One of the PS3’s most attractive features is its ability to play Blu-ray movies. The PS3 and Xbox 360 can of course play films on DVD too, making them ideal entertainment hubs for the living room.
But Nintendo have a history of taking a different path, and unsurprisingly this trend will continue with their next console. “[The] Wii U does not have DVD or Blu-ray playback capabilities,” Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told investors.
The reason behind this appears to be quite simple:
We feel that enough people already have devices that are capable of playing DVDs and Blu-ray, such that it didn’t warrant the cost involved to build that functionality into the Wii U console because of the patents related to those technologies.
While he’s quite right that most people already have machines to play DVDs, a lot of households don’t have machines capable of Blu-ray playback. We already knew that games will be stored on Nintendo’s own unique media discs, but having no support for DVD or Blu-ray movies could hinder the Wii U’s sale potential amongst some consumers.
So what do you think? Do the benefits of reduced costs outweigh those of supporting some of the latest technologies? The comments section below is waiting for your opinion.
Source: CVG
simplebob
As families have bought Wii’s children will have got older, and the Wii U, in some cases, may be the obvious upgrade path. The fact that bigN are trying to chase the 360/PS3 market share while trying to keep prices down might help with this, certainly with backwards compatibility. The problem is going to be when people want more for their money. If the WiiU is going to cost more than the 360 or PS3 then I cant see it being a huge success, as buying one of the other consoles will be better value.
Amir29
Excellent discussion folks! To throw in my opinion here, I don’t feel that the new device will be affected in terms of sales, but the same audience the Nintendo has currently is all they can expect due to this hardware development philosophy.
Nintendo filled a void that was there for years by attracting new youngsters and casual gamers with simple controls and limited features. They were very profitable and put their names back on the map. However, the issue they will face is not in a lack of hardware sales .this generation. What they have been losing steadily now has been third party support.
Today’s casual is tomorrow’s potential hardcore. Today’s youngster is tomorrow’s adult. Third party developers and publishers seek to build technical marvels that can impress enough gamers to create not just initial profit from release date sales, but potential franchises that can continue to generate year over year income. Seeing how Wii games hit the bargain bins mere months after release, we see that quality titles are lacking and consumer interest in software simply isn’t there.
If Nintendo continues in this path, we’ll see their game selection fade. Install base isn’t everything. Third party developers need to know they can continue to profit over time, and casual gaming doesn’t bring that promise to anyone.
I think the Wii U will be very successful. But, unless Nintendo considers a hardware philosophy change by the following generation, we may see them face Sega’s fate soon enough.
ron_mcphatty
Nintendo have already plugged the Remote Play features for the controller, why couldn’t they see DVDs being played on it too? It would be magic for families with teenaged kids!
As an aside, I hope the PSV does game and DVD remote play! Hmm, PSV, the fifth machine to be called a PlayStation, wonder if that was deliberate?
wearejimbo
And how much does it cost to develop your own proprietary hardware and disk format. I guess it must be cheaper than buying the right to use the someone else’s formats or else everybody would do that. Oh wait everybody except Nintendo does do that!
R4U Eldave0
The WiiU actually really appeals to me but I’ll only buy if its a decent price. Therefore news articles such as this please me lol :) I have a PC that can play Blu-rays and a bajillion devices that can play a standard DVD so I’m glad I won’t have to pay for these again