Topic: Wii U Has 8 GB of Internal Storage

[Ian Sane]

Thinking about it Nintendo is the worst of the big 3 to start a generation.  To do that you have to guess where things are going to go.  You know how the Wii's online setup was archaic and embarassing?  That's what being a generation behind the competition can do.  Nintendo was learning the online stuff Sony and MS already learned years before.

It's same thing with the Wii.  They intentionally stayed a generation behind the rest of the industry.  How can they then expect to properly guess what hardware they need to compete with the next gen if they've NEVER made games with HD visuals and have never had to think about commercial HD titles being downloadable?  Suddenly they're going to go from being luddites to correctly guessing the right technology to go with?  No.  They would actually be better off going last to get a lay of the land and play catch up.

But they CAN'T do that.  Sony and MS are holding back because they don't need to release a new system yet.  Nintendo put themselves in a situation where they had to move to the next gen sooner than everyone else because the Wii was on borrowed time at launch.  It would be hard for a very tech savy company to pull this off and this is the company that was behind on CDs, online gaming and HDTVs.  It was always going to be a miracle for them to pull this off.

This storage is too small to work well with downloadable retail titles.  Supporting is a fantastic move but downloadable retail is going to be an expected feature this gen and if the standard size can only support like 5 games, that's a problem.  It's just too conservative.  It suggests a company that is very stingy with money or is rather clueless about current technology.  Hey didn't I just describe Nintendo?

[Chozo Ghost]

To be fair, 8GB is double what the low end 360 gives you. That said, anything less than 160gb is inadequate for a modern HD system, and anything less than 20GB is an outright joke. What can you do with 8GB? You're lucky if you can install just one full sized retail game with that much space.

[smallsharkbigbite]

"Gimped storage seems to be the trend and hey, Apple is making a killing with it."

Yeah, but they are mainly selling $.99 games or giving the game away free.  Not too hard to delete a game I have nothing in.  Also, they aren't selling a 1080p capable system. 

"I don't want a download-only or DLC-dominated future, I don't want tons of mandatory installs and patches to get software working that should run out of the box, I don't want my console to be a PC-lite experience.  So not having a huge hard drive isn't really that bad in a lot of ways."

It'd be nice if all games came complete, but Nintendo is one of the best at testing a game for bugs.  And Mario Kart 3ds proved even they can benefit from having patching ability.  Patches aren't bad, games could spend years in testing if it wasn't for patching ability and still they couldn't catch everything.  It's really only bad if a company like Ubisoft releases a game without testing just to patch it later.  But Ubi, they are supporting the Wii-U nicely. 

While not all DLC is great, it's not all bad either.  Today it's a viable business model to release DLC game for $15.  I have a PS3 and many download games are are 2-4 gigs, and some are much much more.  From a developer standpoint, if you wanted to release a download only game for $15 and it was going to be 4 gig, are you even going to think about releasing it for the Wii-U?  You know most people only have 6 gig available (after operating system and game saves).  That's of course assuming Nintendo doesn't cap it at 1 gig or something relatively ridiculous. 

From the consumer point it's bad too.  SD cards are available up to 64 gig I believe for about $50, or a USB drive for $70.  Add in a second controller at the rumored $100 and the system at the rumored $400 and you are getting dangerously close to the PS3 launch point in a recession no less.  So you can ramble on about non-proprietary storage, but at $400 I expect to not have to buy storage.  Of course maybe consumers aren't that smart.  No one seems to mind that a $300 xbox + $300 for 5 years of live comes to $600. 

Lastly, I still don't get what the Wii-U is trying to accomplish.  They are saying they are coming for the hardcore, but their big game was Nintendoland?  I'm sure all the Sony/Microsoft fanboys are lining up for that.  And while 3rd party support appears decent, I get the deja-vu feeling from the Gamecube days.  Line up a bunch of ports for the Wii-U and then when they don't sell as well as the large user-based Sony/Xbox systems, say there is no market in the Wii-U for these kind of games and move from Nintendo.  Plus of course, 8 gig storage isn't exactly screaming hardcore or that they will have a comprehensive online plan.  70% of 3ds are online?  8 gig isn't going to be enough for 70% of Wii-U owners if they have the same trend. 

