Nintendo: Project Cafe - Wii U

[sevin0seven]

Nintendo is continuing their trend of not letting their systems play movies off discs.

Nintendo announced during an investor Q&A that "Wii U does not have DVD or Blu-ray playback capabilities."

The reason given was the cost and that "enough people already have devices that are capable of playing DVDs and Blu-ray."

Meanwhile, the Wii U will have some social media functions.

"We are no longer in a period where we cannot have any connection at all with social networking sites," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said. "We're looking at ways that will convey to this audience which games are fun and, ideally, in a way that will enable people who are playing those games with others, to share that information socially."

Iwata wasn't clear on how social media will be used.

source.

[noiseredux]

I don't understand why the WiiU has a new expensive controller instead of just utilizing the 3DS the same way the GameCube did with GBA's.

[Bradtemple87]

I'm still waiting for something about this hardware to really grab me

[isiolia]

I don't understand why the WiiU has a new expensive controller instead of just utilizing the 3DS the same way the GameCube did with GBA's.

Including the controller with every system makes it far more likely for developers to incorporate it. Logic would dictate that it's easier to justify spending time/money to accomodate a non-standard controller if you can guarantee that everyone has one.

[MrPopo]

Nintendo is continuing their trend of not letting their systems play movies off discs.

Nintendo announced during an investor Q&A that "Wii U does not have DVD or Blu-ray playback capabilities."

The reason given was the cost and that "enough people already have devices that are capable of playing DVDs and Blu-ray."

Meanwhile, the Wii U will have some social media functions.

"We are no longer in a period where we cannot have any connection at all with social networking sites," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said. "We're looking at ways that will convey to this audience which games are fun and, ideally, in a way that will enable people who are playing those games with others, to share that information socially."

Iwata wasn't clear on how social media will be used.

source.

Smart move by Nintendo. There's absolutely no reason for a DVD player to be considered standard on a console in this day and age. Blu Ray player on the PS3 made sense; it was a vector for Sony to push the tech, same with DVD on the PS2. But now everyone probably has at least two devices capable of playing DVDs, and maybe more.

[Curlypaul]

Yeah I wouldnt see the need to include a dvd player - they are really cheap and wouldnt really add any value to the console. There are still a lot of people who don't have a blue ray player though

[Inazuma]

Who needs Blu Ray movies when you have an internet connection? It is obsolete and I'm glad Nintendo is keeping the Wii U price down by not including it.

[Bradtemple87]

Who needs Blu Ray movies when you have an internet connection? It is obsolete and I'm glad Nintendo is keeping the Wii U price down by not including it.

Sorry but internet streamed/downloaded movies look like shit next to blurays on a quality tv.

[Curlypaul]

agreed. I'd pay the extra to have a blu ray player in it. Is it already a blu ray drive in there?

[MrPopo]

agreed. I'd pay the extra to have a blu ray player in it. Is it already a blu ray drive in there?

There's a drive that's a derivative of Blu Ray technology. So letting it play Blu Ray movies would be non-trivial.