drmoze

CreatureX

I also have no use for a DVD movie playback enabled Wii. Now what I really want to see is new wiimote/nunchuck colors! I hope Nintendo shows new colors at this years E3.

PixyJunket

Word.

Groucho

My point is that people aren't going to be lining up around the block to rebuy their Wii when they add this feature.

Michael Corvin

It's not about complicated, it's about money. Nintendo would have to pay royalties on every console sold to the DVD consortium(or whatever it is called).

pinata242

Doesn't the Wii already have the hardware to read a DVD Video disc? I mean, it's got the drive and the laser, what else is there if they go with software decoding? It should just be a firmware update.

I, for one, don't need *my* Wii doing that, but I can easily see how it would be convenient for others - specifically the "casual" market of parents and grandparents. Would simplify their entertainment setups AND cause the Wii to be turned on for other reasons than Wii Sports - possibly making the Weather, News, and TV channels more relevant since the info would be seen more frequently.

Kelkee

Well the target audience for the Wii is the non/casual gamer.

95% of the posting here seems to be hardcore gamers with multiple consoles. Nintendo is not targeting you with the Wii. Hence youre bias.

What I am saying is if they want repeat business from these non/casual gamers that they are creating a market for they need to add more to the next generation console. Something besides slapping 2.0 to the name and offering a rainbow of color choices.

These 'new' gamers are not going to justify buying a new Wii if the old one works just fine.

It depends on Nintendo's long term strategy. If it wants to be gaming-'lite' only then the DVD thing is out anyways and M.Corvin is right there and this venture with the Wii will not turn into something revolutionary. Just merely an update to the Gamecube. If the strategy is 'entertainment' delivery then they need to add DVD at some point because the competition already has it.

kakihara1

It's not my bias. You said the Wii was the first promising console for an all-in-one entertainment solution, I was simply saying the the PS3 and the 360 are both far better suited for that role, even though each is lacking in one respect or another, the Wii doesn't hold a candle to them.

The Wii is a gaming machine and it's far cheaper than the competition, yeah there are a shitload of people who want the fancier system that does all the media stuff, but they are the ones willing to spend more to get those things. There are far more people who are willing to drop the $250 on the Wii as just a gaming system, I don't think they're too concerned with adding a bunch of shit to it for next gen unless they can do it on the cheap. They know their market well enough to realize that people start to wince when it comes to dropping $4-500 on a console.

kefrank

what are you confused about?

The Wii is in dead last this generation for offering an all in one experience. The Wii is the best-selling console in this generation. Therefore, the "all-in-one" solution is perhaps not the direction things are going after all.

fujishig

Wait, so if/when MS jumps on the Blu Ray bandwagon, the Wii will still be behind, right?

I can't wait for the 1080p, Blu-Ray enabled, HDMI Wii with hard drive to come out.

Of all the things the Wii is missing from it's competitors, the hard drive space (because of wiiware and downloads) and lack ofcomprehensive online strategy are my main complaints. DVD playback doesn't even enter into the picture, and for the casual buyer that can't even find one in stores, I'm not sure that would be a problem either. One of the main benefits besides the novelty of the controls and first party games seems to be the drastic price difference between it and the other consoles. Maybe not including DVD playback on the gamecube was a mistake, because the price difference between consoles wasn't that great, but it's a non-factor here.

steebo777

SmackDaddy

I wonder how many people really use all the "features" of the 360/PS3.

Never, ever played a DVD in my original Xbox. Even when I had it modded, I didn't use but one or two of the added features (and there were a lot). Never played a DVD or wanted the add-on HD player for the 360. Live? Yeah, I played Halo3 online. Didn't care about gamerscore or achievements.

On the Wii? I actually use the news and weather functions regularly. I've purchased several games from the shopping channel, use the browser for youtube videos, grab Mii's from Mii channel. Yeah, I wish they had their online act better together (hey Nintendo...I want to jump in and out of games like I can in MOH: Heroes and select the games I join).

What do the 360 and PS3 (aside from disc media playback) offer that is so much more "advanced" as an all-in-one box? And I'm talking about things joe sixpack cares about. If the Wii so bass-ackward, why Sony's lame attempt at motion control for the PS3? Why the rampant rumors of Microsoft developing some sort of motion controller? Who is chasing who?

Groucho

I would suspect that most PS3 owners use the blu-ray playback, but other than that -- no idea.

pinata242

I still haven't played a PS3 game and I consider myself a gamer before a movie...er.

fumanstan

Demos, trailers, XBLA and PSN games (soon to be remedied by WiiWare I guess). I think the average joe plays online fairly often too, and all the High Def stuff is slowly creeping in to relevancy. Downloading movies and the whole media center thing are certainly a very very small group of people though.

Motion controls are just trying to cash in.

kakihara1

I use my PS3 and my 360 both to stream all of my music and videos across my network. On the 360 you can download HD movies and TV shows. With either of those machines I can see the potential to add DVR functionality and the possibility to use watch it now through Netflix.