[Kytim89]

If the cost of flash drives continues to fall then 8GBs of internal storage does not bother me at all.

[ShyGuy]

I was hoping Ian's reaction would be more in the form of a delicious rant. I leave disappointed.

[hibern81]

Like someone posted above, I would rather keep the core system cheap and use the terabyte that I still have available on my current hard drive.  I know not everybody is in this same position, but 8 gigs is enough to get started with.  At least they are not pulling a Vita!

[nickmitch]

I don't understand people's disappointment. Were you all really expecting massive internal storage space? I thought we knew that we weren't even getting  an internal hard drive. I'm actually glad there's 8GBs because that's more than I was expecting. I was already planning to buy a hard drive for the damn thing, as I know many were (unless they already had one lying around).

[Mop it up]

8GB is what I expected. It's actually what I thought I heard last year, but perhaps not.

As for the download game cap, Nintendo have already expressed plans to sell retail Wii U games as downloads, and I would imagine those are going to take up a lot of space. The cap is going to be enough to allow retail games, though it may be something like 8GB so that every game could fit in the provided storage.

[Chariblaze]

Glad they're sticking to having a minimum of moving parts.

[Chozo Ghost]

I don't understand people's disappointment.

I don't either. Considering everything else we have concerning the Wii U to be disappointed in, the lack of storage is really trivial. Most people say its the games that matter most about a system, so let's focus on that instead. Where's the games? Forget the storage... if there isn't any games you don't need to worry about that anyway.

A year ago the Wii U seemed full of promise and there was talk of things like Battlefield 3, GTA, and so on. Where is all that? This is the REAL reason people should be disappointed. Once again Nintendo is getting the same shitty 3rd party support it has for the last 15 years.

Storage? That's pretty trivial in comparison.

[Adrock]

Think of this storage issue as a domino and all the other issues are also dominos. I think you know where I'm going with this.

To consumers, it's easy to say they can buy whatever hard drive they want. It's true, but they still have to go out and buy one, even if they can get it in the same store as the console itself. To 3rd parties, they have to ask themselves and Nintendo why Nintendo is making it that much harder for them to sell things. In one way it may be trivial; in another, it's really definitely not.

I'm only pro-hard drive or at least pro-separate hard drive included SKU because the advantages outweigh the disadvantages which is really just a slightly increased cost to Nintendo. A greater upfront cost is worth it for what they stand to gain.

Still, I'm personally probably never going to need more than the 8GB because I'm not downloading anything but patches and firmware updates.

[broodwars]

Still, I'm personally probably never going to need more than the 8GB because I'm not downloading anything but patches and firmware updates.

You're really going to be missing-out, then, unless you're using a second HD console for your downloadable games.  Nintendo already announced Trine 2 for Wii U, and if you never played Trine 1 its sequel is a pretty great game.  I imagine that quite a few other great downloadable games from the HD consoles will make their way over eventually as well.  This is not a good generation to sit out on the downloadable market.

[UncleBob]

Dear Nintendo: Curse you for not including more storage with your system!  You should pack in an oversized hard drive that the vast majority of your userbase won't ever use and then charge extra for the privilege.  I mean, I know I already have plenty of storage space I can use with my Wii U at home, but since I *need* more storage space (even though all I've done is complain about the lack of games and how I probably won't even get a Wii U anyway), it should be included.

Likewise, curse you for not including a television.  Yeah, I already have one.  Five, in fact.  But I *NEED* a television to play a Wii U, right?  So why the heck aren't you packing one in the box and charging me extra for it?

Stupid Nintendo, why can't you get anything right?  That's it, I'm boycotting Nintendo.

[smallsharkbigbite]

"Storage? That's pretty trivial in comparison."

The games are certainly underwhelming, but to me storage leads back to a shortage of games.  Excuse me if I missed confirmation, what I've read in the past is although the Wii-U won't play Blu-Ray it will use the Blu-Ray format for games.  Thus, a retail game has the possibility to have 50 gig (dual layers blu-ray) of info.  It's a joke that Nintendo is planning to release retail games and it's very likely you won't be able to fit a single retail game on the Wii-U.  More third parties are moving to DL only games to price thier games more competitively in an ipad world, why would they release them for the Wii-U?  PS3 DL games routinely run 4-6 gig and that's for non-retail release.  Unless people buy external support and start buying DL content like hotcakes, 3rd party DLC support won't come to the Wii-U.

