Looking to grab a Wii U console when it releases? If so, you might be interested to know that it won’t support DVD or Blu-ray disc playback. According to a recently translated investor Q&A from this year’s E3 conference, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata officially revealed that “Wii U does not have DVD or Blu-ray playback capabilities.”
Iwata continued to elaborate on Nintendo’s logic behind this decision: “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.”
Be that as it may, potential Wii U customers–namely those who don’t have any of the devices Iwata mentions–may actually be disappointed in this decision. Though with a steady decline in DVD and Blu-Ray prices making both formats easier to obtain elsewhere, this could be a wise decision on Nintendo’s part when the console launches in 2012.
[Via: Nintendo.co.jp]
Although it’s not much of a surprise that Nintendo is doing this, it kind of adds to the feeling that they’re going to be behind the curve with the Wii U by the time it hits. It makes sense for them to save on manufacturing costs as usual, but it’d be nice to see them adopt industry standard media for a change.