The enhanced Wii console, capable of DVD playback - mentioned in the latest issue of Edge - may never see the light of day outside of Japan.
Talk of the DVD-compatible Wii in Edge has caused a stir on the 'net, despite Nintendo confirming back in September it had no plans to release such a console outside of Japan.
In a statement Nintendo confirmed that "in Europe (and the Americas), we have no plans for a DVD option either internally or as an accessory at this time. DVD players are now sold so cheaply and the penetration rate is so high that we did not think it was worth including [DVD playback] and raising the price of Wii."
Correct me if I'm wrong but the wii only supports 480p? so an HD-DVD would be pointless, I agree that they don't really need to support dvd as we all probably have so many anyway. I think Nintendo might win the console war this time in the amount of consoles they will sell, as I think they will sell a lot of consoles to the casual gamer the same way they have done with the DS, but I think tho MS and Sony will will sell a lot more games but I do think the amount of sales of consoles will be very close. I wonder how long it will take sony to drop the price of their console, how long was it after the launch of xbox did it take ms to drop their price and fair play to them they gave a free games to the early adopters
I don't need another DVD player, and wouldn't pay extra money for it anyway.
If Nintendo Where to add HD-DVD to it then it would add at least £150 to the price, like the add on for teh 360, no point what so ever. I'm buying a Wii cause i dont care about all that stuff, i just want games and an interesting control method.
I wish I could have everything for nothing too. The pricing of the Wii includes 6 months of free surfing on the internet for those that download the browser on launch day and free online multiplayer. Nintendo have to cover their costs and make profit. The price of the console will come down eventually and by then there will be loads of great (exclusive?) games.
Anyway, I don't want to have to pay another £15 for an inbuilt dvd-player. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are quite capable of using any extra power on something original like the browser, wii-mote, webcam, etc.
The browser is going to be free for life as long as you are an early adopter, not just for 6 months. If you don't get it early then you'll have to pay a small one time fee to purchase the browsing software, that's all. Other than that, all the online functions (channels, multi player games, downloads, etc) are completely free.
This is entirely inkeeping with nindendo's Wii philophosy, if it is to be shared by everyone in a household (as it intends) then it will be in the lounge/living room - beside an already existing dvd player in most homes.
We dont need the extra dvd playback and it was never going to be anything more than current dvd playback - not HD DVD anyway.
Good idea Nintendo, you can pick up a DVD player for £40 or less anyway, but i know that the Japaneze consumer is quite poor believe it or not and getting cheap stuff over their is hard as the yen is so high. hard to believe its the second richist country in the world.
The Wii is already overpriced. It's only £20 less than the Xbox360 core.
the Wii is a lot cheaper than its xbox equivalent,
Xbox core = £210 WiFi adapter - £60 game = £50 Memory Card = £23
total = £343
all of the above is included in your £180 for Wii
I know there is no memory card in the Wii package, but 512MB of build in memory mean you should never need one - compared to 64MB of an Xbox360 memory card)
If the wii has a DVD drive already, surely in order to plaback DVD movies, all that would be required is a firmware update, in the same way an upcoming 360 update is unlocking 1080p
If the wii has a DVD drive already, surely in order to plaback DVD movies, all that would be required is a firmware update, in the same way an upcoming 360 update is unlocking 1080p
Unless there is some extra chip or piece of hardware inside the jap console, i can't see why a hack won't be discovered later on to unlock DVD playback.
They found a way of watching DVDs on xbox without having to buy the remote & dongle, i use it!
Unless there is some extra chip or piece of hardware inside the jap console, i can't see why a hack won't be discovered later on to unlock DVD playback.
They found a way of watching DVDs on xbox without having to buy the remote & dongle, i use it!
to 'unlock dvd playback' you need the dvd playback capability to be in there. do you think you can get a dvd drive and hook it up to your tv and play dvds? of course not, you need video decoding software. to add this into the wii will cost money.
and remember, any software they need to play the dvds needs to make benefit of the wii hardware, so it's not as simple as getting a program and loading it on.. it needs to be specifically programmed for the wii system. a firmware upgrade would probably do it... so why can't nintendo offer this on the virtual console?
maybe the software required is quite extensive? I am no expert on dvd decoding software.. it could be a huge and complex program.. well especially if it needs to support the multitude of different encoding techniques that are out there.
but why make it only available in japan? it doesn't matter how many dvd players are available in the market these days. they always break down. unless you buy a hitachi. I would think that a wii dvd player would last pretty long. nintendo have a tendency to make their products to last, unlike sony and all the other dvd player companies. (apart from hitachi).