[Sundoulos]

Count me in the I don't care camp.  The 8GB drive doesn't particularly bother me, either...as long as the Wii U is a reasonable price and their aren't any proprietary hardware restrictions on the external drives that can be used. I already have SD cards and external hard drives collecting dust that I could use.   If it also keeps the size of the base unit down, I'm all for it.

[smallsharkbigbite]

Dear Nintendo: Curse you for not including more storage with your system!  You should pack in an oversized hard drive that the vast majority of your userbase won't ever use and then charge extra for the privilege.  I mean, I know I already have plenty of storage space I can use with my Wii U at home, but since I *need* more storage space (even though all I've done is complain about the lack of games and how I probably won't even get a Wii U anyway), it should be included.

And why make me pay for a tablet, I'm only going to be using the pro-controller.  And why make us pay for composite cables, does anyone use those anymore?  And why paint the console, I'm going to stick it behind my PS3 so I don't care what it looks like.  I mean why include things with the console that actually help me use the console?

Seriously though, did you read this article?  http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/30584

Apparently, that internet thing isn't going away.  70+% of people are online.  The average person online purchased 5 things and the 3ds hasn't been out that long.  This generation there are a bunch of download only games and I can only imagine next gen there will be more.  It's also really cheap for Nintendo to add, actually probably wouldn't have cost them much more to just stick a 120 gig hard drive in there instead of flash memory.  It's also the standard since xbox 1, so it makes Nintendo look silly.  But hey, I bet you didn't buy a car or house that had features that you don't use.   

[smallsharkbigbite]

Count me in the I don't care camp.  The 8GB drive doesn't particularly bother me, either...as long as the Wii U is a reasonable price and their aren't any proprietary hardware restrictions on the external drives that can be used. I already have SD cards and external hard drives collecting dust that I could use.   If it also keeps the size of the base unit down, I'm all for it.

Seriuosly, how do you people just have this stuff laying around?  I have two USB external drives.  But I paid about $100 each for them, and I'm *gasp* actually using them or I wouldn't have bought them in the first place.  Thus they will not be earmarked for the Wii U.  And I have a few SD cards, but nothing bigger than 8 gig.  With my PS3 having an 80 gig hd, I know adding another 8 gig will be woefully inadequate. 

[Chozo Ghost]

Still, I'm personally probably never going to need more than the 8GB because I'm not downloading anything but patches and firmware updates.

That still might not be enough, because I know from experience on the PS3 that patches can frequently be hundreds of megabytes in size, or even gigabytes in size. The worst example I can recall from memory was the patch for Battlefield Bad Company 2 which was like 2 gigabytes or something like that. The reason the patch was so huge is because EA bundles their DLC in with it, so even if you have zero interest in buying that DLC you still have to download it anyway just to be compatible with the other players who might have it.

Do you see what I'm saying? When you start dealing with patches that are hundreds of megs or 1 or 2 gigabytes then that 8gb is going to be eroded real fast, because even if you don't buy DLC its going to be required for you to download it anyway for compatibility reasons.

[UncleBob]

Apparently, that internet thing isn't going away.  70+% of people are online.  The average person online purchased 5 things and the 3ds hasn't been out that long.

Filled the packed-in 3DS memory card. Bought a 32 GB SD card for cheap (although not as cheap as I would have liked).  Worked fine for me.  If I deleted demos and old videos, I'd probably be set with the 2 GB card... but I'm a menu whore.

Three friends have 3DS systems.  Still have the pack-in 2 GB memory card and aren't close to the limit.

Is it right to make all four of us pay for 32 GB cards when only one of us used it?  Does it make a lick of business sense to price your item higher and limit those who you can sell it to based on a feature that few will use and those that do will be able to easily and optionally take care of on their own?

[Sundoulos]

Count me in the I don't care camp.  The 8GB drive doesn't particularly bother me, either...as long as the Wii U is a reasonable price and their aren't any proprietary hardware restrictions on the external drives that can be used. I already have SD cards and external hard drives collecting dust that I could use.   If it also keeps the size of the base unit down, I'm all for it.

