No Wii HD until "far into the future" News

It's going to be very tricky to invoke the same consumer insanity as the first one, especially with Natal to compete with. They might end up reaching the next round of the party too late.

Well, yeah, just sticking HD output on a Wii would be a waste of money because people don't care that much about the resolution. Putting HD into a new system is a no brainer as well and that new system wouldn't be a Wii anymore.

No interest from me until long after that.

We'd already figured that out, but when will it be?

Why is this topic popping up every now and then? It's not Nintendo that need a new strategy, yet I hear little to no talk about the twins future plans.

So basically it's the complete opposite stance they've been taking with the DS.

Nah, it'll be out next year, just like everyone except Reggie has been saying.

This should probably be read as: No new Wii until the sales seriously go down the crapper.

Why would nintendo invest in new hardware if the current one is going to make them top money for years to come? They haven't even started selling the machine with good bundles or for low prices yet and it still sells like hot cakes.

I won't buy one till far into the future then.

"Why would nintendo invest in new hardware if the current one is going to make them top money for years to come? They haven't even started selling the machine with good bundles or for low prices yet and it still sells like hot cakes."

Because HD sets are now affordable to all and Wii sales have what, halved in a 12 month period?

As the first poster said, Wii-like devices are on the way to the twins, which themselves are dropping right down in price.

Wii 2.0 could very easily miss the boat if Nin aren't careful.

Why would nintendo invest in new hardware if the current one is going to make them top money for years to come? They haven't even started selling the machine with good bundles or for low prices yet and it still sells like hot cakes.

because their sales are down, and within 12 months from now both competitors will have better motion control tech along the already better hardware. Wii HD for holiday season 2010, mark my words.

edit: george beat me to it

"when we will move to a new generation, it's because there are some fundamental things the console cannot do"

So Nintendo needed to release the Wii because the GameCube couldn't handle motion controls? ;)

lol

"The twins" :D Brilliant!

Compare the hard line that Reggie takes on Wii HD with Iwata and Miyamoto talking much more positively about HD and it being the next step.

Reggie talks like the Wii inhabits a consumer electronics vacuum.

Why would they bother making an HD console when there are so many morons willing to spend £200 on a game cube with a waggle stick

Winter 2011 States, March 2012 Europe, May 2012 Japan mark my words

There's no logical reason why they couldn't enable 720p on the current machine in certain games.

'Far into the future' ...when everyone else is doing super HD Nin will get off their ****

They will probably release one at the same time as MS and Sony release try HD consoles.

Most games are upscaled and only run at 30fps. That does not equal HD.

I never understood why ppl expected and hoped for Wii HD. Wii had no chance to eb rereleased any time soon as WiiHD cause there is no actual profit for the company, the hardware profit will drop when the hype and Wii era is already low and keeps going down so not only strategically its wrong but Not only Id rather see Nintendo work on a new fully console that will be capable of not just Wiimotes and HD but more capable and powerfull then my 360 and be the one always best in crossplatform comparisons. I wouldnt mind it. If not I still hope MS start showing off next Xbox from next year after the release of Natal i guess. They promised that it will be capable to play the 360's games so its all good news to me :) ( well its not news unless it happens any time soon i mean.. )

but isnt HD somthing the current console ' fundementaly cant do '

It would a huge mistake for Nintendo to release an HD Wii any time soon because it's not hardware sales that are the problem here - the Wii has sold over 50 miilion units after all - it's actually game sales. For a platform with such a large user base, third-party game sales are often underwhelming with many great games being overlooked, e.g. Zak & Wiki and Okami for example.

Some publishers like EA are showing concern for their poor Wii game sales and no doubt others are too. It seems like only Nintendo's own games sell extremely well, no doubt due to heavy promotion, and I doubt that the people buying those are unduly bothered by the lack of HD. I'm betting most of them are still using the A/V cable that came in the box and are unaware of what HD even is!

It would have been nice for the Wii to have supported HD but in all honesty you only have to look at the PS3 and Xbox 360 to see that it was massively overhyped as many of their owners are still gaming in SD albeit their consoles can produce much better graphics.

