PixlBit

Let's take a look at 01net.com's (the originator of the Project Cafe name rumor) other claims and see what else might be true.

Now that the Project Cafe rumor has been given some solid footing, it's worth taking a look at the origin of the leak and what else has been said about Nintendo's upcoming system. 01net.com was the original source on the story and with the release of the name, they also announced a variety of other details, some of which are already lining up with Nintendo's official investor release.

Though not a substantial validation, 01net.com stated that the system would be revealed at this year's E3, which was stated in Nintendo's release. Interestingly, they also announced that the system would be released in 2012, specifically June. Now, at this point Nintendo has not revealed a smaller launch window than 2012, but June would obviously fit the already announced news and given the slumping Wii sales, a launch sooner than Nintendo's typical late November release window might be prudent.

Outside of these three facts, nothing else stated by 01net.com can be validated, but we can take a look at their claims. Developers have told them that the system's power is "roughly equal to ... the Xbox 360," which wouldn't be a huge surprise. Given Nintendo's desire to keep things affordable, sticking with the already expensive-to-develop-for current tech is a logical move.

This power, according to 01net.com, is derived from a custom IBM PowerPC CPU with three cores and an AMD-ATI graphics processor. This too is a safe assumption given Nintendo's history of working with both companies and the industry standard that PowerPC has become. All of this "revealed information" is pretty safe, but 01net.com really jumps out on a ledge with the speculation of the controller design.

Alongside the now validated rumor of the Project Cafe name, they stated that the controller for the system features a 6" single-touch touch screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of around 800x500. Its purpose would be to receive wireless streaming video from the system (without lag), bypassing the need for a TV. In addition to the touch screen, the controller will feature a front-facing camera, a standard set of button inputs as seen on most modern controllers, and can double as a Wii sensor bar, implying that the system is backwards-compatible. In terms of form factor, their inside sources claim that the controller "looks like a close cousin of the uDraw Tablet."

In addition to this already unreal sounding controller, 01net.com claims that the system will feature yet another surprise feature and that Rockstar Games was among the first to receive the system's SDK and are already working on a game.

Some of this information has been corroborated by both CVG and IGN, which gives it a bit more believability. 01net.com, to its credit, leaked all of the NGP information ahead of Sony's official announcement, further enforcing that they might be on to something here. It's hard to say at this point what's real and what's complete bunk, but with the validation of the Project Cafe name, these 01net.com rumors may not be so far-fetched. Of course, Nintendo turned gaming on its head with the announcement of the Wii, so it wouldn't be impossible to believe that something this grandiose is indeed true.