The whole debate about the Wii hard drive always gets tied together with WiiWare and the potential it possesses. Many consumers felt that Wii's seemingly paltry 512MB of internal memory could not possibly be enough for these developers to stretch their wings. This spurred on many rumors around the online community of the possibility of a "Wii hard drive", to be used for external storage for Virtual Console games, WiiWare apps, and downloadable content.
To the dismay of many, this rumor was slapped down by a representative of Nintendo UK, who just bluntly said "no". This somewhat arrogant stance was recently backed by Nintendo of America Public Relations manager Eric Walter:
"We really don't want people storing every single game they buy on their drive. When you buy a game, it's yours forever, so you can delete it, and go back and get it at any time you want. In a way, we liken it to putting music on your iPod; you listen to it for a while, and then you get tired of it, and you pull it off, and you put some new stuff on."
Nintendo doesn't have a good answer and they know it. If this is the best defense they can come up with then they've failed to convince many people that a hard drive still isn't necessary. In related news
Guitar Hero III shipped for Wii today. It's identical to say the 360 version of the game only lacking downloads. I wonder why...
Written By: Aaron H.
Are they forgetting that for some games such as from the Final Fantasy series that part of the game could be stored on the hard drive to speed up loading times? As for the iPod comment I have the 80gb version and I never, ever take off anything from it. I continually add and add more to it. I don't want to spend my time redownloading something when I feel the need to play it. Think about having all your Wii games on a shelf and being able to just grab one and play or having to walk to the store where they keep the game you bought to pick it up and play it again. Not to mention if for some reason your net went down and you couldn't redownload the game when you wanted to play it.
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I really dont think Nintendo are going to give us a hard drive.
THEY ARE SOOOOO STUPID!
this just makes me mad... and sad...
Lee - "Hard Drive anyone?"
Nintendo - "No thanks"
LMX fails to see the necessity of Nintendo's inability to accept what their fans want.
I hope they're just denying it so they wouldn't be bugged about it and secretly they are working on one. Nintendo and their secrets *hopes* WiiWare games like the FFCC would probably take up so much space. No one wants to redownload that and will the data be saved when redownloading?
go ahead and keep optimistic wii_ rulez... this is sad, and that comment about the ipod is BS, i bought a 160 gig ipod so that i can put more and more on and never worry about it...
I hope they're just denying it so they wouldn't be bugged about it and secretly they are working on one.
lets say they where secretly working on one, wouldnt it only take like a day to make one and hto make firmware update that would support it. why woudnt they just release it.
Stuff like this is why nintendo makes me mad, they never listen to the fans.
Italianpunk raises a great point.
Even IF you were to compare the Wii to the iPod then it still makes no sense because the iPod is BIG enough to fit enough stuff on. Not like the Wii's crappy internal memory.
MY M@GIC PHAILURE SENSES ARE TINGLING!
Nintendo is digging themselves a hole here. *sigh* Oh, how I wish they were smart. :/
(I may edit this post when I'm awake. xD)
Also, in the title, you can omit the "to see the Necessity of a Wii Hard Drive", you know. xD
This. Is. So. Stupid...
pull your arrogant heads out of your respective arses, Nintendo
Total failure. The fans all want a hard drive, and with Wiiware on the way it's looking like we're going to need a lot more space. 512 Mb is not going to hold very much, Nintendo.
"We liken it to putting music on your iPod; you listen to it for a while, and then you get tired of it, and you pull it off, and you put some new stuff on."
I bought an iPod so I wouldn't have to keep transferring songs around.
You know who this reminds me of? Sony. Back in the PS2 days. They thought they could tell their fans what they wanted, instead of listening to them.
I'm dying for someone to write an editorial entitled "Wii owners fail to realize they didn't buy an Xbox 360".
I know everyone wants this thing to be an 360, just with a Nintendo label on it, but it's not. It's a 250 dollar console. It's not a beast, it's a new approach to traditional gaming. This beast you guys want the Wii to be is available....it just costs $400 dollars and is called the Xbox 360.
If you want to Nintendo to give you a harddrive, the best thing you can do is buy the products that DO have one. Right now ALL OF YOU have voted with your dollars and participation on a Wii fan site. Doesn't exactly send a message to Nintendo that their product line and branding isn't jiving with you guys.
I'm dying for someone to write an editorial entitled "Wii owners fail to realize they didn't buy an Xbox 360".
I know everyone wants this thing to be an 360, just with a Nintendo label on it, but it's not. It's a 250 dollar console. It's not a beast, it's a new approach to traditional gaming. This beast you guys want the Wii to be is available....it just costs $400 dollars and is called the Xbox 360.
If you want to Nintendo to give you a harddrive, the best thing you can do is buy the products that DO have one. Right now ALL OF YOU have voted with your dollars and participation on a Wii fan site. Doesn't exactly send a message to Nintendo that their product line and branding isn't jiving with you guys.
We may like Nintendo, but that doesn't mean we have to like everything they provide us. The Wii is a great console, but that doesn't mean it can't be improved upon. And in these days of downloadable content, consoles need more memory, plain and simple.
So, eithier Nintndo is stupid.. or stupid.
And Thats the saddest truth of all...