The Wii is already overpriced. It's only £20 less than the Xbox360 core.
the Wii is a lot cheaper than its xbox equivalent,
Xbox core = £210 WiFi adapter - £60 game = £50 Memory Card = £23
total = £343
all of the above is included in your £180 for Wii
I know there is no memory card in the Wii package, but 512MB of build in memory mean you should never need one - compared to 64MB of an Xbox360 memory card)
Put it like that and it's not bad at all. Cheers! You've made me feel really comfortable now!
Firstly, I'm sure the Wii has all of the hardware necessary to play DVD's, it is just lacking a 'media player' which will be available in time (via an official download or a hack)
Secondly - which most people here have said - why do I need a 7th DVD player
Thirdly - which is something I'm supprised more people aren't talking about - is the fact that the Photo channel also lets you play video files taken by 'most' digital cameras, now my digital camera will record for upto an hour in AVI format, meaning (fingers crossed) that the Wii is more than capable of playing long video files that we would download (legally of course) from the net.
So why would I want to play a DVD, when I can copy a video from my PC to an SD card and watch that, which no other machine in my house can do (excluding my PC and PDA)
Unless there is some extra chip or piece of hardware inside the jap console, i can't see why a hack won't be discovered later on to unlock DVD playback.
They found a way of watching DVDs on xbox without having to buy the remote & dongle, i use it!
to 'unlock dvd playback' you need the dvd playback capability to be in there. do you think you can get a dvd drive and hook it up to your tv and play dvds? of course not, you need video decoding software. to add this into the wii will cost money.
and remember, any software they need to play the dvds needs to make benefit of the wii hardware, so it's not as simple as getting a program and loading it on.. it needs to be specifically programmed for the wii system.
Just as the software such as DVDX or XBMC is written for the XBOX hardware !
specifically a firmware upgrade would probably do it... so why can't nintendo offer this on the virtual console?
maybe the software required is quite extensive? I am no expert on dvd decoding software.. it could be a huge and complex program.. well especially if it needs to support the multitude of different encoding techniques that are out there.
but why make it only available in japan? it doesn't matter how many dvd players are available in the market these days. they always break down. unless you buy a hitachi. I would think that a wii dvd player would last pretty long. nintendo have a tendency to make their products to last, unlike sony and all the other dvd player companies. (apart from hitachi).
That's why i said "Unless there is some extra chip or piece of hardware inside the jap console"(which has the necesary software ,but in other region machines this software is just disabled) then it could be unlocked but if this chip or software has been completely removed for western machines ,then there will be no chance of any unlocking the dvd playback at all.
That's why i said "Unless there is some extra chip or piece of hardware inside the jap console"(which has the necesary software ,but in other region machines this software is just disabled) then it could be unlocked but if this chip or software has been completely removed for western machines ,then there will be no chance of any unlocking the dvd playback at all.
maybe I'm being pedantic, but you can't unlock something that isn't there.
why do you think they would put the software in all the machines and then lock them? that would be a daft thing to do because it would take more time and money. for something that is inteneded on being locked out. useless. that would be retarded.
I could be wrong here (can't remember where I read this), but I think that the dvd decoding software is patented by a single company, can't remember who it was though, so I'd guess that Nintendo just don't want to pay them the extra money to include a feature that most people already have in their homes, usually several times over.
It might be that in Japan the cost is less and they decided to include it there because of that but that's just speculation.
The Wii is already overpriced. It's only £20 less than the Xbox360 core.
the Wii is a lot cheaper than its xbox equivalent,
Xbox core = £210 WiFi adapter - £60 game = £50 Memory Card = £23
total = £343
all of the above is included in your £180 for Wii
I know there is no memory card in the Wii package, but 512MB of build in memory mean you should never need one - compared to 64MB of an Xbox360 memory card)
Now you really are talking out of your rear end. You would never pay £343 :_
http://www.sendit.com/game/item/6000000003559
For £279.89 you get the Xbox360 premium, which includes a 20GB hard disk and a headset, plus an extra wireless controller and a copy of PGR3 (which is a whole lot better than the game that comes with the Wii).
You also got the Xbox360 core's RRP wrong as it's been £199.99 for a while now. You can't put the price of WiFi into the equation as, if like me, you don't use WiFi at home and are connected by the much more secure and faster wired ethernet. I could also produce a stupid price chart as well if you like:-
Wii - £180 Upgrade from last gen graphics - £200 DVD upgrade - £40 CPU upgrade to 3 core power pc - £300 Tube of deep heat (for when your arms ache after waving them around for an evening) - £1.20 An extra 100 memory cards to store all your downloaded content on - £230 Decent online service - £40
Total - £791.20
Just face it, the Wii console is overpriced last gen technology.
