Earlier this week we reported on a number of Nintendo Wii 2 rumours, and as more pieces fall into place it appears that all of them were spot on.

Analysts have suspected for quite some time that Nintendo will try to cater to the somewhat more serious gaming crowd with the new console. While the Wii was successfully aimed at casual gamers, its successor, reportedly dubbed Stream, could also appeal to the core gaming community. It will be styled along the lines of Nintendo’s legendary SNES from the early nineties. Nowadays, retro is all the rage, so why not – at least they are not bringing back Vanilla Ice hairstyles.

The hardware front is anything but retro. The console should feature an interesting novelty in the form of controllers with built in touchscreens. Here is the interesting bit, Nintendo plans to use what it calls ‘Screen Stream’ technology to stream games directly onto the screens, which opens up some very interesting options, at least if you have four controllers and as many people willing to join in on the fun.

In addition, the new console should be able to outpace the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Its tri-core IBM PowerPC processor should end up with a higher clock than the one used in the 360, so we can only guess that it will run at 3.2GHz or 3.4GHz. Coupled with AMD R700 graphics, probably in the HD 4770 class, the new console should pack quite a punch, especially in light of Sony’s and Microsoft’s apparent decision to postpone their consoles until 2014.

At this point the really big question is when Nintendo actually plans to introduce the new console. If it manages to introduce it in early 2012, Nintendo could have at least an 18-month technological lead over the competition. However, all the new technology will come at a price and the new console is expected to sell for $350 to $400.

So much for cheap and cheerful. Nintendo is apparently planning to attack a much more serious consumer base and take on the PS3 and Xbox on their own turf.

More here.