they already have a flash memory and allow you to save things on sd cards.... so what logicla reason would there be for someone to 'need' a hard drive..

for online gaming dummy. as a matter of fact i sent in a email about 8 days ago to nintendo on this very issue and they promised the information would be routed to the approperate personal so this is probaly true.

Am happy for this to maybe happen. I think either external harddrive or at least let us play from the SD card if you don't get the external.

I doubt it will be an external DVD drive as I'm sure Nintendo could play DVD's with a simple firmware update.



With the rumour of game demo downloads, and Sega Saturn games, we will need more space that's for sure.



I sure hope it's a drive cause that spells something bigg happening in the future!

Any possibility of a HD-DVD DRIVE?

haha, here is something you probably don't know.



when the ds was first released, the touch screen were vey expensive, and yet nintendo still sold them at a lower price, loosing a lot of money to start with in the hope that people would buy them. Later the prices did come down, and thats when nintendo started to make alittle money back. I DO NOT see sony doing the same.



As for a hard drive, i think it's good to choose if you want one or not, remember sony isn't giving that option and just making you pay for one anyway, that is the true greed. Nintendo could at least give the option.



And when you talk about nintendo wanting to bleed their customers dry. wii + £179, maybe a few games and other things, your looking at £250 - £350 top, PS3 + £500 + a few games and other stuff, your looking at £600+£700 or even more, remember you have to also buy a remote for the dvd player, sony don't even provide that basic bit of equipment, greed greed greed greed greed.

What the hell is that idea, the Wii is alredy a DVD drive, why would the release and external one when they could only make a movie channel????



USB external drive might bring some interesting features, homebrew let's say.

" What the hell is that idea, the Wii is alredy a DVD drive, why would the release and external one when they could only make a movie channel????"



It's because some people can't wrap there heads around two facts :



1) A stand-alone DVD player is $25 at Wal-Mart, and



2) Gaming systems ARE NOT MEANT to play movies, no matter what $ony and M$ told you last gen. Playing DVD video is a LOT of wear and tear on a drive that was meant for quick data access, not prolonged, continuous spinning and reading. Game drives are optimized for that quick access to data to load up whatever is needed next; DVD films do not work that way, and the laser is active the entire time you are watching the film. That's why so many people burned out their PS2's playing movies.



Suggesting an "external DVD" is just retarded, plain and simple.



As to an external HD, yes, like a Wii keyboard, it's going to be a necessity soon. I simply don't see Nintendo redesigning the core Wii system anytime soon, as we are now four months into launch and there are still millions of people waiting for the core system. Nintendo can't risk pissing them all off, since many of them are "new" to modern console gaming.



It better be pretty cheap, though - Nintendo is at fault for the ridiculously small amount of memory in the original system. It's simply not nearly enough, and needs to be addressed soon.

Nintendo's best option is to just release a firmware update to enable the USB ports for use with hard drives and keybords. Also to allow saving/playing from the SD cards and external HD devices.



and with Nintendo strugling to meet Wii demand a firmwhare option would be better, lower cost R&D 1 less item to hold up production lines. If they made an HD for the wii they would winde up in the same boat and not be able to meet the demand. Also they still would need to make a firmwhare update to A: uitlize their HD unit and B: make saving/playing to this device advailable. So a firmware updaet would be the better option and let the consumer decide on the drive they want to use.

@Laz - Sony is also loosing about $150-250 on each PS3. Nintendo is making money already on the Wii unit. You need to get your facts straight. Read up mate.

Pfffft, they dont hold enough, if you had huge mmorpgs you just wouldnt have enough space. You also cant fit entire games on most of them (not hinting anything)

jon (as in toilet you know full of crap) moha-ass h01e do you even own a wii i bet not. If the ps3 is so much better then the wii. Why in japan alone has the wii sold over 1million and the ps3 is struggling to get half that(hey its the ds doing better than the psp all over again deja vu or what). I guess the customers know whos really bleeding who dry lol. God damn sony vampires. I cant beleive you guys look how sony have been with the psp trying to kill hbrew and youl all run and by the psp like the zombies that you are. When have nintendo ever f*### over there customers. Now sony thats another story so you guys think before you start spouting your UN INFORMED CRAP!!!!!!!

of5067@qj.net

if you havent noticed, DVD drives have become a standard on consoles since the PS2. Only Nintendo opted to stay with obsolete cartridges with the N64 and chose to use its own proprietary format for the gamecube, and now is doing the same for the wii. And the xbox included a hard drive and a hard drive for the ps2 was made avaliable with PS2 Linux or Final Fantasy. Nintendo needs to learn that its practices during its monopoly on the gaming market aren't going to work anymore. They also need to tap into 3rd party companies more rather than relying on a 20th remake of mario.



