Any thoughts that you'll be able to watch 1080p Blu-Ray's on Nintendo's new console, Wii U, have been dealt a blow as Nintendo has confirmed that they will be going down the route of creating their own propriety disco format for their Wii U console.
In an interview with Nintendo President Satori Iwata he revealed that the decision was down the keeping costs down to a minimum.
The Wii follow-up will not support DVD either and has come as quite a surprise to many, as many had thought that Ninty would go for Blu-Ray or DVD support.
“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,” Iwata declared.
Iwata has a point, there are plenty of devices out there that can handle DVD playback, but less so when it comes to Blu-ray. But is there an expectation from consumers that their games console will also double as a DVD/Blu-ray, especially given that the PS3 handles both formats, and the Xbox 360 handles DVDs?
Iwata, in the same interview, went onto discuss the merits of having full social network intergration. “After examining the penetration and adoption rate of social networking services like Facebook, etc, we’ve come to the conclusion that we are no longer in a period where we cannot have any connection at all with social networking services.
“Rather, I think we’ve come to an era where it’s important to consider how the social graph of the social networking services can work in conjunction with something like a video game platform.”
What do you think of Ninty going it alone when it comes to choosing a disc format for it's new console - is ditching Blu-Ray and DVD a good move ? Or should it go even further and be the first console maker to go for a complete digital medium. Let us know below.
