With the Wii already being relegated to ‘legacy console’ status by major third parties, it seems that the time is ripe for a new Nintendo console, one that would probably be more competitive, on a strictly hardware basis. Apparently, the industry grapevine agrees, as it’s going nuts speculating about the Wii 2, as the successor to Nintendo’s insanely popular Wii console is being called right now.

One of the more credible of these rumors comes from respected source Tech Radar, who claim that Nintendo are all set to unveil the Wii’s successor at E3 this year, with an early 2012 release following.

Apparently, the Wii 2 seems to be a pretty powerful console, with a quad core processor, HD output, a built in Blu Ray drive, and a built in projector (WTF?). That last may be the new console’s hook or gimmick, that Nintendo hopes to use to drive sales of the system to the casual public, a bit like the 3DS’s 3D screen without glasses. In any case, if those specs are true at all, then we may very well be looking at what would be the most powerful home console ever.. until the PS4 and the Xbox 720 release, that is.

Nintendo, of course, responded swiftly with a ‘no comment,’ but they’re not fooling anybody. While we may not necessarily get a system with the specs outlined above, we’re sure to get some competitive new hardware from Nintendo in the form of the Wii’s successor soon enough. The first indication of this is bound to come this E3.

For the time being, file this away in the ‘rumors’ section, but keep a close watch on it.