The distinction is that Sony tries to force their proprietary formats on all platforms, while consoles all use proprietary data storage techniques.

Don't let that distinction get in the way of your snide remark, though.

Proprietary hardware at this stage isn't possible (unless its already supported by the Wii hardware).

We can move channels & VC games to a SD card now (I have all my "old" VC games backup up on SD), so I really don't see what the big deal is.

It should be trivial to add this as an extra "cache" for the main 512MB memory. The process would go something like this:

 - on boot-up, the Wii checks the SD-card, and builds a directory list of apps/files on it. This in itself may need to be cached on the Wii for speed, but its not  *that* hard to do.

 - some apps are tagged as "channels", meaning they appear directly on the channel menu (ala apps in the 512MB of RAM)

 - whenever you run something from the SD card, it does a little memory shuffle. This could take a few seconds, but it would only happen the first time you run something. The Wii could pop up a little message saying "Please wait, reshuffling memory"

    - if there is space on the Wii memory, the app is copied from SD to Wii memory.

    - if there isn't, the last unused app(s) are copied from the Wii memory to the SD card. This space is then cleared, and the SD app is copied to the Wii memory for running.

...

I imagine from a technical point of view, the real issue is that the Wii is *only* capable of executing code within its 512MB internal memory (haven't seen the technical specs, so not completely sure). It may not even be capable of this  - apps may have to be "preloaded" (uncompressed/unencrypted) from the 512MB into normal memory, then run. Similar to how running apps from Wii disc would work.

In fact - I really can't see how a SD card (or a USB hard drive) is any different from a Wii disc media. They are both encrypted.

It might be more of a "channel" issue than anything - with a Wii disc, its only ever *one* app at anytime - so the Wii disc channel only needs one slot on the channel menu (etc).

With a USB/SD solution, the problem is that the media could contain HUNDREDS of channels. They might need to implement a "SD card channel", which then opens up a new set of channel pages for the media in question. Access speed is still an issue though.

...

Regardless, its all very solvable - and with only software upgrades. The SD card solution seems ideal to me for now.

A Wii HD hardware upgrade also seems to be an excellent commercial solution - they can keep cranking up the HD space, and releasing newer models. Releasing a Wii with 2-4Gig (internal) memory would also be a nice solution.

More like a cell phone salesman saying "A very small percentage of our users aren't completely happy with our service, but we are looking at ways to fix that." Essentially they are saying there is a problem out there for the hardcore gamers that doesn't exist in most of the userbase. So they are now trying to find the best possible solution to please everyone.

i hope they make a HD

I hope they make it before wii ware too, because I'll be downloading tons of wiiware games

The proprietary hard drive would be best, and here's why:

Even if they were able to sort out the speed issues and 'channel' issues with an SD card, it would cost far too much for a card of necessary size. True, Wiiware games are only a max of 2gb, but what about when Guitar Hero 4 starts coming out with 50mb songs? And what about the games going along with this mysterious new pay-to-play service? The only time a developer makes you pay a monthly fee for a game is if they are going to be regularly updating with new content. Don't be surprised if they start up a Wii demo channel either (not just the DS one).

Now, they aren't going to need a massive drive, as they obviously aren't going to be offering up full-length movie downloads, etc., like their competition. A 10-gb drive would be perfect, with 20 still a possibility.

I predict an announcement of a Wii hard drive at least 10 gb in size, announced at E3, to coincide with the release of either an Animal Crossing or Pokemon MMO. Since Nintendo announces games shortly before they ship, I predict a release day and date with WiiWare.

And that's going in my sig

I thought WiiWare titles were limited to 40-50 MB, not 250MB?

GH4 songs won't be 50 MB either because they'll only be in Dolby Pro Logic II, not 5.1 or 7.1.


SD card integration would be the cheapest and easiest to implement. A HDD option would have the same flaws the PS2 HDD had and that limited adoption, size, etc...

It's also easier to insert an SD card than hook up an HDD and you know how Nintendo is right now about being user friendly.

What is possible, is they'll eventually allow both but not an officially licensed HDD itself, just allow any USB enabled HDD to be formatted with Fat32 (the Wii's internal file system).

Can't we just play the games of the Wii SD cards.
It would make life so much easier.

thekitchensink said: The proprietary hard drive would be best, and here's why: Even if they were able to sort out the speed issues and 'channel' issues with an SD card, it would cost far too much for a card of necessary size. True, Wiiware games are only a max of 2gb, but what about when Guitar Hero 4 starts coming out with 50mb songs? And what about the games going along with this mysterious new pay-to-play service? The only time a developer makes you pay a monthly fee for a game is if they are going to be regularly updating with new content. Don't be surprised if they start up a Wii demo channel either (not just the DS one). Now, they aren't going to need a massive drive, as they obviously aren't going to be offering up full-length movie downloads, etc., like their competition. A 10-gb drive would be perfect, with 20 still a possibility. I predict an announcement of a Wii hard drive at least 10 gb in size, announced at E3, to coincide with the release of either an Animal Crossing or Pokemon MMO. Since Nintendo announces games shortly before they ship, I predict a release day and date with WiiWare. And that's going in my sig

How much  do you think they will sell a 10/20 Gig HDD for ?

I found a 12GB external HDD on newegg for $112.00 but I can get an 80GB external for $54.00.