The Wii HD rumors

Ikohn4ever

Ikohn4ever

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Rumors continue to circulate that the Wii will see an HD update sometime in its lifespan. Nintendo will not confirm/deny this, but they have been making some interesting statements. First up is a portion of a Reggie Fils-Aime interview from USA Today. We posted on this a few days ago.

“Tough choices about not including a DVD player at the start, tough choices about not including high-definition capability at the start. That’s because we wanted a mass-market price, and we believe the market will validate those decisions come launch day on this Sunday.”

Now Game Informer got in touch with Nintendo to discuss this comment, and a Nintendo rep answered with this statement.

“(paraphrasing) Microsoft was able to patch the Xbox 360 to support 1080p. After all, Nintendo has already released a patch to allow Wii gamers to transfer game saves to SD cards.”


http://gonintendo.com/?p=9026



i dunno if I would ever see this happening, unless they decide to make a new one with a different audio outputs like an optical out and supporting 5.1
 
If the first iteration catches on, a redesign will definitely happen...and I think it'll include the bells and whistles that are "missing"
 
I'd say DVD will show up, but I'd wait on the HD stuff. I'm not tech guru, but that would require a lot more processing power than the Wii is capable of, right? At least for gaming purposes.

I thought that was kind of a "hand in hand" situation here - the lower power of the machine made HD not possible, which Nintendo doesn't care about anyway, as they'd rather have lower resolutions at higher fixed frame rates.

No?

Anyway, if this happened, maybe I could take my Wii back to Target under the replacement plan I got and tell them it's not working, and get a nice DVD one.

:p

Besides, isn't there thought that maybe the DVD upgrade is software based, meaning existing users could get it? I imagine the laser in there is perfectly capable of reading DVD media...
 
Heh, patching a console to allow SD cards (which was the intent of the system, since it has an SD card slot) is a far cry from updating the system to do hi-def output. And making a second version of the Wii that is powerful enough to maintain 720p or higher would be very near to breaking compatibility with previous console builds, I would imagine. Particularly since the only point of that would be to have games that run in 720p, which would not run on earlier versions.

I like how they "paraphrased" a Nintendo rep so that we have no idea what was actually said, since that statement has no meaning.
 
[quote name='Strell']I'd say DVD will show up, but I'd wait on the HD stuff. I'm not tech guru, but that would require a lot more processing power than the Wii is capable of, right? At least for gaming purposes.

I thought that was kind of a "hand in hand" situation here - the lower power of the machine made HD not possible, which Nintendo doesn't care about anyway, as they'd rather have lower resolutions at higher fixed frame rates.

No?

Anyway, if this happened, maybe I could take my Wii back to Target under the replacement plan I got and tell them it's not working, and get a nice DVD one.

:p

Besides, isn't there thought that maybe the DVD upgrade is software based, meaning existing users could get it? I imagine the laser in there is perfectly capable of reading DVD media...[/QUOTE]



yeah the laser is there because Wii games are on dvds. Also I have heard the Wii is capable of HD before, but it would like max the system out. 720 at the most too
 
[quote name='Strell']I'd say DVD will show up, but I'd wait on the HD stuff. I'm not tech guru, but that would require a lot more processing power than the Wii is capable of, right? At least for gaming purposes.
[/QUOTE]
I may be wrong, but didn't the original XBOX have some games that ran at 720? If the Wii is really more powerful, then shouldn't it allow it to run at least some games the same?
 
Xbox had a number of games that ran at 720p/1080i.

The GC had several progressive scan games (which is 480p, I think). I don't see why the Wii couldn't do 720p with little to no hardware changes.
 
[quote name='elwood731']I may be wrong, but didn't the original XBOX have some games that ran at 720? If the Wii is really more powerful, then shouldn't it allow it to run at least some games the same?[/QUOTE]

That, to me, is the most compelling argument for it being possible in theory. As for it being possible in reality... :whistle2:k

For those of us who did not have an Xbox, what games ran at this higher resolution and how did they play?
 
