Iwata: Wii U Won’t Have DVD or Blu-Ray Playback Capabilities
Nintendo may be all about the innovation with the Wii U, but they still aren’t on board with that whole “gaming console doubling as a media center” fad that Microsoft and Sony are so fixated on.
According to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, the Wii U will not come with DVD or Blu-Ray playback capabilities. According to Iwata, the reasoning is partly because consumers “already own” DVD and/or Blu-Ray players, and the second being that it simply does not “warrant the cost.”
“The reason for that is that 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.”
I’d like to say that I’m surprised by this, but I’m not. The Wii launched without DVD or Blu-Ray playback and, considering the success of the console, I can see why Nintendo might not be convinced media playback is a necessity. What do you think?
