IGN: Wii Storage Solution Urgent, Says Nintendo

Reggie Fils-Aime admits storage issue rapidly becoming a "mainstream" concern.

Remember Nintendo Europe's Laurent Fischer and his somewhat inflammatory suggestion that only "geeks and otaku" were interested in an extended storage solution for Nintendo's space-challenged Wii? Well, now Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has stepped into the fray, offering diametrically opposing sentiments on the issue.

Speaking to MTV, Fils-Aime revealed that the company, which has previously admitted it's working on a variety of possible storage space solutions, considers the issue to be one of much wider importance, affecting the Wii's market far beyond Fischer's rather short-sighted singling out of the hardcore demographic.

[haphilli]

It would have helped that you addressed the problem a lot earlier.

[LeShin]

Less talk, more action.

[kingme71]

I can't believe they were going down that path of oh, just copy things off or delete them and then redownload them when you want to again. Besides you only play one game at a time, so you don't need it around.

If that isn't some marketing spin I don't know what is.

[Mausenheimmer]

You know when it would've been good to talk about this? At E3. Nintendo once again threatens to be a day late and a dollar short.

[nintendostar]

I think we both can agree they aren't necessarily short on dollars

[Altered_Soul]

It looks like Nintendo finally got its face slap it needed at E3 to realize that the hardcore gamers aren't just blowing hot air when they are looking for features that most of their casual market would benefit from as well. Hopefully they make good on this ASAP and unveil some good ideas and release something by Christmas, however unlikely.

As long as its not some stupid SD card "solution" and is actually a large storage stackable media, it should work. I think they could easily promote enough capacity by working on some sort of solid state thumb drive that could also keep the price down, and small enough to allow it to be perfectly marketed with some casual game, ala Wii Play, Mario Kart Wii, Wii Resort, etc etc.

[Torch]

Another peripheral they can cram down our throats.

What pisses me off is that, very much like that new "Enhanced Motion Sensor", this is something that should have been integrated into the initial design of their PRODUCT, not their income statement.

A huge disservice to their gaming fans...especially the Soccer Moms and pre-teens who keep naively feeding cash into the mouth of this money-hording beast.

[Altered_Soul]

Do you want them to use their time machine that they quite obviously possess and change it all?

Or would it be less of a fan disservice if they just left it at its current state? Complaining about how they will implement it (when/if they release some details) is more useful than providing a half baked criticism that doesn't really make any sense upon second reading.

They messed up by underestimating what certain features would do their system better in the long run. Now they are offering a fix, that hopefully actually fixes the problem. Do I think they were ridiculous in order to ignore this stuff to begin with? Yes of course, but even the other consoles have had problems that they have rectified. Nintendo is just, well, slower than others. It must be the bricks of cash overflowing their Scrooge McDuck vault.

[Torch]

See, but that's the thing.

I'd bet my left testicle that this was all part of the grand scheme of things. I can't even begin to fathom that all those smart cookies at Nintendo overlooked such obvious flaws.

But that goes well in hand with Nintendo's shrewd business and marketing practices. Not unlike those cut-throat overlords over at Disney, Nintendo has done an absolutely FABULOUS job at portraying as an innocent, family-friendly corporate image who treats revenue as secondary or irrelevant - of which the opposite is blatantly true.

And people continue to buy into it. In the eyes of their target market, Nintendo can do no wrong...and they're rolling in and generating enough dough to not care what us so-called "core gamers" think about their strategies.

This is why I'm one of the rare few who thought that their Romper Room performance at E3 was brilliant.

As far as I'm concerned, everything they showcased is either shovelware, or pricey, needless add-ons.

But you can bet your life that there'll be line ups as usual, when Wii Music and all that other useless crap hit the market. And the best part is, that by the time they're done with buying all these redundant add-ons, they're WELL beyond the price point of more superior products such as the 360 and PS3 - even though consensus opinion would claim otherwise.

Therefore, this is why I am unable to excuse them for, as you put it: "messing up." Because I don't think they did.

My aforementioned disservice to their core market is not the result of not responding to their needs; it's because of their underhanded, calculating methods for creating false needs by the likes of storage solutions or <ahem>enhanced controller add-ons.

It's a slap in the face to their loyal (read: uninformed) customers, really.

[jtucker78]

Bubbles Torch, you're a smart cookie!

[Altered_Soul]

I guess Nintendo is just the evil, core-hating, company then?

I am not validating their mistakes, or even giving them a way out, but lets face it, they can market how they like. They aren't trying to scam you my friend. If its so obvious that these flaws are for destroying a customer bases fidelity, then why is it being brought up on a message board and not being brought to federal attention?

Every single platform has its devious marketing devices. They are trying to make money, and hopefully keep us entertained, since that is the point of the market in the first place.

Soothsaying doesn't fix a thing, especially in the video game world. How many times has PC gaming "died"? I've lost count by this point.