Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Nintendo's upcoming (tomorrow!) media summit is a big mystery -- which is good, actually, or there'd be no point to holding a media summit to tell us about new stuff. Will they show off a new Wii console there? Most certainly not, unless Nintendo's plan to increase Wii availability for the holiday season involves convincing people not to buy a Wii.

It's a bit more likely that a new Wii will be revealed by 2011 than by ... tomorrow. What They Play's John Davison reports that some developers have already seen an early version of the next Wii, something they're unofficially calling the "Wii HD." According to these shadowy sources, the new console will include some kind of "local storage medium" and high-definition video output.

Davison cites Nintendo's skyrocketing research and development costs as evidence of this new console's development, but we don't even think that's necessary. There's no reason to believe Nintendo isn't readying the next console. What isn't so easy to determine is whether anyone has actually seen it yet, or if we're being told what we want to hear.

[Via Siliconera]

WiiHacks forum moderator ModderMan recently took his kid to the hospital for a broken leg, and discovered one of the Starlight Foundation Fun Centers made specifically for hospitals. We're sure he paid appropriate attention to his son and all, but the calling of, uh, someone who cares a lot about the Wii cannot be ignored.

While he was unable to figure out how to open up the unit, ModderMan took video footage of the device and its interface instead. The selection of games ranges from the expected Nintendo hits to things like Elebits and Zack and Wiki, whose release Nintendo apparently noticed!

He also inspected the inside of the unit with the aid of a flashlight. The biggest revelation here is that since there are 20 games on the device, and since one of the USB slots was occupied, there's probably a hard drive at work here. In a Wii. But this probably has as much to do with the development of retail Wiis as those hotel systems did with other Nintendo systems.

[Thanks, Eoin!]

In a recent Club Nintendo interview, Reggie Fils-Aime and Shigeru Miyamoto both touched on some important things on the mind of all Wii owners. The first thing that many are still asking about is the lack of a hard drive. Well, Miyamoto commented that the company is still working on it and exploring all of the possible technologies, to which Reggie added that the company hasn't specified a traditional hard drive or another kind of storage, but will create a solution that is "better than what we have now."

Miyamoto was also asked about MotionPlus and incorporating it into future Zelda games. Miyamoto said that Nintendo was working on a new Zelda game (and also Pikmin), but would not comment as to each title supporting Waggle 2.0. He also commented that we shouldn't expect any new peripherals any time soon, seeing as how there are so many available for the Wii now. We're glad for that, because our limited closet space has meant that storing them all has been a big hassle.

So, the biggest thing to come out of this piece for Club Nintendo is more of the hard drive talk, although we guess we can't call it that, since Nintendo may want something different than a traditional hard drive. What other kind of technologies could they mean? What could be a comparable storage solution to a hard drive and yet not be a hard drive?

And by "Wii hard drive" we actually mean "portable air conditioner." This image emerged from the bowels of the internet earlier today, purporting to be a Nintendo-designed hard drive for the Wii. The pranksters responsible for this didn't count on the razor-sharp observational skills of one JC Fletcher, who located this familiar-looking air conditioner at Amazon Japan. Nintendo had earlier dismissed the image as "rumor and speculation" when CVG inquired, but this pretty much nails it.

Not that this forgery is good for nothing -- for example, it does give us an excuse to once again raise the issue of where the heck our storage solution is, Reggie, and also a chance to guide you into our Wii mockup gallery of lulz.

Yamazen portable air conditioner here
Nintendo's denial here

[Update: Spelling correction!]

After screwing up and subsequently apologizing, Nintendo Europe's Laurent Fischer wants to get back to work. He does so by addressing the ever-present desire for extra Wii storage space. Yeah, kind of a touchy subject to bring up so soon after Fischergate, but there has to be some big revelation, right?

Well, apparently Nintendo are "working on a solution," but "there's no plan to issue hardware." Fischer is referring to an external hard drive, a device that geeks and otaku gamers are eager to get. Iwata gave everyone hope, but those sentiments have been pretty much squared away in the bollocks box. There's always talk, always rumors and speculation, but still no storage -- and now, no plans.

Check out the full feature for more details, but beyond telling us what we already know, Fischer and Nintendo aren't revealing anything.

The internet, as it tends to do on occasions, went and got itself in a great big tizzy last week, after Nintendo of Europe's Laurent Fischer suggested that only "geeks and otaku" cared about the Wii's storage issue. It wasn't the smartest move of Fischer's career, and it attracted considerable bile -- and not just from Nintendo fans.

God of War creator David Jaffe, as he tends to do on occasions, got narked, and expressed his annoyance over the comment in a colorful entry on his blog. After dedicating a hefty part of his amusing rant to comparing Fischer's remarks with 1987 film Can't Buy Me Love, Jaffe accused Nintendo of "arrogance [...] that should make the company very ashamed," and suggests that Fischer "has no real clue" about games -- all while getting Fischer's gender wrong (" ... she really needs someone to sit her down and explain to her ... "). Brilliant.

