Topic: Nintendo DS/Wii Wifi Router (...)

[Spinnzilla]

http://kotaku.com/5046565/nintendo-announces-wiids-wifi-router-bwah

Suppose to help people get better wifi connections (for those who are having trouble). 

Still no hard drive though. 

[bustin98]

Its fucked up.

"We want a hard drive"

"Here is a Nintendo WiFi Router with one port at the same cost as one with 4 ports"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124190

crickets

"Where's our hard drive?"

When we get our hard drive, it will be a 20GB and cost $100.

Hurray for cynicism!

[Kairon]

This doesn't surprise me, Nintendo's been making great efforts in the Japanese market to make sure that its Wii casual users are connected to the internet. This plays right into that, and has absolutely nothing to do with the existence or nonexistence of a storage solution.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Exploitation of the Downmarket.

The router probably "phones home" too, for those ever-precious statistics.

[Flames_of_chaos]

Well the router can be a decent for solution for people who don't know how to hook up a wifi router and it's kind of neat that it has capabilities of a bridge.

also:

In a recent interview with Latin America’s official Nintendo magazine Club Nintendo, NOA President Reggie Fils-Aime acknowledged the issue with storage on the Wii, and that the company is currently working on a solution. He also mentioned that the solution might not necessarily be a hard drive.

    I want the people to have the right expectations. We have never said that it will be a hard drive, nor have we mentioned how we will fix this issue, but we are going to deliver a better way to store games.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

In. The. CLOSET.

[Spinnzilla]

http://www.endsights.com/?p=384

well at least they claim they will have an announcement reguarding the storage solution soon.

[bustin98]

The issues surrounding the harddrive are moot. Its not the point. The point is that this follows Nintendo's pattern of providing basic services at more than basic pricing.

I'm not saying they can't make money off their products and services. Its just if they can introduce something that is simple at a price that doesn't imply simplicity, while keeping their profit margin at 30% instead of 25%, they'll do it. If it succeeds, they'll say the public didn't need the extra features. If it fails they'll say the public doesn't need any of it.

This wifi adapter is fine and dandy, especially for mom and dad who has never stepped in a Staples (or japanese counterpart), but at that price, it should be like in the $25 - $30 range.

Whatever cause even if there is a 10GB harddrive for $100, you can bet I'll be one of those idiots in line for it on release day, just like the broadband adapter on the GameCube.

[NWR_Lindy]

All they need to do is make the SD card accessible at all times to all games.  I think I have a 2GB card in my Wii and it's more space than I'll probably ever need.  I have something like 14,000 blocks free.

If they do that, and speed up the copying time somehow, they're done.  Although the copying speed is probably limited by hardware...maybe they could sell a dongle with a faster SD interface or something.

[NWR_insanolord]

Or they could enable USB Mass Storage Devices, which would allow for bigger sizes. I'm just afraid that with my inability to refrain from buying downloadable Wii games, plus Homebrew Channel stuff and various DLC, 2 GB may not be enough.