Why Hasn't This Happened Yet?

CantGetAWii · 02-29-2008, 12:00 AM

Quote:

The Nintendo Wii doesn’t have an internal hard drive and no hard drive peripheral or add-on has been announced or even remotely leaked by the big “N” – Why hasn’t this happened yet? Well I suppose the only two answers that would ever slip out of Nintendo’s water-tight sphincter of a press department would be either that they are still focusing on their supply issues with producing the console itself, or that they believe the paltry 512mb of internal flash memory is sufficient for gamer’s needs.

Lets go ahead and tackle the first issue right off the bat. It’s easy to conclude that the “N” is full of shit and the Wii can’t POSSIBLY be that hard to produce and they are intentionally holding back their supply to fuel the insatiable demand that gamers and geriatrics have developed for the damn thing. This, however, has one big flaw: the ****ing thing is still the #1 system every single month. So the little white beast’s must be on the shelves somewhere because droves of people keep finding a way to get them into their homes and hand Nintendo a nice $250 loan. I say loan because I’ve had my system since a month after launch and I could still throw the damn thing up on eBay and get my $250 dollars back, and probably a little more for my trouble. So the system is selling. To who? Gamers, non-gamers, semi-gamers, ultra-gamers, hardcore-gamers, softcore-gamers, casual-gamers, naked-gamers, clothed-gamers, straight-gamers, gay-gamers, and your Aunt Linda. Where? **** if I know! Since launch I’ve only seen them on store shelves once, and that was at Walmart at 2 o’clock in the morning. Myth Busted.

Now, lets take a look at the number 512. 512 is a power of two. It’s also the number 8 cubed. It also happens to be the number of megabytes the Wii has in terms of flash memory to store game saves, system configurations, and Virtual Console games. 512 is tiny. I mean small. Very small. Miniscule. It’s enough to download a couple of pages of 16 bit games from the VC without deleting anything. Oh, what’s that you say? You want to download several N64 games you never got a chance to play? Well that cuts that storage space down quicker than ABC cancels it’s fall line-up. Still think it’s not an issue? Let me put it into perspective. There’s an Ace Of Base CD somewhere in my disc holder (I swear it’s not mine…) that can hold 750 megabytes of raw data. That’s right, the original recording of “I Saw The Sign” is sitting on a disc that outweighs the entire storage capacity of the Wii by 238 tasty megabytes.

I can hear the Nintendoids screaming at their computers right now: “YOU FORGOT ABOUT THE SD CARDS!!!”.

No, I didn’t. Nintendo forgot about the SD cards. Yes, you can store games on them. No, you cannot play games off of them. It’s no more efficient than deleting games from the flash memory and re-downloading them later. It’s a waste of time and an afterthought. Nintendo included the SD card slot for custom music (see: Excite Truck) and not to use as a bin to toss VC games that you can’t play anyway.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the virtual console. I really do. I’ve downloaded a number of games from it and enjoyed them thoroughly. I don’t bitch about the prices, I don’t mind paying a premium for high-quality rom images that carry no risk of being laced with pixilated tentacle-porn. But if I’m paying $10 or more for the games, I want to be able to play them when I want and not have to sort through them on a weekly basis and throw out the ones I don’t want to play THIS MINUTE just to have enough room to download and play some goddamn Gunstar Heroes.

In conclusion, there is no apparent solution in sight. Reggie Fils-Aime just recently was asked about the Wii’s popularity and responded that they haven’t even started releasing new colors of Wii-motes yet… Seriously Reggie? How about releasing the console you should have released right off the bat. And while you’re at it, give me some 1st party rechargeable battery packs for christ’ sake.

Source

T3kNi9e · 02-29-2008, 12:04 AM

Only explaination is that Nintendo is just really slow at doing things. They always seem to be a step behind everyone. That is, with the exception of hardware sales of course.

AutumnWind · 02-29-2008, 12:04 AM

What's the point of this?

Monsteroids · 02-29-2008, 12:06 AM

Hurrrrrr... I think Nintendo is wary of HDs for some ungodly reason.

T3kNi9e · 02-29-2008, 12:07 AM

Its just an article, its meant to stimulate your mind, give you something interesting to read... Take it for what it is or don't take it at all.

laderer5 · 02-29-2008, 12:09 AM

I agree 100%

YOWORD · 02-29-2008, 12:10 AM

gangsta

thas · 02-29-2008, 12:17 AM

i think the reason nintendo doesnt want to enable harddrive support because its just a green light for hackers and modders to put any game they want in the console.

or they could be waiting until the need for it grows high enough to earn a good profit.

lewekleone · 02-29-2008, 04:52 AM

Has anyoned tried plugging-in USB HD to their Wii?

