14 DAY TRIAL // Video game hardware developer and video game publisher Nintendo has confirmed that it will not be adding DVD and Blu-ray playback abilities to its upcoming Wii U home console, saying that the features were not important enough to justify the extra costs associated with both developing and manufacturing.
Satoru Iwata, who is the leader of Nintendo, has stated, “Wii U does not have DVD or Blu-ray playback capabilities.”
He added, “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.”
It seems that most of the costs that Nintendo did not want to pay are associated with patents linked to the DVD and to the Blu-ray technologies.
At the E3 2011 press conference that it held on the first day of the show, Nintendo revealed its new home console and demonstrated the innovative new controller it has created for it, incorporating a touch screen that will be integrated into gameplay as well as analog controls and motion tracking.
The E3 demo focused heavily on the new controller and on the upgraded computing power of the Wii U, with a number of graphics intensive upcoming titles presented by representatives from publishers like Electronic Arts, Ubisoft or SEGA.
In the last year, both Microsoft and Sony have emphasized the media hub nature of the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, trying to get more customers to buy their platforms by showing what they can do outside the gaming space.
It seems that Nintendo is interested in growing the number of potential gamers that are able to engage with the Wii U, but that the company is not interested in making the new console a device for those who are not interested in playing with it.