Wii U video - see how it compares in size with Wii

Official Nintendo Magazine were given exclusive access to the Wii U console and Wii U GamePad ahead of the console's UK release on 30 November. So we recorded a video which not only gives you a guide to everything that Nintendo's new console is capable of, but also shows you how the Wii U console compares in size to the Wii and 3DS XL.

[Neonridr]

can't wait, less than 3 weeks..

[darthv72]

I didnt realize just how much larger it was in comparison. From all the initial shots it looked like they rounded the casing but now I see there is a significant difference.

Smaller than the current HD consoles and plenty of power to exceed as well.

[guitarded77]

I enjoy more info on the Wii U, but the video is awful, constantly panning, and reflective light all over the place. I know they're trying to be artsy fartsy, but the point of the video is to show the Wii U, not drive viewers into an epileptic fit.

[Moonman]

Great looking console.

[neogeo]

I played Rayman at bestbuy and like a dork I put my face on the TV screen looking for Jaggies and I did not find any.

[rajman]

I find it shocking that there will only be 8gb and 32gb models at launch, considering the download size for Tekken Tag 2 Wii U was revealed last week at 16.7gb, if thats 16gb...will any games be possible to download for the 8gb model? o_0

[NYC_Gamer]

Indie software

[StanSmith]

@rajman

Yes as you connect an external hard drive for extra storage. It works the same way as the 4GB Xbox and the 12GB PS3. If you want to download digital versions of boxed software, then you'll need to buy a bigger hard drive.

[rajman]

Thats good then, but still the 4gb X360 and 12gb PS3 were not launch models. They came out later and were for those who wont be doing heavy gaming, I wish it had an actual large HDD size, rather than forcing people to buy external HDD's.

[Neonridr]

When the 360 launched it had a 20GB hard drive, what's your point?

Besides, I would much rather spend less money on an external hard drive instead of driving the console price up by including an overpriced hard drive inside with less space.

I have a 2TB external drive with the Wii U's name all over it.

[DaCajun]

@ rajman

so when xbox 360 launched with a 20GB and the core that had no hard drive, it was ok? The PS3 was just barely better with the 20GB and 60GB.

Plus who doesn't have an USB hard drive lying around these days? I do, 3 in fact. Using a USB HDD works just the same as running the game off a disc.

Also they are not forcing anyone to buy anything. They give you options, which is cheaper than them adding in more and charging you more. If they were forcing people to do something it would be making them buy proprietary HDDs which they are not, you have a choice not one is forcing you to do anything.

[vickers500]

Yeah, but have they even said whether or not you will be able to play those games off your external hard drive? I hope you're not just assuming you will be able to.

"so when xbox 360 launched with a 20GB and the core that had no hard drive, it was ok? The PS3 was just barely better with the 20GB and 60GB."

No, it wasn't okay, and he didn't say it was. 20 and 60 were adequate for the time because devs didn't need to use installs as much at the time as they do now. Plus, those are upgradeable. We don't even know if games on wii u will be able to play off an external hard drive, or what types of games, or how well they may or may not run while playing off the hard drive (something heavier on resources like an open world game or a very resource heavy game might end up running like crap). The games that probably can run off of the hard drive are probably only going to be small games, much less resource heavy games.

[nypifisel]

@Vickers500
Of course you can play games from the HDD, if you couldn't what would be the point of actually supporting them? What else except game downloads would need terabytes of space? For anything but games 8-32 GB is well more than enough.

And obviously you have no clue about HDDs and USB transfer, the transfer speed of an HDD and USB2 is more than the read speed of the Wii Us optical disc drive (which will be the fastest on the console market upon release) So that "open world games" would be a problem? Yeah NO! If that were the case then every single game released this past generation would have to had that problem. Please do not speculate about things you know nothing of, it causes misinformation.

[jmc8888]

The difference is though, during a sale you can buy a 2tb usb hd for under $100. Hell I bought two a year or so ago for about that. I think one was 89 and one was 109. (though they're filled up and I need a new one specifically for Wii U)

But it was just sad that MS was selling hd's that were 1/10th the size for the same price of what was sold for PC's.

32gb is enough for game saves, updates, and perhaps a few indie game, so unless someone needs to download a bunch of stuff early, they'll be fine and give them time to work in the cost of a hd in the first few months next year.

Once that happens you'll have a big hd, or a good sized one for cheap. So ~50-100 but you'll get 500gb-2tb. Plenty of space.

[vickers500]

@nypifisel

A lot of these people seem to disagree. Seems a lot of people playing a game off of an external drive, in addition to it being very slow, encounter many errors.

