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Nintendo's Wii Storage Solution — SD Cards
Lucas123 writes "After gamers complained for the better part of a year, Nintendo finally came out with a solution to the Wii's lack of storage capacity — a 2GB SD card from which users can execute games, adding to the console's measly 512MB of onboard storage. The card is expected out in the Spring. With the ability to download, the card should allow users to store up to 60 games."
This news came out of the same press conference that announced the Nintendo DSi we discussed earlier today. They made a number of other announcements as well, including Gamecube remakes for the Wii, updated to make use of the Wiimote, Club Nintendo coming to North America this year, and the Wii Speak Channel, an online voice chat utility.
TFA is a lie. Iwata stated that the solution would be direct download to SD Card + a solution that will allow users to quickly copy from the SD Card to main memory. Early in the morning, the HOPE was that it was a translation issue and Iwata meant the Wii would cache the game in internal memory before running it.
Unfortunately, Reggie dashed those hopes. He repeated Iwata's solution in plain english. From the Wired article:
So don't believe everything you read. Half the stuff coming out of these press conferences is pure malarky. (e.g. 2 touch screens? False. 3 Megapixels? Disputed. New Pikmin? False. Street Fighter IV? False. Launch from SD? False.)
The good news is that the GameCube remakes are going to include Metroid Prime 1 & 2. So if you liked the control scheme in Metroid 3, you'll have a chance to go back and play the previous titles with those controls! (Whoo hoo!)
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
They should just support 3rd party high density SD cards.
I think a better solution would be to add SDHC support so we can use cards larger than 2GB.
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
1. I had no trouble getting a Wii without a bundle. Neither did anyone I know. In fact, it seems that those who fell for the bundle deal were in the minority. FINDING a Wii in the first place was the greater challenge.
2. The article means SD Cards in general. No proprietary card is needed.
3. The article is wrong anyway. No expansion solution was announced. All that was announced was the ability to download directly to SD Cards + an "easy" way of copying games to main memory. In effect, nothing has changed.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
However, one thing about the other systems is that they're also designed around being a media center (such as they are), waiting to store and play MP3s, movies, etc, etc. The Wii isn't. Without all that, 2GB isn't THAT bad. True, still somewhat small, and the rather slow access time of SD cards is more than a bit painful (or at least the rather slow access time of the Wii's SD card reader), but I consider it a somewhat decent patch solution until, say, they get an external HD option or Wii2 or whatnot.
Offtopic note: I like your sig, given I know where it comes from and the fact that it's rather a bit obscure.
Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
I don't know what version of the wii you have, but all my SD cards work.
None of my SDHC cards work, which I believe was AxemRed's point.
I'd just be happy if I could backup my SSBB save file. That or if they would require the pin number before my 3 year-old gets in and deletes everything he can find.
I have all three consoles: 360, PS3 and the Wii and I find the PS3 and the 360 have matured well in the current generation of consoles and the Wii frankly has been found lacking.
Don't get me wrong - the Wii is an awesome social/party attraction but the lack of space, the hard to remember Wii code to add friends, minimal online aspect and not as many games (PS3 is snickering as I type this) have left me a little disappointed. (Only because it was so bloody freaking hard to get a Wii).
From the article:
- Nintendo of America Inc. today announced it has come up with a resolution for the dearth of storage on its Nintendo Wii gaming console -- a proprietary, 2GB SD card.
Sorry, this is not big enough
- According to Computerworld's resident Wii gaming expert, editor Ken Gagne, a 2GB card will hold about 60 games.
Fire him - what kind of games are we talking about?
- Last month, Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo U.S. operations, piqued gamers' interest by saying that his company's answer to the storage issue would be "better than" a hard drive, but he offered no details.
Okay....
The Wii is still fun but for serious gaming, PC, PS3 and the 360 trump Wii in more than one ways.
Nintendo: If it has to be proprietary, please make it 4-8GB. Please don't charge a ridiculous price because it's proprietary. Please don't cry when someone breaks open the proprietary protocols. I get the plumber but please bring out some games that do not involve Mario and oh, why don't you go and improve that's sports package you gave with the console? I'd actually pay for a full-fledged tennis game.
Has anybody else noticed a ludicrously slow transfer speed when transferring files to and from an SD card? I have a SanDisk 2GB card -- not exactly a no-name brand -- and copying even a small Virtual Console game to the card takes minutes. If a block is roughly equal to 128k (that's an estimate given that a 2GB card holds roughly 20,000 blocks), I calculated the transfer rate to be about twice the speed of a 1.44MB floppy drive. Nearly 100 times slower than the theoretical maximum transfer rate of an SD card.
Maybe they're trying to keep that retro experience going by giving you mid-1980's transfer speeds too.
I bet it's to prevent stat savescumming but that's REALLY not worth doing. It's understandable for something like PSO where they are worried about item duping (though that still failed due to cheat devices) but when it's just stats that's stupid.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.