lol.  This should be interesting.

Woah woah woah. They didn't say there wasn't built-in storage. They said "hard drive". Right?


...right? :(

Wait, I'm confused. The wording is weird. Going by that quote, Iwata didn't say there there wouldn't be internal storage; he said they haven't said anything yet. He also says hard drive which I thought was technically different than flash memory. I don't know how this is a confirmation. In fact, it's the exact opposite of one.

Shouldn't there be some storage included because of firmware updates and whatnot. In any case, I can just buy an SD card. I'd probably go with 16GB or 32GB since they're not too pricey.

Danny boy, you should probably change the title of this news post, maybe to something less alarmist.

This reminds me of that episode of the Simpsons where Krusty the Klown gets busted for Tax Evasion because the guy says "I'm not at liberty to divulge information about that customers secret illegal account". And then after he said it he's like "oh crap!"

Anyway, that's pretty much what I wanted to hear. I hope that's a hidden confirmation instead of it just being a mistranslation. It could be either way, but I'll be hoping its the former. :)

I went ahead and made a bit of change to the quote. The part where it says, "We haven't said anything about "the" hard drive" could also be interpreted as "a." In Japanese, there really is no differentiating between those two words. At least in this instance.


I also changed the title here, too. It was a bit strong.

If they don't have internal storage, they'll probably throw in an SD card or something, like they do with the 3DS. I've got my 320GB external drive standing by for when I get the system, though, so it really doesn't matter all that much to me, personally.

Changing the definite article "the" to the indefinite article "a" doesn't really make the quote that much less confusing. Instead of being an off-hand confirmation that there is a hard drive but there's nothing to announce about it (like size or if it's removeable), there's just nothing to announce at all. That's not Danny's fault. Iwata is ultimately still saying "We haven't said anything about anything." That's still frustratingly cryptic.

After all the arguing over a meager 8 GB of internal storage, I can only imagine what it'll be like if Nintendo reveals they have no internal storage in the Wii U.  For their sake, I hope something just got lost in translation because no internal storage at all is unacceptable.

Yeah. It still sucks. 8 GB or 0 GB, it's lame.  :( 

Iwata, just give us a yes or no!

Doesn't having no internal memory at all (HDD or flash) greatly affect firmware updates? Using an SD card doesn't really work because you can replace that and then the new SD Card would need to have some version of the firmware for the console to even function.

I think something will be in there. I remember being confused with 3DS. For the longest time, I didn't know for sure that it had 2GB of internal flash memory in addition to the SD card Nintendo included. That's how it is, right?

I don't understand why Nintendo has been so reluctant to give up specifics about the Wii U at this point, considering the console is releasing in less than 6 months.  What, are they afraid that (like their stance on game reveals) people will lose interest in the Wii U if they know more than the bare minimum more than month in advance?

yes. they fear people will dreamcast. Or they don't want their competition to use it against them "Playstaion 4 has is using a real GPU, a gtx 670 while wiiu is only using a mobility hd 4870 look at these charts, warblegarble!"

No built-in storage at all would be pretty lame.  That would make the Wii U price very deceptive since anyone who wants to, you know, save a game would have to buy extra storage.  I know we had that back in the memory card days but who wants to go back to that?

How do you do mandatory patches without built-in storage?  Having no built-in storage would be a step backwards from the Wii.

It depends, can I back up my saves like Mario Kart, Animal Crossing and Smash Bros to this external memory should my system go kaput, forcing me to send it in for repair where my entire internal memory gets wiped and there's nothing I can do about it?

Because I would. :D

Let me introduce you to a little system called the 3DS and a game called Mario Kart Seven.

Patch is installed on the memory card.  Required to go online.

As Adrock said, without internal storage you can't have firmware updates, so for that reason there can't be no internal storage at all. Even the Wii had its paltry 512mb of onboard storage, so for the Wii U to include none at all would be a huge leap backwards.

There WILL be some for sure. The only questions is how much, and if there will be hard drive or just flash.

That's a patch for a game. Patching the firmware of the system itself is a different matter.

I'm sure there will be some type of internal storage.  The question is, will we be able to make use of it?

