Hello everyone, I had this crazy idea while working out at the gym today and I figured, why not post it on here? This is the place for both brilliant and absurd ideas, and I'm curious what you all think. We all know the Switch is a LOT more powerful than the Wii and is a decent amount more powerful than the Wii U, but it only has a cartridge slot. We also know that Nintendo is working on their internet service and there have been rumors for a while know about what their virtual console will look like. Obviously, Wii and Wii U games will be available as digital downloads (just like they were on the Wii U), but many of us own Wii and Wii U games already in disc form. My idea is for Nintendo to design a disc reader that connects to the USB port in the Switch dock (similar to an external hard drive) and uses the dock/Switch to power up old Wii and Wii U disc games.

Would this be possible?

If so, what would be a fair price for this?

Would you be interested in this concept or are you ready to move on from disc play altogether?

Also, I'm aware the Wii U gamepad may have to have a software update to work as a controller for its games on the Switch, otherwise quite a few games wouldn't work as intended.

Could be a good idea, but I don't think it's worth it

By the time Nintendo is done porting Wii U games to the Switch, a Wii U disk reader wouldn't be worth it

As for Wii, VC could work just as well

It’s a good idea but from the Wii U era the only game I’d wanna play on my Switch is Tokyo Mirage Sessions and that game would just benefit from a port. So the idea is good but considering how many ports they’ve already done, I probably wouldn’t get it. Also because I’d wanna play those games in handheld mode and if there was a disc reader that connected to the dock, I wouldn’t be able to do that.

Well, I assume it doesn't have the Wii and Wii U hardware in it, so they'd have to get an emulator. So, unless they get an emulator that works with every game it'd probably be like the Xbox One where only select titles are backwards compatibility.

Sounds like Nintendo would lose a lot of money not having Wii games on the virtual console and Wii U enhanced ports instead. Not mention certain games would be unplayable/in need of a bit of an overhaul in order to be playable on Switch.

It would be possible, but you're unlikely to see something like this just on the basis of it adding possible places for hackers to look for weakness's in making the Switch run code from certain Wii/WiiU games which was exploitable years ago, the same tricks that worked in Twilight princess would probably work in the virtualised Wii emulator inside the Switch much like it was possible to hack the Wii inside a WiiU via those games.

im done with my Wii U.

as for the Wii, i will buy virtual console releases as long as i can port my save data from my Wii U to the Switch

Gives me Sega CD vibes for some reason

*looks at Sony external Blu-Ray disc reader & Nintendo Switch*

Good idea I would love to play Pla- i mean Wii U games on my Switch

XCX and Mario 3D World would be nice to have ported.