GDC 2009: Nintendo Announces New Wii Storage

Susan Arendt

Nerd Queen
Jan 9, 2007
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GDC 2009: Nintendo Announces New Wii Storage

Nintendo announced that the Wii is finally getting some decent storage options, starting today.

During Satoru Iwata's keynote, Nintendo's Bill Trinen announced, "Your games will no longer be competing for space with the system memory." With Wii System Menu 4.0, available for download today, a single SD card can now hold up to 240 individual titles. You can download both Virtual Console and WiiWare titles to the SD card, and the Wii can now handle high-capacity SD cards, giving you plenty of room for all of your downloads.

You can now also download content directly to the SD card, rather than having to download it to the Wii first. You can also launch content directly from the SD card, with a short loading time.

That extra room is going to come in handy, because Iwata also announced Virtual Console Arcade, which has classics like Space Invaders and Mappy, is also available today.

Expanded storage may not be as sexy as a new Mario game, but as anyone who's downloaded more than a few Virtual Console or WiiWare titles will tell you, it's something the Wii sorely needed. It was far too easy to run out of room in the Wii's teeny weeny storage, forcing you to "clean out the fridge" to make room for new downloads on a regular basis.



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Nivag the Owl

Owl of Hyper-Intelligence
Oct 29, 2008
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Ah I've always been wishing for a "straight from the card" feature. So annoying having to juggle games around to play them.
 

SharedProphet

New member
Oct 9, 2008
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SDHC support is nice, too. Just bought a camcorder which uses this and was lamenting the fact that nothing else I own supports it. Now I will probably buy an SDHC card.
 

KDR_11k

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Feb 10, 2009
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Either you're neglecting to mention the currency you're using (Google defaults $ to mean USD so I assume the same thing, if you want to be exact then use your currency TLA) or you shop at some really stupid place. N64 games are 1000 points, only Sin & Punishment is 1200 because of being an import title (I think pricing also varies in Japan but I'm pretty sure you don't live in Japan if you pay that much for points). 100 points cost 1USD, 1EUR or 100JPY unless the store is overcharging which isn't uncommon but not so pervasive that you can't get it at the MSRP if you check a few stores and remember which ones don't mark up.
 

Quaidis

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Jun 1, 2008
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I was glad to see this news article. It prepared me for the Wii blinking blue in the dead hours of the night, which would have woken me up angrily if I had not known.

Indigo, you are paying twice as much for your virtual console games than the rest of the world.
 

Quaidis

New member
Jun 1, 2008
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Indigo_Dingo said:
Quaidis said:
I was glad to see this news article. It prepared me for the Wii blinking blue in the dead hours of the night, which would have woken me up angrily if I had not known.

Indigo, you are paying twice as much for your virtual console games than the rest of the world.
Which is why I'd like that fixed.
Go to the main Nintendo website, select your location, and visit customer support (either on the top right or in a 'contact us' link on the bottom of the page, towards the left.)

Should you call them act as calm and composed as possible - regardless of your anger over the issue - and everything will be sorted out. If this is an actual error on Nintendo's part, or if you relate enough calm displeasure through the experience, they will probably send points equivalent to what you paid extra directly to your Wii VC menu. If you write to them, show your irk more openly, but still stay respectful and sincere. I know you wont swear, rant, and rave over customer support on the phone or type grammatically incorrect letters when electronic or snail-mailing, but I found through the trial and error of others that better things happen if you are tolerant and to the point. This lesson may relate better to others who read this.
 

SmugFrog

Ribbit
Sep 4, 2008
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I don't have a Wii, but it's good to see that Nintendo is listening and trying to improve things for their community. I would love to see a good fix for the way of handling multiplayer - are they still using the "friend codes"?
 

gmer412

New member
Feb 21, 2008
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Indigo_Dingo said:
Quaidis said:
I was glad to see this news article. It prepared me for the Wii blinking blue in the dead hours of the night, which would have woken me up angrily if I had not known.

Indigo, you are paying twice as much for your virtual console games than the rest of the world.
Which is why I'd like that fixed.
Oh, man... I didn't realize how weird the Australian exchange rate was until now. That's just crazy. Sorry, man.

Edit:
SmugFrog said:
I don't have a Wii, but it's good to see that Nintendo is listening and trying to improve things for their community. I would love to see a good fix for the way of handling multiplayer - are they still using the "friend codes"?
*sigh* Unfortunately, yes.