Wii U won't play GC games

[theRepublic]

gumby_trucker said:

theRepublic said:

darkknightkryta said:

theRepublic said:

darkknightkryta said:
The Game Cube disc argument doesn't hold out too much. They're the same discs as the Wii just in mini DVD size. I don't see how they can't be read by the drive unless they made it impossible to hold those discs in, which is just stupid if that's the case.

Did you not read Mr Kahn's comment above?  The Wii U has a slot loading drive like the Wii.  To be able to accept discs of both sizes requires a special drive that is more expensive than a standard slot loading drive.  On top of that, you would need to add all the controller ports and memory card slots to the hardware.  That would just drive up the cost of the console.

What would be the point?  Nintendo is just looking at diminishing returns here.  I'm sure a lot of people used their Wii to play GC games, but I bet that the frequency has diminished as the generation has gone on.  The Wii U will be able to play Wii games, and that is going to be good enough for the vast majority of people.  Fewer and fewer people are going to want to be able to play games that are two generations old.  Those people can hold on to their Wii or GC, or eventually buy virtual copies.

I don't see why the Wii U controller couldn't be mapped (Unless you can't have more than one Wii U controller as the rumours suggest).  And yes the Wii uses a slot loading drive, the same drive that reads GC games.  I don't see how it would cost much more to modify the slot loader to load mini divds, the lense reads it without a hitch.

Good point with the new controller, although the button configuration is a bit different.  We will have to wait and see on the rumors.  That still leaves out the memory card ports though.

Standard slot loaders are more common.  It is just going to be naturally cheaper.  (Economies of scale)

Why not do what I suggested in my last post?

Having an adapter for the discs, as well as one for the memory card in order to move over your saves to an sd card like this one Nintendo manufactured:

http://cube.ign.com/articles/400/400229p1.html

or better yet just emulate a GC memory card on Wii's internal memory/SD card like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRHJdM8AlhE&feature=related

Why not just go full bore and emulate everything through software like they do with the VC?  This seems like an awful lot of trouble to support what will be an 11 year old console by the time the Wii U comes out.  People that really want to play Gamecube games likely have a Gamecube or a Wii that perform that function already.  Does it suck from a consumers perspective?  Yeah, kind of.  But who really expected a big company like Nintendo to cater to a very small minority of customers for a feature that adds cost but doesn't really add any value for the general consumer.