They are in a very good position to do so again if they manage to really capture our imagination and excitement, hopefully without burning the loyal Nintendo fans who have supported them through tougher periods like they are having now.

What do you think, GameSided readers? Is it time for new Nintendo hardware? Or have they completely lost you? Or do you hope they really will put their all into making the Wii U a success? Let us know in the comments!