Wii Software Q&A - Nintendo says no to Wii hard drive

CVG interviews Nintendo UK about Wii Software (WiiWare in the US).

CVG: How is WiiWare going to be better than PSN and XBLA, and what would Nintendo say to people who might think you've just copied XBLA?

Nintendo: Wii Software offers unprecedented access for third-parties to create content with few restrictions. The innovative control of the Wii Remote plus open approach of Wii Software is a powerful combination for developers to create and bring their game to consumers.

[PS360WII]

"However like VC games you can delete a Wii Software game to make room for other content, then re-download it at no cost." -Yes, but it's a pointless step if you want to have both games and time consuming if you need to delete games from your channels to make room for another game out there. It shouldn't be Nintendo!

Is Nintendo considering releasing a hard drive to bolster the Wii's memory for all this new content?

Nintendo: No. - Very much a big BOOOO!

I like Nintendo and all but what is the purpose of having the SD card if you can't use it for anything? Give us more memory! Please.

[biomajor09]

Yeah that is a dumb idea not having a hard drive. What they should do is be like microsoft and have the option of buying a attachable hard drive to the wii, for all those people that love to download their vc games.

[Keyser]

Nintendo is loosing it. I'd love to hear the justification for this. Deleting a game is a stupid idea. Give me something better than that.

[samsneed211]

Lame... At the very least, Nintendo could have at included a 2gb to 4gb flash memory instead of a measly 512 mb. WTF?!

[uglyboglin]

[uglyboglin]

4.1 - Don't believe this for a second......
Ok, first and foremost. What exec' for any company flat out says "no" to any question along those lines. That's a complete wash. If anything they would dance around it. Reggie has been asked that in many interviews since the idea of a HD came to light like 3 months ago and he has always danced around the subject. Likewise, even if they did have a HD in the works, chances are they would be releasing or showing it a E3 which is under a month away, so no member of the Nintendo family is just going to blow the secrecy because some gamer site asked the question. C'mon don't be so nieve. Also they can, and probably will send us a firm-ware update so we can run data off an SD card or another type of HD. Maybe, the "no" (which i doubt is what was actually said, i also doubt the interview even happened) means that Nintendo isn't going to be making a HD, maybe a firm-ware update will enable us to use exsisting HD or USB devices to run software. I agree that it would be stupid for nintendo to not come up with some system to alot more storage, actually with the Wii-Ware annouoncement and Neo-Geo games it would be a complete blunder not too, so c'mon people, a money loving company like Nintendo won't just leave the system of customer high and dry, use your heads.

ps. The people who believe this garbage are the same people who believed that we weren't getting Neo-Geo games 3 months ago.

[commadore65]

I was well surprised that you cant use SD cards for anything not even save games!? the only possible use i have found for it is for music in excite truck.

Thats part of my reluctance to get VC games, I would rather have a physical transportable back up of whatever I buy.

[uglyboglin]

You do realize you can backup your VC games onto an SD card? I've downloaded somewhere from around 50 to 60 games and have a 4GB SD card with all my VC games backed up. I can delete any of those games off my internal memory and then replace them with the file from my SD card.

[PS360WII]

@ uglyboglin

I to have 60+ VC games. Yet as I said on my first post it shouldn't be! Why would I want to delete a game that I want to have on my channels so I can get another game I want to put on my channels. Then when I want to play that other game I need to copy the game on my SD card and then delete it. Go into my SD card find that game I wanted again and re-download it. Those are all pointless steps! I should be able to access my SD card and play from there. Why have an option to use an SD card when all it's meant for is to look at. It serves no purpose right now other than 'hey we use SD cards'

I'm a big Nintendo supporter but this is ridiculous.

[uglyboglin]

Hey man, I agree thats a pain in the ass way to go about storage and playing games. This will especially be a problem when we get original titles which are going to be of a larger file size then, say, Sonic. Meaning Sonic takes about 20 to 30 seconds if that, to transfer from the system to an SD card and vice versa, but a large format game would take a long time to transfer over for the sake of playing. I was just pointing out to this person that you can use your SD card for more than music, it can backup your VC games so you do not have to do the download thing from the Shopchannel.

I highly doubt Nintendo will not have a system in place by next year to accommodate the storage issue.It would be suicide not too. So I have little faith in the validity of the interview, especially this close to E3, they won't let out their secrets before. Likewise, they can just update with firm-ware enabling us to use the SD directly via the channels page, problem solved.

[PS360WII]

I see. Yea E3 is right around the corner and Nintendo has been asked about storage space enough for them to think about it twice I'm sure. SD card is nice to use to you don't have to go back to the shopping channel. So hopefully E3 is gonna give us some goods ^^