I'm not saying the Wii isn't a Viable console, I own one and I love it. But to say it has the most potential as an all in one entertainment hub is just plain wrong. It will never be able to do all the things the 360 and PS3 can do outside of gaming. It's not a matter of who's chasing who, I was responding to one particular post touting the potential of the wii as a non gaming machine. The only way they'll be able to do it with the wii is if they add on more hardware and people will not pay for it.

Michael Corvin

I can't believe someone is actually backing the Wii in an all-in-one debate.

darkside

I still know several people that don't even play their 360 games in HD much less use the other features.

I do use all the features of my PS3, but that is kind of the reason I bought it. It wasn't for any compelling PS3 software at the time. It was for the whole package that Sony has continued to expand upon. I bought the Wii to play Wii games. That is pretty much it. At the low cost of the console I don't expect it to do much else and the stuff they have added is just a bonus. I don't think Nintendo would have helped sales by adding anything that would have increased the cost of the system.

However, I do agree that they need to expand the memory to support all this DLC they are selling. I will pay if the only way to do it is an add on device.

fumanstan

Well to be fair, I don't think the argument is so much that the Wii is better, moreso that the Wii is sufficient enough based on what people actually use. Personally, after having the 360 for over a year and using Live often and frequently, it's an awfully handy feature and i'd hardly say that if Nintendo had something similar, people would poo-poo it.

Considering the amount of users supposedly using Live and the disappointment a large number of Smash Bros fans have had about the shitty online play, it's hard to favor Nintendo as far as features go.

Chris_D

Nick Suttner@1UP gives Okami an 'A'.
http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3167381

Michael Corvin

Coolest Super Mario Theme ever.

Kelkee

Let me clarify where I'm coming from then.

The potential is not solely about current hardware. Its about the customer that Nintendo is targeting and the technology of/in the Wii. If you can get non/casual gamers (a number that FAR exceeds the hardcore gamer market) then you can dominate any console market.

Its more than gaming. Look at the WiiFit and the potential market there.

When I see the "channel" interface, and the WiiMote, I see something so simple to use my grandmother can figure it out. Potential.

When I see Steven Spielburg want to make his first game on the Wii due to the experience alone that he had with his kids. Potential.

All these non gamers have a Wii now or want one. I see articles in my local newspaper about the thing 18 months after is been released. Potential.

If Nintendo can rope all these folks in then they have the potential to make a device that does much more than just play games. And if they are smart they see that and will capitalize on it.

Imagine if your T.V. had WiiMote capability and such? Or your cable box? TiVo?
You wouldnt need 8 remotes with 800 buttons on Them. Only one and you point and click on screen. Potential.

SmackDaddy

I know that some people will use it like that, but you have to realize that the people on this forum are not a typical sample of the general public. This is a tech-centric forum that attracts those that would be more inclined to take advantage of those features.

While Microsoft and Sony hope that the "all-in-one" entertainment appliance is the wave of the future, I think the Wii (along with the similarly underpowered and featured-compared to the PSP-DS)has proven that people just want to turn it on and play games.

Michael Corvin

Welcome to 1995:


I still don't think there is any debate over the all-in-one. The Wii has, what, some retro games, the weather and news? Oh, yeah I get to vote in goofy polls and create Miis. Whoo hoo, dump your 360s now! In the immortal words of Gob Bluth, Come on!

Just look at a what a simple hard drive affords you compared to the Wii: for games you get trailers, demos, map packs, songs for Rock Band and game updates(see the clusterfuck that is GHIII on Wii, wouldn't a hard drive have been nice there for an update). For other entertainment: movies, trailers, television shows, music videos. Toss in a feature rich Live experience that makes the Wii look like the stone age version of connectivity and you've already blown the Wii feature-set out of the water.

Then you can get into the hardcore features like a persistent UI, friend lists, and messaging. Hell the Wii can't even do voice chat let alone video chat. Streaming music? Movies? DVD playback? How about the simple fact that the Wii can't even push HD. How is that all-in-one?

The fact is the Wii does not succeed on any level as an all-in-one device, let alone surpass the 360 or PS3. You can talk about potential all you want, but as time goes on the Wii only looks less attractive as MS and Sony update their systems regularly, something a simple hard drive can afford them to do.

Sure the system is popular among non-gamers and has a simple interface, but that doesn't magically make it some magical all-in-one machine. I remember the days when Nintendo said they had no interest in becoming an all-in-one system... oh that's right, they were referring to the Wii. They don't even consider themselves a contender on that front. Who are we to say otherwise?

SmackDaddy

I don't think anyone is claiming that the Wii is an all-in-one machine. The original assertion was that the Wii has "failed" as an all-in-one machine. While that may be the case, it's runaway success has proven that the public at large doesn't care if they can play DVD's, stream media or power nuclear missiles with their game consoles.

Well, at least that's the point I'm trying to make.