Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has hinted that Nintendo is looking into a solution to the problem of people running out of storage space on Wii.
Speaking last week to investors about Nintendo's latest fiscal term, Iwata was asked whether the memory situation could be improved. He replied:
"Statistically speaking, it is true that there are a small number of customers who feel that the flash memory is too small, while many others find that they have plenty of memory.
"However, because this small number of people are none other than the most avid players, we know we have to review the best possible solution to eliminate their inconvenience."
Review, Iwata? Here's a review for you - Wii storage space: 2/10. And here's a tip too. Make a hard drive. It's not rocket science, really.
The Wii has USB ports why not release an update online to enable the use of 3rd party USB drives it would be more cost effective for Nintendo as they would not have to make their own HDD at probably a large expense & Wii owners could then buy a USB HDD providing them as much storage as they wanted depending on the price of the drive.
I believe they should also allow Virtual console games to be played direct from memory cards as well it would not be the best solution as I believe the HDD option is the best but it would be more useful in the interim than the small flash memory built into the console.
Invent a 10 gig SD card, or allow USB external harddrive use. Easy innit?
Then, if Microsoft enabled full exterior HDD use, I would get a fat 500 gig one and just swap it between the two AND my PC. Ah, that would be brilliant...
But that is the beauty of Nintendo, they know how to make you want something. It's the old carrot-dangle trick.
If they release a hard drive, it'll be their own and like MS (who will not allow any other HDD other than their own for full 360 functionality, ever) will charge a nice premium for it.
The first step would be to issue an update so that it uses the f**king SD card in a way that isn't COMPLETELY RETARDED.
You should be able to download channels/VC directly to the SD card and have it show up on the channel menu. There's no reason why it can't work that way.
I guess the solution depends on how much more storage is needed. When you can get an 8Gb USB memory (as opposed to disk based) drive for Ł20, and given that capacity and price are likely to continue to improve - and that SD cards are going the same way - there doesn't really seem to be much need for an external hard drive...
What really needs to be addressed is the inability to run software direct from the SD card. Given that access speeds would presumably be equivalent to those for the internal memory storage I don't see any technical reason not to do this. Presumably it's Nintendo's usual paranoia about piracy; which really shouldn't be an issue with VC games that can be emulated and are already available online...
Heh. Iwata claims 'a few' people are running low on space.
Come on; a hard drive is one of the most wanted features on the Wii...
He's really talking down the amount of people who want to see a hard drive for the Wii. I don't think I know anybody that wouldn't like a hard drive; especially with Rock Band's gimped Wii version; if they get it out soon enough, perhaps Harmonix won't have some p**s poor excuse for no DLC, online, character customisation; although the HD only affects the first.
Invent a 10 gig SD card, or allow USB external harddrive use. Easy innit?
Then, if Microsoft enabled full exterior HDD use, I would get a fat 500 gig one and just swap it between the two AND my PC. Ah, that would be brilliant...
Lol. a 32GB SD card had already been 'invented' and you can already buy 16GB models, but I don't think wii is compatible ith any card bigger then 2GB
But that is the beauty of Nintendo, they know how to make you want something. It's the old carrot-dangle trick.
If they release a hard drive, it'll be their own and like MS (who will not allow any other HDD other than their own for full 360 functionality, ever) will charge a nice premium for it.
That's exactly it! Either way they'll look stupid after insisting the Wii already had enough internal storage. They should enable games to be read off SD cards but why would they do something so simple when they can make bucketloads
Invent a 10 gig SD card, or allow USB external harddrive use. Easy innit?
Then, if Microsoft enabled full exterior HDD use, I would get a fat 500 gig one and just swap it between the two AND my PC. Ah, that would be brilliant...
I am not sure they need to invent a 10bg sd card as you can already get 32gb sd cards. Nintendo simply need to upgrade the firmware to read sdhc so we can use cards bigger than 2gb and then allow playing content directly from the sd cards. I would much rather have a large sd card than a hdd as I don't want yet another box next to my tv!
A hard drive? If you're going retro, why stop there? Why not floppy drives or cassette tapes? There's no need for new bits of hardware, the existing system just needs fixing so you can access items directly from the SD card.
It's not like it's an intractable problem. For example, do what the old PalmOS used to do: you copy items from the memory card to internal memory before running it. Maybe you have to reserve half of the internal memory for this, still allowing a few items to be stored internally, but it means you can fill your 8gig SD card full of WiiWare stuff you've downloaded and play it all without manually doing the copying.
Come on... if simple Wii users can work out how to copy stuff 'round between internal memory and the memory card then shurely a firmaware update can manage the same sort of thing!
At Ł179 it's the same price as the wii itself (and currently unusable on it anyway) but they are out there. 4gb and 8gb ones have been around for a wee while now, I'm surprised you can't find any greater than 2gb. Have you been looking very hard?
If a Wii hard drive was released I would defiantly buy one storing games on SD card and then not being able to play them until you load them back on is too annoying and more annoying if you lose one!
I am not sure they need to invent a 10bg sd card as you can already get 32gb sd cards.
Where?? I cant seem to find one over 2 gb anywhere
32GB one have been created, but I dont think you can buy them yet. 16GB ones are available on import. Shops here tend to stick to selling the 2GB ones as they are compatible with all SD devices (unlike the bigger SDHC) and they are still milking them to death
eBay sez 8GB SD cards are as low as 10Ł (13€. It's not that hard. And you don't really need huuuuuuuuuge storage - just more than what the Wii currently has.
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anyway they are out there if you look.
