Pachter Says HD Wii On The Way!

Even though Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has a pretty good track record of predicting games-related stuff (and not only), the man might be over-reacting as far as Nintendo and their Wii are concerned. Pachter claims (in an e-mail to website GamePro) that the company might just release a HD version of the Wii, within the following 2 to 3 years, as a response to the "increasing disparity between Wii and Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 graphics," the respective site posts.

According to the consumer website, "Pachter commented that 'consumers may hope for improved graphics, and my guess is that Nintendo will comply.'

Continuing, he suggested that 'in two or three years, commodity prices for graphics processors and CPUs may decline to the point that a High Definition Wii could be introduced. If so, Nintendo will likely introduce one.'"

OK, first of all, let's ask the following question: why wouldn't people buy a Wii, even though it lacks HD, especially when its price drops? The games market isn't exactly packed full with nerds wanting even their morning cereal in HD, you know.

Second of all, every console making company (and especially Nintendo) wants to make sure that last generation's games will have continuance within the next generation of hardware and since the Wii sports exactly zero HD games...

Then there's developing games for the Wii. Basically, developers launch almost every franchise they own onto the Wii because it's damn easy, cheap and fast to develop for. Why? No HD. So, why would Nintendo throw that away?

At best, Nintendo will eventually do something about the Wii's storage capabilities, which everyone knows, are kind of limited. No, let me correct that: very limited! Whatever they do, that's their top priority. And if Nintendo is currently dreaming of an HD Wii, they're surely thinking of a hard drive unit too, whether they want to launch a standalone unit, or place it inside the new machine.

Maybe a standalone HD-DVD playing unit...? I just hate myself for contradicting Pachter's prognosis, but it really sounds like a long-shot.