Yeah, the original Xbox had several 720p games. PS2 had a bunch of 480p games and Gran Turismo 4 would even run in 1080i.
 
We need epobirs in here to tell us if it's really possible or not.

But considering they talked to a "Nintendo rep," I would take this with a grain of salt. This could be anyone from a CSR to one of the Nintendo guys that bring promotional items into stores like Gamestop.

I think anytime a publication uses the term "rep" or "representative," it usually signifies someone low on the totem pole. Now, if they actually spoke to a Nintendo executive, that would be a different story, and I'm sure they would have told us it was someone high within Nintendo.
 
that the one thing that really pisses me off about nintendo, the release a product and within a year or so they pump out another version. I bought the ds, and the ds lite. I enjoyed the first one, and love the ds lite, but I am pissed to have to buy it again with extra bell and whistles. At some point I hope it comes back and bites them in the ass.
 
[quote name='Grave_Addiction']We need epobirs in here to tell us if it's really possible or not.

But considering they talked to a "Nintendo rep," I would take this with a grain of salt. This could be anyone from a CSR to one of the Nintendo guys that bring promotional items into stores like Gamestop.

I think anytime a publication uses the term "rep" or "representative," it usually signifies someone low on the totem pole. Now, if they actually spoke to a Nintendo executive, that would be a different story, and I'm sure they would have told us it was someone high within Nintendo.[/QUOTE]

Until you get up to Perrin Kaplan. Then you're better off talking to the janitor.
 
i'm willing to be they'll patch a lot of things. the system itself is capable of a lot and especially 720hd at least. It doesn't matter what the numbers say on the processor and all that rot, anything can be optimized to work. look pc games, half life 2 could run on a wide range of system types old and new just because the game was optimised to do so. I'm not worried about it, this system kicks ass and they can make the damn thing transform via an update into optimus prime, as long as I can play wii sports i'll be happy haha!

T. Foolery
 
I would take HD just in the Wii Menu and Photo Channel even if the games can't handle it - that shouldn't tax the processor too much. It would be nice to view those photos in HD. However, 720p won't cut it for me for the same reason the PS3 (on which most games are currently 720p) is an utterly useless HD device for me - I have a 1080i-only HDTV that downconverts 720p signals to 480p. So it needs to be 1080i ;).
 
[quote name='botticus']But you don't have to buy it again... in your example, I am perfectly happy with my DS phat.[/QUOTE]
no you don't, but IMO, the majority of intial ds lite owners, owned a ds. They shouldn't constantly double or triple dip on the hardcore audience that loves them.
 
[quote name='ryanbph']no you don't, but IMO, the majority of intial ds lite owners, owned a ds. They shouldn't constantly double or triple dip on the hardcore audience that loves them.[/QUOTE]

Your use of the word "hardcore" answers the question you're posing.

I still don't have a DSL, but I've got a launch DS and two others I picked up after the fact (one of the teal 'dogs ones I got cheap, and another I won in a contest). I still froth for it madly, but I want the navy one.

This "gotta have the newest thing" attitude is wrongly attributed to something only Nintendo does, which really isn't all that fair.
 
i never stated only nintendo does it, but in the video game market, sony released a slim version several years after launch. The xbox had a le halo version but it didn't add any new features. Nintendo less then a year after the ds launch, had a new updated version (never mind the different colors available). Now for the wii, they are talking about a new version coming out next year, just days after the launch of the system. IMO, the dvd player is useless, but the HD output would be nice. I didn't pose a question, I made a statement that I was sick of this shit from nintendo.
 
Well to be fair, Sonic-whoever DVD solutions or whatever came out and started with the DVD stuff first, and I imagine at this point it's just people trying to get the story out of Nintendo themselves.

They'd have kept it hush for a while.

I doubt it would be anything that could remotely segment their market, meaning it's probably just a DVD upgrade. Even if they added more internal space, that would be a huge mistake (a la HD on the PS2). And they've rarely done that (ram upgrade on the N64) and know it's not a great move.

I agree a year is kinda sudden, but people bitch when it doesn't have DVD, then bitch when it does...
 
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