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Earlier today, GameInformer published a story citing "multiple sources" that seemed to confirm that Nintendo would announce the successor to its Wii home console at this years E3. According to GameInformer, the new console is capable of HD output, and its graphics will be on par with those currently found on the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Kotaku and IGN later independently confirmed the story, both citing sources that quote the Wii 2 as being "significantly more powerful" than the PS3. IGN later confirmed that the system would output in full 1080p HD.

This is where the story gets more interesting: CVG also confirmed the story, but added a very intriguing piece of information: the new console will supposedly feature a brand new controller that features its own HD screen! Additional sources later informed IGN that the screen on the controller has touch capabilities.

The original GameInformer article pointed toward a late 2012 launch. Nintendo will supposedly announce the Wii 2 in a press release later this month, and then fully reveal the console at their E3 conference on June 7.

Remember our OLD RUMORS?

UPDATE 1: A Babelfish translated page found at french news site 01.net claims even more information, like the project name: Project Café.

Pretty sweet right? well they go on to also say that it will be shown at E3 2011, the crazy touch-screen controller ALSO has regular buttons, a front-facing camera, and can act as a sensor bar for when you want to play Wii games on the system, that it also plays Gamecube games, is pretty similar to XBOX 360, but not enough known to compare it to PS3 yet. They also claim that it will come out around June 2012. Oh, and some specs:

System:
- Processor: IBM PowerPC three Custom hearts.
- Graphics chip: AMD (ATI) - probably a R700 series, with a shader (for the management of the effects) more recent than that of Xbox 360 (probably version 4.1).
- RAM: unknown factor. It would be logical that it is about a unified RAM, as for the 360, with a minimum of 512 Mo.

Controller:
- Size of the screen: 6 inches.
- Ergonomics: numerical cross, L, R, two relaxations, others.
- Touchscreen: individual touch.
- Sensor for Wiimote (the bar-sensor of Wii replaces).
- Camera: frontal.

UPDATE 2: IGN claims more info:

According to our sources, the new Nintendo controller will feature dual analog sticks in addition to standard d-pad and trigger buttons. It'll mirror a Gamecube controller in general function but not in specific form.

Players will actually be able to stream game content to the controller screen from the console. It's unclear at this time what type of content it will be, whether it's full games you can take with you on the go, mini-games or applications.

At E3 in June, our sources also said Nintendo will show first and third party titles at the event, but it's unsure if they'll be playable or only in video form.