Nintendo say no to Wii hard drive despite WiiWare announcement

A UK gaming website asked a Nintendo UK spokesperson whether the company will be creating a hard drive for the Wii following the news of extra downloadable content being made available as a result of the WiiWare concept, to which they received a clear and authoratitive answer of NO.

Source: maxconsole

but why would they buy a patent for it then
hm.
hm..
uhmmm...

I don't know, i'm just the delivery boy :P

Im no ones mesenger boy
Im the delivery Boy


^^^shrek said that

It was a patent for the security system that went along with a hard drive they patented, not the actual hard drive itself but the security system and how it communicates with the hard drive and internet access capabilities.

You have to remember this was done when the Wii was the Revolution, it was supposed to be an amazing machine but they wanted to make back the losses from the game cube and thus minimalized the Revolution into what we have today. The Wii. I bet theres a lot nintendo planned that will never be found in the wii, just because its not as powerful as I believe they were planning on it being.

They might use what they patented for the next console, they definately made enough money for it.

I am happy either way to be honest. With or without a hard-drive, I am just happy that I have a Wii console to enjoy.

I really hope they do bring a hard drive to the wii though.. It'd add so much more to the wii experience :P But still, even without it I still think the wii is a great console ^^

This may not be 100% true though.. I mean, with WiiWare just announced there will probably be this or there has to be some other solution for downloadable games.

"Nintendo has officially announced WiiWare, a service "which will allow developers large and small" to create downloadable games specially made for the Wii. As mentioned above, the WiiWare titles will be sold through the Wii Shop Channel and can be bought using the same Wii Points you use to purchase virtual console titles.
"

It's set for an early 2008 release.

thats the dumbest thing i heard today... why wouldnt they make a HDD for the wii if they are going to release a flippin wiiware... they do realize that wii only has what 512 mb? oh well.

Yeah I know. :P I just thought i'd post it here to see what the rest of you think about this.. Again, I say, I bet its A) Not true, or B) another solution for downloadable games will be put in its place..

It makes sense to me, at this point, to skip the hard drive.

If you look back at video game history, aftermarket accessories have never faired well.

They become an increased expense for someone who just wants to play games (thus limiting popularity of the add-on) and, because of that, aren't really utilized in the games. Why waste money developing for an add-on that only 1-2% of your base is likely to have. Lack of support also kills folks buying the add-on.

PS2: network adapter
PS2: hard drive
PS: Mouse
SNES: Mouse
GameCube: network adapter (and dial-up adapter)
Sega Genesis: 32X
Sega Genesis: CDRom drive
TurboGrafx 16: CDRom drive
SNES: that rocket-launcher thing (power scope?) - may have been NES
Atari 2600: the keypad controller (I think for Star Raiders)
Intellivision: Intellivoice
Odyssey 2: voice module
ColecoVision: Super Controllers
ColecoVision: driving module

I'm sure there are a few others.

Also, I kind of like the solid-stateness of the Wii. I'd like to see them remove the 2GB limit on SD cards via a firmware update. That, to me, would be more useful than a hard drive.

It'd also be nice for the Virtual Channels to access the SD card directly and maybe have sub-VCs but I don't think that's likely to happen.

To me the biggest limitation (even if you had a hard drive) is that there's this 512MB area (essentially an internal flash drive) that you have to load things onto before being able to load them into the Wii. It's an extra-useless hop. Get that fixed, remove the 2GB limitation, and I think we'd be set.

tbh i don't see why the wii would need one, i mean you can delete games you already bought(virtually that is) and dl them later on absoloutly free, i'd be happy without the hard drive and my money, and i can use my sd card from my cell if i ever do need space

I think as stated before a firmware update to remove the 2GB limit would be nice also maybe to add support for 3rd party HDD, for example I have a 160GB USB HDD sitting there going to waist as I should use it but I simply don’t.

160GB would be more than enough to support downloadable content and VC downloads.

But you then also have the issue of making 100% of them compatible.

But I think at some point this will have to happen as Nintendo has to realise that 512MB is simply not enough for downloadable content updates/patches and save games.

Exactly what I was going to say.

Like others have said, I'd be fine without a hard drive if the SD was actually made useful and worthwhile. Right now, it's only good as a cumbersome, handicapped backup method at best.

Have it linked seamlessly with the on-board 512MB so that game saves, channels, VC games, etc are all transparently saved to the total memory pool, and remove the 2GB limit, and there's no need for a hard drive.

Im not really sure if you need to believe the UK spokesperson. A lot of times those people dont even know whats going on because of all the secret things.

Furthermore @ Brad Bishop:

Look at all the "items" you use in youre argument. Almost any of them have got completely no use. A ps2 mouse....Gamecube adapter ( for only 1 or 2 online games ) snes mouse....

Of course those things dont sell :P A wii harddrive on the other hand.... Even I might buy it when that demo channel comes out

Ok - name some add-ons, that were required for gameplay, that did sell well and were well supported.

The closest I can think of are the Wii Nunchucks and Classic Controllers.

Um, 2GB SD cards are electrically different than 4GB cards. Not all SD slots support 4GB cards. If you look at most PDA's and cameras, they run into this issue too.

My guess is that N saved a few bucks by using the older SD circuitry.