Anyway, just as Jaffe was about to hoisted onto the shoulders of Nintendo fans everywhere, Fischer went and spoiled all the fun by apologizing ... sort of. "I have huge respect for those who, like me, share a common passion for Nintendo and want to make it clear that I would never use and I didn't use this terminology in such a context or way to cause offence," Fischer blubbed. "I regret that this misunderstanding has created such offence and disappointment within the community."

It's not the most heartfelt apology we've ever heard, but we'll take it. Now give us a hard drive, Fischer.

[Via Eurogamer]

Now that Iwata has said that folks at Nintendo might be considering doing something about the storage crisis, it's time to get our speculation on about what will happen. Will we hear an announcement at E3? Perhaps before, or -- gasp -- after? We would hate to wait! And what'll it be? A new model with a built-in hard drive? Considering the continuing difficulty some people have with simply laying hands on a Wii, that seems unlikely, but multiple SKUs have worked for the other systems. Still, that sort of solution seems far, far less likely than an upgrade allowing larger SD cards or additional plug-in flash memory. Do you think we'll see a solution by the end of the year, and do you care to guess just what it might be?

Yes, you read that title correctly. The dire situation regarding every Wii owner not having enough storage space is being considered by the Big N, so you can all bet we're happy campers. While Nintendo president Satoru Iwata doesn't come out and say that Nintendo is working on a hard drive for the console, or some other solution, he does say enough to get our hopes up for some sort of memory expansion (or support for external hard drives through USB).

"Statistically speaking, it is true that there are a small number of customers who feel that the flash memory is too small, while many others find that they have plenty of memory," says Iwata. "However, because this small number of people are none other than the most avid players, we know we have to review the best possible solution to eliminate their inconvenience." Interesting bit in that last line, if we may say so.

We all know that being able to re-download something just isn't a good enough solution because, well, it's a total pain. But, if Nintendo can come up with a solution to our storage space issues that doesn't provide us with a hard drive to buy or support for USB external drives, we'll be fine with it. We just need something to help us eliminate the chore of moving things around each and every week.

[Via IGN; Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

So it appears you're all pretty upset about the Wii version of Rock Band. And hey, we can't blame you -- we feel the same way! The reduced feature-set of the Wii game hurts, and like many of you, the lack of online play and DLC may well force us to purchase another version.

But according to developer Harmonix, none of this is really its fault -- nope, it's the Wii that's to blame, specifically the lack of a Wii hard drive. Quoth Harmonix design director Rob Kay: "[...] We need a hard drive. That's what we want. The whole problem is there's nowhere to store it. If the platform could do it, we'd jump on it."

Which is a valid point, actually. With single songs on other versions weighing in at around 30 - 45MB, the Wii's 512MB of internal storage would fill up quickly. We remain justifiably cross, however, at the missing online play.

We've talked about the hard drive issue before, but now we're curious as to how much space you have left on your Wii. If you have the time, you can turn it on and give us an exact amount, but estimates are fine, too! Are you almost full already? Do you still have tons of space left? Or, are you somewhere in between?

Having fully recovered from his one-man mission to review as many WiiWare games inside 24 hours as is humanly possible, Game|Life's Chris Kohler is back with his thoughts about WiiWare in general. His verdict? Not bad, but it lacks crucial features that would elevate the service to the standards already set by Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network.

As well as doubting the value of Lonpos, Star Soldier R and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As a King in his commentary, Kohler's main bones of contention are two gripes that we're all too familiar with: the lack of demos and a storage device. As he points out, "When you buy a WiiWare game, you can't try it first, and if you don't like it, you're totally boned because you can't sell it to someone else or trade it in. WiiWare needs demos. And I bet you anything it's not going to get them."

It saddens us to say so, but we have to agree with that last bit, and a hard drive looks just as unlikely right now.

We're big fans of proofreading around here, particularly when it comes to things that could start nasty, heartbreaking rumors. The above sales flyer from J&R Music/Computer World, captured by Go Nintendo reader Iamsonny, illustrates the need for a good copyeditor. It's the holidays, guys. Don't get our little hearts racing with promises of hard drives in our Wiis. That's just wrong.

But how practical is that? Picture yourself in a year. Will you really want to do that? Will you even want to use SD cards? And re-downloading is twice as bad considering that sometimes, there are just issues with the Virtual Console and downloads don't go through. How often does this happen to you? For us, it's only been a few times, but it's still a problem that could be avoided here ... if we only had a hard drive.

Ever since Wii Ware was announced, we've been wondering if Nintendo would be introducing a hard drive to help store games. Let's face it, 512 MB is not a lot of memory when it comes to storage space. Add your game saves and virtual console purchases to the mix, and well, things might get pretty tight. We reported in June that Nintendo UK said "no" to a hard drive. NoA's Public Relations manager Eric Walter recently confirmed this stance, explaining Nintendo's reasoning behind the issue:

"... 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."

We're disappointed by Nintendo's take on this. We know that we can delete our stuff and redownload it, but it would just be easier to keep it there in the first place. What about you? Do you think a hard drive will become a necessity soon?