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Nintendo Wii DVD-Playback Gets Delayed…Does Anyone Care?
In a stockholder’s meeting last week Nintendo President, Satoru Iwata made this statement, “With supply constraints [of the Wii] continuing worldwide, the priority is on the current model”. This meaning that there is no new model being created, which means there will be no DVD-playback for Wii anytime soon.
Although this kind of news may have been relevant 6-8 years go, I just don’t see the point here. I did an inventory check in my town house last night in preparation for this post, to count how many devices I had that could play a DVD. I was amazed to find out there was a whopping six devices I had in town house that had the capability of DVD-playback. Out of those six, there’s only one that I use to play DVD’s on, my PS3 (Ssshh don’t tell any fanboys).
Is DVD-Playback A ‘Needed’ Technology For The Nintendo Wii?
So, after doing this check I started thinking about how important it was for the Wii to have DVD functionality. After some self-deliberation, I came to conclusion that having DVD playback was about as important as my microwave being able to play DVDs. If I happened to not have anything currently available to play DVDs, I could just run up to Wal-Mart and find a player as cheap as $29.88 now. For the most part of articles and comments I’ve been reading, it seems that most people are agreeing with me.
How important is DVD playback to your Wii purchase? If you were to do an inventory check, how many DVD playing devices would your house have? And finally most important, am I a traitor for owning a PS3? Feel free to leave your answers down below.
Just because you have a PS3 doesn’t make you a traitor. That’s like saying James Rolfe (you HAVE to know who he is) is a traitor for owning Sega systems. He knows Nintendo is the best but that doesn’t mean he can’t look into other systems. You don’t have to be an absolute Nintendo purist as long as you realize that Nintendo is the best.
ha, good point…of course you’re presenting a logical view on things…unfortunately there are many fanboys out there, for all systems not just the Wii that don’t see things like that
I think eliminating as many “extra” devices from your home as possible is a good thing. Why buy an extra DVD player when my old xbox from 2003 plays them fine? The Wii should have had this functionality built in from the start - for the $250, how hard would it be to include the necessary hardware?
The Wii does not need DVD-playback as I tried to tell people when the system came out. Many people I know shunned the Wii because of it then and preferred the Xbox360 or the PS3 because they had it and the Wii didn’t.
As for being a traitor, while I despise Sony (not because of their video gaming system but because of their business practices and general stupidity), that is my opinion. Since you continue to offer all of us Nintendo Freaks good news about our favorite system, it is a minor personality flaw I think we can all overlook.
@ Daniel - i can see your point in terms of how easy it would probably be to fix. But just think they would have to stop complete production of their current systems to begin development of a brand new one with the playback feature…and since this would hinder supply it might not be worth it
@ Jeffrey - yes, i remember when the Wii first came out, people were ready to throw holy water on it for not being able to play DVDs…also thanks for the understanding, we can’t all be perfect and we all have some kind of skeletons in our closet
I am all about streamlining my home system, rather than buying multiple products for multiple functions. I am more inclined to buy electronics if they perform multiple functions, definately.
http://www.applefreak.net
If it was blueray, then maybe I would get excited.
I was very disappointed the Wii did (does) not have DVD playback. Now I have a convoluted setup on top of my TV, and am out of RCA connections for the various devices we own. So yes, I wish it did have DVD - but given the amazing success I’m not surprised at all that they haven’t yet bothered to add it.
Just like Apple, when what they’re selling is so much better than everyone else, they can get away with leaving out little things here and there that there’s really no reason to withhold from us customers otherwise.
As for your other questions, I probably have >4 other DVD playing devices, but none hooked up to my TV - and I don’t generally want to watch DVDs on my computers. Also, I could care less if you have other gaming devices - I would too if I could afford it and had the time (I’m unlikely to make the time for another gaming system anytime soon though, with young kids especially).
@Dan
i can get behind that. I love the blu-ray movies I have (Casino Royale, Big Fish, and Hellboy)
@Step
I can feel for people who have limited RCA connections, and who are looking for space-saving. The PS3 owning comments was mostly a jab at fanboydom which can get pretty crazy sometimes
Sorry, didn’t mean to imply I didn’t like your PS3 comment. On the contrary, I smiled at the jab at fanboys - both in sympathy and with smugness.
And as much as I enjoy the Wii, I will think twice about Nintendo’s next console (as I did the GameCube, which I refused to purchase) due to the unnecessary exclusion of such a useful feature.
I would prefer the ability to play streaming videos from my media server that is downstairs via the Wii.
Very interesting blog, i have added it to my fovourites, greetings