Nintendo to revise Wii hardware for holiday season?

[Bateluer]

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Could be interesting to have DVD playback on the Wii, but I'd settle for availability. 😉

Despite of almost inevitable success during holiday season later this year, Nintendo still seems to have some hidden aces up in its sleeve. Apparently, the Japanese game expert has applied for a new universal product code (UPC) in the
U.S., meaning that the manufacturer had changed certain features of the product.

It currently unknown what exactly Nintendo plans to add to its highly-successful Wii game console. On the one hand, the company can enable DVD playback functionality, something which it promised to do ahead of the launch. On the other hand, the maker of Wii can bundle a new game controller type to enable end-users to play new game titles.

Given that Nintendo has no interest in promoting DVD, but is more than interested in attracting new customers and promoting new games, it is likely that the key feature of the new model will be the product bundle consisting of games and/or new game controllers and, perhaps, new colour of the console.

Retailers call the second version of Nintendo Wii game console with 045496880088 UPC as ?New Pack?, though, it is unclear what does the new pack contain, reports Codenamerevolution web-site.

Nintendo Wii, the most successful new-generation game console, features IBM?s custom PowerPC architecture-based microprocessor named Broadway clocked at 729MHz and code-named Hollywood chip with built-in graphics core, DSP and I/O features from ATI that operates at 243MHz, earlier reports suggested. Nintendo Wii uses 91MB of memory in total: 23MB of ?main? 1T-SRAM, 64MB of ?external? 1T-SRAM and 3MB texture buffer on the GPU. Nintendo?s Wii does not feature a hard disk drive, instead, it boasts with 512MB of flash memory, but the console will also have a card reader, which will allow installing more memory.

Nintendo set the recommended retail price of ¥25 000 (about $204) in Japan, $249 in the U.S. and ?249 ($342) in Europe.

 

[Injury]

I'm guessing it'll just have an extra or different game bundled with it... maybe an extra Wii Remote or something. Seems stupid to change around a console that has had so much success.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Injury
I'm guessing it'll just have an extra or different game bundled with it... maybe an extra Wii Remote or something. Seems stupid to change around a console that has had so much success.

Yeah, gotta be a bundle. I wouldn't be surprised to see a Mario Galaxy bundle.

 

[TanisHalfElven]

with the Wii selling out everywhere why bother even bundling it with something else.

 

[Oxaqata]

Edit

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Injury
I'm guessing it'll just have an extra or different game bundled with it... maybe an extra Wii Remote or something. Seems stupid to change around a console that has had so much success.

Yeah, gotta be a bundle. I wouldn't be surprised to see a Mario Galaxy bundle.

That's my thinking, too. I've already been hearing rumors that Mario Galaxy will be a hard-find this holiday season... seems like the easiest way to push crap loads of new consoles out. As I said before, there's nothing that really needs changed about the hardware... save for minor discrepancies of preference only.

 

[eelw]

I doubt they will bundle a Wiimote. That's easy money for Nintendo. And I doubt Nintendo will offer a different colour yet. They won't offer a different coloured Wii until there is a drop in demand for the Wii. Another easy way to boost sales.

 

[RaiderJ]

They could easily pack in another game, maybe another Wiimote, and have a bundle for $300 or so.

A black Wii looks pretty cool. I picked up a Black Knight case for my Wii, and although the fit isn't perfect, it looks very slick on my entertainment center.

 

[SickBeast]

Nintendo (and even Sony) usually finds ways to cut the price of manufacturing the console. With the GameCube, they cut out the component video output. With the Wii, they may be able to shrink the footprint a bit, and perhaps make it cheaper with less materials.

It's been about a year since it came out, so they should be able to do a die-shrink on their main components by now. It's not like they're even using high-end tech on their gear anyways.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

Originally posted by: Oxaqata
Frankly this pisses me off. These are game consoles, not computers. The hardware should be set and left (unless its a big problem like the 360).

Welcome to Nintendo, they've been revising their systems since the original NES in one way or another to encourage people to buy the same system over and over. Nothing new here.

On the plus side, you can be sure that even if they release a new Wii for XMas, all the games that come out after it will be compatible with both systems. The current Wii will play any game that comes out until the next major console release following the Wii. Updates and revisions to the existent hardware isn't going to make your current Wii obsolete, that would be PR suicide for Nintendo.