HD Wii By 2011?
1Up noticed an interesting post up at WhatTheyPlay which put together some public information with more from private sources suggesting that the next version of the Wii console is planned for 2011. Quoting:
"Unlike previous console transitions from Nintendo, the new system will be presented as a true successor to the Wii, and is being dubbed by those that have seen the presentation as 'Wii HD.' There is no indication if this will be its eventual name, but the nature of the transition has been characterized as similar to 'the shift from Game Boy to Game Boy Advance,' where familiar, key elements were left intact while the core hardware was made more powerful. It is expected by all those that we have spoken to on the subject that the new device will retain the Wii name in part."
On that note, it'd be great if Nintendo would fix up their save-game system.
I mean, seriously, save slots? Still? Sure, it made sense when using carts where there was a limited space tied to the cart. It kinda stopped making sense when you had memory cards and most certainly stopped making sense when the console has built-in storage.
I'm assuming it's some Nintendo requirement because even third-party games will have a limited number of save slots stored on the Wii. Based on the memory browser, it looks like Wii games are allowed to say "I need this much space for saving" and then get a single chunk of space, which then gets divided into save slots. Which is ridiculous.
While they're at it, poach the whole user profile thing that Sony has on the PS3. You can create multiple "users" on the console, and each "user" gets their own collection of save games. It's very nice to be able to share a console without worrying about accidentally overwriting someone else's save. I'd imagine the Xbox 360 has something similar (although I don't know).
'Course, presumably this is possible to do on the Wii, although it might require a firmware update or something...
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.