The PS3 is right now the cheapest and one of the best blu ray players avaliable. It is also future proof which means it will continue to excel 2-5 years from now when the wii's hardware becomes outdated. And unlike the Xbox, the PS3 DOES NOT REQUIRE A REMOTE to play movies. Get your facts straight. And HD is an option since the cables are not bundled with the system. Blu-Ray is also important since last generation games are already using dual-layer DVDs, Blu-Ray is a necessity to continue to provide higher quality games. It also represents the future just as DVDs represented the future of VHS and video CDs.



What does the Wii need a hard drive for anyways. I don't know how big VC games are but considering a Super Mario 64 ROM image is only about 16MB, im guessing not much.



Overall the PS3 is a much higher quality system than the wii. Sony has worked hard to make sure it lives up to today's and the future's standards. Wii on ther other hand looks like Nintendo slapped two gamecubes together, gave it a remote for people to kill each other with, and named it after what you do in the bathroom.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata himself said "The time when horsepower alone made all the difference is over" he also said "In this way, just like Nintendo DS, its a place where the best ideas "not the biggest budgets" will win. Does the ps3 apeal to everyone like the wii i think not it will just apeal to the ps3tards. Even my grandad had a go at wii tennis and started giving me tips lol. And satoru iwata also discussed price hikes and ways to keep costs down as gaming enters the next generation. Did sony do this NO they just discussed how to make as much money out of you as possible(do you remember how sony gave the ps2 a substandard lens that stops working about the time your warranty runs out and who can forget the ps1's drop lens when you had to turn your ps1 upside down on a pillow to get it to work) I am not paying nearly £600 for a console that wont last long enough to receive these so called future proof updates. I have a wii with gt pro sereis, ww smooth moves, wiiplay,zelda and red steel, 3 wiimotes, 2 nunchucks,2 steering wheels,c pad,tennis racket and golf club add on and ive got 4 virtual games that all adds upto about the same as a ps3. Dont get me wrong i dont hate sony i own a ps1,ps2 and a psp. But i also own all the nintendo consoles except the virtual boy and they all still work perfectly. And how did you come to the conclusion that the wii is 2 gamecubes stuck together your a damn fool i leave you all with one more bit of information Iwata mentioned, were the USB ports that are built into the wii "so practically any storage method can be used". Its early days for the wii how can you say it will be outdated before the ps3. If sales continue as they are (just like they are with the ds compared to psp) then we will see wich will be outdated first.

And with a simple firmware update so could the wii you derp. Dont get me wrong i dont have a dispute with the quality of the ps3's games. If i had to choose between the 360 or the ps3 it would be ps3 everytime. But my main dispute is the quality of their hardware ive already mentioned above about the ps1 + 2 lens's. And what about the slimline ps2's over heating issues. Dont try and tell me that these are all little innocent mistakes on sony's behalf. They knew that the first batch of ps1's were gonna have trouble with there lenses. They purposely give you substandard hardware. Hmm i wonder why so you have to buy the console for a second time. Sony are not content with the fact that loyal customers buy there products once. No thats not enough for sony. Well ill stay loyal no more do you think i want to pay £700 for the ps3 with 2or3 games and a 2nd controller just to find out in a couple of years that im gonna have to buy it again. And as for the comment that listening to Satoru Iwata is like listening to the rubish hitler preached is the most ludicrous thing youve said yet (or should i say one of). So when hideo kojima is giving an interveiw on mgs you dont listen to him because its like listening to hitler. What about hironobu sakaguchi when hes talking about ff its just propoganda is it or are they ok because most of there stuff is on sony consoles. People want more realism in games. Everyone cant go out and become a pro tennis player or have a sword fight or shoot out with a yakuza or be a world champion boxer or even a pro golfer and you have to pay everytime you want a game of 10 pin bowls. The wii removes the normal restraints of your typical control pad. If the wii is so awful then give a reason for this why are more people buying the wii. And dont say its because its cheaper. If people wanted a blu-ray player and a games machine in one they would have saved there money for the ps3. With out a doubt the ps3 has more powerfull specs but thats not all people want. Not everyone of the older generation can undertstand the way a playstaion controller works i mentioned my granfather who is 79 years old playing wii tennis with me . He would not understand gears of war or MGS4 (wich looks awesome).He couldnt grasp the controls for racing games with a normal pad. Now with the wiimote + s wheel he loved GTP. The point im making is that the wii removes the normal stigma from typical gaming it involves the whole family. You get some excersise your moving about not just sitting on your a$$. Now lets see if youve got a reason for sony selling substandard hardware. And besides if the nintendo wii is so awful why are you so interested in qj's coverage of the wii why are'nt you over at qj's ps3 section. If sony cleaned up there act i would think about buying a ps3. But then again sony clean up its act no there's more chance of sega bringing out the dreamcast 2 LMAO. (dreamcast pwns the ps2)

you're just not getting it are you, DVD drives shouls NOT be standard in consoles, I for one do not want to spend more money on someting i already have, i have a DVD player, my laptop has and my PC has 2. Why should i pay extra money for another one when i only want to play games.



tapping into 3rd partys... Have you seen the games that EA are bringing, many more 3rd party companies are making games for the wii because they can do more inovating stuff with it, they can show more of an art style one can say



"The PS3 is right now the cheapest and one of the best blu ray players avaliable." hahahahaha I seen cheaper and better, just pop into your local sony shop, better yet, i can and i can take a photo for you as proof!!!



future proof means nothing, the PSP was supposed to be future future proof , yet the DS still kicked, and is still kicking it ass all over the world. Very good example!