... and the reason thirdparty game sales are so poor is because the Wii does not have technical parity with the 'HD' consoles. The worlds's greatest thirdparty development teams do not appear to want to stoop to developing for techology that is so far from the cutting edge.

As a result, you get two-year-late conversions about which everybody complains that it's not so special because the graphics are less good. If Nintendo release a PowerPC-derived succesor to the wii, backwardly compatible with existing Wii software but technically on a level with Xbox 360 and PS3, then it ought to redress that problem. Trouble is, they'd need to do it relatively soon (next year or 2011 at the latest), or they'd risk being gazumped by Sony and MS's next consoles, or at least their pre-release hype.

Edit: Whilst I think that makes sense for a corporate strategy, I'm not sure whether I'd acually want one or not. I have more issue with the uselessness of the wiimote and nunchuck for mainstream game control systems than I do with the fact that Wii can't seem to produce much better graphics than PS2.

Why is this topic popping up every now and then? It's not Nintendo that need a new strategy, yet I hear little to no talk about the twins future plans.

Distraction.

"... and the reason third party game sales are so poor is because the Wii does not have technical parity with the 'HD' consoles"

There are more 3rd party million sellers on Wii than PS3.

When Miyamoto said "move along in step with the progression of technology" he actually meant to say "Racing along a few dozen miles behind the progression of technology...you know when it's become dirt cheap and instantly profitable"

Yea we know how you roll Nintendo. Like a cheap ass gangsta wanna-be ;)

Unless it's coming from someone at Nintendo of Japan, then you can pretty much ignore any speculation with regards to future console development.

P.S. Did someone say poor sales for Okami? The Wii version doubled the sales of the PS2 version with less than half the userbase....

Why would Wii HD come out before the PS4 and next Xbox, when its typically always the consol that sells the least who gets a shorter life cycle.

>>There's no logical reason why they couldn't enable 720p on the current machine in certain games.

That's not strictly true. There's not enough graphics card memory to hold the frame buffer at higher colour depths. And even if there was, 1366*720 is 3.2x more texture-fill real-estate than 640x480. Anything with a proper complicated 3D scene would be very choppy indeed.

It would be nonsensical to attempt this on the Wii, IMHO.

Nintendo should really consider an upgrade. Piracy is rampant on the Wii and ridiculously trivial for the core gamers. Core gamers are also the ones who would be interested in a HD upgrade, in which Nintendo could add something akin to the PS3's hypervisor to handle the patching of old games to HD and properly lock out piracy. (Rather than the pitiful attempts they've made so far.)

Why would Wii HD come out before the PS4 and next Xbox, when its typically always the consol that sells the least who gets a shorter life cycle

That's not strictly true. For one, the original Xbox outsold the Gamecube, but the GC had an extra year of life over the xbox. More significantly, the best-selling Nintendo DS has been superceded by a technically superior new model, with significantly more memory, a faster processor, extra input devices (cameras) and not even total compatibility with the DS's back catalogue since they left out the GBA cart slot. Although the form factor has changed more significatly, the actual game-playing hardware of the new model of PSP has remained the same.

Wii may be the best-selling console, but Nintendo and its shareholders now expect it to be, and to remain so. If sales momentum is dropping, they need to find something to re-invigorate that, and with the talk coming out of Nintendo Japan's top brass, it sounds like a new higher-spec, HD compatible home console could be it.

Games please.

@Eraysor
Though - has the non-gamer wii crowd even heard of Natel?

""The way we at Nintendo do things is, you know, when we will move to a new generation, it's because there are some fundamental things the console cannot do,"

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOOOOOOL.

Things it cant do - like produce visuals that wouldn't embarrass a PS2 perhaps?

Actually, I couldn't care less for fancy graphics, HD and that kind of stuff. Zelda, Mario, Zack & Wiki graphics are fine enough, they should really concentrate on making good games and getting some talented third party developers with them.