By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Nintendo - George Harrison: Wii Hardware Revision 'Not Out of the Question'

Avinash_Tyagi on 23 July 2007
Wojtas said:
Geez, give it a rest people. No way in hell would Nintendo go for a graphicaly advanced sku of the Wii. That would be total bullcrap. I mean, what gives? Some people get to play a better game in terms of graphics because he has the new sku while others don't because they have an older sku of the same system? Retarded idea.

Only enchancment i see possible is a bigger internal hdd.

 People don't seem to realize that their are costs involved in drastically changing hardware manufacturing



 

Predictions:Sales of Wii Fit will surpass the combined sales of the Grand Theft Auto franchiseLifetime sales of Wii will surpass the combined sales of the entire Playstation family of consoles by 12/31/2015 Wii hardware sales will surpass the total hardware sales of the PS2 by 12/31/2010 Wii will have 50% marketshare or more by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  It was a little over 48% only)Wii will surpass 45 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  Nintendo Financials showed it fell slightly short of 45 million shipped by end of 2008)Wii will surpass 80 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2009 (I was wrong!! Wii didn't even get to 70 Million)

Around the Network
KruzeS on 23 July 2007
HappySqurriel said:
Nintendo 'could' have some minor graphical updates to the Wii without breaking compatibility but there are serious limitations. The most obvious examples would be that Nintendo could increase the output resolution, increase Antialiasing and Anisotropic filtering, and add filtering (upscaling) of textures; most of these things can be done in emulators without breaking compatibility. About all this would do is make the same games look crisper and cleaner on a HD Television and would not give it the ability to produce graphics like the XBox 360/PS3.

Agree. Besides that, I can see Ethernet (already mentioned, pretty much useless to me), bigger SD cards support (maybe a firmware would do), DVD support (maybe a firmware would do), Gamecube software in Wii-mode (firmware would do, don't think it'll ever come though). A lighter and cooler version, as well as new colors, is pretty much a given.

As to those saying we won't see any updates, the DS suffered a major upgrade, to the point that if I had an old one I'd definitely buy a new one and not feel cheated. Almost every thing about it was improved. The important thing is to keep the old console fully compatible for games, which is what matters.



Reality has a Nintendo bias.
redspear on 23 July 2007
DonWii said:
I dont expect a WiiHD until next gen. What I could see is a Wii with DVD and HDD.

I don't expect a hard drive but I do expect a higher amount of internal flash. I also expect DVD playback(sonic supposedly already designed the player). This HD talk is crazy though it won't happen the best you could hope for is an upscaler or an extra chip that renders the chip at a higher rez neither one is likely though.



leo-j on 23 July 2007

They'll probably add a dvd player, people wont really care they'll just buy another one just like the ps2.



 

mM
superchunk on 23 July 2007
KruzeS said: As to those saying we won't see any updates, the DS suffered a major upgrade, to the point that if I had an old one I'd definitely buy a new one and not feel cheated. Almost every thing about it was improved. The important thing is to keep the old console fully compatible for games, which is what matters.

That is why I think WiiHD is not out of the question. A near complete hardware revision. Same look and play, but better graphics, better sensor bar, better sound. Relaunch at $200 when 360 is at $200 and PS3 is at $300. So you have their graphics, but Wii's playability.

 Original buyers like myself, can buy again new if they wish just like DSFat owners, otherwise all games playable on both machines just scaled down on Wii orig. I would sell mine and buy the newer one to go with the HDTV I will have by then. Hell, they could keep two sku's if they wished. One 'original' model at $100 and HD at $200.



Around the Network
superchunk on 23 July 2007

Granted the new revision would require some way of transfering your downloaded content from one wii to another one.



ceres on 23 July 2007

You can backup everything on the SD cards. Problem is that it's system locked and there's no way to get your games on another console. Which is also a good thing because then people can't just download the games and put them on the Wii w/o paying for anything.



To cash in my CC rewards points for $300 in Circuit City gift cards to purchase a 360 or not: That is the question.

vizunary on 23 July 2007
ioi said:

We know there's going to be some purists that we're going to lose and they might be first to focus on the absolute last detail of perfect graphics and if they're willing to pay five, six hundred dollars for a PlayStation 3 then more luck to them. But we do believe in products like Madden Football, for example. There are a lot of people that love football that have been locked out of playing it because maybe it's become too complicated over time – the controller was too complicated.

 


I'm a "purist" gamer 

 

Hardcore is for wussies, LOL



shams on 23 July 2007

Guys,

Nintendo is not going to revise anything on the graphics hardware. That would BREAK backwards compatibility.

A new revision may include more than 512MB internal RAM, slimmer case, or general improvements to the design/layout of the Wii box itself.

They might even decide to remove all the GC compatibility stuff (or some of it - memcard support?) to save them a few more dollars on manufacturing. 

The specs will never change. You'll have to wait for the Wii II.

...

And if there is a new revision,  its not going to happen anytime soon. 



Gesta Non Verba

Nocturnal is helping companies get cheaper game ratings in Australia:

Game Assessment website

Wii code: 2263 4706 2910 1099

fazz on 23 July 2007
shams said:

Nintendo is not going to revise anything on the graphics hardware. That would BREAK backwards compatibility. 


 Actually, an update that would BREAK backwards compatibility would be CPU, not GPU. Why you think there are so many fkn GPU architectures out there? R500, G70, R600, G80 are radically different architectures and are all compatible between them... giving different performance levels of course :P

 

But for CPU is a different story, there are only few CPU's architectures out there (PowerPC, x86 and x64... that its not really a lot different from x86)... and compatibility is an issue there :P