Doesn't the Wii technically have 1 GB of flash, with 512 being dedicated to the firmware and only half of it (the other 512) being accessible for user downloads?  I might be making that up.

I thought the 512MB was for saves and firmware. Not sure.

I suppose there could be internal memory specifically for firmware that users can't touch. In that case, I'll just get an SD card. If true, I'm sure the shit storm descendeth once people hear about it.

Yeah, that sounds right.  Half for Firmware/Saves, Half for Downloads.

Doubt Nintendo wouldn't put any internal memory. If I remember correctly, 3DS has 1 GB flash memory for various things like OS, firmware, photos, and DSiWare while also having a free 2 GB SD card included for use by the owner.
8 GB is low on Wii U, but perhaps Nintendo will put in at least 32 GB.

I know this isn't quite what he means, but  it would be kind of awesome if it allowed for RAM expansion too. If it was non proprietary ram then it would be useful.

The only problem with that is: would game developers want to develop for a system with more memory? That could split the market as was the case with n64 and motion+. Then again that could be something to keep in mind to keep it semi future proofed.

In related news: Thats my kinda annoyance with Epic with the unreal engine. I downloaded the development kit, and what do you know it doesn't allow me to adjust my settings so it doesn't run at 8fps. The "if you don't have the power you're fucked" philosophy doesn't sit well with me. On my old computer I was barely able to play Portal until i changed the settings to a lower resolution which was great on Valves part.

The system will supposedly have 8 Gigs of Flash Memory... Add to that the fact that I can add a 1 TB USB Hard Drive that I could pick up at Wal-Mart for around $80 and we have a winner...

I like that we don't have to buy a over-priced "company brand" HD for the system... USB HD = endless possibilities...

I think what's really funny with this usb hard drive setup is that's what pirates use to play games on the Wii--  they hook up a usb hard drive to the back and all their stolen Wii games are stored there.  I wonder if this is Nintendo being naive and ignorant and keeping this open for future piracy, OR being very smart and seeing what these pirates are doing and saying "Hey, that's a good idea, now if we can only make sure people are actually paying for those games."

I promise this is much ado about nothing.

I promise we'll be able to save at least SOME things to the system.  I also promise that saving large items will be done to a USB hard drive of any size we like... thus not having to pay for a more expensive console.

Raise your hand if you DON'T have a USB harddrive and plan to download a lot of digital content.... anyone?

/raises hand

If it supports SD Cards and/or USB sticks/hard drives, I don't give a crap about the internal storage. I'd much rather have that as an option than the hilariously overpriced Vita memory cards.

I'm fairly Sure Nintendo has storage for there own and possibly developers use.  Just not for us.

This just furthers my belief that the system will be priced below $300.  And that is just fine with me ;D

I have to raise my hand as well.  I only buy HDDs as I need them.

My question concerns WiiWare and VC games, which can't be run from an SD card. Just like 3DS still has internal memory for DSi games. Unless the WiiU will have so much RAM that any WiiWare or VC game can just be copied to the RAM every time you play a game

I didn't know games could be "copied to the RAM".

I'm all for buying my own external USB HDD.

@Adrock

Well that sucks.  What kind of storage were you hoping for then?

Preeeecisely!

@broodwars

And you've never needed one?

ROUND 2 FIGHT

I would have been fine if the 8GB internal memory thing was true. If I needed to expand beyond that, I'd buy a 32GB SD card since they're not super pricey. If I absolutely had to get a hard drive, I would have preferred a hard drive dock so I could avoid an external hard drive and the additional cords involved with that (mostly for cat-proofing purposes) but I'm not anti-external hard drive. I'm glad the option is there.

I've said this before: I will never buy a digital download if a retail release is an option. I mean, if I could get the download for free, download away! I simply prefer having the physical media. I've never bought DLC. I've been tempted but I either passed or got the Game of the Year edition which included the DLC. The only thing that may force me to need additional storage is if game patches get out of hand. I dislike patches for a number of reasons but if I need to download it, I will. I don't expect this to be problem though.

@Adrock

Very well said, sir.

Maybe it will be like an old Commodore 64 and you need the tape drive if you want to keep the program you made in BASIC.