Seriuosly, how do you people just have this stuff laying around?  I have two USB external drives.  But I paid about $100 each for them, and I'm *gasp* actually using them or I wouldn't have bought them in the first place.  Thus they will not be earmarked for the Wii U.  And I have a few SD cards, but nothing bigger than 8 gig.  With my PS3 having an 80 gig hd, I know adding another 8 gig will be woefully inadequate. 

For starters, it probably has a lot to do with the fact that I've never paid anywhere close to $100 for an external hard drive...

[Enner]

Wish there was a SATA slot, but I guessed that would cost extra. I assume that the Wii U will be able to power USB-powered external hard disk drive given the USB ports on the Wii are able to charge a bunch of stuff.

[NWR_insanolord]

To address a point that's come up in here, the 3DS shipped with 2 GB of storage and retail games that come close to filling that all on their own are coming soon to the eShop. I wouldn't worry about the file size limit. I've got a spare USB hard drive from when I upgraded my MacBook's internal drive that I was going to use as a USB game loader for the Homebrew Channel, but now I'll probably wait and use it with the Wii U. Cloudberry Kingdom/Trine/Runner 2 FTW!

[Sundoulos]

Still, I'm personally probably never going to need more than the 8GB because I'm not downloading anything but patches and firmware updates.

That still might not be enough, because I know from experience on the PS3 that patches can frequently be hundreds of megabytes in size, or even gigabytes in size. The worst example I can recall from memory was the patch for Battlefield Bad Company 2 which was like 2 gigabytes or something like that. The reason the patch was so huge is because EA bundles their DLC in with it, so even if you have zero interest in buying that DLC you still have to download it anyway just to be compatible with the other players who might have it.

Do you see what I'm saying? When you start dealing with patches that are hundreds of megs or 1 or 2 gigabytes then that 8gb is going to be eroded real fast, because even if you don't buy DLC its going to be required for you to download it anyway for compatibility reasons.

This does make me wonder if Nintendo will stick to their usual policy on whether to allow third parties to patch their games.  Will that relax that restriction for Wii U, or given the small size will they still enforce that policy?  That alone would probably be a deterrent for some developers. 

[Adrock]

I have a PS3 with a 120GB hard drive. If there's a retail release, I ALWAYS buy the retail release. In the 6 years I've been posting here, most of you have probably heard me say that I don't mind DLC but never buy it, I don't like patches but download them if I have to, and I've only gone out of my way to buy a single downloadable game (Shantae: Risky's Revenge then 2 others with the left over points). That said, I'm the last person who would need/want tons of storage space. If it wasn't free, I didn't download it. When I get home (and if I remember), I'll have to check to see how much storage in my PS3 I used. I wouldn't be surprised if it was over 8GB.

None of this extra storage stuff is for me. I won't need it, most likely anyway. Still, I like that Nintendo supports USB hard drives and I support the idea of at least an additional "pro" SKU which includes a hard drive. Even if I'd never use the extra storage, it stands to help me in the long run if, for example, it helps convince 3rd parties that while Nintendo will continue to go after casual gamers, they're also all in with core gamers and 3rd parties who want to cater to that group.

I don't really understand the logic of people saying it's unfair to ask people to pay for something they won't use. People pay for **** they don't use all the time. That's just the nature of consumer electronics. People aren't paying for the use of specific pieces; they're paying for the collective product. I paid for things on the Wii I never used. I tried backwards compatibility for shits and giggles (because it was there) then never used it again. I didn't want to pay for something I didn't use, but it's just part of the console. For a closer comparison, I didn't fill the 512MB internal storage. It'd be silly for me to say that I shouldn't have had to pay for 512MB if I didn't come close to using 512MB.

[Chozo Ghost]

Maybe the lack of storage is the reason why EA hasn't announced Battlefield 3 for the Wii U? A year ago there was a lot of talk about BF3 coming to the Wii U, but now E3 has come and gone without it being mentioned, so it probably isn't going to happen. From what I understand BF3 is a very DLC heavy game and EA is milking the crap out of it with downloadable content left and right. Maybe the fact the Wii U only has 8gb of storage is the reason they decided not to bother porting it over?