I think the reason why Nintendo hasn't released an external hard drive is that theres not eough demand. I'm guessing 90 % of wii owners have yet to use up the internal storage. It wouldnt be profitable for nintendo to make such a devise if there's not going to be a profit made off of it.

With their cryptic wording, I'm thinking we'll see something like online storage or streaming of some sort.

Problem is, once this bubble bursts they will come crawling back to the core gamer and act like nothing happened. I'm not saying the Wii is a fad, but will all these new Wii owners come back for the Wii2?

Streaming = fail. You'd think they would have learned for all of the DRM issues XBL has with active connections and all.

Not everyone wants their consoles online all the time.

SD and USB is enough for any reasonable solution. The fact that we're almost 2 years into it and they haven't addressed it is unfathomable. It should have been ready by the time WiiWare launched. I don't think I'll ever be able to d/l Ys I&II because it's like 270 blocks.

Yeah, it sounds like they will give us something, but they have dragged out the answer to the storage question for almost a year. They could have easily dropped a patch to let us play games from the SD slot. Maybe it is too slow though and that is the problem. Either way this solution should have come long ago. In the same time they first started talking about this solution Sony has added a shitload of stuff to the PS3. Divx, DTS Master Audio decoding, in game XMB, trophies. They have tried to give us everything we have asked for. Nintendo acts like we don't matter because they have millions of soccer moms buying their console.

I doubt many of these casuals will be back for Wii2, but I guarantee you I won't be back either. This is the last Nintendo console I own. I was a huge supporter of the GameCube and thought they did the best they could when they were behind, but it is obvious these companies forget about us as soon as their sales start increasing. I could dump the Wii now and I've thought about doing it, but I do like the Virtual Console. That is the one home run they hit with the hardware. Thankfully it is an idea they came up with back when they thought they still needed core gamers. If they knew all the success they would have with the non games and low cost casual software we probably wouldn't have gotten it.

Exactly. Plus this is Nintendo we're talking about. There will be something proprietary or online to cut down on piracy.

I agree with Darkside. I have been really let down with the Wii so far. Thankfully, I have a PS3 as well for my gaming needs. I do like the VC though. In fact, that's really the only thing I use it for anymore. I guess I bought into the hype.

See, I am completely on the other side of the boat. I have gotten so much use out of the Wii that it has easily been worth the cost of $250. Since MK Wii, there hasn't been any game that came out that interested me, and this Fall/Winter has shit for games if you ask me (I've never been an AC fan). So for the first year and a half, it has been solid for me. I have a lot of faith the big N will have some better games lined up on the plate soon (hopefully early 2009), and until then I will just play Okami Wii again, and continue on some VC games. Please keep in mind though I am not a hardcore gamer at all and maybe play once or twice a week or a couple hours. If I played games a lot more, I would have a different view on the Wii.

The storage solution should be addressed better when Guitar Hero:World Tour comes out in October. The devs have tested SD storage and its apparently working.

What I have seen from Nintendo is that the storage solution will not be a hard drive. So either USB or SD, or something online.

It is frustrating. But how many people are voicing their wants and needs to Nintendo? A system update is easy to test and distribute. Updating the Mii channel and the Wiimail should be simple things. The soccer moms and kiddies dont care about these things so much so if the core gamers just give up viocing then well we get what we get.

I still believe the real problem is that Nintendo takes all its data off the Japanese consumer and not the Americans. NOA is still a only a corporate face. Japan is making all the decisions and since the storage issue is not happening in Japan then the issue is not a top priority.

Interesting article on the Wii storage. Reggie something better than HDD???
http://gonintendo.com/?p=55064

This is very true. The GameCube actually did fairly well in the US, but since it failed in Japan it was a failure. Japan is really all that matters to Nintendo. They want to make money off the US and European consumers, but only if we want to buy the things they make for Japan. Just thinking about Club Nintendo in Japan is enough to piss me off.

I'm thinking of getting rid of my Wii and getting a Xbox360 or PS3.

We all say that at some point. But then NOA has a way of luring us back in.

No. Mario, Link and Samus have a way of luring us back in.

Interesting hardware here. Now you can have a Wii and a DS on the same network w/o needing to change encryption schemes.

This is a good thing to see that Nintendo Japan is getting serious about online offerings. Hope we see it here.

As long as you use WEP it doesn't make a difference anyway. There was/were also routers sold w/ what is called AOSS that does the same thing anyway.

True but WEP is a weaker encryption.

Plus this one is only $53.

Absolutely it is weaker, but, again, with AOSS you can still have WPA2 setup, etc. Buffalo in particular had a router/routers with this setup that was even reviewed on IGN months and months ago that does the exact thing you are looking for. Price is probably the same if they are still available.

Not sure I would ever buy it since I have my own setup already, but the most interesting thing to me about it is that Nintendo is apparently getting serious about online options.

Also maybe a hint twords them finally offering some DS/Wii interplay.

I would like more DS/Wii interplay as well. As it stands now, I'm just impressed that they ever got around to putting DS demos up.

What... when did that happen? We can download demos to the DS via the Wii?

How did I miss that?

Yeah, Nintendo Channel. Definitely worth adding. They don't have many and they rotate many of them, but a few good ones pop up from time to time. I liked the Pictoimage one.

Since May.

Anyone tried the Homestar Runner game? That is almost enough to make me want to get a Wii.

The first episode was fun. I don't think it is worth getting a Wii for it, especially since it also released for the PC at a much lower price.

I loved it, but got it for the PC since it was $35 for the whole season and I could play at a much higher resolution. Of course then my motherboard failed so maybe I should have bought it on Wii.