The interwebs are abuzz today as word spreads that Nintendo does not plan on including DVD or Blu-ray playback on Wii U. Lots of negativity directed towards Nintendo about this decision has popped up on forums message boards, and even here on Infendo. Quite frankly, I fail to see why this is a big deal when I can head over to Amazon and find a Blu-ray player on the cheap. Sub $80 cheap. Mark my words, by Christmas 2012 Blu-ray players will go for $50 brand new at Best Buy.
As Richard has pointed out, services such as Netflix and Hulu streaming are becoming more commonplace which could mean an end to optical media altogether.
Q:
Wii U does not have DVD or Blu-ray playback capabilities.
Iwata:
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
Look people, Nintendo is a business and the main point of business is to make money. That doesn’t exactly mean that Nintendo will pass the savings on to the consumer, but if cutting costs means a lower MSRP at launch then that’s ok by me.
Does not having Blu-ray/DVD playback rub you the wrong way?
[thanks monkat for the tip!]
