Harmonix Wants A Wii Hard Drive

[FriskyTanuki]

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=26332973&part=rss&tag=gs_news&subj=6188992

While Harmonix was quick to dance around the issue, the game's design director Rob Kay addressed the Wii's lack of downloadable content more bluntly in a recent interview with UK site Computer and Video Games (http://$$$$$$$$$$$$/3vagme). "Come on Nintendo, we need a hard drive," Kay said to CVG. "That's what we want. The whole problem is there's nowhere to store it."

Kay also noted that Harmonix has actively been pushing Nintendo to offer increased storage space for the Wii. "If the platform could do it, we'd jump on it," he said. "It's something that we championed to Nintendo, that we'd like to do it. Who knows what will happen down the line, I don't know what's coming down the line, but that's the reason there's no DLC in Wii Rock Band."

More developers need to step up and tell Nintendo to fix this growing issue.

[CouRageouS]

Nintendo has yet to offer direct SD loading either. If they don't pull out an HD this year, Wii Ware may become a flop. The current Wii Ware lineup is very underwhelming though.

[Strell]

This is already being discussed here. (http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176979)

[utopianmachine]

I'm all for an external hard drive, if that's the only way Nintendo can pull this off. In a way, it would make sense for their marketing strategy to have an external hard drive: it's there if you want it, but it's not needed to enjoy the game itself. An external hard drive would be a salute to hard core gamers, recognizing our needs and committing to an understanding that the future is in virtual properties.

[Lan_Zer0]

So the lack of hard drive also made them drop the other features too? Fascinating.

[rjung]

Amazing how the XBox 360 Arcade has Rock Band DLC, since it doesn't have a hard drive either.

But yeah, "blame Nintendo" is easier than "blame our own lazy incompetent selves".

--R.J.

[Duckbutt]

So the lack of hard drive also made them drop the other features too? Fascinating.

The Wii Rock Band is just a port of the PS2 version. I'm sure the custom characters and other features that were dropped would result in larger save files.

[Halo05]

Amazing how the XBox 360 Arcade has Rock Band DLC, since it doesn't have a hard drive either.

But yeah, "blame Nintendo" is easier than "blame our own lazy incompetent selves".

--R.J.

Yeah, provided you have a memory card for your 360 Arcade (yes, I know it comes with one). Nintendo could open up some potential for DLC by allowing direct access to the SD cards which is why I think the blame still falls on Nintendo.

[astromanluca]

Do we know that it's Nintendo's fault that DLC doesn't work from SD cards? Some games do allow certain use of the SD card. It might be EA or MTV raising a stink about the possibility of people sharing songs by moving their SD cards around. Which is BS, because they could easily tie the downloads to a particular Wii or something, but that apparently isn't enough.

[DocRamon]

yeah, i don't think nintendo is really to blame here...

i think the "blame nintendo" argument is damage control, to help disguise the fact that they're rushing the product out to compete with GH: Aerosmith this summer.

[bmulligan]

There's still nothing to stop them from releasing Rock Band II with 30-40 more songs in 6 months.

[FriskyTanuki]

Amazing how the XBox 360 Arcade has Rock Band DLC, since it doesn't have a hard drive either.

But yeah, "blame Nintendo" is easier than "blame our own lazy incompetent selves".

--R.J.
They release DLC specifically for the HD-less 360? News to me.

[InuFaye]

Blame Nintendo For Making A Crippled Online Expirence.

They were dragged kicking and screaming into the online space, and they are just starting to get their feet wet.

Maybe in the next ten years we will have a nintendo system with a HDD.

[bmulligan]

Blame Nintendo For Making A Crippled Online Expirence.

They were dragged kicking and screaming into the online space, and they are just starting to get their feet wet.

Maybe in the next ten years we will have a nintendo system with a HDD.

I'd say more like 3 years or less.

[Wolfpup]

I really don't care if they release a hard drive. 512MB isn't bad, as long as you can move game saves and VC games to and from an SD card. Three larger issues are:

-Support writing directly to the SD card from games/running VC games from an SD card
-Support larger SD cards (I guess it's currently limited to 2GB? don't know for sure as that's my largest crard.)
-Adopt an iTunes style authorize/deauthorize model so that VC games can be moved from one Wii to another at will

(Note, I'm using "VC" for both VC and Wiiware games...)

[cheapwiigamer]

Harmonix - "Get on it Nintendo, a HDD would be great for your product"

Translation - "We want to sell DLC and make more money"

[SpottedNigel]

Harmonix - "Get on it Nintendo, a HDD would be great for your product"

Translation - "We want to sell DLC and make more money"

That's completely true... and this is one of those rare instances where the consumer WANTS to give them said money. Having space for created characters would have been great too.

[rlse9]

I really don't care if they release a hard drive. 512MB isn't bad, as long as you can move game saves and VC games to and from an SD card. Three larger issues are:

-Support writing directly to the SD card from games/running VC games from an SD card
-Support larger SD cards (I guess it's currently limited to 2GB? don't know for sure as that's my largest crard.)
-Adopt an iTunes style authorize/deauthorize model so that VC games can be moved from one Wii to another at will

(Note, I'm using "VC" for both VC and Wiiware games...)

Writing direction to the SD card/running VC games from SD card would be great. It would make not having a hard drive fine for me, 512MB just isn't enough but adding another 2GB and being able to swap out SD cards if need be would work.

I'm pretty sure they can't use larger SD cards, above 2 GB are HD-SD cards and require a different type of hardware I believe.

I can't see Nintendo allowing VC games to be moved from system to system, Nintendo is too paranoid about piracy.

[rjung]

Other Wii games have online leaderboards.
Other Wii games have online play.
Other Wii games have DLC.
Other Wii games have SD-accessible saves/loads.
Other Wii games have customized characters.

Conclusion: Harmonix/MTV are being lazy.

--R.J.

[Wolfpup]

I'm pretty sure they can't use larger SD cards, above 2 GB are HD-SD cards and require a different type of hardware I believe.

I have to wonder why they didn't include a more modern SD reader (if they didn't).

I can't see Nintendo allowing VC games to be moved from system to system, Nintendo is too paranoid about piracy.

Not an issue, as methods for doing this that are every bit as secure as the method they're currently using were developed years BEFORE the Wii came out :(

[CombatCraig]

Apparently Nintendo isn't as closed minded about the subject as we once thought

Iwata: We're Looking Into Flash Memory (http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/05/01/iwata-were-looking-into-the-flash-memory-situation/)

[ArthurDigbySellers]

Apparently Nintendo isn't as closed minded about the subject as we once thought

Iwata: We're Looking Into Flash Memory (http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/05/01/iwata-were-looking-into-the-flash-memory-situation/)

E3 annoucement?

[decrot]

why can't ninty just let people run stuff off of the SD slot, sheesh. i think 2 to 4 gb of additional storage is a cheap and convenient solution. I really dont see myself needing more than 2 gigs anyways.

[JJSP]

Join the club, Harmonix. Line starts in the back.