I myself tried playing the first FEAR game off of an external hard drive, and it ran horribly (my hardware was more than sufficient to handle it as well).

Even if by some miracle it has no slowdown, there's still the plethora of other problems listed in the forums to worry about.

32gb is simply NOT ENOUGH in this day and age. Not with large installs, patches, dlc (things that should be kept on the internal drive). Why would they support drives at all you ask? Well they probably think they can get away with calling "supporting hard drives" what it probably is going to end up being, which is just being able to store photos, movies, music, game saves and miniscule crap like that on the hard drive, but wont actually support the bigger games.

[AO1JMM]

I'm only going to use the HD for games saves and updates. All DD games will be on an external or a SD card.

Speaking of, whats the largest SD/USB thumb drive supported?

[rajman]

@ Neonridr
The 360 launched with 20GB? Well that was 7 years ago, an 8GB console in 2012 is just o_0 especially when its looks like the Wii U will have huge downloadable games...the large download (disc games) only came to PSN/XBL when the larger HDD consoles came out, and so it wasnt that much of a problem back then.
Sure I like the idea of storing games on an external HDD, but those could get corrupt alot easier than a HDD in a console

[Neonridr]

I agree that even 32 GB is sort of ridiculous. But look at the Super Slim PS3 that just launched, it only has 12GB of internal storage. The fact that Nintendo is allowing you to use anything up to 3TB is a big slap in the face to Sony and Microsoft. Why would I spend $150 on a 320 GB "Microsoft" branded hard drive, when I could spend $100 on any brand 2TB hard drive and plug it into my Wii U? Why should I have to spend $100 on a 32GB Sony branded memory card for the Vita when they could have allowed you to plug in any old SD Card and spend half as much? It's because they are greedy. The fact that Nintendo did this is shocking, because they easily could have made consumers buy Nintendo branded external hard drives to plug in and charge twice as much. As for an external hard drive failing - hasn't happened to me yet, plus you may be able to back up the hard drive onto your computer.

If you would rather spend more on a console so you have an overpriced internal hard drive that's your choice.

[Theyellowflash30]

Just buy your own 250 GB HDD from Tiger Direct for 30 bucks and your set. thats what I did.

[Zhipp]

16gb?! It's just a fighting game; why the heck is it so big?

[deafdani]

Just for consideration: if the Wii U had bigger internal hard drives, it would've ramped up the cost of the console.

Bear in mind that a lot of the prospective buyers of this new console won't even even take full advantage of the 8 GB internal drive of the basic model, much less the 32 GB present on the premium model... so it would be even more of a waste if there was a 320 GB model or something like that.

So, what about us, the gamers that will likely run out of space sometime in the future? I mean, I know I will probably buy lots of digital games.

For us, we buy a external HDD (if we don't already have one) - But I actually have a old 500 GB external drive lying around that I will put to good use.

But even if you didn't, I think the cost of buying a external hard drive for use on your Wii U will be, combined with the cost of the console itself, cheaper than if it had a bigger hard drive included on it.

So really, it's not a issue. External hard drives are pretty cheap now.

[Schawk]

Looks Awesome!!! i cant wait to play this machine

[josephayal]

TBH The WII U looks like a Old DVD Player, ANYWAY I can't wait till next month to get my Black Wii U 32GB

[mdkgod43]

tell me what ur gonna do with 32gb of space? thats not even enough for 3full games and what about demos?

[Kamikaze]

clearly some stupid sony and or microsoft fanboy because if u were nintendo a fan u would have known about customize your space

[Nevers0ft]

Erm... Plug an external drive in? I'd much rather look around for my own cheap storage than have a console manufacturer sell me some at several times the current market value.

[yourmom2921]

@mdkgod43

Herp-dee-durp

Um, yeah. It supports external HDDs. I think I will use my 2 TB drive.

[DivineAssault]

One day after that gamepad is improved with better battery, more 1st party games are out, & possibly a price drop. ill consider buying one.

[yourmom2921]

You're such a silly goose!

[dirthurts]

I finally got to play a Wii U (Rayman) and it was pretty slick.
I'm excited.

[MadMen]

The wiiU is ugly and will get smoked in comparison to the success of the wii, the Wii is a better buy given the established library and price.

[SonyNGP]

>implying that the Wii U can't play the Wii's "established library"

[MadMen]

Price\Library combo is what was implied

[Nevers0ft]

Yeah, damn Nintendo for not having a bigger Wii U software library at launch when compared to their 6 year old best-selling console.

As for the console being ugly... The black Wii U is really shiny, could you have been seeing your reflection? ;)

[GuruStarr78]

LOL... I think it's pretty slick looking (the black one, anyways).