UPDATE: A Nintendo of UK representative spoke with
GameIndustry.biz and said that the notion of a Wii hard drive coming in the future is "pure rumor and speculation". That doesn't really kill it off entirely but it does bring the down the chances of this being true.
There was the buzz about getting your Wii to
read an external hard drive (proven fake) and we know that some time in the future Japan will be getting an enhanced version of Wii which will
support DVD playback. Well now it seems like Nintendo is considering yet another addition to it's system; an external hard drive.
According to Japanese magazine GameLabo Nintendo held a meeting they came to a decision regarding the fate of an external hard drive attachment (more than likely through one of the console's 2 USB ports). There really isn't anything from Nintendo to back this up but GameLabo they got their information from a "rather reliable" source.
I personally don't see why anyone would need an external hard drive attached to their Wii anyway. The Wii itself may not have that much internal memory but I don't think you'll be able to fill up 512MB on game saves alone. There are those people who need a little extra space for all the Virtual Console games they may download but that's why there's an SD slot. If you really need some extra space just go out and find an SD card somewhere for $20 - $30 and you're set. If this rumor has any truth to it then I'll bet the external hard drive would cost anywhere from $100 and up.
Rumor: Nintendo Wii to get external hard drive - QJ.net
If they let me use my current hard drive then it would be great. I would be able to listen to music on my Wii and videos as well. Wait, I can already do that on my laptop... Well, I could use it to view pictures on my Wii! Again, I can do that on my laptop. Yes, I know not everyone has a laptop and this may benefit those who don't but for me I can't see it changing how I use my Wii. I'm sure with time I could find reasons to have one but if I were forced to buy Nintendo's hard drive then I'd rather not.
I'm sure there will be some sort of hack to allow external hard drives, but at the same time Nintendo will most certainly want you to buy a specific kind (maybe). As for them not knowing why we'd need one....well if they come out with the demo channel or such, an actually hard drive would be amazing for that.
I can see he external hard drive would possibly be needed for channel space. The internet channel takes up the most memory out of all the channels and maybe when it gets updated it'll take up more space. The other channels out now don't use a lot of space, but who knows how many Nintendo will add.
I totally forgot about the Demo Channel GFT. If we do get it then we would definitely need more space to download the demos too.
D'you think they'll make it replace the current base?
I think that'd be pretty neat.
That would be cool if they did, that way it'd still lokk the same with nothing sticking out of it.
Ya, right now i dont exactly have any where to put an external hard drive.
They might do it to add support for the Demo Channel. Or if it gives you the option to record matches from online games you could store them on there as well.
I see were your comeing from LMX, but couldn't the internal hard drive do all that?
Or is it to wimppy?
What would this hardrive do other than give more memory?
Internal hard-drive saving VC games, Wii games, demos and in an ideal world recorded matches? Sounds like a bit much for such a small amount of memory.
I personally would love nintendo to bring out an 80GB hard disk addon. (80GB HDDs are no more expensive than PC games over here) Just to spite all of the PS3 Players.
And think about it, A DVD is between 4.7 and 8.5GB, that won't fit on a small 512MB Flash Chip. The demos (I'm not saying their gonna be full DVD size) are going to be quite big, so extra storage space where the money goes back to nintendo seems like an instawin for them.
It's a clever move because people will look at a £30 2GB SD card and a £50 80GB Optional HDD and not even think twice about the choice
id prolly get one if the price was reasonable
Well if it could be used for things like what LMX said then I'd get it. Plus D4rk raises really good points as well.
Having a hard drive expansion would be rad for reasons that LMX addressed.
But then I started thinking that it would also be awesome for game expansions. Like new Zelda maps and dungeons for instance.
I totally forgot about the Demo Channel GFT. If we do get it then we would definitely need more space to download the demos too.
Why bother. They just need to upgrade the sd slot firmware. The fact is sd and pro sd only differs is a little firmware. So just update that and download demos onto it. I mean it's not like you would play all demos over and over. Unless of course it had online play. Though still with a pro secure digital card would be enough. Considering they have 8gb's. I doubt many demos will be even touching over a gigabyte or gig and a half.
i dident think you could play vc games off of a sd card so how would you play the demos
I don't see how this would happen unless they let you play pirated iso's off of it.