Just kiddin' I've seen the past posts in the forum...

AutumnWind · 02-29-2008, 08:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by T3kNi9e

Its just an article, its meant to stimulate your mind, give you something interesting to read... Take it for what it is or don't take it at all.

Many of the arguments in this particular article have been seen, read, and beaten to death already and to be honest, it doesn't make for anything near an interesting read. The point is, I could post all sorts of nominally Wii-related articles, ones that haven't been posted before but say pretty much the same thing as millions of other articles that have been posted, and say they are 'meant to stimulate your mind, give you something interesting to read...'; however, that does not change the fact that posting them would be pointless. Let's be honest here. This article was a poorly composed rant from a pissed off Wii user, whining about things that all each have their own individual threads in this forum, many of which have more than one thread detailed to them.

rjatkinson · 02-29-2008, 10:46 AM

I think Nintendo should offer Online Storage. With a one time payment for certain limits, the company could allow wii owner the luxury of worry-free downloading and the hassle of "I don't have to re-download/delete it".

Point made.

boroboy · 02-29-2008, 01:35 PM

online storage is all fine and dandy but what about people who dont have online access on thier wii or people who live in non internet enabled areas but dont get me wrong its a good idea.

COLDshiver · 02-29-2008, 02:12 PM

Lol @ the online storage. It's already there, in a way. When you buy a VC game, you can download it. If you delete it, you can download it from their servers again since you bought it, basically acting as a online storage for VC games. That's the problem. If you don't have the space on your Wii and if the VC game you want to play at the time is not on your Wii, you must delete another game to find space and then you must download it.

Also, if you don't have access to the internet, you won't be able to buy VC games in the first place.

But I do sense an external hard drive in the future, however far away. 512mb is definitely not going to cut it and Ninty must give some options for heavy VC customers.

Spinty · 02-29-2008, 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjatkinson

I think Nintendo should offer Online Storage. With a one time payment for certain limits, the company could allow wii owner the luxury of worry-free downloading and the hassle of "I don't have to re-download/delete it".

Point made.

That is all already here and it's what everybody complains about. By downloading a title once, you can delete and re-download it for free. By downloading a lot of N64 games, you run out of room fast. People want to have their games permanently on their system and not decide which ones they should delete for the moment. Personally, I don't think the hard drive is a necessity as you can store quite a few games on the console before having to delete them and you're not going to be playing ten different games every day.

Atomheart · 02-29-2008, 04:07 PM

What a terrible article.

How exactly did he "bust the myth" of Nintendo withholding production? I'm not saying that Nintendo is doing so. It doesn't matter here. But his conclusion does not follow his premises. In other words, just because Nintendo is selling tons of Wiis, that is no evidence that they aren't withholding production.

Regardless, that's not important here. What is important, though, is that this guy has absolutely no credibility.

The bleeped out profanity doesn't help either.

Atomheart · 02-29-2008, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjatkinson

I think Nintendo should offer Online Storage. With a one time payment for certain limits, the company could allow wii owner the luxury of worry-free downloading and the hassle of "I don't have to re-download/delete it".

Point made.

So you want Nintendo to set up a system in which we can play games online? So, rather than having to download games and DLC to play/use them, we can just do it online?

I'm sorry, but that just does not work.

Say I want to use some DLC song packs for GH3. How would that work?

Sure, they could probably get away with online versions of old NES games. But then you'll have to sit through long loads. It'll just end up being a huge hassle for everyone, whereas a HDD would be more convenient for EVERYONE, Nintendo included.

hal2814 · 02-29-2008, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atomheart

So you want Nintendo to set up a system in which we can play games online? So, rather than having to download games and DLC to play/use them, we can just do it online?

I'm sorry, but that just does not work.

Say I want to use some DLC song packs for GH3. How would that work?

Sure, they could probably get away with online versions of old NES games. But then you'll have to sit through long loads. It'll just end up being a huge hassle for everyone, whereas a HDD would be more convenient for EVERYONE, Nintendo included.

DLC song packs would work like any other online storage content. That content would be streamed to the Wii as needed (or preferably just-before needed). I'm not saying I'm a fan of the idea but most of the people using the Wii's internet connection have some sort of broadband and could handle some decent bandwidth.

Back to the main point though, Nintendo hardware exists to sell Nintendo software. The third party sales are a nice plus and Nintendo may go out of their way on occasion to get that third party support but they're not designing hardware (or even firmware) around it. When Nintendo has a project that requires the kind of storage you can only get from a disk drive, you'll see support for a disk drive. And not until then. They don't plan their hardware any further out than their software takes them.