The Wii is already overpriced. It's only £20 less than the Xbox360 core.
the Wii is a lot cheaper than its xbox equivalent,
Xbox core = £210 WiFi adapter - £60 game = £50 Memory Card = £23
total = £343
all of the above is included in your £180 for Wii
I know there is no memory card in the Wii package, but 512MB of build in memory mean you should never need one - compared to 64MB of an Xbox360 memory card)
Now you really are talking out of your rear end. You would never pay £343 :_
http://www.sendit.com/game/item/6000000003559
For £279.89 you get the Xbox360 premium, which includes a 20GB hard disk and a headset, plus an extra wireless controller and a copy of PGR3 (which is a whole lot better than the game that comes with the Wii).
You also got the Xbox360 core's RRP wrong as it's been £199.99 for a while now. You can't put the price of WiFi into the equation as, if like me, you don't use WiFi at home and are connected by the much more secure and faster wired ethernet. I could also produce a stupid price chart as well if you like:-
Wii - £180 Upgrade from last gen graphics - £200 DVD upgrade - £40 CPU upgrade to 3 core power pc - £300 Tube of deep heat (for when your arms ache after waving them around for an evening) - £1.20 An extra 100 memory cards to store all your downloaded content on - £230 Decent online service - £40
Total - £791.20
Just face it, the Wii console is overpriced last gen technology.
Xbox360 is a good console but the core pack is a waste of time! It’s a marketing ploy to interest people who can’t afford the premium pack, it’s a mere stepping stone, nothing more. The Wii isn’t last gen, it’s more powerful than any last gen console, which means it’s not last gen, it just means it’s not as powerful as 360 or PS3. But I’m right in thinking the Gamecube and Xbox were more powerful than PS2 and PS2 wiped the floor with them, the GameBoy saw of many a more powerful contender and the DS isn’t as powerful as the PSP but continues to out sell it. Oh, and your list is a load of old balls!
The Wii is already overpriced. It's only £20 less than the Xbox360 core.
the Wii is a lot cheaper than its xbox equivalent,
Xbox core = £210 WiFi adapter - £60 game = £50 Memory Card = £23
total = £343
all of the above is included in your £180 for Wii
I know there is no memory card in the Wii package, but 512MB of build in memory mean you should never need one - compared to 64MB of an Xbox360 memory card)
Now you really are talking out of your rear end. You would never pay £343 :_
http://www.sendit.com/game/item/6000000003559
For £279.89 you get the Xbox360 premium, which includes a 20GB hard disk and a headset, plus an extra wireless controller and a copy of PGR3 (which is a whole lot better than the game that comes with the Wii).
You also got the Xbox360 core's RRP wrong as it's been £199.99 for a while now. You can't put the price of WiFi into the equation as, if like me, you don't use WiFi at home and are connected by the much more secure and faster wired ethernet. I could also produce a stupid price chart as well if you like:-
Wii - £180 Upgrade from last gen graphics - £200 DVD upgrade - £40 CPU upgrade to 3 core power pc - £300 Tube of deep heat (for when your arms ache after waving them around for an evening) - £1.20 An extra 100 memory cards to store all your downloaded content on - £230 Decent online service - £40
Total - £791.20
Just face it, the Wii console is overpriced last gen technology.
Xbox360 is a good console but the core pack is a waste of time! It’s a marketing ploy to interest people who can’t afford the premium pack, it’s a mere stepping stone, nothing more. The Wii isn’t last gen, it’s more powerful than any last gen console, which means it’s not last gen, it just means it’s not as powerful as 360 or PS3. But I’m right in thinking the Gamecube and Xbox were more powerful than PS2 and PS2 wiped the floor with them, the GameBoy saw of many a more powerful contender and the DS isn’t as powerful as the PSP but continues to out sell it. Oh, and your list is a load of old balls!
mmm... Mr. steven is the most impressively stupid person I have ever come across. Don't ever try and justify the cost of 360 or ps3 and then give some crud about wii. You've clearly missed the point. Just go away.
It doesn't seem like such a wacky idea for nintendo to create a HD DVD capable wii.
Sony and microsoft will both be selling 2 versions of their consoles. It wouldn't take a great deal more for nintendo to including an internal HD DVD Drive and the capacity to output HD.
Im not takling about a wii capable of displaying HD in games, simply one with the capacity to play HD DVD's.
And of course it would cost more, though considerably less than a PS3 I bet. But then you could also opt for the cheaper games only version.
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