"Blu-Ray is a necessity to continue to provide higher quality games" hahaha, so i can only imagine that in your opinion, higher quality games means bigger games with better graphics. That that is just s***!!!! higher quality games means better game play, and as we can clearly see with the wii, which does not use hi-def, the gameplay is far better than that of the PS3 or Xbox 360. I can also imagine that you just want to sit on your ass all day insead of getting up and jumping around like you have to with the wii. The wii has far better gameplay and hence the games are higher quality, graphics do NOT matter. The N64 had far better graphics that the PSone. graphics is an argument of the past, as we can see in japan, the games were straying away from games 'gamers drift', until the wii came along with its new style of gameplay, now it's top in japan. If the PS3 is soo good as you say, why has it not taken the top spot in any country. wii is top in Japan, America and Europe, Australia and other countries and soon they will hit the 6 million mark. so it does not matter how future proof a console is or how good the graphics are, the wii is still kicking the PS3 in the balls



Also i did not say you had to use the remote to play movies, my brother has PS2 (only for final fantasy games, which i find boring), he uses controller to watch movies (not all movies work on it though hahahaha). I mearly pointed out that a real DVD player will have a remote, yet sony make you buy one seperately for the consoles.



The wii can have a hard drive for a number of reasons, to store VC games, and maybe to store future game demos. It is pointless at the moment as an SD card can do all that, put if game demo are going to be big, then maybe. But then again, demos can always be released on DVD, like zelda: ww was.



"slapped two gamecubes together", haha again with the gamecubes, the great thing is, the wiimote is probably more advance than anything on the PS3, look at the s*** sixaxis controller thing. as for gameplay, PS3 is nowhere even close to mathing the wii's great gameplay. So the graphics are better and it uses blue-ray, personally i don't care for graphics, a game could have the best grapphics ever and still be s*** to play. However that would not be a problem with the wii, as the graphics are actually quite nice, the gameplay is amazing, meaning that all games could be fun to play. As for Blu-ray, it's s*** fullstop. you say HD-DVD are the future, like DVD was from VHS. Mini Disks were the future from CDS, look where they ended up. DVDs are in controll of the market at the moment, and it's going to take a good number of years for people to spend money on Hi-Def players and t.vs, and by the time people will start doing that, 5/6 years would have passed and Nintendo would have another console out. So you say PS3 is future proof, but are you then saying that you expect it to stay the same for the next 10-15 years? and by that time maybe, just maybe everyone will have HD-t.vs and DVD players, as the price will be so much lower. At the moment, it isn't worth that amount of money. For the price of a PS3, i could buy a wii and

umm..don't forget that the snes featured online downloads. Back in the 90s though online gaming was not popular and so nintendo have decided to wait until the right moment this time... so before you say that online only started with the ds...you need to get your facts straight!!!



as for consoles rivaling PCs, hell i'd rather get a PC than a PS3 any day, even my laptop has more power than a PS3, yet unlike the wii, the games aren't as fun, again gameplay is everything!!!! Games consoles are for games, PCS are for working, and selected games like worldcraft which i don't think would be any good on any console.

"They implemented sixaxis motion sensor in it so you can jerk the controller to melee someone or using it to screw in the fuse on an explosive charge."



oh i'm sorry, i actually thought you were saying that sonys controller is better than the wiis in terms of gameplay, i'll have to go and do some jerking on the PS3 now, hahahaha



"And with motorstorm, on a bike you can diss other people or knock them off their bikes."



I remember that on roadrage for the mega drive, even mario kart for GC could do that, it's not new.



"Physics were also an important factor so if your call blows up, every piece of metal will bounce or stick properly depending on speed, angle, and ground surface."



Nascar anyone!!!!



"And not all games are graphical. Some are simple yet addictive like fl0w."



Legend of Zelda Wind Waker, not so graphical, yet very addictive, hell even the original mario bros was addictive and can anyone say "smash bros"!!!



"Whether you like it or not, consoles and games are no longer just novelties. They are advanced systems within the league of high-end pcs we use all the time."



and thats where you argument comes to.... again consoles are for playing games... they were designed to play games in the first place with the nes and master system... only now companies have included dvd players which waste the customers money. back at home, i have a 50" HDTV and DVD player, why do i want another one?! games consoles are what they are... GAMES consolse... a console for playing games on... not watching dvds... not for storing music... for playing games.... get used to it...



I use my laptop for pictures, music and videos... i use my games console for games!!!!